Welcome to another issue of District Restaurant News Magazine, the restaurant industry trade magazine of the Washington, DC area. Restaurant operators are nearing an important juncture: the next season in restaurant life while navigating a pandemic. As autumn progresses, streatery life winds down. DMV diners will head indoors, and restaurants will face the next set of challenges. In August, foodservice consultancy Technomic forecasted that a “middle case” scenario would put restaurants somewhere around 21 percent up in sales in 2021 from where they end up this year. This would be a great estimate, except that it would mean that in 2021, restaurants will still be off 10 percent from 2019 levels. How can restaurants recover their sales? Many creative restaurant owners are doing that with a ramp-up of delivery, and order-ahead pickup--a trend we’re covering in this issue. What have they learned? What types of obstacles have they overcome? See what they have to say on page 13. subscribe.districtrestaurantnews.com
