Sixty-two percent of consumers agree that winter will make it harder for their local restaurants to stay open as they have thus far. Photo by Louis Hansel.

percentage, has grown exponentially. Maryland has restricted indoor dining to 50-percent capacity. Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, ordered restaurants, food courts, breweries and the like to stop serving onpremises alcohol by 10 p.m and to close by 12 a.m. Furthermore, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio have ordered bars and restaurants to stop serving earlier, according to Cable News Network. Massachusetts establishments will stop serving at 9:30 p.m., while New York and Ohio must close at 10 p.m., it reported. Survey data from Datassential suggests consumers will be less likely to dine out in the coming months: 64 percent of consumers agree that they’ll stay home to minimize the risk of getting sick as flu season unfolds, while 17 percent disagree. Moreover, 61 percent of respondents agree that COVID-19

will get worse in the winter months, while only 15 percent disagree. And 62 percent of consumers agree that winter will make it harder for their local restaurants to stay open as they have thus far; 15 percent disagree. Prior to new restrictions taking place, 60 percent of operators were offering indoor dining and 42 percent outdoor seating. As on-premise business curtails or even halts in some markets, restaurant operators are wise to have a multi-faceted business strategy that encompasses several off-premises options as well as indoor dining where permitted. Seventy-three percent of restaurant operators offer carryout, 44 percent offer curbside pickup and 34 percent offer delivery. In order to roll with the latest punches to their businesses, operators should work hard to increase these numbers. RESTAURANT C-SUITE 7