8 Reasons Why Restaurants Will Thrive In 2021
Unless you’ve been quarantined under a rock, you've probably heard that the restaurant industry stands severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The damage will continue to linger long after the pandemic is contained and it will indeed be a steep road ahead with many predicting a slow, and tortuous return to normalcy. This article from Eater suggests that most restaurants will require a minimum of six months to resume normal operations.
Source: Eater survery of 335 restaurant owners across the country, asking “how soon do you think your restaurant/food business can return to normal operations?”
Despite it all, the restaurant industry will not only persevere, it will innovate, emerging stronger and smarter. Herein, we’ll give you the run-down on eight trends in the industry that are likely to arise and potential ways that restaurateurs and chefs will approach and adapt to the new normal. Yes. There are eight. It’s kind of our thing 😉
1. Brand and Community will be Paramount
For independent restaurants, the difference between surviving and thriving may boil down to community support and a strong fan base. Successful restaurants have built a loyal audience and some even have a cult-like following (shout-out to Nom Wah Tea Parlor). Great restaurant brands have proven this through sustained growth over years. This Forbes article outlines the importance of branding for both large chains and independent restaurants alike. Leveraging the power of social media can be a great avenue to accomplish this.
It also helps when your brand has a chef and/or restaurateurs with an amazing personality. Be it Jimmy from Madame Vo celebrating Vietnamese culture and his passion for streetwear. Or Frank Prisinzano teaching his 125,000+ instagram followers how to “flow” in the kitchen through his adorably rambunctious personality. Their food has soul, meaning and connects people regardless of their differences; leveraging this connection to catapult the success of a restaurant will be key going forward. Especially as new restaurants open replacing those that have closed, establishing a unique identity from day one will guarantee long term success.
2. New Money
Restaurants are a tough business. With an average profit margin hovering around 3-7%, survival will demand more ways to bring income without sacrificing food quality. An increasing number of restaurants will try and find ways to supplement their primary revenue stream (the food) by creating new ways to make money. Be it packaged goods like sauces, specialty ingredients, meal-kits and merch such as t-shirts, custom masks, cookbooks or even doubling up as grocery stores. A couple great examples of this:
3. Better Food. Fewer Options.
You likely have, or know someone who has, made sourdough bread from scratch during the pandemic. The quarantine and the shutdown has made more eaters comfortable with cooking food at home, and thus likely fine tuning their own palette through the cooking (and tasting) process. This will likely increase expectations - maybe not short term, but in the long term - from eaters who will constantly look for culinary experiences they cannot reproduce at home, or judge those more critically in the case they can. Conversely for restaurants - less is more. Restaurants will likely need to reduce large menus to focus on quality over quantity/choice. This not only helps with inventory and cutting costs, but also focuses to differentiate based on food quality / signature dishes.
Reminder: even if you’ve elevated your palette from at-home cooking, it doesn’t mean you’re entitled to being a pain in the ass customer…
Which leads us to believe the future state of restaurant reviews will likely change forever. Let’s be honest, review culture has been rising towards it inevitable collapse over the last few years.
We all know the detriment that a one-star Yelp review can have on a small business and many times, it has nothing to do with the food. Some #Karen displeased with being seated near the drafty front door can leave a one-star review, meanwhile the restaurant might serve up one of the best bowls of tonkotsu ramen in the city!
We can go on & on about this topic and probably will in a separate blog post, but its clear that the industry has acknowledged that now is not the right time to be complaining. Even in Pete Wells’ recent dining experience at Veselka, he said “…but if there had been any problems I wouldn’t tell you about them. Now is not the time for criticizing. Any restaurant that is serving food now is a good restaurant”. Infatuation recently removed their ratings scale and Eater recently wrote about COVID-Era One-Star Yelp reviews.
4. Sustainable Eating will be Top of Mind
The pandemic will accelerate the conversation around climate change, sustainability and carbon efficiency. Gradually, diners will put more thought into what they are eating and how it was sourced. Plant-based meat substitute sales jumped 35% during Covid-19, and is slowly permeating both the taste buds and ideologies of eaters. This shift will continue to happen, and we are likely in the early stages of this. Sustainable foods will likely be featured prominently at more establishments, and we will see an increase of innovation from more chefs incorporating sustainable meats and produce to help the value chain. This was already a trend pre-Covid, and it will get accelerated post the pandemic. Find NYC’s best vegan dishes easily through the 8it app here.
5. Supporting Minority Restaurants will be a Priority
There is likely to be continued exposure to ethnically diverse food through the Black Lives Matter movement. This will not only inspire new and interesting cuisines to pop up, but also provide confidence to minority chefs to start their own restaurant. Restaurant goers are increasingly contributing to the movement by consciously spending their dollar within communities they want to support. What was started by Racher Karten from Bon Appetit merged into this list by Hannah Goldfield from the New Yorker that collates a lists of Black-owned restaurants across the five boroughs. 8it turned this powerful information into action by creating a ‘Black-Owned’ category within our app to get consumers from their home to a Black-Owned restaurant in a couple clicks.
See the full post about 8it's Black-Owned Dish Category here.
6. The Rise of Apps
Ubiquitous penetration of delivery, takeout and dine-in apps is here - and COVID accelerated the adoption of technology around food. The industry has already seen major consolidation in this space triggered by the potential long-term upside. In this day and age, each restaurant will need to have a digital presence - likely both direct-to-consumer (to avoid fee) and through a connected ecosystem of apps (to get more exposure). Surviving based on organic foot traffic alone is likely no longer an option.
7. INNOV8it!
We ignored them for too long and now they shall have their revenge…the QR code strikes back! From digital menus to contactless delivery robots, it’s time to innovate and invest in the future. Most restaurants will try and avoid having anything to touch. No more paper/plastic menus, common touch screen and digital menus will be easily accessible via the diner's personal devices. There will be innovation centered around food packaging, enabling improved ways to have food carry better and stay hotter & fresher for longer periods. Finally, we will see more automation like the Briggo coffee robot to reduce human interaction and increase efficiency over time.
Nick Kokonas from Tock has demonstrated inspiring innovation through their partnership with Alinea. Fine dining via to-go kits that strike the right balance between freshness and minimal at-home work (finish in oven/boil the pasta, etc.) make for a great in-home experience without diluting the standards expected from high-end restaurants.
8. Rise in Food Experiences
As consumers return back to “normalcy”, there will be a need to provide an experience around the food. From an audio guided walking tour that tells you about the history of the food while you eat through five different dumpling restaurants to online cooking classes from celebrity chefs or even simply plating a takeout meal at home in a special way, these experiences will be key. As food evolves and there will be a new layer of experiences for consumers to connect with their dining experience more than ever before.
We’re on mission to create incremental revenue streams for restaurants while providing eaters the simplest way to find the best food. You can learn more about what we do on our website.
-8it Team
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What is 8it?
8it is committed to helping New Yorkers find the best dishes in the simplest way, while partnering with independent restaurants to create new streams of revenue.
8it is an app with short & sweet 8-word food recommendations by people you trust in the food industry. People like credible chefs, critics, food celebrities, and your go-to food media sources. This isn’t a crowdsourced platform for complaining, so you won’t find “Karen” here. No long rant reviews about the service or the drafty front door. 8it is all about the food and none of the BS. If it's not great, it's not on 8it.
Click here to learn more: www.8it.nyc
