Restaurant Industry August 3rd

Restaurant Reservations

Restaurant Reservations remain on the rise this week, with the weekly average for Georgia up 3.42% (from -57.7% to -54.2%). US restaurant reservations are also up this week, climbing 2.27% (from -61.57% to -59.3%).

While the increase of reservations stats has slowed from when we first began analyzing it, this increase still stands out as an outlier. While most other industries have seen a plateau or decrease in customers, fine dining establishments have slowly maintained their recovery—despite the uptick in coronavirus cases in the US. Currently, we can only speculate on why this is the case. Are OpenTable’s numbers merely lagging? Do customers feel safer eating at fine dining establishments over casual dining establishments? Do higher income families regard the virus as a lower threat compared to middle and low income families? Over the coming weeks, GACOVID19 will investigate the cause of this discrepancy.

Casual Dining, Fast Food, and bars

Casual dining and Bars seem to have leveled at after their initial drop due to the increase in COVID-19 cases. Casual dining weekly average foot traffic increased by .46% this week (from 65.5% to 65.9%); while the weekly average foot traffic for bars dropped slightly, by .33% (from 69.7% to 69.4%).

Fast food restaurants continue to remain unaffected by the pandemic as of this time.

Restaurant Reclosures by state

Restaurants and bars are being re-closed after a spike in COVID-19 cases. This is a comprehensive list of states that have re-closed or restricted their restaurants as of July 28^th. To see details about how the states are re-restricting their restaurants, click this link to see the full article by Elazar Sontag.

Idaho
Florida
Arizona
Texas
Colorado
Michigan
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Nevada
California
Louisiana
Maryland
Illinois
Kentucky <- New this week

In the news

Covid-19 Liability Shield Heads to Georgia Governor’s Desk

CHRIS MARR

Employers in Georgia would be shielded from lawsuits related to Covid-19 exposure under legislation headed to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.

If the Republican governor signs it into law, Georgia will join a handful of states in protecting businesses from civil liability related to the virus. Business groups across the country have called on Congress to include liability protections in future legislation to reduce the risk of litigation that they say threatens successful economic recovery, and the issue is one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s (R-Ky.) top demands.

The Georgia bill would shield businesses, health-care providers, and other entities from liability related to Covid-19 infections or transmissions, except in cases where the entity is found to have committed “gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, reckless infliction of harm, or intentional infliction of harm.”

The Atlanta Restaurants Now Permanently Closed Due to the COVID-19 Crisis

Eater Staff

Restaurants throughout Atlanta have pivoted to takeout and delivery, become makeshift neighborhood markets, and even started to reopen for limited dine-in service in order to stay afloat during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But for some Atlanta restaurant and bar owners, the devastating loss of revenue over the last few months, lack of real rent relief or support from landlords, and inability to secure substantial emergency funding have left them no choice but to close their businesses permanently.