Restaurant Industry-September 8th

Restaurant Reservations

Labor Day weekend was a huge weekend for fine dining restaurants, with Sunday reporting a massive influx of restaurant reservations. The national average jumped up to only being -14% below normal traffic, while GA specifically reported 4% over last year. The weekly average for the country climbed 6.8% last week, while Georgia’s weekly average climbed 7.5%.

Casual Dining and Bars

Slow improvements for Casual Dining and Bars: 1.6% increase over last week for casual dining and 2.0% for bars. As this data stays 1 week behind, it is yet to be seen whether labor day will create a major uptick for these business like with fine dining.

Restaurant Reclosures

On August 15th. Governor Kemp announced an executive order that allows counties, cities, and government entities to put in place their own mask requirements. Effective until August 31st, mask order can be imposed wherever a county has reached more than 100 cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days. This has recently been extended by Governor Kemp to last until November 15^th.

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 28th. 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
Iowa

No new closures this week.

In the news

Kemp extends COVID-19 orders as cases fall in Georgia

JEFF AMY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday signed a 15-day extension of the order that mandates requirements on social distancing, bans on gatherings of more than 50 people unless there is six feet between each person and lists other rules about operating businesses and nonprofit groups. Those who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as well as people deemed medically fragile, must continue to shelter in place through Sept. 15.

The Republican Kemp also extended the underlying state of emergency, which gives him powers to make other orders, through Oct. 10. Lawmakers in March, when they approved Kemp declaring a public health state of emergency, agreed to let him extend the authority as the governor saw necessary.