Restaurants Navigate the Road to Recovery

With almost 1 million U.S. foodservice locations and 15.6 million employees, the restaurant industry has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic (NRA 2020a). As of June 30, 2020, restaurant job losses exceeded 5.5 million; 7.4% of U.S. restaurants were temporarily closed, and 3.5% had permanently shut down. Urban restaurants, which lost a key customer base as employees shifted to working remotely, were hardest hit (NRA 2020b, Datassential 2020a). In the first five months of the pandemic (March to…