There’s little doubt that the pandemic shook up the entire restaurant industry, from the popularity of food delivery apps to creating outdoor dining on the fly. Restaurants adapted quickly to keep their doors open and to meet the demand of diners that couldn’t, or wouldn’t, come inside to dine. One change to happen to the industry post-pandemic has been much more subtle to track, when we’re eating.
With the adoption of hybrid work environments and more people working from home restaurants are noticing a shift in when reservations are booked. Prior to the pandemic 8PM was the top reservation time slot in fine dining establishments. Now that many people no longer have to spend valuable time commuting home from their offices they are able to come in and dine earlier, and 6PM has become the most sought out reservation time. Tara Lewis, who is Yelp’s trend expert, observed that 10% of diners were seated between 2 and 5PM, which is double the amount that were seated in the same time range in 2019. This brings in many diners during the traditional Happy Hour time. For restaurants that want to more evenly space out their diners they may consider shifting to a later Happy Hour to bring people back to the 8PM time slot.
Coffee shops have also noticed an increase towards the 9AM-12PM casual lunch crowd while the 6AM-9AM time slot held steady or decreased, depending on the establishment. More people are opting to go out for lunch dates with coworkers or friends. Many national chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts have also noticed an increase in customers coming in from 12PM-3PM as well. One could argue that the success of these coffee shops is a variety of food options beyond the standard breakfast pastries. Independent coffee shops looking to capitalize on the lunch crowd may want to expand their food menus to include sandwiches and other snacks.
Many restaurants have also noticed a shift away from the Friday afternoon work lunch. It looks like patrons are now opting to go out for a weekend brunch with friends over getting lunch or cocktails with their coworkers. Some restaurants have taken advantage of this by adding live entertainment during their brunch hours to draw more crowds!
Many experts speculate that this shift in dining trends also has to do with the number of people that moved out of large cities during the height of the pandemic. With the rise of offices going remote an estimated 2 million people packed up and moved to the suburbs between 2020 and 2022 to save money on housing and avoid the crime of large urban centers. It’s also worth noting this time is primarily affecting fine dining, with casual dining establishments still maintaining steady meal times.
As we put more space between us and the beginning of the pandemic it’s becoming clear that we may never return to some of the dining habits from before. However, change isn’t always a bad thing and is a constant in life. Time will tell where the dust settles and what will become our new normal moving forward.
