Restaurants made big changes to cope with the pandemic. Lots of them have stuck.
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- Restaurants made big changes during the pandemic to minimize the spread of COVID.
- Some of these changes have stuck, like QR code menus, higher cleaning standards, and more takeout.
- The hospitality industry has a history of adopting health measures from past epidemics.
Dining, as we once knew it, changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some things seem pretty unlikely to go back to how they once were.
In March 2020, America's restaurants were in despair. State after state introduced lockdowns, banning large groups of people and temporarily shutting eateries.
When they started to reopen, new measures were put in place to prevent the spread of the virus.
"Many of the health codes restaurants observe now — sanitizing and disinfecting surfaces, maintaining hot water standards and stocked hand wash sinks — were developed during and after the 1918 flu epidemic," Mary King, a former restaurant manager and current editor of The Restaurant HQ, said.
"So it makes sense that COVID-19 would leave a lasting legacy on the hospitality industry," she added.
Here is a list of a few of the changes which stuck.
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The use of QR codes in restaurants surged during the pandemic. First introduced to replace paper menus, they have now become commonplace.
Typically, the QR code is printed somewhere on the table for customers to raise their smartphone camera and transform it into an online PDF menu. Customers can sometimes also use it to order and pay for a meal.
Of course, it assumes some things, including tech literacy, smartphone ownership, and a solid cellular data or WiFi connection.
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You may have noticed some restaurants are now a lot more keen to show just how clean they are.
"One of the big changes we've seen in fine dining is that, before, the cleaning of things was done discreetly, behind closed doors, to make the service feel more seamless," Jonathan Kleeman, group beverage manager and executive head sommelier at Tom Sellers Story Group, which runs a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in London, said.
"After COVID, it not only became more acceptable but even encouraged to visibly showcase the level of cleanliness," he said, adding that staff are less likely to hide parts of the service, such as cleaning tables.
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Many cafés appear to have retreated from efforts to promote the reusable cup. Before the lockdowns, great strides were being made to discourage disposable utensils.
It made sense that for hygiene concerns, cafés again increased their use of single-use cups during the pandemic. But a few years after America reopened, the movement has struggled to regain momentum.
According to FoodPrint, a program dedicated to research on food production practices, even before COVID, Americans used an estimated 16 billion disposable coffee cups annually, and they're often made with materials that are difficult to recycle, like styrofoam, polyethylene or polypropylene — meaning they are frequently sent straight to a landfill.
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Self-service kiosks have found their way into restaurants, grocery stores, and even furniture retailers.
This was already a trend, but it accelerated during the pandemic and has continued in the US since. Kiosks are even more common in the UK and Europe.
"Now, even small fast-food restaurants and takeaways in London, some with only 20 seats, use self-service kiosks or screens where you place your order, even though you're just a few feet away from the person at the till," Kleeman said.
It's not the only tech that became popular as a result of COVID. King said there is a rise in restaurant robots that can deliver food to tables and clear dirty dishes.
"A robot might cost upward of $20,000 but never needs a sick day," she said.
Between food-ordering kiosks and QR codes, cash is also accepted in fewer places.
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Everyone being at home was pretty good for food delivery services, with UberEats growing its active partnered restaurants by 70% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020.
This brought about a pivot to how we eat non-home-cooked meals.
"Prior to COVID-19, about 62% of our orders were carry-out," Craig Dunaway, chief operating officer of Penn Station East Coast Subs, a chain of restaurants with over 300 locations in 15 states.
"Around 80% of our business is now coming from third-party delivery, online orders, and carryout," he said.
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"Restaurant closures during COVID lockdowns encouraged a lot of seasoned hospitality workers — from cooks to waiters — to find employment in other industries," King said.
"They took decades worth of institutional memory with them," she added.
It doesn't help that there's a shortage of workers in the hospitality industry.
Restaurant staffing was almost 4% below pre-pandemic levels at the start of 2023, and an estimated 87% of restaurants were operating with insufficient staff, the National Restaurant Association says.
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