dolanbaker wrote:Widespread adoption of working from home will decimate the urban lunchtime sector.
That is already happening. I have been talking about this with an urban restaurant owner for a couple of weeks. Before COVID-19 the restaurant had indoor seating, pickup, and take out, and opened from 11am to 11pm and offered brunch, lunch, and dinner menus. Their brunch and lunch hours were the busiest ones. They now added outdoor seating on the sidewalk, are building an outdoor deck in the back, and have a delivery service.
When the restaurant was forced to stop offering indoor seating for the second time a couple of weeks ago, they almost closed until September, but they had to stay open anyway for a couple of weeks to use up all the food in their cooler. I talked to the owner about their sales and which hours were busier. We did an analysis together and realized that his busiest hours were from 9pm to 11pm and brunch and lunch sales were almost nonexistent, the opposite of how it used to be.
I told him to stay open for a week until 1am to see what happened, and he agreed to try because he is very open to suggestions right now. Well, he opened from 11am until 1am for a week, and 90% of his income was from 9pm to 1am, with more than 50% of his total sales for the day being from 11pm to 1am, and less than 5% before 5pm. He now opens from 5pm to 1am, works 8 hours per day instead of 12, and has increased the restaurant's sales.
The new outdoor patio in the back may change that, but I doubt it. It will seat 25 with COVID distancing and 35 with a normal layout. He can sit 16 in 4 tables in the sidewalk, but that is not a good spot, it gets a lot of sunlight and the street has an awful lot of traffic. He would need a very big new awning there to provide shelter from the sun and rain. The back has no traffic, is bigger and more sheltered being located between two buildings, and will be protected from sun and rain all day long.
I did a Permaculture design for all the restaurant's outdoor spaces, including the West and South sidewalks, outdoor deck, garden, and parking lot. All the landscaping is edible now, mostly herbs, spices, and edible flowers. It has raised beds, ground beds, pots, planters, grow bags, and hanging baskets. This will save him several thousands of dollars per year and also looks pretty amazing, even if I say so myself.