Perhaps there’s some DoorDash effect happening across the country - but from the latest data from OpenTable it’s clear that lockdown cities have devastated their restaurant scenes. (h/t to James Altucher)
Compare the changes from 2020 and 2021 for the same day.
Still abysmal turnout for last weekend in many cities.
I live in San Francisco and am one of the very few who did not get vaccinated (largely due to my pregnancy: the ardent insistence that pregnant women get an experimental drug despite being advised not to consume lunch meat is what made me suspicious of the whole vaccine agenda).
Anyway, because of this I have hardly been out to eat in the past few years. I just can't be bothered risking a restaurant asking me for vaccine proof, so I only go to places I know I won't be asked. This has had many knock-on effects. Not only have my husband and I (he was forced to be vaccinated for his job) both not been out to eat with anywhere near the same regularity as pre-2020; whenever we have friends in town or want to see our friends, we do not go out to a restaurant because I'm unvaccinated. So far I think SF restaurants have missed out on at least a dozen 4-top+ tables because a group of my friends didn't eat at a restaurant, and dozens more lost 2-top tables that would have been my husband and I.
Predictable but still so unnecessary. I would guess, by the way, that the abandonment of actually prosecuting people for street crime is also a major factor in these statistics. Nobody wants to risk their lives just to go out for a meal.