COVID19: Let’s talk about the Restaurant Industry

The first twenty years of the 20th century were marked by the period of rampant immigration introducing new cultures and new cuisines to the US. Interestingly enough, by the second decade of the century, around 4 million Italians have come to America, bringing the foods and cooking styles from their homes to the new soil. Additionally, in 1919, the National Prohibition Act, outlawing most adult beverages, passed and has remained in place until 1933. That same year, Roy Allen used a root beer recipe he bought from his pharmacist and started selling the brew for a nickel a glass.

In 1921, White Castle restaurant opened in Wichita, KS. Meanwhile, in Dallas one of the first drive-ins appeared – The Pig Stand. Another important event is the invention of the Caesar Salad, which happened in 1924 when Caesar Cardini concocted the salad that became a restaurant stable world-wide. In the 1930’s, the end of Prohibition naturally had a boost to fine-dining restaurants and super clubs, such as the famous Pump Room in Chicago, IL and the Rainbow Room in New York City, NY – which were now able to operate legally. In 1935, the franchising was born when a New England ice cream seller, Howard Johnson, started letting other restaurant operators use his business’ name for a fee. In 1938, Bill Darden, a 19-year old, opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog. His restaurant promised “Service with a Hop”. And, this is how he eventually went on and developed a bargain-priced full-service seafood concept, Red Lobster.

In 1940, a veteran dairyman opened a shop in Joliet and called it Dairy Queen. Two years later, wartime rationing came to restaurants, who were at that time allowed to use only 1 pound of coffee for every 100 meals and 1 pound of sugar for every 33 customers. That same year, Ike Sewell and Ric Ricardo opened Pizzeria Uno in Chicago, introducing the deep-dish pizza. As WWII ended in 1945, it left a different world behind. The 50s came along with the founding of Dunkin’ Donuts. Soon after, in 1953, the first McDonald’s featuring the famous golden arches opened in Phoenix, AZ. One year later, Jim McLamore and Dave Edgerton decided to open a new burger concept – Burger King. That same year, Glenn Bell saw a fairly calm niche in his area’s booming fast-food industry and decided to open Taco Tia, which later changed the name to Taco Bell.

The 60’s brought the Restaurant industry the first model of food and sanitation code. In 1965, Ronald McDonald made his debut on TV and eventually became the chain’s official spokesman. Alan Stillman, that same year, decided to target young partiers looking for fun, which is how he opened a curious place called TGI Fridays. After selling off the KFC franchises, Dave Thomas decided to enter into the quick-service’s largest market – burgers. And, although that arena already had some pretty big players, Thomas comes up with a place offering burgers made with fresh meat, baked potatoes and chili. He named the place after his daughter, Wendy’s. The 70’s are marked by the founding of Starbucks, College of Culinary Arts and Golden Corral’s “endless buffet” of comfort food items. The 1975 was a curious year with McDonald’s Hamburger Uni training facility being officially open and offering the future managers a degree in hamburgerology. And, in 1978 they launched the kid-size portions paired with toys and called them Happy Meals.

In 1982, a British magazine coined the term “foodie” in order to describe one to whom food is a hobby, pastime and a discussion topic. One year later, Hooters opened its very first place. In 1987, the original Starbucks owners sold the brand to a former manager and one of the suppliers, who himself owned another brand at the time, called Il Giornale. The new owner has successfully converted his cafes into Starbucks outlets and expanded the brand world-wide. The 90s came with the National Restaurant launching the ServSafe program to foster voluntary food safety training. This course and certification program teaches restaurant professionals to take care of the business by guaranteeing the safety of both guests and the employees. McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in the Soviet Union and starts serving over 50,000 people a day. In 1991, Domino’s put out a warning to its franchises about the likelihood of war, based on the record orders coming from the Pentagon. The 1993 came along with the founding of Chipotle Mexican Grill and the very first Food program, TV Food Network. During 1995, the restaurant industry sales went up to over $295 billion. In 1998, Chuck Templeton founded OpenTable, a service that’s allowing diners to make dinner reservations online.

The 21st century is marked by the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. But the year 2006 came with the Restaurant sales forecast that would pass the $500 billion mark. The following years came with major soft drink companies agreeing to stop selling sugary sodas in schools. The NYC Board of Health also votes to ban trans fat oils and shortenings in restaurants. The last decade of these years was eventul, to say the least. The Supreme Court ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to be married, and Republican Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of America. In 2018, while overall restaurant sales are steady to slightly positive, the delivery sector starts its boom. And, with the risk of jumping the gun here, since we haven’t yet touched on the 2020 events, we may as well flat out say that delivery is on its steady rise and might be the best option that helps us save the restaurants.