We are sure that everyone has duly noted the long wait times at your local restaurants, possible lack of service, closed sections, and drastic changes in menu selections. There are many factors that play a role in this, that many people may not fully understand. So let us start with section #1 Staffing.
Almost every operation had to either fully close down during the Pandemic, if not, completely modify how it did business. The first thing to be removed from many of these operations were the service staff that operated all the functionalities within each one. Some management staff may or may not have been kept on board to operate/salvage what was left, but many of the cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and all other service staff were most likely laid off. There were a few fortunate, clever operations that shifted and or modified their means of service to door-dash and whatever means possible to maintain to the national standards. Many of those service staff members that were laid off might have received some assistance to somewhat maintain, well just life. If there were anything to attest how hard working this genre of service industry workers are, many of them found alternative jobs outside what they loved to do everyday.
You see the most important thing in any service-line industry is “people.” Great people that are willing to do exactly what the industry title deems fit. Serve others. Now that operations are beginning to recover from all this chaos, the majority of what I have observed, witnessed, or experienced even myself, is the expectation to deliver the same service level as before!
~Author Note (Wrote this during my many corporate traveling experiences during the deep times of that Pandemic.)