As dining rooms across the country close their doors and lay off staff due to the coronavirus outbreak, other typically dine-in restaurants are remaining in business offering takeout and delivery options for customers.
However, for fine-dining restaurants that have never offered these options before, the process of moving online is not always easy, said Nick Kokonas, co-owner of Alinea Restaurant Group, who launched a to-go feature on its reservation platform, Tock to Go, to help other establishments list their menus for takeout.
“Tock allows any restaurant from a small mom and pop, all the way up to famous ones, to very quickly add carryout service,” Kokonas told Cheddar.
While Alinea, located in Chicago, Illinois, serves high-end meals, Kokonas said they recognized early on that the stay-at-home orders were going to be in place for a while. The restaurant group switched away from fine dining and moved to carry-out just days after local officials made the restrictions mandatory.
"We decided to go with comfort food instead and we made that change three days after the mandatory shelter in place was mandated in Illinois,” he said.
The change paid off. Coming off the heels of Easter weekend Kokonas revealed that the demand for takeout from his restaurant has been unbelievable. “We did almost 5,000 meals out of Alinea alone for both brunch and dinner and had a waitlist of thousands of people.”
Kokonas also addressed issues around staffing. When Illinois issued stay-at-home orders, he said the restaurant decided that the best option for its employees and business was to furlough all of its workers but made sure to keep healthcare benefits intact.
“We are taking the operating profits from running the carry-outs and we’re going to share that amongst the staff and create a recapitalization fund for the restaurants for when we reopen,” he added.
Kokonas isn’t sure when, in fact, they will be able to reopen but said he believes when they are able to welcome customers inside again they still will be faced with occupancy challenges that will impact staff.
“When we do reopen it is very likely that the government will mandate an occupancy that is something less than our business model called for when we built our restaurant,” he said. “On a busy night Roister [an Alinea Group restaurant] will do 350 people. It may very well be we can only do 150 people, yet we have a staff to do 350 diners on a Saturday night. So that will be equally challenging.”
"It's a complicated situation, but it's something that needs a little bit of tweaking and hopefully Congress will address that as well," he said regarding future aid.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
U.S. sports betting is booming as NFL and college football fuel massive activity. BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt breaks down trends, growth, and what’s next.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
Disney's changes to a program for disabled visitors are facing challenges in federal court and through a shareholder proposal. The Disability Access Service program, which allows disabled visitors to skip long lines, was overhauled last year. Disney now mostly limits the program to those with developmental disabilities like autism who have difficulty waiting in lines. The changes have sparked criticism from some disability advocates. A shareholder proposal submitted by disability advocates calls for an independent review of Disney's disability policies. Disney plans to block this proposal, claiming it's misleading. It's the latest struggle by Disney to accommodate disabled visitors while stopping past abuses by some theme park guests.
With a merger this big, creators, studios, and theaters all face uncertain futures. Here’s what experts are worried about and what good could come from it.
With disengagement rising and hybrid work shifting, 'Everybody Matters' author Bob Chapman explains why treating people well could define the future of work.
We sat down with Ali Furman, U.S. Consumer Markets Industry Leader at consulting firm PwC to ask what trends she garnered from the initial data this year.
