Author Archives: Zen Media

It’s no secret that the restaurant industry has been hit incredibly hard by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In December, Bloomberg reported that “more than 110,000 restaurants have closed permanently or long-term across the country” due to the pandemic. But unlike other businesses that saw help from Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program […]

Ever since the pandemic started last March, restaurants have been treading water to continue to operate. First lockdown measures required that they close their doors, then social distancing requirements made them upend their indoor dining policies.  To make their service work, many implemented contactless technology and took their dining outdoors, creating patio spaces, covered rooms, […]

Americans have been trained to expect lots of choices. We want choices in everything: clothing, cars, insurance, and grocery stores. Naturally, menu options are no different.  But for many restaurants, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated stripping menus back to just the best-selling items or to fundamental, easy-to-prepare, low-overhead dishes in order to keep business afloat. […]

A year ago, if you’d said “What does value mean to you?” to a room of restaurant customers they might answer with: Getting great food for a low price Receiving excellent, personalized service Having a unique and memorable dining experience In COVID-era dining, however, values have changed. What customers want out of a dining experience […]

There are many factors to consider when it comes to restaurant employee scheduling. It takes talent and effort to create the best plan possible for your business, employees, and customers. By using optimization processes and tools to your advantage, you can optimize your labor in ways that suit everyone’s needs, while maximizing both customer and […]

Opening a restaurant and keeping it afloat can be a difficult proposition, even in the best of times. These aren’t the best of times. COVID-19 has got all of us working on plans B, C, D, and E just to keep the kitchens cooking and the front doors open. Despite the uncertainty of all that’s […]

Curbside pickup and delivery have arguably been the salvation of at least some of the restaurant industry as it’s scrambled to find any way to survive after COVID-19 fundamentally changed the landscape for service industries in general in early 2020. Overnight, millions of hungry consumers were suddenly hesitant to set foot inside any establishment where […]

It’s perhaps no surprise that, as the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines began, people began buying alcohol in bulk. According to Nielsen, the percent of boxed wine sales increased more than tenfold between Feb. 29 and April 18, 1.75-L spirits were 23 times higher, and 30-packs of beer sales were up 21%.  Though bulk alcohol bar […]