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The Restaurant Is Dead

December 2, 2008 at 1:06 PM | by | Comment (1)

The now-official recession has led us to spend the past month pointing out our favorite cheapskate eateries, but it has now come to our attention that the economic crisis may be killing the actual concept of the restaurant altogether.

Financial Times columnist (and failed restaurant owner) Nicholas Landry explains:

Restaurateurs appear to be doing everything to avoid calling their new openings restaurants. Café, bar, bar and kitchen, bistro, bistrot de luxe, canteen, trattoria, osteria and lounge are now far more common names than "restaurant," either alone or in some kind of combination associated with a place name or that of a well-known individual. Nobody today, it seems, wants to proclaim that they are opening a restaurant. Various reasons explain this. One is that the word "restaurant" is associated with expense.

In fact, a look through our recession restaurants map finds the theory holds true. We've got food trucks, sausage grills, izakayas, kafes, supper clubs, and po-boy shops, but nary a "restaurant" to be found.

Guess that means we should look for more recession non-restaurants in the near future?

Related Stories:
· Why the Term "Restaurant" May Soon Disappear [FT]
· Recession Restaurants Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: jasoon]

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Uh oh

So does this mean that those shady places along the highway that only say "Restaurant" have no chance at survival!?
bbagel on December 2, 2008 at 4:30 PM #Permalink

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