Future of restaurants

“Who would have thought that banking would be a riskier business than owning a restaurant?” –New York Times Feb. 11, 2009

In the cold light of February 2009, this quote from Peter Zwiener, owner of the bicoastal Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, sounds apocryphal. After all, trend watchers show that Americans are clamping their wallets shut when it comes to dining out. And this winter’s relentless cold and snow have added to restaurant woes.

All over Boston, you hear the whispers, especially audible on those forlorn Mondays and Tuesdays when waiters stand idle: Which restaurants will be closed by spring? Who’s going to make – who’s going to fail?  When a high-end restaurant like Excelsior in Back Bay closes, the whispers grow louder. When a restaurant is opened or is repurposed – the Langham Hotel recently transformed the dignified Julien into the glitzy nightclub BOND (above) — the talk is of folly. 

We’re huddling around our stoves, hauling out our cookbooks, shopping for discount groceries, counting pennies. Are restaurants suddenly so last year?

Hold on! The economic situation is dismal, but I venture that restaurants are here to stay. Ever since a Frenchman started ladling out restorative soup in the 18th century and charging for it, people have been fascinated with restaurants. I don’t see that changing. Yes, restaurateurs have to be smart about their costs, and, yes, comfort food — or at least what the public views as affordable – are going to trump $45 entrees.  And maybe celebrity chefs will be a little less celebrated, and experimental cuisine a little less out-there.

Who knows what will become of financial derivatives, mortgage-backed securities, and all the other obscure ways the economy got into trouble. But food, and restaurants, will survive. In fact, BOND reportedly is packed. Restaurants in our future? I’ll bank on that.