The Post-Pandemic Future of Restaurants

In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading rapidly throughout the United States, restaurateurs Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo announced that Fat Rice, their award-winning Chicago restaurant, would close and be replaced by Super Fat Rice Mart, which would offer meal kits. Quoted in a New York Times article, Conlon said, "The restaurant for the foreseeable future is dead." Handling the pandemic and its aftermath was a challenge facing all restaurant owners.