new york
CNN
—
Hungry at 3am? Please go home and sleep. That's bad luck.
Shift workers, bar hopping customers and night owls don't have as many late-night dining options as they did in the pre-pandemic heyday of 24-hour diners and restaurants.
And it's not just restaurants. Four years after reducing its business hours due to the coronavirus pandemic, Walmart has still not returned to “all-night hours”. Some supermarkets, electronics stores, coffee shops, and pharmacies that closed early due to the coronavirus pandemic have not reopened late at night. Not all of his 24 Hour Fitness gyms (as the name suggests) are open 24 hours a day.
But the hardest hit will be diners and restaurants from sunset to sunrise.
The number of restaurants offering 24-hour service decreased by 18% from 2020 to 2024, according to Yelp data. New York, the city that never sleeps, has lost 13% of its 24-hour restaurants. Los Angeles, which was also affected by the Hollywood strike, lost a whopping 35% of its 24-hour dining establishments, and Chicago lost 10%.
The slow recovery of “all-nighters” in the U.S. highlights changes in consumer habits and the restaurant industry. Significant changes in customer behavior, such as eating dinner earlier and drinking less alcohol late at night, are preventing a return to pre-pandemic patterns. Rising labor and food costs are forcing restaurants to close earlier.
Breakfast-based chain restaurants are showing some recovery. About half of IHOP's 1,800 stores are back open 24 hours a day, at least on Fridays and Saturdays. Approximately 75% of Denny's 1,600 stores will reopen 24 hours a day. And to reassure bleary-eyed students everywhere, all of Waffle House's nearly 2,000 restaurants will reopen for his 24-hour operation.
But restaurant owners warn that being open 24/7 is dangerous. “It's very stressful to be open 24 hours a day,” explains Alex Barakos, general manager of Pete's Kitchen, a Greek restaurant with countertops and a retro feel in Denver.
Ed Endicott/Alamy Stock Photo/File
Pete's Kitchen in downtown Denver has reopened 24 hours a day, but only on weekends.
Pete's was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from the 1990s until the pandemic hit in 2020. When the pandemic forced Pete's to temporarily close, Barakos didn't even have a key because the restaurant never locked its front door, he said. .
Pete's will be back open 24 hours a day, but only on Fridays and Saturdays. Barakos said nightlife on weekdays is still not as crowded as it was before the pandemic.
“24 hours a day, 365 days a year [service] It relies on events such as concerts and games. Everything is connected,” he said. “You've got to give someone a reason to go out right now. You've got to give them an event.”
Labor and food costs will rise
Staffing graveyard shifts has been a challenge for years, but staffing in a cost-effective manner has become even more difficult as the labor market has tightened in recent years.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food costs have increased by 25% since March 2020, and wages in leisure and hospitality industries have increased by 29%. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 1 million unfilled positions in the industry.
“Operationally, the industry is in a different place than it was before the pandemic,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research at the National Restaurant Association. “It doesn’t make sense for some of these operators to incur higher costs during traditionally lower sales periods.”
In 2022, restaurants reduced their weekly hours by 7.5%, or about 6.5 hours, compared to 2019, according to market research firm Datasential.
In some cases, restaurants and other businesses may close early due to safety concerns. In Philadelphia, for example, the City Council passed a bill last month that would require businesses in certain areas to close at night to reduce crime and noise problems.
But from Edward Hopper's “Nighthawks” paintings to movies like “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” late-night dining has been a symbol of American culture.
Steven Zagor, a restaurant consultant who teaches at Columbia Business School, said 24-hour diners emerged in New York City in the mid-20th century as the city's nightlife scene grew.
“That culture eroded in the late 20th century,” he says. “The point of consideration was the pandemic.”
Consumer behavior has changed since the pandemic. Restaurant reservation data shows that more people are eating earlier. According to Yelp, by 2023, 10% of all customers will be “early risers” who will be seated between 2 and 5 p.m., up from 5% in 2019.
Many young Americans are also cutting back on alcohol, reducing demand from customers looking to sober up with food after bar hopping.
According to a Gallup poll, 62% of adults under 35 say they drink alcohol, down from 72% two decades ago.
In San Antonio, owner Pete Cortez has yet to bring back 24-hour operation at Mi Tierra, an 80-year-old Tex-Mex restaurant known for its breakfast tacos and mariachi band.
Michael Silver Geo/Alamy Stock Photo/File
Despite the signage, Mi Tierra in San Antonio, Texas is no longer open 24 hours a day.
Cortes' grandparents founded Mi Tierra. For years, Mi Tierra had a neon sign outside the restaurant that read, “We'll never close.”
Before the pandemic, people would come to eat after weddings and other events. Now people eat dinner earlier and don't stay out until late at night.
“There was a change in mentality,” Cortez said. “People say, 'We already partied tonight.' Do we really need to go to one more place?”
Cortez would like to bring back Mi Tierra's 24-hour operation, but he doesn't think nightlife or events will drive demand. Instead of opening a restaurant, he's testing a food truck in a parking lot to see if it generates interest.
Before the pandemic, “many of the guests who stayed after midnight were local, going to dinners, weddings, chamber of commerce events. It wasn't unusual for people to show up past midnight in tuxedos.” he said.
“We're going to need that kind of energy and activity to get back to 24/7.”
