DC Restaurants Least Likely To Recover Among Top 50 Metro Areas In Nation: LendingTree

WASHINGTON, DC — The restaurant industry was one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, and a new study shows that restaurants in Washington, D.C., are least likely to recover this year among the top 50 metro areas in the nation.

LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, analyzed key metrics, including consumer spending at restaurants, job postings in the hospitality industry, and time consumers spent away from home at retail and restaurants, across the 50 largest metro areas to find the places where the restaurant industry is most and least likely to recover this year.

The D.C. restaurant industry ranks the least likely to recover because it is near the bottom in nearly all the metrics examined, LendingTree found. Specifically, consumer spending at restaurants and time spent away from home at restaurants are both second-to-last in D.C. among the 50 metropolitan areas.

D.C. has seen a 33-percent loss in time spent away from home at retail and restaurants since the start of the pandemic, and a 24-percent drop in consumer spending at restaurants and hotels.

James Waterhouse, general manager of the Garden District restaurant on 14th Street NW, told FOX5 that as the pandemic continues, he worries what it will mean for restaurants in Washington D.C.

"The number of places we’ve seen close in the last year — some permanently, some we’re hoping are going to come back — it’s sad," Waterhouse said.

The restaurant industry in San Francisco is the second-least likely to recover this year behind D.C. San Francisco ranks last among the 50 metros in job postings in the restaurant industry and time spent away from home at restaurants.

Rounding out the five metro areas with restaurant industries least likely to recover from the pandemic are Oakland, California, San Jose, California, and Miami, Florida.

The restaurant industry is most likely to recover in Oklahoma City. The metro area leads the list thanks to a strong employment recovery and a sizable pool of restaurant workers, according to the LendingTree analysis.

"It’s reasonable that many of the metros ranked most likely to recover are in those positions in part because they’re in states where restrictions on dining out have been more lax or nonexistent compared to states that virtually shut down restaurants for months on end," LendingTree said.

The most expensive metro areas tend to have the worst scores in the analysis. Cost of living in the U.S. is highest in San Francisco and San Jose, which come in at No. 49 and No. 47, respectively, for restaurant industry recovery potential. New York, which has the third-highest cost of living, comes in at No. 40, according to the LendingTree study.