Sales at restaurants and drinking places saw double-digit growth in June. U.S. manufacturing activity appears to be on the rise. The IRC’s appeal for $120 billion in federal funds to support independent restaurants appears to be gaining support in Congress. Here's what you need to know.

The restaurant industry’s decline due to COVID-19 may have traveled a swift and direct path, but the road to recovery remains a long and winding one that will undoubtedly be riddled with potholes and other unwanted surprises.

All restaurants should regularly visualize what their store of the future (SOF) will look like. An exercise of this nature is important in the best of times. In light of the impact the coronavirus continues to have on this industry, it’s never been more important than it is today, especially with an ever-changing future.

How to rebuild trust with customers in a global pandemic.

Convenience stores, particularly those with a strong food focus, faced many of the same challenges as restaurants when on-premises foodservice shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Self-service options, such as coffee and roller grill items, were halted, and larger chains had to manage through varying local rules.

Purchasing managers report strong June growth. Craftworks holdings finds new ownership. Buffets and salad bars are gone thanks to COVID-19 and when they will be back is anyone’s guess. Dunkin’ will close 450 small stores. These stories and a whole lot more This Week in Foodservice.

With COVID-19 cases surging across many parts of the country, could one restaurant segment have an operating advantage over another for a while? Possibly.

The ability to innovate and push technology in the restaurant industry has always been an option. Many times, though, restaurant operators delay implementing certain technologies out of fear of going too far ahead of what the customers will accept. COVID-19 has forced the industry to be open to and accepting of many ideas that may have not even had a chance just a few months back or may have taken much longer to evolve and become mainstream during normal times.

Surging numbers of positive cases continues to stall the restaurant industry’s recovery from the closures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Often dubbed the most important three feet of the house, in normal times, the tabletop communicates the restaurant’s brand promise and it starts establishing guest expectations even before customers take their seats. While much has changed in restaurants and foodservice operations thanks to steps aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, the role of the tabletop has not. It just looks a lot different for the time being.

A sometimes overlooked subset of college and university dining, two-year community colleges and technical schools are experiencing the same uncertainty right now as their four-year counterparts. But with COVID-19 fears and safety protocols dashing students’ hopes for a traditional residential campus experience, and with community colleges offering affordability, the ability to transfer credits, and the option of living at home until the dust settles, the segment could be a bright spot.

Bump in the road or a sign of things to come, only time will tell which is true but as the number of COVID-19 cases increased over the past week, transactions at restaurants and bars dipped slightly.

If the mandated stay at home orders that permeated the country starting in mid-March ravaged restaurants sales, it was safe to assume the same would apply to sales of foodservice equipment and supplies.

Like just about every other restaurant operator out there, Crushed Red has had to adapt its approach and remain flexible to overcome the countless challenges brought forth by COVID-19.

Restaurant industry performance continues to show steady, incremental progress from one week to the next.

While it did not take long for most states and municipalities to mandate restaurant restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus, reopening is another story, for various reasons.

On May 15 restaurants and bars in Ohio received the green light to welcome patrons back for outdoor dining and then, just six days later, they were able to reopen their dining rooms to customers who wished to dine on-premises. Despite this all clear, at least one operator continues to take a more deliberate approach to bringing his business back up to full speed.

As restaurants chart their path to recovery, many experts have predicted that digital platforms would play a critical role in the industry’s comeback efforts. And according to data from the NPD Group, these predictions are starting to prove true.

While some restaurants and foodservice operators shifted to an exclusively off-premises model due to state and local closures to stop the spread of COVID-19, others chose to temporarily shutter their businesses entirely.

While much has been made about the way mandated closures to thwart the spread of COVID-19 have decimated restaurants and other foodservice operators, the fallout from this pandemic continues to impact individual members of the supply chain in different ways. Take, for example, Brad Pierce, president of Restaurant Equipment World, an Orlando, Fla.-based foodservice equipment and supplies dealer. Pierce’s multifaceted business and role as an AEROBridge Disaster Response volunteer give him a unique perspective on the pandemic’s impact on foodservice and beyond.

In March, when states and local governments began handing down stay-at-home edicts to curb the spread of the coronavirus and subsequently closed restaurant dining rooms, a very common line of thought was things would get back to normal sooner than later. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. According to the National Restaurant Association, more than 5.5 million restaurant workers had lost their jobs through mid-May. And as I write this, many dining rooms across the country remain dark as some states cautiously start to develop plans to reopen their economies.

Even a pandemic such as COVID-19 can’t completely take away emerging chains’ appetite for growth. Moving forward, though, these multiunit operators will continue to adjust their designs and equipment packages to deliver brand-defining experiences  for customers, whether they choose to dine on- or off-premises.

With states and municipalities continuing to slowly lift restrictions on restaurants, foodservice operators and, for that matter, other businesses, consumer confidence continues to creep back. As a result, sales at restaurants show small but positive improvements.

One presumed outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic is the demise of self-service options like buffets and salad bars. Through thoughtful hard work and collaboration, though, one restaurant chain is doing what it can to ensure its self-serve options continue to thrive once guests return for on-premises dining.

Let’s face it: we really do not know how this crisis will play out, and therefore the implications to restaurant design remain just as uncertain. As such, the impact on restaurant design will remain a moving target for the foreseeable future.

Not surprisingly, transactions at U.S. chain restaurants continued to show improvement for the week ending May 10.

The concept of meal kits is not a new one. Yet this segment is enjoying something of a rebirth thanks to coronavirus.

The list of industry events rescheduled or outright cancelled due to COVID-19 got a little longer when the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers pushed its biennial trade show to August 26-28 from the original date of February 4-6. In addition to shifting to an August timeframe, the show will move to Orlando from New Orleans.