Restaurant Dining Comeback in Full Swing

I think he made it actually during the weekend. But you know, it just wasn't it early. It's earlier than we would like to. You're not showing up. Yeah, you're not showing up that day and actually getting a reservation. It's at like four four pm or it's a you're go, okay, Well, if it's at four forty four, you should still be at work for sure, definitely, and I will be so obviously we took the ten pm. Okay, sare it us. Let's get into the health of the restaurant industry. We're

really pleased to have back with us. Debbie Sue, she's CEO of Open Table, she joins us once again via zoom from San Francisco, to have you. Good to have you back with us. Katie and I got to speak with you just a few months ago. How are you. I'm doing well and I'm so happy to be here with you all again. Well, it's good to have you back with us. Last time we spoke, you talked about the idea that consumers were returning, diners were returning to the platform in droves. UM. What's changed in just a

few months. Give us a health check of the restaurant industry. We are we are continuing to see that that dining demand remains really strong. If you look at the year end, so for for this entire year, we are approaching on nationwide UM pre pandemic levels. We're up versus last year. So we can say that dining is back UM or that dining has held strong. The holiday season is looking great. Thanksgiving UM is usually a good you know, a sign of what things are to come during the holiday season,

and demand was really strong then. So people were just seeing that people are continuing to prioritize that dining out at at a restaurant experience. Despite all the news we're hearing and we're feeling it as well, right about inflation, rising costs, um, all that economic turbulence. People are continuing to you know, allocate pieces of their household piano to the dining out experience. How do you explain that because

those things are at odds? Yeah, I know, and I think you know, um, we're we're still seeing some pent up revenge dining. I think as a result of the pandemic when many of us were cooped up in our houses or apartments for um a long time. So I think that is still playing here. Um. I also think it's because from many of us, the nature of work has changed. Um. Many people work remotely, some people are in a hybrid situation where they go into the office you know, twice a week as opposed to five times

a week. And I think people are really craving that in person, you know, experience that they're not getting when they're just working from home. Um. And so I think, you know, dining out at a restaurant is one of those ways they can get that. And we're seeing that in the data too. We're seeing, for example, uh, pre pandemic days, bar seating was the least favorable type of the seat that one could book, and right now we're seeing people are actually requesting those seats and wanting to

be in the thick of it all. So I think because work is changing for many of us, that that has trickled down effects, you know, into dining and our behavior as consumers. Um, you know what what it means now to to go out to a restaurant, Iffy, let's unpack some of those trends. If if the shifting nature of work is changing how people are dining out, what does that mean in terms of what days that people

are coming to restaurants, what times, things of those chairs. Yes, so we're seeing that Monday's, UM, to your point, are so historically Mondays were a very slow time for restaurants pre pandemic. Right now, what we're seeing Monday's or the weekend after party, it's kind of an extension of the weekend. So we're seeing really big increases in dining compared to last year up on Monday's. UM. The time is also different in terms of the time that people are going

to reservations. You had said forty five or ten, we're actually seeing um, a lot of people dining between four and five UM that that time period increased twenty seven, a very large increase um compared to pre pandemic time. So happy hour is the new dinner. I think it's because oftentimes, like if you are working remotely or hybrid um, you're commute. You don't have a commute time, right, So you could be done with work and you can out down you know, your computer and just literally, you know,

leave your home and go to a restaurant. Debbie, does that change? So I've talked about this a bit. I don't have any data on this, and I'm hoping you can help with this because it's all anecdotal for me. But in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, you know, I come into work every day because I can't work remotely. But if I'm off a day and I'm at at home and I'm walking around the neighborhood, it is like packed.

You know, sandwich shops that are usually packed on a week day on a weekend only are packed during the week because people are working from home. Do you have any data that shows sort of the the epicenter of of these areas is kind of shifting a little bit because of people's work patterns. Yes, So we in that the Brooklyn story or your experience is very similar to what we're seeing. UM. You know, during the pandemic, I think a lot of people moved out of the city proper.

Uh and and in areas around a big city, UM, Brooklyn here could be an example of that, and UM, a lot of so we're seeing a lot of dining activity happening, you know in Brooklyn versus you know in the middle of midtown or Manhattan. UM. We're seeing that in the Bay Area here in San Francisco. UM. So we're seeing like emergence of kind of these UM areas

outside of cities really gained and prominence. And I think Brooklyn also, like it's a trends, tends to have a younger demographic, if I were to guess, like a very cool demographics. I don't know if I'm either of those things. But thank you, Debby. But you know, it's not surprising. It's not surprising to hear that we have. You know, there's a big remote workforce out there that you know, during lunchtime can go to the sandwich shop down the street.

So I've been thinking about what you said about people actually in some cases requesting to sit at the bar because I've never done that in my life. But I don't want to sit at the bar. I don't want to sit next to people. Okay, that's what I mean. But in any case, are you seeing that in that sort of drive to be in the thick of it in the action? Are you seeing that in the dining choices that people are making in terms of the types

of restaurants that they're booking. Absolutely, so we're seeing diners really crave that connectivity. So cuisines like Korean barbecue, Hibachi grill, Brazilian steakhouse, um, those types of food venues are doing very very well because again, unlike you, a lot of people want to be in the thick of it. They want to be sharing a table with folks they don't know and and being in that kind of communal environment that's so interesting. Does this hold? We're seeing it hold? Um?

It's it started up last year and it's continued to persist um this year. I really think a lot of it is related to the pandemic UM and kind of a new post pandemic life with again work changing for so many of us. Um that right like it, it impacts other other facets of our life. And so I mean if theoretically we're here a year from now talking about the trends that we saw in what do you think what what kind of conversation we're gonna be having. Well, I hope we're going to have a similar one in

terms of dining demand remaining very strong. Um. You know, and we watched the data very carefully across the board, just because there is so much noise regarding the economy, and we hear from restaurant partners how hard it is to be running m their restaurants. But the hero of the day and the story is that consumers continue to prioritize going out and dining at restaurants. Yeah, sorry, thirty seconds left. Does that change though in a softening economy?

I mean, everyone we've spoken to today is planning on session. Yes, um, And we're we remain bullish about dining. We think that may be the check size will change, but we think that people will continue to prioritize connecting with others, whether that be family or friends at a meal at a restaurant. W S. It's always great to check in with you and get a real understanding for what's going on when it comes to restaurants in this Economy w is CEO

at Open Table. You know it as a restaurant booking platform. She joined us this afternoon via zoom from San Francisco.