D.C.-area restaurants are the least likely to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent study.
The Lending Tree study, which considered consumer spending at restaurants and time spent away from home at eateries, found the District ranked second-to-last in both categories among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan regions.
At the other end of the spectrum, Oklahoma City is most likely to recover, based on a strong employment recovery and a large pool of available restaurant workers, the study said.
James Waterhouse, general manager of the Garden District in northwest D.C., said the study’s findings don’t surprise him because of real estate prices in the area.
“Commercial real estate is wildly expensive in D.C.,” Waterhouse said, WTTG-TV (Channel 5) reported. “And even places that got government money, some of them are still struggling to be able to make it work, and finding people to work right now is pretty crazy.”
