Background
This thesis examines the restaurant industry in the past, present, and future time frames. The past approach to the restaurant industry was very limited in variety and technological availability compared to the current one. The modern restaurant industry strives to maintain specific standards in sustainability, innovation, and communication, but it faces challenges in the face of revenue loss and a global pandemic. Dining facilities of the future will almost certainly transition to technology-based service and healthier gourmet trends.
The Restaurant Industry Past
Dining facilities have a long history, dating back to the eighteenth century. The first restaurant believed to have opened in France in 1762, specialized in soups and other simple dishes (Walker, 2021). Although the restaurant wasn’t the first to offer a menu with a selection of options, it was the first to enable clients to place food orders. Before this, people could purchase food at roadside stores, but the choice was typically quite limited. America experienced unprecedented growth during the nineteenth century, particularly in the transportation sector. Longer distance commute was made possible by railroads, which raised the demand for dining establishments. In the beginning, American eateries tried replicating French ones using American-made components. When the 20th century arrived, the hospitality industry began to capture American lifestyles. Fast food establishments like McDonald’s grew in popularity in the middle of the twentieth century as people had less and less time for eating.
The Restaurant Industry Present
A modern restaurant business concept entails foundational trends such as sustainability, innovation, and communication. One of the current trends in the restaurant business is sustainability, which is primarily obtained by reducing power consumption, utilizing renewable energy, minimizing waste, rationalizing water intake, lowering carbon pollution, and promoting a balanced diet (Božić & Milošević, 2021). Another overarching trend is the incorporation of innovations into the industry. Restaurant innovations include implementing gourmet, advertising, and environmental innovations, as well as advanced equipment, services, dietary needs, serving approaches, design, atmosphere, and governance (Sharma et al., 2020). Current trends also emphasize communication approaches. Contemporary restaurants typically operate their own webpage, numerous internet portals, and social media profiles that include information about hospitality facilities.
In recent years, the restaurant industry has also faced significant constraints and challenges. Approximately 3% of restaurants have permanently closed as an outcome of COVID-19 since the end of March 2020. The hospitality industry has certainly lost nearly $120 billion in revenue within the first three months of the COVID-19 global epidemic (National Restaurant Association, 2020). In contrast to past industry’s features, today’s restaurant industry is far more complex and takes into account far more factors, such as sustainability, service quality, innovations, communication, and so on. Previously, restaurants were not exposed to a wide variety of opportunities for cuisines, did not use any digital assistance, and were not concerned with environmental problems.
The Restaurant Industry Future
Given current trends in food quality, it is reasonable to assume that fast food is becoming more casual. Fast food is appealing because it is convenient, but it is not beneficial to one’s health or sense of community. Consumers in the future will be far more appreciative of a more healthily crafted meal. With the rapid advancement of technology, it is reasonable to anticipate that many human interactions in the restaurant industry will be reduced and replaced by advanced programs or even robots. Broadly speaking, the restaurant of the upcoming years is capable of transitioning to digital ordering and leveraging new restaurant tools to enhance operations and maintenance efficiency.
As one of the most competitive business sectors worldwide, the restaurant sector has developed over time and demonstrated drastic expansion. Its development started as a primitive facility, restricted in services and products. Nevertheless, nowadays, it has broadened its focus areas, taking sustainability, innovations, and other factors into account. The trending policies that are currently in vogue will affect the industry in the future, implying its digitalization, staff reduction, and transition to balanced nutrition.
References
Božić, A., & Milošević, S. (2021). Contemporary trends in the restaurant industry and gastronomy.Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 45(5), 905–907.
National Restaurant Association. (2020).Restaurant sales remain well below normal levels, despite May uptick.
Walker, J. R. (2021). The Restaurant: From Concept to Operation (9th ed.). Wiley.