MINNEAPOLIS — With more than 8 million restaurant employees laid-off or furloughed, according to the National Restaurant Association, it's no surprise the industry is one of the hardest hit this year due to COVID-19.
Which is why award winning restaurateurs like Jamie Malone, Owner of Grand Café in Minneapolis, are closing up shop and looking to the future.
"We just wanted to carve out our own little niche," said Malone.
Malone isn't planning to re-open the location in south Minneapolis, amid a pandemic that has forced dozens of restaurants across the country to close.
These closures have lead many, like Malone, to get creative and reimagine what the future of the industry could look like, offering things like take-home luxury meal kits, in place of the traditional dining experience.
Grand Café is now operating as Grand Café at Home.
"You take them home and we do all the cooking and get everything ready, but you finish them at home in your oven," said Malone. "It's different than eating regular takeout food.”
From March to October the industry lost $215 billion nationally according the National Restaurant Association, and like with any major world crisis, the result of long term changes are inevitable, and for Malone, adapting to those changes is just a critical part of keeping the revenue stream flowing.
"Restaurant people are the most resourceful and driven people in the world," said Malone. "You give us something that you know backs us into a corner and we’re just going to find a way to be better from it.”
Malone is still running her other restaurant 'Eastside' in Minneapolis, while making dozens of deliveries each week with her Grand Café at Home brand.
Talks of possibly reopening Grand Café in a different location are in the works.
Governor Tim Walz has ordered all restaurants (limited to delivery and takeout), bars and gyms to remain closed until Dec.18, as a way to slow the spread of COVID-19.