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The Restaurant Industry Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?

The Restaurant Industry Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?

The Daily vor 1 Monat

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37:27

If you dine out regularly, you might have noticed some changes in
restaurants over the past few years. Perhaps you’ve found
yourself ordering at a counter, scanning a QR code to see the
menu, or eating … a lot more soft serve.

These changes aren’t just trends. Brett Anderson, a New York
Times food reporter, says they are restaurant owners’ desperate
attempts to stay afloat in an industry in crisis. According to a
report from the National Restaurant Association, 42 percent of
restaurant owners said they weren’t profitable in 2025. Many of
them were at serious risk of closing.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Brett talks with our host
Michael Barbaro about the economic realities that are forcing
businesses to rethink the entire concept of a restaurant,
including a radical experiment at one Minneapolis diner that
stopped charging for food entirely.

On Today’s Episode:

Brett Anderson, a reporter for the Food
section of The New York Times.

Background Reading:

This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are
Up.

The Restaurant List 2026

Photo credit: Caroline Yang for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit
nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each
episode will be made available by the next workday.

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