07/16/2021

Panel, including ORA, Discusses the State of Ohio's Restaurant Industry

Pre-pandemic sales aren't expected until 2022 or even 2023

Ohio restaurant owners, operators, workers and suppliers met at Mallorca in downtown Cleveland Wednesday to discuss ways restaurants can get back on track after COVID, as lingering pandemic problems continue to plague the restaurant industry.

The Ohio Restaurant Association's (ORA) Local Restaurant Alliance event was the group's first in-person event in more than a year. A panel of restaurant experts and local leaders came together to brainstorm ways to reinvigorate Cleveland's restaurant scene and tackle issues like staff and customer shortages after a rough year and a half for the industry.

According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA) —the largest food service trade association in the world which tracks more than 500,000 restaurant businesses—the restaurant industry ended 2020 with total sales that were $240 billion below the association's pre-pandemic forecast for the year.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WKYC-3 NBC.