It might be an understatement to say that this year’s presidential inauguration will be unprecedented. Between the surging COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and warnings from the FBI that more unrest could be on the way, citizens are not encouraged to come to the capital for the inauguration this year. The area around the Capitol has been blocked off by barricades, and the National Mall is already closed to the public across its entire length. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and security officials as of Friday (Jan. 15) were officially recommending that Americans watch President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration from home.
It may be the right move for overall safety. But for local restauranteurs, it is another blow in a 10-month period that has been packed with them, as Inauguration Day and the days leading up to and following it are normally banner days for local restaurants.
“We are 110-percent supportive of what the Mayor is doing to secure the city right now,” David Moran, director of operations for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, told Washingtonian. “Of course, we’d rather be open and do business, but it’s just the right thing to do.”
One of the group’s restaurants, Old Ebbitt, is a popular downtown eatery and normally a hotspot of activity on Inauguration Day, but will be one of many local businesses shutting its doors for the day instead.
But, as reports indicate, not everyone is shutting down. Instead local restaurants are doubling down on digital as they have throughout the pandemic period to reach their homebound and house party-attending customers. And if those customers are advised not to come out to them, they’re bringing the food in to them.
Often in themed packages. Favorites include the $75 Inauguration Party Box on offer from Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s delivery service, NRG Provisions. The box includes a bottled cocktail by Show of Hands called “Ridin’ with Biden,” a Red Apron slider kit and Buzz Bakeshop’s Patriotic Yo-Yos. For those hosting a fancier watch party, there’s the $250 offering from local caterer Design Cuisine. The offering includes a four-course takeout lunch that includes dishes from previous inauguration luncheons the caterer served: domestic cheese and charcuterie; seafood stew with Maine lobster, halibut, scallops and shrimp; charcoal grilled Angus beef with potato gratin and oyster mushrooms; and Hudson Valley apple pie.
Because, as the latest PYMNTS data demonstrates, the inauguration is an unusual event, but the need to be ready with digital service alternatives at this point in the pandemic is old hat. Over 46.5 million consumers around the U.S. use smartphone apps for food delivery, a figure that increases more sharply when accounting for takeout or curbside pickup. That figure is forecast to continue rising to 53.9 million consumers projected to use such apps by 2023. Such solutions are especially popular among younger generations, with 46 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds utilizing food ordering apps and 50 percent of Generation Z consumers saying they will try a new restaurant if curbside pickup is available.
Consumers want to return to eating in restaurants. According to PYMNTS survey data, dining is unique among consumers behaviors that have shifted digitally, where consumers would like to see a return to the old normal. The share of consumers who say they plan to eventually go back to eating in restaurants increased from what it was in April of this year. Five percent of consumers say they plan to revert to eating in restaurants after the pandemic is over, up from the 3 percent who said the same on April 27.
But the majority of those same consumers also noted that until a vaccine was in regular circulation and case counts were down, they were unlikely to attempt a return to normal. And in D.C., where restaurants will be closed for inauguration day this year and house parties will be the rule, things this week are going to be even further from normal than has been the case. And delivery and pickup, after a 10-month dress rehearsal, is preparing to step up to perform.
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