SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — For restaurants, it’s been a year of endless pivots, dogged determination, and creative problem solving.
To help shine a spotlight on the unique challenges that restaurants have faced since the pandemic turned their industry upside down, OpenTable, the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations, launched a new video series called “Restaurants on the Rebound.”
OpenTable’s new video series Restaurants on the Rebound documents a year like no other in the hospitality industry and follows the inspiring, heartfelt journeys of four restaurants as they chart their pandemic survival and prepare to get back to business. These are the pandemic stories — creative, inspiring, and heartfelt:
50Kitchen – Boston, MA: Chef Anthony Caldwell had barely finished celebrating the grand opening of his Dorchester restaurant 50Kitchen when COVID-19 caused a nationwide lockdown. But Caldwell wasn’t going to let a pandemic slow him down — he had already overcome a difficult childhood, addiction, and incarceration to get to this point. Watch how this chef’s sense of hope and commitment to helping others kept him going, despite the odds, HERE.
China Live – San Francisco, CA: At San Francisco Chinese food emporium China Live, owners George and Cindy Chen not only pivoted throughout the pandemic with ghost kitchens, retail offerings, and new outdoor space, but they also stood as a bastion of strength for SF’s iconic Chinatown community as it battles the rise of Asian hate crimes. Watch how one of San Francisco’s most beloved Chinese restaurants stood strong through the pandemic and Asian hate HERE.
L’oca D’oro – Austin, TX: Instead of reopening, Italian neighborhood gem L’oca D’oro put its kitchen to work feeding millions of meals to the city’s food insecure, and when the historic Texas winter storm struck, the restaurant kept the food flowing. Watch how this Austin restaurant showed its community love through the pandemic HERE.
Pink Dinghy – Virginia Beach, VA: The Pink Dinghy has quickly become a beloved community spot — but the restaurant’s road to opening was far from easy. Owner Stephanie Dietz had to navigate all the usual headaches of opening a business, when a car crashed into the restaurant, she lost her business partner, and the pandemic hit. Watch how this Virginia Beach team banded together to bring this brightly colored dream restaurant to life HERE.
To learn more about OpenTable’s Restaurants on the Rebound series, please go here. Since April 2020, OpenTable has helped seat more than 135MM diners at no cost to its restaurants and remains committed to helping restaurants recover.
About OpenTable:
OpenTable, part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), powers reservations for the hospitality industry. OpenTable’s software seats more than 1 billion people per year and helps more than 60,000 restaurants, bars, wineries and other venues attract guests, manage capacity, improve operations and maximize revenue.
