Virus changes menus, operations as restaurants struggle

CINCINNATI (AP) — In the battle to keep their New York City restaurant going despite sharp restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak, the owners of Il Posto Accanto are relying on something Beatrice Tosci would have considered sacrilege in normal times.

“The biggest change is that we offer our food for delivery which never, never, never, ever, ever, ever happened before,” said Tosci. “I like my food to go from the kitchen to the table, and that's it!”

However, with New York becoming the U.S. epicenter of the contagion and under self-quarantining edicts, she and husband Julio Pena have little choice but to package up their traditional Italian cooking such as meatballs and pasta and send them out.

Across the United States, restaurateurs are transforming operations to try to stay afloat. The National Restaurant Association warns the coronavirus outbreak could cost five to seven million jobs and hundreds of billions in losses and is pushing for a special federal relief package for restaurants. In an industry of traditionally tight profit margins, some decided that it's time to take chances.

Frisch's Big Boy restaurants, a Cincinnati-based chain that had laid off more than a third of its 5,000 employees in the first days of bans on in-restaurant dining, last week pivoted into the grocery business. Besides its signature Big Boy double-decker burgers and onion rings, customers at its 100 restaurants in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky can buy bread, milk and and produce at its drivethrus and carryout counters and via home delivery.

Frisch's saw a quick jump in revenues at a time when people have been frustrated by long lines and shortages at traditional supermarkets. Toilet paper is in high demand, and Frisch's and others are using it as a lure.

Westmont Diner in Westmont, New Jersey, has added it to carry-out...