Bertie A. Kinser

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Outdoor dining, heat lamps: Restaurants survive COVID-19

Bertie A. Kinser

Tamara Holmes, Special to USA TODAY
Published 5:00 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2020 | Updated 10:27 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2020

In a year when thousands of restaurants have closed and many more are struggling to hang on, Bar Bombón in Philadelphia currently is enjoying sales 5% to 10% above last year’s levels. 

It’s a far cry from March when the mayor said all restaurants had to close to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“It was like a gauntlet came down,” says Bar Bombón owner Nicole Marquis recalling the announcement. Her full-service vegan restaurant offers plant-based Latin American favorites such as tacos and empanadas.

With Bar Bombón restricted to takeout and delivery orders, sales fell by the end of March to 10% of normal revenue levels. Yet, remarkably the restaurant is currently exceeding last year’s revenue, despite the fact that indoor dining just began in Philadelphia at 25% capacity in

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Younger Demographics Help to Evolve Trends in the Food and Beverage Market

Bertie A. Kinser

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ —
NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The food & beverage industry is being profoundly impacted by the global pandemic. The duration of the viral outbreak remains a key factor in assessing the overall impact of the pandemic and the overall economy as well as this industry. Now, businesses have started to slowly open up and the rapidly transforming food service industry is of great importance to the adoption of technologies for better and more efficient operations. With the addition of scheduling software, digital inventory tracking, automated purchasing tools, and digital reservation table management, the food service industry has seen huge leaps in terms of revenue generation, inventory management, customer satisfaction, and operation efficiency.

Now, the food & beverage industry has become even more important for the fast-casual

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Los Chinos Opening at Brickell City Centre

Bertie A. Kinser

On the dining and entertainment front, two local heavyweights are set to collaborate for the first time.

Los Chinos, a Latin-Chinese dining and entertainment concept, has announced that it will open at Brickell City Centre in late 2020.

The spot marks the first collaboration between Breakwater Hospitality Group — which operates the Wharf Miami, the Wharf Fort Lauderdale, and Rivertail — and Grove Bay Hospitality Group, the name behind restaurants like Stubborn Seed and Red Rooster.

“Francesco Balli, Ignacio Garcia-Menocalco, Alex Mantecon, and I have been friends for years, and we have always been extremely supportive of each other’s businesses,” says Breakwater cofounder Emi Guerra. “While we both work in hospitality, our brands differ, and Los Chinos is the perfect combination of both.”

Los Chinos promises to be a multifunctional complex with Chinese and Latin American culinary creations and culture at its core. The complex

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The Capital Note: Treasuries & ESG

Bertie A. Kinser

Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance and economics. On the menu today: the Treasury market, ESG, and vaccine expectations.

Treasuries
In March, when the Covid crisis entered full swing, the deepest, most liquid securities market in the world — that for U.S. Treasuries — froze up. The “dash for cash” catalyzed by the Covid sell-off led banks and asset managers to unload their Treasury holdings just as demand dried up. Yields rose sharply until the Federal Reserve intervened with a pledge to make as many purchases of Treasuries as necessary to stabilize the market.

U.S. government bonds are essentially a form of currency. Financial institutions mark Treasury bills as “cash equivalents” on their balance sheets. When they need cash, they either post Treasuries as collateral for short-term funding or else sell them on the open market. Protracted illiquidity in the Treasury market would cut off

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