‘Ghost kitchens’, fast casual and higher prices: how the pandemic changed the US restaurant industry

Americans eat takeout more. Some drink less. Bar-and-grill chains have shuttered. But the restaurant industry has evolved and rebounded

Before Covid, Li'l Dizzy's, a Creole buffet run by one of New Orleans' famous Black restaurant families, was a mainstay of the city's Treme neighborhood. But when officials issued the first Covid stay-at-home orders in March 2020, Li'l Dizzy's closed, and it did not reopen: how could a buffet restaurant operate during a pandemic?

That fall, the cafe's 73-year-old owner, Wayne Baquet Sr, announced he was selling the restaurant, citing his age and pandemic health risks. The closure appeared to mark the end of a Baquet culinary family legacy that started in Treme in the 1940s and expanded to other family outposts across the city.