There's a lot going on with restaurants in the US, and unfortunately the end result is going to be even more small businesses closing while the McDonalds and Applebees persevere and contniue to spread like the plague.<p>I don't see a way out of it either. Raise wages? Small businesses have to raise their (already elevated because they can't compete with Chipotle on scale) prices to compensate, people will look elsewhere. Eliminate tipping? Still have to raise prices, which leads to customers leaving.<p>Starting a restaurant is just plain fucked in the US.
And the wait staff that's still around is terrible. They have zero motivation to work for a better tip. I went out to lunch with my daughter yesterday and the waitress dropped off our food and never came back. We had to request the check. I've gotten this kind of service over and over in the past few months. It's bad enough to stop going out.