Tough Winter Ahead for NH Restaurants; Some Are Closed Until Spring

It’s such a hard decision. Many NH restaurants are closing their doors and essentially hibernating till spring, according to WMUR.

With occupancy restrictions on indoor dining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some NH restaurants aren’t able to make enough to even cover their overhead, the news station reported.

Imagine working so hard every day for less than nothing.

Mike Somers, president of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, tells WMUR: “There are a lot of downward pressures, sales are off for a lot of people, finding enough staff to keep operations even at limited capacities has become challenging depending on the area of the state you are in.”

This is not a decision that most restaurant and café owners find easy.  But with limits on capacity and a lack of Christmas and Holiday parties that usually give restaurants a boost this time of year, it makes sense to some owners to cut their losses and hope for the best-come springtime.

It’s heartbreaking for many owners to lay off staff over the holidays. The hope is we will be through the worst of this pandemic by spring with vaccines on the horizon.  By spring hopefully many of the COVID restrictions will be lifted if enough people are able to get inoculated.

And it’s not like outdoor dining is an option in the winter in New Hampshire.

My hope is that with many restaurants closed over the winter, they will have a banging business in the spring and be able to bounce back and put the nightmare of 2020 behind them.