Let's Do Lunch

It's 6:30. You've just slogged your way through 45 minutes of ungodly traffic (or Metro's latest meltdown, in which case it's been more like 90 minutes), you're home, and although your refrigerator is full of lovely, organic, free-range food, the thought of cooking makes you want to curl up and cry.

Or you just got back from six days on the road and there is nothing in your fridge except six kinds of mustard, a bottle of limoncello, and that weird pack of baking dates that you swore you would use (a year ago).

There are many reasons we might choose to go out to eat instead of staying at home and cooking. Having dinner out - either eating at a restaurant, grabbing something to take home, or getting food delivered - is a pretty normal thing for lots of people.

But what about lunches? According to The NPD Group, restaurants, with the exception of fast food places, are losing lunchtime customers. 

The advent of fast-casual and food trucks is a blessing to the desk-bound office worker who in the past frequently only had access to hot-food bars and sandwich shops. But even these restaurants are seeing a drop in customers.

Are we becoming even less likely to "go out" for lunch?

Data says: yes. It seems that two things are at work: more people are working from home, and people don't consider lunch a good value (prices are too high for what people get or want to get for lunch).

I have something of a tradition for lunches out. If I took a day off from work (mental health day, doctor's appointment, necessary DMV trip), I'd have lunch out at a fancier restaurant. Some place I wouldn't regularly go for dinner because it was too expensive or reservations were too hard to get.

I'd sit at the bar, read a book and have a fantastic, no-pressure meal. Maybe chat with the bartender, maybe not.

That's become a little less of a "special" thing to do now that I'm a freelancer and not generally stuck in an office all day.

But the idea of going out to lunch being an uncommon experience meshes with the data. We don't see going out to lunch as a necessary thing, and so we don't put the same value on it as we do going out to dinner.

That makes a lot of sense for what most of us eat for lunch: sandwiches, salads, easy pasta dishes, burritos, wraps, pizza. If we feel like we could (or should) have made it at home, we attach less overall value to the product because it's an easy thing. We're good paying $30 for pan-fried trout with in-season corn coulis and roasted organic brussel sprouts with bacon, because we're pretty sure we couldn't do that at home (or see above re: time and energy post-traffic/metro).

I still think lunch out has its place, especially lunch out in a non-fast food, non-fast casual place. There's something a little decadent about having lunch by yourself in a nice restaurant during a weekday, a little bit of "treat yo' self."

it's also a little subversive, having a leisurely lunch somewhere with cloth napkins, real silverware, and glasses without straws. While the rest of the workforce is hastily scarfing down a shiny-wrapped sandwich from the deli across the street over the emails they didn't have a chance to read that morning, you've got a cozy leather booth all to yourself and a server who would be happy to bring you more bread or chat about the special of the day.

It feels like you're playing hooky from the world of adult responsibilities.

Frankly, I think we all need a bit more of that feeling.

But back to the data. If people are eating out less at lunch, what should restaurants do? Setting aside the food truck versus brick and mortar places for the moment, because I don't think getting rid of trucks are the answer. People don't think they are getting a good value at restaurants, and that's regardless of food trucks.

Lower prices? Lower quality? If even fast casual isn't seen as a good value, what hope is there for more expensive restaurants? Or, conversely, will those places be okay because customers expect them to be more expensive and only eat there from time to time?

Restaurants are going to need to change their game plan. More people are bringing their lunch. More people are working from home. How can restaurants provide value? Co-working or networking events over lunch? WiFi and roaming business consultants?

Lower prices aren't going to be enough. Restaurants are going to have to get creative.

Do you still go out to eat? At what kind of restaurant and how often? What would get you out there more?