NYC Adds Dining Out Tax in an Effort to Help Restaurants

Small business restaurants have been particularly hard hit by COVID’s lockdown measures. In NYC, a COVID hotspot, restaurants have only recently reopened to limited capacity. As the weather cools and outdoor dining becomes more difficult, restaurants face continued revenue obstacles. According to Food & Wine, the city aims to combat this economic hardship by allowing restaurants, excluding chains and food trucks, to enact a temporary 10% surcharge.

On this Business Casual segment, Daniel Litwin and Tyler Kern consider the cost this tax passes on to the consumer. At least some customer dissatisfaction is inevitable, so who will take the brunt of it; employees or owners? Litwin and Kern brainstorm ways to increase revenue without increasing prices.

KEY POINTS:

  • In mid-July, Yelp data showed close to 16,000 restaurants nationwide closed permanently due to the pandemic.
  • NYC approves restaurant tax to help struggling dining establishments mid-COVID.
  • Restaurant customers in NYC face up to a 10% surcharge on bills.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Food & Beverage Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

medicine
The Art of Recovery: Where Music and Medicine Meet in Patient Care
May 14, 2026

Healthcare today can feel overwhelming—not just for patients, but for the teams caring for them. After a major illness or injury, recovery isn’t handled by one doctor alone; it often involves a whole network of specialists, from physical therapists to nurses to social workers, all trying to help someone regain their independence and quality…

Read More
infant health
From Monitoring to Knowing: How Owlet Is Redefining Infant Health at Retail
May 14, 2026

Baby monitors have long promised parents the ability to see and hear their child from another room. But as connected health devices become more normalized in everyday life, from smartwatches to sleep trackers, parents are beginning to expect more than visibility. They want insight. For Owlet, that shift matters because its wearable monitors track…

Read More
User-generated content
The New Rules of Discoverability: How User-Generated Content Is Reshaping Search, Trust, and Brand Visibility
May 12, 2026

User-generated content (UGC) is moving from marketing side dish to main course as large language models change how people discover brands, products, creators, and ideas. Customer reviews, forum posts, videos, and community conversations increasingly carry more influence than polished brand copy because they feel more specific, lived-in, and trustworthy. As AI systems learn from…

Read More
specialty care
A Physician Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Fixing America’s Specialty Care Gap
May 11, 2026

The U.S. healthcare system is facing a quiet but accelerating crisis: a widening gap between where specialists are needed and where they actually practice. In urology alone, there are roughly 1,100 open positions but only about 400 new specialists trained each year—a mismatch that’s only getting worse. As physician burnout rises and more clinicians…

Read More