My son in law and daughter, both accomplished Chicago area chefs, are discussing private meals for select customers going forward. Seems like a very good model.
Why would you think demand will be inelastic? Are we talking about a private meal at one’s own house, or in some private portion of an establishment? If in a home, the added labor cost for a dinner for four would make for a quite expensive meal. It’s a tough model, especially if the business dining side falls out, and one is looking predominantly at Fri/Sat/Sun for private meals. There will definitely be a big uptick in demand for private chef meals. But there will be just as big an uptick in the number of chefs trying to do it.
I was talking to a couple of restaurant people over the last week. They both think that they’ll continue to concentrate on more take-out, and things like meal-kits, even from places that did not do so previously. But most people are hoping for an occupancy guideline that allows 50% of the past. There’s talk about 25% occupancy and that is virtually impossible almost all restaurants. There would have to be a significant reduction in rent for a lot of spaces to make anything less than 50% work.
It’s only a hunch, but I think especially in the Bay Area/NY there will be people willing to pay 2-3x existing prices just to have the opportunity to experience certain restaurants again. This is only for a small subset of restaurants at the very high-end though