It has been a tumultuous period for restaurants around the world. In the UK, the number of restaurant closures increased by 32 per cent in 2008 compared with the previous year, and the figures for 2009 are likely to be worse. So I asked owners on three continents how business was faring and for their thoughts on what changes customers could expect in the future.

Fernando Peire, general manager of The Ivy, the perennially popular London restaurant, says: “Demand for tables at The Ivy from Thursday to Sunday is as high, if not higher, than ever.”

And many more customers are eating at their own expense, rather than on business. “Customers who pay their own way may occasionally choose to order less but they consequently spend less time at the table. This allows the restaurant to serve more customers and, most importantly, when you have the regular clientele that we do, to accommodate last-minute demand.” So those who call The Ivy for a table at short notice, and are flexible, might be pleasantly surprised.

Alain Ducasse poses next to his wax figure at the Grevin Wax museum in Paris

Alain Ducasse, the global chef, says: “Too much talk of an economic downturn is counter-productive ... and everyone’s response has to be to work harder.”

But he goes on to say that customers can expect different menu choices in future, with “fresher, healthier menus where vegetables and cereals are the key components. Not vegetarian menus per se but menus that are genuinely modern and do not compromise pleasure.”

Ducasse is upbeat about the future for reasons unrelated to the economy: “I’m confident because the interest in cooking has never been so high.”

All the owners say that customer numbers are still good, particularly between Thursday and Sunday, but that average spend is down – we are drinking less wine and skipping the first course, dessert or coffee. Their only consolation is that it is easier to hire good staff, especially cooks.

For Judy Rodgers, who has been at Zuni Café in San Francisco for 30 years, the new challenges are local as well as global. A California state ban on same-sex marriages that came into force in November deprived her business (which is a few blocks from City Hall) of a lot of bookings for wedding receptions.

Meanwhile, Rodgers “gambled big time” to improve the restaurant, and it has paid off. “We closed for a week in May to rebuild the brick oven in which we cook our pizzas and chickens, the focal point of my menu, and to refurbish the upstairs dining room,” she says. “It was a terrifying experience because not only does the restaurant depend on this one oven but so do 100 employees’ livelihoods.” Business was back to normal within three days of re-opening.

She has also cut operating costs by closing at 11pm rather than midnight mid-week because customers (everywhere, it seems) want to eat out earlier.

Danny Meyer, founder of the Union Square Café and other hip New York restaurants including Shake Shack for burgers and the distinguished Modern in the Museum of Modern Art, goes to the heart of what customers want in a downturn. “People today will buy only those things that are essential and also offer good value, so the challenge for restaurateurs is how to remain, or become, an experience that people truly need: one that they cannot live without.

“In our restaurants we’re working hard to achieve this by blurring the lines between going out and coming home. In addition to giving people the break from cooking and washing up we now have to provide the embracing welcome and social setting that reminds our customers why life is worth living. Do all that generously and we become an essential and highly valued product.” Meyer’s next venture, a trattoria due to open in the Gramercy Park Hotel in the autumn, will be designed to generate this sense of a “trip home”.

In Asia, Randy See, managing director of Les Amis in Singapore and the recently opened Cépage in Hong Kong, says that in Singapore “the period after the Sars outbreak in 2003 was similar but this is lengthier and more challenging. We have been coming up with promotions featuring less expensive ingredients such as wild mushrooms and asparagus that, fortunately, have been well received.”

Business is more robust in Hong Kong, though customers are drinking cheaper wines. “But the last two months have definitely been better, with wine sales up 20 per cent – we even sold a bottle of Château Pétrus in Hong Kong recently,” he says.

nicholas.lander@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/lander

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Details

Alain Ducasse, www.alainducasse.com
Les Amis, Singapore, and Cépage, Hong Kong, www.lesamis.com.sg
The Ivy, London, www.theivy.co.uk
Union Square Hospitality Group, www.ushgnyc.com
Zuni Café, San Francisco, www.zunicafe.com