(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The National Restaurant Association says the food service industry will generate $898 billion in revenue and 400,000 new jobs this year.
But the NRA's State of the Industry report found that several challenges remain.
Izzy Kharasch, president of Hospitality Works in Chicago, told the WBBM Noon Business Hour that restaurants are dealing with the high cost of food.
"Most of my restaurants have raised prices five or six times just to try to keep up with the price of chicken and the price of meat," Kharasch said Wednesday.
He added that restaurants are also dealing with the wave of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Many diners are choosing to get takeout or stay home.
"Consumers, right now, because of the new variant, have taken another step back," Kharasch said.
He predicts, however, that customers will return as the Omicron wave recedes.
"That confidence will again go up and more and more people will be dining in," he said.
Restaurants can survive thanks to carryout and delivery businesses that were built at the start of the COVID pandemic two years ago, he said.
"They not only have the dine-in, but people are spending more money on carryout, to go, and that kind of thing," Kharasch said.
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