NYC Restaurant Headline Predictions for 2022

Welcome to Year in Eater 2021, Eater’s annual ritual of eulogizing the past 12 months through input from the city’s top food writers. For 2021’s final week, Eater NY will be posting questions daily about New York City’s restaurant scene in the past year, with answers from those who know it best: Eater editors and friends of Eater. Now: What are your headline predictions for 2021?

Tae Yoon, NYC editor, Thrillist: Food Deliveries No Longer Allowed to Include Plastic Cutlery Due to Climate Change

Mahira Rivers, food journalist: CVS Opens Its First Ghost Kitchen In Soho

John deBary, drinks expert, co-founder of Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation: Covid Covid Covid. And unions. And hopefully also more people realizing how harmful apps like DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats are for the industry and coming up with alternatives that do not fuel money into overpaid Silicon Valley executives whose companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars fighting legislation that protects workers.

Patty Diez, project manager, Eater: Dhamaka Team Opens Another Pitch Perfect Restaurant, This Time in Brooklyn; Restaurant That Only Serves Conserva Opens in Williamsburg

Ryan Sutton, chief food critic, Eater NY: Major Food Group Buys the New York Giants; Make Sure Roving Concessionaires Are Equipped With Light Beer and Also $325 White Truffles If You Wanna Indulge Because Mom Made Some Spaghetti (“No Big Deal”); More Restaurants Expand Their Vegan and Vegetarian Options

Robert Sietsema, senior food critic, Eater NY: Cooperatively Run Restaurants Become the New Thing – Of the many ownership structures available to the restaurateur, cooperative ownership is one rarely seen, based on the idea that there can be no room for democracy in the military structure of the average restaurant. But unionization efforts, BLM, and #MeToo sensibilities among other contemporary movements suggest that maybe workplace democracy at restaurants is the best solution to many contemporary restaurant problems, including harassment, unfair wage distribution, and non-inclusiveness.

Note: Some answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.