Tales of COVID-19: How small restaurants have adapted to years of turmoil

The COVID-19 years have been tough, and continue to be tough, on the restaurant business: Lockdowns, labor shortages, inflation and, now, increased cases of flu and COVID-19, have all contributed to the industry's woes.

Restaurants have been trying to adapt in a number of ways. How successful have they been? We took a look at two —The Pancake Pantry in Nashville and Englewood New Jersey's TJ's Southern Gourmet—to see how food service businesses, especially small operators, are coping with the hard times.

The Pancake Pantry has been particularly successful, its owner explained, in adapting to the new world order of the restaurant industry. Online ordering and focusing on takeout—and initially partnering with the delivery service, DoorDash, (DASH)—has even helped expand its customer base.

“One of the greatest parts of the pandemic is [that] it's allowed a bigger reach for our guests that can't come in,” managing partner Chip Bradley told Yahoo Finance Live during its Small Business Spotlight segment (See video above). "We've learned a lot about how restaurants have to adapt quickly. If you did not adapt quickly at the onset of the pandemic, then you were pretty much dead in the water, so we adapted quickly."

The strategy seems to have worked for Bradley. While some 90,000 restaurants have closed since the onset of the pandemic, per the National Restaurant Association, The Pancake Pantry opened a second Nashville location.

TJ’s Southern Gourmet has a different story to tell, which reflects a lot of the industry's struggles. Results, in other words, have been mixed.

“Honestly, we're one day at a time,” owner Tia Jackson told Yahoo Finance Live.

TJ’s, for instance, now offers corporate catering, which Jackson hopes will help the restaurant survive.

“There are companies out there who are looking to bring our restaurant to their corporate offices. And so, we partnered with some ... to focus more on corporate catering,” Jackson said. “And we’re literally focusing on that a majority of our days."