Boise-area restaurants are seeing more customers than before COVID-19. See the rebound

Numerous restaurants in the Treasure Valley didn’t manage to survive the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local favorites such as Bella Aquila and Kiwi Shake & Bake shut their doors for good, and numerous others temporarily closed or transitioned to shorter hours.

But for the restaurants that have come through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, things have never looked better.

According to data compiled by SafeGraph using foot traffic, which primarily uses cellphone pings to determine how many people are in an establishment, restaurants are now seeing more customers than before the pandemic.

“We’ve definitely been doing more guests since before the pandemic,” Alaina Kaufman, front-of-house manager at Diablo & Sons, told the Idaho Statesman.

Kaufman said Diablo & Sons has been exceeding its daily projected revenue by about $1,500 in recent months. She also estimates that the restaurant is seeing approximately 15-20% more customers than before the pandemic.

Data from SafeGraph estimates that Boise-area restaurants have seen an 8% increase in foot traffic compared to February 2020, just before lockdown in the United States. Boise bottomed out at 62% lower than regular foot traffic in April 2020, which was the most significant decrease of the five Treasure Valley cities compared in the above graphic.

It wasn’t until July 2021 when Boise restaurants started seeing customer levels return to pre-pandemic levels. Kaufman said it took about a year for Diablo & Sons, but that was partly because of staffing issues, which meant they couldn’t seat as many people at once.

“A lot of people, after the pandemic, found other jobs, other industries to work in just for stability,” Kaufman said. “It took probably almost a year before we got to some semblance of normalcy.”

While the data shows that Boise, Eagle and Meridian restaurants have seen foot traffic increase below 20%, Nampa and Caldwell have seen much larger surges. Nampa restaurants have had, on average, a 42% increase, and Caldwell restaurants are as high as 75%.

Mr. V’s Family Restaurant in Caldwell is one of the restaurants that has seen a spike in customers.

Jesus Mejia, store manager for Mr. V’s, said in an interview that it took pm;u “three or four months” for the restaurant to return to normal.

“We do guest count reports, and we’re definitely increasing our guest counts on a daily basis,” Meija said.

According to SafeGraph’s data, Caldwell restaurants returned to normal by May 2020 and remained around or above average until March 2021, when all Treasure Valley-area restaurants saw a big jump. One factor in the significant jump in restaurant goers in March 2021 is likely related to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to the general public in February and March of that year.

The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer — which gauges the public’s trust in institutions — found that, globally, people trusted businesses, including restaurants, more than any other institution. Businesses were viewed as both more competent and ethical than before the pandemic. In Boise, restaurants such as Kin required proof of vaccination for COVID-19 to dine at the restaurant, reinforcing a sense of trust in the business.