LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — You may have noticed wait times at local restaurants have been a bit higher than expected, and businesses have said it’s due to the increase in to-go orders.
“A lot of takeout, especially now, people don’t want to be driving around and so it started getting very popular again,” said owner of Il Toro E La Capra Javier Barajas, who opened the restaurant two months ago near Decatur and Russell. “When we built this one, we built a separate room for only to-go.”
Takeout has become extremely popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, making wait times for dining in lengthier.
Barajas said that when dine-in was closed, takeout was the only option, accustoming people to making it a part of their lifestyle.
“We have a special parking for them, if they don’t want to get out of the car we bring the food to them,” he said. “It’s easier dining in when you put the to-go food, it takes longer for the cooks, so it affects the people that dine in.”
General manager for Mama Bird Southern Kitchen Liam Frederick said that during the restaurant’s peak hours, those who dine in are waiting for around 20 to 25 minutes.
“With the uptick with both in-house and to-go orders, we have been finding ourselves limiting to-go orders and using our third party orders such as Uber Eats and DoorDash during the peak periods as well as our website,” Frederick said. “That way we are able to manage both the to-go and in-house dining to kind of smooth things out.”
He told 8 News Now that the eatery is now more geared toward takeout orders,
“I think it’s going to continue to grow, especially with the gas prices going up, people don’t want to go out and drive as much going back to work, so I think people are going to stay more at home and want to order food,” he said.