US restaurants see strong recovery as NY eateries still down 30 percent

New York restaurants are still struggling to attract diners, with reservations down more than 30 percent compared to pre-pandemic 2019 — even as much of the nation shows strong signs of recovery, according to new data.

Eateries in several states, including Florida, Texas, Nevada and Virginia, all saw at least a 10 percent increase in bookings on Memorial Day compared to the same day two years prior — while the number of restaurant-goers in New York state remained 34 percent lower, according to data from restaurant booking and monitoring site OpenTable. Even restaurants in hard-hit California and Florida served more diners Monday than they did on the same day in 2019, the data shows. In Rhode Island, more than double the number of hungry residents snapped up reservations.