The Reason So Many Restaurants Are Closed On Mondays



For many people, the weekend signals a time to take a break from cooking and get something to eat at a nice restaurant. You get free refills, you don’t have to get up, and you don’t need to do any dishes. However, if you’re one of those people who want to start your week off with a visit to a restaurant, you’re often out of luck. A lot of independently owned restaurants greet potential customers with a “Closed” sign on Mondays. This was true even before the COVID-19 pandemic rearranged business practices. Why would a restaurant shutter their doors? Simply put, opening on Monday doesn’t make a lot of financial sense. In the restaurant business, Monday has traditionally been the slowest day of the week. While no one’s done an extensive survey, the reason is likely attributable to people indulging themselves from Thursday through Sunday and using the weekend as a cut-off point for the kind of rich foods and expensive wine that a trip to a nice restaurant brings. While there are ways to nudge toward profitability on Mondays, it’s not the only reason restaurateurs close up shop. Most locally-owned establishments have a small staff, so remaining closed on a slow day allows everyone a chance to decompress. It also saves costs in owners hiring more part-time staff to cover more time spent open. Last, but by no means least, many restaurants may not get fresh food deliveries on weekends, meaning items served on a Monday could have been made from ingredients carried over from the previous Friday. In the end, having a well-respected and admired restaurant gives owners some leeway. Granted, a customer might be annoyed to find a locked door on Monday, but if the food is good they’ll probably be back on Tuesday.