Welcome to the Era of Permanent Pivots
Once upon a time, restaurants opened. Then they closed for cleaning, remodeling, or holidays.
Now? We open, close, reopen, pivot, hybridize, ghost-ify, delivery-optimize, and pray the new POS integrates with DoorDash before brunch service.
If you’ve survived the past few years in hospitality, you deserve a medal — or at least an IV drip of cold brew and tequila.
I’ve lost count of how many “grand reopenings” I’ve been part of.
At this point, I’ve had more reopening parties than birthdays.
Every Reopening Is Basically a First Date
You walk in confident. The lights are just right. You’ve got a fresh menu, clean uniforms, and a playlist that says, “We’re back, baby!”
Then the first table sits, and within 20 minutes:
- The printer jams.
- The new host forgets how the waitlist works.
- The fryer starts sounding like it’s making popcorn.
- A guest asks, “Didn’t you guys close?”
Reopening feels like trying to impress someone who’s seen you ugly-cry in the walk-in freezer. You want to pretend everything’s new and shiny, but everyone remembers the meltdown from last time.
Why We Keep Doing This to Ourselves
Because we love it.
We’re built different.
Most people hear “We’re reopening next week” and think:
“Maybe I’ll update the website.”
Restaurant people hear it and think:
“Perfect — time to reinvent the menu, repaint the walls, and rebrand the cocktail list.”
We can’t help it. The chaos is the canvas.
Every reopening is a shot at redemption, innovation, and a little bit of revenge against the last version of ourselves.
The Three Stages of Every Reopening
Stage 1: The Optimism Phase (“This time will be different.”)
You’ve made a spreadsheet. The menu’s tighter. The training manual actually makes sense. You’ve even found a new vendor who swears they’ll never short your deliveries.
You’re feeling unstoppable. Until the first night when the walk-in dies at 7 p.m. and your new POS requires a firmware update mid-service.
Stage 2: The Panic Phase (“Oh God, what have I done?”)
Someone calls out sick. Two staffers don’t remember their logins. The social media post says you’re open at 10 but the door says 11. You’ve had five coffees and no food.
This is the part where you question your career choices.
Stay calm. You’re not crazy. You’re just in restaurants.
Stage 3: The Acceptance Phase (“We’re back, baby!”)
The team clicks. The guests start smiling again. Someone compliments your new cocktail. The playlist hits just right.
And suddenly, it’s all worth it again.
You’ve survived another reopening — and your soul somehow still belongs to hospitality.
Menus Have Lives Too
Every reopening I’ve ever done comes with the same argument: “What do we keep, and what do we kill?”
You want to innovate, but you also know the guests will riot if you remove their favorite item. (“You got rid of the nachos? Are you insane?”)
Here’s what I’ve learned:
- Don’t reinvent — refine. Add one or two hits, drop the dead weight, and move on.
- Keep your identity. You’re not a new restaurant — you’re a better version of the one people already loved.
- Let the team contribute. Nothing bonds a crew faster than naming a new cocktail together.
Menus evolve the same way teams do — through trial, feedback, and a lot of late-night debates over fries.
Ghost Kitchens, Pop-Ups, and the Art of the “Soft Launch”
I’ve been in restaurants long enough to know that “soft launch” means “open quietly so we can fail privately.”
Ghost kitchens were supposed to save us. Some did. Most didn’t.
Turns out, you can’t digitally recreate the smell of garlic bread or the sound of laughter at table six.
Still, the experimentation taught us something powerful:
The future of restaurants isn’t one model — it’s many models working together.
Takeout, dine-in, catering, events, meal kits — all parts of the same ecosystem.
Your flexibility is your brand.
Managing Your Sanity (and Your Staff’s)
Let’s be honest: half of reopening stress isn’t about logistics — it’s emotional.
You’ve got returning staff with burnout, new hires who’ve never heard of mise en place, and guests who think Yelp stars equal moral authority.
Here’s how I keep my team grounded:
1. Laugh first.
A well-timed joke diffuses 90% of tension. I once printed “WE SURVIVED REOPENING #4” T-shirts and morale skyrocketed.
2. Overcommunicate.
Every change, every update, every shift note — say it twice. Confusion is what kills energy faster than anything else.
3. Celebrate small wins.
Don’t wait for perfect days. If nobody cried in the walk-in and the Wi-Fi stayed on, that’s a win.
4. Protect their time.
When you reopen, hours balloon fast. Make sure your team eats, sleeps, and remembers they’re human beings, not hospitality robots.
Why Resilience Is the Real Competitive Advantage
The restaurant business has always been about resilience. But now it’s our superpower.
Other industries crumble under this kind of uncertainty.
Restaurant people thrive in it.
We’ve learned how to rebuild faster, adapt smarter, and laugh harder than ever before.
Our ability to bounce back isn’t luck — it’s muscle memory.
At Kuypers Creative, We Call It “Adaptive Hospitality”
At Kuypers Creative, we help restaurant brands not just survive the chaos — but capitalize on it.
Adaptive hospitality means building systems that flex.
Marketing that bends with trends.
Menus that evolve without losing their soul.
Because the only thing certain in this business is that something will go wrong.
And when it does — we’ll make it part of the story.
Final Thought: The Reopening Never Really Ends
Every day in restaurants is a reopening.
New guests, new staff, new challenges.
And that’s the beauty of it — the endless chance to start again.
So here’s to the next reopening — and the one after that — and the one after that.
We’ll still be here, laughing, learning, and probably reprinting menus at 4:59 p.m.
Because we don’t just survive chaos.
We thrive in it.
About Kuypers Creative
Kuypers Creative helps restaurant brands tell real stories, build resilient cultures, and find creative calm inside the chaos. From strategy to storytelling, we help your reopening feel like a relaunch.
👉 Visit KuypersCreative.com or connect with Robert W. Kuypers on LinkedIn.
