--- title: Sorry, night owls — restaurants are closing early - The Hustle description: Since the pandemic, restaurants have been cutting hours and closing early. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1292150460-HS-News-Brief_2022-10-30T225400.203Z.webp --- # Sorry, night owls — restaurants are closing early ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: October 31, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 Late-night bites are out. Dinner at 6pm is in. ![Sorry, night owls — restaurants are closing early](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1292150460-HS-News-Brief_2022-10-30T225400.203Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1292150460-HS-News-Brief_2022-10-30T225400.203Z.webp) A [new report](https://blog.datassential.com/reduced-restaurant-hours) from restaurant data platform Datassential found that US restaurants’ weekly operating hours are down by **7.5% **on average, or 6.4 hours per week, compared to 2019. Overall, **58.6% **of US restaurants have cut hours since 2019, compared to just 19.8% that increased them. #### **What’s the deal?** Staffing shortages and a shift in consumer behavior (re: the pandemic) have heavily impacted restaurants. - Fewer people are working in-office, decreasing lunch and after-work traffic. - People are eating at home more often. #### **Where are the cuts?** Largely at night, with more restaurants closing ~8pm-9pm as opposed to staying open until 10pm or later. In 2019, **56.6%** of restaurants were still open at 9:45pm on an average Wednesday. Today, it’s down to 41.5%. Even never-sleeps New York City has been affected, with *The New York Times* [reporting](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/t-magazine/eating-early-new-york-restaurants.html) that “6pm is the new 8pm” as customers adapt to earlier schedules. Benjamin Franklin *did *say that “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” But if you’re hankering for a late-night meal that doesn’t involve cooking, Wendy’s* increased* its hours by 21.2 hours per week. 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