We can get a table inside again – but what's the long

Nisha Katona Liverpool Water Street branch of Mowgli. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Observer
For a year, the restaurant industry has existed in a state of nervous exhaustion, clinging on and accumulating debt. In November, identifying restaurants as vulnerable, Deloitte predicted 2021 insolvency rates would top those seen in 2009’s financial crash. But what if that apocalypse doesn’t happen? Or we’re past the worst? Might further hurt be significantly delayed? What if, whisper it, there is reason for optimism?
“I spend my life analysing what any shakeout will look like,” says Nisha Katona, founder and CEO of modern Indian restaurant chain Mowgli, “and those that weren’t going to survive we lost early in the race. Those who’ve survived this far, knackered and out of breath, will find strength because consumers will rally around anyone serving food. I’d love there to be [a new] ‘eat out to help out’ but, from what I’ve seen, I think we’ll trade our socks off.”

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