FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020. That was the day when we knew that this, our annual restaurant issue, would be different from any that have come before. I was standing outside of a buzzy new café in Santa Monica, at the very beginning of our coast-to-coast search for America’s Best New Restaurants, when I got the call from my editors telling me to come home. And in the weeks that followed, as more and more states ordered all nonessential businesses to shutter, it became increasingly, chillingly apparent: The restaurant industry, and the 15 million people it employs, were in trouble.
As workers from entire sectors of the American economy filed for unemployment, small-business owners faced an existential threat, and too many—including those who work in restaurants—lost their lives, it felt beyond…
