'Adapt or die' -- Restaurants find ways to evolve amid virus

NEW YORK (AP) — When the coronavirus roared into New York, chef Anna Klinger wouldn't let it put a fork in her restaurant.

Al di La, the Brooklyn trattoria she runs with her husband, Emiliano Coppa, hadn't done much takeout until then. Their northern Italian food simply didn't travel well. Now it had to.

Because tagliatelli has a tendency to glue itself together into a ball, Klinger cooked it less and added more sauce. She offered Negroni cocktails to go and pints of her ice cream. She slimmed down the menu (goodbye, liver.)

Now the kitchen is waiting to pivot again — anticipating the day diners can return, in masks, of course, 6 feet apart. Klinger vows to do what it takes.

“What choice do we have?” she asked. “There are so many lives that are tangled with this restaurant, not just our own. And we still love it and we still do it every day. I can't imagine not doing it.”

The virus has decimated the restaurant industry, leaving millions unemployed and shuttering countless spots for good. Many dine-in restaurants have turned to delivery or takeout. Some have become food banks or trading posts.

“It’s either you adapt or you die,” said Octavio Olivas, chef and owner of Ceviche Project in Los Angeles. “Just keep hustling.”

According to the Department of Labor, the leisure and hospitality industry suffered its most brutal month ever in April when nearly 5.5 million chefs, waiters, cashiers and other restaurant staff lost employment. But the sector rebounded somewhat in May with an addition of more than 1.2 million jobs.

TV host and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi has no doubt the pandemic will change the restaurant landscape, with many locations unable to weather the storm.

“Most restaurants operate on a very slim margin. And even really big...