Restaurants hope for big weekend for Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There’s a lot to celebrate over the next few days, whether it’s the Super Bowl on Sunday or Valentine’s Day on Monday. All of that spells a much-needed big weekend for restaurants, which for Yellow Brick Pizza in Franklinton, means a lot of pizza.

“Oh my gosh, hundreds, probably, yeah,” said Faith Pierce, co-owner of Yellow Brick Pizza.

This weekend comes after a difficult period for the industry.

“We need a boost, the industry needs a big boost, to recover because the end of December was really difficult and January was awful, quite honestly,” said John Barker, president of the Ohio Restaurant Association.

Barker says between romantic dinners for Valentine’s Day and drinks on Super Bowl Sunday, he expects all kinds of restaurants will get a boost.

“Even our caterers are going to be busy this time of year for Super Bowl parties,” he said.

But one challenge for restaurants is the supply chain. For Yellow Brick, that caused an increase in the cost of veggies and prepared foods, like tater tots. The supply chain issues caused the restaurant to take chicken wings off the menu because the cost increased by about 50 percent.

“We felt like the amount that we would have to charge our customers in order for the wings to be break-even or even be profitable for us was not a price that we thought people would be willing to pay,” Pierce said.