Pandemic Forces Peter Luger Steak House To Start Delivery, Accept Cards

It took 133 years, but New York’s Peter Luger Steak House will deliver so it can partially reopen during the pandemic, according to a CNBC report.

“To best serve our customers, delivery was the best option for us,” David Berson, general manager of the iconic restaurant, which was founded in 1887, told the network. “You feel like this could be the start of what will hopefully be the transition” to eventually reopening the dining rooms.

Berson, whose great-grandfather bought the Brooklyn eatery in 1950, said the restaurant partnered with delivery app Caviar, which is owned by DoorDash and serves pricey establishments.

Peter Luger customers can also do pickup from the Brooklyn location. The restaurant has a second location in Great Neck on Long Island.

But that’s not the only change. While Peter Luger is cash-only in its dining rooms, the restaurant must take credit cards to make delivery and pickup services available. Until now, the accepted forms of payment apart from cash had been the Peter Luger card and gift certificates as well as checks and debit cards, CNBC reported.

“As far as the best safety practice, credit cards only was the clear choice to us,” Berson said, according to CNBC.

In its survey Examining The Pandemic’s $158 Billion Digital Shift, PYMNTS reported that restaurant owners are being met with the economic fallout from the pandemic as they have been forced to get by on delivery and pickup orders. Full-service restaurants have been especially hard-hit due to closed dining rooms and were unprepared to handle off-premises ordering, the study found.

OpenTable has predicted that 25 percent of American restaurants will close permanently due to the financial turmoil from the pandemic. The forecast followed a $30 billion loss in sales by restaurants in March, followed by $50 billion in April when the nation was shut down for the month.