If you follow the local food news, you’re well aware of the worrying, discouraging and possibly alarming flurry of restaurant closures this fall – The Garrison, Thistle & Grouse and Local 188 just a few among them. In interviews, restaurant proprietors have given several reasons for making the tough decisions to close, including their impression that rising prices have discouraged many potential diners.

We took that observation to the streets, asking about a dozen people out and about in downtown Portland in October whether their restaurant (and takeout and delivery) habits have changed from the pre-pandemic years to now.

Unsurprisingly, Mainers are not a monolith; we heard about a variety of dining-out styles and similarly mixed reasons that people are, and are not, eating out with the same frequency or habits as in the past. If, based on our small, unscientific sample, we could draw conclusions, we could safely say that with more people working from home, lunchtime business is down. And high prices have indeed made many Mainers more careful about both how often and where they go to eat out, which jibes with national trends.

Read on for a snapshot of the dining public, in their own words. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Kelsey Johnson, of Cape Elizabeth, works in downtown Portland and tries to support local eateries. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

KELSEY JOHNSON, Cape Elizabeth, executive director of Space

“As a person who runs a small business in town, I really do try to make it a habit to frequent my neighbors and support them with my spare income, but it’s harder because things are more expensive. The biggest change is I used to go out to lunch often while I was downtown working. It seems like the price point and the culture is more around dinner service now. I think about the Public Market, say. It’s night and day from what it was pre-pandemic, so that has been a huge change in my routine and how I support other small businesses around me. But I love Portland’s food and I want to do that more.

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“With the price point of the actual meal being what it is now, I want the experience of going out (over ordering in). So I guess I’m just trying to be deliberate and make it more special.

“I am really concerned that a lot of small businesses are closing and that people are really struggling right now in a way that there have still been long-term ramifications of the pandemic. But my hope is that things are cyclical and there will be the great decomposition and then mushrooms will bloom, and we’ll get lots of new stuff.”


Jeff Pierce, who works in downtown Portland one to two days a week, holds a burger, fries and a fountain soda he purchased at Joe’s Super Variety during his lunch break. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

JEFF PIERCE, Gorham, Maine Health employee, carrying a lunch of burger and fries he’d just picked up from Joe’s Super Variety.

“I used to work at the office here five days a week. Now I work predominantly from home. I do media production, so I come in when we have to do a shoot or write or produce something in the studio. At least a couple times during the week (in the past), I would go out and get something to eat for lunch. Now, it’s like once a month. If I was still working five days a week (in town), I’d eat (out) more frequently, so the price would be a consideration. But I don’t even think about it now. The places I would tend to go for lunch, like Joe’s or Mr. Bagel, are affordable places to get a lunch that’s pretty decent if you like the kind of food I like. When I was (working in town) more, I would go to a new place just for the variety. Variety just isn’t an issue when you eat out as is infrequently as I do now.”


Abbas Albudairy, right, with his wife Iqbal Akar pause for a photo during an evening walk on the Eastern Promenade Trail. He gallantly said he prefers his wife’s cooking to any restaurant meal. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

ABBAS ALBUDAIRY, Portland, speaking through the Google Translate app

“As for us, I love my wife’s cooking, so I don’t like eating at restaurants. I have an idea that restaurant food is often not clean, so I always resort to what my wife cooks because it tempts me a lot.”

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Igor Stojanovic, of Portland, missed eating out during the pandemic. He eats out more frequently now to make up for those lost years. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

IGOR STOJANOVIC, Portland, works in the medical industry and as a comedian

“Personally, I go more out than before. After being inside and not being able to go out for a long time, I find now you want to catch up for a lost couple years. The demographic of Portland, the way it has changed, the way people are moving here from New York or the West Coast or wherever, I think that will actually increase (the numbers of people eating out).

“I started working from home full-time when the pandemic started, and I never went back. I used to go to Speckled Ax for coffee every morning. Now, I’m still drinking Speckled Ax, but I’m making my pourover at home.

“It feels like everything is more expensive, but that did not affect me, per se. Maybe I do a little bit more research where to go. If I go (to a new spot), I’m not just going to walk into the restaurant unless I already checked if people like it. I’m a little bit more cautious.”


ERIN HOWARD, Portland, childcare worker

“I eat out probably once a week or so, maybe twice on the weekends depending, either formal sit-in dining or grabbing something to go. I always try to look at menus beforehand. If there’s a menu that’s extensively listed as ‘market prices’ online, that might be a deterrent. My partner and I have started trying to utilize happy hours quite a bit more, just for any slight discount there might be and also to enjoy the afternoon. I still predominantly go out for dinner more than lunch.

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“At this point with services like DoorDash and Uber Eats, I find that tacks on quite a bit of cost. I’ve gotten better at either going to dine in or just to pick up. It saves a lot on delivery charges alone. If I do any delivery, it’s typically a national pizza chain kind of thing. Less often a local spot where I’d rather either just go, or pick something up when I’m feeling exceedingly lazy and want to wear not-real pants. But I like the festivity of going to a restaurant and enjoying the atmosphere and the ambiance as much as the food.”


Aubrey Calaway moved to Portland 2½ years ago. If he’s going to spend a lot of money on food, he often prefers to cook at home. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

AUBREY CALAWAY, Portland, podcast producer

“I probably eat out less now than I would have a few years ago, mostly because it’s just so expensive. You can’t really go out without spending $30 or more, and I like to cook, so I’m much more happy to spend that money on ingredients for a nice meal at home. I think most of my friends also feel the same way. No one else is itching to spend a bunch of money out unless they’re making a lot of money, and that’s just not my social scene. So (dining out) doesn’t make sense for a social outing either.

 “I feel a bit more conservative about where I go because spending money on a bad meal feels so bad when it’s so expensive. But, at the same time, I’m willing to try new things. I’m going to Bayou Kitchen for the first time this coming weekend. I suggested it because I’d heard good things. I’m more likely to go somewhere if it’s been around for a while, and it’s well established that it’s good. Maybe I’m not as willing to take a risk on a less known place.”


LIZ ICUSPIT, Westbrook, Wex employee

“Inflation, that plays a big role. Like last weekend, we went to Terlingua. it was really good, the food was good, but then I’ve seen some additional line items there, like a fair service wage something. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. I Googled it and it has something to do for the waiters, the waitresses and all that. I guess it was their way of compensating? You have to tip on top of that, too, right? Aside from the prices that are really high now. But if the restaurant is really good, OK, it’s fine.

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“Door Dash (we order) on a Friday afternoon, after work, when we don’t want to cook. That’s pretty much standard. But Saturdays and Sundays we mostly go out and enjoy — lunch, dinner, it depends. (Our habits haven’t) changed so much. It’s just now you feel it in your wallet.”


Tim Kenny, of Portland, says during the pandemic he got in the habit of staying home for dinner. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

TIM KENNY, Portland, works at Maine Health

“I definitely go out less since the pandemic. I moved here early in the pandemic from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We got used to not going to restaurants. We just are comfortable eating at home. If I get stuff out, we get quick stuff; I might grab something to go from Burke’s (Perks) or Joe’s (Super Variety). We’ll go out, but much more for special occasions, once a month or less. Sometimes it’s just because if it’s downtown, with the parking, you’d rather be at home. It’s more likely to be lunch or before evening because at 6 or 7 o’clock I’d rather be at home unless we’re going out for something else. If I’m downtown (working), I’ll grab something. I’m down here a fair bit so I’ll pop into places, but I wouldn’t say I’m going to dinner at fancy restaurants so much.”


The ebullient Reem Gohar of Portland doesn’t cook. Still, she’s eating out a lot less than she used to. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

REEM GOHAR, Portland, teaches project management at Roux Institute

“With the inflation? Everybody’s not eating out as before, including me. I don’t cook, so I used to eat out maybe three to four times a week. Now I eat out maybe once a week, once every two weeks. In my case as well, I go to Costco and I buy the ready-made meals, and it’s really good for me, salads and healthy stuff. And the restaurants are so expensive now. It doesn’t matter if I’m taking out or eating in, I feel obligated to give a tip because I feel sorry for (the staff). I know that the salary is low.”


Coworkers Ian Burns, left, of Brunswick, and Russell Boynton, of Portland, eat bag lunches outside One City Center during their lunch break. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

IAN BURNS, Brunswick, and RUSSELL BOYNTON, Portland, co-workers at Avangrid, eating sandwiches they’d packed from home

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BURNS: We just recently returned to office five days a week. When I was coming in only a few days a week, I was more apt to want to go out. I could rationalize it. Now that we’re here every day, it’s like trying to defer some of the expense of going out each and every day instead of it being a treat. That shift (to the office) has been part of the reason why I scaled back a little bit.

BOYNTON: Price and value is always a challenge to going out. My wife and I live downtown so there are definitely spots we love that we’ll continue to go to time and time again. But when the new place pops up, price is considered. That was always true, but the available places that give you quantity for the price seem to have decreased. It’s trended more toward the ambience and the glitz and glamour versus good food at a good price and good location. … Boda Thai is great.

BURNS: We like going to Yosaku. There’s a great deal for lunch there.

BOYNTON: That’s where I went for my 40th birthday back in May. We used to go over to Gritty’s quite often, because then we could split the fish and chips. It’s a big portion, but now it’s close to $30 dollars for single order so the proposition of spending money there isn’t quite as …

BURNS: Yeah, either the prices went up or the volume of the food on the plate went down. At the end of the day, it’s the same thing.

BOYNTON: I went out two or three days a week in the past. Maybe it’s dropped down to two days a week now. But we end up finding our favorite spots and continuing to go there, like going to Mash Tun and getting their $8 burger or their $12 for three tacos and stuff like that. Making sure that we go to the places that we like so we can support what they’re doing. I’m still interested in trying some of the new places but there are certainly some that we visit that you say, ‘Oh it’s nice to visit, but I’ll probably never return.’

BURNS: We went to Lucky Cheetah, which is relatively new, not that long ago. The ambience is very nice. They did a great job in there, but the price is staggering. So if you’re if you’re well-to-do and you are working downtown and you’re one of these people who is living in one of these new condos that would set you back, you’re probably fine with it because it’s probably more competitive to prices you’re used to from Boston or one of the large cities. But that creep of cost is certainly something I feel is just washing over Portland in the last few years. It was great to go once just check it out, but then you’re like, well, unless the food is really something, it’s kind of a one and done.

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