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As restaurants across the country, including New York City’s best restaurants and bars, struggle to stay in business during the current crisis, chain restaurants are bouncing back more quickly—even in the Big Apple. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Manahttan, Kansas, or downtown Manhattan, there’s one big reason why that’s the case: Takeout and delivery options are in more demand than ever.
Just look at today’s opening of P.F. Chang’s To Go in Times Square as evidence. New Yorkers may have their favorite Asian takeout on speed dial, but there are plenty of residents nostalgic for chain restaurants more synonymous with the suburbs. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps, Mongolian Beef or Dynamite Shrimp, anyone?
New York’s first P.F. Chang’s—there’s never been a full-service version of the chain in the five boroughs, although there is one in nearby Yonkers—only offers its menu to-go and delivery. The Midtown location is only 1,700-square feet (complete with a mural of a “warrior horse”) is much smaller than the sprawling full-scale restaurants. It’s open 11am-10pm Sunday-Thursday and 11am-11pm Saturday. Three more P.F. Chang’s locations are set to open in Midtown East, Murray Hill and the Seaport District in the next few months.
“P.F. Chang’s To Go is a response to what consumers want,” Damola Adamolekun, CEO of P.F. Chang’s, tells Time Out New York. “Sometimes they want it at restaurants, sometimes they want it at home.”
Even before many restaurants across the country temporarily shuttered their dining rooms P.F. Chang’s had debuted its first to-go concept in Chicago back in February. But the nationwide pause during the current crisis gave the company a chance to improve its mobile app and logistics as delivery business has grown, Adamolekun says.
P.F. Chang’s, which opened its first location in 1993, has more than 210 restaurants in the U.S. and nearly 100 locations in at least 25 other countries around the world, according to its website.
P.F. Chang’s To Go is located at 240 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018
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