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Serving Columbus & Starkville, Mississippi        (https://cdispatch.com/) Home  » (https://cdispatch.com/news/) News  » Dining out: Restaurants adapt to ‘new normal’ six years after pandemic   (https://cdispatch.com/news/area/) Area   Dining out: Restaurants adapt to ‘new normal’ six years after pandemic Employment numbers are up, yet local restaurant operators say they still struggle with labor force By (https://cdispatch.com/author/ajoynercdispatch-com/) Ashlyn Joyner  • August 1, 2026  6 mins to read  (Dining out: Restaurants adapt to ‘new normal’ six years after pandemic)   Kaylee Gavin hands Cayden Davis a to-go order through the takeout window at Zachary’s in Columbus. Doug Pellum, owner of Zachary’s, said the takeout window was installed because of the increase in takeout orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He estimated a 15% increase in takeout orders in the six years since the pandemic and said the window has helped tremendously with the flow of business. Ashlyn Joyner/Dispatch Staff  As Jamie Cater envisioned her restaurant’s grand opening and set the date for March 2020, she wasn’t planning on COVID-19 cases climbing high enough to cause a worldwide lockdown that same month. Initially, Cater feared what the pandemic would mean for her restaurant’s third and newest location in Starkville. When restaurants became limited to offering takeout orders, she realized the pandemic could help her business. “Because my business model is very much based on to-go – gourmet to-go, prepared foods – it really went great (during) the pandemic,” Cater said. “That was already my business model. I was fortunate because I already had all that in place. … I had the containers, the menu that already explained it all. I wasn’t reinventing the wheel. I was just doing what I already did, but on a larger scale.” The timing of Cater’s Market’s launch wasn’t ideal – yet, conditions created by the pandemic actually helped it survive. But the pandemic fundamentally changed the way other restaurants in the Golden Triangle operate. Six years later, dining rooms have long been reopened, but things still look a little different. Restaurants are back There are seven more food services and drinking establishments in (https://data.bls.gov/cew/apps/table_maker/v4/table_maker.htm#type=1&year=2025&qtr=A&own=5&ind=722&supp=0) 2025 in Clay County than in (https://data.bls.gov/cew/apps/table_maker/v4/table_maker.htm#type=1&year=2020&qtr=A&own=5&ind=722&supp=0) 2020 , according to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties saw net increases of 12 and 21, respectively. Restaurant revenue has increased in Lowndes and Clay counties, according to data from the (https://data.census.gov/table/ECNBASIC2017.EC1772BASIC?q=ECNBASIC2017.EC1772BASIC&g=010XX00US_040XX00US28_050XX00US28025,28087,28105&codeset=naics~722) 2017 and (https://data.census.gov/table/ECNBASIC2022.EC2200BASIC?t=Payroll&g=010XX00US_050XX00US28025,28087,28105&codeset=naics~722) 2022 Economic Censuses conducted by the Census Bureau. After adjusting for inflation using the (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/CUSR0000SEFV?utm_) national food away from home consumer price index from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, revenue increased by 18.71% in Clay County, and in Lowndes County, revenue increased by 6.46%. Data is (https://data.census.gov/table/ECNBASIC2022.EC2200BASIC?t=Payroll&g=010XX00US_050XX00US28025,28087,28105&codeset=naics~722) unavailable for Oktibbeha County. The Dispatch interviewed five restaurants local to the Columbus and Starkville areas. All five said their businesses have returned to “normal” – or, as normal as possible after the pandemic. “We’re back to doing the same things we were before, just in different ways now,” said Doug Pellum, owner of Zachary’s in Columbus. A new normal “When we were shut down, we obviously had more carry-out business during that period, and it has remained higher than it was prior ever since,” said Campbell Proffitt, owner of Proffitt’s Porch in Columbus. He’s not the only one who noticed this change. Four out of the five restaurant operators who spoke to The Dispatch said the number of takeout orders they receive has increased significantly in the years since the pandemic. The exception was Cater, who said takeout orders continued to account for 50% of all orders due to her business model. Mugshots estimated takeout orders increased by 20%, Proffitt’s Porch estimated a 4% increase, Umi Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar in Starkville couldn’t narrow down a percentage but said takeout orders increased, and Zachary’s estimated a 15% increase. (https://cdispatch.com/news/dining-out-restaurants-adapt-to-new-normal-six-years-after-pandemic/attachment/aj-dining-out-img_9349/) ()    Bryan Smith serves Jacob Britt and Cooper Long at Mugshots in Columbus. Jim Hicks, owner of Mugshots in Columbus and Starkville, said the increase in takeout orders since the COVID-19 pandemic has led to servers and bartenders making less tips because not as many people opt for the full dine-in experience. “You can walk in a restaurant, and there may not be many people sitting there, but the kitchen can still be very busy creating all these orders that are to-go,” Hicks said. Ashlyn Joyner/Dispatch Staff    Two restaurants made adjustments to cope with this major change. Pellum said Zachary’s installed a walk-up window, and Raine Rossum, general manager of Umi in Starkville, said the restaurant moved its takeout counter to a different location. Jim Hicks, owner of Mugshots in both Columbus and Starkville, said the pandemic taught restaurants that less is more. “We learned that we could operate the kitchen with less people, not because we wanted to, (but) because of the necessity of it,” Hicks said. “I think (the pandemic) forced restaurants to be more efficient because we were just working with so much less. We were kind of in survival mode, and I think some of that stuff stuck.” Other differences restaurant operators mentioned included prioritizing sanitation, working with more delivery companies like DoorDash and UberEats, offering curbside pickup, closing earlier, sending employees home faster if they show signs of illness and offering customers hand sanitizer. The lone lingering problem Operators of three restaurants interviewed by The Dispatch said they aren’t dealing with pandemic-era problems anymore, but Umi and Mugshots both indicated lingering issues with the labor force. According to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, restaurants are employing more people, with an increase in average annual employment from 2020 to 2025 of 17.54% in Clay County, 12.93% in Lowndes County and 39.34% in Oktibbeha County. Those employees are earning 1.29% more in Clay County and 4.36% more in Lowndes County since 2020, according to annual average wage data from the bureau that has been adjusted for inflation using available 2025 consumer price index (https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/ConsumerPriceIndexAnnualandSemiAnnual_Table.htm?utm_) data . However, wages have decreased 4.96% for food services and drinking places employees in Oktibbeha County since 2020. What the numbers don’t show is the struggle restaurant operators experience while looking for eager, full-time employees. “Finding employees is much harder,” Rossum said. “People seem to not need to work as much as they did before.” The increase in takeout orders could be adding to the struggle by decreasing certain employees’ revenue, Hicks said. “That business is taking away from the servers and the bartender a little bit, because they’re not dining in and getting the full restaurant experience,” Hicks said. Sandra Reeves, previous owner of Farmstead restaurant in Columbus, shared these staffing struggles. After being open for more than 11 years, Farmstead closed in April 2021. “When we opened back up (after the pandemic), a lot of people didn’t come back to work,” Reeves said. “… We were constantly short-staffed.” Farmstead amicably parted ways with some of its best staff, who were offered opportunities that better fit their lifestyles, Reeves said. After posting help wanted signs, conducting unsuccessful interviews and raising base wages for servers, Reeves and her husband decided closing was in their best interest. “I think we did everything that we could possibly do,” Reeves said. “The (number of) customers was very good, but you’ve got to have people to take care of them. And not having those people … that’s a scary place to be.” Restaurant operators aren’t sure whether these changes were entirely caused by the pandemic. Some wonder which changes were inevitable as part of broader changes in consumer behavior, such as the convenience of more takeout and delivery options. “Did COVID cause all those (changes) to happen, or did life cause all those (changes) to happen?” Pellum said. 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