全文共1027个词，by Billy Nauman in New York
A few short months ago, the lunch rush at Just Salad in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighbourhood was a mob scene. On any given weekday around noon, throngs of office workers would peel themselves away from their spreadsheets, grab their brightly coloured reusable plastic bowls and trudge over to the restaurant to join a queue that snaked around the concrete floor and spilled out on to the street.
短短数月前，每逢午餐高峰期间，位于曼哈顿哈德逊广场(Hudson Square)的沙拉专门店Just Salad可谓门庭若市。每逢工作日中午时分，成群结队的公司白领就会扔下手中的活，匆匆拿起五颜六色的可再生塑料碗，不辞辛劳来到Just Salad，加入店里已排起的里三层外三层长队（而且候餐队伍已排至门外大街上）。
Last Friday, however, it was completely devoid of customers.
这几周，店里却空无一人。
The scene is familiar across New York, especially in areas like Hudson Square and Midtown where offices far outnumber residences. Months after the government began easing the coronavirus lockdown, scores of “fast casual” eateries remain shuttered. The “sad desk lunch” that had become its own shorthand for the corporate drone's existence is now a distant memory, as company work-from-home policies keep most people from returning to the office.
这种情形在全纽约市已司空见惯，尤以哈德逊广场及曼哈顿中城(Midtown)这类上班族远超居民的区域为甚。在纽约市政府逐步解封由新冠疫情造成的城市封控后几个月时间里，许多休闲快餐店仍在歇业与停业。在办公室胡乱吃一顿简易午餐（“sad desk lunch”，它已成为公司忙乱工作状态的缩影）如今早已时过境迁，原因是各家公司现今执行的“在家办公”政策让大多数白领无法回原单位上班。
Sweetgreen, a salad chain valued at $1.6bn last year, saw its revenue drop by nearly 70 per cent at the height of the pandemic, according to chief executive Jonathan Neman. “When the world went on shutdown, our sales took a massive nosedive right away,” he said.
沙拉连锁店Sweetgreen总经理乔纳森•尼曼(Jonathan Neman)说：新冠疫情最肆虐期间，去年估值达16亿美元的自家连锁店营业额大跌了近七成之多。“当全世界继续关停时，我们的沙拉销售也断崖式下跌。”他说。
That kind of loss has been common. While US restaurants as a whole saw their sales fall off by just around 24 per cent in April, May and June, soup and salad specialists were down by 69 per cent, said David Portalatin, analyst at NPD.
店铺因疫情关停造成的损失显而易见。美国餐饮业第二季度的营业额下降了近24%，汤羹类与沙拉专卖店的营业额则骤跌了69%，咨询公司NPD分析师大卫•波塔拉廷(David Portalatin)这样说道。
“Traditional lunch traffic was already under a little bit of pressure. And then along comes Covid and, of course, it mostly evaporates,” said Mr Portalatin. “If you’re a business that is heavily reliant on that, you’re really struggling right now.”
“传统午餐生意已有些难做，而后又爆发了新冠疫情，当然，新冠如今已大致控制住。”波塔拉廷说。“传统午餐业现在日子很艰难。”
Mr Neman is downbeat about the future for restaurants, especially independent operators, and expects to see some high profile bankruptcies in the coming months. Yet, at the same time, he sees cause for hope at his own company.
尼曼对于餐饮业（尤其是独立经营者）的前景持悲观态度，他预计接下来几个月会有部分高档餐馆因破产而关门。然而与此同时，他认为自家的沙拉连锁店应该会重振雄风。
Sales at Sweetgreen have picked up in recent weeks, he said. The company has reopened all of its 33 New York City locations and brought back nearly all of the 2000 employees it furloughed across all markets.
他说，最近几周，Sweetgreen的沙拉销售已重启上升势头。公司在全纽约市的全部33家门店都已重新开张，并把安排在家待岗的全体近2000名员工重新招回来上班。
A big reason for this is Sweetgreen’s investment in mobile-ordering technology, which allows customers to pick their salads up or have them delivered without standing in a socially-undistanced line. “I think this is going to usher in a new breed of digitally native restaurants built for delivery,” said Mr Neman.
Sweetgreen重现生机的根本原因是投资于移动互联网的订餐技术，这可以让顾客在网上直接点餐与外卖，从而免去了排那些要求间隔一定社交距离的长队。“我认为此举会催生本地专营外卖的新型餐厅。”尼曼说。
Rivals Nick Kenner, chief executive of Just Salad, and Nick Marsh, chief executive of Chopt, share his optimism.
其同行——Just Salad总经理尼克•凯纳(Nick Kenner)以及Chopt总经理尼克•马什(Nick Marsh)也与其持同样看法。
As luck would have it, they were already adjusting their businesses in ways that seem to suit the new environment and expanding into more residential locations that have not been as hard hit by the lockdown.
凑巧的是，它们几家已开始调整自己的营运策略以适应全新形势，并把生意拓展至更多未受封控措施重创的居民小区。
According to Mr Kenner, 90 per cent of Just Salad’s orders today are digital, and most of them come through the company’s own app or website, allowing it to avoid hefty fees charged by third party platforms like Grubhub or Uber Eats.
凯纳说：如今Just Salad的九成订单都为网上预订，且大多数订单由公司自家App及网站完成，从而规避了被Grubhub 与Uber Eats等第三方订餐平台收取高额费用。
Chopt has seen similar success with its newly launched takeaway and delivery-only locations, where there are no cashiers and in-store customers must either order ahead online or use their phone to scan a QR code to order digitally at the restaurant.
Chopt同样因新推出自取与外卖点而重现生机活力，这些门店不雇收银员，进店顾客要么是网上提前预订，要么是现场用手机扫二维码完成订餐。
Investors are even starting to look back into the sector, said Mr Kenner. Earlier this year he had been in talks with private equity about tapping into more capital to expand Just Salad. That all went on pause when the pandemic struck, but those conversations have now resumed.
凯纳说，如今出资方甚至开始对这个新兴行当“回头看”。今年初，他就与各家私募洽谈了引入更多资金来拓展Just Salad业务的事宜。新冠疫情突然爆发后，全行业都被按了“暂停键”，但现在引资洽谈已重新恢复。
The urban salad chains are anxiously watching whether or not people start coming back to work after the Labor Day holiday in early September.
九月初的劳动节(Labor Day)后，城区的沙拉连锁店如今正热切关注劳动大军是否开始返岗。
“It feels pretty critical, with the change of seasons,” said Mr Marsh from Chopt. If children are able to go back to school safely, he hopes that will mean their parents will be able to go back to the office.
“夏去秋来这段时间是就业能否恢复的关键期。”Chopt总经理马什说。他认为学生们若能安全返校，就意味着家长们也能顺利返岗。
Right now, he estimates that big offices in New York are operating with about 10 to 15 per cent of their usual workforce on site. “I’m hearing from the big landlords in New York City that we’re going to move [closer to] 25 to 30 per cent occupancy. And that’ll be a huge, huge bump for us.”
他估计现如今纽约各大公司只有10%－15%的员工到办公室上班。“我从纽约市各大商铺业主了解到：员工入工率会升至25－30%。那对我们是巨大利好。”
Even if things don’t improve dramatically, all three chief executives are confident they will be able to weather the storm. Chopt, Sweetgreen and Just Salad all received loans as part of the US government’s Covid-relief package, although Sweetgreen returned what it received. Some of their landlords have been willing to cut them a break on rent.
虽说经营状况改观有限，但Chopt、Sweetgreen与Just Salad三家总经理都坚信能够渡过难关。它们都收到了美国政府发放的新冠纾困贷款，而Sweetgreen则全额退回了贷款。有些商铺业主则一直表示愿意部分减少租金。
“We are certainly in a good place right now,” said Mr Kenner from Just Salad. “Part of that is [because] our landlords have really worked with us. And that has certainly helped us to be in a stronger position.”
“我们现在当然一切向好。”Just Salad总经理凯纳说，“部分原因是商铺业主真正愿与我们同舟共济，这助力我们更具竞争优势。”
For Mr Marsh crisis is nothing new. He opened the first Chopt just before 9/11 and steered the company through the recession caused by the financial crisis. “Like everybody else in New York it is in our DNA to persevere through difficult times,” he said.
马什认为，危机不是什么新鲜事。他在“911”恐袭发生前就开设了首家Chopt店，并引领公司安然渡过了金融危机后的经济衰退期。“与全体纽约人一样，咬紧牙关渡过难关的品质就在我们的DNA里。”他说。
At the Just Salad in Hudson Square, the recovery still appears to be a long way off. “We still get some people in the store around lunch, but it’s nothing like it used to be,” said Julissa, one of the two employees on duty, as she prepared a takeaway order. “It’s been real calm.”
而对于哈德逊广场的Just Salad门店，生意恢复景气似乎还遥不可及。“每天中午仍有部分顾客来店里用餐，但今非昔比了。”正在准备自取订单的朱丽莎说，她是两位当班员工中的一位。“店里最近真的门庭冷落。”
A few short months ago, the lunch rush at Just Salad in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighbourhood was a mob scene. On any given weekday around noon, throngs of office workers would peel themselves away from their spreadsheets, grab their brightly coloured reusable plastic bowls and trudge over to the restaurant to join a queue that snaked around the concrete floor and spilled out on to the street.
短短数月前，每逢午餐高峰期间，位于曼哈顿哈德逊广场(Hudson Square)的沙拉专门店Just Salad可谓门庭若市。每逢工作日中午时分，成群结队的公司白领就会扔下手中的活，匆匆拿起五颜六色的可再生塑料碗，不辞辛劳来到Just Salad，加入店里已排起的里三层外三层长队（而且候餐队伍已排至门外大街上）。
Last Friday, however, it was completely devoid of customers.
这几周，店里却空无一人。
The scene is familiar across New York, especially in areas like Hudson Square and Midtown where offices far outnumber residences. Months after the government began easing the coronavirus lockdown, scores of “fast casual” eateries remain shuttered. The “sad desk lunch” that had become its own shorthand for the corporate drone's existence is now a distant memory, as company work-from-home policies keep most people from returning to the office.
这种情形在全纽约市已司空见惯，尤以哈德逊广场及曼哈顿中城(Midtown)这类上班族远超居民的区域为甚。在纽约市政府逐步解封由新冠疫情造成的城市封控后几个月时间里，许多休闲快餐店仍在歇业与停业。在办公室胡乱吃一顿简易午餐（“sad desk lunch”，它已成为公司忙乱工作状态的缩影）如今早已时过境迁，原因是各家公司现今执行的“在家办公”政策让大多数白领无法回原单位上班。
Sweetgreen, a salad chain valued at $1.6bn last year, saw its revenue drop by nearly 70 per cent at the height of the pandemic, according to chief executive Jonathan Neman. “When the world went on shutdown, our sales took a massive nosedive right away,” he said.
沙拉连锁店Sweetgreen总经理乔纳森•尼曼(Jonathan Neman)说：新冠疫情最肆虐期间，去年估值达16亿美元的自家连锁店营业额大跌了近七成之多。“当全世界继续关停时，我们的沙拉销售也断崖式下跌。”他说。
That kind of loss has been common. While US restaurants as a whole saw their sales fall off by just around 24 per cent in April, May and June, soup and salad specialists were down by 69 per cent, said David Portalatin, analyst at NPD.
店铺因疫情关停造成的损失显而易见。美国餐饮业第二季度的营业额下降了近24%，汤羹类与沙拉专卖店的营业额则骤跌了69%，咨询公司NPD分析师大卫•波塔拉廷(David Portalatin)这样说道。
“Traditional lunch traffic was already under a little bit of pressure. And then along comes Covid and, of course, it mostly evaporates,” said Mr Portalatin. “If you’re a business that is heavily reliant on that, you’re really struggling right now.”
“传统午餐生意已有些难做，而后又爆发了新冠疫情，当然，新冠如今已大致控制住。”波塔拉廷说。“传统午餐业现在日子很艰难。”
Mr Neman is downbeat about the future for restaurants, especially independent operators, and expects to see some high profile bankruptcies in the coming months. Yet, at the same time, he sees cause for hope at his own company.
尼曼对于餐饮业（尤其是独立经营者）的前景持悲观态度，他预计接下来几个月会有部分高档餐馆因破产而关门。然而与此同时，他认为自家的沙拉连锁店应该会重振雄风。
Sales at Sweetgreen have picked up in recent weeks, he said. The company has reopened all of its 33 New York City locations and brought back nearly all of the 2000 employees it furloughed across all markets.
他说，最近几周，Sweetgreen的沙拉销售已重启上升势头。公司在全纽约市的全部33家门店都已重新开张，并把安排在家待岗的全体近2000名员工重新招回来上班。
A big reason for this is Sweetgreen’s investment in mobile-ordering technology, which allows customers to pick their salads up or have them delivered without standing in a socially-undistanced line. “I think this is going to usher in a new breed of digitally native restaurants built for delivery,” said Mr Neman.
Sweetgreen重现生机的根本原因是投资于移动互联网的订餐技术，这可以让顾客在网上直接点餐与外卖，从而免去了排那些要求间隔一定社交距离的长队。“我认为此举会催生本地专营外卖的新型餐厅。”尼曼说。
Rivals Nick Kenner, chief executive of Just Salad, and Nick Marsh, chief executive of Chopt, share his optimism.
其同行——Just Salad总经理尼克•凯纳(Nick Kenner)以及Chopt总经理尼克•马什(Nick Marsh)也与其持同样看法。
As luck would have it, they were already adjusting their businesses in ways that seem to suit the new environment and expanding into more residential locations that have not been as hard hit by the lockdown.
凑巧的是，它们几家已开始调整自己的营运策略以适应全新形势，并把生意拓展至更多未受封控措施重创的居民小区。
According to Mr Kenner, 90 per cent of Just Salad’s orders today are digital, and most of them come through the company’s own app or website, allowing it to avoid hefty fees charged by third party platforms like Grubhub or Uber Eats.
凯纳说：如今Just Salad的九成订单都为网上预订，且大多数订单由公司自家App及网站完成，从而规避了被Grubhub 与Uber Eats等第三方订餐平台收取高额费用。
Chopt has seen similar success with its newly launched takeaway and delivery-only locations, where there are no cashiers and in-store customers must either order ahead online or use their phone to scan a QR code to order digitally at the restaurant.
Chopt同样因新推出自取与外卖点而重现生机活力，这些门店不雇收银员，进店顾客要么是网上提前预订，要么是现场用手机扫二维码完成订餐。
Investors are even starting to look back into the sector, said Mr Kenner. Earlier this year he had been in talks with private equity about tapping into more capital to expand Just Salad. That all went on pause when the pandemic struck, but those conversations have now resumed.
凯纳说，如今出资方甚至开始对这个新兴行当“回头看”。今年初，他就与各家私募洽谈了引入更多资金来拓展Just Salad业务的事宜。新冠疫情突然爆发后，全行业都被按了“暂停键”，但现在引资洽谈已重新恢复。
The urban salad chains are anxiously watching whether or not people start coming back to work after the Labor Day holiday in early September.
九月初的劳动节(Labor Day)后，城区的沙拉连锁店如今正热切关注劳动大军是否开始返岗。
“It feels pretty critical, with the change of seasons,” said Mr Marsh from Chopt. If children are able to go back to school safely, he hopes that will mean their parents will be able to go back to the office.
“夏去秋来这段时间是就业能否恢复的关键期。”Chopt总经理马什说。他认为学生们若能安全返校，就意味着家长们也能顺利返岗。
Right now, he estimates that big offices in New York are operating with about 10 to 15 per cent of their usual workforce on site. “I’m hearing from the big landlords in New York City that we’re going to move [closer to] 25 to 30 per cent occupancy. And that’ll be a huge, huge bump for us.”
他估计现如今纽约各大公司只有10%－15%的员工到办公室上班。“我从纽约市各大商铺业主了解到：员工入工率会升至25－30%。那对我们是巨大利好。”
Even if things don’t improve dramatically, all three chief executives are confident they will be able to weather the storm. Chopt, Sweetgreen and Just Salad all received loans as part of the US government’s Covid-relief package, although Sweetgreen returned what it received. Some of their landlords have been willing to cut them a break on rent.
虽说经营状况改观有限，但Chopt、Sweetgreen与Just Salad三家总经理都坚信能够渡过难关。它们都收到了美国政府发放的新冠纾困贷款，而Sweetgreen则全额退回了贷款。有些商铺业主则一直表示愿意部分减少租金。
“We are certainly in a good place right now,” said Mr Kenner from Just Salad. “Part of that is [because] our landlords have really worked with us. And that has certainly helped us to be in a stronger position.”
“我们现在当然一切向好。”Just Salad总经理凯纳说，“部分原因是商铺业主真正愿与我们同舟共济，这助力我们更具竞争优势。”
For Mr Marsh crisis is nothing new. He opened the first Chopt just before 9/11 and steered the company through the recession caused by the financial crisis. “Like everybody else in New York it is in our DNA to persevere through difficult times,” he said.
马什认为，危机不是什么新鲜事。他在“911”恐袭发生前就开设了首家Chopt店，并引领公司安然渡过了金融危机后的经济衰退期。“与全体纽约人一样，咬紧牙关渡过难关的品质就在我们的DNA里。”他说。
At the Just Salad in Hudson Square, the recovery still appears to be a long way off. “We still get some people in the store around lunch, but it’s nothing like it used to be,” said Julissa, one of the two employees on duty, as she prepared a takeaway order. “It’s been real calm.”
而对于哈德逊广场的Just Salad门店，生意恢复景气似乎还遥不可及。“每天中午仍有部分顾客来店里用餐，但今非昔比了。”正在准备自取订单的朱丽莎说，她是两位当班员工中的一位。“店里最近真的门庭冷落。”
