With seniors making up a good portion of its customer base, COVID-19 has had an outsized impact on K&W Cafeterias Inc., resulting in the Winston-Salem-based chain declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy six months after the virus first emerged in North Carolina. Chapter 11 allows the restaurant to stay in business as it tries to reduce expenses and debt, which has led to corporate downsizing. 

When the 1980s and 1990s saw the closing of many once-popular cafeterias, K&W was an outlier, growing its business across North Carolina and into Virginia.

At its height, the longtime purveyor of Southern comfort food and other cafeteria classics operated 35 restaurants, but that number had fallen to 18 when the pandemic emerged. It now stands at 11, including Wilmington’s K&W, at Hanover Center, which remains open but for fewer hours than in pre-COVID days.

A once-popular place for early morning business-, church- and civic-group meetings, the Wilmington K&W stopped serving breakfast in the early days of the pandemic, the receptionist on duty Tuesday said. K&W officials have not said if they plan to bring back breakfast post-pandemic and post-bankruptcy nor have they commented on the future of the 11 locations still open.

Shortly after K&W filed bankruptcy, an economics professor told the Winston-Salem Journal that the outlook for cafeterias and buffet restaurants was challenging, at best.

“Unfortunately, it is likely that cafeteria-style and buffet-style meals will be much harder to sustain in the post-COVID-19 era,” said Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, of Winston-Salem State University. “There are unique issues with such restaurant themes during a time when more health-conscious consumers are demanding better information about their dining choice.

“The very nature of this form of dining makes it difficult to comply with such requests,” Madjd-Sadjadi said.

Meanwhile, Wilmington customers can take heart that the local K&W remains open for now. (The Greater Wilmington Business Journal reached out to the cafeteria manager but had not heard back by 2 p.m. Tuesday.)

Although breakfast is off the menu, K&W fans should be pleased that the cafeteria no longer is closed in the late afternoon. The Wilmington location is open daily from 11 a.m.-8 p.m., the cafeteria receptionist said.