As crowds return post-pandemic, one Cincinnati eatery is serving lunch again

It's Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week, which means plenty of places across the Tri-State are hoping to see most customers dine in and experience their special menu offerings.

While Arnold's Bar & Grill isn't participating this fall, they are hoping to see a similar boost thanks to the return of their lunch hours.

Owners said they saw their crowds dwindling in the afternoons during the pandemic, so they decided to stop serving lunch. In recent months, though, things started to change.

"Once we started seeing people having to come back to work and stuff we decided it was time to try it out," owner Chris Breeden said. "So many people would ask, so we tried it out."

Breeden admits this move is a gamble since it's been four years since they served lunch regularly, but he said it was about making the business more profitable, but also getting back to their "bread and butter."

"It's like opening a new restaurant," Breeden said. "We have a different lunch menu, we have a whole new staff."

Arnold's Bar & Grill

We asked Breeden what's been working for them.

"The events are really working well, it's always been kind of our cheat code here," he said.

Tuesday nights, he said, have been big for them because mixologist Molly Wellmann is bartending. Still, there are challenges — like making sure people actually know lunch is back and there are special events.

"It's been an interesting re-adjustment," said David New, who works nearby. "You do get more interaction with your coworkers, which brings in more lunch. My team, we try to make sure we do lunch every Friday where we're all in."

The National Restaurant Association reported the industry is trending in the right direction, but it still hasn't reached pre-pandemic levels.

"The Arnold's rebound has been great," said Evan Crew, who works downtown. "I hope that it's a gamble that's going to work out for them in the long run, I'm personally happy that they're making that gamble, and I think it's going to be good for them."

Breeden said he'll continue to "get creative" to get people back in the door.