How DoorDash found Portland restaurants are doing
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The vast majority of restaurants using DoorDash in Portland that were open in September 2024 remained open a year later, per new data the company shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: Some eatery churn is normal, even healthy. But low rates of restaurant survival may suggest something rotten in the state of the local industry.
- And while most new Portland restaurants stayed in business during that time, the city ranked near the bottom for survival rates among the 100 most populous cities in the country.
By the numbers: Just over 91% of Portland restaurants included in the analysis survived the year, per DoorDash's new State of Local Commerce report, which features a bounty of metrics on restaurant trends.
- That put Portland at 80th out of the top 100 cities.
- Lincoln, Nebraska (97.3%), Anaheim, California (95.7%), and Fort Wayne, Indiana (95.5%) had the best restaurant resiliency rates in the covered period.
- Fremont, California (87.6%), Henderson, Nevada (89.2%), and Seattle (89.8%) had the lowest such rates — meaning lots of closures.
The resiliency rate across all included cities was 93%.
Yes, but: Portland also ranked just outside of the top 10 for restaurant openings.
Zoom in: The Rose City has lost some gems this year — including XLB and Quaintrelle — but we've also gained some exciting dining options like the ode to late chef Naomi Pomeroy, L'Echelle, vegan drive-thru Face Plant and a never-ending pasta bowl's worth of Italian spots.
What they're saying: The report's data should be considered in full context to get the best idea of a city's performance, DoorDash chief analytics officer Jessica Lachs tells Axios.
- "Being high or low on one of these scales doesn't necessarily mean that a city is doing well or doing poorly," Lachs says.
- The analysis also doesn't include all the restaurants that exist outside of the DoorDash ecosystem.
Reality check: One year of survival isn't nothing, but business closure rates tend to rise on longer time horizons.
The bottom line: Running a restaurant is tough even in the best of times — and with rising costs and cash-strapped consumers, this isn't the best of times.