Why Are So Many Restaurants Closed on Mondays?

If you’ve ever tried to have a nice dinner at your favorite restaurant on a Monday and run into a “sorry, we’re closed” sign, you are not alone. Many of us have tried to order a meal at our favorite independently-owned restaurants only to realize they close on Mondays. There are a few reasons behind this practice, but the main one is actually extremely simple: it doesn’t make financial sense for these places to open their doors on Mondays.

Generally, the first day of the week is the slowest in the restaurant business – after all, most people like to go out to restaurants and splurge on the weekend. Besides, small establishments tend to have few employees. Considering they work on Saturday and Sunday, they need to take their days off during the week. So closing on Mondays gives employees a day to rest and doesn’t require restaurant owners to hire more staff to work those hours.

Getty Images / Moment / Thana Prasongsin

Another reason for some restaurants to close on Mondays is that they might not get fresh food deliveries on weekends. If this is the case, they would have to serve food three-day-old food they received on Friday. In fact, back in 1999, famous chef Anthony Bourdain even said in his memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, “I never order fish on Monday (…). I know how old most seafood is on Monday —about four to five days old!”