The Flying Biscuit Cafe is now open in Athens at 1180B Prince Ave. The company, headquartered in Atlanta, operates locations in the South, including Texas. The Flying Biscuit opened its original location in East Atlanta in 1993. The corporate website said the menu is Southern-inspired. The Flying Biscuit offers dine-in, carry-out and catering.

It’s too early to know the full economic damage of the pandemic on the restaurant industry. The Brookings Institution report, Ten Facts about COVID-19 and the U.S. Economy, shows the economic impact overall. The GDP dropped 9.1% in the second quarter of 2020. Until then, the GDP had never dropped more than 3% in a single quarter since the government began keeping records in 1947.

Many restaurants also closed their dine-in service because of COVID-19. Arjun Patel, manager, discussed the reason for opening a new restaurant during the pandemic. “It’s pretty complicated,” he said. “It wasn’t like we wanted to open in a pandemic, but we didn’t want to back out either.”

Prashant Patel, the franchise owner, said, “We’re very overwhelmed by the response we got.”

Olyn Gee is a fourth-year student majoring in journalism in the Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.