There is something that I think perhaps the restaurant industry does for people that other industries donât.

They provide a very large number of âfirstsâ in your memory. It might have been the first time you really had the full facial experience of ice cream, literally all over you and the clothes your parents had put you in for the occasion.

It might be the first time you had a particular dish, when eating french fries was something that never happened at home. And certainly not with tomato sauce!

I wouldnât be surprised if the first time you had a Coke or a Fanta (of various hues), or a fizzy drink of any kind, was in such an establishment.

When you got older, perhaps a slightly stronger drink is the memory, or even a Coke with a little of Dadâs whatever mixed into it.

But perhaps the most important thing a restaurant did for you was to give you your first job.

Being a waiter has been a rite of passage for many generations in many families. It doesnât require qualifications but does force you to actually work. There are deadlines and customers and a boss you donât like and perhaps a chef you were scared of.

One of the interesting changes in Joburg in the past 30 years has been how waiting staff have changed.

In a Nineties suburban restaurant it was common to see a student, someone who was obviously middle class who was earning some money while studying. Their siblings might well have spent a huge amount of money in those establishments simply to give their elder brother or sister a hard time.

Today in Joburg, you donât see that. Instead, you see people who are waiters providing the main source of income for their families. I donât know if it was ever a conscious choice, but managers have clearly seen it as more important to give them jobs rather than middle-class students.

Iâm always slightly amazed on those rare occasions that I find myself in a posh restaurant in Cape Town that this change doesnât seem to have happened to quite the same extent.

It does seem that Donald Trumpâs stupidity around Iran is now putting this huge good in our society at risk.

Rosemary Anderson of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa has written quite an impassioned plea on Moneyweb about some of the problems the industry is facing.

Essentially, while we probably all quite like going to a restaurant, it is a luxury. Itâs not something you need. And while their food might be better, a night out nowadays will easily cost a family of four about R1,000.

If you can do it for less than that, your children may be wonderful like mine, but theyâre clearly not teenagers yet.

Anderson makes the point that the real problems for them are the same as the real problems for so many other businesses. You end up paying so much for services that just donât work properly all the time.

The Spur group has spent a fortune, first on back-up power, then on back-up water supplies for its establishments.

Can you imagine how much water a family restaurant can go through? And what would happen if you couldnât flush the toilets?

That thought alone is probably enough to convince you that back-up power and water has become not a luxury but a necessity for any client-facing business.

The most irritating thing about all of this is that Iâm sure all of these outlets are paying their bills and their various licensing fees and rates to the council.

And, like so many of us dealing with problems in Joburg and most of the rest of the country, theyâre getting virtually nothing in return (although, I must report that my dustbin was collected this past weekend, and for the first time in weeks my street doesnât resemble a full-dustbin competition).

I think the other problem for restaurants is quite similar to the problem facing cinemas.

In the past, if you wanted a big screen and really good sound you had no choice but to go to the bioscope.

Now, you probably have a bioscope, with sound to match, in your living room. Or even in your bedroom, if youâre allowed...

The same is true of restaurants.

What was once the preserve of a professional kitchen can now emerge from your air fryer in 12 to 18 minutes.

It wonât be quite as good, of course. But it will be quick and cheaper than going out.

There will still be something missing though.

No one, and I mean no one, carries a long-term memory of anything they ate that came out of an air fryer. Those oven chips really are NOT to die for.

And that is surely the overall enduring strength of the restaurant.

The occasion, the memory, everyone being there together, all around a table doing something.

And the memories that creates. DM