Our governor talks of opening restaurants with fewer tables. That's pretty much a no-go, they rely on filling all the tables and then its thin margins. Running half a restaurant with full overhead? Nope.
Why would you assume that they would have full overhead upon re-opening?
If you open up, the cost of powering your appliances, lighting, heating, etc. is all essentially the same whether or not you feeding 100 people a day or 1000.
You are correct that the rate is constant, but it can be constantly low to the point that it's feasible to only be open during select hours/times. Plenty of restaurants are only open for one course each day, say breakfast or dinner. And in the future, when it comes to 'reopening' - many restaurants which were previously 'full service' will have no choice but to scale back and start small again.
"If you open up, the cost of powering your appliances, lighting, heating, etc. is all essentially the same whether or not you feeding 100 people a day or 1000."
It is not essentially the same at all. These are variable energy costs than can and will fluctuate based on usage tied to controls such as hours of operation and number of customers served during said time.
Obvious examples are gas as a cooking source that varies a lot depending on whether cooking for 100 or 1,000. Others, like electrical, can vary based on which physical sections of a restaurant are open (or not). On a slow day, it's not uncommon for a portion of an establishment to be closed off to conserve energy resources like HVAC.
I’m not really sure what is subjective about that.
And what's subjective are these concepts like "hard" or "easy" - a lease agreement is definitely an objective instrument by design.
Little diners can't hire half a cook.
There is some wiggle room. Fewer waitstaff, but they're the least paid anyway. So maybe not full overhead, but near enough to make no difference.
Sure they can, I've experienced it firsthand circa 2007-2009.
"Little diners can't hire half a cook."
In the 'little diner' scenario, often times the host is the server is the cook is the owner - sometimes its equivalent to 25% cook.
"There is some wiggle room. Fewer waitstaff, but they're the least paid anyway. So maybe not full overhead, but near enough to make no difference."
There's double-digit wiggle room.
I'm not suggesting that any of the above is ideal or easy, but it can and will be done by those who want to succeed given the opportunity. Some Restaurateurs are among the best entrepreneurs around.