Governments and the National Restaurant Association's ServSafe have put out restaurant reopening plans and guidelines for social distancing and other safety measures.

Even with these guidelines, it's expected some restaurateurs will wait up to four weeks to reopen after local authorities give them the green light. They most likely will spend the extra time gauging consumer patters and the cautiousness levels of patrons as well as to fully implement best practices.

The initial reduction in capacity means a slower rebound of food and beverage businesses, a $2.5 trillion US industry that was among the hardest hit. The industry lost more than $50 billion in sales in April and restaurants accounted for 60% of the 16.8 million jobs lost from March 19 to April 9.

During the lockdown restaurants were limited to pickup and delivery but that could cover up to 20% of sales.

Some restaurants are not expected to reopen at all from the sales loss, mounting debt and uncertainty of loan issuance and forgiveness under the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

If closures continue for another month, 28% of small and independent restaurants say they most likely will end up closing permanently, according to a survey by the James Beard Foundation. Even if restrictions are slowly lifted, as they are in certain areas, a mere one out of five small restaurant owners say they can sustain their business until operations are fully back to normal.

This makes for an uncertain future, further exposing restaurant landlords if sales don't climb up. Restaurants have sought rent deferral while they were closed and as they are reopening are seeking further assistance such as more rent restructuring, lease changes and permission to tweak their uses like their menus, according to the CBRE report.

One thing landlords can easily do is to give access to more storage space for delivery containers and cleaning supplies as well as for curbside pickup.