Bro… I hate war, I hate checkoffs, I hate lobbying, I hate buybacks, I hate Obama,I hate Trump, I hate non-profits. Ugh. Lactose intolerants, rise up.

Hypothesis:

Zoning and food safety laws add up to outlaw tiny restaurants operated by one or two staff.

Thus making prices go up by forcing teams to scale up their operations and take up more space. The United States is capable of restaurants where quantity of sales, rather than quality, makes a business profitable—see the automat and the diner—but this kind of business has faded away in recent years.