It's difficult to see how the economy is faring from suburban Maryland; I live within 30 miles of DC, and within 20 of a major defense department installation - so the spending of the federal government masks the overall economy pretty well here. Still, I do travel, and when I've been on the road, restaurants have looked less packed. According to Salon, there's pain across that entire sector:

In the restaurant business, though, who isn't? As USA Today reported last month, restaurant sales have declined for 10 straight months, and customer traffic for 19 straight months. Now, a new study making waves within the industry suggests that four out of 10 chains could fold within the next year due to massive debt and rising commodity and energy prices.

Insulated though I am here, that last bit about energy and commodity prices has been noticed. I do most of the grocery shopping (seeing as how I work out of my home office), and things are a lot more expensive at the local grocery stores. For all the talk about deflation, every trip I take to get groceries seems to leave my wallet lighter than the previous trip...