Reopening Illinois: Restaurants weigh if they
should 'fight or fold' as pandemic wears on
ABC7-TV (Chicago),
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: AltaD,
5/21/2020 9:49:31 AM
Restaurants will be allowed to open for outdoor dining in the next phase of Illinois' reopening plan - and that's good news for some that are struggling to survive. Rohini Dey's popular Vermilion restaurant in River North has been closed for nearly three months. She still has bills to pay, but has no income. (Snip) "The prognosis is 80% of us are not going to make it," Dey said. "We are looking at a dismal industry for us."
Some surveys suggest half or more of all restaurants may not survive. The popular Mike Ditka's restaurant in the Gold Coast is one of the high-profile victims after the owners announced
Reply 1 - Posted by:
cor-vet 5/21/2020 9:59:30 AM (No. 417652)
Closing restaurants was one of the dumbest things about this pandemic. Unless you are eating at the bar, you will be sitting at a table or in a booth, segregated from the other diners, with your family or friends that you trust. You don't join complete strangers at their tables or in their booths!
9 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Safari Man 5/21/2020 10:25:04 AM (No. 417684)
Best use of this downtime is to pack up the equipment and move to a red state.
10 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
planetgeo 5/21/2020 10:29:19 AM (No. 417690)
This further illustrates that Democrats were born without the Math gene and never ran a business. I honestly don't see how any restaurant that's not already a fast food/takeout restaurant can survive. Under the best of circumstances, with maximum allowable occupancy their profit margins are terrible. If they've been shut down for 3 months and now can only open at 25% or even 50% capacity, there's no way, none, zero chance they can survive.
Hope Democrats like the "Seagull Diet"...leftover fries in the parking lot.
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
earlybird 5/21/2020 10:42:27 AM (No. 417699)
Many restaurants have a following who will be thrilled to see them reopen. Others are in some places about the only game in town for dining out.
Those that were struggling before may not survive. But they wouldn’t have lasted long anyway. Many others will come through, battered but not done in… And restaurant employees are loyal, too, if they worked for restaurants that treated them well and where they were appreciated and generously tipped. Having been “in the business”, I don’t see the entire dine-in restaurant industry caving in.
A while back a huge wind came through and pretty much demolished a large outdoor dining patio at one of our favorite restaurants. It was a place where smokers could smoke, often featured musical groups, and was the setting for many parties, wedding receptions, etc. They had to shut down about half of their business while the patio was being repaired - including structural repairs. Customers had to walk around the building from the parking lot as the parking side entrance was on the patio. They were jammed all the time and continued to be after the patio reopened. During the COVID-19 shutdown, they have stayed alive by sending very well done bulletins to their customers, advertising their curbside pickup, the 15% discount on food and alcohol over $40 total if picked up curbside, special menu items…and old favorites as well. I have a pretty good idea that they will be just fine, business burgeoning, when they can reopen. Smart restaurateurs know how to cope… The others fail anyway. And those in small towns, who have a captive audience and little competition, will continue to plug along.
3 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
stablemoney 5/21/2020 10:54:55 AM (No. 417715)
I think we can recognize the accuracy of the projection that restaurants won't survive if they don't open. My suggestion would be that you do open. Your Gov should retire to his farm in Wisconsin, but I doubt Wisconsin wants him.
3 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Starboard_side 5/21/2020 10:58:30 AM (No. 417720)
And now today they're stating that the virus DOES NOT live on surfaces, or that people contract the virus by touching a surface, but from the usual manner of contracting a virus - sneezing and coughing.
Wonder how long they knew this information?
I suspect they've known for at least a week, and maybe longer, but they ridiculed Trump when he was mentioning how UV light was working on it...... and yet now NYC is using UV light to disinfect city buses.
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
ARKfamily 5/21/2020 11:10:49 AM (No. 417732)
Keep voting for Democrat and this is what you get. . .
2 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
AltaD 5/21/2020 11:16:29 AM (No. 417739)
Please don't quote me but I believe the total tax on a restaurant bill in Chicago is just under 10%. There's a city "restaurant tax" along with a city, county and state tax on food. So not only are thousands losing their jobs, various government taxing bodies are losing serious cash.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
KatieJo 5/21/2020 2:06:37 PM (No. 417906)
As the "pandemic wears on"? How about "as government restrictions strangle them"?
2 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 5/21/2020 4:50:27 PM (No. 418074)
Fight!
3 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
TXknitter 5/21/2020 9:32:34 PM (No. 418267)
Small town cafe and BBQ places I am familiar with say the longer families are now cooking, eating at home, a lot may decide its kinda nice. I think there may be some truth to that. The creative restauranteurs will do well but those operating with a lot of debt may have hard decisions to make.
0 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "AltaD"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)