Why Chicago has a restaurant crisis?

Chicago Tribune | June 29, 2025

The hit TV show “The Bear” chronicles an independent restaurant’s existential struggles and celebrates Chicagoans’ determination to survive. But you need only traverse one of the city’s real-life arteries, such as North Broadway through Edgewater or along 26th Street in Little Village, to see the the state of one of Chicago’s most celebrated and artful industries: shuttered restaurants pockmark almost every block.

Chicago’s storied restaurant business is mired in crisis.

If you doubt our word that this is a dire emergency, we suggest you swivel your head from road or sidewalk and look for yourselves.

Fine dining. Trattorias. Taquerias. Vietnamese cuisine. Italian beef. It seems not to matter. Chicago has never been a locus of chain restaurants, unlike many cities in the south. The fame of the city’s restaurants has sprouted from the creativity of independent operators, some craving (and winning) James Beard Awards and international acclaim, and others merely wanting to serve and nourish their communities.