A long time favorite small restaurant I used to take the kids to for breakfast and lunch when they were little, up through 2 years ago is now closed. There was almost always a line for either meal, as the place had maybe 10 tables. The portions were large, the food was excellent if simple, and the waitresses friendly (and liked the girls and later the grandkids).
A victim of the WuFlu crisis and Kommiefornia regulations, they’ve closed after forty years and two generations in the same location.
Of course the local ‘chain’ restaurants and Mickey D’s is still open, because they could do drive through and were off the major roads… Grrr…
I wonder how many thousands of good little local restaurants we’ve lost due to this BS? And how many family run businesses of other types?
I haven’t looked in a while, but the last estimate I saw was 25% of restaurants were going to shutter due to the lockdowns.
We lost a couple of favorites up in OH, haven’t been down here long enough to have formed attachments. But it’s a sad situation everywhere.
Big Brother destroys that which it does not control.
I rarely eat out , but if i do my rule is no franchise food . Mom & Pop places only . The local joints appreciate the business and provide better food and service .
Probably a mix of Covid and “Can’t get help” and “can’t buy supplies”.
Sad, but it’s happening lots of places.
“Can’t get help” and “can’t buy supplies” are a direct result of the government’s totalitarian and inept response to Covid. So yes, it is happening a lot of places, and no that doesn’t make it OK. The government has destroyed these people’s lives and made our lives a little less good in the process.
our favorite little drive-up closed up permanently after 50 years. covid nazis snitched on them one too many times. they were near about the only place to eat out in the middle of nowhere and a devastating loss to the community. jealous assholes ruined it for everybody. now no sunday after church ice cream for the kids, no friday night teen hangout, no quick bite for local workers. another cultural landmark gone, never to be restored. every day i get less sad about dying.
Long, long hours for family owned businesses. When the cash flow won’t keep body and soul together, something else must take place.
Making that decision is a tragedy.
In the depths of the lockdowns, most of the local restaurants went to take out only. One diner in our town stayed open in defiance of Despicable Kate Brown (D-ranged, Oregon) and the Oregon “Health” Authority. They accumulated a bunch of state fines, but the county told the state to pound sand.
Later on, the courts noted that OHA and OR-OSHA do not have the authority to asses those fines, so that diner won out. Another restaurant caved and went to takeout after the few Karens in town targetted it for letting people be unmasked at the tables.
The stay-open place had a sign in the doorway: “Hungry Lives Matter”. Curiously, the Jack in the Box place in town is keeping its dining room (and interior ordering stations) closed. I think that’s the only chain that’s doing that.
All- Thanks and sad that we are ALL seeing the fallout…
I can name several here in Bitty Burg and at least 2 more on life support. You’d almost think they wanted this to happen….
Funny how big chain stores and restaurants that can afford lobbyists to launder money to politicians can stay open and actually thrive, but the little places that can’t afford slush funds and corporate sponsored trips are going tango-uniform.
And some of the damage is caused by the big chains. Doing the whole “You want my business, Mr. Supplier? Then you give me all you supplies or else!” Which chokes out the little guys and gals from getting any.
Chicago politics, forced on the supply and demand chain. And the small shops don’t get a ‘piece of the action.’
And, sadly, the other part is the national socialization of everything. So big companies who can afford politicians are considered part of the national socialist government, with government telling them the parameters in which the company can work.
Which is one step away from the government going full international socialist and just nationalizing the companies.
Of which many big companies have gone through in other countries, like, oh, say, Venezuela, where the government first ‘controlled’ and then ‘siezed’ every company, foreign or domestic.
It’s as bad as, for a bad analogy, the NRA and their ‘we only support the big issues (and Wayne LaPierre’s wallet.)’ Little guys who have valid points, like open carry and constitutional carry, are ignored along with the ‘full restoration of 2nd Amendment rights’ while the NRA carves out protection for its own interests. And how’s that working for the NRA lately? Not so good.
You might find this funny:
https://hoosierboy.blogspot.com/2021/12/this-is-not-customer-service.html
Free- Good point!
Beans- Sadly true… dammit…
Ed- Yep. The ‘attitude’ is often a turnoff too!
We had a few of the hip-trendy types fold up here, but the really good places weathered the storm, and stayed open.
A lot of the local places that had surplus in storage in ’20 sold “groceries” until things settled down and they could do take out, then limited eating. A number of the hole-in-the-wall ethnic places didn’t come back (in one case to the relived sighs of a lot of people at the local ERs), others have returned. But we’re not as heavily state regulated. Local stuff though . . .
If it’s been open that long it could just be that the owners are old and decided to retire. Here in Japan the two sorts of eatery/drinkery that have closed for good are the grandma & grandpa lunch places and the chain izakayas (evening eat/drink)
The former is often because grandma & grandpa were pushing 80 (even if they didn’t look it) and decided the wuflu disruption was a good reason to stop fighting the hitherto gradual decline in customers. I’m not sure that this wasn’t a bad thing because others can reuse/repurpose the premises.
The chain izakayas, which used to make their money on salaryman evening drinks, have seen that market just disappear as people adopted teleworking. I think that was mostly because of location – they tended to be in the office areas of towns – and the complete lack of loyalty they inspired.
The mom&pop izakayas have tended to thrive once restrictions eased because they are smaller and hence have lower overheads and so can open without incurring huge expense even if some nights they get just one or two customers. So when restrictions lifted they were open and the chains mostly weren’t so they got the business for the limited business boozing that restarted
drjim- That’s good!
TXRed- Interesting.
Francis- I was wondering. I know of two little places in Yoko that were excellent that were run by older couples, and word got back that they had both closed.
All the food places did OK here, but we never really shut down and nothing much changed, apart from all the signage and random mask idiocy. Dallas? Different story.
Saying that, we did lose a pawn shop, which is too bad. I liked those guys.
In my local area, we have lost at least twelve small restaurants and bakeries.
One of the local places here got a bunch of karen complaints to the Gov, so they got all the names (public records) and posted them up on the restaurant walls- “these are the snitches” or words to that effect. Guess the karens got all bent out of shape about it, just like the reporters who published the names and addresses of CCW holders got freaked when the local gun club posted their names and addresses.
Turnabout is fair play, cockroaches hate the light.