Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
In today’s newsletter, we take a look back at the COVID-19 pandemic, zooming in on ways Chicago restaurants pivoted during unprecedented times — and the lingering challenges these businesses face.
Plus: Hidden gems to explore this spring break, how Chicagoans came together for Holi this weekend and more news you need to know. 👇
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Some restaurants pivoted with COVID, and 5 years later dining out is not the same
Reporting by Amy Yee
In crisis: Restaurants in 2020 were hit by a perfect storm of challenges, including snarled supply chains, inflation that reached a near 40-year high, labor shortages and more costly safety regulations — not to mention a deadly virus. Five years later, many have since shuttered or never recovered.
The pivot: The pandemic tested the mettle of restaurants, which “learned how to pivot more quickly as needed: tighten the menu, try out this to-go option, switch up vendors, do whatever it takes to stay in business and thrive again in the future,” Illinois Restaurant Association officials said.
Creative solutions: During the pandemic shutdown, Two Fish Crab Shack in Bronzeville started offering carryout services for the first time. Owner Yasmin Curtis also created frozen seafood bags that customers could pick up at the restaurant. Now, Two Fish products are available nationwide at Kroger, Walmart, Meijer, H.E.B, Harris Teeter and Pete’s Fresh Market.
Lingering challenges: It’s still a difficult time for restaurants, as many face debt, higher food costs, supply issues and staffing challenges. As of November 2024, employment at Chicago’s full-service restaurants was 7.7% below its February 2020 level — and food costs for the average U.S. restaurant have increased 29%, while labor costs have jumped 31% since 2021, according to the Illinois Restaurant Association.
Customers cut back: Restaurants are hiking menu prices to cope with higher costs but that contributes to people cutting back on dining out or ordering less.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Principal flunks? Lincoln Park High School Principal Eric Steinmiller appeared on the popular TV game show “Wheel of Fortune” Thursday night and hosted a watch party in the school’s auditorium. His students weren’t impressed by his performance.
- Health care in jeopardy: Nearly 33,000 people without legal status across Illinois, including almost 22,000 in Cook County, could lose their health care coverage under a program that Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed slashing from the state budget.
- KI furniture maker moves: The Merchandise Mart is losing one of its oldest tenants to Fulton Market, as more companies flock to the trendy West Side neighborhood.
- End of editorials: After more than 75 years, the Sun-Times Editorial Board is dissolving, after the majority of its esteemed members resigned under buyout terms that the newspaper’s nonprofit ownership offered. Although there will be no more editorials letters, op-eds and columns will continue.
- Sneed’s farewell: In her final column for this paper, Michael Sneed, who also took the buyout, reflects on her 56-year journalism career working with other Sun-Times legends and reporting on dignitaries across the globe. “The Chicago Sun-Times will always be in my heart,” she writes.
SPRING BREAK IN CHICAGO 🌱
Spring break ideas for procrastinators, oddballs and tourists
List by Lauren Viera | For WBEZ
Though you wouldn’t know it judging by the weather, it’s spring break season in Chicago. If you’re staying local, we’ve got a few spots to play tourist:
The Insect Asylum
📍2870 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Part museum, part nature center, part LGBTQ cultural center, part animal adoption center, this spot has creepy crawly insects alive and pinned on display. Sign up for a beetle-pinning workshop or owl pellet dissection.
Admission: Adults, $25; kids, $15
International Museum of Surgical Science
📍1524 N. Lake Shore Drive
Touted as “North America’s only museum devoted to surgery,” this unapologetically graphic museum houses collections of vintage surgical instruments, grotesque paintings of surgery’s earliest days and more.
Admission: Adults, $25; kids, $15
Before you go: Take an audio tour with WBEZ’s Reset.
Stony Island Arts Bank
📍6760 S. Stony Island Ave.
This space is the permanent home of the vinyl collection of house music godfather Frankie Knuckles and the book archive of Ebony and Jet magazine publisher John H. Johnson — and there are rotating exhibitions.
Admission: Free
The Button Museum
📍3407 W. Armitage Ave.
Located in the office/factory of the Busy Beaver Button Co., this tiny museum has more than 30,000 pins and features dating from 1896 — the year pinback buttons were patented.
Admission: Free
Before you go: WBEZ’s Reset stopped here, too.
The Chapel in the Sky at the Chicago Temple
📍77 W. Washington St.
Attend a free tour of the Sky Chapel, the world’s highest worship space, in the tip-top of this neo-Gothic 1923 skyscraper.
Admission: Free
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Holi festival welcomes spring, new beginnings with color spalshes
Reporting by Erica Thompson
Once again Chicago welcomed the return of spring by celebrating Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, at Navy Pier Saturday.
But for many of those splashing themselves in the customary colored powder, the holiday means so much more. Reflecting on the occasion, participants and presenters used words like joy, love, tradition and inclusivity to describe their feelings.
Thousands took part in the event, which since 2018 has been held at Navy Pier as part of the lakeside venue’s Global Connections series.
“We see people of all backgrounds and races coming together and having fun,” said Sohail Khan, 32, of Hoffman Estates, who attended the event with his fiancee, Anushka Raval. “It’s just really nice to see that. Everyone gets to learn about each other’s cultures. Everyone gets to celebrate the music and the colors.”
Khan champions that acceptance in his personal life, too. Though he is Muslim and Raval is Hindu, they embrace each other’s religious and cultural customs.
“I hit the jackpot, I guess,” he said, laughing.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
From QR codes to outdoor dining, eating at restaurants has changed since COVID. How have those and other changes affected your dining out experiences and habits?
Email us (please include your first and last name). To see the answers to this question, check our Morning Edition newsletter. Not subscribed to Morning Edition? Sign up here so you won’t miss a thing!
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Written by: Matt Moore
Editor: Satchel Price
Copy editor: Angie Myers