Some beloved Chicago restaurants closing permanently due to COVID-19

CHICAGO - Local restaurant owners are trying their best to weather the coronavirus pandemic, but as the stay-at-home order gets longer and longer, many are being forced to keep their "Closed" signs up for good.

Most independent restaurants have had to make some very tough decisions over the last five weeks since the stay-at-home order went into effect, and now, a handful of popular restaurants on the Northwest Side are having to make the most difficult decision: to close their doors permanently.

“I wrote it through tears last week sitting at this table. It felt like writing an obituary. It reads like one,” said Jeanne Roeser, owner of Toast.

Roeser described what it was like to write the Facebook post announcing her two locations would be closing permanently amid the pandemic.

“It is very slim margins. There isn't any kind of fund sitting in the bank to cover expenses, so this felt like a death blow,” she said.

Roeser says even if she could stay afloat until the order's lifted, the likely changes to restaurant dining in general -- occupancy limits, online ordering to minimize contact with wait staff, masks, social distancing -- don't fit with why Toast has been a favorite spot for 24 years.

“It would lose the character and the nature of how it feels in my restaurant,” Roeser said.

Links Taproom, popular among beer lovers, also announced its closing its Wicker Park location permanently. In a social media post, owners say Links may re-emerge as a pop-up.

Logan Square's renowned Fat Rice on West Diversey has also closed as a dine-in restaurant. Its owners decided to convert it into Super Fat Rice Mart to sell meal kits and specialty groceries.

“Restaurants will come back. And when things get back to normal, there will be a renaissance of great restaurants. It's not just going to be Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory,” Roeser said.

Both Links and Toast have set up GoFundMe pages for former staff-members. Toast is also selling T-shirts and reusable bags to raise money for its 26 former employees. There's a link to that on the Toast Facebook page.