Which now-closed Belleville restaurant would you reopen? Let us know
The last two years have been hard on many businesses, but for those in the restaurant and hospitality industries, the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has been especially harsh.
For example, a 2021 analysis from food service trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News found more than 10% of U.S. restaurants closed for good since the pandemic began in March 2020. That’s more than 79,000 restaurants in the U.S.
Two years later, in March, a jobs report showed unemployment in Illinois had only just returned to the level it was pre-pandemic, according to CBS News.
Restaurants in the state are still recovering from the pandemic, a spokesperson from the Illinois Restaurant Association told CBS News.
“While Illinois restaurants are slowly recovering, they are still down more than 60,000 jobs since before the pandemic. The Illinois Restaurant Association continues to push for enhanced financial support for struggling hospitality businesses — including our request for $125M in restaurant relief grants from the Illinois General Assembly — which would help restaurants pay their overdue bills, hire back more employees, and ultimately stay in business.”
Recent restaurant closures in Belleville include Jefferson’s in 2021 and Golden Dragon Chinese, which closed just two months ago.
We’d like to know which now-closed Belleville restaurants you miss the most. Let us know through the survey below, and if there’s more than one place you’d bring back if you could, refresh the page and make a second submission. We’ll collect your responses for a future story.
This story was originally published July 11, 2022 at 11:09 AM.