The painful arithmetic of making up lost revenue for Chicago-area restaurants will not abate in June — even if reopening plans move forward in the coming month — but some makeshift solutions are drawing ire from already shrunken customer bases.
Lettuce Entertain You, the city’s largest restaurant group with 85 restaurants across Chicagoland, recently added a 4% surcharge to delivery and carryout orders. Its dozens of eateries range from the high-end RPM Steak and French bistro Mon Ami Gabi to casual joints like Bub City.
“These fees are a necessary step during a time when unanticipated costs have jeopardized the survival of our business,” company president R.J. Melman said in an emailed statement. Melman said the surcharge helps cover the expenses like personal protective equipment for employees and “absorbing the greatest increase in food pricing since 1974.”
Meanwhile, backlash on social media forced the Lakeview-based Harold’s Chicken on Broadway to pull back on a surcharge the same day it was announced mid-May. Customers posted photos of their receipts, highlighting the 26% COVID-19 surcharge, and left one-star reviews on Yelp complaining of the practice.
Hours later, the restaurant bowed to the pressure and said it would remove the surcharge.
“We have listened to our customers and apologize for any discomfort we have caused anyone,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post. “We are in this together and will survive together.”
The restaurant did not respond to a request for comment.
Boka Restaurant Group is adding 3% to purchases for health and medical benefits for full-time workers through the Tock ordering platform. Its restaurants include Swift & Sons, Momotaro, GT Prime and Stephanie Izard’s Girl and the Goat-ceries, which offers meal kits, baked goods and pantry items.
Boka did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Others have held off on adding such fees. In Andersonville, the relatively new Gadabout restaurant closed completely when the stay-at-home order went into effect in late March. With the help of a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, Gadabout began offering takeout and delivery two weeks ago, said co-owner James Bateman.
The management team completely overhauled its polished menu of global street foods by fine-dining alums Rolf and Meg Pedersen, shifting from dishes like pork belly kimchi stew and pan-roasted monkfish to a global passport menu with a national theme that changes weekly. The $40 meals feed two people, and the restaurant will offer prizes at the end of the eight-week series for repeat customers.
“We’re not necessarily bringing in the kind of revenue that’s going to pay all the bills, but we want to make sure we’re staying relevant,” Bateman said. “So we think we’re offering a really good product for a competitive price.”
A slight uptick could have the restaurant breaking even on the new format, but that’s largely due to the drop in overhead costs — staffing, energy bills and reduced inventory — that come with being closed for in-house dining, he said. For now, the takeout orders allow them to pay some bills, while keeping the restaurant on people’s minds.
“We were one of the lucky ones; we got the PPP loan,” he said. “That helped us keep the lights on.”
Bateman said he briefly considered implementing a surcharge, but instead made sure to price the special takeout and delivery menus to cover coronavirus-related costs like pricier food products.
“This is a situation that is affecting everybody, and I don’t think adding extra fees is the way to go,” Bateman said. “We’re costing our (menu) as aggressively as possible to incentivize people to order from us — and order from us often.”
For customers who want to help further, Bateman said Gadabout’s merchandise and tip pool are ways to contribute.
“I don’t want to do anything that would give anybody a thought that we might be trying to take advantage of the situation or throw on fees that aren’t necessarily explained,” he said. “I felt this was the better way to do things.”
