The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit during this devastating pandemic. With months of constant closures and capacity restrictions, many restaurants have been unable to bounce back.
According to a late June update of Yelp’s Local Economic Impact Report, around 139,339 restaurants, diners, cafes and bars that were listed as open on the review site on March 1 had temporarily closed by June 15 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and 41% of those, more than 57,000 establishments in all, have announced they will not be reopening.
Check out this list to see if your favorite restaurant has been forced to close its doors for good.
RELATED: Miami Restaurants And “Party Venues” Are Shutting Down Again Starting This Week
“We are sad to announce this chapter has come to an end,” wrote the owners of this 20-year-old restaurant on Facebook.
“After much deliberation and a lot of tears we have decided after 83 continuous years of business…to close our business permanently,’ said the owners of the 83-year old establishment on Facebook.
The restaurant reports the combination of pandemic closures and recent protests, forced them to remain closed.
“Toro NYC has come to the end of our journey, and the staff will not have a restaurant home to come back to when this pandemic ends,” reads a statement on the restaurant’s Instagram page.
“It has become clear that we are simply unable to sustain the restaurant in its current form going forward,” stated Firebox representatives in early June.
After just two years in business, the owner stated, “People are scared to go out right now. I didn’t see us surviving long-term.”
A statement from the restaurant in mid-May said that “our sales have dropped so low that we cannot continue to operate….”
The owners wrote on Facebook that they have “decided not to reopen Racines…[because] there is just too much working against us.”
The restaurant stated on its website, “we have made the very difficult decision to close our doors.”
The restaurant issued a statement on July 13 saying, “the management team of K-Paul’s is regretfully announcing permanent closure of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen.”
The temporarily closed Craigie Burger won’t reopen, according to the restaurant’s owners.
“Aquagrill is not continuing to operate in light of the unsafe effects of the coronavirus on public dining out,” reads a statement on the restaurant website.
“Thank you for your support! Unfortunately, we are closing our doors,” the website stated at the end of May
“Unfortunately, these uncertain economic times brought on by COVID-19 has made it impossible to survive as an independent restaurant operator in a hotel with an estimated occupancy less than 50 percent for the foreseeable future,” the owners told Eater Vegas.
“Unfortunately, the reality of the extended shut down and piling up of operational costs has essentially forced the decision to be made for us,” read a statement on the Kinfolk Instagram page.
RELATED: 25 Black-Owned Maryland Restaurants To Patronize During This Time
The combination of forced pandemic closures and protests in the area forced the restaurant to permanently close.
“We have lost money every day we have remained open and only did so because our staff is like family to us and we didn’t want to let them down,” said the owner in a statement.
“We did want to stay open until someone else took over,” said the owner. “But that’s not feasible now.”
The restaurant closed its doors for good in mid-June.
According to msn.com, the combination of the downturn in tourism, the cancellation of shows at Ascend Amphitheater across the street, and the fact that more people are working from home instead of in local offices made it unlikely that the izakaya could survive.