For 35 years, celebrity chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless has packed his Frontera Grill on New Year’s Eve, an annual tradition for scores of longtime customers at the acclaimed Mexican restaurant in Chicago’s River North neighborhood.
But as 2022 dawned, dashed hopes and empty tables were on the menu at Frontera and restaurants across the city and suburbs, as diners stayed away in droves amid the omicron surge. A psychological and financial blow after two years of pandemic disruption, it has left the once-vibrant Chicago restaurant industry on the verge of devastation and in desperate need of federal relief, Bayless said.
“A lot of the restaurateurs and chefs that I’m talking to are just about to give up,” Bayless said. “They’re incredibly discouraged. Nobody knows what to do at this point, because the numbers are so low.”
