LOGAN SQUARE — One of many neighborhood’s go-to vegetarian and vegan eating places is closing.
Floor Management, 3315 W. Armitage Ave., will serve its ultimate clients Saturday after a decade in Logan Sq., husband-and-wife homeowners Dan Hanaway and Carrie Haase introduced in an Instagram put up over the weekend.
Neighbors can say goodbye — and get their final fried inexperienced tomatoes and tofu bahn mi sandwiches — throughout regular enterprise hours this week, although the restaurant may shut early if the kitchen runs out of meals, Hanaway mentioned.
“I really feel prefer it’s run its course. We need to transfer on in life, have a unique expertise, do one thing completely different,” Hanaway mentioned in an interview with Block Membership. “After the previous couple of years of going by way of the pandemic and every thing else … we’re just about prepared to finish it.”
Hanaway, a former member of Chicago’s punk music scene, and Haase each worked in the restaurant industry for years earlier than they determined to strike out on their very own and open their own spot in 2012.
Over time, the homeowners have constructed a loyal following and even expanded into the storefront subsequent door in 2017. The meatless restaurant has regulars who dine there on daily basis, Hanaway mentioned.
Hanaway mentioned there’s “nobody particular cause” for the closure, however the pandemic has taken a toll on the enterprise.
Whereas assist has been “strong,” even throughout lockdown, the previous couple of years have been difficult for a similar causes many different eating places have struggled in the course of the pandemic, Hanaway mentioned.
“It’s been arduous to maintain a full employees and to be open full hours, and costs for every thing have gone up,” he mentioned.
The Floor Management group was additionally hit arduous by the demise of the restaurant’s beloved kitchen supervisor in early 2020, just some weeks earlier than the pandemic gripped town.
“We’ve been white-knuckling it for a number of years. It’s time to take it simple,” Hanaway mentioned.
Credit score: FbHanaway and Haase initially hoped to maintain Floor Management alive and their staff employed by promoting the restaurant to a brand new proprietor, however the purchaser backed out a number of days earlier than closing, Hanaway mentioned.
He urged anybody on the lookout for restaurant staffers to rent his wonderful crew, and mentioned he’d be blissful to offer references.
Since asserting the closure, Hanaway mentioned he’s been “getting cellphone calls each hour” from individuals who need to both take over Floor Management or open a brand new restaurant or enterprise as a replacement, however nothing has materialized fairly but.
No matter comes subsequent, Hanaway mentioned they don’t need to be concerned.
“I positively want a full break … I don’t need to have a look at a chunk of tofu for some time,” he mentioned.
Hanaway mentioned they’re ending their run on a optimistic word, grateful for all the assist they’ve obtained during the last decade.
“We had fun whereas it lasted, however eating places are a finite enterprise and 10 years is an effective period of time,” he mentioned.
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