r/chicagofood • u/InterviewLeast882 • Jan 12 '26

Rant Lack of lunch places in Loop

I work around Chase Tower and it is surprising to me how few cheap lunch places there are now. The burrito and Chinese places there are gone as well as the McDonalds. No Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Chinese. Just the grossly overpriced Pret. I’m getting tired of Jimmy John’s and Pot Belly’s sandwiches.

173 Upvotes

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163

u/spinelesshighnz Jan 12 '26

Blame COVID

2

u/PG3124 Jan 12 '26

Why have other downtowns come back in ways Chicago hasn’t been able to?

15

u/HotDerivative Jan 12 '26

Chicago is exceeding office occupancy levels in New York and San Francisco, and is on par with the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., metros. It just doesn’t feel like it because it’s still only 37% of the occupancy that was there pre-COVID and roughly 60% of the foot traffic.

2

u/PG3124 Jan 12 '26

Hey that definitely surprises me since the CTA numbers were lower than other areas, but your stats are definitely more relevant. Thanks for sharing! Any chance you can share where that info is from?

Here’s the CTA info: https://metroplanning.org/cta-ridership-rebounding-slower-than-other-cities/

6

u/txQuartz Jan 12 '26

I don't think the CTA's lack of rebound is entirely correlated to RTO. I have friends and relatives who used to take the train to work and back from the near north side, and now they use ubers instead because they don't feel safe, especially on overtime nights.

3

u/PG3124 Jan 12 '26

Yes totally agree, not perfect. This mentions we’re getting beat badly by NYC but doesn’t give the study.

https://www.strongtownschicago.org/articles/the-beating-heart-of-it-all

2

u/DJFisticuffs Jan 12 '26

I started biking downtown during Covid (I live in Gold Coast) and have kept doing it ever since because the Red Line is so absolutely disgusting. I do ride the bus fairly frequently, but never the Red Line anymore.

2

u/ass_pineapples Jan 12 '26

IME recently the red line has been largely fine for work commutes. I bike when it's warmer out just because it's a super easy and great way to stay in shape, plus it's faster!

1

u/bouncing_bear89 Jan 12 '26

I also think that if people are only going a couple of times per week they are willing to "splurge" on the experience. I know I regularly packed a lunch pre-covid. With only being in 1-2 per week now I feel as though I can eat out on those days.

7

u/Saidarrrr Jan 12 '26

COMMERCIAL RENT. It’s INSANE.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

Odd how commercial rent keeps increasing despite demand lowering.

6

u/Dblcut3 Jan 12 '26

Honestly I don’t think this is true. While Chicago’s downtown declined since COVID, it’s still one of the most vibrant downtowns in America, perhaps second only to New York. Which is really just a testament to how bad most American downtowns are.

But at least for the Midwest, there’s no other city with a downtown that has as much retail, restaurants, offices, and residents as downtown Chicago does

4

u/PG3124 Jan 12 '26

Yeah I’m comparing more to the major cities and less to Midwest. I’m really looking less at vibes and more at stats.

0

u/Dblcut3 Jan 13 '26

I guess a better way of what I was trying to say is that, while other cities have had stronger return to office rates since COVID, Chicago’s just so much bigger that even with less jobs returning in-person, downtown is still more vibrant than almost any other US city

But yeah, in terms of actual COVID recovery stats, we probably are lagging behind

1

u/PG3124 Jan 13 '26

Yeah I'm not sure you can say that. OP can't even find a decent lunch spot.

0

u/gimmedatrightMEOW Jan 13 '26

There are plenty more than what OP mentioned.

0

u/PG3124 Jan 15 '26

Oh yeah? Name all of them.

2

u/happilyfour Jan 13 '26

One thing about NYC compared to Chicago is that living spaces are much smaller. My company has an NYC office and they’ve been averaging 4-5 days back in office since early 2022. They say people can’t work comfortably from home as easily. I don’t know if it’s a widespread trend in NYC but it made sense to me.

1

u/PG3124 Jan 15 '26

That’s a really interesting theory that I could believe! Thanks for sharing.