SPOKANE, Wash. – Restaurants like Crave Eats. Drinks. Nightlife, Red Lion Pub, Suki Yaki and Brgr House are four of several restaurants shutting their doors in Spokane.
Spokane County hosts nearly 900 restaurants and roughly 540 operate within the City of Spokane.
While it is common for restaurants to open and close, with relative frequency. However, having multiple restaurants close at roughly the same time is of note.
The Washington Hospitality Association claims that the issues facing Spokane’s restaurants are industry-wide issues.
They argue that the main issues at hand across Washington include operational costs and COVID-related issues.
According to Anthony Anton, the CEO and President of The Washington Hospitality Association, states the average restaurant incurred about $160,000 of debt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 40% never received COVID-19 relief money.
“There’s still several operators in Spokane and across the state who never got that relief. And now…all the relief from government has run out. And they’re [restaurants] facing four years of no income, which can be a very challenging concept for anyone,” Anton said.
Anton told NonStop Local that heading into 2024, other issues facing the industry are inflation, public safety issues in Spokane and other Washington communities– this could include crime in the area or property damage to a restaurant– and, Anton added, that the industry is running about 10% short of the workforce.
However, whatever is the root cause of the Spokane closures, is still unusual, according to Anton.
“Typically, our holidays between November and December, and New Year’s Eve are our busiest time of the year…It’s typically the most profitable time of year for the industry. So, I will say even though I don’t have the data today, it is quite unusual to see this many restaurants in a central area declare closure in the holiday season,” Anton said.
