Restaurants have always been a high-turnover business, but according to industry experts, the pandemic changed everything.
“You see a little more types of restaurants where it’s, you order yourself or maybe use a kiosk or, you know, you go through a line, that’s called fast casual,” President and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance, John Barker said. “It’s just harder to run a restaurant today because the costs are so high.”
Barker said 2020 saw the highest rate of closures in modern history. “It stayed negative all the way until the first quarter of this year, in the first quarter of 2023, we saw the openings exceed the closures.”
According to Barker, the restaurant industry is on the cusp of a trillion-dollar industry in the United States in 2024.
The owner of The Gilmore Restaurant, Dave Gilmore, wants a piece of that pie. The high-end restaurant opened in November 2023 and is located on the first floor of the Ariel Broadway Hotel in downtown Lorain.
“We wanted to create an opportunity for legacy with food because that’s a big component of our family,” he said.
“My mother’s one of thirteen children, so we have a huge family dinner that we used to always come together, then even upon getting married to my wife, she has a big family and there’s a bunch of caterers and cooks and different things there too, so to bring both of those dynamics together it was just a huge part of both of our families.”
Gilmore said quality food, service and ambiance make the establishment high-end. “Ultimately, training our staff up to provide etiquette behind the service, and there’s just certain things that we train our staff to do so that way when you come in, you’re getting an experience that you haven’t received at other places.”
Being a Lorain native, News 5 Anchor Tiffany Tarpley noticed when this restaurant opened, there was positive feedback but also pushback about how The Gilmore Restaurant could survive in the city.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2022, the median household income in the country was $74,580. In Lorain, it was $46,562.
For some residents, menu prices at The Gilmore Restaurant were a concern. “We listened,” said Gilmore.
“We do understand that, yes, our price points are, for some people, not the greatest and when it comes to them having to spend that type of money, so we created an additional menu.”
There’s a bar menu now, and some of the price points from the lunch menu are now on the dinner menu to give diners more options.
The owner of the old Jackalope Lakeside told News 5 that his restaurant was in business in Lorain for 27 years but closed for good in October 2023.
“Covid was the killer,” said James Andrews. “It took three years, then inflation on average [was about] 48 percent.”
Andrews said the cost of food, dry goods, cleaning supplies and everything else increased.
“It was a tsunami effect.”
Andrews said three groups are looking at taking over the location.
Gilmore said things are happening in Lorain, and it’s becoming more revitalized every day.
“There’s more businesses coming, there’s more people getting invested into the city of Lorain due to those options and what we do see, we definitely think this is a great time to be a part of the city of Lorain,” he said.
Gilmore is optimistic the restaurant will be successful. “We don’t look at things from what most people would call a failure; it’s just an opportunity to do better.
