Report shows positive strides for Lincoln restaurants

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - After a brutal couple years during the pandemic, locally owned restaurants are still taking a hit.

A recent report shows most of the restaurants that closed last year in Lincoln were local rather than chains, but also that the industry is making positive strides.

That report was put together by Eschliman Commercial Real Estate.

They said 2022 was actually a surprising year, with higher-than-average restaurant openings, and below-average closures.

A Lincoln restaurant owner said he’s experienced both in his career, and it hasn’t been an easy task opening a restaurant during a pandemic, juggling inflation, and a labor shortage.

Lawrence De Villiers is a managing partner for L’s Kitchen, which opened in April 2020.

“This was taking a risk considering the pandemic, but we felt like it was worth the risk,” De Villiers said.

De Villiers said he’s opened and closed many restaurants, but did something different this time around.

“I base it all on my employees” De Villiers said. “I invested all my money on them, and then we came up with a menu, and then we came up with a concept. The idea was to build a team. But that’s the big challenge in the restaurant business.”

Like many industries, finding workers can be a challenge for restaurant owners. Lawrence said that can be a big reason for closures.

In a report put together by Eschliman Commercial Real Estate, they found 26 restaurants closed in Lincoln in 2022, with nearly 80% being locally-owned. The remainder were chains.

Lincoln also welcomed 37 restaurants last year. With 70% of those being locally-owned.

“You would think people would cut their spending by cutting going out to eat,” said Robin Eschliman, president of Eschliman Commercial Real Estate. “But I do think that during the pandemic, we developed a real love and appreciation for our restaurants.”

De Villiers agrees.

“This was probably a collateral effect of the pandemic is that we want to support each other,” he said.

The report shows that 2022 was the second best year for restaurant openings since the real estate agency started keeping track 10 years ago. The last time it was this high was 2013.