Actually there are quite a few of those places in the city limits. Not in the heart of the city but mostly on the fringes. But the big reason is competition. There are about a zillion restaurants in the city where you can get the same food you'd get at those places but it's not some cookie-cutter stuff. I mean, why go to Red Lobster, a national chain using the same recipie everywhere so that it tastes the same whether you're in Chicago or Little Rock, Arkansas, when you can go to Cy's Crabhouse, a unique, one of a kind place where you get to pick out your lobster yourself? Why go to Denny's for breakfast when there are tons of great little neigbhborhood places like Pauline's or Soul Queen or m.henry in Andersonville or Ann Sathers or the Hot Spot in Humboldt Park? Why go to Applebees when there is Flourish in Edgewater or Wishbone in the west Loop? Why go to Culvers for a burger when you can to go Twisted Spoke? Those chain places don't come here because there's not much profit in it for them. Like I said, too much competition. They stick to the 'burbs and small cities because they know they'll pretty much be the only game in town. I mean, if you have a taste for Italian food, you have a million great choices here in Chicago. If you live in Peotone and want Italian, your only choice may be Olive Garden (if you can call that Italian). Sure, a few chains can make it here, but McDonald's and the others are US intitutions and pizza places like Pizza Hut are making it because they're cheap and they deliver. But given the choice between the Olive Garden and one of the many small but great Italian restaurants like LaDonna in uptown or even the Italian Village downtown, I'd take the small but personal cafe. No offense to the Olive Garden.
But like I said, there are a few of those places in the city limits. For instance there is an Old Country Buffet on the far north side on Lincoln Ave near Devon. There's also a Red Lobster in that area, but it's on the west side of Lincoln, which puts it outside of the city limits, but still close enough. And there is an IHop in the city on the north side near where Halsted and Clark streets meet.
It's not so much competition, there's plenty of money being spent in the city, it's all about the cost of real estate which is tremendous inside a city. This means that if you locate in the suburbs, you pay less to buy the land, lower property taxes, and stand to lose less if your store flops.
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Does anyone know why a lot of the large restaurant chains are not in the city of Chicago?Probably because of tax breaks the suburbs may give to locate or build there. It also may have to do with stricter union agreements the city has with building contractors. It's more costly to build in the city than in the suburbs.
Money. It's very expensive to set up the space necessary for a chain restaurant in the city. Also, there's so much competition in the city itself from people who are likely to go to genuine restaurants - after all, why go to Olive Garden, when you can go to RoseAngelis, Via Carducci, or Merlo?
It's not that they aren't there - there's a Red Lobster in the heart of the city near Dearborn and Ohio, an Old Country Buffet up on Lincoln and an IHOP on north Broadway, as well as plenty of Pizza Huts and Panera Breads all across the city. But it's far easier for, say, an Applebee's to set up in the suburbs near an interstate, where people are more likely to go there because there's little else around.Does anyone know why a lot of the large restaurant chains are not in the city of Chicago?
Honestly, why would some of these places come to the downtown area, pay the high prices for the rent in the area, then have to compete with world class restaurants like Gibson's or Fulton's? Then there are places like the Billy Goat tavern, Ditka's, and Harry Caray's. The places you mentioned are better off staying in the burb's.
I asked someone at culvers why there arent any in Chicago and they said its becuase crime rate is to high.
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