BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Hasty Generalization, with Pessimism Bias as the most egregious example at 11.4% saturation with 71 hits. Analysis detected 842 faulty-reasoning hits from 623 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.1% and a BS Rank of 28% (19,794 of 27,322 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.40% of the article peer group.
Wishbone Chicago is closing its doors after 36 years, the restaurant’s owners announced Monday morning.
“There is no easy way to say goodbye to something that has been such a large part of our lives for so long,” Joel and Julie Nickson said in an Instagram announcement.
“To our many loyal customers and to the generations of staff members who helped make Wishbone what it became, thank you.”
The restaurant near the West Loop, at 161 N.
Jefferson St., plans to remain open through the end of August, Joel Nickson told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“It is sad, but I can’t complain.
We had a good, long run.”
Monday was bustling at Wishbone, with many customers coming in after hearing the news.
Nickson was also busy trying to set up his 42 employees with new jobs.
“A lot of them have been with me for a long time.
It’s bittersweet,” he said.
“A lot of the staff is like family.
I’m sorry it has to end like this.”
A confluence of challenges led to Wishbone’s decision to close.
It’s becoming “harder and harder” for independent restaurants to stay afloat, Nickson said.
Food and labor costs are up.
On top of ongoing inflation, egg costs last year soared to the highest Nickson had seen in 35 years of running Wishbone.
Egg costs eventually fell, but everything remains expensive, from repairs and deliveries to linens and utensils.
Wishbone has tried to pay its workers well.
But various policies, such as Chicago’s hotly debated law to raise the tipped minimum wage have increased pressure on owners.
Labor costs are the “No. 1 problem for restaurants now,” Nickson said.
“You can only raise prices so much.”
Meanwhile, Wishbone’s business didn’t recover after the COVID-19 pandemic when offices shifted to remote work.
“Friday used to be the busiest for lunch.
But now it’s the slowest.
Everybody takes Friday off,” Nickson said.
The economy remains tenuous and uncertain, so customers are spending less.
“Money is tighter for everybody,” he said.
Wishbone's catering business is also down.
In June, Wishbone had a major plumbing problem, and it lost an entire weekend of business.
“My wife and I started realizing, we’re one disaster away from being in the hole.
It’s better to pull the Band-Aid off now,” said Nickson.
“It came to a point where it didn’t make sense for my wife and I to put in personal money to keep it going.”
The restaurant business has become more challenging, Nickson said.
“I’m glad I grew up when I did.
Opening a restaurant now would be tough.
For an independent, it would be a really hard road.”
Many loyal customers have been flocking to Wishbone since the announcement, including kids who used to sit in high chairs at the restaurant but are now adults.
“People have been really upset.
It brings tears to my eyes,” Nickson said.
Wishbone opened in 1990 at 1800 W.
Grand Ave., moved to 1001 W.
Washington Blvd. for 26 years and moved again to 161 N.
Jefferson St. near Fulton Market in 2018.
When Wishbone was on Washington in the heart of the West Loop, “we did very well over there in those days,” Nickson said.
Basketball players and staffers from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios used to come to the restaurant.
“It was a fun place.”
Wishbone is well known for its Southern-inspired cuisine.
In a 1990 Chicago Sun-Times interview, then co-owner Maureen Murray said she and partner Joel Nickson used fresh seasonal ingredients.
“A lot of places say they are homestyle or Southern, but they don’t use anything fresh,” she said.
“We do.”
Menu items from the time included grits for $1 and half a marinated chicken for $5.85.
Speakers
2speakers56%attributed speech273writer words
Selected voice
95%flagged-word coverageJoel Nickson
310 attributed words89% of attributed speech52% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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