{"id":20722,"date":"2026-09-19T21:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T21:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/20722\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T21:33:09","slug":"whats-driving-restaurant-closures-in-illinois-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/20722\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Driving Restaurant Closures In Illinois This Year?"},"content":{"rendered":"

They’ve already closed multiple locations, but more seem to be on the way.<\/p>\n

Across America\u2019s (and Illinois’) restaurant landscape, closures are becoming more commonplace,\u00a0not just at Red Robin but across a wide variety of well\u2011known chains as companies respond to economic pressures, changing consumer habits, and tough competition.<\/p>\n

For Illinois diners, the situation hits close to home with Red Robin once again evaluating its overall footprint of locations. After closing 23 restaurants in 2025, the gourmet burger chain announced it expects to shut down another\u00a0about 20 U.S. restaurants this year as part of its broader strategic realignment.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty ImagesGetty ImagesThe Company Has Not Yet Released The List Of Locations Slated For Shuttering<\/p>\n

At last count, Red Robin still operates 14 locations scattered throughout Illinois, including:<\/p>\n

Algonquin<\/p>\n

Champaign<\/p>\n

East Peoria<\/p>\n

Edwardsville<\/p>\n

Fairview Heights<\/p>\n

Gurnee<\/p>\n

Hoffman Estates<\/p>\n

Norridge<\/p>\n

Oswego<\/p>\n

Rockford<\/p>\n

Schaumburg<\/p>\n

Skokie<\/p>\n

South Elgin<\/p>\n

Warrenville<\/p>\n

While the chain hasn\u2019t named any specific Illinois restaurants slated for closure yet, past years have already seen closures in places like Orland Park,\u00a0a reminder of how quickly the landscape can shift.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty ImagesGetty ImagesYou May Have Noticed That Red Robin Is Not Alone When It Comes To Restaurant Closings In 2026<\/p>\n

There are several really big-name brands that are dealing with a similar problem.<\/p>\n

Wendy\u2019s plans to close roughly 5-6% of its US restaurants in 2026, which is\u00a0somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-plus locations as the fast\u2011food giant adapts to slowing sales and changing foot traffic patterns.<\/p>\n

Pizza Hut, the iconic pizza chain owned by Yum! Brands, will shutter around 250 underperforming US locations in the first half of 2026 as it works to modernize and sharpen its operations.<\/p>\n

Papa John\u2019s has announced plans to close approximately 300 restaurants in North America by the end of 2027, with roughly 200 closures expected this year. Most of these are underperforming spots that haven\u2019t met brand standards or have sales numbers that can be absorbed by nearby stores.<\/p>\n

LOOK: Top pizza chains in the USTo help you find your next slice, Stacker examined PMQ Pizza Magazine’s 2025 Pizza Power report to round up the 30 biggest pizza chains in the country based on annual sales in 2023. Some are classic fast-food franchises, customizable and deliverable to our doorsteps in less than 60 minutes; others are brick-and-mortar family joints.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Stacker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They’ve already closed multiple locations, but more seem to be on the way. Across America\u2019s (and Illinois’) restaurant landscape, closures are becoming more commonplace,\u00a0not just at Red Robin but across a wide variety of well\u2011known chains as companies respond to economic pressures, changing consumer habits, and tough competition. For Illinois diners, the situation hits close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[255,2726,2725,2723,2770,2724,1597,554,926,6183],"class_list":["post-20722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-illinois","tag-articles","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-dining","tag-illinois-food","tag-illinois-grocery-stores","tag-illinois-restaurants","tag-lists","tag-local-news","tag-photos","tag-videos"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117299852355372148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}