Via its Instagram account, Northern Chicken announced that it was closing its seven-and-a-half-year old 124th Street location.
And, in an email to Edify, Northern Chicken co-founder Matt Phillips warned that the future of the 104th Street location is very much in doubt.
The fried-chicken restaurant has won several accolades from Edify. It’s been named Best Fried Chicken on our Best Restaurants list, and its Nashville Hot Fried Chicken has been placed on our Best Things to Eat list. It has championed itself as being an inclusive space.
But, despite its reputation, Northern Chicken could not overcome a series of economic punches to the gut.
“It’s a multitude of reasons why we closed,” wrote Phillips in an email. “Inflation and rising costs, huge decrease in business, and also the upcoming CEBA loan repayments all played into this.”
Glendon Tan, who owns the 124th Street Building Northern Chicken called home, said that, over the last couple of years, rent deadlines were extended and some costs were even forgiven. He said that it’s in “his best interest” to make sure his tenants could survive in what’s a tough economy.
As for the Northern Chicken location on 104th Street, the next few weeks will be crucial.
“Downtown will remain open for a while, our lease is up there in the next couple months, so some tough conversations will need to be had about the future in the coming weeks,” wrote Phillips.
Jan. 18 is repayment D-Day for Canadian business that took out CEBA loans to see them through the pandemic. Restaurants Canada has been actively pushing for an extension to the repayment deadline, but so far there has been no movement from the federal government. A recent Restaurants Canada survey of its members found that one fifth of proprietors who took out CEBA loans are “on the brink of closing one or more of their locations.”
The organization states that 53 per cent of restaurants in this country “are operating at a loss or barely breaking even,” compared to 10 per cent before the pandemic.
