Lunch business in the Loop is improving, albeit slowly. It’s been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic turned the usually bustling downtown business district into a ghost town.

In 2024, Americans ate 3% fewer lunches out at restaurants and other venues, with a growing number of people opting to pack their lunch, according to Circana, a Chicago-based consumer analytics firm.

One of Chicago’s first Hawaiian restaurants on musubi, saimin and the classic plate lunch “Hawaiian food is so much more than pineapple,” says the co-founder of Aloha Eats in Lincoln Park.

The Dining Table podcast: Where to eat lunch downtown when business is on the menu By Crain's Staff Reprints Share ...

It's the Turkey Trot trail in Chicago which I do every year at Thanksgiving with my sister Nina and cousin Jonny." 🥗 Lunch: " Athenian Room … It's such a classic.