jay2021 wrote:Edzo's reopening post pandemic one would think that everything possible would be done
in order to restore business to a reasonable level.
Erratic hours, much higher prices and not accepting cash seem to work against that goal.

I'm all for the George Bailey town-rallies-to-save-bank aesthetic, but do scratch my head at the rise of digital crowdfunding for restaurant repair (or other urgent) needs. At least two other former GNRs I can call to mind recently made such campaigns and then shuttered.

I wish the best for Edzo's and hope theirs goes more the way of Brown Cow (Forest Park) which seems to have spurred a lasting recovery.

Erratic hours....I never said it was because of slacking but when a customer shows up and the place is closed when it's supposed to be open....Not Good!
Every restaurant had to raise prices but Edzo's prices appear to be higher than they should be. Not Good!
A previous post had a cheeseburger, fries and drink at $27
Some customers want to pay cash so that hurts as well.
As far as "Go Fund Me" for retaurant repairs, these issues are the restaurant's problem
not the customer's. There are thousands of restaurants in Chicagoland that need help
that turn to family and friends not the public.

jay2021 wrote:A previous post had a cheeseburger, fries and drink at $27

This was in reference to the downtown location, which no longer exists. Edzo's menu is online; the poster's order (double cheeseburger, garlic fries, can of coke) comes to $20.69, after tax.

I agree that not being open during stated hours is likely to turn off some customers, even if you have completely understandable reasons.

Lots of valid perspectives here. Let's not lose sight of the fact that there is no right or wrong. It's a shame that places are struggling but we each have our own set parameters that will guide how we choose to respond in situations like this one. I can easily see why some fans of Edzo's would want to jump on board with the gofundme campaign but can just as easily see why others wouldn't even consider it . . . and there are all those shades of gray in between, too. In any case, I wish Edzo's the best.

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Atrain53 wrote:I live in the city and have always loved my infrequent trips up to Evanston to lower the boom on an Edzos double cheeseburger. I was a regular when they had a shop in Lincoln Park, so I was pretty excited they were opening a stall at Urbanspace in the Loop. But my trip was a dissippointment. Double cheeseburger was great. Garlic fries were weak. Not much garlic and seemed a bit stale. Also had a can of coke. There were no menus posted so imagine my shock when I was told my Double cheeseburger, garlic fries and can of coke was $27. If that is what they are going to charge they should save themselves some time and close down.

That post was from Atrain53

jay2021 wrote:I live in the city and have always loved my infrequent trips up to Evanston to lower the boom on an Edzos double cheeseburger. I was a regular when they had a shop in Lincoln Park, so I was pretty excited they were opening a stall at Urbanspace in the Loop. But my trip was a dissippointment. Double cheeseburger was great. Garlic fries were weak. Not much garlic and seemed a bit stale. Also had a can of coke. There were no menus posted so imagine my shock when I was told my Double cheeseburger, garlic fries and can of coke was $27. If that is what they are going to charge they should save themselves some time and close down.

Not sure if that UrbanSpace location is still open (lots of vendor turnover at that location), but the Evanston location's prices are right up there. A double cheese is $12.99 and an egg or bacon adds $2 (for each item). Garlic fries adds $4 and Coke adds $2. So you're almost at $20 (plus the cost of going to/from Evanston).

jay2021 wrote:Edzo's reopening post pandemic one would think that everything possible would be done
in order to restore business to a reasonable level.
Erratic hours, much higher prices and not accepting cash seem to work against that goal.


I'm sorry if you are not willing to take cash your not getting my business. Ever. I get the fact that some people like paying with their phones or a credit or debit card. And if I was going to Ruth Chris steakhouse I probably would use a card as well. In the same way that a business that is cash-only should think about opening other payment options a business that refuses to take cash is only hurting themselves.

The no-cash policy is not going to leave us anytime soon. Portillo's has designated all its drive-throughs as cashless, which makes sense because they have employees taking orders from waiting cars and handling cash makes them easy targets for robbery. Eliminating the need to handle cash simplifies operations as well. You're less of a target for criminal activity and nobody needs to make physical cash bank deposits at the end of the day. On a recent visit to Barcelona several of the vendors in the Boqueria had big ATM-like machines that handled all cash transactions and made change so the workers didn't handle any cash at all. Cashless is where everything is trending. I personally embrace it. I can go for weeks without handling any cash at all. It does force me to dig for dollars when we have a situation that involves valet parking (pretty infrequent) but that's pretty much it.

I forget the name of the pizzeria in Chicago, but it does not accept cash, and it has a sign to that effect when you enter the place, and a robber tried to hold them up, and asked for their cash. When the owner said they did not have any cash, the guy stole some money that was displayed on the wall from the first sale the restaurant had, and then left. This was in the news a few days ago.

I just checked Edzo's Facebook page, and they are again offering dine in. They got their exhaust fan problem solved, but it sounds like they are still having staffing problems. They are closed on Sunday and Monday. They do not say you cannot order at the restaurant, but they encourage you to order on line, and so maybe somebody can ask the next time you go there. The first time the exhaust fan quit on them, it cost them $2,100 to replace it. I don't know how much it cost the second time. Between the weather, the holidays, staffing problems, and the exhaust fan problems, they were not open a lot around the holidays.

At least they did not ask for a lot of money. Al's Deli and Bookends and Beginnings in Evanston are asking for a whole lot more on their go fund me page. I have been going to the dental school at UIC a lot, and a few times, I went to the student union down the street on Polk, and they have lots of fast food restaurants there, and none of them accept cash. They started this after the pandemic started because of COVID concerns. I just went to the Starbucks there last month, and they still do not accept cash.

Just a comment on no-cash restaurants...

The City of Evanston has been debating the imposition of an ordinance that requires all retail businesses licensed within city limits to accept cash payment.

So the cashless policy at Edzo's and several other places in Evanston may soon require abolition, unless the business chooses to cede its license.

https://evanstonnow.com/cashless-ban-advances/

For the record, if I resided in Evanston, I'd be supporting this ordinance. It is absurd, even in the world of COVID, that currency is not accepted by businesses. It is just another form of discrimination against those whose economics prevent them from having a banking relationship.

I think that not accepting cash is silly and self-defeating. Remove as many obstacles as you can that might prevent customers from patronizing your business, especially if you're struggling, as Edzo's appears to be. I'd even go as far to say that not accepting "legal tender" should be illegal.

From a pandemic pov, does anyone really believe that not accepting cash is measurably safer than not accepting it? As long as breathing bodies share a space, a minor detail like that isn't going to move the needle very much, if at all. If the decision is about not trusting employees to handle cash, then it's probably time to turn off the lights for good.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:If the decision is about not trusting employees to handle cash, then it's probably time to turn off the lights for good.
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Some if it may have to do with trust but a lot has to do with safety, especially at a place with only one or two employees in the evening (as well as avoiding the need for a cash drop). There's a reason every Walgreens and most stores sell prepaid reloadable cards; many people don't have banking services or cannot obtain a conventional credit card. There are non-onerous work-arounds.

Maybe there's hope for Evanston if they indeed put an ordinance thru requiring a business to accept cash. I generally avoid Evanston with the exception of the Spice House as they've become too woke for me. Hope it works out for Edzo's and they resume taking cash as I will frequent their establishment. And post Covid I don't believe handling cash will cause you to become ill. Not washing your hands and sanitizing your smartphone will up your chances of coming down with something.

NFriday wrote:I forget the name of the pizzeria in Chicago, but it does not accept cash, and it has a sign to that effect when you enter the place, and a robber tried to hold them up, and asked for their cash. When the owner said they did not have any cash, the guy stole some money that was displayed on the wall from the first sale the restaurant had, and then left. This was in the news a few days ago.

It was George's Deep Dish.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/ge ... -burglary/

I tried calling up Edzo's to see if they do accept cash, and they are closed. I went to their Facebook page, and they are still having problems with their exhaust. Eddie is looking for a good HVAC repair person if anybody knows somebody they can recommend.

Hi- I live in Evanston, and the Evanston library never required people to show proof of vaccination in order to enter the building. You had to be masked for a while, and yes the restaurants did require proof of vaccination for a few months, when cases were really high last year, but so did Cook county.

In 2020 the Evanston farmer's market actually strongly encouraged the farmers to accept credit. They were worried about the contamination when money exchanges hands. There were a few growers that only took credit if you bought $50 worth of stuff, and there were a few growers that preferred not to take cash. The reason I like to pay with cash at the farmer's market, is because that way I know how much I am spending. When I am charging everything it is too easy to spend lots of money without realizing it.

I was at McDonald's today, and I wanted to pay cash, but you are supposed to order from the kiosk, and the kiosk does not take cash, and so I ended up going next door to Starbuck's which took my money.

spinynorman99 wrote:There's a reason every Walgreens and most stores sell prepaid reloadable cards; many people don't have banking services or cannot obtain a conventional credit card. There are non-onerous work-arounds.

True, but almost all of these charge fees. Some are free if coupled with payroll direct deposit. So the reason all these stores sell them is they make money. And from people who generally don't have a lot to spare. One solution proposed to Congress: public banking through the post office.

LTH,

We removed a few posts from the thread that ran afoul of our Posting Guidelines.

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for the Moderators

I just looked at the article in Evanston Now about the proposed ordinance which would require Evanston businesses to accept cash. It mentions that this ordinance would not apply to restaurants, sports venues or entertainment venues, and so that means Edzo's would be exempt.

At Jewel for a while at the self checkout, they did not accept cash because of the coin shortage, and there were some business that only allowed you to use cash if you had the exact amount. Aldi's has self checkout in their stores now, and you cannot use cash in their self checkout lanes. If you go there in the evening lots of times they do not have a regular checkout open.

I am sorry, but I just looked it up, and the Evanston public library did require people to show proof of vaccination a year ago for a while. I don't remember them doing that. I do remember then taking your temp and requiring people to wear masks for quite a while. I did not go to the library very much back then because they were only open limited hours. While they were doing all this though a lot of public libraries in the Chicago area did not allow people to enter the library. Evanston decided to open up their library because a lot of people relied on the libraries computers.

NFriday wrote:I was at McDonald's today, and I wanted to pay cash, but you are supposed to order from the kiosk, and the kiosk does not take cash...

Yeah, McDonalds locations seem to be very variable in their order-taking process, especially for a company that was once known for its uniformity. Some still have attended registers, some ignore customers waiting at the registers, some allow customers to order via kiosk or (I think) app and pay cash at the register. Creates a lot of confusion and turns away customers in frustration without gaining much. Reminds me of when Wendy's kept in store dining closed long after everywhere else opened up. The new fast food chain philosophy seems to be "Have it Our Way!" And bringing that back to the original discussion, it's a great opportunity for more flexible locally owned restaurants to shine.

Posted on facebook eight hours ago:

We are once again closed for dine-in as we continue to troubleshoot this stubborn exhaust fan issue. So you’ll have to take your loaded fries to the streets.

Cathy2 wrote:Posted on facebook eight hours ago:

We are once again closed for dine-in as we continue to troubleshoot this stubborn exhaust fan issue. So you’ll have to take your loaded fries to the streets.

Nothing worse than mystery electrical issues which appears to be the root of the problem. He updated the GFM today and gave a bit more info than what’s on FB. Hoping they figure it out soon.

Edzo's is still having electrical problems, and is now looking for $40,000 at their gofindme page. The electrician he was using charged him for a bunch of work that his HVAC guy said the electrician never did. Eddie has another electrician coming out, and somebody on his Facebook page suggested that he check the wiring in the building, or the wiring coming into the building from the outside..

Edzo's is still open for takeout, but not for eating in until he gets his exhaust fan problem figured out. He has had three exhaust fans die on him in the past month.

NFriday wrote:Edzo's is still having electrical problems, and is now looking for $40,000 at their gofindme page. The electrician he was using charged him for a bunch of work that his HVAC guy said the electrician never did. Eddie has another electrician coming out, and somebody on his Facebook page suggested that he check the wiring in the building, or the wiring coming into the building from the outside..

Edzo's is still open for takeout, but not for eating in until he gets his exhaust fan problem figured out. He has had three exhaust fans die on him in the past month.

How heartbreaking . . . for Eddie and for all the folks who already plunked down some dough.

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I don't know much about repair work but I would assume if something broke 3x in a month that there would be some warranty and or liability with the repair person/company that does the work. What is the point of paying a huge $$$ amount of money for something to break in a couple weeks without any form of guarantee and compensation!

I assume that there is a warranty on the exhaust fans, but it would not cover instillation costs. Eddie should have researched the first electrician more before he hired him. Hopefully now that he has another electrician that was recommended to him, and somebody on his Facebook page told him what he suspected the problem was, he will finally get a working exhaust fan.

polster wrote:I don't know much about repair work but I would assume if something broke 3x in a month that there would be some warranty and or liability with the repair person/company that does the work.

It wouldn't surprise me if they're buying them on the secondary market: there are enough restaurants that fail that used equipment has got to be plentiful. Hard to get a warranty enforced in those cases, even if they're new enough.