A popular suburban eatery is shutting its doors for good, as the Rainforest Café at Woodfield Mall will close at the start of the new year.
According to a company official, the café is closing because the restaurant’s lease will expire on Jan. 1, and the company has opted now to renew the lease with the mall.
“Due to a natural lease expiration, Rainforest Café, located in Schaumburg at Woodfield Mall, will cease operations on Jan. 1,” Landry’s Restaurants VP of Operations Don Hart said in a statement. “We are grateful for the support of our community and encourage our guests to visit us at our two other Chicago-area locations.”
The company says it is working to relocate employees to other restaurants in the Chicago-area, including the Rainforest Café location in downtown Chicago and in Gurnee Mills. Morton’s The Steakhouse, McCormick and Schmick’s, Bill’s Bar and Burger, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. are also managed by Landry’s.
While the company did not indicate that it is exploring shutting down the other Rainforest Café locations, the landlord of the downtown location told the Chicago Tribune that he is preparing a “new use for the site” when the current lease expires for the restaurant.
The site could be developed for a new retail tenant or a high-rise, the property owner told the Tribune.
