A message from Christine Jeffries, President of the Naperville Development Partnership: Right now, as we all know, we’re living in unprecedented times. These are uncharted waters, to see an entire industry shut down and so many businesses affected by the coronavirus. So, what we’re looking at from our standpoint, the Naperville Development Partnership, The Visitor’s Bureau, and DineNaperville, is how do we get through this together? And what will it look like on the other side?
So, our first message to everybody in Naperville is don’t cancel. Postpone. Reschedule. It’s those future bookings, and I agree they may be uncertain, they may have to be changed again, but our economy will really rebound if people reschedule and postpone rather than cancel.
The other thing, Naperville has over 300 restaurants. A lot of the restaurants are going to remain open during this time. The Governor has announced that all restaurants will be closed for in-store dining, so you cannot go into a restaurant, sit down, and eat. However, you can go to the restaurants that are still open, you can purchase at the counter.
Most of our restaurants that are staying open are providing both curbside delivery and delivery through their own services, DoorDash, Uber Eats and that. The DineNaperville website has a listing of every restaurant we’re aware of that’s staying open during this time and what their services are. There are close to 150 Naperville restaurants.
The reason I am asking people to go ahead and carryout as if you were going to dine in and support these restaurants is there are thousands of employees that will remain on staff if this is successful. So, there will still be thousands that will be let go, but their ability to get back to work as soon as this is passed is so important. And the only way that’s going to happen is for us to support the restaurants through this period.
So, I ask people, log in to DineNaperville. Front and center is the Click Here button. It will tell you every restaurant and what their service and deliveries are. So please, this is what’s going to help support our small businesses, our existing businesses and keep people employed.
