ST. CHARLES – Those who enjoyed primarily healthy, all-you-care-to-eat dining at Sweet Tomatoes in St. Charles will need to find a new place for such buffet-style meals as the restaurant closed the week of Oct. 3.
All of the salad chains' other locations in Illinois also closed after its parent company, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corporation, filed for bankruptcy.
According to court papers, a combination of reasons were blamed for the closures, but specific details about whether the St. Charles location in particular was suffering from those factors was not disclosed. Nationwide, declining sales, expensive rent and a continued increase in retaining employees due to benefits and higher minimum wages all played a factor.
While diners may miss Sweet Tomatoes, they certainly have other dining options in the area, including Olive Garden, which is located down the street.
That may be where some former employees of Sweet Tomatoes go to work as they've received an open invitation to apply for employment from Jeff Hinckley, general manager of Olive Garden, via a Facebook post.
"It's pretty crazy because I have one employee who had been working for Sweet Tomatoes for 15 years and I had to break the news to him, and he has a lot of friends that were still working there," Hinckley said. "We're starting to staff up for the holidays anyway so we put the offer out there and this thing had gone as viral as anything I had ever posted with about 550 likes and 28 shares."
It's unknown how many employees of Sweet Tomatoes in St. Charles lost their jobs, although it was likely less than 50 as the National Restaurant Association reports that 9 out of 10 U.S. restaurants have fewer than 50 employees.
Hinckley welcomes anyone who was displaced from Sweet Tomatoes to contact him for an interview.
"We've already set up four interviews for next week," he said. "So we're going to get a lot of people placed very quickly. We're also working with other local businesses so everybody gets somewhere to work before the holidays."
Those interested in working at Olive Garden can call 630-443-1122, fill out an application online at www.olivegarden.com or stop in the restaurant located at 3785 E. Main St., St. Charles.