‘Customers are screaming’: Yorkville restaurant owners voice opposition to city’s 1% food, drink tax proposal

Yorkville City Hall

Restaurant owners say that a 1% tax on food and drink under consideration by the city of Yorkville will put increased strain on businesses that are already struggling.

TJ Banning, owner of Silver Fox, Dakota’s, Rosatti’s and other popular dining establishments, told the Yorkville City Council on Feb. 28 that the tax would discourage inflation-weary patrons from dining out.

“We’re raising our prices to the limit where our customers are screaming at us about the high costs,” Banning said to the aldermen.

Mayor John Purcell first publicly broached the idea of the 1% “places of eating” tax on food and beverages at the council’s Feb. 14 meeting.

The tax would be expected to produce about $670,000 in the first year, with the revenue to be used to support the city’s efforts to bring Lake Michigan water to Yorkville.

The city is facing upward of $120 million in capital costs for the project and already has increased water rates.

Purcell said the city could forgo a water rate hike this year if it imposes the food and drink tax instead.

Banning told Purcell and the council that Yorkville is becoming a notable dining destination, but the tax would hurt.

Inflation, minimum wage hikes, credit card fee increases and the lingering effects of the pandemic make running a restaurant a challenge, for a business that already runs on the thinnest of margins, Banning said.

Customers will go to another town to eat out, Banning said, or simply provide smaller tips to servers. Banning said his enterprises employ about 200 people.

Mark Lewan and Sean Farren, owners of Southbank BBQ and Rowdy’s, also attended the meeting to back up Banning, but did not speak to the council.

“We’re not a necessity, we’re a want,” Farren said afterward, describing eating out as optional for many people.