Plainfield Tap House Grill shuts down, new restaurant coming to same location

The Tap House Grill in Plainfield recently and unexpectedly closed.

But a new restaurant will be coming to the same location.

Plainfield Mayor John F. Argoudelis said Tuesday that he does not know why the Tap House Grill closed or what restaurant is taking its place.

“All we know is that a replacement restaurant will be coming in, and there will be a press release soon,” Argoudelis said. “We don’t know why the switch is being made. We know the Tap House is out and another one is going in.”

Argoudelis said people started contacting him over the weekend, and by Monday, the building was closed and the windows were papered over.

“They had just done remodeling less than a year ago, so we were a little surprised,” Argoudelis said. “I will say the restaurant business is a tough business. The ones that survived have battle scars.”

Argoudelis said the COVID-19 pandemic was especially hard on what already is a challenging industry. In September 2021, the National Restaurant Association announced that 100,000 restaurants – or 1 in 6 – closed during the first six months of the pandemic.

[ Restaurants may need new recipe for success to survive in a post-pandemic world ]

Sales were down an average of 34%, operational costs were 60% higher, staffing levels were at 71% of a pre-COVID-19 year (with 300,000 employees out of work), and 56% of adults said they knew of restaurants in their communities that closed during the pandemic, the association said in September 2021.