Chicagoans can win a VIP tour of famous city landmarks—like the Field Museum, Soldier Field and more—by ordering takeout from local restaurants, thanks to a new city initiative to support the Chicago hospitality industry.
The Take Out Chicago campaign is one of four restaurant-boosting programs announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a Thursday afternoon press conference. To participate, residents have to order from 10 different Chicago restaurants before December 15. Once they're finished, they can email the list to Choose Chicago, which will pick 10 winners via a lottery. Those winners will be treated to a private tour of a surprise Chicago attraction.
Lightfoot also announced a $10 million federally-funded grant program to help bolster the city's independent restaurants and bars. Dining and drinking establishments can apply for grants of up to $10,000 each. Applications for the grants open November 16 and will be distributed by the end of the calendar year, a process that Lightfoot said is moving "as quickly as possible."
“With the state’s recent closure of indoor dining service, our hospitality is facing yet another barrier to recovery from this absolutely absolutely unprecedented crisis that has hit them probably the most hard of any industry in our city,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor also proposed a cap on third-party delivery app fees to restaurants—a move that will need to first be approved by City Council—and announced a web portal called chiserves.com that aims to help unemployed hospitality workers re-enter the workforce.
Even if you choose not to take part in the Take Out Chicago contest, consider ordering in (we've got plenty of ideas) and staying inside. Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, announced at the press conference that COVID-19 cases are up 50 percent from last week, with a test positivity rate of around 11 percent.
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