Mayor encourages Aurorans to support restaurants

The City of Aurora put out an all-call for restaurants on March 17. Within hours, dozens of local eateries had responded.

In an effort to support local restaurants that are now closed for dine-in service through the end of the month due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis, the city will help restaurants promote their menus and delivery and/or takeout options over the next two weeks of the closure.

"Let's make a deliberate and consistent effort to support our Aurora restaurants during these challenging times," said Mayor Irvin who used the curbside option to order lunch today from longtime Aurora restaurant Reuland's. "We are Aurora Strong, and Aurora is still open for business."

Restaurant owners or managers can register at www.aurora-il.org/restaurants, where they can share their menus, hours and specify options for deliveries, including if they are using popular apps like Grub Hub, Door Dash and Uber Eats.

The city will publish its first version of the list tomorrow at the same website and on social media.

To help flatten the curve and to enforce stronger social distancing measures, Gov. JB Pritzker closed all bars and dine-in restaurants in the state, effective last night through the end of the month. Restaurants can still offer takeout and delivery services.

During Mayor Irvin's emergency media briefing on Monday, he was joined by local restaurant owners Ryan Reuland of Reuland's Food Service, Roberto Avila of Altiro Latin Fusion, Ron Woerman of O'Malley's Pub and Spartan House, and Mark Cabrera of Chick-fil-A Fox Valley.

All expressed concerns about the potential loss in business and the need to find alternative ways to serve the community during the closure period.

"These are trying times, but we're all in this together," said Woerman.