During the Covid lockdowns, my wife and I occasionally ordered from major steakhouses like Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris, which offered aggressive delivery deals and meal kits.
These promotions underscored how much steakhouses depended on in-person dining and how vulnerable they were when offices emptied and business travel ground to a halt.
“As remote or hybrid work continues to be popular, office attendance has declined. Less in-person work can increase vacancy rates and reduce foot traffic to other businesses located in dense office areas,” the Kansas City Federal Reserve said.
Basically, if people stopped going to the office or came in less often, businesses built to serve office workers suffered.
This has an influence on related businesses such as hotels and fine dining establishments that serve business and travel meals.
“Policy restrictions closed service facilities across the United States during
the first months of COVID. As cities emerged from early pandemic lockdowns, some, but not all, of that business returned, and many downtown establishments remained closed,” the New York Fed shared in a special report on the Future of New York City.
One restaurant chain, McCormick & Schmick’s, has suffered greatly from this shift in work patterns, contributing to a steady decline from 60 locations at its peak to 13 today.
McCormick & Schmick’s, a steak and seafood chain, was founded in Portland in 1979.
Its final Portland location closed in March 2025.
“We are grateful for our dedicated employees and the support of the Tigard community over the years,” COO Shah Ghani said in a statement reported by KPTV. “While this location is closing, we are working to relocate our team members to nearby properties and look forward to welcoming our guests to Jake’s Grill, Jake’s Crawfish and other McCormick & Schmick locations across the country.”
These brands, such as McCormick & Schmick’s, are owned by Landry’s Restaurants.
Locals took the closure hard.
“We thought it was going to be here forever,” said Bill Stockton, who came for a final meal at the restaurant with his wife, Claudia, Saturday afternoon.
“I think I’m irreplaceable,” said Claudia Stockton. “There’s nothing like it.”
Landry’s isn’t public and doesn’t report sales data, but Nation’s Restaurant News shared some insight into why the chain is struggling.
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“Houston steak and seafood concept McCormick & Schmick’s lost 10.2% in 2024 sales to $82.1 million as it shuttered 8.7% of its system to end the year with 21 locations. The chain, part of Landry’s Inc., once boasted more than 60 restaurant locations,” the Nation reported.
Those closings continued into 2025, and the chain only has 13 locations left, according to its website.
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Several McCormick & Schmick locations have closed this year as the upscale seafood and steakhouse chain shrinks its footprint under parent company Landry’s Hospitality, according to SeafoodSource.
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The last Oregon restaurant closed in March 2025marking the end of the brand’s presence in its home state of Oregon, Eater shared.
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McCormick & Schmick’s in Chicago’s Loop closed abruptly after its lease expiredsurprising staff and diners in late 2025, NBC Chicago reported.
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Charlotte’s final McCormick & Schmick location closed in May 2025ending over 20 years of service in that city. k1047.com
“A lot of these companies are finding that their sales aren’t turning out as strong as expected,” says Jim Sanderson, restaurant industry analyst for Northcoast Research. Customer traffic at full-service restaurants in the third quarter of 2024 fell 3 percent from a year ago and is 17 percent below the same period in 2019, according to CREST, Time reported.
McCormick & Schmick’s isn’t the only location of the steakhouse chain to close. Outback Steakhouse, owned by Bloomin’ Brands, recently decided to close 41 locations.
“We periodically review our asset base, and in our most recent review, we made the decision to close 41 underperforming locations. The majority of these restaurants were older leased assets from the 1990s and early 2000s,” Bloomin’ Brands CEO David Deno said during the chain’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Many American consumers have cut back on discretionary spending, according to McKinsey’s latest Consumerwise State of the US Consumer report.
“The lipstick effect, or consumers’ tendency to splurge on small luxuries or affordable products during times of economic uncertainty, has extended beyond the beauty aisle. Even though 75 percent of consumers reported trading down in at least one category, 39 percent of consumers expressed their intention to splurge in a number of categories,” according to the study.
Steakhouses, however, seem to be a luxury some people are willing to give up.
“But perhaps most importantly, consumer attitudes toward dining out have changed dramatically. The same inflation that hits restaurants hits their customers, too. When grocery bills and mortgage payments eat up more of the monthly budget, that $75 becomes harder to justify, even for those in six figures,” Money Talks News reported.
Bankrate’s 2025 Discretionary Spending Survey shows that 54% of US adults say they expect to spend less on travel, dining or entertainment in 2025 than they did in 2024. Notably, this number is higher than the 49% in last year’s survey who expected to spend less in 2024 than they did in 202023.
“The combined effects of inflation and high interest rates have strained households, contributing to record levels of credit card debt and dampening consumer sentiment,” said Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst Ted Rossman.
Related: US’s second-oldest department store chain considers Chapter 11
This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Restaurants section. Add TheStreet as a favorite source by clicking here.