Record Number of Restaurants to Close; Council Meets Again on Initiative 82
By • July 28, 2025 One Comment 1556
The District Council is voting on Monday, July 28, whether or not to reconsider a controversial local law that raised the minimum wage for all restaurant workers, including thousands who make extra money on tips.
Last week, a survey by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington found that new restaurant openings are down 17 percent compared to this time last year and that hundreds of hospitality jobs are being lost as D.C. restaurants shut down at record rates — averaging two closures per week so far this year.
More than 50 restaurants have apparently closed in the first half of this year. That’s reportedly nearly double compared to the same time last year. RAMW points out that that’s hard data and is far more than Washington, D.C., saw even at the worst of the pandemic.
“Overwhelmingly, the increase in labor costs has driven folks to decide to close their doors,” Shawn Townsend, president and CEO of RAMW, told the Washington Business Journal last week. “We hear, and we see, Initiative 82 being used as the reason why restaurants are closing, time and time again, and I just question nonbelievers of that. At what point do we start to believe Initiative 82 has impacted them to the point where they had to close?”
The rapid and record-breaking restaurant closures are due to increased operating costs and the minimum tipped wage increase with the phased implementation of Initiative 82 — the ballot initiative that’s upending the way tipped workers are paid, according to RAMW. Others blame greedy landlords, high prices, President Trump’s eviscerating the federal work force in D.C. and crime.
According to RAMW, the District is apparently on pace to exceed 100 closures by the end of the year, surpassing the 2024 record of 73. Some 44 percent of full-service casual restaurants in D.C. are likely to close this year, according to its survey of 217 restaurants, conducted from late January to early February
Many restaurants are struggling to adjust to Initiative 82, the ballot initiative that in May 2025, phased out the exemption from a minimum wage for tipped wage earners in D.C. and Georgetown. The law now requires businesses to pay the base wages for servers, bartenders and other tipped workers—rather than have the bulk of their money come from diners’ tips.
In 2018, a similar proposal was annulled when tipped wage earners and restaurant owners convinced the D.C. Council that Initiative 77 (passed by the voters) would substantially hurt the income of tipped earners and increase the costs of owners to the breaking point.
In 2022, Initiative 82 was also passed by the voters, and advocates convinced the Council that minimum wage was a right for all workers. Since then tipped wage earners minimum wages have increased from $10 to $12 an hour in July. It will continue to incrementally rise until it’s on par with the regular minimum wage—currently $17.50—in 2027. But almost 1,000 jobs in D.C. have been lost due to eatery closures. RAMW has called for repeal of the law.
But proponents of Initiative 82 accuse the restaurant association of exaggerating and fear-mongering about restaurant closures in its quest to reverse the law.
“There is no significant proof that raising those wages is actually leading to a loss in restaurant growth or in those closures,” says One Fair Wage spokesperson Angelo Greco. “Singling out tipped workers is basically asking the most vulnerable employees in the DC labor market to bear the brunt of Trump’s broader attack on the DC economy. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s a red herring.”
Georgetown’s most recent restaurant closure of note was El Centro D.F. on Wisconsin Avenue.
Because restaurants are closing doesn’t mean new restaurants aren’t opening. Last year, for example, more restaurants opened than closed. The big difference is the new places will have smaller footprints and can operate with fewer employees. Observers see more of a European model going forward, where restaurant owners take a big role in running the kitchen and working the dining room.
“It’s an adaptable industry and D.C. has always been an adaptable city,” Lucky Buns chef-partner Alex McCoy told the Washingtonian last April.
These are ALL due to leftist liberal policies slowly ruining DC as we’ve known it!