Lincoln Net Gained Restaurants in 2023, With 21 Closings and 24 Openings

Last year, the city of Lincoln net gained 3 restaurants, as 21 closed their doors and 24 opened for business.

Grow Lincoln’s Robin Eschliman appeared on Thursday’s episode of LNK Today with Jack and Friends, and broke down the annual restaurant report.

Eschliman said these numbers are slightly below average for Lincoln. Over the last decade, the average number of closed restaurants in Lincoln is resting at 28.30, with the average number of openings at 30.73.

“We were a little bit under average on both closings and openings, which is interesting, but 2022 was a really busy year,” said Eschliman. The 2022 numbers were 27 closings and 38 openings.

As a data note, bars, coffee shops, cookies, juice places, food trucks are not included in these numbers. The qualifying criteria is whether the restaurant can serve two meals per day.

Eschliman offered some interesting statistical analysis of this data. She said while the majority of new openings were located in North Lincoln (located on or north of O-Street), “We also had more restaurants close in north Lincoln. 62% of the restaurants that closed this year were on O Street or north, but 50% of the restaurants that opened were O Street or north, as opposed to 33% in south Lincoln.”

She continued “17% of openings were in downtown Antelope Valley or Telegraph district. O-street/north, and its been this way for at least two years or more, they have led the growth.”

Below is a complete list of 2023’s restaurants closings and openings.

Of the restaurant openings, four of them began as food trucks and transitioned to brick-and-mortar stores: Birria Boss, Rosari’s, Soulfull Cocina, and Canyon Joe’s BBQ.