The Burger Shop in St. Charles shuts its doors due to supply chain slowdown, rising food costs

The Burger Shop in St. Charles closed earlier this month because of the ongoing supply chain problems and rising food costs that have plagued businesses throughout the country over the past year.

Owner Marshall McCarty opened the restaurant in the Foxfield Commons shopping center on the city’s east side in late 2020.

“We started running into some major cost issues,” McCarty said. “All these things that are happening in our economy right now have really hit businesses of that size and that nature pretty hard. Last summer, it took me like three months to get Miracle Whip at one point. Burger costs went really high last summer. They came down quite a bit over the winter. The volatility in all these things is pretty extraordinary.”

In another example, McCarty said he was paying about $42 a case for french fries when The Burger Shop in St. Charles first opened.

“We are currently purchasing french fries at $56 per case,” he said. “We have only raised prices once this year. Last year, we had a slight increase in the summer when burger prices were very high. But we have yet to really claw back some of those costs and loss of profit margin. As a small business, we try to absorb as much of that as we can.”

St. Charles was The Burger Shop’s second location. McCarty attributed the closing of the restaurant to the impact of the supply chain problems, along with constraints on his time. He owns two other restaurants.

McCarty opened The Burger Shop at 17 N. Fourth St. in Geneva in April 2020 and The Walrus Room, 415 W. State St., No. 105, in Geneva in 2018. Both restaurants remain open. McCarty serves as The Walrus Room’s executive chef.

McCarty recently expanded The Walrus Room and plans to open a cocktail lounge and wine bar in the space that had previously housed Galena Cellars’ tasting room at 477 S. Third St., Suite 100, in downtown Geneva. The tasting room closed in February.

“It is a fun project that we’re really excited to bring to Third Street in Geneva,” he said. “We’re going to have a nice high-end craft cocktail program and then a nice and substantial wine list. Galena Cellars was there for 18 years. They did a great job with wine and they have a great patio there. We want to continue a great wine program in that space.”