We Love How The Bear Season 3 Honored A Restaurant Closing With A 'Funeral Dinner'
This article contains spoilers for FX's "The Bear" Season 3.
We have been waiting what feels like forever for season three of "The Bear," and now that it has arrived, we simply never want it to end. But the show often reminds us that all things, even restaurants, will eventually come to an end. The Bear pulls inspiration from real restaurants based in Chicago, including Michelin star eatery, Ever. While the real-life restaurant is still alive and well, the last episode of season three depicted Chef Andrea Terry hosting a funeral for the closing of Ever. In the show, this restaurant holds heavy significance to both Chef Carmy and his "cousin" Richie, both of whom had worked under Chef Terry and learned from her expertise in the realm of fine dining. Carmy, Richie, and Sydney are amongst the star-studded gathering of former employees, current working chefs, and friends from neighboring restaurants to honor Ever with one last dinner before the restaurant closes.
While hosting a funeral for a restaurant closing may sound a bit dramatic at first, it makes total sense that the cast of characters would want to say a final goodbye to a restaurant that made such an impact on the culinary community. During the funeral scene, Chef Terry reminds her guests that regardless of the awards, accolades, or even the refined dishes served, "It's the people they [the customers] remember." This sentiment is reflected by all the people gathered to celebrate Ever's impact and honor the hard work that goes into running a restaurant.
Keeping a restaurant open is no easy task
"The Bear" does a great job of showing the ins and outs of real restaurant competition, and how difficult it really is to keep a restaurant from closing. Restaurants famously have an extremely high failure rate — according to The National Restaurant Association, three in every ten restaurants that open will not survive the first year of operations. Even for restaurants like Chef Terry's Ever that earned major acclaim and faithful customers over the years, a few bad financial decisions or negative reviews can cause a restaurant to close.
Knowing how rare it is for a restaurant to see any success at all, the characters in "The Bear" choose to celebrate what Ever was at the restaurant's funeral, rather than mourn that it will no longer be. Restaurants are a major part of cultures and communities around the world, providing people with jobs, places to gather, and ways to celebrate traditions and cultures through food. As of 2023, there are 749,404 functioning restaurants in the United States alone, with 70% of those being single-unit operations, and 90% classifying as small businesses with less than 50 employees. When a restaurant closes, it impacts not only the workers and owners who found a sense of community working there, but also all the patrons who relied on the establishment's food and ambiance. We hope to see more real-life restaurateurs take a page from "The Bear" and honor fallen restaurants with one last celebration.