(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A Naperville restaurant that employs many people with developmental disabilities is closing next week, but the owner plans to keep working on her mission.
Thi Tram Nguyen says customers of Chez Francois Poutinerie have been so sad to hear the restaurant in downtown Naperville is closing.
“I think we had the perfect food, the perfect employees, the perfect restaurant. Everything was perfect. The only problem is the rent,” she tells WBBM Newsradio.
Nguyen started serving up Canadian comfort food as a way to give her son Francois, who has autism, and others with disabilities job skills and a place to work.
“Everybody can have a place in the community, everybody can do a job,” she said.
Her next job will be going around to other local businesses to place her remaining interns. She says the restaurant that’s moving in has agreed to hire six of her employees, and two other members of Team Poutine will go to work in a dental office.
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