One Northampton County restaurant and two in Lehigh County were ordered shut last week after allegedly violating Gov. Tom Wolf’s ban on indoor dining between Dec. 12 and Jan. 4 at restaurants, bars and related establishments, the state Department of Agriculture reports.
But at least two of those businesses were defying the mandate as of Wednesday, their owners said.
Acting on complaints, the department issued 180 written warnings, a news release said. It closed 40 of those restaurants statewide after confirming they were offering dine-in service and refused to stop, according to a news release.
Many of the complaints were unfounded, and the initial goal was to educate food-service proprietors about the new rules, a spokeswoman said.
Overall from Dec. 14 through Sunday, the department’s Bureau of Food Safety performed 493 inspections -- 89 of them due to complaints and all but five related to COVID-19. The department received 428 “food facility COVID-19-related complaints” and 87 of them were referred to local and county health authorities.
In the Lehigh Valley, American Lobster, in the 1400 block of Jacobsburg Road in Plainfield Township; Riley’s Restaurant & Pub, in the 4500 block of Main Street in Whitehall Township, and Mad Dogs Hot Dogs, in the first block of North Poplar Street in Macungie, were told last week to shut, the department said.
Shawn Berger, a co-owner of American Lobster off Route 512, said Wednesday afternoon that the restaurant is ignoring the state’s order.
“We’re still doing in-house dining,” he said. The restaurant’s website said early Thursday afternoon that reservations were still available for Christmas Eve and it will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Berger confirmed that hasn’t changed.
Shutdowns earlier in the year drained the employees’ life savings, he said. Many of them are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, he said.
“They said if we close down and they don’t work, they won’t have a Christmas,” Berger said. The restaurant’s management wants employees to have a good Christmas, he added.
Although the department said it would turn over businesses that don’t comply to the state Department of Health for legal action, Berger said the state is toothless to respond.
American Lobster, in the1400 block of Jacobsburg Road in Plainfield Township, was ordered closed after allegedly violating Pennsylvania's requirement not to serve in-house dining.Northampton County property records photo
“Legally they can’t shut us down,” he said. “It’s already been deemed unconstitutional through the courts. There’s nothing they can do.”
In September, a federal judge in western Pennsylvania ruled the earlier coronavirus-related shutdown imposed by Wolf is unconstitutional for reasons including violating the First Amendment Right to assemble.
American Lobster customers are pleased with the restaurant’s decision to keep hosting diners, Berger said.
“People have been very awesome,” he said. “They’ve been coming out supporting us.”
The restaurant has been selling many gift cards and business is up 400%, he said.
As for hoping for improvement in 2021, he said, “So far it’s already looking better.”
An inspector hasn’t returned since the shutdown order on Friday, Berger said. Once that order is given, the restaurant isn’t supposed to do carryout, delivery or curbside pickup either, a department spokeswoman said.
Riley’s Pub owner Bert Charlie said he had followed every requirement so far, but just couldn’t do it this time.
If the governor, however, provides promised money to restaurants, Charlie will shut in-house dining until Jan. 4., he said.
The chance of getting that money “is almost zero,” he said after the state failed in a similar effort to deliver all the aid already allocated for the rental market.
A report by Spotlight PA this week said Pennsylvania tenants and homeowners missed out on roughly $108 million of $175 million in federal coronavirus relief because state programs distributing the funding made it too hard to access.
“Landlords and tenants lost $100 million because the state couldn’t get rid of it,” he said. “I can’t see this money getting to us in a timely manner.”
During the shutdown earlier in the year, the business was in good shape, it got a small PPP loan and was able to pull through, he said. And his workers got the extra $600 in federal unemployment compensation, and “they were OK, too.”
This far into the pandemic, things after different.
“We’re going to stay open,” he said, citing the same constitutional argument and holiday reasoning as Berger. “We have 11 people we employ who need to have some sort of Christmas for their family.”
“It just wasn’t fair,” he said of the demand that came after the state had insisted it wasn’t going to take such action and after supplies were already bought for the following week at the pub. “I don’t believe in this one.”
People can go into big box stores without many limits and shoppers at The Crossings are “shoulder to shoulder” but not kept from their pre-Christmas chores, he said.
But if you want to sit down in a bar and drink a beer? Not allowed, Charlie said, expressing frustration.
Food and drink businesses took on extra costs to provide a safe environment, he said.
“We’ve followed every rule and every mandate until this one,” he said. “We were very strict. Not letting anyone in without a mask. Sanitizing. Not reusing the same menus.”
His worry now is the case count surges after all the holiday travel and come Jan. 3, Wolf steps back up to the microphone and keeps the order in place.
“I’m scared as hell” that’s going to happen, he said.
Managers or owners of the hot dog business didn’t return a phone message seeking comment.
The governor’s order also says employees must wear masks, customers entering the buildings must be masked as well, and social distancing is required.
The state, citing university studies, said, “restaurants accounted for a significant amount of new infections” and “that closing restaurants reduced fatality rates”.
Businesses that defy the no in-person indoor dining regulation can be fined $25 to $300 per offense, the department said in another news release.
Charlie said he always has to be concerned about his liquor license in such a dispute.
“I don’t think they can hold that over your head,” he said of the valuable asset that is regulated by the state. “You can’t have selective prosecution.”
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Tony Rhodin can be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
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