• Crack’d Egg owner plans to continue ignoring COVID-19 rules,

Crack’d Egg owner plans to continue ignoring COVID-19 regulations

The owner of a Brentwood restaurant in court for flouting COVID-19 mitigation orders testified Thursday that she plans to continue going against the Allegheny County Health Department’s orders as a matter of business and personal belief.

Kimberly Waigand, co-owner and operator of the Crack’d Egg on Brownsville Road, told a judge her restaurant plans to continue to ignore face covering mandates and occupancy limits, despite being told to shut down for ignoring the mitigation efforts meant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“We’re just a mom-and-pop diner living the American dream,” she told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John T. McVay. “We have our freedoms and liberties.”

The case was brought by the Health Department after Ms. Waigand refused to close her restaurant after multiple citations.

Ms. Waigand said she had no issues with the department prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m really big on cleaning, dusting, hand-washing,” she said.

She also said there have been no known COVID-19 cases among her staff or patrons and that she believes her employees would alert her if they tested positive because they know they would need to remain home.

She began crying when speaking about Gov. Tom Wolf’s closure orders.

Ms. Waigand has been a frequent critic of Mr. Wolf, previously calling his mask mandates “fearmongering” and “an agenda” in interviews with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In her testimony, she said Health Department officials wanted her to refuse service to anyone who wasn’t wearing a mask upon entry to the restaurant. She refused because, she said, she didn’t want to violate anybody’s rights.

“If you are wearing one, fine,” she said, describing her personal mask policy. “If you are not wearing one, fine.”

The restaurant has been operating at full capacity, despite occupation limits meant to reduce the spread of COVID-19 indoors.

Ms. Waigand also said the health inspector gave her the go-ahead to allow cooks to forgo face coverings because of the space in the kitchen and the discomfort from the heat.

“There is no way the back of the house is going to wear masks,” she said. “We’ll die back there.”

Asked by Judge McVay if she was willing to comply with the Health Department’s order in some degree, she replied: “No.”

Health Department inspectors testified that they had observed the restaurant serving food to unmasked patrons. When defense attorney Sy Lampl asked inspector Varangkorn Nakkeow how he measured whether tables were 6 feet apart during his inspections, Mr. Nakkeow said he eyeballed it.

Homing in on the casual response, Mr. Lampl asked how he would determine if the distance was in the margin between 5 or 6 feet.

“I try as best as humanly possible,” Mr. Nakkeow said. “We don’t take a ruler and measure, no.”

Since first drawing scrutiny from the Health Department, the Crack’d Egg has filed for bankruptcy and sued the department in federal court. The eatery also has seen controversy for advertising an event with a self-professed member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, male-only extremist group.