Bar owner organizes protest over county alcohol consumption ban,
At least one local bar owner will be in front of the Allegheny County Courthouse at noon Thursday to protest the county banning the sale of alcohol at bars and restaurants Sunday in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
John Pavlik, who owns Xtra Innings Sports Bar & Grille in West Deer, posted his intention to do so on his personal Facebook page Sunday soon after county Executive Rich Fitzgerald made the announcement about shutting down alcohol consumption at local establishments.
“I will have signs made that will say: SERVICE INDUSTRY AGAINST PA & ALLEGHENY CO.,” Mr. Pavlik wrote in his Facebook post.
As of Monday night, that post has more than 400 shares. Mr. Pavlik told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he has heard from fellow bar and restaurant owners and workers in Venango, Erie and Washington counties — as well as from some in Ohio and West Virginia — who say they want to come into Pittsburgh for his protest.
He did want to clarify his protest isn’t just for those who own bars and restaurants in Allegheny County, but for “all service-industry employees” in the region and “people who support their families in the service industry.”
“It’s not just about me and my establishment,” Mr. Pavlik said. “It’s about every establishment in the state of Pennsylvania. The college kids who work at these bars, the single moms and dads, that’s what this is all about.”
It’s not shocking Mr. Pavlik’s protest idea quickly gained traction among the local bar community, which appears unhappy with Mr. Fitzgerald’s decision. The Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage &
Tavern Association sent a letter to Mr. Fitzgerald Monday saying they feel the move was an “overly broad brush stroke” that punished businesses that were following the COVID-19 regulations as well as the “bad actors” that were not.
“With ‘no known cause,’ targeting one segment of a complicated economy — and one service provided by that segment — appears arbitrary and penal to the huge majority of well-intentioned restaurants, bars and taverns,” the association wrote in the letter.
That essentially encapsulates how Mr. Pavlik feels. He closed Xtra Innings in March and “struggled for 13 weeks” before Allegheny County moved into the green phase of reopening and he could resume dine-in service once again.
Mr. Pavlik’s bar is only a mile or so away from Butler County, and he’s worried he will lose business from folks who would rather drive a few extra miles to a neighboring county for alcohol.
He believes bar owners “are being singled out” over “not a big spike” in COVID-19 cases, although Allegheny County Sunday had the most new cases in the state for the first time since the pandemic started.
“My whole thought through this whole thing is, if you’re afraid of it, stay home,” Mr. Pavlik said. “That’s the way that I feel about it.”
On Thursday, Mr. Pavlik will not be staying home and will be in front of the courthouse Downtown speaking his mind whether he has any help or not.
“I know I will be there,” he said. “If I’m there by myself, I don’t care. My voice is already being heard. … Whether it falls on deaf ears or not, I did what I felt I had to do.”