NO RESERVATIONS
Despite state orders, some restaurants open at full capacity.
Some southwestern Pennsylvania restaurant owners on Friday said they would open past COVID19 capacity restrictions to prove to state and local leaders they can operate safely while allowing more customers in their establishments.
Owners said they would maintain at least 6 feet of distance between customers or provide physical barriers while following all guidelines set forth by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rod Ambrogi, the owner of Al’s Cafe in Bethel Park and president of the new Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern Association, said something needed to be done to protect the livelihoods of those in the industry.
“I can’t make a living,” he said. “I got employees here that I got to support.” He did not know how many restaurants were participating.
On Wednesday, Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen pleaded that restaurants refrain from opening past the 25% limit.
“It is a critical time,” Dr. Bogen said, noting that community spread needs to be low as students return to school, including a large influx of college students from around the country.
“I just think that the results will be that, two weeks from now, we will have a huge problem on our hands,” Dr. Bogen said.
“We understand the pain and the stress that this is putting on, but many businesses have changed,” County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said, asking that people instead patronize restaurants through takeout and outdoor seating.
“We cannot have people going rogue and just deciding on their own that they’re going to break the law,” Mr. Fitzgerald added.
“We know what we’re doing,” Paul Kennedy, a partner at Scoglio Green Tree, said Friday. “We’re not going rogue like the media says we are.”
On the same day that the SPRTA organized what it called the Restaurant Revolution, Safe Service PGH, a service-industry safety initiative, announced it was going countywide in a partnership with the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Allegheny County Health Department to form Safe Service Allegheny.
The group offers restaurants and bars access to resources and is part of an effort to create a safe environment for service-industry employees and patrons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A majority of Allegheny County’s business owners are galvanized to do the right thing, and both large and small businesses have come together not only to commit to safety but to give greater voice to their needs and issues during this crisis,” John Longstreet, the president and CEO of the PRLA, wrote in a release.
The SPRTA asked that the state allow for as much indoor capacity as possible while spacing tables 6 feet apart, allow bar services with 6-foot distancing and barriers, and eliminate the rule requiring food to be ordered when alcohol is served.
Mr. Kennedy, who participated in the Restaurant Revolution, said his staff was excited about the potential to make more money.
The restaurant had served at least 13 tables during lunchtime, up from four or five tables during the same time over the past week. “So the support is there,” he said.
“When you have 9,000 square feet, 10 tables is nothing,” he added. But not everyone is so supportive, Mr. Kennedy said, noting he’s received death threats since announcing he would try to open beyond capacity restrictions.
Many owners say the restrictions are unsustainable and will result in widespread job losses and business closures if action is not taken soon.
Michael Passalacqua, owner of Angelo’s Restaurant in North Franklin, near Washington, Pa., said he supported the idea of the protest but did not participate because he felt it was done too soon and without enough participation.
There needed to be a statewide push, Mr. Passalacqua said. “This tiny little corner of Pennsylvania and handful of restaurants is not going to send a message to the politico. We needed to do more things first. In my mind, [state leaders] have done nothing to prove to us or any Pennsylvanian why the science dictates why they’re doing this to us.”
The restrictions were put in place following a surge of COVID-19 infections in midJune. Allegheny County was hit particularly hard, and the region saw weeks of often triple-digit increases of new cases after restaurants reopened.
On Wednesday, Dr. Bogen said the mitigation efforts kept increases in new cases under a hundred in Allegheny County for six consecutive days.
However, some restaurateurs claimed the data isn’t clear enough to justify the broad-brush restrictions.
“I can’t understand why they won’t release more data that proves that going from 50% to 25% occupation statewide or countywide mitigated this thing enough to support bankrupting people and putting people out of work,” Mr. Passalacqua said.
Case investigators in Allegheny County have noted that going to bars and restaurants is frequently the most common activity among those who have contracted the virus. Other activities include people who went to parties or worked in grocery stores.
But restaurateurs claim the data is skewed or say that it is not thorough enough to justify the restrictions.
“If it’s true, just show us the evidence and everybody would shut up,” said Rich Cupka, owner of the Cupka’s Cafe locations on the South Side. “But [Pennsylvania Secretary of Health] Dr. [Rachel] Levine will not provide the evidence.”
One Department of Health case investigation found “one bar was a shared point of potential exposure for customers and employees in at least four different counties,” department spokesperson Nate Wardle said in an email.
“Another example is of a bar that was visited by 27 cases in one county, and cases then also spread to a nearby county, confirming a need for more than countyby-county mitigation, but rather a focus on statewide efforts because people are free to travel and because modeling strongly suggests case increases will spread from the southwest to the north and east of the state and country.”
Mr. Wardle added that case counts have stabilized and appear to be on a downward trajectory since the mitigation was implemented, and that in the past week the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommended Pennsylvania continue to limit indoor dining at restaurants to 25%.
Mr. Cupka said he did not participate in the protest because he has ample seating outdoors to meet the capacity limits but said he agrees with what the participants were doing.
“Just look at the groundswell of people, the restaurants, the parents of kids that want to go back to school, want to play sports,” he said.
Mr. Ambrogi said Al’s Cafe had about 30-32 people at one time in the 12,000 square-foot location during lunch, all more than 6 feet apart.
“The virus is here,” Mr. Ambrogi said. “I don’t believe it’s going away until they get a cure for it, and we can’t survive until January [or] when they think it’s going to end.”
Asked whether the protest was worth potentially facing fines and losing his licenses, Mr. Ambrogi said, “We’re gonna lose ’em anyway. How many restaurants or bars do you think are in dire need that can’t help but close?”
Mr. Kennedy said he would continue to defy the governor’s order until the restaurateurs’ concerns were addressed by leaders.
“Give us 10 minutes. That’s all we’re asking for,” he said.