Natalie’s takes stand: No shots, no entry
Music venue one of few restaurants with policy
Apair of workers sitting behind a desk just inside the entrance to Natalie’s
Coal-fired Pizza spent much of their evening looking at small paper cards and smartphone screens on a recent Friday. h A sign just inside the front door asks patrons to have proof of vaccination ready. h Customers of the
Grandview Heights-area restaurant need to prove they’ve had their coronavirus shots or furnish a recent negative COVID test to dine there or attend a concert. Customers can show a vaccination card or a picture of the card on a smartphone. h “We wanted to protect customers, staff and performers the best that we could, and it seemed like this was probably the best way to go about doing that,” owner Charlie Jackson said.
Vaccine requirements are common among Greater Columbus music venues, but Natalie’s – which also has a Worthington location – is one of just a handful of Ohio restaurants to require proof of vaccination. Natalie’s appears to be the only Greater Columbus restaurant with such a policy.
A recent Ohio Restaurant Association survey of roughly 100 restaurants found that none of them require customers to prove they are inoculated against COVID.
Despite the survey results, Ohio Restaurant Association President John Barker said he is aware of restaurants that require proof of vaccination, although “it’s a very, very small number.” “It’s 1% of all restaurants at best,” he said. Customers have hurled insults at – and in rare cases, assaulted – restaurant workers enforcing mask and social distancing mandates, and restaurateurs are reluctant to put their staff through even more abuse by taking a stance on a subject that elicits such a visceral reaction.
“The servers, the people that welcome you when you come in, and the managers have had to put up with a lot of aggression for the past year,” Barker said.
A handful of Cincinnati and Cleveland-area restaurants require proof of vaccination.
“I think the fact that we’re also a music venue makes the dynamics a little different,” Jackson said of Natalie’s.
“My personal opinion is the more people that get vaccinated, the quicker this is going to settle down.”
Charlie Jackson Owner of Natalie’s
A live performance involves dozens of people crowded together in a confined space, a prospect that calls for caution during a global pandemic.
Jackson said the dining area at Natalie’s is so close to the stage that it made sense to hold diners to the same standard as music fans.
And the restaurateur considers vaccinations the surest way to bring the world out of the pandemic.
“We hope that at some point the situation is going to improve,” Jackson said. “My personal opinion is the more people that get vaccinated, the quicker this is going to settle down.”
Doctors share this belief.
Even with the emergence of highly transmissible COVID variants, infectious disease experts still consider widespread vaccination and booster shots the most straightforward way to keep coronavirus surges under control.
“Unless vaccines are proven ineffective against a variant (which has not happened) they will continue to be the backbone of our defense,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
As a music venue, Natalie’s is hardly alone.
Spacebar on North High Street in Old North Columbus was early to adopt a vaccine requirement over the summer, and other venues followed in its footsteps. Natalie’s adopted its own requirement in July.
Promowest Live requires all customers to provide a vaccination card or a recent negative COVID test.
The concert promoter operates four Columbus music venues, including Express Live! in the Arena District and Newport Music Hall in the University District.
A Promowest spokesperson said the company adopted the policy so it could continue to host live music.
In some ways, the venues don’t have a choice. Many of the bands that play in Greater Columbus want fans to be vaccinated.
“There’s been a number of them that probably wouldn’t have booked a show if we had a different policy,” Jackson said.
The requirement isn’t without its detractors. Anti-vaccination groups protested outside of the Natalie’s on the Northwest Side in August.
Jackson said he would rather not discuss the backlash except to say that most customers approve of the policy.
“This has been an emotional thing and it’s been a political thing, and extremists on all sides tend to get all worked up about it,” Jackson said. “It’s to be expected that any time you’re in the midst of that there’s going to be some pushback. For the most part our customer base has reached out to say ‘we support this and we thank you for doing it.’ ” pcooley@dispatch.com @Patrickacooley