‘Ton of confusion’
As restaurants try to adapt to cold weather, citations increase
Restaurant owners are looking at the arrival of cold weather the way doctors are eyeing the advent of flu season.
In this already awful pandemic year, it’s almost certain to make things worse.
That’s assuming the restaurateurs have even been able to benefit from warmweather by serving customers outdoors. Not every establishment has that kind of space, and the ones that don’t haven’t been entirely successful in accommodating people without running afoul of COVID-19 restrictions.
As a result, the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement has been busy issuing warnings and citations. From Oct. 2-6, 13 out of 45 restaurants inspected across the bureau’s Allentown region were warned about violations of occupancy limits, social distancing and mask-wearing by customers and employees.
Across all regions, the bureau issued 58 warnings and 13 citations after checking 1,150 restaurants.
It may not sound like a lot
given the size of the coverage area — the Allentown region alone includes six counties — but the bureau only deals with restaurants that have liquor licenses. Local police and health bureaus handle the rest.
Some officials anticipate warnings and violations will increase as restaurateurs continue to face the unprecedented pressure of pandemic restrictions.
They aren’t necessarily skirting the rules on purpose, said Vicky Kistler, director of Allentown’s Health Bureau.
“Now that the weather’s changing, [restaurants] are trying to adapt and it’s easy to make mistakes,” she said. “We have some of that, but we also have a ton of confusion as far as this lawsuit.”
Kistler was referring to a suit filed against the Wolf administration by businesses that challenged stay-at-home orders, the closure of nonessential businesses and restrictions on gathering sizes.
In September, a federal judge in Pittsburgh sided with the plaintiffs. Judge William Stickman IV said shutdown orders that required people to stay home, closed nonessential businesses and limited public gatherings were “well-intentioned” but unconstitutional.
Kistler said some restaurateurs heard that news and took it mean restrictions were gone, but indoor occupancy limits weren’t part of the lawsuit so the ruling didn’t apply to them.
And even if those limits were struck down, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on Stickman’s ruling pending the Wolf administration’s appeal.
“We have restaurants who went back to ‘Full-out no restrictions, I’m operating,’” Kistler said.
“So we have created mass confusion.”
Chain restaurants pose another problem, because they have locations across the country and rules differ in many states.
That means corporate owners have scrambled to adapt practices to particular jurisdictions.
In Allentown, Kistler said the bureau has responded by calling and emailing restaurants with messages on where things stand. The messages go out in English, Spanish and Arabic, and the bureau uses a language service for other nationalities.
“Whether they adhere or not is a different story,” she said. “We do go out on every complaint we get. The state police have to prioritize. They’re going to go out where there are multiple complaints or a bigger risk of damage, so a big venue with lots of people is going to take precedence.”
After the state moved into the least-restrictive green phase of its three-tiered pandemic response, the initial indoor occupancy limit for restaurants was 25%. It is now 50% for establishments that can “self-certify” COVID-19 protections.
Raising the cap helped, but not enough for restaurants that are set to lose outdoor dining once patio heaters can’t keep up with the cold.
“Wedon’t have infinite space,” said Ed Hanna, co-owner of the 4-year-old Union and Finch restaurant in Allentown, voicing the universal concern of an industry that depends on big crowds but can’t have them unless they can be spread out in accordance with social distancing standards.
Union and Finch has been praised on social media as a restaurant that does things right — enforcing mask-wearing, using disposable menus, installing hand-sanitation stations and, most importantly, seating customers at a comfortable distance.
“Wehave the ability to be more nimble, to be sure,” Hanna said, noting that Union and Finch has generous indoor bar and dining areas.
Still, losing the outside seating will hurt, so Hanna plans to defer that day as long as he can.
“We’ve got a lot of space heaters and plan to continue to use it until people don’t want to
sit outside,” Hanna said. “I ask customers, ‘What’s your threshold?’ Alot of them seem willing to take the risk and stay out there a little longer.”
Ryan Tarkowski, a civilian employee in the state police press office, said it’s hard to judge the impact cold weather
will have on pandemic compliance, but the primary goal of bureau liquor enforcement officers is to educate restaurant owners, not punish them. Since he began tracking inspections in July, 51,475 visits by officers have resulted in only about 1,100 warnings.
“The numbers have gone up and down month by month, but that’s a pretty good ratio,” he said. “We value education over enforcement and never want to put anyone’s license at risk.”
Many warnings stem from the kind of confusion Kistler noted misunderstandings over which
rules are in place and which have been eased or lifted.
“There are honest mistakes and regulations come and go,” Tarkowski said.
“We encourage them to get their news from reputable sources. There’s a lot of misinformation out there.”