Owner to open Angelo’s Restaurant Friday

Add Angelo’s Restaurant to the list of dining spots that are opening in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf.
Michael Passalacqua, owner of the Italian restaurant in North Franklin Township, said on Angelo’s Facebook page Wednesday he will open for business at 11 a.m. Friday. He is doing so despite Wolf’s order last week to ban indoor dining for three weeks in response to the spike of COVID-19 cases across the state. The order took effect Saturday and is to remain in effect until Jan. 4.
In a seven-minute, 15-second YouTube video, he said: “I’m going to announce today that I’m going to do something completely outside of my character. I’m going to open my restaurant Friday morning at 11 o’clock.
“I can no longer sit on my hands while other restaurants are protesting and risking themselves and their licenses and everything about their businesses.”
Passalacqua, a former officer with the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, has been outspoken in his opposition to two Wolf-mandated shutdowns of Pennsylvania restaurants and other restrictions under which they’ve had to operate.
“If I thought that in being open,” he said, “that one person would get sick, and that includes our employees, I would never in a million years do this.”
Passalacqua said employees and patrons will be required to wear masks.