Aug 18, 2020 4 min read

I am in the restaurant business. I am watching my industry be decimated.

We were the first to close, and we are the last to reopen. We have been hamstrung, victimized and repeatedly told we are the problem. Yet there is not one ounce of truth or transparency about the data and science that put us in this position.

Recently, Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the state Department of Health, said the data proved that most restaurants were being frequented by 20- to- 40-year-olds who are passing the virus. Really? Please release that data, and remove Starbucks and McDonald’s from it. Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, said it would be in violation of HIPAA.

We did not ask for anyone’s name, birthday or Social Security number. We asked for the science. In the Aug. 13 edition of the Observer-Reporter, Bogen said bars and restaurants and private parties continue to be the place where people acquire the virus. How is that possible? Bars are barely open. Restaurants are squeezed to 25% occupancy. She said half the people don’t know where they got it. There are 13 new cases. Does that mean that six or seven are from bars, restaurants and private parties, and that is paramount to shuttering an entire industry? Something is amiss.

The governor says he has the data but won’t release it. You would think with the mounting pressure to prove why a good practice of the 6-foot rule or the use of partitions in restaurants is not sufficient to stop the spread that he would happily and fervently supply the data. How does going from 50% occupancy or simply following the 6-foot rule and limiting us to 25% occupancy stop the spread? What is the percentage of mitigation?

The irony is this: We are in the hospitality industry. We don’t need to be policed. We don’t need to be put in a position to be the police. We take care of our own. If we thought we were making someone sick, we would fix it ourselves. Without employees, guests, and vendors, we don’t exist. We want to keep people safe. Sure, there are some who don’t, but whistleblowers, tracers and enforcers can help weed out the violators.

What is the process used to make these decisions? They need to explain their process publicly as to how they get the data, how they interpret the data and how they make decisions based upon that data. Does that data really exist? In federal court the administration admitted it modeled this response from data from other states. Restaurants in Pennsylvania are not occupied in large part by 20- to-40-year-olds. They need to explain specifically the reasons for the restrictions and how the mitigation steps prevent the spread. And how this bankrupting of 26,000 facilities and 480,000 workers is justified.

The 6-foot rule and/or partition use won’t bring any restaurant anywhere near profitability. The 25% occupation rule will simply lead more and more businesses to shutter. We restaurateurs can do this safely. We want to do it safely, and we want to stay in business. Look around you. How many local and iconic restaurants are closed?

We need to be open. We need more help from our governor.

In my own case, I was able to use my parking lot for outdoor dining and make up some of the lost tables. We are working hard to follow the rules, keep our employees on staff and provide much-needed safe respite for the public. I am fortunate in that regard, but cold weather is just around the bend. So many of my colleagues are not as fortunate as I have been over this hot and dry summer, and the government with an unwilling, unyielding, unexplained vice grip on them is causing catastrophic losses.

Many restaurants in Allegheny and Washington counties are going to go rogue and not follow the 25% occupancy and move toward using the 6-foot rule with and/or partitions similar to how other businesses are allowed to operate. I spoke with one of those people recently and said, “You can get shut down, you can lose your liquor license.” He said, “I don’t have anything to lose, because if I don’t get more people in the door, I am going to lose it anyhow.”

Gov. Wolf, show us the science. Prove we are the problem.