More southwest Illinois restaurants rebel against COVID-19 rules, reopen dining rooms
More and more metro-east restaurants and bars are reopening for indoor dining, rebelling against state restrictions that prohibit it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some are trying to be secretive. Others are not.
Pizza World in Granite City announced on its Facebook page Sunday that it would reopen Monday. In an interview, owner Ryan Wortham said he’s joining a group of several local restaurants that already have been serving indoors.
“It’s too cold to eat outside,” he said. “People don’t want to eat outside. It was fine when everyone else was closed for dine-in as well, but (that has changed).”
Wortham said he’d rather pay a fine than continue losing business, which he estimated at $700 a day based on calls he received from people who wanted to eat inside or plan parties at the restaurant.
Violators of Illinois Department of Public Health regulations during the pandemic can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a fine of $75 to $2,500.
Wortham said it makes no sense that customers can go into Walmart, where multiple people handle products on shelves, but not restaurants that are cleaning and sanitizing tables after each party.
“Restaurants are not the issue,” he said.
Health officials argue that COVID-19 risks are higher in restaurants and bars than in stores because people aren’t wearing masks while eating and that the coronavirus spreads mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks.
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Restaurant roller coaster
Wortham bought Pizza World six years ago from his father, Eric, who opened it in 1996. It’s known for its pizza, salad and dessert buffet.
Wortham said customers have been very supportive of his decision to reopen for indoor dining.
“They think (the pandemic) is a hoax,” he said. “Not that it’s a hoax, but it’s just been blown way out of proportion. If people are scared or if they’re vulnerable to the virus, they need to stay home. Don’t ruin it for everybody else. They just need to be careful.”
The restaurant was busy on Monday. Most people wore masks going through the buffet.
Illinois restaurants have been on a bit of a roller coaster, closing March 17 as part of a state shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many reopened for outdoor dining on May 29 and indoor dining on June 26 under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan to restart the economy.
Pritzker banned indoor dining again on Sept. 2 in Region 4, which consists of seven metro-east counties. The ban was one of several “mitigation” restrictions imposed after the region’s seven-day rolling positivity rate on coronavirus tests hit 10.5%, well past an 8% threshold.
The counties are St. Clair, Madison, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington.
State officials have declined to lift the additional restrictions until the region’s positivity rate, which was listed as 6.9% in the latest statistics available, drops down to 6.5%, even as local leaders argue that some individual counties have reached that goal.
Stand against ‘nonsense’
Another Granite City restaurant that has advertised indoor dining on Facebook is Jerry’s Cafeteria. It posts daily videos showing its buffet of home-style meals, ranging from roast beef to stuffed peppers to country fried steak.
Owner Jon Roderick said he reopened because his carryout business wasn’t sustainable; his space isn’t suitable for outdoor dining; and his restaurant is “over-the-top” clean and adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.
“Is it a stand against the man? Not really,” he said. “But I have a wife and kids and a mortgage and college and car payments, just like everyone else, and so do my employees.”
Roderick kept his dining room open, even after Illinois State Police responded to a complaint Sept. 17 and gave him a warning for not complying with Illinois Department of Public Health regulations.
Roderick said he’s gotten a couple of negative comments on Facebook, but the reaction from most customers has been “fantastic.”
“Went there today for lunch,” one wrote on Sept. 27. “Food was excellent. Thank you for taking a stand against this nonsense and being open. Will be back.”
Many Illinois restaurants rented tents this summer so they could serve customers outside, particularly those with no sidewalk or patio seating. The owner of Uncle Linny’s Family Restaurant in Granite City reopened for indoor dining a week ago and took down his tent.
“If we shut the doors, where are the elderly going to go?” asked server Kathy Baugus on Monday. “And that’s what a lot of our clientele are. They get lonely at home, and they don’t cook. It’s sad.”
Baugus said the prohibition on indoor dining also is threatening the livelihoods of restaurant owners and employees, and it could put some out of business completely.
Baugus said customers have been very supportive of Uncle Linny’s decision to reopen inside.
“They’re like, ‘We’ll help you pay the fine,’” she said. “We have people ... They want to come eat. And we follow all the guidelines. Our tables are spaced out. We wear our masks. We clean. We don’t keep anything on the table. We don’t let anybody touch anything twice.”
Police issue citations
Misdemeanor citations to violators of Illinois Department of Public Health regulations can be issued by local police departments, county sheriff’s departments or Illinois State Police.
On Monday, Major Mike Nordstrom of Granite City Police Department declined to comment on local restaurants opening for indoor dining.
Owners of The Fainting Goat restaurant and bar locations in Breese and Pocahontas went public with their plans to continue serving food and drinks indoors in mid-September. About a week later, the Illinois State Police issued a citation.
An attorney for the restaurant’s owners said the citation had “no merit.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health had asked the Illinois State Police for assistance with enforcement in the case “because of a consistently high positivity rate in Region 4 and complaints about a small number of businesses violating public health rules,” according to a statement issued by ISP spokeswoman Beth Hundsdorfer.
“As outlined in the administrative rule, enforcement is an incremental process starting with a notice of non-compliance,” it read. “If businesses continue to not comply, as has been the case in some instances in Region 4, state or local law enforcement can issue the business a misdemeanor citation, similar to enforcing indoor smoking laws.”
County state’s attorneys determine what ultimately happens with the citations, as they do in any other misdemeanor cases.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website states that restaurants with indoor dining are more risky for spreading the coronavirus than those with outdoor seating.
The agency offers tips to reduce the risk, including spacing tables six feet apart and limiting seating capacity, which are both part of Restore Illinois restrictions.
“COVID-19 is mostly spread by respiratory droplets released when people talk, cough, or sneeze,” the website states. “It is thought that the virus may spread to hands from a contaminated surface and then to the nose or mouth, causing infection.
“Therefore, personal prevention practices (such as handwashing, staying home when sick) and environmental cleaning and disinfection are important principles. .... Fortunately, there are a number of actions operators of restaurants and bars can take to help lower the risk of COVID-19 exposure and spread.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "More southwest Illinois restaurants rebel against COVID-19 rules, reopen dining rooms."
