Name: Several Hampton Roads restaurants shut down by state over weekend for not following COVID-19 rules
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Several Hampton Roads restaurants shut down by state over weekend for not following COVID-19 rules

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AdvertisementBy The Virginian-PilotJul 21, 2020 at 3:53 pmRestaurants and places where people normally congregate had been warned, in theory. As COVID-19 cases in Hampton Roads ticked up, Gov. Ralph Northam promised July 14 that enforcement to ensure that precautions were being taken would increase in kind.Under Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan, which began July 1, Virginians still aren’t allowed to sit at bars or gather close together. Customers who aren’t in the same party must be separated by 6 feet at restaurants, and employees interacting with customers must wear face masks covering their noses and mouths at all times.Advertisement“If any such business cannot adhere to these requirements, it must close,” said Northam’s most recent executive order.Some restaurant owners were still surprised by unannounced weekend inspections, though, that resulted in several places in Norfolk and Virginia Beach being shut down by the Virginia Department of Health.AdvertisementMack’s Barge, The Living Room Lounge and Chicho’s Backstage Cafe in Norfolk were ordered to close, as were The Boxx and Central Shore in Virginia Beach, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The agency said no other Hampton Roads restaurants or bars had been shut down and just one other, in Chesapeake, had a violation that had already been resolved. It also generally wasn’t known when the closed restaurants might reopen. Suspension of an operating permit may be lifted only after violations have been corrected and verified by inspection.A health department spokesman said the primary issues inspectors observed were congregating and sitting at bars, and a “significant lack of social distancing,” according to the department of health. Improper mask-wearing and a lack of masks were also observed in some cases.Restaurant owners who spoke with The Pilot said they thought they were playing by the rules, especially at a time when business is so slow that they’re barely, if ever, reaching a fraction of their capacities seemingly, making social distancing needs moot if so few people are going out to dine and drink.“We’re trying and we’re doing the right thing,” said Mack’s Barge owner Geoff Fout on Tuesday, days after his restaurant was closed by inspectors. He said he believes the health department came into his restaurant, along with two ABC agents, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday already intending to shut him down. At about that time, he said, two customers had momentarily turned their chairs around from a nearby high-top table to face the bar and placed their drinks on the bar counter. The health department also told him he didn’t have enough flyers noting COVID-19 precautions posted in the restaurant and that his bartender, also his daughter, hadn’t been wearing her mask properly, something Fout disputed.He attributed his permit being pulled primarily to the two customers who happened to place their drinks on the bartop, saying the health department overreacted in his case.“There was literally nobody in the restaurant,” he said, besides the party that included the two men.The location in Norfolk had been the subject of at least three complaints in June by members of the public reporting to the state what they saw as violations of the COVID-19 orders at the time, including people not wearing face coverings, keeping their distance or being below capacity requirements. Flout said the rules have been fluid and changing, and said he wasn’t worried when the governor announced stepped-up enforcement because “we’re trying and we’re doing the right thing.”He said the callers who complained could have an agenda or may not have known why an employee wasn’t wearing a mask at a given moment, including medical reasons, he said.AdvertisementFout said he met with health inspectors Monday afternoon and was still working out plans with them Tuesday morning in hopes of reopening sometime Wednesday after an in-person walk-through, “to show how we’ve plastered the place with signage galore,” among other changes, including moving any seating near the bar. He’s still not entirely sure how to police customer behavior aside from hiring a full-time security guard to do so.No fix will ever be 100% fool-proof, he said.The 53-year-old said he’s been running restaurants for 30 years and had never been shut down for a violation before.“To me, it’s crazy that they didn’t work with us,” he said.“I’m telling ya, this is wearing me out,” he said, adding that he felt the inspections were targeting small businesses rather than big-box retailers with bigger legal budgets, and he fears being shut down again at a time when he’s working more hours than ever, and earning just enough to pay bills. “It’s tiresome. We’re scared.”A manager at Chicho’s Backstage Cafe, a restaurant and entertainment venue, said he was there Saturday night when inspectors closed the business and it was well below capacity, with 79 people in a space that can fit 299, and masks were required for entry and being sold at the door for $1.AdvertisementThe owner of Central Shore, Billy Hudson, didn’t want to comment when reached on Monday evening.A man who answered the phone for The Living Room Lounge and confirmed he was with the venue said the business was closed “for renovations.”“Whoever told you that was totally wrong,” he said of the health department’s closure before hanging up. A health department spokesman confirmed the Living Room’s address later.Rodney Ochave, co-owner of The Boxx in Virginia Beach, thought his venue was following the guidelines as much as it could before Saturday night. Staff outside were using no-touch forehead thermometers and had been told to bar anyone with a temperature of 100.5 or higher, he said. He had posted printouts of the state and CDC guidelines around the venue. Masks were mandatory before entry, even though they were getting pushback from some potential customers and losing business to nearby bars that were less rigid, he said.WeekdaysBusiness news for the Hampton Roads region &gt; “I believe I did everything they required or recommended,” he said, noting the difficulty of telling young customers who might feel invincible that they could possibly catch it, too, if not for a mask.Still, he conceded his bartenders weren’t always wearing their masks properly; some kept them on their chins or hanging from ears because it was hot and they had trouble talking to customers ordering drinks. Customers, too, weren’t always wearing them once inside, instead tucking them under their chins.Advertisement“I’m not going to deny that. We were guilty of that,” he said Monday.He said he knows the inspectors are doing their jobs, but he lamented the lack of a warning, first, before getting shut down around 11 p.m. Saturday.He said it’s not as if the pandemic had been going on for years, rather than months, and it was second nature to wear masks inside.“Why couldn’t they go to the bars next door or across the street? Why is it mine?” he asked Monday. He said there are plenty other business owners who, like him, are still adjusting to this new normal in which there doesn’t seem to be a clear, black-and-white directive and people are still getting used to wearing masks as a default.On Tuesday, he said staff at The Boxx would get training from a health inspector. Ochave said he hoped to learn more about what his business needs to do and how to manage that, including coaxing customers to put their masks back on. After that learning session, he’s hoping for one more thing: to reopen. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy The Virginian-PilotJul 21, 2020 at 3:53 pmRestaurants and places where people normally congregate had been warned, in theory. As COVID-19 cases in Hampton Roads ticked up, Gov. Ralph Northam promised July 14 that enforcement to ensure that precautions were being taken would increase in kind.Under Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan, which began July 1, Virginians still aren’t allowed to sit at bars or gather close together. Customers who aren’t in the same party must be separated by 6 feet at restaurants, and employees interacting with customers must wear face masks...

Several Hampton Roads restaurants shut down by state over weekend for not following COVID-19 rules

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