Latest restrictions irk area restaurant owners
Observer-Reporter
Mike and Lori Coury, owners of River House Cafe in Charleroi, are shown in this 2018 photo.
Holly Tonini/For the Observer-Reporter
Michael Passalacqua, owner of Angelo’s Restaurant, in the kitchen of his North Franklin Township kitchen in a 2018 photo
A couple of Washington County restaurateurs named Michael are hotter than their stovetops, ovens and fryers.
The source of their ire and fire is the new set of pandemic restrictions Gov. Tom Wolf and state Health Secretary Rachel Levine instituted July 15, in a renewed effort to tamp down spread of the coronavirus that has made the Pittsburgh region a hot spot over the past month.
Wolf and Levine ordered that restaurants reduce indoor dining from 50% to 25% capacity, as determined by state fire code; that alcohol be served on-site only with a meal; that bar service be halted; that outdoor dining be limited to 250; and that patrons and employees wear masks and practice social distancing.
For Mike Coury and Michael Passalacqua, this has been a more restrictive reboot of restrictions the state implemented in mid-March, when COVID-19 began its assault on Western Pennsylvania. To them, this is a second undeserved slap at their beloved hospitality industry.
“Our industry has been unfairly targeted,” said Mike Coury, co-owner of River House Cafe in Charleroi with his wife, Lori. “Businesses determined to be essential have remained open from the start, even though their COVID-19 transmission has proven to be a lot higher than ours.”
The River House, he said, has been open for only three weeks since mid-March – a stretch between June 5, when the county transitioned from the yellow to green phase, enabling limited outdoor dining, and last Friday, when the restaurant reopened. The facility has provided takeout and delivery services throughout the pandemic.
“We need this money, and 25% (capacity) is just not covering the bills,” Coury said. “We have to pay utilities. I had to buy two pieces of equipment (Thursday). I can’t bring my workers back. I can’t pay them all because the money is not there.
“I think it’s a struggle for everybody in our industry.”
Coury also is struggling with why bars are now off-limits. Bars were largely blamed for an uptick of COVID cases in Allegheny County, once that county went green June 5. He believes customers should be able to sit at a bar if they so choose. “Some people are scared to come out. I understand that,” Coury said. “It should be up to you. Let people make the decision.”
Twenty miles to the west, Passalacqua said, “we’re holding our own and getting by” at Angelo’s Restaurant in North Franklin Township. His 81-year-old establishment, family-run all along, has a spacious dining room, where the number of customers comprising 25% capacity is larger than at many competitors. Angelo’s also has ample outdoor dining space, with a patio and a large parking lot that can accommodate two tents partially filled with patrons.
He said the restaurant can seat 60 to 70 inside or outside.
Angelo’s did get between $150,000 and $350,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program funding, according to an online list provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration. “That’s the only reason I’m floating,” Passalacqua said.
Passalacqua, a former officer with the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, is especially upset over the indoor capacity reduction. “Restaurants at 50% are not profitable, and 25% borders on bankruptcy.”
He wants officials to release data supporting the decisions to implement the latest restrictions, but doesn’t believe the information exists. “If there were data to prove that restaurants are causing this (increase in COVID-19 cases), why is that data not being released? How can you lump Allegheny County and Greene County into the same mix. It’s impossible.”
The unrelenting coronavirus imperils his restaurant, to be sure, but Passalacqua also is worried about his peers across Washington County, the commonwealth and the nation. “The heartbreaking concern is for my industry, not just me,” he said.
Owners of restaurants, bars and taverns got to sound off Tuesday before the state House Majority Policy Committee, virtually and in person.
John Longstreet, president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, sounded like Coury and Passalacqua when he spoke.
“Reduction to 25% capacity is essentially the same as eliminating indoor dining entirely, and there is no scenario that restaurants can survive at that level of occupancy,” he said.
“The only significance of the 25% number is that it will ensure that thousands of restaurants will re-close and hundreds of thousands of restaurant employees will once again be unemployed.”