356 PA Businesses Defy Gov. Wolf's COVID-19 Mitigation Orders

PENNSYLVANIA — Hundreds of restaurants and bars across Pennsylvania remain open for indoor dining, and many gyms have also refused to shut down, in open defiance of the recent coronavirus mitigation orders put in place by Gov. Tom Wolf, according to a directory compiled by opponents of the shutdown.

The businesses are being "advertised" on a public Facebook group that now has more than 43,000 members. The businesses are also listed together in the directory at PAlockdown.com (every business on this listing has not had its status independently verified by Patch). Businesses decry the recent restrictions as government overreach, adding that it will decimate industries that were already just barely holding on through the pandemic.

"We want our customers to decide to do whatever makes them comfortable," shared Tosco's Brick Oven Pizza, in Pennsburg, Montgomery County, among the eateries still offering indoor dining. "We have worked hard to follow CDC guidelines and know that we can continue to safely serve our customers."

The directory, which included 356 establishments as of Friday morning, includes businesses in counties across the state, from Philadelphia, Montgomery and Berks to Allegheny, York and Centre. The Facebook group attracted its significantly following overnight after launching last Friday.

In Bethlehem, Seven Sirens Brewing Company opened its doors a month before the pandemic began. In a social media post, it said that if it had received more federal funding, that would've allowed it to temporarily close and get "through the winter."

But that didn't happen. Instead, the business consulted with its lawyers and decided to remain open.

"With your help, we have gotten this far but another shutdown just isn’t an option for us," they said. "We, and thousands of other small businesses throughout the country simply will not survive. We are not downplaying the severity of this virus, this is a decision based solely on what is best for our families in a time of emergency."

East Greenville's Powderbourne Restaurant and sport shooting grounds, meanwhile, emphasized that having the choice was the important takeaway.

"We truly appreciate the ongoing support and encouragement from the community and RESPECT the rights of EVERY citizen to make the best decisions for themselves and their families," the establishment shared over the weekend. "We have decided to remain OPEN for whatever dining experience YOU ARE comfortable with, whether its takeout, outdoor, inside or curbside."

While the orders do allow restaurants to remain open for takeout and outdoor dining, indoor dining is expressly prohibited through Jan. 4, 2021.

"Multiple studies have found indoor dining to drive case increases and fatalities, including research from Stanford University that found that restaurants accounted for a significant amount of new infections and research from Yale University that found that closing restaurants reduced fatality rates," the Wolf administration said in announcing the new measures last week.

When questioned on allegations from critics who say this spread has not been proven in restaurants or gyms in Pennsylvania, Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said that exact contact tracing is unreliable due to the overwhelming number of cases in the community right now, and that they considered national data when making the decision.

"It has been very clearly shown that restaurants serve as a significant source of spread," Levine said Thursday.

When the pandemic began in the spring, the state took a more lax approach to enforcement of mandates, focusing instead on personal responsibility and education. This time around, with the fall surge bringing numbers far higher than the spring, enforcement is a priority.

"Now, nine months into the pandemic, the commonwealth is reviewing its enforcement mechanisms and is prepared to take more strict enforcement actions on chronic violators because it is imperative that we save lives and protect the public by ensuring all necessary mitigation efforts are being followed," Lyndsay Kensinger, Wolf's press secretary, told Patch.

Local law enforcement agencies around the state were briefed on these enforcement policies by the Pennsylvania State Police. It is up to local police to determine whether they will "warn or cite" businesses for any violations.

"It’s not the fault of restaurant and bar, or gym owners or their employees that COVID-19 spreads easily in these conditions — it's the nature of the disease," Kensinger added.

Wolf has continued to lobby for the Restaurants Act to be passed into law by U.S. Congress. The bill would provide federal aid to owners and employees to weather the coming weeks, which are widely expected to be the worst of the pandemic.

State officials said that liquor control enforcement officers have conducted around 60,000 compliance checks across Pennsylvania since July 1. During that time, they issued 1,804 warnings and 403 notices of violation to businesses.