As Fresno County fell back into the purple tier of coronavirus restrictions and restaurants are ordered to end indoor dining, some restaurateurs are pushing back.

A group is planning a rally at noon outside the Fresno County Health Department at Fresno and Fulton streets Saturday.

“We are being obliterated here,” said Lewis Everk, who helped plan the event and owns Vyxn Restaurant & Lounge at Friant and Fort Washington roads, and three Jugo Salad & Juice Bar locations.

He expects some restaurants and businesses will try to stay open for indoor dining against the governor’s orders.

Restaurants can still do take-out and delivery, and serve customers on patios, but must close their dining rooms, which had been allowed to operate at 25% until Monday.

“I started getting phone calls from business owners from all over – Madera, Fresno, Merced – saying, ‘Hey, we can’t weather another shutdown,’” Everk said. “This would be absolutely it for us. We’re digging out of a 6- or 7-month hole already.”

Some businesses will close, he said.

Concerns for small businesses

Organizers of the rally want to remain open at 25% capacity indoors, according to a letter they shared on the Open Central California Safely Facebook page.

The letter also asks two of Fresno County’s top public health department officials to share data with them proving that small businesses are responsible for the spike in COVID-19 cases, along with other data.

While some restaurants can survive on outdoor dining and takeout orders, not everyone can, Everk said.

Some don’t have patios, while others serve high-end cuisine like steak that doesn’t work well as takeout, he said. Weather like Wednesday’s with rain and temperatures in the 50s means even fewer people dine out.

Plus this time around there is no money from the federal government — like the Paycheck Protection Program’s loans in the spring — to keep businesses afloat, he noted.

“What you see right now is the big guys getting bigger and the small guys getting wiped out. And yes, I’m very aware the coronavirus is a real thing,” said Everk, who noted he caught a difficult case of COVID-19 in July and is taking plenty of precautions like wearing a mask.

Confusion over enforcement

So what happens if businesses stay open for indoor dining or otherwise violate the rules of the purple tier?

“I’ve heard from restaurants that the city is not going to do any enforcement at all – which is absolutely untrue,” said Miguel Arias, Fresno City Council president.

The code enforcement department will do the same enforcement it did earlier in the year: Responding to complaints from the public, first with visits to educate business owners, then fines if needed.

Fines start at $250, and can go up to $500, $1,000 and $5,000, with a $10,000 fine for “egregious” violators, like routine rule breakers, he said.

“We can skip to the egregious violation based on the level of violation,” Arias said. “If you’re having an indoor band at a nightclub, you’re going to get a $10,000 fine.”

Arias said he’s aware of the impact the restrictions are having on businesses, but said the surge of infections in Fresno County is raising concerns whether there will be enough hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

“I know the difficulty that they’re going to experience, but … it’s more difficult for us to tell a family (member) who just got COVID-19 that there is no hospital bed for them in Fresno.”

As of Tuesday, 151 coronavirus patients remain hospitalized in Fresno County, according to state data. Of those, 35 are in the ICU.

The county also reported 296 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. It’s averaging about 263 new cases every day over the past week and one new death per day.

Some of the confusion over enforcement may come from the mishmash of agencies that oversee businesses. Two Fresno County supervisors said Tuesday that they plan to rely on voluntary compliance from businesses.

But Fresno City code enforcement also oversees businesses within the city of Fresno.

Previously when cases surged in Fresno County, the state sent strike teams here to enforce restrictions and provide support to the health care system.

The California Office of Emergency Services and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control have done enforcement in the past, including threatening to revoke liquor licenses.

Arias said he misses dining indoors, but encourages people to get takeout instead.

“Order out and give the restaurant an extra tip. That’s the best thing we can do,” he said. “I would hope that our city, that everybody would do their part to help small business and ensure the public health of our city.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 12:20 PM.

Bethany Clough

The Fresno Bee

(559) 441-6431

Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers’ questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.