As COVID-19 restrictions have hardened over recent months, a growing number of restaurants have begun to push back in frustration, defying Los Angeles County, and state orders. Across the county, with both indoor and outdoor dining prohibited, some have made vocal displays of opposition, while others have attempted more covert operations. The conflict has spotlighted the tension between businesses and public health objectives at a time when federal aid has taken months to clear through Congress. With California’s Regional Stay At Home Orders extended on Dec. 28, restaurants see no end in sight to the prohibitions, leaving some to ask: what now?
While restaurants have faced restrictions since the first days of the pandemic, for months, officials allowed them to offer outside dining. But amidst the most recent third wave of the pandemic, which has filled ICUs to capacity and forced hospitals to ration care, state and county officials reacted with more stringent guidelines. On Nov. 25, after logging a five-day average of more than 4,000 new cases a day, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) instituted new rules that banned outdoor dining.
