Dallas eateries to comply with mask mandate even if customers gripe

Masks are once again required in schools and businesses under a new executive order from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins – and that goes for any restaurant and bar that can withstand the outdoors.

The order came a day after a Dallas district judge temporarily blocked Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on local mask mandates, which has become a controversial and flowing legal battle. Restaurant operators in the county say they will keep the mandate despite the stressful situation it puts them in and the rampant pandemic fatigue in the industry.

“We’ll obey the law and masks will be mandatory, but everyone wears their war paint today,” said Mariel Street, co-founder of Liberty Burger, Street’s Fine Chicken and Roy G’s. “Everyone is just afraid to go to work today. We were afraid to go yesterday because of COVID and now because of COVID we are afraid to go today and have to monitor something that we have no control over … It’s just a really difficult place to get business owners involved. “

The goal is to avoid fines and another shutdown, says Street. Your businesses cannot afford to endure either. But customers are not making it easy for themselves to be in the hospitality industry, and their employees are afraid of the next few weeks.

“When we don’t need masks, people get angry, and when we need masks, people get angry,” she says. “Restaurants are battlefields now and my 18 year old employees are in charge of enforcing regulations. It’s just ridiculous. “

In addition to enforcing masks, Dallas County’s new mandate requires businesses and schools to develop a health and safety policy that includes at least universal masking on properties. Companies that fail to comply could be fined up to $ 1,000 per violation. Jenkins says he consulted with leading restaurant and bar industry representatives before implementing the mandate, and they supported the reintroduction of the mask requirement.

But downstairs restaurant operators are deeply concerned about enforcing something their state and local officials cannot agree on.

Airric Heidelberg, owner of Invasion in Old East Dallas, says mask enforcement at his burger joint has been an issue in the past and he expects it won’t be any different this time. He had to call the police about belligerent customers, and some people formed an online group to boycott the restaurant for following government orders to make it mandatory to wear masks.

He’s tired, almost listless, trying to win over indifferent customers, but Heidelberg says he and his staff will do their best to keep the job.

“I hope for the best,” he says. “The government just needs to find out because it harms businesses. It harms us in terms of employees and it harms us because something that is in the air cannot really be enforced. “

Brooks Anderson, co-owner of Boulevardier, Rapscallion, Veritas Wine Room, and Hillside Tavern, says they are already charging masks for their employees, but will again be asking for masks for customers under the mandate, even if customers wear masks for the walk from the front door up to their tables “could be a bit of a theater”.

“With the youngest tip [in cases], we already have internal common sense precautions in place, ”he says. “We’ll just follow Jenkins’ instructions and hope the guests understand we’re doing what the local government tells us to do.”

While many restaurants have retained the mask requirement for staff, few have enforced masks for customers since Abbott lifted the nationwide mask mandate in March and diners became used to mask-free experiences.

Ellen’s was one such restaurant that reintroduced masking requirements for customers earlier this month when cases of the Delta variant rose, and the decision, unsurprisingly, met with polarized reactions.

“Let’s go again,” read a sign from the Dallas restaurant. “Just in case you want to get angry and insult us, we have prepared the following answers in advance … Sheeple. We know there are sheep, but what are we? Baaaa hahaha. “

Joe Groves, CEO of Ellen’s, says their customers overwhelmingly supported the mask requirement and cheeky sign, and business grew as a result, but that didn’t stop internet trolls from giving 1-star online reviews as well as outraged voicemails online leave behind.

Requiring masks, even without a government mandate at the time, was an obvious choice for Groves, who says he has hospitalized employees for the virus and felt the need to do whatever it takes to create the safest possible environment.

“I’m tired of being passive. We have condoned the advantage of willing to be idiots and I’m sick of it, ”he says. “I’ll be just as passionate about my position as you are, and if you don’t like it you can leave my property and go home.”

Dallas restaurant operators say they and their employees want to be done with masks just like anyone else, but a commitment to complying with the law and a need to get the case numbers under control for the sake of the health system and their own businesses make masks easy choices even when local and state officials disagree on the subject.

Similar rebellious mask mandates have been instituted in other Texas counties such as Bexar County and Travis Counties, but no other northern Texas counties have so far followed Dallas County’s steps. It is unclear what Governor Abbott’s next move will be, but the governor said on Twitter that “any school district, public university or local government official” who opposes his order to prevent masking mandates “will be brought to justice “.

Any school district, public university, or local government official who decides to defy the GA-38 – which prohibits government agencies from mandating masks – will be brought to justice.

The way forward is based on personal responsibility – not government mandates.https: //t.co/Qn9SmIOO8g pic.twitter.com/GBi0HiH0Sc

– Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 11, 2021

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