Restaurant & bar owners unhappy with Wolf’s changes

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Gov. Tom Wolf delivered a good-news, bad-news situation Tuesday for Pennsylvania restaurants impacted by coronavirus restrictions.

Wolf announced that restaurants and bars throughout the state can increase their indoor seating capacity from 25% to 50% Sept. 21. While that means more patrons inside their establishments, it comes with a caveat.

Restaurants will need to commit to strictly complying with all public health safety guidelines and orders through a self-certification process.

Restaurants that self-certify will appear in the Open & Certified Pennsylvania searchable online database of certified restaurants across the state. Consumers will be able to access this database and find certified businesses in their area.

Any restaurant that wants to increase to 50% indoor capacity must complete the online self-certification process by Oct. 5. Social distancing, masking and other mitigation measures must be employed to protect workers and patrons.

In addition, Wolf is ordering restaurants to close alcohol sales at 10 p.m. starting Sept. 21. 

“While our aggressive and appropriate mitigation efforts have kept case counts low, we must continue to take important steps to protect public health and safety as we head into the fall,” Wolf said. “At the same time, we must also support the retail food services industry that has struggled throughout this pandemic. 

“The self-certification ensures that restaurants can expand indoor operations and commit to all appropriate orders so that employees and customers alike can be confident they are properly protected.”

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