San Francisco’s New Mask Law Calls Out Bar Patrons and Outdoor Diners

San Francisco announced new, stricter laws for face covering use Friday, with an eye toward people drinking or dining outdoors

San Francisco residents have been legally required to cover their faces when they leave the house since April, and new rules that dropped at the beginning of July spelled out the city’s mask requirements for diners and drinkers, saying that they need to don coverings for their noses and mouths any time they’re not actively eating or drinking. Last Friday, the city tightened the mask laws up once again, with an order that specifically calls out outdoor drinkers and diners.

The order, which went into effect on Saturday, July 25, says that everyone over the age of 10 years old must wear a face covering “when approaching a distance of six feet from others” unless they have a written note from a doctor. The rule applies “in all fluid situations where distances between people change frequently and where social distancing cannot be strictly monitored,” such as “walking on a sidewalk or any other pedestrian right-of-way” and “while at parks, outdoor plazas, dining spaces and bars.”

The mask rules place even more pressure on restaurant workers who, as Hoodline reports, are already dealing with the added work of managing patrons who don’t take the laws as seriously as they should. For example, Macondray, a Polk Street bar that opened in January, has had to employ what’s essentially a mask bouncer after incidents like “a customer [who] drank too much, and wandered over to the next table to ask them to take shots.”

And in other news...

• San Francisco officials are still working on financial support for the fisherman who lost their livelihoods when the Pier 45 shed where they stored their equipment went up in flames. Months after the May fire, we still don’t know the cause of the blaze, but demolition of the ruins might speed the investigation. [SF Examiner]
• The Hountlas family, which ran Ocean Beach’s iconic Louis’ diner from 1937 until its closure this month, pulled some photos of the restaurant’s 83 years out for everyone to cry over check out. [Richmond Review]
• A former One Market executive pastry chef and a bartender familiar to patrons of Nitecap, Mission Hill Saloon, and Winters Tavern are the latest laid-off workers to launch pop-up food businesses. [Hoodline]
• Drive-in patrons of the Bay Area’s newest Chick-fil-A snarled Redwood City traffic, as they waited in a blocks-long line to order the chain’s politically-charged chicken. [SF Gate]
• Thai mini-chain Farmhouse Kitchen is planning a Menlo Park outpost, with an opening expected this September. [Palo Alto Online]
• None of the restaurants inside SF’s Transbay Transit Center are open, though as the building is a transit terminal they (as followers of last week’s Ferry Building flip-flop are well aware) are legally allowed to operate for takeout. [SF Chronicle]
• A former delivery driver for DoorDash has sued the SF-based startup in San Francisco Superior court, alleging that “it failed to pay him and other drivers proper wages by misclassifying them as independent contractors, rather than full-time employees.” This follows a lawsuit filed by SF’s district attorney against the company regarding similar misclassification claims. [SF Business Times]
• The East Bay city of Fremont has joined San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Leandro in legally mandating a cap on fees delivery apps can charge restaurants that use their services. The city’s executive order says companies like San Francisco’s Postmates, Uber Eats, and DoorDash (as well as Chicago-based GrubHub) cannot charge restaurants a commission of more than 15 percent of the cost of an order throughout the pandemic. [East Bay Times]