NorCal County Announces $10K Fines for Restaurants That Break COVID-19 Rules

Restaurants in Yolo County that flout health orders could be fined as much as $10,000

Yolo County, the NorCal county that’s heard it before, thank you, agreed this week to allow fines between $250 and $10,000 for restaurants and other businesses that ignore state and local health orders on matters like indoor dining and mask use, the Associated Press reports.

Early in the pandemic, the county (which is part of the Greater Sacramento area) had low infection rates of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). A 200 percent spike in the last two weeks has since placed Yolo County on a statewide watchlist of at-risk counties and prompted the closure of indoor activities at restaurants, wineries, and tasting rooms, as well as all bars without food (indoor and out) as of July 3.

On Tuesday, KCRA reports, county supervisors passed an emergency order allowing fines for businesses that fail to follow health orders. Individuals that break the rules can also be cited, with tickets ranging from $25-$500 for social distancing or mask violations.

That doesn’t mean your favorite Yolo County restaurant will suddenly be slapped with a fine for, say, letting a patron take a seat indoors. In a statement, Yolo County Administrator Patrick S. Blacklock says that first they’ll warn an educate the restaurant, which should “work in the vast majority of cases.” The fines, Blacklock says “will typically proceed only when violations are severe or ongoing despite repeated counseling efforts.”

And in other news...

• SF Chickenbox owner Christian Ciscle tweeted that delivery app Doordash was still pocketing 30 percent of his delivery orders, a violation of SF’s delivery cap. The SF Chronicle contacted Doordash about the too-high commission fees, and the company “said the charges were made in error, and affected fewer than 10 of the thousands of restaurants it works with in the city.” But then Ciscle tweeted that his initial allegations were a mistake, and that his invoices actually reflected a 15 percent fee, not the 30 he’d feared. “But, hopefully those ‘10’ Restaurants will get reimbursed,” Ciscle tweeted.
• After a Vallejo police officer fatally shot Sean Monterrosa, the son of longtime Anchor Oyster Bar worker Neftali Monterrosa, a police captain chillingly told the shooter “You’ll be alright. You’ve been through this before.” [KQED]
• Sonoma might be the next Bay Area county to roll back reopening, after its death toll doubled in the past week. [SFist]
• Gennica Cochran, the server who kicked a ranting San Francisco startup founder out of Carmel Valley restaurant Lucia when he started spewing racial epithets at his fellow diners, has waited tables for 20 years. ”If you see something do something,” she urges folks in the food industry and beyond. ”Stand up against racism and hatred in any form any time you can.” [ABC 7]
• People are Tik Toking San Francisco’s prettiest takeout. [SF Weekly]
• While enjoying an outdoor meal at Petaluma’s What a Chicken restaurant, food writer Justin Phillips says a “a white guy drove by in a pickup truck and screamed ‘n—’ at me.” The incident “reminded me there is a growing contingent of white people in the Bay Area becoming increasingly angry over the region’s pro-Black dialogue.” [SF Chronicle]
• Woodside, the San Mateo County home of Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant the Village Pub, is open for indoor and outdoor dining, but some patrons that mistakenly made indoor reservations have chosen to leave instead of eating inside. [Palo Alto Online]
• San Francisco’s Wise Sons Deli is crossing the Bay, offering “babka, challah, latkes and sliced pastrami and corned beef” during community pop-ups at the Telegraph Avenue location of Beauty’s Bagel Shop. [Berkeleyside]
• Gardner Melissa Matteson will open a plant-based restaurant called 4th Street Social Club in downtown Santa Rosa next month. The vegetables will come from gardens (including hers) that are “no more than 10 minutes away,” that will become dishes like jackfruit sliders and vegetarian ceviche. [SF Chronicle]
• San Francisco catering/pop-up company Vegan Hood Chefs are trying to crowdfund a food truck to allow them to serve more of the city’s food deserts. [VegNews]