Contra Costa County has put the customers of nearly 4,000 restaurants in charge of reporting which ones are breaking its COVID-19 health orders, and many haven’t been bashful about tattling.
They submitted 89 complaints in November and 18 through the first week of December. Most of the complaints, which this news organization has reviewed, clearly lay out the unsafe practices that customers said they witnessed.
“They are not asking at all for sitting indoors,” one customer let Contra Costa Health Services know about a Walnut Creek restaurant. “This restaurant is very small and sitting inside is very risky if you are not sure who you are sitting next to.”
In response to complaints, the county sends health inspectors to see for themselves whether the restaurants are checking indoor diners’ proof of vaccination or negative test results, requiring employees to wear face masks and adhering to other orders intended to limit COVID-19’s spread.
Some who filed complaints noted that the owners or employees of certain eateries brazenly flouted the orders, even openly acknowledging that they were breaking the rules.
One customer, for instance, said the staff at Fat Maddie’s Blackhawk in Danville showed absolutely no interest in checking vaccination cards during a visit in early November.
“In fact, the owner said she would continue to refuse to check because she doesn’t believe the county order is lawful,” the customer wrote.
The county later closed the complaint with a note of “education provided.” That was how inspectors closed many such complaints in November, after having decided to employ a lenient, educational approach to coax compliance instead of the earlier punitive measures such as fines and stern warning notices.
At Fat Maddie’s Blackhawk, co-owner Kelli Stephanos, and her husband and co-owner Pete Stephanos said the customer who complained was flat-out wrong.
“We’re doing our best to follow the rules, but people will dig their heels in and yell at us,” Kelli Stephanos said, adding that Contra Costa’s vaccine passport rules “don’t make sense” considering nearby Alameda County has no such mandate.
“People are moving around; they’re not staying in just one county. I really don’t get it,” she said.
One complainant worried that the failure of staff at Galpao Gaucho in Walnut Creek to enforce the proof-of-vaccine order could have jeopardized her health during a special family occasion there.
“We celebrated my elderly mother’s birthday here recently,” the complainant wrote, “and was really surprised that no one asked us or anybody else as far as I could tell for their proof of vaccination.”
The county hasn’t yet followed up with the restaurant, but in an interview, Galpao Gaucho co-owner Jovani Gava vehemently denied the accusation.
Every new customer who visits the restaurant is checked for a card, though regular patrons aren’t, he said. “We have like 100 or 150 clients who come every single week or twice a week — our downtown Walnut Creek restaurant is very popular,” Gava said. “You tell me if I have to card those people every time. They’ve been coming for years.”
Health department officials began cracking down on repeat offenders last week at the behest of county supervisors, some of whom were miffed to learn from this news organization’s reporting that the health department had stopped issuing fines and warnings to restaurants in November.
In a rapid enforcement sweep that started the next day, inspectors hit Huckleberry’s Breakfast and Lunch in Concord with a $250 fine and temporarily closed Lumpy’s Diner in Antioch, which reopened after submitting a “corrective plan” about 24 hours later.
Four other restaurants were given warnings: Chili’s Grill and Bar in Antioch; Rocco’s Ristorante and Pizzeria in Walnut Creek; Sylvia’s Country Kitchen in Antioch; and Vic Stewart’s steakhouse in Brentwood.
Sylvia’s Country Kitchen has been vocal about not checking vaccination cards or requiring mask-wearing until it was forced to do so by the county. In a Nov. 1 complaint, a customer recalled hearing an employee say that management “has decided to disregard the rule until reported and fined.”
Paula, a manager at Sylvia’s Country Kitchen who didn’t give her last name, said she was “infuriated” that Contra Costa is imposing a vaccine mandate when no other Bay Area government except San Francisco County and the city of Berkeley is. “If they pop us for these rules, then we’ll shut our doors,” she said.
Other restaurants that received warnings either declined to comment or couldn’t be reached.
Customers aren’t the only ones who complained. An employee of a fast-food restaurant in Martinez reported that management there directs workers to ignore the county’s guidance.
“We were told today that the lobby is opening tomorrow for dine-in and to not enforce the vaccine mandate,” the employee wrote. “My boss explicitly told me to lie to health officials as well.”
Some restaurants were described as openly disdainful of the county rules. One person who was going to have dinner at a restaurant said its employees made it clear they wouldn’t pay attention to vaccination status. “I am glad I left when I did,” the person wrote.
Those who filed complaints often said they felt they had no other recourse. A complaint reported on Nov. 24 against Vic Stewart’s steakhouse — one of the four restaurants that received warning notices — made that very point.
“I’ve been concerned with the laziness of most restaurants in the area when it comes to following the county’s COVID protocol,” the complaint says. Vic Stewart’s staff couldn’t be reached for comment.
Many comments urged the health department to enforce the rules, saying restaurants otherwise had no reason to follow them. A customer who accompanied a couple in their 80s — one of whom had stage-4 cancer — to dinner complained that the group had to ask the Brentwood restaurant’s staff to start checking vaccination cards.
Across the board, the complaints painted a picture of restaurant staff and managers who felt they could get away with breaking the rules.
In summing up their feelings, one resident who accused Chili’s in Antioch of ignoring the mask mandate put it plainly: “It’s a free-for-all over there.”