South Florida restaurant workers are waging a daily battle with their diners, who are fresh out of lockdown and not eager for social distancing.
The stress level is mounting as cities and counties create new rules for restaurants to stem the growing numbers of coronavirus cases. Some customers are resisting the restrictions and taking out their frustrations on restaurant staffers, who must police violations to avoid citations and possible closure.
Patty Miranda, co-owner of Olympia Flame Diner in Deerfield Beach, said she faces daily confrontations as she asks patrons to don their masks, a Broward County requirement. She tells them she could get fined if they don’t obey the rules.
“It’s become my rights vs. their rights,” she said. “Some leave. Some argue. Some put it on begrudgingly.”
Large contingents of restaurant patrons are refusing to wear face coverings and asserting their right to drink among closely packed groups of friends, coronavirus regulations be damned.
What’s a restaurant to do? Restaurants can’t survive without customers, especially when their capacities are limited during South Florida’s Phase One of reopening after the lockdown.
The restaurateurs say they are dealing with two opposing camps: Customers who want strict rules enforced, or none at all.
“There’s no middle ground,” said David Obadia, owner of Kekoa Poke Bowls & Hawaiian Foodie in Boca Raton.
Emergency orders in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties prohibit bars from operating and limit the capacity of restaurants and most businesses to 50%. All three counties require face coverings for employees and customers.
In Fort Lauderdale, the city manager has told code compliance officers to get tough on enforcement of the county’s social distancing and mask requirements. The city closed down nine restaurants on Las Olas Boulevard and A1A last weekend for violating social distancing rules. The 24-hour shutdowns ended after the violations were corrected.
In Broward restaurants, customers have to wear masks unless they are “actively consuming food and beverage.”
“This means you must wear a facial covering when entering, exiting, or otherwise away from your assigned table, including when visiting the restroom,” the county’s emergency order states.
Restaurant workers also have to wear masks “during all in-person interactions with the public.”
George Fredlund, of Pompano Beach, believes there should be a lot more citations, to patrons as well as owners.
“People have become very complacent,” said Fredlund, who said he has seen restaurant workers wearing masks below their noses or none at all. “The workers handling food need to be wearing masks. Allowing people to skirt these things is not good.”
Mask-wearing is not the only conflict point. Annie Blake, co-owner of Death or Glory Bar, a restaurant in Delray Beach, said she has been asking patrons to stop hugging when they greet each other.
“I tell them, ‘I know you’re happy to see each other, but can you separate?’ ” she said. “The reaction is more of an eye roll. People get it.”
At Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, some customers have been more confrontational.
“People are extremely agitated,” owner Ralph Lewis said. They complain because they can’t sit at the bar, or the size of the tables is limited, or a server’s mask has fallen below her nose, or the hostess is allowing diners to stand too close together as they wait for their tables.
“My staff is constantly worrying that the guests are going to be upset or going to pick an argument,” he said. “They are being put in situations where they have to police people. We should not be put in the position of being enforcers. It’s not our job.”
The staff is also feeling the stress at The Wine Room Kitchen and Bar in Delray Beach. Chef Blair Wilson said customers criticize him for wearing a mask, so he has stopped visiting tables to see how patrons are enjoying their food.
He said about 70 percent of his customers “don’t care about wearing a mask and don’t want to see you wearing one.”
Wilson said he wishes diners understood the extensive food safety training restaurants have invested in and the reduced salaries restaurant workers are surviving on as the pandemic continues.
“We are under financial strain and we are putting ourselves at risk,” Wilson said. “Compound that with unruly guests, and you have a challenging workplace.”
