close

Restaurants rally for reduced restrictions

By Katie Anderson for The 6 min read
1 / 3

Katie Anderson

Trudy Rutkowski, who runs the Homeville Volunteer Firemen’s Social Club, speaks during a rally against restaurant restrictions Thursday morning at Al’s Café in Bethel Park.

2 / 3

Rod Ambrogi, president of the newly formed Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern Association, speaks in August at a rally outside his restaurant, Al’s Café, in Bethel Park.

3 / 3

Katie Anderson

A crowd gathered Thursday morning outside Al’s Café in Bethel Park to rally against COVID-19 restrictions for restaurants and pubs.

BETHEL PARK – Members and supporters of a newly formed Southwestern Pennsylvania Restaurant and Tavern Association rallied Thursday morning against state restrictions on how restaurants, bars and clubs may operate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The association’s board members spoke during the 9 a.m. rally at Al’s Café, including Rod Ambrogi, president of the organization.

“We’ve been singled out,” said Ambrogi, who owns Al’s Café. “Understand that Lowe’s, Walmarts, Kmarts, Giant Eagles – they don’t have all these restrictions to make a living. They’re hiring people; we’re laying people off.”

Ambrogi said the group has sent multiple letters to Gov. Tom Wolf asking for changes to the restrictions. He said those letters have been signed by several state senators, representatives and restaurant and small business owners.

“So far, I think we’re talking on a dead ear,” he said. “We got to stand on our own two feet, and it’s not going to just take all of you, it’s going to take all of Pennsylvania. We all have to band together. I want to get something done. I want to get us opened up.”

The restaurants in the association have talked about possibly opening up at full capacity on Aug. 14, but Ambrogi is hoping to be able to sit down with Wolf before then.

“If we go in on the wrong foot, threatening him, I don’t think we’ll get anywhere,” Ambrogi said. “I want him to look me in the eye and say that I can’t make a living. In my eyes, this is an essential business. It’s our lifeline.”

Al’s Café has been in Ambrogi’s family for 52 years. He’s worried about losing employees and the entire business due to the shutdown.

“I’m worried about everything I’ve worked for my whole life, day and night, disappearing,” he said in an interview.

The association’s attorney, Gary Scoulos, clarified that the group is looking for three specific “tweaks” to Wolf’s order relating to COVID-19 restrictions on the restaurant industry.

“Instead of the 25% of capacity, we want the six-foot rule, the same rule applied to other businesses,” Scoulos said. “The second is to allow direct bar service, with that six-foot social distancing rule. The third tweak, revision, is to eliminate the requirement that alcohol be served with a meal.”

Scoulos said the association made this pitch for the three changes at a meeting with state senators and representatives, who agreed and sent letters to Wolf. He said he’d be drafting another letter to Wolf Thursday, to ask again for him to listen to the voices represented by the association.

“What we’re not trying to do is to go rogue and to just say, ‘We’re going to do what we want to do,'” Scoulos said. “That is not the position of the association. We want reasonable measures to allow us to continue our business, and in some cases, restart our business.”

While everyone is appreciative of federal programs created during the pandemic to help small businesses, restaurants and their employees, Scoulos said they already have a “financial program.”

“Our people, our customers want to support us,” he said. “Our social programs, our relief is our cash registers. We already have a vehicle to get us out of this pickle – it’s our cash registers.”

Another speaker from the association’s board was Joe Tambellini, who said that since talking with many state lawmakers and political leaders, everyone appears to be “on the same page.”

“It seems the only person who’s not on the same page with us is Governor Wolf,” Tambellini said.

He called Wolf’s “blanket ruling” of 25% capacity in restaurants “ridiculous.”

“You might as well close,” he said. “You’re chopping all of our legs off.”

Tambellini, who owns an Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh, said he’s been in the industry 41 years.

“I’m not going down like this,” he said. “None of you are going down like this – we’re not going down like this.”

Tambellini also mentioned the Aug. 14 date, saying, “We’re going to open up,” with or without cooperation from the governor.

“What are you going to take from me, Governor?” he asked. “What are you going to throw me in jail?”

Tambellini asked Wolf, who was not in attendance nor had a representative at Thursday’s rally, if he’d rather people simply open up on their own, or if he’d be willing to tweak the mandate and “let us open up responsibly.”

“We’re trying to be the people who open responsibly,” Tambellini said. “We’re social people; this is what we do.”

The group of restaurant owners and employees gathered in the restaurant parking lot Thursday, Tambellini said, are people who have been following the rules. Not everyone in the crowd was wearing a mask or standing six feet apart, however.

Trudy Rutkowski, who runs Homeville Volunteer Firemen’s Social Club, said that since the shutdown, she hasn’t been able to open the club or host fundraisers or bingo nights for the fire department. She said the club’s donations to the fire department help pay utility bills.

“If I can’t help them, who’s going to put out the fire at your house?” Rutkowski asked.

Several lawmakers were also in attendance Thursday, including state Rep. Bud Cook (R-West Pike Run) and Sens. Jim Brewster (D-Allegheny/Westmoreland) and Camera Bartolotta (R-Carroll Township).

Bartolotta reminded the crowd that when they talk about restaurants opening up, they’re not talking about a place to eat a meal, or a fast-food establishment.

“Our restaurants are family to us,” she said. “These people have been here for generations. We can’t let them wither on the vine and die.”

They are places, she said, that have become “the cement of our communities,” shaping our lives and culture by catering special events, like baptisms and weddings. Since the restaurant industry has dealt with food safety and sanitation for years, there should be ways for them to open up safely, Bartolotta said.

“I’ve said from day one, we can protect lives and livelihoods,” she said. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”

Brewster said the association’s goal has “bipartisan support,” and agreed with Bartolotta that coronavirus and “business recovery” can and should be dealt with simultaneously.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today