The Pennsylvania State Police cited eight restaurants in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties for allegedly violating covid-19 restrictions last month, and the Allegheny County Health Department closed several establishments in the first two weeks of the year.
The number of violations by the state police dropped in both counties in December, probably because restaurants and bars were forced to stop internal operations for three weeks in an effort to contain the increase in cases in the weeks after Thanksgiving.
In Westmoreland County, Hugo’s and Rialto in Greensburg, Café Supreme in Irwin, Oklahoma Inn in Apollo and Ligonier Tavern and Table have all been cited for violations ranging from not requiring masks to serving alcohol to customers at the bar or without buying a meal .
In Allegheny County, Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club in Pittsburgh, Tugboats in East Pittsburgh and Cantley’s in Carnegie have been cited for similar violations, including serving alcoholic beverages without a meal purchase and not imposing mask orders.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Allegheny County Health Department has ordered the closure of Reese’s Super Club in Duquesne for operating without health permission, operating under a closing order, meal-free alcohol service and lack of social detachment. The warehouse in the Allentown neighborhood of Pittsburgh has been closed for similar violations.
The alleged repeat offender Hottie’s Martini and Cigar Bar in Carnegie was cited again on January 9 after an inspection found the bar open and functioning, despite having been ordered to close numerous times for violating secret restrictions, according to the report Allegheny County Health Department.
The company that owns the bar, Three Durans, filed a federal lawsuit against the Ministry of Health and others in December.
The suit, in addition to Allegheny County and its health department, also names the state’s Beverage Control Council, Carnegie Police Department. The lawsuit claims that Carnegie police ordered the bar to close “on several occasions, as a result of alleged ‘secret breaches'”.
The bar was closed for the first time for a week in late September for not requiring masks, exceeding occupancy restrictions and serving alcoholic beverages after the curfew set by the state Department of Health. The bar reopened for two weeks in October, when it was ordered to close again for the same violations.
A new inspection a week later kept the bar closed, and the Beverage Control Council suspended Three Durans’ liquor license for two weeks, according to the lawsuit. The owners say the mitigation orders on which the closings and suspensions were based “have no valid basis in the law”.
The lawsuit accuses a Liquor Control Board inspector of referring to the bar’s customers as “they” and “hinted that the ‘closure’ was racially motivated based on Hottie’s African American customers.”
The lawsuit alleges that the orders are not enforceable, the defendants and the governor unduly extended their emergency powers, the mitigation orders violate the state’s separation of powers doctrine, the owners were deprived of due process and equal protection, the defendants conspired to violate owners’ civil rights and all of this was at least partially racially motivated.
Megan Guza is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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