By Enrico Trigoso of Epoch Times,
New York City restaurateurs are complaining that their business has been slashed severely by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which requires people 12 and older to show vaccination proof for indoor dining, indoor fitness, and indoor entertainment.
Pre-pandemic, O’Donoghue’s Pub and Restaurant was a successful business that has been open for 10 years in Times Square, Manhattan. Fergal Burke, the owner of O’Donoghue’s noticed that his business has seen “a massive drop,” since the vaccine mandate came into effect.
“We don’t have the money here to survive without the help of our landlord, [who] has been very supportive and has been giving us breaks on the rent, but without our landlord, we would not be in business,” Burke told The Epoch Times. He said that he needed to hire another person to be at the door checking for vaccination proof, which increased his expenses.
Comparing the clientele from pre-mandate to when it kicked in about two weeks ago, “Our business is definitely down 50, I’m going to say 60 percent,” Burke said with a somewhat downhearted tone. “There’s just not people coming into the restaurant, they have the fear of being asked for vaccines.”
Burke and his staff have had to refuse a lot of customers for not having the passes.
“They’re being refused and they get a resentment against us, they don’t get a resentment against Bill de Blasio or Biden, or whoever is mandating us to check for this.”
“It comes as a personal rejection,” he said, further stressing that it’s not O’Donoghue’s that wants this. “We don’t want this mandate, we want nothing to do with this.”
He also noted how the subway is full of people but there’s no requirement to show vaccination proof.
“I mean how is that fair in New York City, that the trains are jammed with people with a silly mask on and they’re not being mandated to show nothing, and yet they’re coming against the heart of the city. We’re the ones that’s trying to keep 20 people employed here,” Burke said.
“We will go out of business if this continues, it’s gonna force us to shut our doors.”
Despite winter coming soon, they now need to build an outdoor dining area to facilitate an outdoor space, which will cost about 10 to $15,000.
Some restaurants like Luke’s Lobster have been less affected by the vaccine mandates since their restaurant has little indoor dining space and is located near a park and many outdoor tables on Broadway. The manager there told The Epoch Times that people are mostly compliant, and if anyone can’t dine-in due to lack of proof, they will go to the tables outside.
“Some people are obviously not super happy about it but they will comply and if they don’t want to comply they’ll take it outside,” she said.
‘No One Size Fits All’
Restauranteur Stratis Morfogen, a managing partner at Brooklyn Chop House, thinks that the government needs to start considering bailouts to help the restaurant industry again.
“Business is down probably 50 percent because people are not comfortable with being forced to take a vaccine,” Morfogen told The Epoch Times.
“All of a sudden, we dropped 40 percent from week to week, since the mandate started.
“The politicians don’t understand it is that there is no one size fits all with medicine. And you can’t tell a person has just finished chemotherapy, that they have to take a vaccine to have a dinner, when their doctor says they can’t.”
Morfogen said that now they have to police COVID-19 vaccination cards, most of which are written in pen. He says 2 million were distributed before the city implemented a central database.
“It’s as smart as my 1983 driver’s permit. My daughter who is 13 can print out one of the fakes on her bedroom printer and you want me to question the customers if this card is legitimate, when every one of them is pretty much is written in pen?”
Morfogen said that his business did fairly well during COVID-19 and survived the restaurant crisis, but that he feels a responsibility to speak up.
“Nobody steps up for the little guys,” he said.
“I’m not fighting for myself. I’m fighting for the ones that don’t have a platform that are getting screwed by these politicians every day.”
The manager of custom burger restaurant The Counter located in Times Square told The Epoch Times that “everyone is losing thousands of dollars,” and that they will go out of business due to the vaccine mandate.
“The mayor is a jerk,” she said.
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Don’t go to NYC, problem solved.
NYC was a good place to go every once in a while. Now, fuggetabout it. The more we stay way, the faster they will recover their senses.
No they won’t.
As an upstate New Yorker. I have no pity for them down there. You reap what you sow. The trouble is the rest of the state has to also suffer from their bad choices.
I live near Hoosic Falls and you see ‘Trump for Governor’ signs all over.
Sorry ,Bilco.
NYCExit
Throw in Cuomo/Hochul *emergency* mandates. Broadway is NOT coming back anytime soon, so good luck restaurants. Take a cab ride from Penn to GCT at 9pm. It’s night of the living dead.
Gov. nipple ring and his dyke ruined anything that his predecessors achieved after his old man left office.
POS, all 3 of them.
The anorexic POS is worse than Cumho. Idiots in NYC vote for commies then complain when said commie tyrants fuck everything up. Assholes!
F**k you downvote. Come walk in my shoes if you think can get them off of me.
Clown world.
If you’re in NYC, no one wants to walk in your shoes. (I was not the downvote, btw)
Wait til the FAA mandates vaccination to get on a plane. That would affect a lot of people.
American and a couple of others just announced that they’re pimping for Uncle Stasi-Sam.
So if that is really true, and business is down by that much, then that proves the government is lying through their teeth when they tell you that a majority of Americans have received the vaccine. It’s nowhere near a majority.
Memphrica claims 42% vaxxed, because blacks do not like the experimental shots.
I can imagine that some people who got shots last winter didn’t think to keep their records. There wasn’t supposed to be a vaccine passport, after all. If I had to find some medical record just to go to a restaurant, I’d probably stay home and eat oatmeal. And I hate oatmeal.
You’re doing it wrong.
Oatmeal is merely a vehicle for butter and brown sugar.
Nobody hates butter and brown sugar.
Here in middle America it would be about 90% and they would have to close. Maybe that would give them time to think about their business relationship with the government.
I don’t feel sympathy for them at all. They never should’ve caved on the first lockdown. If these businesses were smart they’d organize with other restaurants and refuse to enforce the mandates. They’re inflicting this suffering on themselves by obeying these unconstitutional mandates.
Hard to believe NYC was once the city where orphan children were able to shut down all the newspapers in the city over lousy wages but grown up business owners today are cowering in fear over Bill de Blasio.
Exactly.. these owners can blame deblasio and Biden all day if they want to keep whining but in the end if every restaurant and store ignored these unlawful mandates this would end.
I think NY would actually close all of them down.
I just read an article claiming that NYC is bouncing back as available housing is growing scarce.
They voted for this sh*t. This is the government they want.
The most important thing is that, when they try to flee to another city or state, they be tarred & feathered and sent right back to New York.
Restaurant Owner: “Why are they blaming me? Why aren’t they blaming DeBlasshole? It’s his policy”
Me: Because you are a tool for the marxist DeBlasshole. Don’t be a tool for the marxist DeBlasshole,
“Burke and his staff have had to refuse a lot of customers for not having the passes.”
When you and your other restaurateurs decide you’re not going to be the fuckin covid police, that’s when your business will return, pal.
egg-zakly
I looked into my give a shit bag. There is nothing there for New Yorkers. They have been bought useful idiots for the Dickocrats for at least 60 years. Now the small business owners will be disposed of like used condoms. Same goes for California,Portland and Seattle. Oh yeah! same for St louis ,too.Fkem all.
ADMIN
I just can’t remember … did we have that get-together at O’Donoghue? Or, was it another place?
Every one of the owners and managers, as well as the patrons, probably voted for DeBlasio and/or Cuomo at least once or twice, maybe 3 times in the case of Cuomo.
Enjoy what you voted for, or else refuse to comply en masse. Don’t whine, you voted for this.
My sentiments exactly—you Noo Yawkas voted for this–enjoy it!
So, the “restaurateurs” fell into line following the orders of their Democrat fascist politicians, and thus they’re going broke. Now, that is what I call good news for a change, and just deserts for demanding people’s papers.
NYC restaraunteurs can suck on it; they voted for these commie douchebags, they obeyed unlawful diktats without fighting back, and they begged .gov for the scraps from covidiot loan programs.
Zero empathy, and even less sympathy for those retarded cowards.
Won’t be much longer, they will either have killed all business or there will be a civil war.
No. They’ll kill the business and the rats will flee the sinking ship and try to set up shop in YOUR state/city/county while voting to install a DeBlasio clone.
You can’t fix stupid.
Wet rats incoming!
I remember a wonderful stop at O’D’s about eight years ago before we fled NY. These were more relaxed and more rational times. It was a lot of fun. NYC has a Mayor who is hell bent on destroying the city. That is the only way to understand it. In the process, of course, this acolyte of Saul Alinsky has arranged things to that his wife can make millions. This doesn’t sound like communism or socialism…it sounds like greed.
He’s hell-bent on EXPORTING his voters.
Maybe the restaurants could do what a barber here in Ontario did several months ago. He filmed his clients talking about current issues while getting a haircut, and claimed it wasn’t a haircut but a media production. At that time personal services were shutdown; but media productions were exempted from lockdowns, masking and social distancing.
Continue to destroy small businesses. Pretty soon your only choice for dining out will be the Dot-Gov Bar and Grill, where you can wash down your soylent green with a glass of the finest formaldehyde.