Legal Insurrection readers may recall that California Gov. Gavin Newsom was forced to apologize after a news report surfaced that he attended a fancy dinner party honoring a top political adviser, which occurred as the governor discouraged households gathering together for their own parties during the upcoming holiday season.
The restaurant was the very chic “French Laundry,” where one of my favorite treats (pierogi) goes for $310 a serving, and prices go north steadily from there.
Fed up with the blatant hypocrisy of our new aristocracy, a restaurant owner mocked Newsom by unfurling a “French Laundry” banner above his restaurant.
Alex Jordan, the owner of Eat at Joe’s Restaurant in Redondo Beach, jabbed at Newsom by hanging a “French Laundry” banner outside his business. The governor was forced to apologize earlier this month after he was photographed dining at the luxury restaurant with a large group, in violation of his own guidelines.“The governor went to that party at the French Laundry and didn’t social distance, didn’t do anything and just rubbed it in our faces,” Jordan said in an interview with FOX Business. “The hypocrisy of it annoyed me so I put the sign up as like, hey, if it’s OK for you to go to the French Laundry, then my customers can come in. That’s all it was. Just a straight on dig at the governor.”
Redondo Beach diner Eat at Joe’s is continuing to serve customers outdoors despite Los Angeles County shutting down indoor and outdoor dining. And while Newsom’s orders did not end outdoor dining directly, Jordan is expressing the frustration of millions of Californians who are facing the holiday season either unemployed or underemployed and perhaps being forced to be separated from loved ones.
Jordan told KTLA no one has ordered him to stop serving customers since the ban took effect, and said he has been following all guidelines for serving customers including spacing out tables and requiring employees to wear masks.“COVID is a terrible thing. There is no argument there,” Jordan told KTLA. “But I’m not sure that picking on restaurants to such a degree is the answer. It hasn’t been proven through any medical numbers that eating outside is causing this. So why do they have to close us down? We are following all the rules to a T, and still they want to close us down.”He stated that he’s defying the orders specifically because his employees need the money ahead of the holiday season.
Los Angeles area restaurant owners target their ire on Mayor Eric Garcetti, despite the restrictions being a county rather than a city order.
Some restaurant owners say they are frustrated with what they contend is Garcetti’s inconsistent messaging on restaurants and the virus.The owners of Beverly Grove restaurant AOC urged their social media followers to contact the mayor last week after the ban passed. In an interview, co-owner Caroline Styne pointed to comments the mayor made in an interview with KNBC-TV Channel 4 that aired two weeks ago in which he suggested that outdoor dining wasn’t contributing to the spread of the virus.“I would like the mayor to actually support restaurants,” Styne said. “And say, ‘I don’t believe the spread is coming from restaurants.’”
However, California’s elite bureaucrats bitterly cling to the restrictions… even though less than 4% of outbreaks can be connected to restaurants in Los Angeles County.
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