CLEVELAND — Sam McNulty the owner of Market Garden Brewery, Bar Cento and Nano Brew on West 25th Street is worried about the restaurant industry as a whole.
“Everyone is looking around like who is going to be still standing? Even if we don’t have another shut down, but with a shut down, it would be a cataclysmic event across the state,” he said.
He said the majority of restaurant owners are working diligently to keep their customers and staff safe.
“Here at Market Garden, we’ve taken it a step further and our HVAC systems are using the same technology that the Cleveland Clinic uses so it’s an ultraviolet filtration system,” he said. “We feel very confident in this and we are asking the governor to let us stay in business and keep people employed and allow people to enjoy themselves safely.”
He’s part of a coalition of dozens of Cleveland restaurants urging Gov. Dewine not to shut them down, it’s called the #WeCantClose” movement.
“The industry is asking the governor, the local health departments, both city and county, inspect us, make sure we are on our toes, doing everything right and for the few folks that aren’t doing it right deal with those problems,” he said.
But it's the few problems that some restaurant owners are worried about.
News 5 obtained video from the Ohio Investigative Unit that shows Barley House, a bar and restaurant on West 6th Street, from the last weekend. The bar received its third COVID-19 violation. OIU officials said there were more than 100 people there, not social distancing, and the majority of patrons not wearing masks.
Another video from Barley was shared by Cleveland Cavalier Larry Nance Jr. that has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter. In his tweet, he called it irresponsible and begged people to wear a mask.
Idiots... all of them... so irresponsible of @BarleyHouseCLE
— Larry Nance Jr (@Larrydn22) November 14, 2020
PLEASE WEAR A MASK PEOPLE!!! https://t.co/zZYXdXPNc4
News 5 reached out to Barley House for comment but didn’t hear back.
Bryan Fink, who frequents Ohio City, said repeat offenders should be punished, instead of closing all establishments.
“If it’s a repeat offender, then there needs to be some discipline because then they are ruining it for other places that are abiding by the rules,” he said.
McNulty said a part of the #WeCantClose movement is making sure everyone is on a level playing field and asking the state to check in and make sure people are abiding by protocol.
“You don’t throw out the whole bushel because there’s one bad apple,” he said.
RELATED: Barley House in Cleveland among establishments cited for violating COVID-19 health orders
