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Will more St. Louis restaurant owners require that customers be vaccinated? —Bill S., St. Louis
We touched on this topic a few weeks ago, when local chef/restaurateur Ben Poremba announced that guests wishing to dine indoors at his restaurants would be required to be vaccinated (using the honor system). A few days later, acclaimed restaurateur and Union Square Hospitality Group owner Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack, upped the ante by requiring all guests to show proof that they are fully vaccinated by showing a COVID-19 vaccine card or digital facsimile.
Since then, the cities of New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans have mandated (or will soon) that guests entering restaurants, bars, gyms, and other venues must show proof of vaccination at the door.
A growing number of restaurants and bars in St. Louis (19 at press time) are requiring guests to be vaccinated or show proof of negative test results prior to admittance.
With more cities (such as Chicago) now considering a mandate and with FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccines likely on the near horizon, we asked a few local restaurant owners what might swing the needle for them to do so.
"I really don’t see mandates happening in St. Louis," one restaurant owner says. "The county executive and mayor of St. Louis have lacked transparency since the beginning of this virus. Decisions are now politically driven, which caused the erosion of both the public and business owners' trust. At this point, they couldn’t even mutually agree with anyone but themselves on something as simple as making a cup of coffee."
Another restaurant owner says that although he feels vaccination mandates are "the right thing to do," the dining establishment's servers and front desk staffers "have been through enough." At this point, he feels, "mandates will not bring in business—they'll hurt business."
And still another gave a more global opinion: " I applaud entire cities and the individual businesses that have made the decision to require vaccine proof. However I do not see that it can be truly effective unless an entire metropolitan area mandates it and in this area, that poses quite a pickle. After the initial quarantine mandate was lifted, guests were allowed into restaurants in St. Louis and St. Charles, but not St. Louis County. We were impacted by this. It’s easy for someone to just skip the county line and go elsewhere... and that’s exactly what happened. Even more recently, with the county mask mandate that lasted a blink of an eye, we saw a significant drop in business. I don’t believe we are in a spot that not being able to go to your favorite restaurant or gym is enough incentive to become vaccinated. I see guests going elsewhere, getting takeout, or simply buying a fake vaccine card. While we required our employees to be vaccinated, just like Hep A, I can’t see having a proof of vaccine mandate effective unless it is done by St. Louis City, County, and St. Charles, which I don't see happening."
Brian Carr, co-owner of avenue in Clayton, says, "I’ve no idea regarding other restaurants but would think that other cities' policies and FDA approval would not be factors here. We’re close to making it a requirement, but one has to consider the frontline employees who have to make the [proof of vaccine] request. Maybe it’s more of a political question than one of hospitality."
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