A weary restaurant owner in Los Angeles is pleading for help after she was forced to shut down her outdoor dining area due to coronavirus restrictions – even though a movie company was allowed to set up an outside eating area nearby.
Angela Marsden, who owns Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill, voiced her frustrations in a video that shows how close the movie crew’s accommodations are to her business.
“So this is my place, the Pineapple Hill Grill & Saloon. If you go to my page you can see all the work I did for outdoor dining, for tables being seven feet apart,” Marsden said.
“And I come in today because I’m organizing a protest and I came in to get stuff for that. And I walk into my parking lot – and obviously, Mayor Garcetti has approved…this,” she explained while pointing to the tables and tents. “Has approved this being set up for…this being set up for…for a movie company.”
The video shows a large, tented eating area with long tables set up near each other.
“I’m losing everything,” she continued while fighting back tears. “Everything I own is being taken away from me and they set up a movie company right next to my outdoor patio, which is right over here. And people wonder why I’m protesting and why I have had enough. They have not given us money and they have shut us down. We cannot survive, my staff cannot survive.”
Marsden has owned the restaurant for 10 years and said she’s invested nearly $80,000 to build an outdoor dining area that meets the COVID requirements given by the L.A. County health department, KABC News reports.
But, the latest government restrictions forbid outdoor eating and since her funds are depleting and she is unable to provide takeout services, closing her business seems inevitable.
“Mayor Garcetti and Gavin Newsom is responsible for every single person that doesn’t have unemployment, that does not have a job, and all the businesses that are going under, and we need your help,” Marsden asserted. “We need somebody to do something about this.”
The California Restaurant Association tweeted on Wednesday that a superior court judge ordered LA County officials to “show evidence” that justifies their ban on outdoor dining.
Unfortunately, the judge’s ruling offers little help to bars and restaurants in Los Angeles since Mayor Garcetti simultaneously executed a stay-at-home order.
Marsden set up a GoFundMe which has raised $43,194 of her $10,000 goal.