On Jan. 19, Minneapolis enacted a mandate requiring businesses to ask customers for proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test when entering the establishment, frustrating some business owners in Minneapolis.
While the city is taking these steps to slow the high COVID-19 transmission brought on by Omicron, some restaurant owners feel the mandate may drive out customers and slow down business.
Mayor Jacob Frey signed the vaccine mandate as an emergency order on Jan. 12 and has no official end date as of publication. It requires all food and drink establishments, including restaurants and event venues, to ask customers for proof of full vaccination status or a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the establishments. Negative tests must be taken within three days of entering the business and must be a PCR or antigen test. Venues holding ticketed events will also be required to follow the mandate starting Jan. 26.
“One of the reasons why we went with a vaccine requirement in these particular establishments is because there really is no feasible way to have protection from a mask because you’re eating and drinking,” said Heidi Ritchie, the Minneapolis interim health commissioner.
Ritchie said that businesses failing to comply will be enforced with a warning letter, administrative citations, adverse license reaction or misdemeanor prosecution.
“The approach we take is one of outreach and education,” Ritchie said. “We really want businesses to comply.”
Joshua Hedquist, founder of Joey Meatballs which has a location in Malcolm Yards, said he was frustrated with the mandate because it has made business slower.
“It puts people with small businesses in a tough spot. We want to pay our employees, we don’t want to get rid of them,” Hedquist said. “But then when the money isn’t coming in, if the business closes or you have to cut labor, there’s no win in that scenario.”
Russom Solomon, owner of The Red Sea, an Ethiopian bar and restaurant on the West Bank, said while he understands why the city has implemented the mandate, it adds another barrier, on top of the pandemic and cold weather, for people to come into restaurants.
Ritchie said that the decision was influenced by research from other cities, such as New York City and Chicago, with similar mandates. Minneapolis also conducted outreach work to hear from businesses across demographics before moving forward with the mandate.
“There are some businesses that feel that this is just a burden on them,” said Ritchie. “[The mandate] levels the playing field a little bit because it’s a requirement for all businesses versus just some that are doing it and some that aren’t, so it helps them.”
Not everyone feels like it’s helping their business, especially as a group of restaurant owners attempt to sue Minneapolis over the vaccine mandate.
“All of us business owners, especially restaurant and bar owners are sitting there going, ‘Alright, how do we move forward with this and what’s this going to do to our sales?’” said Kent Kramp, vice president of the Dinkytown Business Alliance and owner of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in Dinkytown.