Got your COVID vaccine? Stay out, says California restaurateur decrying ‘stupidity’
While some businesses across the country are requiring proof of vaccination from their customers, an Italian restaurant in California is doing the opposite.
In July, Basilico’s Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach posted signs requiring proof of being unvaccinated in order to enter, according to social media posts. The restaurant previously banned wearing face masks during the pandemic.
“We have zero tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity,” the signs read.
Basilico’s owner Tony Roman said in a statement to McClatchy News that “our American way of life is under attack.”
“I feel blessed to be on the front lines of this battle in defense of Liberty and Freedom, willing to put everything at risk for it, pledging our business as a ‘Constitutional Battleground’ since day one of the lockdowns on March 19th, 2020,” Roman said. “We have never complied with any restrictions since, and when the tiny tyrants go on the attack with new mandates, we fire back launching new missiles of defiance. And with the new and aggressive push for mandatory vax policies, we couldn’t resist, so we are sending a message of our own. Hopefully most are smart enough to read between the lines. Otherwise we will just sit back and have fun watching their heads explode over it.”
An employee told The Los Angeles Times that the restaurant isn’t actually checking vaccination status.
The restaurant has also responded to the news coverage of the signs, saying that it has received “harassing non-stop phone calls, threats and hundreds of one-star reviews,” according to a Facebook post.
The restaurant’s new signs comes as COVID cases have spiked across the country, fueled by the delta variant, which has spread to multiple countries.
More than 188 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine as of July 26, including more than 163 million who are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Around 43% of the country hasn’t received at least one dose of a COVID shot.
Meanwhile, Argosy, a Georgia gastropub, posted a “No Vax, No Service” sign outside their business this week, spurring positive reactions as well as death threats online, McClatchy News previously reported.
”This is no different from a no shirt, no shoes, no service policy,” Argosy co-owner Armando Celentano said.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Got your COVID vaccine? Stay out, says California restaurateur decrying ‘stupidity’."