Customers ‘aggressive’ over face mask policies force fed-up restaurants to close

Restaurants across the country are reportedly closing as coronavirus cases rise and employees test positive for COVID-19.

Recently, there have been announcements from restaurants saying they’re closing dine-in services after customers “disrespected” and insulted staff members when asked to wear masks, per company policies, according to news reports.

This week, Mexican Fiesta in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, announced it would close its dining room and only offer carry-out following “multiple situations where our staff was disrespected and treated rudely,” according to a Facebook post from the company. The restaurant’s manager told the Detroit Free Press that most of the run-ins involved people disagreeing with the company’s mask policy.

“A very small minority of people just became really aggressive with foul language and pushing,” Sam Alvarado, Mexican Fiesta’s manager, told the newspaper.

A company in Los Angeles closed both of its restaurants after employees were “treated with hostility and venom,” McClatchy News reported. Hugo’s Tacos has a “no mask, no service” rule, which some customers have responded to poorly, according to McClatchy News.

“All because of a simple question: Can we ask you to put on a mask? Can we offer you a mask,” Bill Kohne, partial owner of Hugo’s, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s just gotten more difficult to open every day in an environment where you’re treated with hostility and venom,” Kohne told KTTV.

In one instance, a man assaulted one of Hugo’s Tacos’ employees, KNBC reported. The customer threw a cup of water on the worker, according to KNBC.

“It’s really sad to see grown-up people doing childish things like that,” Nabor Prado, who works at Hugo’s, told KNBC.

Other restaurants have also reported situations where customers acted inappropriately toward employees over requests to adhere to mask rules, such as Danny’s Irish Pub in Ferndale, Michigan, The Detroit News reported. One of the pub’s bartenders asked a customer to wear a mask because he was walking around and ordering — per company policy — and the man threw his drinks on her, according to the outlet.

“I asked him, ‘Would you please put your mask on.’ And he said, ‘Why are you being such a [expletive] about it,” Brook Windorf, the Danny’s bartender, told The Detroit News. After she closed his tab at last call, he asked for more drinks and she refused.

That’s when the man threw his drinks on Windorf and she called the police, the outlet reported.

“After having words with several people through the night, it was the final straw and I was super angry,” Windorf told The Detroit News. “I’m not the only one with a story to tell.”