Chicago Restauranteurs: Data Refutes Need For Indoor Dining Ban

CHICAGO — A band of city restaurateurs reeling under the state's pandemic social distancing restrictions on Wednesday pointed to public health data they say shows "no significant statistical link" between the spread of coronavirus and indoor dining.

Between June 1 and Sept. 15, 585 people — 8 percent of the 8,009 people who tested positive for COVID-19 that city contact tracers contacted — reported visiting restaurants 14 days before experience symptoms, according to documents the Fulton Market Association obtained through a public records request.

During that same time period, 22 of Chicago's 7,300 restaurants were shutdown for not complying with coronavirus safety protocols, and 297 of about 75,000 restaurant employees tested positive for COVID-19, the data shows.

Fulton Market Association Executive Director Roger Romanelli said the "startling data" seems to affirm that careful efforts to follow coronavirus safety protocols has effectively protected guests and employees, yet restaurants have been used as scapegoats in the government mitigation efforts.

"I've been in these restaurants. It's like eating in a dentist's office. We've been rocking indoor dining service from June to September and you're telling me only 300 employees out of thousands are the only ones reporting COVID. And they were only able to track 585 people with COVID in the whole city who visited restaurants," Fulton Market Association Executive Director Roger Romanelli said.

"I think it's pretty compelling data. It's startling. … And after seven months of dealing with this, the best [the government] can do is to say stay at home?"

The group — which represents B Hospitality Group, Kuma's Corner, City Winery, Hopleaf Restaurant, Catering Out Of The Box and Jefferson Tap — issued a statement criticizing Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the City Council for not standing up to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Oct. 30 indoor dining ban in Chicago despite having the "data in hand" that showed restaurants don't appear to virus spreading threats that warrant a shutdown.

"Now having the city's data, restaurants want to end their being wrongly scapegoated for the virus spread and want greater support from City Hall to survive the winter," according to a statement.

A City Hall spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Romanelli said it took 40 days — and intervention from Attorney General Kwame Raoul — to get City Hall's three-page response to his Freedom of Information request.

"The wait is inexcusable. What are we using abacuses? This data should be at their fingertips and available," he said.

Romanelli called on Lightfoot to make more data public and use it as leverage to push for Pritzker to restore indoor dining at 25-percent occupancy levels in Chicago, "even if it means suing the state."

The group of restaurateurs called on city and state officials to differentiate between restaurants and bars, which thy contends are higher-risk venues for spreading the virus than places that offer sit-down dining indoors.

Restaurants, and other industries, deserve to see weekly data reports as proof that government shutdowns — like the indoor dining ban — are actually effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19, Romanelli said.

The group of restaurant owners also want City Hall to provide financial assistance to restaurants that get left behind in the recently announced lottery for dolling out $10 million in grant money to 1,000 of the city's 7,500 restaurants.

"With City Hall holding $2 billion [in tax increment finance] reserves and the survival of restaurants at stake, the mayor must increase the total grant funds to $75 million and avoid any lottery that pits restaurant vs. restaurant," Romanelli said.