Winnetka Restaurant Accused Of Violating Indoor Dining Ban

WINNETKA, IL — Public health officials last week accused a Winnetka restaurant of violating the state's indoor dining ban.

Marco Roma, 14 Green Bay Road, was sent a citation by the Cook County Department of Public Health on Dec. 7, according to the suburban health department.

It was the first restaurant in any New Trier Township community to have been hit with such a citation from the health department.

Indoor dining has been forbidden in Winnetka and the rest of suburban Cook County since Oct. 28, as a surge in new coronavirus cases in every region of the state triggered increased restrictions.

Since then, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has indicated the "mitigations" are unlikely to be lifted until after the holiday season, even if COVID-19 rates decline.

On Oct. 30, members of the Winnetka Village Council issued a joint statement announcing that the village would not use law enforcement or other resources to enforce the governor's order.

"We urge and trust our residents and merchants to use best judgments and to stay vigilant in your efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 through scientifically proven methods: mask-wearing, social distancing, and washing hands regularly," village trustees said, explaining that enforcement of the governor's order was the sole responsibility of state agencies.

"The Village of Winnetka does not have the resources to support such enforcement and will not actively enforce these restrictions on the businesses within our community," their statement continued.

Cook County public health authorities issued a mitigation order on Nov. 6 authorizing its health department, municipal governments and local law enforcement agencies to enforce Pritzker's executive order banning indoor service at bars and restaurants.

Since then, at least 93 businesses have been issued citations. The health department maintains a list of violations issued on its website. Establishments that have come into compliance with the orders are removed from the list.

"We don't want to shame people, that's not the goal," Cook County Department of Public Health spokesperson Don Bolger said. "The goal is to try to keep people as healthy and safe as possible. We want them to know we're taking it seriously. We just want people to be healthy."

Violations of the mitigation order are a class B misdemeanor that can be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 per offense and up to six months jail time, according to county code.

Winnetka Village President Chris Rintz said earlier this month the community had been broadly supportive of the decision not to spend additional tax money on enforcing the dining ban.

"Our non-enforcement wasn't really a political statement of any sort," Rintz said at a state of the village event. "The fact of the matter is, number one: we do not have a public health department to administer this. And secondly ... with the pittance of money that's coming to help out municipal governments all over the state outside of the city of Chicago, it's really a heavy, heavy burden to expect these small communities to self-fund enforcement of unfunded mandates from the state of Illinois."

The Winnetka restaurant's citation came one day after the Hilton Chicago/Northbrook and Allgauer's in Prospect Heights was hit with an in-person citation for violating the state's indoor dining, masking, capacity and social distancing requirements in response to a widely publicized wedding.

The circumstances that led county public health authorities to issue a citation to Marco Roma were not immediately clear. Patch requested a copy of the citation from the county Monday but county officials had provided nothing as of Friday afternoon.

Owner Joseph Marchionna declined to offer further details.

"We do not wish to comment on the citation due to lack of evidence," Marchionna said in an email. "We continue to do everything in our power to abide by the restrictions put in place by our governor."