Long Beach Restaurant Loudly Defies COVID-19 Rules as Hospitals Ration Care

Long Beach restaurant Restauration has come under continued fire in recent weeks for refusing to shut down its on-site dining. While the restaurant is not allowing diners to eat inside — as some like La Scala in Beverly Hills were offering recently — owner Dana Tanner is still openly seating people on Restauration’s patio, in direct defiance of regional public health orders put out by state officials. Long Beach also has its own public health department, which has similarly banned all on-site dining within city limits. Tanner says she is undeterred, and will continue to seat those who ask, in part to keep her employees from being laid off. “I’m not going to let them go down,” she recently told the Long Beach Post, adding: “I just wish more restaurants would join us in staying open.”

Local public health and code enforcement officials are aware of Restauration’s refusal, and have already issued warnings to the restaurant. That hasn’t stopped them from continuing to publicly announce their on-site dining on social media — or from getting deluged with negative reviews on Yelp. Further visits by city officials could result in escalating fines and a loss of necessary business licensing.

Los Angeles County, meanwhile, is considered to be among the most dangerous places in America as the coronavirus continues to spread wildly within its ten million-plus residents. Intensive care unit beds are at an all-time low, hospitals have begun to ration care, and one person is dying every 15 minutes from COVID-19.

In other news:

• Lunetta is taking a break for a bit. The Santa Monica restaurant made the announcement via email blast, saying ownership and staff would “pause for the next few weeks to stay healthy, spend time with our families and get some much needed rest as we regroup for a positive and healthy New Year.” The plan is to reopen in February.
• Santa Monica high-end French restaurant Pasjoli is offering a subscription model for the new year. Chef/owner Dave Beran’s Main Street spot will offer paid tiers of ongoing access to things like pastries, cocktails, and wine.
• A small new takeaway wine and provisions shop called Wine & Eggs is opening on January 20 in Atwater Village, at 3127 ¹⁄₂ Glendale Boulevard.
• Culver City’s Piccalilli is now offering takeaway and delivery banh mi sandwiches as part of an in-house pop-up. A full menu of offerings can be found here.

• Speaking of Pasjoli, former chef de cuisine Matthew Kim has left the restaurant to focus on a new project called Oui’d, a high-end cannabis edibles company. His last day at Pasjoli was December 30.
• Everytable is now open in Hollywood. This new location (complete with coffee from Black-owned Hot & Cool Cafe) is part of the company’s social equity franchising program, which trains and pays some new franchisees to help “close the racial wealth gap” and “invest in marginalized entrepreneurs.” Hollywood’s franchisee is Dorcia Whitebrake from South Los Angeles.
• Downtown underground pizza maker Dough Daddy is teaming up with award-winning bar Death & Co. for a one-day event on January 15. The Dough Daddy crew will cook out of the Death & Co. Arts District space, doing packages of medium or large Detroit-style pizzas, plus a caesar salad and pre-batched cocktail, all to be ordered in advance via Tock.