‘We got overwhelmed’: Restaurant owner speaks out after flurry of COVID charges
The co-owner of an east-end sports bar says his staff were overwhelmed" the night Hamilton bylaw officers laid seven COVID-related charges against the pub.
Greg Koropatnicki, co-owner of the EndZone Bar and Grill, told the Spectator that Saturday night was chaotic" at the Main Street East local.
I'm not saying we didn't make any mistakes," said Koropatnicki. We do care about our staff and our customers. It's just one of those things where we got overwhelmed."
Koropatnicki said the bar experienced a rush of customers that evening, spurred by the Friday afternoon announcement of Hamilton heading into lockdown first thing Monday morning - effectively putting an end to indoor dining until further notice.
Koropatnicki said he was also unable to get a security guard for the front door that night and he barely had enough" staff in the dining room.
They just all came in at once ... it was hard to contain," said Koropatnicki.
According to the city, the establishment was allegedly playing music too loud, had too many people inside the restaurant, was failing to keep proper contact tracing records, staff were not screening customers, people were not physically distanced and there was a lack of proper masking compliance. They were charged seven times under the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA).
In the city's COVID-19 response update Monday, Paul Johnson, director of the city's Emergency Operations Centre, said the charges were disappointing."
As you can see by the list, there is not a lot left that they didn't break," he said. These are big, big gaps."
Singling out the noise-related charge, Johnson said loud music, combined with eating, drinking and a lack of masks could lead to a wider spread of droplets."
He also noted the critical" importance of collecting contact information in the event of an outbreak, using a recent outbreak at an Oakville restaurant as an example.
If you don't have information, you're not able to do that contact tracing (and) you're not able to understand who would be at risk," he added. There are good reasons that these (rules) are in place."
Monica Ciriello, licensing manager with the City of Hamilton, said bylaw officers attended the bar after the city received a noise complaint. But unlike Stoney Creek's Cause and Effect, which faced a flurry of charges in March, the EndZone did not have its licence temporarily suspended.
Johnson said the number of charges told him that there was no real attempt" by EndZone management to follow COVID-19 regulations. He added that the incident could give people the impression that this is the way that all restaurants act."
It is not," Johnson said. These are the exceptions, not the rule."
Koropatnicki said they've always" followed the rules to a T," but Saturday was a mishap." He admitted that they were over capacity - which is maximum 50 patrons in the red zone - but noted the total capacity of the bar is just over 300.
Under COVID restrictions, the business has been suffering."
The overhead here is huge," he added.
Johnson said he hoped management would reflect" on the charges while the city stays in lockdown. Ciriello said the city will be proactively monitoring" the establishment to ensure there is full compliance.
Moving forward, Koropatnicki said the bar plans to follow all of the rules and doesn't want to be portrayed as a business that doesn't care about its customers.
I'm not proud of it," he said. But at the end of the day, we're going to be in compliance with everything ... we really do care."
Fallon Hewitt is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: fhewitt@thespec.com