Vince Valenza dreams of the day when restaurant dining in St. Louis will return to normal.
“We're just taking it one day at a time,” Valenza told the St. Louis Record. “We wish we could go back to the way things were before COVID but we realize we can't do that.”
As the owner of Blues City Deli on McNair Avenue, Valenza is required to work within public health guidelines issued in response to the coronavirus.
“We would like to be able to have people eat inside the restaurant, which would be more of a normal situation, but we’re just working through it,” he said. “We’re just following what the health rules are here.”
Statewide there are 330,846 coronavirus cases and 4,383 deaths, as of Dec. 9, according to the Missouri COVID-19 dashboard. In St. Louis County alone, there have been 5,160 cases and 107 fatalities.
“My heart goes out to people all over the country or all over the world who are having a hard time with us," Valenza said in an interview. “I know we are having a hard time just like everybody else.”
Restaurant restrictions are continuing to be contested through the courts.
The Missouri Restaurant Association (MRA) filed a writ of mandamus with the Missouri Court of Appeals on Dec. 3 on behalf of some 40 restaurants in St. Louis County and, on Dec. 4, an order was issued requiring St. Louis County Circuit Judge John R. Lasater to respond by Dec. 9.
As previously reported, St. Louis County restaurants along with the MRA sued over COVID-19 restrictions ordered by St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and St. Louis County Department of Public Health Chief Medical Officer Emily Doucette.
After Judge Lasater ruled against the restaurants, the county eateries appealed with the Missouri Court of Appeals.
“I'm in the city of St. Louis,” he said. “I'm not in the County. I'm still under the same guidelines as we have been all along. I know that St. Louis County restaurants have a much stricter situation right now.”
Valenza is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit that is currently pending.
County restaurants, according to media reports, face restrictions that include no indoor dining and a limit of 25% capacity for outdoor dining.