SACRAMENTO – As California’s economy recovers and the state prepares to fully reopen this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a series of actions to ensure that restaurants, bars, breweries, and wineries continue to benefit from the Regulatory relief from the pandemic, including the expansion of cookout dinners and the sale of alcoholic beverages to go to support business recovery and protect public health.
“California restaurants help create the vibrant and diverse communities that make California the envy of the world.
“As the state moves into post-pandemic life, we will continue to adapt best practices that have helped businesses transform the customer experience for the better,” Governor Newsom said after a visit to Tommy’s Mexican restaurant in San Francisco. .
“With new opportunities and support for businesses large and small, and the California can-do spirit that has helped us over the past year, we will roar out of this pandemic,” he added.
The Administration extended relief measures that allow restaurants and bars to continue to benefit from their investments to expand outdoor operations in areas such as sidewalks and parking lots, and to continue the sale of alcoholic beverages to take away with food delivery, among others. adaptations due to the pandemic.
Additionally, the Administration is urging local governments to facilitate cookouts through local zoning and programs that support and promote expanded outdoor options, takeout and home delivery.
While California has one of the highest vaccination rates and the lowest community transmission rate in the nation, public health experts recognize that encouraging best practices, such as outdoor activities and operations, remains a priority of public health as regions of the nation and the world experience surges and variations. to pose a threat.
Building on the regulatory relief announced during the pandemic by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, today’s action will also allow bars to continue to partner with food trucks, caterers or restaurants to sell meals with their beverages, as needed. , and allowing wineries and breweries to partner with restaurants to host virtual dinners with wine and beer pairings.
The announcement was not well received by some quarters, such as the Republican Party.
In a statement, California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millán Patterson noted that California’s restaurant industry suffered more than most under Gavin Newsom’s authoritarian shutdowns.
“With another eye-catching press conference on his self-promoting Recall Response Tour, Newsom offered little to nearly one-third of California restaurants that closed permanently during the pandemic and two-thirds of employees who at least temporarily lost their jobs.
“It seemed like the only restaurant he cared to keep running during their closings was French Laundry. Our state has the second highest unemployment rate in the country and a bankrupt EDD that still has more than 1.1 million back claims from unemployed Californians, ”he noted.
The Republican leader ruled that voters are desperate for solutions, not for photographs of the governor.
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