NYC Restaurant Owners Sue Mayor Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Several New York City restaurants are suing Mayor Bill de Blasio over an executive order signed this week mandating that all customers and employees must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination in order to enter their establishments.

The restaurants behind the lawsuit include Deluca's Italian Restaurant and Max's Esca in Staten Island as well as Pasticceria Rocco in Brooklyn. The Independent Restaurant Owners Association Rescue and two gyms, Evolve-33 and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu, have also joined the complaint.

Mary Josephine Generoso, manager of Pasticceria Rocco, told the New York Post, “For me, it’s not political — most of my customers are vaccinated. It’s about civil liberties and freedoms. Now we have to be in a society where people can’t roam freely and enter my place of business if they want to? How is that OK in the United States of America?”

In response to the lawsuit, Mayor de Blasio said he remains confident about the city’s mandate, which he says is “about public health and safety.”

“We know we must get more people vaccinated and strategically focusing on the ways to get more people vaccinated, particularly focusing on young people where there’s been a real gap so we can stop the spread of the delta variant, is mission critical," he said in a press conference yesterday.

According to NYC data, 57% of NYC residents and 68% of adults are fully vaccinated. But the data also shows that cases of COVID-19 have spiked since early July.

New York is not the only city to implement proof-of-vaccination orders. San Francisco and New Orleans plan to put a similar rule into place to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant.

Many restaurant owners are concerned about suffering an even larger labor shortage if their workers are required to get vaccinated. Art Depole, who co-owns a MOOYAH Burgers, Fries and Shakes franchise with his brother Nick in midtown Manhattan, said he’s already getting pushback from some of his unvaccinated employees, who are threatening to quit. 

“I feel like it’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all come Monday, where customers and restaurants aren’t really going to know what’s happening with this,” he told CNBC.

In a tight labor market — and now with the added hurdle of a vaccine mandate — replacing those restaurant workers is going to be even more of an uphill battle.