CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The owner of a Geneva restaurant said he’ll continue serving customers indoors, now that a judge has ruled, at least temporarily, in his favor against Governor Pritzker’s latest coronavirus restrictions.
Kane County is one of a number of counties who have been ordered by the state to return to more restrictive COVID mitigation protocols.
KC Gulbro and his father, Curtis, own FoxFire in Geneva and said people are excited a Kane County judge has initially ruled against the governor’s order for restaurants to stop indoor dining service. The order only applies to Gulbro’s restaurant near the Fox River.
"Last night, the law team was in for dinner. People were going up, taking their pictures, waving like they were celebrities," KC Gulbro said.
"We would rather be legally defiant than illegally defiant."
He said indoor dining accounts for 80 percent of his business and that if he had to end dine-in service about 40 of his 50 employees would have to be laid-off. He said that would be "devastating."
"There’s no way we would probably make it if we had to close down or even just do curbside dining. It’s just, the bills would be too much," he said.
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And, just because Gulbro believes the governor’s latest coronavirus restrictions to stop dine-in service at restaurants is unfair, he said he still takes COVID-prevention seriously.
"We were all in masks, we all wear gloves when we’re touching the food. We’re all doing everything that a restaurant should do even without a pandemic. We’re a safe restaurant," he said.
Gulbro said that despite having 22 tables indoors, he still has an outdoor dining option. As you might imagine, that's not very popular about now.
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"We had a customer adamant that they wanted to sit outside yesterday, was out there maybe for a minute then looked at each other...came inside. And they liked it too. They saw we were all in masks," Gulbro said.
The restaurant owner and chef said some of his latest customers are visiting FoxFire for the first time, just because he has stood up against the governor's order. He said business with indoor service is about at "break even" or a little better.