After Texas lifted COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates, one restaurant decided to create their own.
And they’re making sure patrons know just how serious they are about enforcing them.
Wayne and Kat LaCombe, the owners of Legends Diner in Denton, in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, put up a sign introducing their new “surcharge.”
The policy is transparent and hanging in the front entrance: “$50 if I have to explain why masks are mandatory” and “$75 if I have to hear why you disagree.”
Gov. Greg Abbott stopped requiring masks at businesses in Texas on March 10.
“I just can’t afford to get the virus. We’d have to shut our business down,” Wayne told The Dallas Morning News of his decision to charge those who defy the establishment’s personal mask mandate.
Wayne told CNN he got the idea after seeing a similar sign online.
"I thought, 'Oh, that's funny. I'm gonna put that up because it does send a message,'" he said. "And not five minutes after I put it up customers coming in were laughing and taking pictures of it."
To put more emphasis on the mask requirement, one of their servers, who is also an art student, added a drawing of a woman in a mask with the message: “Mask required. It’s respectful, not political.”
The establishment has adopted several other safety precautions amid the pandemic including spacing out tables, cutting down on capacity, frequent hand washing, taking temperatures, and sanitizing tables.
While the couple has gotten their first dose of the vaccine, they know it doesn’t make you “invincible.”
They explained that they put the restrictions in place to protect their un-vaccinated employees and all customers, many of whom are over 60 years old and considered vulnerable.
“We want to stay safe for them,” he said. “For our customers, our employees, it’s the right thing to do.”
While most of the feedback from patrons and neighboring businesses has been positive, they’ve encountered their fair share of critics.
Wayne said he hasn’t had to enforce his policy just yet, but he is worried about what future spikes in infections may mean for the business, which was forced to close down for two months during the height of the pandemic.
“We have a race that we have not finished, and when the numbers go up our business goes down,” he told CNN. “So yes, it’s very urgent that we keep the numbers down.”
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