Virginia Restaurant Closed By Governor Northam Refuses To Close
A Spotsylvania County restaurant owner is refusing to close after his license was suspended due to repeated COVID violations.
Matt Strickland is the owner of Gourmeltz and an Army veteran.
The Rappahannock Area Health District (RAHD) said in a statement last week that since Dec. 13, 2020, they have received over 50 complaints of Gourmeltz related to the requirements of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's Executive Order 72 (EO72), including reports of employees who were not wearing masks, customers sitting at the bar, and the restaurant not following required social distancing guidelines.
Gourmeltz released a statement Saturday on their Facebook page regarding the matter:
"We will be opening at 3 pm tomorrow. Not because of the snow forecast, but because you guys showed up in force and cleaned us out! We do it all from scratch, so we have a lot of food to prep.
We love you guys, thank you so much for having our back. Tomorrow Mark Dunn will be performing live from 4-6pm, then we'll turn things over to the big game and watch Tom Brady battle Pat Mahomes.
To the Governor, health department, and OSHA: if you're actually interested in what we as American's want instead of trying to rule by force, come on by Gourmeltz and look at all the happy smiling faces........."