The owner of an Italian restaurant in Queens, N.Y., said her establishment is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio over dining restrictions due to the coronavirus and pointed out how many of these guidelines are arbitrary.
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Tina Oppedisano, the owner of Il Bacco, told Fox News on Wednesday, “Just 500 feet from my location, you’re allowed to eat inside. Once you get into the Queens border, once you get to the five boroughs, you’re not allowed.”
The New York Post reported that Oppedisano’s restaurant borders Nassau County and she is getting killed financially because diners pass by her establishment and enjoy meals inside at the locations in Nassau.
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Il Bacco “is losing all of its customers to restaurants in Nassau County and is suffering irreparable harm,” the suit says. “There is absolutely NO SCIENCE that will prove that “indoor dining” is safer one city bock east from [Il Bacco],” the lawsuit, which was filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleged, according to the Post.
The paper reported that she joined hundreds of other restaurants in a $2 billion class-action suit against the city for enforcing a ban on indoor dining. The Gothamist reported that Nassau County allows restaurants to operate at 50 percent capacity.
James Mermigis, an attorney, told the website that 350 restaurants have joined the suit.
“The NYC restaurants can no longer survive without indoor dining,” Mermigis told the website. He continued, “We want the State and the City to show us the science that indoor dining in NYC is more dangerous or problematic than indoor dining in Albany or Buffalo or Rochester. These restrictions are random and arbitrary and we intend to challenge them.”
The Gothamist reported that a senior adviser for Cuomo said that the city was hit the hardest by the coronavirus and actions needed to be taken to reduce infections.
“We understand that some people are unhappy, but better unhappy than sick or worse,” Rich Azzopardi, the adviser, said.
The city only allows outdoor dining and takeout, Fox News reported, but Cuomo has OK’d the rest of the state to resume indoor eating.
“The governor and the mayor can produce this science that they are relying on to show us that eating in Little Neck is more dangerous than eating in Great Neck,” Mermigis told Fox News.