06/23/2020
Dear loyal guests and community,
We’ve seen an overwhelming amount of false information being spread online about our restaurant group. In the name of full transparency, we’ve spent the last couple days gathering all the factual information we can to answer your questions.
We’ve had two confirmed cases of team members that have tested positive for COVID; one team member at The Eagle and one team member at Bakersfield.
We can confirm these individuals NEVER worked a shift in the restaurants while exhibiting symptoms.
As soon as we received notification of positive COVID tests, we spent the weekend gathering information, conducting an internal investigation, notifying team members, and continuing our safety practices and procedures.
The timely discovery of these cases and quick response can be credited directly to the rigorous training on safety procedures that our team members received prior to reopening our restaurants.
The safety of our team members and guests has always been at the root of every decision we’ve made from the onset of this global health crisis. We have never forced team members to work if they felt uncomfortable or ill.
A primary reason for the complete shut down of our entire business at the onset of the pandemic was out of concern for the safety of all involved. We spent that time creating a detailed plan for how to reopen to the public and continue to serve you safely, including:
•Following all protocols and exceeding recommended guidelines from state and local health departments and the CDC, including the wearing of masks, creating social distance, increased sanitation of all high touch surfaces.
•Team members received pre-opening training on COVID related protocols for day-to-day operations as well as protocol for potential exposure.
•Implementing Wellness Checks for all team members, prior to every shift, for COVID related symptoms and temperatures taken, which are logged at the restaurants.
•We have created a “Safety Champion” position at the restaurant. This is an EXTRA team member on the schedule every shift whose only purpose is to complete a sanitation checklist every 30 minutes and to ensure proper sanitation of tables in between parties.
•We have created a “Quarterback” position. This team member stands at the front door to provide touchless entry and exit as well as controlling capacity.
•We have been in constant and close communication with the City of Cincinnati Health Department and will continue to follow their guidance.
We understand that other businesses have chosen to close for a period of time, as a result of a positive COVID test, and for those businesses it was most likely a good decision. We also know that many other businesses, from grocery stores to hardware stores, have experienced positive COVID cases and have chosen to safely remain open. As a local business, with a larger footprint in our city, we’re fortunate to have the resources we needed to create these protocols and to be able to quarantine exposed team members while continuing to operate safely.
We firmly and steadfastly maintain that restaurants are one of the most safe public facing businesses you can patronize. Day in and day out our parents, children, and family members have continued to eat at and enjoy our restaurants. The restaurant industry is uniquely situated to deal with the additional health and sanitation needed in the face of this pandemic because we’ve always existed in a heavily regulated industry where it has been a core focus of our operations.
As a society, if the expectation is that any business which has a confirmed case of COVID must continuously close and reopen, it creates an impossible environment in which to operate. We all assume some level of personal risk when we leave our homes whether it is to grocery shop or go to the home improvement store or go to work. The reality is, that all any business can do, is take every possible precaution to limit risk for team members and guests within their four walls. This is what we have done to the best of our ability.
We cannot thank you enough for your continued support during this challenging time in all of our lives.
Joe, John & Alex
