NM Restaurants "Don't Feel Listened To"

Above, Don Diego's Restaurant & Lounge in Gallup. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To be a restaurateur in any state, particularly New Mexico, is not a winning proposition.

Restaurants have been singled out by governors with lockdown orders or limited services.

In New Mexico, it has been a teeter-totter existence for restaurants as they have been allowed and then disallowed to serve dine-in patrons at 50% capacity.

Unfortunately, when a state has a governor, such as Michelle Lujan Grisham, who won't listen, unnecessary chaos erupts that forces restaurants to seek relief through the courts. Grisham has the attitude of, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up!" 

The latest comes from the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Though another legal showdown with the Governor’s Office looms later this month, the New Mexico Restaurant Association is pleading its case to the public in the interim. 

A day after a flurry of action placed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s indoor-dining ban before the state Supreme Court, restaurant association CEO Carol Wight again made her arguments on behalf of the industry, asserting indoor dining in June and early July wasn’t a significant source of the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state. 

“It was never dine-in restaurants that was the problem,” Wight said Tuesday. “I really hope to drive home it’s not making a difference [to shut down dine-in]. The [statewide overall] spike is still going up. We don’t think what the industry is doing has anything to do with the spread of coronavirus.” 

The fight over indoor dining reached the state Supreme Court on Monday when a District Court judge in Carlsbad issued a restraining order that temporarily stopped the governor from enforcing a renewed ban on dine-in options. Hours later, though, lawyers for Lujan Grisham requested a stay from the Supreme Court, which ordered the parties to file legal arguments in the next several days. 

For now, the ban remains in place. 

The state has about 3,300 restaurants, with about 200 permanently closing since the pandemic started, Wight said. 

A spokesman for the Governor’s Office wrote an “open line of communication” exists with the association and discussions have taken place “since the outset of the implementation of pandemic-related restrictions.” 

“As far as there being an open line to the governor, we are not feeling that,” Wight responded. “Yes, I can email the secretary of environment and secretary of tourism, but we don’t feel listened to.”

Remember, brick walls don't have ears.

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