Restaurant fined repeatedly for defying Washington COVID restrictions closes for good

A restaurant that repeatedly defied Washington’s COVID-19 restrictions will be closing for good after accruing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, the owner said.

Spiffy’s Restaurant and Bakery in Chehalis announced it will close its doors Sunday night after being open for more than 50 years, according to a Facebook post.

The business struggled to find employees and receive food deliveries, according to the post.

“After a year and a half of Governor imposed restrictions on business, many people remain on employment assistance and find that they make more money staying at home,” Spiffy’s said.

Studies have shown, however, that unemployment benefits are not keeping people from returning to work, according to the Washington Post.

Spiffy’s said it racked up $480,000 in fines for violating COVID-19 regulations — including offering indoor dining — despite Gov. Jay Inslee’s Nov. 2020 guidance prohibiting the practice, McClatchy News previously reported.

Dina Lorraine, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Industries, which issued the fines to Spiffy’s, told McClatchy News in a phone interview the total fines the restaurant had accrued by Jan. 23 amounted to $400,419. The amount the owner will need to pay is still in negotiations, Lorraine said.

Despite closing the restaurant, the owner is still expected to pay the fines, according to Lorraine.

“[Rod Samuelson, owner of Spiffy’s] kept his employees and customers in mind when he fought against the governor’s restaurant restrictions and kept his business open to indoor dining during the pandemic,” according to the Facebook post.

Samuelson said “the state cut his penalties in half” and “the attorney general’s office indicated it would forego the fines altogether, but the Governor won’t relent.”

But government officials say there is “nothing to substantiate that claim.”

“It is not true,” Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, told McClatchy in an email. “The attorney general’s office informed us nothing like that was ever said to the owner, including the false claim that the attorney general’s office was willing to ‘forego’ the fines altogether.”

It is unclear if the owner will still be required to pay the fines after closing the restaurant.

This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Restaurant fined repeatedly for defying Washington COVID restrictions closes for good."