Toronto restaurant shutting down indoor dining rather than enforce vaccine passports
A well-known Toronto restaurant is shutting down indoor dining as of today rather than enforcing vaccine passports, remaining open for takeout and delivery only.
Frank's Pizza House, which first opened in 1965, posted to Instagram saying they'd be closing indoor dining as of Sept. 22 (the day vaccine passports have come into effect for entry into businesses like restaurants and gyms) until further notice.
The business is still open six days a week so you can get their delicious pizzas and panzerotti, you just won't be able to eat them in your dining room.
"We're just not certain what's going to happen," Frank's owner Giorgio Taverniti tells blogTO, saying the restaurant is "not anti or pro" vaccine, that the whole staff is fully vaccinated and they're just "not sure what to do yet."
He says he predicts people from both sides of the vaccine debate will be coming into his restaurant, and isn't comfortable being put in the middle.
Taverniti's 16-year-old daughter works at Frank's as a server, and he doesn't want to see her yelled at by an adult the way he's seen happen at other businesses.
Taverniti is also visually impaired and works by himself at the restaurant in the daytime, and feels he might find it difficult to check the vaccine passports on his own at first.
Mainly, he wishes that when it comes to the passports the government would "not leave it up to restaurant owners" who already have "so much going on." While Frank's complies with all current health regulations, they're not eager to add another weighty responsibility to their plate.
They're going to take their time to see how other restaurants deal with enforcing vaccine passports and will reopen when they feel comfortable, which could be anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks.
When they do reopen for indoor dining, they're hoping to mainly use the app developed to check vaccine passports as that will be easiest for them.
Hector Vasquez
