Chefs and restaurant owners in Philadelphia are sizzling hot over a photo showing Mayor Jim Kenney, who banned indoor dining in Philly due to COVID-19, enjoying an indoor restaurant meal in Maryland.
The restaurant is owned by the mayor’s friend; but the chefs fume that the mayor is a job-killing hypocrite.
6ABC in Philadelphia reports the mayor’s office confirmed that he went to a friend’s restaurant in Maryland on Sunday.
The picture below of the mayor enjoying his meal indoor has since gone viral because Kenney has staunchly stood by his decision to not allow restaurants in the city to open for indoor dining, according to 6ABC:
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Philadelphia restaurateur Marc Vetri is among the chefs who have skewered the mayor for shutting down indoor dining in Philly. Now he and others in the food biz are roasting Kenney for his apparent double-standard while dining inside in Maryland.
6ABC quotes Vetri’s peppery post on Instagram as saying:
“Hi @phillymayor !!! Glad you’re enjoying indoor dining with no social distancing or mask-wearing in Maryland tonight while restaurants here in Philly close, suffer and fight for every nickel just to survive. I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight.”
For its part, the mayor’s office tried to explain why Kenney surfaced inside that Maryland restaurant, something still against the rules in Philly, with this statement as reported by 6ABC:
“The mayor went to Maryland earlier today to patronize a restaurant owned by a friend of his. For what it’s worth, he also went to Rouge to enjoy outdoor dining in Philly on the way home. He looks forward to expanding indoor dining locally next week. Throughout the pandemic the Mayor has consistently deferred to the guidance of the Health Commissioner, who in this case felt strongly about waiting until Sept. 8 to resume indoor dining. If elected officials at the federal level had similarly deferred to health experts over the past five months, this might not even be an issue by now. Of course we understand the frustrations of local restaurant owners who have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. But there are 782 total cases in the county the mayor briefly visited, compared to over 33,000 cases in Philadelphia. Drastically different circumstances.”
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