Pittsburgh Restaurants Feeling Impact Of Coronavirus Outbreak Following New Rules
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Gov. Tom Wolf's order restricting restaurants to drive-through and take-out only is prompting some rethinking about daily meals.
Drive-through windows were doing a brisk business with indoor customers forced to roll up and order.
But the silence as deafening at noon on Wednesday in Priminati Brothers in the Strip District.
"It's eerie coming into the restaurant," Victor Brunner of McCandless said.
Primanit Brothers will bring orders out to those who don't want to walk in.
And while take out rings the cash register, it's nowhere close to the same.
"It stinks for sure,' regional manager Mike Mitcham said. "The whole hospitality industry is taking a huge hit right now."
It's not just the hospitality industry in the Strip that is hurting.
Chip Dittrich has fruit but a shortage of customers at his shop.
"There's plenty here, we're open, open regular hours," Dittrich said.
The vast openness is hard to miss.
Closing restaurants to take-out only is critical to slowing the spread of the coronavirus, and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald says police have the power to enforce it.
"We know we're not going to go out and round people up and put them in jail if they stay open. We're trying to go the other way with places like that. We're hopeful that places on their own will follow the law," Fitzgerald said.
