As restaurants around the area prepare to shut down indoor dining for a second time in 2020, business owners are struggling to understand why their industry, along with several others, are being targeted.

Gov. Tom Wolf and Pa. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced Thursday that beginning at midnight Saturday all in-person dining is prohibited for three weeks. Gyms and entertainment venues, such as concert halls, movie theaters and bowling alleys, were also shut down as part of the order.

“Show me the data that our small businesses and our restaurants are directly leading to a spike in cases,” Rich Wenner, owner of the Bowmanstown Diner, said Friday morning. “I’m not seeing it. Yet places like Walmart, malls, Home Depot and places like that can stay open. Small businesses are falling like dominoes without the data to back up the decisions.”

Wolf’s announcement of the new guidelines came at 4 p.m. on Thursday. Wenner, for one, hoped for a bit more notice.

“At least give us the weekend,” Wenner said. “On Thursday afternoon, we already have a lot of our stuff prepped for the weekend and I’m sure a lot of other places are in the same boat.”

Several businesses, including Bert’s Restaurant in Palmerton, Jokers Gaming Café in Lehighton and West Penn Diner in Tamaqua have announced their intention to remain open for in-person dining.

“We discussed it with our staff and the owner of our building and we’re going to do the same thing we did last time and stay open,” Bert’s owner Jaclyn Costenbader said Friday. “If we don’t stay open, I don’t think we could make it.”

Costenbader said when the restaurant would normally take in $500-$700, that drops to around $60 when they have to only offer a takeout option.

“After much deliberation, prayer and reflection, we have made the decision that we will not comply with any future shutdown mandate,” Jokers Gaming Café owners wrote on the business’ Facebook page. “We will continue to operate the way we have for the past five months. Sanitizing, having set aside times for hand washing, cleaning, asking our customers to mask up, have all proven to be safe measures here at Jokers. Another shut down is just not in the cards for us. We, and thousands of other small businesses across this great country will not survive.”

Both Jokers and the West Penn Diner said they would not force anyone to work who does not feel comfortable.

“We will be here for our community 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” the West Penn Diner posted on its Facebook page. “Until the governor pays my employees and I for shutting down and staying home and not funding the state’s losses with CARES money, we all have families to feed and bills to pay.”

Rumors of more restrictions had surfaced earlier in the week and solidified in the hours leading up to Thursday’s news conference. Margaret White, proprietress of the Stone Row Pub and Eatery in Jim Thorpe, said while the news didn’t surprise her, it could have been delivered differently.

“I think the way they rolled it out was unprofessional,” White said. “There was a lot of anxiety throughout the week, because you knew something was coming but then again maybe it’s not true. That murkiness does a number on businesses.”

The restaurant will be reducing its hours, offering takeout and working with local Airbnb owners to provide meals for guests.

“We take a lot of pride in what we create and its presentation,” White said. “While it still looks great in the to-go containers, sometimes you can’t replace that sit down experience. We also don’t get to educate our customers on how to do certain things at home.”

A Ca Mia, an Italian restaurant in Lehigh Township, will be doing takeout business, as well as offering outdoor dining out front and in its tent. After someone posted on its Facebook page, urging the restaurant to defy Wolf’s order, A Ca Mia advised against harboring such feelings.

“Clinging to strong feelings of ‘us’ and ‘them’ creates problems, because such divisions lead to conflict and violence,” A Ca Mia’s response read. “It’s basic human nature to be compassionate. We have a natural sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’. As social animals, we can’t survive alone. We depend on the community we live in. We essentially belong to the same family and we must not sacrifice our basic compassionate nature because of superficial differences.”

During the initial indoor dining shutdown earlier this year, the Bowmanstown Diner put up an outdoor dining tent for patrons. Now, with consistent colder temperatures, it will be sticking to takeout.

“I can’t afford to heat a tent,” Wenner said. “This just comes at a really tough time for our employees. The holidays are here and now many of them are going to have to rely on unemployment. We have really good people who work for us and there is just no plan to help them.”

Before the pandemic, the Bowmanstown Diner had around 30 employees, but has lost around seven or eight workers since then.

“They’re going to Walmart,” Wenner joked. “Business is booming there.”

The three weeks that indoor dining will be prohibited are some of the busiest during this part of the year in Jim Thorpe. Many employees across the industry, White said, will be turning to unemployment, but it can’t replace what they would normally make leading up to the holidays.

“People are coming to Jim Thorpe right now for the train, for the sales and to go shopping in the local businesses,” she said. “A lot of places count on this income during this time to carry them through the slower winter months. It’s going to be a grind for sure, because the likelihood this is going to end on Jan. 4, I feel, is slim.”