FORT WORTH, Texas — Chris Polone has a stack of blue citations from Fort Worth code enforcement officials for opening his bar Rail Club Live.
“We’re selling toilet paper out of the Rail Club now,” Polone joked, holding the citations.
No Fort Worth business has more COVID-related citations than Rail Club Live. Polone has gotten 14, according to city records.
“I’m not going to pay a dollar for these fines,” Polone said. “In fact, I’m sure there’s failure to appear charges on my name right now.”
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has suspended his license for opening.
Polone believes bars are being treated unfairly by enforcement officials and he won’t use a new rule that’s allowed more than 3,000 of Texas’s roughly 7,000 bars to convert to restaurants and stay open through different shutdowns.
After briefly being allowed to reopen, bars in several areas with high COVID-19 hospitalizations, including North Texas, have had to close again.
“Instead of pushing alcohol sale or no alcoholic sales, we need to be pushing preventive measures,” said Polone.
The City of Fort Worth has gotten 2,135 COVID complaints since March, according to the City, and they have issued 59 citations. Most businesses listed on the city’s list are repeat offenders like Rail Club’s 14, four for Cantina Cadillac and three for Varsity.
Dallas has received 6,271 COVID complaints and has been issued 38 citations, just one has come since July. A city spokesperson said most places make changes when asked, or the complaints are for things that aren’t violations.
“The reason for the low number of citations is due to either, no violation found at the time of inspection or businesses who are cooperative and address the issues identified immediately,” a spokesperson said in an email. “Some things viewed as a violation may not be an actual violation.”
Polone said enforcement isn’t uniform, other bars are open too and many restaurants are violating protocols.
“There are actually lots that are open as what the government deems illegally, however, no one really publicizes it,” he said. “I believe wholeheartedly, issue citations to places that are not following safety operating procedures.”
Fort Worth, Dallas and TABC all stress most businesses do the right thing.
“Nearly 98% of our inspections have found full compliance across the state,” TABC spokesperson Chris Porter wrote in an email. “This shows that business owners are taking the safety of their customers seriously.”
While TABC said its enforcement is highly than a normal year, neither TABC nor Fort Worth plan to have additional enforcement for New Year’s Eve. A Dallas spokesperson said its NYE plans are still being finalized.
Polone said he plans to have militia members help keep Rail Club open on New Year’s Eve. He disagrees with health officials who said restaurants and bars are major COVID spreaders and wants the focus on how to stay open.
“If they asked me to put on a hazmat suit to open up my business, we would do it,” he said.
