These 4 DeKalb County businesses called out by Illinois state health department for defying indoor dining ban

Four local businesses have received letters from the Illinois Department of Public Health related to not complying with the ban on indoor dining mandated by the state to curb continued spread of COVID-19.

According to the DeKalb County Health Department's COVID-19 mitigation enforcement tracker, PJ's Courthouse Tavern in Sycamore, Rise 'n Shine in Sycamore, Rambo's Bar & Grill in Somonauk and Sycamore Cafe in Sycamore all received a letter of non-compliance from the IDPH on Tuesday.

Two additional establishments were also added to the non-compliance list Friday, including MVPs in Sycamore and J&K Half Moon in Hinckley.

The eateries were also given a 'reasonable opportunity' window of time in which to come under compliance, the tracker states, or face further consequences.

The next step, if they continue to defy the indoor dining prohibition, according to the health department's enforcement steps, will include a re-inspection from local health department officials to determine whether the establishment is complying. If they're found continuing to allow indoor patrons to dine inside, the establishment could be given an order for those dining inside to disperse.

If they're still not in compliance after that fourth step next week, they could risk losing their food permit or being referred to the DeKalb County State's Attorney for injunction.

The county health department last week began publishing a list of restaurants found to be defying the indoor dining ban.

In an interview with the Daily Chronicle this week, local health officials said the reason for publishing the list wasn't punitive, but rather to address the large amount of public interest in the topic.

"We did go back and forth for some time trying to decide how best to manage through this period of mitigation," said Lisa Gonzalez, public health administrator. "We were really talking back and forth regarding the amount of public interest. We are a government entity therefore, we are subject to the [Freedom of Information Act]. And we began to get quite a few FOIAs about who are you enforcing and what are you doing?"

There are now 16 establishments listed on the non-compliance tracker.

Barb City Bagels, 118 E. Lincoln Highway in DeKalb, PJ's Courthouse Tavern, 202 W. State St. in Sycamore, Rise and Shine Family Restaurant, 1640 DeKalb Avenue in Sycamore, Rambo's Bar & Grill, 140 W. Market St. in DeKalb, Country Kitchen in Somonauk, Kirkland Family Restaurant, 507 Main St. in Kirkland, Remingtons Gastropub, 102 S. Third St. in Malta, Sycamore Cafe, 1170 DeKalb Avenue in Sycamore, El Jimador, 260 E. Lincoln Highway in DeKalb; Genoa Cafe, 233 W. Main Street in Genoa; Rt. 34 Pub and Grill, 1201 E. Church Street in Sandwich; and Sam's Family Restaurant, 11 W North Ave. in Cortland, and Lucky's Poker (1812 Sycamore Road in DeKalb, for serving alcohol indoors) received educational letters from the department after site visits confirmed they were allowing dining indoors, which is the second level of warnings in health department enforcement protocol.

Businesses will be removed from the list if they’ve demonstrated compliance for 30 days, health officials have said.

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