Navy veteran's brewery no longer complying with PA coronavirus rules

close

Video

PA brewery owner: We're 'just trying to push forward'

Jordan Serulneck, owner of Seven Sirens Brewing Co. in Pennsylvania, explains why he is no longer complying with coronavirus restrictions.

The owner of a Pennsylvania brewery, Jordan Serulneck, told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that local leaders have been working with him after he let them know he has not been fully complying with the coronavirus restrictions but is trying to operate safely.

The Navy veteran owns Seven Sirens Brewing Company in Bethlehem, which opened less than a month before COVID-19 surfaced in the U.S., forcing his new business to shut down. Serulneck said his bar remained open and defied Gov. Tom Wolf’s ban on indoor dining last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the state.

GUY FIERI PRODUCING DOCUMENTARY ABOUT RESTAURANTS STRUGGLING DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

"We spent three years of our lives trying to open this business and we put our homes as collateral and put everything we ever worked for into this," Serulneck said.

He went on to say that initially he "tried to adapt" to the restrictions but now he is no longer going to comply with further shutdown orders. 

Serulneck said that for the last 10 months he has complied with everything local leaders "asked us to do."

"There was different color phases of reopening and we’ve adapted to each one," he said, adding that as long as there are no more shutdown orders he can "skate through" the pandemic. 

Video

Serulneck said he actually reached out to local leaders "because throughout the pandemic, this information is just handed down to us without any communication, without anyone asking how it should be implemented, how or if they can be enforced."

He noted there was "a lot of confusion" surrounding the ever-changing restrictions "so we actually reached up the chain of command and let them know what we were doing and what we intend on doing and how we’re doing it safely and how we can work together with them, and they appreciated that."

Serulneck pointed out he is allowed to operate at 25% occupancy once again while keeping customers 6 feet apart and making sure they wear masks as they enter and exit his establishment. He also noted a food purchase is required with alcohol purchases.

He said that at 25% capacity, he is "skimming by," adding he has "no problem sticking to those guidelines and doing our part to help combat this virus and keep all of our employees working at the same time."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"We’re not making very much of a profit at all and our overhead is pretty high but, … as long as we can sustain this 25% occupancy and just get through until all the vaccines are out and everything, we’ll be all right," Serulneck continued.