An Albuquerque Old Town restaurant didn’t want to obey to public health rules, so it decided to stand up for what it believed in.
That led to the Backstreet Grill losing access to city utilities and then its food service permit for not following state mask mandates. Ana Garner, the lead counsel for New Mexico Stands Up, said a business closed, people were thrown out of work and a family is leaving the state because of it.
State District Judge Nancy Franchini on Sept. 6 ordered the Public Service Company of New Mexico, New Mexico Gas Co. and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority to “immediately discontinue service” to the restaurant.
Ana Garner
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Joyce Battagglia, the owner of Backstreet Grill LLC was represented by New Mexico Stands Up, with Garner and Jon Diener the attorneys. Garner said the restaurant has lost its food service permit and was forced to close.
“This is an example of a government gone rogue to bully a citizen who exercises her constitutional right to oppose unjust mandates, which are not laws,” she said. “The governor [Michelle Lujan Grisham] did not seize her power lawfully, nor did she ensure she kept it constitutionally. We are in a lawless state. It was within their rights not to be deprived of property without due process.”
Garner, a vaccine skeptic according to the Santa Fe New Mexican who questions many of the restrictions put into place since COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, said the rules imposed in the wake of the pandemic were without scientific basis, which is why the Backstreet Grill defied them.
Nearly all medical studies have shown that masks prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“After the first mask mandates ‘requiring’ that employers enforce the illegal mandate upon its employees and customers, the owner of Backstreet Grill, and her manager bravely took the right course of action in the face of a capricious rule — they defied it,” Garner said. “They became under attack by several governmental agencies at the same time, the New Mexico Department of Health, Albuquerque police, and the city of Albuquerque Environmental Department. We were defending them in three lawsuits, and an administrative hearing with the city over this.”
The Backstreet Grill's health permit was at first suspended, then fully revoked. Dr. Mark DiMenna, acting director for the city's Environmental Health Department told KOB, Channel 4, that the city had no other option.
“It’s unfair to all of the other regulated facilities who consistently meet our requirements," he said. "It’s our obligation to the law, our community and other permit holders to pursue enforcement in this matter and bring them into compliance with the law. As a result of management’s refusal to grant access to the facility, Environmental Health has not been able to conduct a food safety inspection since January. We don’t have any knowledge or visibility with regard to their current food safety practices.”
Garner said that was a distortion of the real issue.
“Not wearing a face diaper has nothing to do with food sanitation breaches,” she said. “There is no adequate remedy under the food sanitation ordinance to correct this kind of defiance, and because he did not ‘correct the problem’ and then call inspectors back for inspection to assure themselves no hazard to health exists, within five days of getting suspended, he waived his right to appeal it. How can you follow what the statute required when there is nothing to correct?”
Garner said the restaurant did not refuse to allow inspections or re-inspections.
“No,” she said. “They allowed them for food safety issues, and declined for enforcement of a non-justifiable and illegal ‘rule.'”
The restaurant, best known for its Southwest style and flavors, opened in 2012 and relocated in 2014. It expanded again in 2016.
“Sadly, they are completely out of business now, and around 15 employees lost work,” Garner said. “Manager, his fiancé and the owner are all moving out of New Mexico. Our economy lost another job and income-producing business that served the public.”