Lexington health department sues coffee shop for not following Beshear’s orders
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Brewed, a coffee shop that refused to follow Gov. Andy Beshear’s order to stop indoor dining.
The lawsuit calls for a temporary injunction or a temporary restraining order to force the coffee shop to close its indoor dining and drinking options.
Brewed was ordered to shut down Tuesday after health department inspectors found customers dining inside. The shop also allowed patrons to violate the mask mandate, according to the health department. Owner Andrew Cooperrider repeatedly refused to comply as the health department tried to enforce restrictions.
Cooperrider has argued that the garage door on the shop was open 6 to 12 inches, and that qualified as outdoor dining. The health department disagreed.
“Their sole defense — that they cracked open a garage door a foot or less — cannot seriously be seen as transporting a space inside a building into the outdoors,” Jason Ams, the health department’s attorney, wrote in a motion for a temporary injunction.
“Moreover, the comparable regulatory guidance regarding tent structures erected outside a building still requires at least 50% of the walls be removed. The foot (or less) of door space does not approach such a standard.”
In a series of notices Cooperrider defied, officials initially told the business to stop serving customers indoors before suspending the shop’s food service permit, according to court records.
Kentucky Alcohol Beverage Control showed up at the shop Wednesday and temporarily suspended the shop’s liquor license. The coffee shop serves alcohol in addition to food and coffee.
“This was expected,” the business wrote in a Facebook post. “We didn’t even order beer this week.”
Cooperrider told the Herald-Leader that he benefited more by staying open than by following the order.
“The worst that could happen is we close ... I go to jail for a bit,” he said Tuesday. “What am I facing now, locked up inside my house with losing my businesses. ... I have more to gain by resisting than I do to comply.”
Cooperrider’s defiance on Tuesday resulted in a long line of patrons at the shop on Wednesday. Several people said they were eating and drinking at Brewed to support Cooperrider’s resistance. Brewed ran out of food before 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the business’ Facebook page.
About 20 customers joined Cooperrider in following a health department inspector to a vehicle in a parking lot. The inspector was verbally abused, according to the health department.
The state found that the coffee shop violated Kentucky statute “by permitting the premises to become disorderly,” which included threatening behavior.
Nevertheless, the shop was restocked for business Friday, according to Brewed’s Facebook page.
In its motion for an injunction, the Lexington health department asked a judge to rule that police can enforce the terms of the order, according to court records. Police were called to the shop when Cooperrider refused to close Tuesday. But the issue was considered a civil or regulatory matter on which the police couldn’t take action.
The case is scheduled for a court hearing Monday, according to court records. Fayette Circuit Judge Thomas Travis was assigned the case.
In response to the lawsuit, Brewed posted on Facebook that they’d asked for a private meeting with Beshear so that he could “listen and take into consideration all viewpoints.”
“Small business has been left out of the room, and it is killing Kentucky’s economy,” the post read.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 3:26 PM.