GOLD BAR, Wash — You can still get food to-go at Gold Bar's Mountain View Diner, but as of Jan. 1, you can also eat indoors.
Not legally, of course, but the restaurant owner believes desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Me, my employees, we all have to work," said owner Jane Boglivi. "We all have families to provide for. We all have to keep a roof over our head. It's a matter of survival."
Boglivi said nine grueling months of various forms of lockdown have crippled the diner.
After 27 years in business, she fears this could be her last.
The diner's PPP money has run out, a grant application was recently denied and the minimum wage went up, again.
Now diner customers sit inside, spread out and distanced. Workers are wearing masks, just as they did several months ago, before cases in Snohomish County started to spike again.
When asked if she is concerned about the health and safety of her customers and staff, Boglivi responded, "Of course. But in the same breath, we need to make a living. We need to support ourselves. We need to survive."
Boglivi joins a growing number of voices calling for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to relax restrictions on small businesses.
More than 150 people gathered at a rain-soaked rally in Olympia on Monday, in support of the Farm Boy restaurant.
The owner is facing contempt of court charges and fines of $2,000 a day for allowing indoor dining.
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Farm Boy owner Brian Robbins encouraged other restaurants to open up, as well. He told Inslee, "I want you to come and tell my family we have to shut down. Washington is dying!"
Customers at Mountain View Diner are supportive.
"I walk around Walmart once a week for grocery shopping and I come into contact with 100 times more people than I do sitting right here," said a customer who would only provide her first name, Misty.
Mountain View has been pushed to the edge of a financial cliff. Instead of a tip jar, one labeled "legal fund" sits on the counter.
With her options running out, Boglivi is willing to take her chances with the state.
"If I have nothing, what can you take from me? I've got nothing to give you, so go ahead and fine me."