D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser during a 2017 news conference.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

After D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser responded forcefully on Monday morning to the owner of seven D.C. restaurants who claimed they would defy the city’s new restrictions on bars and restaurants, the group now says it will comply.

The new guidelines issued Sunday night closed nightclubs and ordered that bars and restaurants take additional steps to prevent crowding, from eliminating bar-seating to keeping tables at least six feet apart. They followed a weekend where many D.C. residents flocked to bars and restaurants, even as city officials have called for social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

But in a post in a private restaurant industry Facebook group on Sunday, Hill Restaurant Group—which owns Hawk ‘n’ Dove, Finn’s, Tortuga, Lola’s, Willie’s, Ophelia’s Fish House, and Orchid—said it would “continue to operate as normal and encourage our fellow industry folks to do the same.” It added, “We understand the gravity of the effects that the [coronavirus] has or will have on our community. However, we will not bow down to pressure from the Mayor’s office or any group for that matter who is covertly attempting to shut us down.”

The post was later shared on Twitter by Washingtonian food editor Jessica Sidman.

Managing partner Tom Johnson later told NBC4 the restrictions were too much. “You can’t put the burden on small businesses. That’s ridiculous,” Johnson said. “We won’t comply. Let her shut us down. You might as well shut us down. It’s absolutely ridiculous. People are going to do what people do,” he said.

That prompted a direct response from Bowser on Twitter on Monday morning, in which she threatened to use police and other city agencies to close down bars or restaurants not complying with the new restrictions.

“While I recognize that all of us have been stressed beyond our immediate understanding of how coronavirus has so quickly upended our daily lives and personal and business existence—you must comply with the DC Health notice,” she wrote.

“We all have an obligation to do our part to contain the spread of this global pandemic and get to the business of recovery as soon as possible. Until then, your compliance is required, and we will exercise the full force of our MPD, FEMS, DC Health and ABRA and the emergency authority to achieve it,” she added.

“Meanwhile, I hope your patrons will encourage you to modify your operations at the soonest, to consider grab & go and delivery options in your food serving establishments and to stick with you until our city comes out on the other side of this pandemic. We’ll all get through this together,” she ended.

Johnson told the Washington Post on Monday that he would comply with the Mayor’s orders, closing all but three of his restaurants that are either bar-only or are too small to keep patrons six feet apart. It was not immediately clear which restaurants would remain open.

“I have to start letting people go. I don’t have the wherewithal to pay them,” Johnson told the Post, when he was made aware of the Mayor’s tweets by a reporter. “It’s literally going to put me out of business. I’m going to go bankrupt.”

Many bars and restaurants in D.C. have voluntarily closed, even before Bowser’s edict. Others have shifted to delivery or takeout-only models, and others still have implemented new measures to keep patrons further away from each other. Virtually all arts and entertainment institutions have already closed and cancelled their events.

Other jurisdictions, though, have already moved to fully close bars, restaurants and clubs as a means to prevent further transmission of the coronavirus.

Related:

Here’s The Status Of D.C.-Area Restaurants And Bars During The Coronavirus Pandemic

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