(KNSI) – The owner of a chain of restaurants in Central Minnesota that threatened to defy Minnesota’s executive order and open for indoor dining last May is still fighting a lawsuit filed by the state.
On May 18, 2020, Shady’s owner Kris Schiffler wanted to open the doors of his Albany restaurant but didn’t after Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office went to court and got a temporary restraining order preventing the opening and threatening penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.
Shady’s has locations in Albany, Cold Spring, Burtrum, St. Martin, Rice, and Litchfield.
Schiffler told a crowd gathered outside the Albany bar that he wouldn’t defy the order on the advice of his lawyer.
Despite Schiffler backing down, Minnesota didn’t and filed a lawsuit.
“And we tried to make us couple deals, but they just want to keep pursuing the lawsuit against us. And, and they want us to charge us $25,000 per bar, even though at the end, we were only opening up one bar.”
Schiffler told KNSI’s Dan “The Ox” Ochsner that the lawsuit was filed because he threatened to open.
A gofundme page raised $227,000 to pay for Schiffler’s legal fees to try and force the state to end the restaurant closure mandate, but he says he’s already spent $201,000 of the funds and still hasn’t been to court.
“The idea of this was to stop it in the future so that it could never happen again. But there’s not enough money to go out there and fight it. It’s virtually impossible to stop because they can just make up their own rules and just take as long as they want and spend your money as fast as you can.”
Schiffler recently had his liquor license renewed by the Stearns County Board of Commissioners despite objections from the sheriff’s office and the county attorney’s office.
According to the county board minutes, County Attorney Janelle Kendall and Sheriff Steve Soyka told the County Board last week that they didn’t feel comfortable signing the renewal application because of the ongoing litigation. Still, they said they understood the board has the authority to grant the license.
Schiffler’s next scheduled hearing is July 9.
Shady’s was one of the first Minnesota bars and restaurants to defy Minnesota’s shutdown last year.
Schiffler says he was forced to close his New Munich bar and grill because of the pandemic.
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