Illinois Restaurants Sue To Stay Open; 'This Should Be A Legislative Decision'

CHCAGO (CBS) --  Not every restaurant is going to shut down quietly.

Some plan to defy Governor JB Pritzker's order and simply stay open. But others are heading to court, asking judges for permission to keep the stoves hot.

CBS 2's Meredith Barack reports from Algonquin where it's the second to last supper right now for people eating out there and across the state.

A number of restaurants on Main Street are hoping that's not the case.

They are just a few of the 37 dining establishments in McHenry County that are asking a judge to stay open past Friday night.

"It's been a struggle. It's been a struggle."

Despite the lunchtime crowd, that's how Angie Angelos, the co-owner of Andy's Restaurant describes the last few months.

"We're paying more money out than we're bringing in as well," Angelos said.

When she heard service may soon have to come to a screeching halt once again, she was disappointed.

"I would be very heartbroken and devastated," Angelos said. 

Attorney John Dickson, who filed the suit on behalf of the restaurants, said he has spoken to more than 100 restaurant owners since the executive orders were announced.

"They are still bleeding from the original shut down and if they get shut down for even two more weeks then its going to be the end of the restaurant," said Dickson, who added that the restaurants are asking the governor to go through the appropriate process to close indoor dining.

"This should be a legislative decision," Dickson said. "Governor Pritzker should be sitting down with the legislature and obtaining the consent of the governed to decide that we're going to shut down restaurants."

Angelos said they're motivated to stay open so they can celebrate the restaurant's 40th anniversary next March, and serve their loyal customers for another 40 years after that.

"My father would say, he's 90, you gotta keep going. You can't stop. That what I have embedded in my head. You gotta keep going. You can't give up," Angelos said. 

The suit will go before a judge Friday morning at 10 a.m.

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