ST. LOUIS — The owner of a St. Louis sausage business said Friday that his company has been wrongfully accused of violating the city’s coronavirus safeguards and is exploring how to fight an order to close down for 30 days.
“We did nothing wrong,” said Bob Wanninger, who owns G&W Meat and Bavarian Sausage on Parker Avenue in Tower Grove South, just off of Kingshighway. “I’m trying to see what I can do, legally.”
The St. Louis Health Department issued letters Tuesday and Wednesday to seven establishments that have allegedly flouted public health measures intended to fight transmission of the virus. Three bars — Midtown Bar & Grill in Jeff-Vander-Lou, plus Start Bar and Wheelhouse downtown — were ordered to shut down for a year, while four others were told to close for 30 days, effective immediately: Three Kings Bar and Grill in Hyde Park, The Midwestern restaurant downtown, DB Cooper’s Safe House in the Princeton Heights neighborhood, and G&W.
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The sausage company was something of an outlier among the businesses targeted by the orders. Whereas all the others were bars and restaurants, G&W handles food production and runs a retail area for customers to buy items directly.
And while all other letters from the city devoted multiple pages to detailing evidence against each business, the order addressed to G&W was only a single page, with one concise paragraph. It said the business lacks a health permit and has violated an order “requiring retail businesses to monitor employee health and ensure employees are in good health and displaying no symptoms when they are at work.”
Wanninger said he isn’t sure how his business ended up on the city’s list.
“We got thrown into that category of people that it sounds like were breaking the rules for quite a while,” he said. “I don’t know how we got bounced in with the Wheelhouse.”
The city has issued multiple letters to Wheelhouse owners for violations of social distancing and mask orders. The owners have been publicly combative and filed a suit against the city. A judge later ruled they must comply with city orders.
Wanninger suspects the order against G&W stems from earlier this month, when four workers tested positive for the virus.
“Ƶ were sent home and quarantined immediately,” he said.
He said the company handled everything properly, explaining the U.S. Department of Agriculture was notified and inspected the facility. The individuals who tested positive were quarantined for 10 days, and the workplace was cleaned and sanitized, he said.
Wanninger said only four to six customers are allowed into the business at a time, and that employees focused on both retail and wholesale are required to wear masks at all times. He said the cases detected earlier this month mark the first time that any of the company’s approximately 15 workers have had the virus.
The city health department could not immediately be reached for comment.
