LA breweries, wineries say they should be allowed to reopen if restaurants can

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Giovanni D'Andrea owns the Urban Press Winery in Burbank. He says he planned to open his outside patio but the county of Los Angeles says he doesn't qualify.

"We've come to serve zero people now," says D'Andrea.

The order to close bars in Los Angeles County includes breweries, wineries and tasting rooms. D'Andrea says he can also have appropriate physical distancing so he asks the county why can a restaurant that serves beer or wine stay open?

"Why are you discriminating? We're serving food, we have contracts with food trucks and vendors, we want to be able to reopen," says D'Andrea.

Stuart Waldman from the Valley Industry and Commerce Association says all these changes are harming businesses.

"The county and the cities are just coming up with rules left and right, there's no consistency. We have wineries that are told they can open and the next day they're told that they can't."

In Glendale the Brewyard beer company is in the same predicament. It can also serve food and has enough room for outdoor dining but isn't allowed to reopen.

Owner Kirk Nishikawa says "We serve meals with every single purchase that we have so I don't really see much of a difference. If you're allowed to serve food then we have a whole bunch of wonderful partners of food trucks and things that during the initial phase 2 we and all the breweries exercised responsibly and followed all the rules."

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger is looking into this, issuing a statement saying:

"I fully support the efforts of businesses such as Urban Press Winery to partner with food service providers and follow appropriate safety guidelines from the Department of Public Health so that they can open safely and serve their patrons in the same way that outdoor dining is allowed."