Chicago restaurant under fire for throwing boozy, maskless party
CHICAGO - Video of a big boozy party is sparking worries of a super-spreader event, and neighbors say this was not the first time the Chicago restaurant flouted COVID rules.
Now, the city is investigating.
Lan's Old Town serves up two very different flavors.
"It’s by day nothing and by night it’s chaos," said neighbor Ashely Fred.
Or as the restaurant promotes, typical Chinese carryout weekdays and wild BYOB parties on weekends.
Video of a party posted online shows a large event with plenty of shared booze, but no masks. Now, Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection is investigating and neighbors are celebrating.
All the front windows are currently blocked, so you can’t see what’s happening inside, but neighbors say there are plenty of clues.
"You can hear it’s just a madhouse every night, all the time. It’s just crazy," said neighbor Bailey Rudolph.
"It was last Saturday I think there was like a party bus coming to pick a bunch of people up," Fred said.
"Cigarettes, cans, bottles, throw up, all kinds of things," said business owner Brittney Lingle.
That is what Lingle says she finds on the sidewalk the mornings after. She owns the hair studio next to Lan's and calls her neighbor’s actions a slap in the face to business owners who follow the rules.
"Going the extra mile to be cautious for ourselves and our clients and the neighborhood and then it’s kind of a bummer that right next door it’s 100 percent opposite," Lingle said.
The restaurant owner's son, Jeffrey Ma, told FOX 32 the following: "While we recognize that we should not have hosted the party, the decision was made out of desperation. Covid-19 has ravaged restaurants in our community and many are unable to survive. It was wrong to resort to these desperate actions."
Ma says the restaurant will close temporarily to figure out what will happen next.