San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended a birthday dinner at the French Laundry, a classy Napa Valley restaurant, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s now widely condemned soiree and three days before Breed banned indoor dining in her own city.
Breed joined seven others at the restaurant on the evening of Nov. 7 to celebrate the birthday of socialite Gorretti Lo Lui, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The others at the event were not named and it is unclear if of the people present, more than three households were in attendance. The event took place indoors.
At the time of the dinner, California’s mandatory health guidelines banned gatherings of more than three households. Breed’s spokesman Jeff Cretan confirmed the dinner to the Chronicle but did not elaborate on who else was in attendance or how many households were represented. He described the event as a “small family birthday dinner.”
At the time of the dinner, such an outing would have been illegal in Breed’s city of San Francisco, which had banned dining indoors or outdoors in a group larger than six people and with more than one household present. Three days after the her French Laundry dinner, Breed banned indoor dining across her city.
“I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that everyone act responsibly to reduce the spread of the virus. Every San Franciscan needs to do their part so that we can start moving in the right direction again,” Breed said in a statement announcing the ban. “I know this is not the news our residents and businesses wanted to hear, but as I’ve said all along, we’re making decisions based on the data we’re seeing on the ground. Right now, our public health officials are telling us we need to take these steps to get the virus under control and save lives – so that’s what we’re doing.”
“The hard decisions we’re making now will help us get our youngest residents back to school. We will continue to act in the best interest of public health and we’ll continue to help our impacted businesses as much as we are able,” Breed continued. “I am hopeful that in the coming months we will have support from our federal government to support these businesses and the losses they have suffered as well. I will certainly be advocating that we do.”
Breed’s French Laundry dinner is the latest in a string foolish incidents by California officials disregarding heavy-handed public health measures they have enacted to combat the coronavirus pandemic. A day before the birthday party, Newsom attended a dinner party with about a dozen others and with people from more than three households present, also in violation of California’s pandemic health codes.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was caught in a scandal in September after she reportedly coerced a San Francisco hair salon to open up its indoor service for her — service which was not allowed at the time. Pelosi responded by demanding an apology from the salon.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times. And that when they said, ‘Well, we’re able to accommodate people one person at a time, and that we can set up that time,’ I trusted that,” Pelosi said. “As it turns out, it was a setup. So I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”