A local restaurant owner says his restaurant has suddenly become the target of negative online reviews from those who are against the government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions.

Luca Vitali, the owner of Casa Toscana in downtown Grimsby, says his restaurant’s social media pages have been targeted and complaints have been made to the Town of Grimsby prompting by-law officers to shut down his patio.

The reviews were posted on Trip Advisor, Google, and Facebook. They say the servers are rude, management is terrible, and that it is a discriminatory place that does not respect liberty because staff asked to see vaccine passports to eat in their little outdoor greenhouses.

The restaurant normally gets rave reviews and five-star compliments from diners but over the weekend, several negative reviews began popping up online.

“I do understand that there is some hate and some problems out there with all these policies and stuff but I think that we are not the right people to be targeted,” said Vitali.

He bought a little greenhouse when the pandemic first started and indoor dining was shut down. It was a way to keep his business running and his staff of 25 employed. Vitali says he’s been able to keep most of his staff employed throughout the pandemic and he has used all of his savings to keep Casa Toscana open.

After a complaint this past weekend, he received a phone call from by-law saying his greenhouses did not comply with current lockdown restrictions.

The Ontario regulations say if an outdoor area of the business or place is covered by a roof, canopy, tent, awning, or another element, at least two full sides of the entire outdoor area must be open to the outdoors. Casa Toscana’s greenhouse holds a single table for a couple of friends or one family who are having dinner or lunch but it only has one door.

Vitali is now down to a staff of four for take-out only. Grimsby Councillor Lianne Vardy says this is not acceptable. “The next step is for councillors to get to the bottom of this, and see why one complaint would shut down an entire operation,” said Vardy.