Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
The Lynhall
Throughout the pandemic, there’s been quite a few peculiar spaces to get a vaccine—who'd have thought you could get the shot at Mall of America? And in the Twin Cities, restaurants are stepping up to the challenge of stopping the spread by becoming vaccination clinics themselves.
Anne Spaeth, owner of The Lynhall, began offering up her restaurant as a vaccination site this summer after her children’s school held its own vaccination clinic. Because her restaurant was closed on Mondays due to staffing shortages prompted by the pandemic, Spaeth used that free day to put a few more shots in arms. The Lynhall has hosted two clinics already at its Lyn-Lake location, and Spaeth is willing to be a site in the future.
While the July vaccine clinic welcomed a small number of people, Spaeth says the August clinic was busier. “I think this Delta variant has really shook some people into being like, ‘Wow, I really have to get this done,’” Spaeth said.
Other restaurants are making their stance on COVID-19 clear. The downtown Minneapolis Hark! Cafe recently required all of its customers ages 12 and up to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test before dining inside the vegan and gluten-free restaurant. As of September 1, W.A. Frost in St. Paul is also requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to dine indoors.
When asked if she would ever implement a vaccine mandate in her establishment, Spaeth recalled all the harrowing times over the past year of trying to enforce masks. “We had some really horrible interactions with customers around masks, before the mask mandate went into effect, with grown men swearing and screaming at our young staff, throwing masks back in their face, I mean, really, abhorrent behavior, Spaeth said. “And as a mother of three kids, I really have a hard time putting my staff out there and putting them into that police role again when I just feel like they already have, essentially, PTSD from the first time they had to deal with this.”
Spaeth’s approach is to worry about the things she can control, like enforcing masks among her employees, and getting as many of them vaccinated as possible. “At this point,” she says, “I feel like we are really just taking care of our own team.”
Spaeth was vaccinated immediately. “As a leader of a business, I felt like it was my responsibility to also get myself vaccinated. We have a few members of our team that are immunocompromised. So again, I think to me, it always came down to this greater responsibility to just make sure that I was doing my part to not cause somebody else harm,” she says.
