Irish Rover Wounded Last Night

I follow the Rover on Facebook. According to the Rover's FB page, someone made a post to a website or an app where people post their takeout/curbside reviews. This poster complained that the Rover was not enforcing social distancing. Problem is, the poster meant to call out another establishment. The post was eventually corrected, and the poster apparently apologized, but the damage was done. The Rover had only 32 tickets last night after (based on what I've heard from folks in the neighborhood) being slammed Friday night.

The Rover is doing everything right, and is not opening up for dine in service because of concerns for safety of staff and patrons. It's a shame that something like this would happen to anyone, much less great folks like the Rover.

[Robin Garr]

That's outrageous. I'm going to do a review Wednesday, and I was already planning to highlight their careful no-touch takeout and outdoor seating setup.

Irish Rover takeout table

Rover-table.jpg (160.8 KiB) Viewed 3509 times

This is infuriating. You've got a place that is working hard to do things as safely as they can and follow all the rules and even go above and beyond. You've got a place that is a neighborhood establishment that has served the most amazing Irish food for decades, and they are taken down in one night by a mistaken false social media post. People are so eager to rat out places for not following the reopening guidelines that they don't bother to make sure they are tattling on the right places. They just can't wait. Why not let the health department do its job and inspect and determine who is doing what correctly and then issue citations or closures or whatever they need to do in response? That's what they do. We are all working hard to reopen safely and do the right things. There are things we can control and things we can't. There are situations that occur that require us to adapt and change on the fly. If you see 3 people standing in a pile, we may be on our way to split that up. Jumping the gun and running to social media to break the story is not the best response. If you are concerned, call the health department and express that concern and let the professionals do what they do. I promise you, the places that are working hard and care about doing it right will shine through and the ones that are sloppy and do not care will be exposed.

The Rover will ALWAYS have my business as long as they keep doing what they do. They are one of my most cherished restaurants in the city. They do not deserve this. Is there legal recourse that can be taken in a situation like this?

Very well said Ronnie, I especially like your last paragraph. I do wonder about the possibility of legal action in a case like this.

whatta *GREAT* night @ The Rover! (Irish Rover/Frankfort Ave, that is). They've set it up so that you can (a,) show up, (b.) order drinks and take 'em to your socially-distanced, parking lot/beer garden table, (c.) cellphone in your food order (which'll be ready in just a few moments and available for your at the pick-up table) and, (d.) pick up your chow and enjoy it at your socially-distanced, parking lot/beer garden table with your fresh pint(s) and a chat with the folks at the nearby tables!
al-MOST like it was back in "the days"? but a really, really pleasant evening! great to get out of the house, great to get out with the spouse and - ooohhhhh - those creamy, creamy pints!

I love The Rover. Not only are they a great restaurant with consistently excellent food but they’ve also been an exemplary socially conscious business (remember the Nazi thing? That took balls to react the way the Rover did. ) What happened with the review was a shame. A reckless error on someone’s part. I understand it was corrected and the poster apologized.

What I have a problem with is the depiction of the poster as “ratting someone out” or “tattling” on businesses that are not opening up under guidelines. Some of us need to know that kind of info, it’s life threatening folks. This isn’t just a flu and for those those of us that are high risk (for whatever reasons) AND have seen how devastating COVID 19 can be it’s the Re-opening that seems reckless. (There’s no way the health department can cover this Re-opening. Logistically it’s impossible. ) And Yes, I am well aware of what it means to lose revenue, or a business and what that means and for me it doesn’t equate with the loss of life.

(There’s no way the health department can cover this Re-opening. Logistically it’s impossible. )

+1

To be clear, I saw exactly what happened in this situation, this was not a review or from someone who had been there. It was a reply to a comment on a facebook thread that basically said "Sadly I heard the exact opposite was true regarding ___________" and she named the wrong Irish place.

I don't mean in anyway to say that was a good thing to do or not a big deal. Just wanted to clarify that it was a reply to a comment on someone else's post. This is a small town so Siobhan was on it immediately. The person who made that comment apologized profusely and edited the name quickly.

Again, not defending what happened, just felt like explaining the situation fully as someone who happened to see it. I was very confused when I saw the initial post because I know that is not the case for the Rover. They are handling things very safely.

But also does not seem like a situation with legal recourse. Just a mistake and horrible timing.

That's what I'm on about. People aren't taking the time to make sure they are getting these "reports" right, they are just quick hitting and then playing clean up when they get it wrong. Meanwhile, really great places are taking a huge hit and loss of sales undeservedly due to the hasty recklessness. That's what I meant when I said they are so eager to inform on places doing wrong. They aren't taking the time to get it right, and that is irresponsible. I'm glad the responsible party corrected their mistake, but it seems like something that didn't have to happen if that person had taken an extra 30 seconds to proof their post. This is a time when patience and cool heads must prevail if we are to all get through this together.