STUDIO CITY — The restaurant Hugo’s Tacos announced on Sunday, June 28, that it will temporarily close. The decision was made due to conflicts with guests over wearing masks.
“Our Taco Stands are exhausted by the constant conflicts over guests refusing to wear masks,” the announcement says, adding that the restaurant’s Atwater Village location will also close.
“Staff have been harassed, called names, and had objects and liquids thrown at them,” the announcement says. “A mask isn’t symbolic of anything other than our desire to keep our staff healthy.”
Both locations will “take a break,” and the restaurant encourages customers to follow its social media pages and website for reopening updates.
“We’ve loved serving you for the last 15 years and hope the LA community comes together on this issue so we can feel safe and reopen soon,” the restaurant said on June 28.
Hugo’s created a GoFundMe page asking for money to support its staff.
“By staying at work, Hugo’s Tacos employees were not only providing an essential service in the early days of COVID-19 but also just trying to feed their own families,” the page says. “These funds will be evenly distributed among the workers at both locations to make up for lost wages and hard times due to the closure.”
The LA County Public Health Department said on Saturday, June 27, that cases, hospitalizations and testing positivity rate have increased over the week.
The department said on June 25 that inspectors visited 3,751 establishments over the last few weekends — 83 percent were provided information about “compliance for on-site dining.”
“Our collective responsibility is to take immediate action, as individuals and businesses, to reverse the trends we are experiencing,” LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said on June 27.
No reopening date has been set.
