El Dorado County Sheriff's Office Still Taking Educational Approach Despite Café Reopening

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS 13) - A battle at the breaking point, customers filled an El Dorado County restaurant open for business once again. The Café El Dorado welcomed customers inside on Friday despite the statewide stay-at-home order.

The owner, Cherie Baldridge, expects things to go back to business as usual from this day forward.

"I was the only one who had the cojones I guess," said Baldridge. She said she fully expects to be a trendsetter, and other businesses currently closed may follow suit.

She was the first to allow customers to dine in amid the stay-at-home order. She told CBS13 her bills were starting to stack up, after being served two eviction notices over March and April.

"I couldn't do another month," Baldridge said. "One more month and I'm done."

Signs inside the restaurant say "If you feed them, they will come" -- and they did. The Café El Dorado was packed with people inside the small restaurant. Baldridge said people can make their own decisions about coming out to eat.

Customers like Teresa Keith said supporting small business is worth any of the possible risks.

"Let people run their businesses as they see fit and let adults go to those businesses as they see fit," Keith said. "If you're sick, stay home."

Social distancing and some of the other precautions, Baldridge said, aren't easy to do in the small space.

"It's hard to do social distancing," Baldridge said. "It's hard to wear a mask when you're talking to people taking orders."

Though the health department and the state would say differently. They've asked over email Baldridge to limit the restaurant to takeout only. Baldridge said the county has called her, as well, but she admittedly says she was too busy to take their call.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office is in charge of enforcing the health order. But at this point, law enforcement still plans to take an educational approach and aren't enforcing with fines or citations. When asked about if that could change, the department referenced only what they're currently doing and wouldn't speak to the future.