A Burlington cafe hosted yet another maskless breakfast

Governor Jay Inslee will soon announce his plans to end mask requirements in schools and businesses. Many have probably already forgotten an outdoor mask mandate has been in effect since September, requiring all public gatherings of 500 or more to wear face coverings. This will end the 18th, Inslee announced in a news conference Feb. 9. The August 2021 order from the state’s secretary of health requiring everyone five years of age and older to wear a mask in public indoor settings remains in place – for now.

Not wearing masks has been on the minds of many Skagitonians long before Inslee’s announcement. Burlington breakfast and lunch restaurant, Billy’s Café, have been serving their guests mask-free for months.

The restaurant was featured on the Dori Monson Show on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM Feb. 3. Billy’s Café owner Bill De Jong said he has been fined over $367,000 from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for his refusal to follow the state’s mask mandates in the interview.

The Office Tavern, another Burlington restaurant down the street from Billy’s Café, announced via Facebook a “Billy’s Café Support Breakfast” for Friday, Feb. 11. This social media post received over 260 likes and just under 190 shares.

That morning at 9:40 a.m. the café was packed with customers of all ages. Masks and social distancing were nowhere in sight. Customers were required to pay in cash, as stated on a sign taped to the restaurant’s front entrance. That is a strategy to keep state officials from seizing the cafe’s receipts.

De Jong was overwhelmed with support from his Skagit County neighbors.

“We love the people of Skagit Valley,” De Jong said, “we are excited to keep serving them.”

The Café felt like a time capsule to pre-pandemic life. Diners were eating shoulder to shoulder while wait-staff with big smiles were pouring drip coffee.

“I have kids and it is extremely important that they get the life I had growing up,” Billy’s Café server Julieanna Hansen told the Weekly News.

Unfortunately, today’s youth live in a world that is completely different from what most of us experienced. The Washington State Department of Health website reports Skagit County’s 7-day COVID-19 case rate at 811 cases per 100,000 population with 27% of beds in the county’s three hospitals occupied by COVID-19 patients in the Jan. 22-29 period of the latest data compiled. That mirrors the statewide hospitalization rate and is 29% below the 1,045 new cases statewide per 100,000 residents in the same time period.

The DOH confirms 11,054 Washingtonians have died from COVID-19 through Jan. 28, 2022.