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Governor Gavin Newsom is in good company when it comes to politicians attending luxury birthday parties while encouraging others to avoid congregating.
As it turns out, San Francisco Mayor London Breed dined at the French Laundry the night after Newsom’s infamous ill-advised pandemic party at the three-star Michelin restaurant in Yountville.
Breed took a few days off after election day and joined seven more on the night of November 7 to celebrate the 60th birthday of socialite Gorretti Lo Lui, Breed spokesperson Jeff Cretan confirmed. The party of eight dined in the same type of partially closed room with a ceiling and chandelier as Newsom, making it more of a dining experience inside than outside.
Cretans called the occasion a “small family birthday dinner”, but it is not clear who else attended and how many households the group included.
While indoor dining was allowed in Napa County at the time with no specified cap on the number of households, state guidelines “strongly discouraged” social gatherings and capped them at three households. Breed’s dinner at an opulent restaurant – amid an economic disaster that has shut down countless small businesses and stretched queues at local food banks to new lengths – may not have technically violated rules, but it’s not a great look.
The dinner certainly would have violated San Francisco health guidelines if it had been held in Breed’s own town. San Francisco issued stricter-than-state guidelines for several types of businesses, including restaurants, which weren’t supposed to accommodate groups of more than six indoors or outdoors unless not everyone lives together. Three days after dining at the French Laundry, Breed completely banned indoor dining in San Francisco.
“I cannot stress enough how important it is that everyone acts responsibly to reduce the spread of the virus,” Breed said in a November 10 statement. again.”
This is just the latest example of a politician not practicing exactly what he continues to preach. When Newsom attended his French Laundry dinner for lobbyist Jason Kinney’s 50th birthday, the party of 12 certainly included more than three households. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her hair done in San Francisco as the salons were closed.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo told people to avoid large gatherings on Thanksgiving, but he attended his elderly parents’ holiday dinner in Saratoga with other relatives from five households. Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl voted to ban outdoor dining last week – and hours later she was seen dining out at an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica.
This is enough to make some residents wonder why they are following the rules if the people who define them are not.
Cretan said the mayor paid for her own dinner and pointed out that indoor and outdoor dining was allowed in Napa and San Francisco counties at the time. He said Breed had dinner at a number of restaurants when the rate of coronavirus cases was lower to support them financially.
“Now, with the rising case rates and the Bay Area counties returning to the purple level, she is once again limiting her actions and encouraging all San Franciscans to do the same,” he said. declared.
He is the vice-chairman of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Asian Arts Commission, which consists of 27 members appointed by other commissioners but subject to the mayor’s approval. Her husband, Lawrence Lui, is the president of Stanford Hotels and a hotel developer who, in 2018, opened the Marriott SOMA Mission Bay Hotel. Her father is Hong Kong billionaire Che-woo Lui.
Gorretti and Lawrence Lui appear regularly on the city’s social circuit.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @hknightsf Instagram: @heatherknightsf
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