Veneto's in downtown Rochester is disappointed that a judge put off a decision on a lawsuit on whether restaurants in the orange zone can offer in-person dining.

These days, Veneto’s is only making food to go because they are in an orange zone.

“It’s unfair. You can cross out of the city of Rochester and sit down and we can’t,” said Donald Schwartz, owner of Veneto's.

Schwartz hoped the court would make a decision on a lawsuit arguing that restaurants in the orange zone should be able to offer dine in option.

To his disappointment, it didn’t.

“The judge in Buffalo could have put an injunction in when we filed back in December at least letting us reopen until the matter was resolved through the court system,” said Schwartz.

He signed on to the suit because Veneto’s has taken a big loss without dine in.

While Schwartz is waiting on the court’s decision, O’Callaghans Owner Tom O’Callaghan has already decided to close the restaurant indefinitely.

He feels it can no longer operate in an orange zone.

“The state decided they wanted to push people of the bars and into the house parties and that turned out to be a mass spreader event that really affected us,” he said. “They blamed the bars and restaurants specifically as being one of the main spreader locations and that’s since been proven to not be true, but we’ve lost more than 60% of our revenue for the year.”

Schwartz hopes the state sees that restaurants and aren’t the reason for the recent COVID-19 spike.

“Let us serve you safely. Let us follow the CDC guidelines,” Schwartz said. “We had the Visit Rochester group that came in and did an inspection and just an overview of the CDC guidelines to help our staff to make sure we are doing everything we can to make the dining experience is safe.”

Schwartz says a decision is expected to come on Wednesday.