Epping Restaurant Chooses to Close Due to Mask Mandate

On the sign of Roselynn Homemade Ice Cream in Epping reads, "What ever happened to 'Live Free or Die?."

Roselynn's owner, Joseph Bodge, refused to require that his handful of employees wear face masks, according to a story from The Union Leader.  Joe has not mandated masks or asked the people who come to his restaurant to wear one either.

Well, someone who went in called the AG's office and complained.  Joe was given until next week to fix the situation, but instead, he decided to close.

The Union Leader reports Joe as saying:

This is just, unfortunately, something where they’re using a scare tactic to control. We made the hard decision. Either we followed the sheep or we stood our ground, which we’ve done from Day One, that everybody should have a free right on their decision. Rather than have the state send somebody in here to pull my license, we decided that we’ll do it on our terms and until we can get this straightened out, we will stay closed.

Right now, the restaurant will sell ice cream until it's gone and will be sold by someone wearing a mask, but after that, it'll close until the state lifts its mask rules for restaurants.

Joe said that the restaurant is clean and they go above and beyond with sanitizing.  He also had this to say:

Last I knew we still lived in New Hampshire, which was the Live Free or Die state. It should be a customer’s or a business’s choice if they are going to mask or not. Nobody is saying that they have to come in. We all know that salt causes high sodium which kills people, but people are still allowed to decide if they want to put salt on their food or not.