Lauren Boebert has taken her fight outside.

The owner of Shooters Grill in Rifle, thwarted in her effort to open it to sit-down inside service by a Garfield County cease-and-desist order and court order, on Thursday decided to rope off some streetside parking spaces outside and set up tables where wait staff served customers.

Boebert says the county order says she can’t serve on the premises.

“Currently we are serving off-premise,” Boebert said Thursday morning.

Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said Boebert isn’t allowed to have staff wait on outside tables rather than doing pickup and delivery service.

“We’ve been trying to take care of this locally but it’s going to end up in the lap of (the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) and the state,” Jankovsky said of the Boebert enforcement issue.

Boebert, a congressional candidate running in the Republican primary against incumbent Scott Tipton, on Saturday began offering inside service at the restaurant even though Garfield County hasn’t obtained a variance from the state to allow that, the way Mesa County has. Boebert believes the state directive by Gov. Jared Polis limiting restaurant operations to help control COVID-19 has lasted too long, and is disappointed that Garfield commissioners have yet to seek a variance.

Commissioners are scheduled today to consider formally asking the state for a variance applying to a range of industries. But Jankovsky worried that if the county didn’t take action against Boebert’s defiance of the state order, Polis and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment might be less inclined to approve the request.

“My concern is if we just say, ‘do whatever you want to do, Lauren,’ CDPHE is going to look at that and say you guys aren’t following the state order, why are we giving you a waiver. I think it’s shortsighted on her part (to defy the order) and even to some extent selfish,” Jankovsky said.

He said Polis was on national television Wednesday saying he planned to open restaurants at the end of the month, “so I would expect that unless something changes.” But Boebert took a dim view of the talks Polis had with President Trump about getting Colorado up and running again.

“At the same time I was getting a cease-and-desist order (Polis) was proud to say that restaurants were opening,” she said.

The county said in a news release late Wednesday that it obtained a temporary restraining order that day from district court after filing a complaint against Boebert regarding ongoing violations of the state “safer-at-home” order.

It said law enforcement officials had served Boebert with the cease-and-desist order Tuesday afternoon but the restaurant continued operating that evening and offering dine-in service Wednesday, when she was served with the court order.

The county said diners were allowed to finish their meals but no more were allowed to enter.

The county said that late last week both police officers and public health consumer protection staff had advised Boebert of the state and county restrictions, and she was repeatedly notified of the violations and asked to voluntarily come into compliance.

Said Jankovsky, “We’re doing our best to reopen the economy under the circumstances and this whole issue does slow that down.”

Boebert said her employees told her Thursday they wanted her to do anything she could to keep the restaurant open.

“I’m just taking this day by day, trying to make sure my employees get paid,” she said.

Thursday afternoon, Boebert said she was working in cooperation with the city of Rifle to move the tables from the parking spaces onto the sidewalk.

Told of Jankovsky’s concern about staff waiting on diners outside, she said, “If customers need to be served to-go orders and they’re sitting (at the outside tables) that’s fine, too, so whatever. I just think it’s a little silly at this point that government is focusing all their resources to nitpick any little thing.”

She said in a campaign news release Thursday, “I’ve tried very hard to be safe, kind and courteous, but our livelihoods are on the line and we need to take action. I don’t have time for highly paid bureaucrats to make decisions, I need to make payroll.”

Garfield Sheriff Lou Vallario, a Republican who endorses Boebert’s candidacy, said on his department’s Facebook page that his civil deputies served her the court papers, which it is required by law to do.

But he added, “I will not arrest anyone who violates these health orders, because the rule of law and due process are absent.”

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