Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Café Rosetta in Calumet is among seven businesses to receive a fine or license suspension from the state for offering indoor dining service.

CALUMET — Cafe Rosetta is temporarily closed as the Calumet establishment works out a resolution with the state that would allow it to operate with a license after it was stripped for the restaurant’s flouting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Cafe Rosetta closed temporarily on Saturday, owner Amy Heikkinen said. On Thursday, Ingham County Judge Wanda Stokes ordered Cafe Rosetta to work with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) towards relicensing. If Cafe Rosetta did not comply with court orders, the court could potentially impose jail time.

“This gives us an opportunity to have those issues heard and weighed, like we were asking for from the beginning,” she said.

Cafe Rosetta has been operating without a license since December. It also accumulated the maximum $7,500 in fines for violating the state’s ban on indoor dining, which ended Feb. 1. Heikkinen has paid all fines, she said. A show cause hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday in Ingham County Circuit Court.

Heikkinen hopes to have the licensing issue worked out by Friday. A similar timeline is also in place for The Iron Pig in Gaylord, which also operated in violation of the restrictions.

One issue to be worked out is the mask-wearing requirement for employees and customers. Heikkinen said she is unable to wear a mask because of her immunodeficiency. The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department had wanted anyone with a medical intolerance for masks not to work in food service, Heikkinen said.

“I obviously disagreed with that, because Cafe Rosetta’s my livelihood,” she said.

They are also in talks over the allowed occupancy levels. Heikkinen said the building’s capacity is 66; they had been asked to have no more than 10, she said.

Asked if she would return to operating without a license if talks with MDARD stall, Heikkinen said “I don’t think that’s sustainable.”

“I can’t really speculate on how it would be resolved, I just hope that it is resolved, so that we can get back to business, progressing through COVID,” she said.

The cafe has had no cases of COVID, either through staff testing positive or linked to the site through contact tracing, Heikkinen said. In a Bridge article, WUPHD Environmental Health Director Tanya Rule said several people who tested positive had been known to be at the site within two weeks of diagnosis, but had not mentioned it when contacted for tracing.

In the meantime, the staff is in the restaurant cleaning, painting and doing other team-building, she said.

A constituent office hour with State Rep. Greg Markkanen and State Sen. Ed McBroom for 1:30 p.m. Friday will go forward regardless of the license, as they are not serving food, Heikkinen said.

At Tuesday’s Houghton County Board meeting, All Business is Essential leader Erik Kiilunen asked the board during public comment to write a letter to the WUPHD, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and MDARD asking for the prosecution of Cafe Rosetta to be dropped. Kiilunen has led protests of the sanctions against Cafe Rosetta and helped raise funds for the restaurant’s legal defense.

The board took no action Tuesday.

Vice Chairman Tom Tikkanen welcomed news of a potential resolution.

“I look forward to the rest of 2021 as a healing opportunity, that people with these varying opinions can start to find some common ground,” he said.