Houston Republic

A popular downtown Houston beer garden restaurant closed to dine-in customers because of a reportedly unwritten policy by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office, according to the restaurants website and a recent interview with the owner.

Saint Arnold's Beer Garden & Restaurant on Lyons Avenue is currently limited to pick-up and drive-thru service, according to information on Saint Arnold's website.

"Due to an abrupt decision by the governor, we are now closed for dine-in service," Saint Arnold says on its website.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott | Facebook

Houston Republic reached out to Saint Arnold for additional comment but received no reply.

In an July 14 ABC13 interview, Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner said the governor's rule could put 75 of his employees out of work.

Wagner told ABC13 that Saint Arnold had been operating under the state's pandemic response guidelines which states that a restaurant with less than half of its sales in alcohol can remain open.

"We're a restaurant," he said. "If you come out and look at our operation, it looks like a restaurant, too."

Wagner said he subsequently received a call from a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission representative who didn't agree. The representative said Saint Arnold must include in its percentages the amount of its beer shipped to distributors "as if it were beer being sold at the beer garden," Wagner said.

"So all the truck loads that we're shipping to Silver Eagle, it is as if we were handing that to guests at the Beer Garden for consumption there," he said.  

Which means Saint Arnold went from alcohol sales of around 48 percent to about 95 percent, Wagner said.

He said he was told that how to consider those percentages came from the governor's office, but he's not received an explanation in writing.

"It's intriguing, they won't publish this," he said. "They'll only tell you when they come after you to say, 'Oh, you're violating this'."

Wagner said he tried to reach someone in the governor's office for a more thorough explanation but received no reply.

"It's been crickets," he said.