Michigan café closes 3 years after making national waves for defying COVID orders

UPDATE: This story has been updated to provide more context to a fine issued to the restaurant in 2020.

PORTAGE, MI — A Portage restaurant that made national news in 2020 after defying COVID-19 shutdown orders has announced its pending closure.

D&R’s Daily Grind Café, 8712 Portage Road, announced the closure in a Facebook post on Saturday, Feb. 10. The cafe’s last day of business will be Sunday, Feb. 25, according to the post.

Attempts to reach the café’s owners, Dave and Rittia Morris, prior to publication were unsuccessful.

According to a separate Facebook post on Sunday, Feb. 11, the couple has sold the café to new owners.

Michigander’s Windy City Dawg House will take over the space on March 1 and open sometime in March, the post states. The new business plans to sell items such as Chicago favorites such as Polish sausage, bone-in pork chop sandwiches, Italian beef, homemade pizza puffs and Vienna hot dogs.

“It’s with a heavy heart and bittersweet emotions that we write this post,” Dave and Rittia Morris wrote Feb. 10. “After 15-plus wonderful years, our café will be closing its doors. This decision was not made lightly, but it is time for us to embark on a new chapter.

“When we first opened the doors of this little café, we never could have imagined the impact it would have on our community. From the laughter shared, over steaming cups of coffee to the heartfelt conversations that took place within these walls, our café has been a place of solace, connection and warmth for so many.”

Dave Morris and the café made national news in 2020 when Morris appeared on the Tucker Carlson show in early December after refusing to stop offering indoor dining.

Dave Morris, owner of D&R's Daily Grind Café in Portage, spoke to Fox News' Tucker Carlson Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020, after refusing to close despite state COVID restrictions.

Morris told Carlson he was speaking on behalf of millions of other Americans frustrated with the government’s closure of businesses during the pandemic.

The state issued a $2,000 fine three weeks later via the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, among a long list of businesses to be fined. The issue was later sorted out and the fine was rescinded, Dave Morris told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette.

“Our so-called leaders are using our tax money to pay themselves while they’re instilling policy upon us to ruin our businesses and our lives,” Morris told Carlson on Fox News. “They put me in a position where you can only be backed into a corner so far. We’ve got to come out fighting here a little bit.”

Two days prior to appearing on Carlson’s former Fox News show, Morris was issued a warning by the Kalamazoo County Department of Health and Community Services.

The Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive was on scene interviewing Morris around 1:30 p.m. that day when a staff member from the county health department and an officer from the Portage Department of Public Safety pulled into the cafe’s parking lot.

The health department employee hand delivered a letter warning that Morris must close his restaurant or face fines. The restaurant was open for indoor dining that day in violation of a Michigan public health order.

Morris asked the health department employee and public safety officer to leave and “get a warrant.”

Just over three years later, Morris and his staff are now preparing to serve their final meals.

“As we close this chapter, we want to encourage all of you to continue to support local businesses in our community,” Dave and Rittia Morris concluded their post by saying. “They are the heart and soul of our neighborhoods, and they need our support now more than ever.

“Let us continue to come together, to celebrate and uplift one another, just as we have done here at our café. Please remember the memories we have shared, the friendships that have blossomed and the love that has filled these walls. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for being a part of this incredible journey.”

The café is open from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

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