Following last week’s immigration raid and four arrests at the South Park location of Buona Forchetta, the San Diego-based Italian restaurant chain reopened most of its eateries Wednesday.
“As our team finds its footing again, we truly appreciate your continued grace and . Thank you for standing with us,” Buona Forchetta wrote on an Instagram post Wednesday.
Buona Forchetta’s South Park, Encinitas, San Marcos and Coronado restaurants reopened Wednesday with regular hours, its social media pages announced.
Its San Clemente restaurant also reopened Wednesday, but with a menu limited to its wood-fired pizzas.
Two restaurants remained closed Wednesday. In Liberty Station, Officine Buona Forchetta will be “closed through the week,” and in Newport Beach it is closed through Thursday.
In South Park, the flow of customers on Wednesday in the early afternoon was relatively light, although that isn’t unusual for midweek during the day.
Renato Ametrano, the general manager at the South Park location, did not want to talk about the aftermath of the raid, saying everyone wants to “get back to a normal life. Everything is fine.”
He acknowledged that the process of bringing employees back to work was a little “stressful,” but added, “It’s OK, we are good people. We are open now every day.”
At the Coronado location, known as Garage Buona Forchetta, customers were dining both inside and in an outdoor area, and business was similarly light. A manager there declined to comment on the reopening, saying she wasn’t authorized to speak for the ownership.
Owner Matteo Cattaneo did not respond to requests Wednesday seeking comment on the reopening of his restaurants. J. Walcher Communications, the public relations firm representing Buona Forchetta, said there was nothing new to report, beyond the updates provided on the restaurants’ social media pages.
A search warrant unsealed Monday said immigration authorities received two tips about the restaurants hiring undocumented workers. An investigation revealed that 19 employees had suspected fraudulent green cards, providing probable cause for the search, according to the warrant. Four employees who were in the U.S. illegally were arrested, according to Homeland Security Investigations, although officials did not say if they were facing criminal charges or civil immigration violations.
Federal agents concluded that many of the documents, which were turned over by an attorney representing the restaurant, were fake or falsified, according to the warrant. That led to Friday’s raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which resulted in the four workers being taken into custody and other workers allegedly being handcuffed as a large group of angered community gathered to protest in the street outside Buona Forchetta and its nearby sister restaurant, Enoteca Buona Forchetta.
The restaurant said in a statement later that it had just obtained a copy of the warrant and was “in the process of reviewing it carefully with our legal counsel.”
A GoFundMe for the detained workers has raised $123,900 as of Wednesday afternoon. The campaign set a goal of $60,000.
The company has seven restaurants in coastal Southern California. It opened its first location in South Park in 2011.
