A restaurant owner from Maine is defying his state’s Democratic governor, announcing that he is reopening his establishment to dine-in customers a month early despite lockdown orders amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Democratic Governor Janet Mills had previously announced that businesses like hair salons and other personal service facilities could reopen today, according to Bangor Daily News. Restaurants, however, are part of stage two, which gives a tentative June 1 reopening date.

Rick Savage, owner of the Sunday River Brewing Co., was so infuriated by this that he has announced he is defying Mills by opening his restaurant a month early. A post on Sunday River’s Facebook page revealed that the restaurant would open at 4 p.m. today with a limited number of seats available per social distancing guidelines.

As word of this spread, people began lining up outside the restaurant around lunch time.

As the line got longer and longer, one reporter commented that patrons viewed it as “much more than a lunch rush, it’s a protest.”

Savage told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he does not think he will face any consequences for defying Mills’ order “because she’s over her head. She’s not consulting the experts; she’s just doing this to break our state more than we already are.”

He went on to say that he’s “gonna challenge the state” to come and see for themselves what the Sunday River Brewing Co. is doing, and “if you don’t like it, take me to court. And then if they do take me to court, I’ll save my tax money that I collect this month, and I’ll use that to fund a lawyer.”

Savage then directly accused Mills of being unresponsive to him and trying to bankrupt the state so it can acquire federal funds. “We’ve tried to call the governor; you can’t even get ahold of them. The lawmakers are left in the dark, both Republicans and Democrats,” he explained. “She’s doing this all rogue on her own, so we’ve had enough of it. We’re encouraging all businesses in Maine to open up. We should have never been shut down in the first place.”

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Not stopping there, Savage read what he claimed was Mills’ personal cellphone number on live television so people could contact her to blast her over the shutdown.

This patriot really is a force to be reckoned with! As shutdowns continue all over the country, an increasing number of Americans are starting to feel just like Savage does. It remains to be seen how much longer we are going to put up with the shutdowns the government is inflicting on us.