MARION — After the Board of Health noticed a surplus of cars in the parking lot at Brew Fish Bar and Eatery on Spring Street, the restaurant posted on Facebook that it would be closing temporarily due to the state’s capacity restrictions on businesses. 

State-level restrictions implemented by Governor Charlie Baker in December reduce the capacity of all businesses to 25%. The restrictions were initially set to end on Jan. 10, but have been extended multiple times, now lasting until at least Feb 8. 

“Given the recent extended duration of the capacity limits, and the fact that we are continuing to lose money each day with the reduced seating restrictions, we’ve made the difficult decision to close effective January 22nd and until such time as the capacity limit is allowed to increase,” read Brew Fish’s post. 

The post came after a Board of Health discussion at a Jan. 20 meeting, where officials suspected Brew Fish of operating above 25% capacity. 

Board Chair Ed Hoffer said that the number cars of cars in the parking lot were making him “wonder if they are in fact compliant with state rules.” 

The board decided to have Public Health Agent Dave Flaherty contact the restaurant before involving police. 

But in Brew Fish’s Jan. 22 Facebook post, the restaurant said the excess of cars was due to employees and takeout patrons. 

“In regards to the assumption that we must be exceeding our mandated capacity limit because our parking lot appears busy; no one seems to have taken into account just how many employees we have on any given shift, takeout customers coming and going and commuters using our parking lot,” read the post. “Today, for example and as witnessed by a Board of Health employee, and before we had a single dining customer, we had 25 cars in the parking lot.”