NY's food-with-alcohol rule has been repealed; Cuomo to lift restaurant, bar curfew

[PoliticAverse]

ALBANY – Soon you will be able to stay in your favorite New York bar or restaurant past midnight. And you won't have to buy food to get a drink, either.

State lawmakers on Wednesday voted to rescind Gov. Andrew Cuomo's order requiring the purchase of food at a bar or restaurant before a patron can be served an alcoholic beverage, a rule put into place in July in an effort to cut down on mingling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hours before the vote, Cuomo himself took it a step further: He announced he would repeal the state's COVID-era curfew for bars and restaurants, allowing them to remain open beyond midnight beginning May 17 for outdoor service and May 31 for indoor.

Cuomo also said he would relax rules for catered events like weddings, rescinding the curfew next month and allowing dancing with social distancing beginning Monday. Previously, the state restricted people to dancing only with those they were seated with in designated zones for each table.

Read the rest at: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/04/28/ny-lifts-restaurant-bar-curfew-may-17/4870572001/

[Drum]

1. Great news!

[Tomconroy]

2. Time for a visit to PJ Clarkes

Looks like they opened up. 3rd Avenue and 55th Street.

[MichMan]

3. About as popular as it was in 1896 when the Raines Law was passed in NY

The New York State liquor tax law of 1896, also known as the Raines law, was authored by the New York State Senator John Raines and adopted in the New York State Legislature on March 23, 1896. It took effect on April 1, 1896, was amended in 1917 and repealed in 1923.

Among other provisions, the Raines law increased the cost of liquor licenses, raised the drinking age from sixteen to eighteen, and prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays except in hotels, as well as in lodging houses with at least 10 rooms that served drinks with complimentary meals.

Most men worked a six-day week, and Sunday was the only free day for recreation, so the new law was not very popular. Answering the demand, saloon owners quickly found a loophole by adding small slightly furnished rooms, complimentary food and applying for a hotel license since state statutes seemingly allowed that any business was considered a hotel if it had 10 rooms for lodging and served at least sandwiches with its liquor.

The meal requirement was met by the cheapest sandwich available, sometimes reused across tables, or sandwiches made of rubber.

Jacob Riis wrote in 1902 of saloon keepers who mocked the law by setting out "brick sandwiches," two pieces of bread with a brick in between, thus fulfilling the legal requirement of serving food. He also writes of an altercation in a saloon where a customer attempted to eat a sandwich that the bartender had served just for show; "the police restored the sandwich to the bartender and made no arrests."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raines_law