37 NY Bars, Restaurants Cited For Violating Coronavirus Protocols

LONG ISLAND, NY — "Cuomo chips" won't cut it for bars and restaurants to open during the coronavirus shutdown — and New York officials are amping up enforcement efforts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that, following his stern warning this week that bars need to offer "substantive" food to serve alcohol, 37 violations were issued Thursday night across New York including Long Island, New York City and upstate.

On Day 146 of the coronavirus, Cuomo said there were 650 hospitalizations statewide, the lowest since March 18, and nine deaths reported; the infection rate stood at 0.9 percent, "very good news," Cuomo said.

But with an uptick in coronavirus cases among young people aged 21 to 30, a significant increase attributed to young adults congregating in large crowds at bars, Cuomo said Friday progress has been made with enforcement efforts. "We want to be sure there's no second wave or ricochet, where the virus comes from other states, or increases because of young people congregating," Cuomo said.

To that end, on Thursday night, the state Liquor Authority and a New York State Police task force cited dozens of establishments and suspended several liquor licenses.

While state police and the SLA are doing their jobs "aggressively," Cuomo said the local police and governments need to "step up and do your job." To Nassau and Suffolk police, he said: "Do your jobs."

On Thursday, Cuomo reiterated his statements from earlier in the week, saying that bars allowing outdoor drinking without food were never allowed.

Bars need to have more than chips or nuts, he said, adding sandwiches and soups are OK. And alcohol must be served to people who are seated, according to updated guidance by the state Liquor Authority.

The guidance closes a loophole in Cuomo's recent order that establishments can only serve alcohol to people ordering food. The loophole was exposed by enterprising upstate bar that sold $1 "Cuomo Chips" to patrons.

"It has to be more than hors d'oeuvres or chicken wings," Cuomo said.

Later, a post in wyrk.com said state spokeperson Jack Sternen clarified that remark and said wings were on the list for substantive foods.

On Tuesday, Cuomo lashed out at bar owners across the state, including on Long Island, for refusing to comply with social distancing guidelines — adding the establishments were never supposed to open in the first place.

Four bars, including one in Suffolk County, lost their licenses, he said.

Cuomo said Monday that if violations and a lack of compliance persist, he would roll back the reopening plan and close bars and restaurants again. He explained there was a disconnect.

"We never authorized bars to reopen," Cuomo said. "New York does not allow bars to operate. Bars are congregations of people milling around. That is exactly what we are trying to avoid."

Most states have not allowed bars to operate, he said, adding the issue is New York bar and restaurant licenses are not separate, as they are in many other states. That's why, he said, when restaurants opened, so did bars.

"We said outdoor dining was allowed and facilitated that to help restaurants," Cuomo said. "Outdoor dining is not operating a bar. The word is 'dining.' You don't dine when you go to a restaurant to drink. That is drinking and would have been outside drinking. We didn't authorize that."

Cuomo said he understands bar owners are under "terrific pressure and took outdoor dining as an opportunity to do outdoor drinking but that's not what these regulations intended."

The New York State Liquor Authority has 30 investigators statewide and 12 of those are downstate; local police need to help with enforcement, he said.

"We are quite serious about this," Cuomo said.

So far, the SLA has suspended the licenses of 10 establishments on Long Island and in New York City — including one in Suffolk and six in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens announced Friday.

New York's multi-agency task force documented 84 violations over three days after conducting 1,080 compliance checks.

Businesses found in violation of COVID-19 regulations face fines up to $10,000 per violation, while egregious violations can result in the immediate suspension of a bar or restaurant's liquor license, Cuomo said.

Since the start of the pandemic emergency, the SLA has brought 443 charges against licensees statewide and imposed 33 emergency orders of suspension, immediately closing establishments in order to protect public health and safety, Cuomo said.

Businesses whose licenses were suspended this week include Aqua in the Bronx, Cipriani Downtown in Manhattan, Guaro's Tapas Bar Lounge in in Jackson Heights, Set L.E.S in Manhattan, Kandela in Queens, and La Pollera Colorada II in Jackson Heights.

Earlier this week, Cuomo announced that in Suffolk, Secrets Gentlemen's Club in Deer Park will have its license suspended, as will the Brik Bar and M.I.A. in Astoria and Maspeth Pizzeria in Maspeth, he said.

"They can't operate," Cuomo said. "We're sorry it's come to this but this is a dangerous situation."

The SLA has suspended 27 licenses statewide so far.

"When you go to out to dinner, you sit at a table and eat," Cuomo said. "You are socially distanced. Bars and drinking is totally different. It's just a large congregation of people walking around and standing with a beverage. That was never allowed."

He said police on Long Island, in the Hamptons and in Erie County and Albany need to get serious about enforcement efforts.

Also, he added, New York has open container laws and people "can't drink alcoholic beverages on the sidewalk."

This article originally appeared on the Riverhead Patch