After all, it probably won’t be last orders at many of the city’s most popular restaurants and bars.
The City Council listened to protests from chefs and restaurateurs, and a scathing rebuke from The Washington Post, and killed parts of a hotel regulation bill that would have been the downfall of many top-notch eateries and rooftop bars.
The contentious bill, introduced by City Councilwoman Julie Mennin, would require hotels to renew their licenses annually and implement employment and safety measures long sought by the Hotel and Gaming Workers Union.
One part of the bill that hotel industry advocates denounced as a “nuclear bomb” would mean the end of restaurants located in hotels but leased to or operated by outside businesses.
These so-called “third-party” operations are under the control of the hotel, and if the restaurant includes “public access” to the rest of the hotel, the hotel employees become hotel union members.
Nearly every restaurant does so, including Jean-Georges at Trump International, Daniel Boulud’s Le Gratin at Beekman and Café Carmellini at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Some restaurants are even located in hotel lobbies, including Wolfgang Puck’s CUT at the Four Seasons and the new Bourbon Steak at Essex House.
Tom Colicchio, owner of Temple Court in Beekman, slammed the X bill as a “disaster.”
“This would essentially terminate countless leases and management agreements between third-party food and beverage companies and the hotels they operate,” warned Andrew Riggie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Federation.
But after backlash from the Hospitality Alliance and a New York Post column, the council decided to exempt on-site restaurants from other provisions.
Currently, hotel employees covered by the bill do not include “cooks, stewards, bartenders, servers” and others “primarily engaged in food service,” whether “employed directly by the hotel or employed by another.”
“After explaining the threats against the independently owned restaurants and bars in the hotel and their employees,” Riggie said. [Menin] The company has made modifications that will enable it to continue operating going forward without any changes to the way it has operated successfully for many years.”
Mennin told The Post on Monday that the threat to restaurants was an “unintended consequence” of the original bill.
She said she realized this at one point. [the objection] Quickly.”
Mennin postponed a public hearing on the full bill, originally scheduled for last week, until an unspecified date in the autumn, which could have led to a vote in Parliament this month with enough MPs in favour of the bill becoming law.
