In the Big Apple, it can be a long, dry summer.
A key element is missing as New Yorkers prepare for the expected return of outdoor dining next week – liquor.
Only 3,000 restaurants wishing to install Al Fresco have received outdoor liquor licenses from the state liquor department. This means that thousands of people may not be able to legally provide alcohol outdoors.
New York's new post-pandemic outdoor dining rules require restaurants to obtain permission from the city's Department of Transport to establish an outdoor dining experience, and they cannot request an outdoor liquor license from the State Liquor Department until full approval is obtained.
DOT has approved just 47 restaurants since starting reviewing the application in March 2024.
“We've already come out of a terrible cold winter, and it's just a obstacle to getting into decent weather and not being able to drink any outside drinks,” Aitan Sugarman, owner of West Village's famous Whitehorse Tavern, told the Post.
The tavern applied for both sidewalks and street dining last year, but still waiting for the green light.
According to the DOT website, the restaurant has so far only received conditional approval for the establishment of a street shed, which will open on April 1st. It is unclear how long the full approval will be.
Conditional approval is not sufficient to apply to the state for a liquor license, and Sugarman decided not to risk serving illegally.
“Other people do that. I don't blame them, they're desperate,” he said. “You lose all your competitiveness and it's an absolute murder.”
In this post, it appears that summer is still a few months away this week, with some bars and restaurants flinging the rules.
Just below the tavern, Dante is waiting for full approval, according to the DOT website, but like half a dozen others in the neighborhood, he was serving drinks on a packed sidewalk patio. And in Little Italy, restaurants clogged the sidewalks with illegal tables, took parking lots and set up tables outdoors. These restaurants did not have outdoor liquor licenses.
What was notable in the streets of the Big Apple was the fuss about construction workers building meal sheds.
According to DOT, they issued conditional approvals to another 547 restaurants and built Street Shack, which will open on April 1, to function through Logjam.
“If they can't provide alcohol, they won't make much money,” says Joseph Levy, the lawyer representing Sugarman and around 100 other restaurants, still awaiting full approval. “It's incredible. The city is behind eight balls.”
Some New Yorkers have a hard time drawing an outdoor dining experience without alcohol.
“So what's the point? That wouldn't be ideal for not going somewhere and ordering drinks on a summer afternoon,” said 29-year-old Morgan Hale.
“I think outdoor dining will definitely make New York Summers an unbearable thing,” said 23-year-old Halle Lindholm.
But we are excited that many New Yorkers may be bombing the return of what they call “rat-infected” street shacks.
“Hello, goodbye,” said Poonam Srivastava, a resident of West Village. “They shouldn't build them. We don't live in the food court. We live in the city.”
“The sidewalk patio is great. People aren't packed into the sheds. The roadside sheds are a bit of an eye-catching,” said 32-year-old Matt Pearson.
