75 Main owner: 'We're never going to win in this stupid virus if we don't behave'
The owner of 75 Main in Southampton Village expressed remorse Tuesday after investigators cited the business for violating COVID-19-related guidelines for the third time this summer and suspended its liquor license.
The popular Main Street restaurant and bar, where elected officials toasted the reopening of New York’s economy in June, had its liquor license suspended following a Saturday joint inspection by the state, Suffolk County police and Southampton Village police.
“We’re never going to win in this stupid virus if we don’t behave,” owner Zach Erdem said Tuesday. “Am I upset [about the suspension]? Yes. But on the one side I know [Gov.] Cuomo and the officers are right.”
Violations found there over the weekend, according to a news release from Cuomo’s office, included “a line of patrons waiting to enter the premises, ignoring social distancing, with most not wearing facial coverings. Investigators also observed two bartenders and three servers without facial coverings.”
The state also noted a June 13 incident when village police documented 75 people dining inside before such dining was allowed. And investigators from a state task force observed three employees without facial coverings on July 28. Charges from both previous incidents are pending with the State Liquor Authority.
Erdem said the June 13 incident occurred because he was told by village officials that tables seated near the front of the restaurant, where the street-facing wall was open, would be OK. He said the employees referenced in the July 28 incident were all fired.
The governor has repeatedly singled out Southampton Village in his COVID-19 briefings this summer for not enforcing state guidelines.
The region drew the governor’s ire in late July when a crowd gathered outside the stage of a drive-in concert in Water Mill headlined by the pop duo The Chainsmokers. And photos from the Southampton in the Streets outdoor dining event in June depict a crowd gathered around a fire dancer outside 75 Main, with many not wearing masks, although that event was not cited in the news release.
Erdem apologized for that incident, which he said drew many people who were not his customers.
“I took the responsibility and I said it will never happen again,” he said, adding that 75 Main is open for business, but he does not know when he will get his liquor license back.
Last month the governor directed the Southampton Town police to assist the village police in enforcement of social distancing and mask wearing to control the spread of the virus, although the town has since been told it could stand down, local officials said.
The directive to assist the village did not sit well with town police officers who thought the village was capable of handling the issue on its own, town PBA president Erik Breitweiser said Tuesday. He called the village department “fully competent” and said if the village required their assistance, the town PBA would request that.
Southampton Village Police Chief Thomas Cummings could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman on Monday said town police officers have otherwise been on top of COVID-19-related violations outside of incorporated villages with their own police departments.
“We are doing a lot of checks, writing SLA [State Liquor Authority] violations,” said Schneiderman. “We have two different arms of our public safety division doing this — code enforcement and police.”
Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren called 75 Main a central anchor to the business district and said he hoped the establishment could remedy the violations soon.
“The large majority if not all of our businesses are really doing a great job,” he said.
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
