Food and beverage service curfew to be lifted, Gov. Cuomo says

The midnight curfew for food and beverage service in New York will be lifted for outdoor dining starting May 17 and for indoor dining starting May 31, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday.

Cuomo also said the 1 a.m. curfew for catered events where attendees are required to provide proof of coronavirus vaccination status or a recent negative COVID-19 test result will be lifted beginning May 17, while the curfew for all catered events will be lifted May 31.

Beginning Monday, catered events can resume at residences above the state's residential gathering limit of 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, Cuomo said in a statement.

Those gatherings can take place as long as "the events are staffed by a professional, licensed caterer, permitted by the respective locality or municipality, and strictly adhere to health and safety guidance, including social and event gathering limits, masks, and social distancing," Cuomo said.

The governor also announced that starting Monday, seating at bars will be allowed in New York City, as long as establishments meet the food services guidance in effect statewide.

The State Legislature later on Wednesday repealed some of Cuomo’s pandemic directives for the first time, including the requirement to make a food purchase when ordering an alcoholic beverage in restaurants and taverns. It took effect immediately.

Cuomo also said that starting Monday, the "guidance for dancing among attendees at catered events will be aligned with neighboring states, replacing fixed dance zones for each table with social distancing and masks."

He added: "Everything we've been doing is working — all the arrows are pointing in the right direction and now we're able to increase economic activity even more. Lifting these restrictions for restaurants, bars and catering companies will allow these businesses that have been devastated by the pandemic to begin to recover as we return to a new normal in a post-pandemic world."

Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, said the move was welcomed.

"We thank the state for listening to our request for a reopening plan, bringing New York in line with many of our neighbors," she said. "With vaccinations going up and positivity rates going down, the hospitality industry can set our sights on rebounding this spring and summer as we scratch and claw our way back to profitability, which for many has seemed impossible."

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran called the actions "great news for restaurants and hospitality businesses, who’ve been following the rules and are just trying to get by."

But Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Pulaski) said Republicans have been calling for the moves for months, and Cuomo needs to do more.

"The governor’s arbitrary curfews put bars and restaurants at a serious disadvantage and caused undo harm to small businesses fighting for survival," Barclay said in a statement. "Lifting senseless curfews on these establishments has been a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’ "

"While this is welcome news for the restaurant industry, it is still taking far too long to become reality," he added. "Curfews should be lifted today, not in a month’s time. Bar and restaurant owners should be allowed to operate under the same guidelines as gyms, fitness centers, casinos and other businesses."

Michael Bohlsen, whose restaurant group owns and operates Tellers in Islip, Prime in Huntington and H2O in Smithtown, said the later curfew would not make much of a difference to business.

"COVID has changed us in so many ways," he said. "It has pushed us to move more toward the restaurant than the bar. The 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock curfews were killer, but the current midnight curfew has worked for us."

But the new rules are a game-changer for the catering side of the business, namely weddings and parties at The Harbor Club adjacent to Prime, he said.

"No bride wants her guests hustled out at midnight, and now we can also do after-parties," Bohlsen said. "What we really are excited about is the changing of the dancing regulations."

For Bryant Postell, a partner at Prime 39 in Lynbrook, the new curfew is welcome. The venue, which opened in December, was conceived as a "resto-lounge," where patrons would come to linger over food and drinks into the late-night hours. The pandemic restrictions led the space to initially focus more on the restaurant side of the business.

Now, said Postell, dinner will end at 11 p.m. and segue into small bites with live music on weekends.

"We can become the resto-lounge we had planned," he said.

Meanwhile, the state continued to see a drop in COVID-19 indicators.

The statewide daily positivity level for test results from Tuesday was 1.81%, while the seven-day average was 2.02% — the lowest figure since Nov. 7, according to state data.

The seven-day average on Long Island was 2.11%, Cuomo said, while the average in New York City was 2.04%.

The number of new confirmed cases on Tuesday was 171 in Nassau County, 230 in Suffolk County, and 1,297 in New York City.

Statewide, 32 people died of causes related to the virus on Tuesday, including four in Nassau and one in Suffolk.

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