A New York City bar says it had its liquor license suspended a week after starting a petition criticizing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new restriction on what drinking establishments are allowed to serve.
Abby Ehmann, owner of Manhattan’s East Village dive bar Lucky, says her liquor license was suspended after she started a petition calling on Cuomo to rescind his new rule requiring bars to serve a substantial amount of food with drink purchases and also says she only received one warning from local officials, according to Eater New York.
Ehmann says that she was visited Monday night by two representatives from the State Liquor Authority at around 8 p.m., and they observed the bar’s eight customers to see if they ordered food with their drinks. She received a warning after the visit that she says was simply a piece of paper not listing any specific violations.
Shortly after that, Ehmann’s liquor license was suspended.
“No other safety measures were inspected or questioned,” Ehmann told Eater New York in an email. “Also, no other bars or restaurants in close proximity to mine received this inspection, causing me to believe that I was intentionally targeted for selective enforcement by the Governor and State Liquor Authority.”
The SLA provided a different explanation for the suspension, arguing that Ehmann admitted to serving customers drinks without food and that the establishment did not have a kitchen, “which has been a requirement of all licensed taverns dating back to 1964.” They also say they fined Lucky $2,000 in 2019 for not offering food.
“I exercised my First Amendment right by petitioning my government for a redress of grievances,” Ehmann said about the suspension. “I believe that this same government has selectively enforced the law I’m working to change as retaliation.”
Cuomo defended his mandate, intended to curb attendance at bars in order to stem the spread of coronavirus, requiring bars to serve full meals as opposed to appetizers by arguing the law has always mandated food must be available.
“To be a bar, you had to have food available — soups, sandwiches, etc. More than just hors d’oeuvres, chicken wings,” Cuomo said. “You had to have some substantive food — the lowest level of substantive food were sandwiches.”
“There is no bar that only serves alcohol.”
Bars have been trying to skirt Cuomo’s requirement that food should be served to all patrons purchasing alcohol by serving chips to customers, and some establishments even referred to them as “Cuomo chips.”
