It could be a long, dry summer in the Big Apple.
As New Yorkers prepare for the anticipated return of outdoor dining next week, a key element is missing — booze.
Only seven restaurants out of 3,000 hoping to set up al fresco have received outdoor liquor licenses from the State Liquor Authority, meaning thousands may not be able to legally serve alcohol outside.
New York’s new post-pandemic outdoor dining rules require restaurants to get a permit from the city’s Department of Transportation to establish outdoor eating, and cannot ask for an outdoor liquor license from the State Liquor Authority until they get full approval.
Since the DOT began reviewing applications in March 2024, it has approved a measly 47 restaurants.
“We’re already coming off of a terribly cold winter, and to finally walk into decent weather and not be able to serve our customers with drinks outside is just crippling,” Eytan Sugarman, owner of the famed White Horse Tavern in the West Village, told The Post.
The tavern applied for both sidewalk and street dining last year and is still waiting for the green light.
The restaurant has so far only received conditional approval to put up a street shed to open April 1, according to the DOT website. It is unclear how much longer a full approval could take.
A conditional approval is not enough to apply to the state for a liquor license, and Sugarman decided not to risk serving illegally.
“Other people do it. I don’t fault them, they’re desperate,” he said. “You lose every competitive edge, and it’s absolute murder.”
The Post witnessed several bars and restaurants apparently flouting the rules this week, with summer still months away.
Just down the block from the tavern, Dante – who is also waiting on full approval according to the DOT website – was serving drinks on a packed sidewalk patio, as were half a dozen others around the neighborhood. And down in Little Italy, eateries clogged up sidewalks with illegal tables, even taking parking spots to set up tables al fresco. None of these restaurants had outdoor liquor licenses.
What was noticeably absent from the Big Apple’s streets was the commotion of construction workers building the dining shacks, with only a handful having been erected so far.
The DOT says it has issued conditional approvals to another 547 restaurants to build street shacks, which would open April 1, as it works through the logjam.
“If they can’t serve alcohol, they’re not going to make much money,” said Joseph Levy, a lawyer representing Sugarman and about 100 other restaurants still waiting on full approvals. “It’s staggering. The city is so far behind the eight ball.”
Some New Yorkers have a hard time picturing outdoor dining without booze.
“Then what’s the point? That would not be ideal to go somewhere and not be able to order a drink on a summer afternoon,” said Morgan Hale, 29.
“I think outdoor dining definitely makes New York summers less insufferable,” said Halle Lindholm, 23.
Others however are thrilled the booze-less summer could be bombing the return of what many New Yorkers have called “rat infested” street shacks.
“Hello, goodbye,” said West Village resident Poonam Srivastava. “They shouldn’t build them. We don’t live in a food court, we live in a city.”
“The sidewalk patios are great – people crammed in the sheds not so much. The roadside sheds are a bit of an eyesore,” said Matt Pearson, 32.
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