A group of Rochester restaurant owners on Wednesday urged state lawmakers to permanently legalize to-go sales of alcoholic beverages.
Gov. Kathy Hochul included a provision in her 2022 budget that would do just that, but the Senate and Assembly removed it in the single-house plans they passed. Hochul and legislative leaders will now negotiate a final plan, which by law has a deadline of April 1.
“The time has already passed for when this should have been allowed, and we are going to continue to push to get this done by April 1 in the final state budget,” Melissa Fleischut, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, said during a news conference at Salena's Mexican Restaurant. “Our industry has been incredibly hard hit, and we’ve been telling that story now for two years.”
Early in the pandemic, the state granted restaurants emergency permission to sell to-go beverages in an attempt to lessen the hit establishments took during the lockdown. The option proved popular with restaurants and consumers alike: some places sold pouches pre-filled with drinks, others bottled them up for their journeys off-premises.
“We didn’t get rich off of the money from the cocktails we sold, but one thing we did realize is this add-on was enough to cover a bill,” said Kelly Bush, owner of the Union Tavern and Marshall Street Bar and Grill. “That was super important, because when we were shut down, the bills didn’t end.”
One industry, however, was not thrilled that establishments were allowed to send patrons home with booze. When the Senate and Assembly passed their one-house budgets, the New York State Liquor Store Association lobbying group tweeted that it celebrated the development and that it was “ramping up efforts to kill the proposal for good.”
But local restaurant owners have said they see no competition between to-go drinks and liquor stores.
“We’re really selling two different products,” said Aaron Metras, co-owner of Salena’s Mexican Restaurant and Nox. “I don’t think any restaurants are looking to sell straight alcohol, a full bottle of liquor, or anything like that,” “...There’s no reason they can’t be complementary to each other.”
Fleischut said the restaurant association has floated concessions by the liquor store group, such as refraining from selling full bottles of wine or liquor, which they were allowed to do during the pandemic. But the liquor store association wouldn’t budge.
“If you know what their issue is and what they’re trying to accomplish by opposing this, we would love to know,” Fleischut said.
Gino Fanelli is a CITY staff writer.