New York restaurants welcome back to-go drinks

NEW YORK (PIX11) — It’s now legal once again to add to-go drinks to a take-out or delivery order. State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul worked out a deal as part of the budget last week.

Angelique Calmet is the manager at Chez Oskar on Malcolm X Boulevard in Bed-Stuy.

“I’m ordering a meal and I’ll get a couple of cocktails that I can’t make at home or don’t have ingredients, and we do,” she said.

The return of drinks to-go gives restaurants another possible revenue stream and diners another choice. There are stricter and more specific rules this time that begin with the requirement that food also be ordered with any drinks.

It has to be “substantial items such as sandwich, soups, salads, wings, hotdogs” but “bag of chips, bowl of nuts, candy, an unreasonably small portion of soup, a serving of canned beans, a handful of lettuce would be a violation.”

Bottles of wine and spirits cannot be sold by restaurants. That was part of the compromise with representatives of liquor store owners. Delivery people are supposed to check identification for home orders with drinks. The new rules are in effect for three years and then expire.

The Alcohol Beverage Control Law Reform Commission was also created to review the industry and regulations, including some of the old laws from prohibition.

Liquor stores in New York are now able to be open on Christmas Day.

The process for a temporary license has been expedited and more employees will be hired at State Liquor Authority.