Legislature Rescinds Cuomo’s Order Requiring Food With Drink at Bars

Hold that order of Cuomo Queso with that round of Coronas.  New Yorkers will no longer have to buy a snack with their beer, wine or cocktails as lawmakers have repealed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pandemic executive order requiring bar patrons to also order food with their drinks.

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The Governor signed the order last year to encourage customers visiting bars and restaurants to remain seated by requiring them to order food with their drinks. At the time, COVID-19 rates were low and the state had begun allowing New York City bars and restaurants to re-open but there were concerns about people gathering closely together or wandering around an establishment, mask-less and potentially spreading the virus.

State lawmakers passed resolutions April 28 to repeal the directive, which restaurant owners have blasted for months as nonsensical.

The order led to a Saratoga Springs bar offering “Cuomo Chips and Salsa”, a downstate bar selling “Chip on Your Shoulder” chips and other taverns putting “a piece of meat”, jelly sandwiches and a nine-fry serving of French fries on the menu.

Cuomo had said chips or fruit alone couldn’t count as “food.”

In March, the legislature voted to repeal Governor Cuomo’s executive order powers but allowed the pandemic mandates already issued to remain in place.  The agreement allowed lawmakers to “repeal any “Executive Order .. by a concurrent resolution.”

The state’s minority Republican caucus is still pushing for a full repeal of the Governor’s emergency executive order powers.