Delivery And Take-Out Booze Is Set To Expire On April 6th In NYC And They Need To Extend It Indefinitely ASAP

There was a time in NYC last June where almost everything was shut down, but the weather was gorgeous. We're talking 78 degrees and sunny every single day, not a cloud in the sky. At the time, the only things open were bars...but you obviously couldn't drink inside, and there was no outdoor dining either. So what did everyone do? Got drunk as hell on the streets. 

You see, for the first time, you could walk up to a bar, and get a drink to go. So NYC became one big bar crawl, and it was awesome. You would get a frozen marg, walk a bit, and then once you were done, stop at whatever bar you were near and get another. I must have walked the entire city doing this, it was great. Or if you didn't want to walk, you could just sit down on the curb outside of your favorite bar, there were no rules at all. 

But then things started turning into New Orleans Jazz Fest. The West Village became Mardi Gras. The streets were packed with drunks, nobody doing anything wrong or violent, but it sorta became the opposite of what they were trying to accomplish. Somehow allowing people to drink outside wound up being counter-intuitive, so they had to shut that down. It was a great few weeks, but I get why they had to put a stop to it.

So while you could no longer get drinks to go, they did continue to allow you to include alcohol sales in your food orders, which was a fair compromise. Obviously bars were making money hand over fist the other way, but at least they allowed the bars to keep alcohol on the menus on Seamless, which was important. You have to order a meal, but you can include beer/wine/cocktails with it, which is good. And now that I type that, I realize how weird it is that were couldn't do that until like, 9 months ago. You couldn't just add a bottle of wine to your Italian delivery, or a beer to your BBQ. So weird. 

So I say all of that to say there is possible bad news- booze sales for delivery and take out are set to end very soon:

NYP - Takeout and delivery of booze from New York bars and eateries in New York will continue for at least a while longer.

The popular coronavirus pandemic-era to-go cocktail rule was previously set to expire, but was quietly extended through April 6 earlier this month, the State Liquor Authority told The Post.

The SLA said the “state continues to review and work with legislature on this issue.”

Well that just cannot happen. I hope they think of not only the bars and how profitable it is for them, but for us, the lazy people. Sure I could get off my couch and go to the 7-11 and buy a 6 pack for 10 bucks, but I could also just as easily order food and add a beer for $7.00 with my order. That way I don't have to do anything, *and* I can eat a pulled pork sandwich. I can't count the number of times I've added a $25 bottle of wine to my pizza order simply because it's on the menu. What good is a nice crispy margherita pizza with a cab sav on the side?

Now, if I had it my way, if I was the mayor of New York, I'd obviously bring back drinks to go for the Summer. Shut down some streets and let people go nuts. You can drink on the streets in Austin, in Vegas, in New Orleans...but not in the Big Apple (local nickname everyone here calls it). It just ain't right. I propose from Memorial Day to Labor Day they let us run wild through the streets. Nobody here works during the summer anyway, so let's get local business booming again, and that starts and ends with endless supplies of alcohol.