Do you want to buy alcohol at a restaurant or bar in New York State? Then you will have to order something more abundant to eat besides “Cuomo chips”.
After a New York pub started selling “Cuomo chips” for a dollar a bag to get around a rule that requires food to be sold with every order of alcohol, the State Liquor Authority has updated its guide, according to a report.
Customers will now have to order a “substantial food” item, such as chicken wings, hot dogs, or a salad, NY1.com reported.
NY PUB SELLS ‘CUOMO CHIPS’ TO ADHERE TO GOVERNOR’S RULE: ‘WE HAVE TO REACH SOMEONE TO BE ABLE TO FULFILL’
The idea behind the original rule was to keep customers in their seats, and not gather in groups amid coronavirus social distancing requirements, according to the report.
Fearing a loss of business, Matthew Bagley and Adam Humphrey, co-owners of Harvey’s Irish Pub in Saratoga Springs, New York, invented “Cuomo chips,” just a standard bag of potato chips renamed for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
During a Tuesday appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Bagley and Humphrey claimed that their idea, which spread to other bars and restaurants across the state, was an immediate success.
Humphrey said the fries “got very good feedback from our regular bar patrons and restaurant guests.”
He added that customers “thought it was fun” and “lightened the blow they had to buy other food.”
Bars and restaurants across New York State were selling “Cuomo Chips” to comply with state regulation, but now the State Liquor Authority has closed the gap, according to a report.
Humphrey noted that some customers come into his pub after eating elsewhere and just want to “buy a pint of beer or something, but now they have to buy food.” [at] all the bars they go to. “
In Astoria, Queens, in New York City, restaurant owner Anne Muldoon told NY1 that the rule change will cause some inconvenience for her and her staff.
“Now we have to take time to explain to people that they can’t order a beer and a bag of chips and that they have to ask for more,” Muldoon, owner of Lowery Bar & Kitchen, told the news outlet.
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“We have a lady coming in who has high food allergies. She never eats, but she does have a couple of glasses of wine and it’s a little bit of freedom, and now we have to tell her that she has to order food. Then she comes out our doors.
It is a situation that his restaurant cannot afford amid the coronavirus slowdown, Muldoon said.
“Every customer counts right now,” he said.
Talia Kaplan of Fox News contributed to this story.
