State suspends liquor licenses at three Queens party spots
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Photo by Stephen B. Morton/Governor’s Office
By David Brand
After a weekend of late-night maskless partying, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a crack down on three Queens eateries that have flouted the state’s COVID-19 restrictions Tuesday.
The New York State Liquor Authority suspended the liquor licenses of the bars Brik and MIA in Astoria and Maspeth Pizza House in Maspeth for hosting large crowds in violation of state and city regulations to stop the spread of COVID-19. Overall, the SLA suspended 27 liquor licenses across the state.
“The restaurants and bars that encourage young people to congregate threaten to bring us back to the hell we experienced three months ago,” Cuomo said.
The state also suspended the liquor license at Secrets Gentlemen's Club in Deer Park in Nassau County.
New York City had already suspended Brik from its city’s Open Restaurants program, which allows eateries to expand outdoor seating in certain streets. There are four Open Restaurants streets, where car travel is banned or limited to make way for dining plaza. Nearly 2,000 Queens establishments offer some form of outdoor dining as part of the program.
A Brik employee hung up the phone when contacted for this story. MIA and Maspeth Pizza did not respond to phone calls.
During a press conference Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about transforming more streets in Queens to dining plazas.
“I think it’s right to say every place we can add responsibly and safely, we want to,” he said, though he did not provide specifics.
De Blasio pledged to continue penalizing businesses that violate COVID restrictions while discussing the city’s response to crowds in Astoria, where sheriff’s officers patrolled on Sunday.
“There are very few places where we had this bad a problem. Overwhelmingly we have had compliance,” he said. “We had a particular problem on Steinway Street which was worse than we have seen in other places and we had to act aggressively.”
“Where there’s a business that does not continuously follow instruction, there need to be consequences,” he added.
