Goodbye, 'Cuomo Chips': Lawmakers End Food-With-Drink Rule

NEW YORK CITY — Sad foil-wrapped hot dogs, mushy chicken wings and, yes, "Cuomo chips" won't be required orders for New York City diners looking for a taste of alcohol.

State lawmakers on Wednesday overturned rescind a rule that requires bars and restaurants to serve food with alcohol orders, the Times Union first reported.

The move starting in the state Senate likely will be welcome news for the city's bar and restaurants, which have chafed under coronavirus pandemic restrictions issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We applaud the New York State Senate for its move to repeal executive orders requiring food sales with alcoholic beverage purchases in bars and restaurants," Andrew Rigie, who heads the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in a statement. "This adjustment is common sense, and is a step in the right direction for supporting an industry that was financially devastated by the pandemic. We’re encouraged by the Senate’s appetite for responsibly loosening business restrictions, and urge its next actions to modify the midnight curfew and ban on barstools that unfairly discriminate against restaurants and bars."

Cuomo last summer issued an executive order requiring alcohol purchases to be accompanied by food — a requirement he said would discourage bar and restaurant patrons with loosened inhibitions from flouting COVID-19 measures.

But enterprising restaurants soon found a workaround with low-price food orders, such as the (in)famous $1 "Cuomo Chips."

Cuomo aimed to close the loophole by declaring food orders must be "substantial."

The rule's end began as state lawmakers wrested control from Cuomo amid his swirling scandals and pulled back his emergency pandemic powers.