Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Restaurants operating across New York with a closing curfew again find themselves waiting for the wheels of justice to turn to see if some reliefe will come in the form of a reversal of the costly restriction.
Attorney Paul Cambria says he's waiting to hear who will oversee his challenge by a number of area restaurants against the state's 10pm curfew. He says he wanted a judge assigned before last weekend.
Cambria says he's disappointed. "We've been asking since the day we filed that a judge be assigned. That was several days ago," says Cambria. "We had originally asked one before Sunday. Obviously, that would have been a big day for our clients to be open before 10pm." Cambria says that's disappointing.
Cambria says restaurants and bars are struggling. "Each day they're restricted in their capacity and their operating hour, those are valuable dollars," notes Cambria. "People don't understand restaurants operate on a very thin margin. The profit rate is not high, and it's very close from expenses to income, so every dollar counts. If you're not in the business, people just don't understand that." Cambria notes a number of other restaurants have shut down for good.
Cambria says he cannot comprehend the curfew. "There's a middle ground to allow them to be open later. We think the 10pm time is arbitrary, there's nothing to justify this," says Cambria. "A specific time as opposed to any other possible closing time much later, is the gist of our lawsuit is there's no rhyme or reason for picking that 10pm time."
Governor Cuomo says he may address restriction issues later this week.
