BUFFALO (WBEN) - Bars and restaurants will be required to close at 10 p.m. starting Friday, as announced by Governor Cuomo Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to curb rising COVID cases.
WBEN's Tomo Bauerle spoke with Britesmith Brewery Owner Dave Schutte during his Wednesday afternoon show, and Schutte noted that limited capacity is already hurting profits.
"Now to shrink our hours is even further cutting into our ability to make any money," said Schutte, saying about 15% of his pandemic revenue has come after the 10 p.m. hour. "I'm not happy about it for sure."
Cuomo said restaurants are allowed to offer curbside services after 10 p.m., but Schutte indicated it wouldn't even make a dent.
"We don't break even at all on takeout only - we lose money," he said. "We do it to keep some of our key employees rolling and for the community who still relies on our food and great service."
During Cuomo's conference call, he explained that restaurants, bars and gyms are drivers of spread, so he wants to mitigate it as much as possible.
"That setting is very hard to police; it's very hard for people to maintain their discipline while eating, drinking, chatting, having a good time and laughing, while keeping a mask on," said Cuomo.
Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, released the following statement:
"The news is a huge blow to the restaurant industry that is desperately trying to stay afloat. Our members have put in place procedures and protocols to mitigate the spread, and we'll continue to do so to ensure the safety of our employees and patrons. We understand the logic behind micro-cluster restrictions, but at this time we have concerns about blanket statewide restrictions like this."
Schutte is confident of a complete shutdown in the near future.
"I'm feeling, unfortunately, that next week could be it, possibly 10 days from now, but it's quite imminent based on the numbers," he said.
"The hardest thing for me is to have to tell my employees right before the holidays that a lot of them are going to be furloughed without any kind of federal relief at all in place like they had this past year."
