NY Indoor Dining Curfew Extends Till Midnight Starting April 19

NEW YORK — A curfew setting an early bedtime for bars and restaurants in New York soon will extend one hour later.

Bars and restaurants across the state can close at midnight starting April 19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.

The current coronavirus-related curfew stands at 11 p.m. — a closing hour that many restaurateurs found too early to reap much-needed late night business.

Cuomo resisted pushing the curfew back amid fears alcohol-fueled bar patrons could end up spreading the coronavirus. But on Wednesday he said the time had come to loosen the economic constraint it put on eateries.

“At the same time we caution New Yorkers don’t get cocky,” he said.

#BREAKING: Effective Monday, April 19, the curfew currently in place for bars & restaurants will be moving from 11pm to midnight.

The curfew for catered events will move from midnight to 1am.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 14, 2021

Cuomo also announced the curfew for catered events will extend till 1 a.m., rather than the current midnight cut off.

Pandemic restrictions such as indoor dining restrictions have dealt a devastating blow to bars and restaurants in the city.

Some restaurateurs singled out the curfew as perhaps the biggest damper on business.

"If they extended the opening hours that would help bars and restaurant a hell of a lot more than expanding the inside," Kevin Fitzgerald, who co-owns The Hawthorn in Manhattan, previously told Patch.