Good morning. It's Monday. We'll look at to-go drinks, which have powerful opponents in Albany. We'll also meet a man with enough memories of the Waldorf Astoria to win a contest. |
 | | Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times |
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Like many back stories in Albany, the one about to-go alcoholic drinks involves lobbyists. It's a quintessential tale of how a seemingly popular proposal ends up going nowhere. |
Drinks to go were legalized in March 2020 as a lifeline to the restaurant industry, which had been decimated by the pandemic. The legalization was only temporary. My colleague Luis Ferré-Sadurnà writes that last spring, when lawmakers moved to make it permanent, it looked like a cinch. |
They clashed with the restaurant industry over who should be permitted to put alcohol in people's hands. Trade groups started public relations campaigns. Even the union representing state police weighed in. |
Perhaps more significantly, behind the scenes, the liquor store industry directed tens of thousands of dollars in political donations to state lawmakers, while individual store owners mounted a campaign to pressure the elected officials from their counties and towns. |
The liquor store industry said that allowing bars and restaurants to sell booze to-go would upset their businesses. They steeped that contention in public health concerns, arguing that takeout drinks could increase underage drinking and drunken driving, as well as drinking in public — concerns echoed by some lawmakers. |
The liquor store industry did not initially oppose to-go drinks. Sales had ballooned in 2020, although lobbyists maintain that some stores suffered. But they seemed particularly irritated that some bars and restaurants were selling full bottles of wine and spirits. The stores saw the bars and restaurants as operating as makeshift competitors without having to go through the same process that stores go through to sell alcohol. |
The battle is set for a second round during the legislative session that began this month. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in her State of the State address that she intended to legalize the sale of to-go drinks for bars and restaurants, making permanent the temporary program that ended in June. At the time Stefan Kalogridis, the president of the New York State Liquor Store Association, said that "Covid is over" and restaurants "can go back to their normal business." That was before the surge in cases driven by the Delta and Omicron variants. |
The lobbying forces for the two sides are mobilizing again. A group of trade associations representing the restaurant industry has marshaled its lobbyists and continued a public-relations campaign. |
On the other side, a liquor store trade group, the Metropolitan Package Store Association, recently emailed its members asking for donations to help convince lawmakers that the proposal would "create a public health crisis." |
It has also been a reliable donor to elected officials. The political action committee it controls has given more than $140,000 to elected officials since last year, mostly to Democratic lawmakers who control the Legislature. Over the same time period, two PACs associated with the restaurant industry gave just over $20,000. |
Over the past two decades, the Metropolitan Package Store Association has established "longstanding relationships" in Albany through a steady stream of political contributions. That has included nearly $200,000 to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo; $14,500 to Carl E. Heastie, the Assembly speaker; and $31,100 to Michael Gianaris, the Democratic deputy majority leader in the Senate, whom the association honored during its annual dinner last fall. Gianaris has also accepted contributions from the restaurant industry and said he supports finding a resolution "that hopefully does not hurt other small businesses." |
The PAC also gave $25,000 to Hochul in October, before she announced her support of to-go cocktails. |
Expect sunshine and patchy clouds with temps in the mid-30s. Tonight an approaching cold front will bring some clouds and temps in the low 20s. |
Suspended today (Lunar New Year's Eve) and tomorrow (Lunar New Year). |
 | | via Gary Merjian |
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Gary Merjian (left, above) signed on as a management trainee at the Waldorf Astoria the day after he graduated from college in 1985. He found his niche when he got to catering and was assigned to work on one of the glittery charity benefits that took place at the Waldorf night after night, week after week. |
"They had my favorite disco people performing, Ashford and Simpson, who came out of a clamshell," Merjian recalled, referring to an effervescent pop duo. "I called my mom and said, 'I'm going into the world of catering. I don't know what it is, but my office will be the grand ballroom of the Waldorf.'" |
It was, for 14 years, as he worked on staging benefits and birthday parties. |
Now, even though the Waldorf is closed for a top-to-bottom makeover, the hotel's managers have chosen him as the winner of an oral history contest. A spokeswoman said it was open to former employees (but not current ones) "because we wanted to hear as many first-person stories as possible from the people who truly lived it." |
Merjian's contest-winning memory was about Frank Sinatra, who had lived in the Waldorf in the 1970s in what had once been Cole Porter's suite. Merjian was introduced to Sinatra after helping to plan a Friars Club event for Sinatra's fourth wife, Barbara. "I said, "Mr. S., I've been a fan of yours since I was probably 12," recalled Merjian, now the general manager and chief operating officer of the Pelham Country Club in Pelham, N.Y. "He said, 'Nice meeting you, kid. I'm looking forward to a great evening.'" |
It must have been, because several years later, the hotel assigned Merjian to coordinate the party for Sinatra's 75th birthday. He had a brainstorm: Why not close the lobby to everyone but the 200 invited guests. "We never closed it for anybody," he said, "but we did it for Frank." And when Sinatra's handlers asked to have the marquee over the hotel's Park Avenue entrance say "Frankie's Place" on the night of the party, he worked out a slipcover that fit over the Waldorf sign. |
He also worked on the party for President Bill Clinton's 50th birthday. "Hillary asked me to find the person to make the birthday cake," he said. (He recommended the bakery William Greenberg Desserts.) By coincidence, Merjian left for the St. Regis soon after Sinatra died in 1998 and worked there until it shut down in the pandemic. |
The prize in the contest is a weekend at the Waldorf after it reopens next year. Merjian said he was looking forward to taking his wife, Heide. They met as co-workers and were married on the famous Starlight Roof. |
This time around they would have to put on their bathing suits if they return to the spot. "Where we got married is going to be a swimming pool" once the renovations are complete, he said, "but that's O.K." |
An old friend came to my home on the Upper West Side. As was his custom, he left his shoes outside my apartment door. |
When he was ready to leave, I opened the door to find that the shoes were gone. We went back inside to look for them, thinking they must be there, but they weren't. |
I ran down the hall, ringing my neighbors' doorbells. No one had a visitor, nor had they seen the missing shoes. Incredible — someone had stolen my friend's shoes. |
A man who had just moved in at the end of the hall saw that I was distressed. He went inside his apartment and came out with a pair of his own shoes. |
"See if these will fit," he said. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
Melissa Guerrero, Olivia Parker and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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