BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's been almost three months to the day since Western New York restaurants got a 10 p.m. curfew as part of COVID containment policies from the state.
But now that closing time is gone at least for some of them. A judge has lifted that order for a group of restaurants that sued the state.
During his Friday morning news conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it clear, as far as he is concerned, that the 10 p.m. curfew is staying in place for restaurants in New York State.
When asked about it, Cuomo said, "No, we're not thinking about changing the curfew for Super Bowl Sunday. Maybe if the Bills were in the Super Bowl it would be a different conversation."
But at this end of the state where the Bills do indeed play, there is a much different conversation and case where another state judge's order has knocked down that curfew just as happened previously with the state's now extinct orange zone indoor dining restrictions.
It only applies to 92 restaurant owners here in Erie County and two in Rochester, who were specifically involved in the lawsuit. They can now can now immediately stay open past 10 o'clock.
Previously, those now extinct orange zone indoor dining restrictions got shot down by a judge, and the attorneys were able to use some leftover legal arguments once again against the state with its own contact-tracing logic.
Attorney Corey Hogan of the HoganWillig Law Firm says, "The problem with the rule, as we argued to the court, is there is no scientific justification for it. When they went out and found out where the viral spread came from, they said this is where it's coming from, they said 1.43 percent from restaurants. That's it, 74 percent from households."
Hogan also had some words of praise for State Supreme Court Justices here in Erie County, both Democrats and Republicans, who may have felt some pressure in going against the governor and the state in some key rulings on COVID policies.
The attorney said, "These Western New York judges, this isn't going on in too many other places in the country. I don't think it's going on in too many places in the world where these judges are saying to the governor, and maybe even indirectly to the legislature, which has been somewhat worthless, that we are not going to let you take steps outside the boundaries of what we think the law allows you to do."
Meanwhile, there was some immediate reaction from some of the restaurant owners who also felt bold enough to sue the state. That was even after the New York State Liquor Authority or Erie County Health Department went after them with alleged COVID violations.
Paul Santora of Santora's Pizza Pub and Grill told 2 On Your Side: "We are ecstatic. You know, it's like we talked about a million times, it's the person that needs to go out at 9 p.m., 9:30 for dinner, they haven't been going out because they have to be out by 10 o'clock, and they can't relax.
"So this just re-emphasizes what we've been fighting for this whole time, and we're very pleased just to be moving in the right direction.
Owner Greg Duell of Duff's Restaurant added: "10 p.m. was as arbitrary as it comes. 10 p.m., 9 p.m., 1 a.m., as long as you're following these reasonable precautions that were put in place by the state, you're safe, so the time on the clock doesn't matter."
Santora also spoke of the impact on his staff.
"It increases our staff by probably 25 percent for us, and then on top of that it gives us the ability to now possibly have a little bit of live music, of course, done the right way. You know, seating, social distancing, the whole package," Santora said.
"But it now gives us the ability to kind of get a little bit back to normal for what we normally do and how we how are profitable."
K.C. Mullett is the owner of Neat in Williamsville and he plans to open his new Vice Restaurant and Bar in Buffalo next week. He points out: "Downtown, you know we're planning a little bit later crowd, and this sure does help. We can now, you know, right before I got here we called 10 more people that we're going to hire."
The Erie County Health Department says it's now waiting for state guidance as to whether this ruling should apply to other restaurant owners who did not take part in the lawsuit.