After dine-in service suspended, Long Island restaurants permitted to deliver alcohol 

Restaurant folk are nothing if not tough. And resourceful. So when word arrived that restaurants and bars would be required to suspend dine-in operations for at least the next few weeks due to the coronavirus, operators quickly came up with creative to-go and delivery packages.

Really creative, because they also now had something novel on the takeout menu: Alcohol. Amid the swirl of unwelcome news was a silver lining, or at least the glimmer of a remaining revenue stream: For the first time, restaurants and bars (who also serve food) would be permitted to serve alcohol to go, as well as deliver it to customer’s homes.

As of last Monday night, customers could order manhattans and bottles of albariño with their dinner. Restaurants quickly sprang into action — and though some of them have now fully closed, for about a week the cocktails (and wine, and beer) were flowing out as delivery and to-go orders. Salumi in Massapequa bagged up bloody marys and margaritas to go, and offered bottles of wine at a discount. Margaritas became a short-lived fixture of the takeout menu of Dirty Taco & Tequila in Rockville Centre and Wantagh — both now since closed for the time being. Tellers in Islip began bottling premixed cocktails, including an old fashioned, in sharing portions (each bottle serves three to four people, for $30).

Several restaurants that are part of the Lessings Hospitality Group, such as Library Café in Farmingdale and Post Office Café in Babylon, also now offer cocktails to go, as well as bottles of wine at half price (with food orders, as per the mandate). "What I've noticed is that people picking up carryout might ask for their favorite drink, such as an old fashioned or one of our specialty cocktails," said Mark Lessing, executive vice president. "We send them out in green plastic cups with lids."

Jonathan Gonzalez, a bartender who worked most recently at Whiskey Down Diner in Farmingdale and Perennial in Garden City, put together a “social distancing” menu of $12 bottled cocktails (with names such as Healing Rituals and Eventual Descent Into Madness) that he’d deliver to your door.

“[The practice] has been huge in Asia, and it makes sense,” wrote Gonzalez in a message. (Cocktail delivery is legal in China, among other places). If the practice sticks around post-coronavirus, he noted, it could be a boon on all sides. “People go out and drink, but if you offer home delivery, they hopefully will be more inclined not to drive …. and it would add a much-needed new stream of revenue for businesses and also, its employees.”