Blu Mar's liquor license suspended over COVID-19 violations, state says
Blu Mar Hamptons in Southampton. Credit: John Roca
A Southampton restaurant and a Roosevelt grocery store are among six businesses statewide that had their liquor licenses suspended after they were found with “egregious violations” of state COVID-19 regulations, New York officials announced Saturday.
The suspensions were announced shortly after the state said that the number of people hospitalized statewide for COVID-19 dropped to its lowest level since mid-March, as New York saw its 22nd straight day of fewer than 1% of coronavirus tests coming back positive.
One of the restaurants with a suspended license, Blu Mar Hamptons, in Southampton, has the same owner as the nearby 75 Main, whose liquor license suspension was announced on Monday.
The other, Sazon Ramirez II, is a grocery store in Roosevelt that was allegedly operating as a nightclub that included a concealed basement room with a large screen television, jukebox and electronic gambling devices, said Jack Sterne, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Blu Mar owner Zach Erdem did not return calls for comment. The owner of Sazon Ramirez II could not be reached.
The two emergency license suspensions occurred during the State Liquor Authority’s Tuesday meeting, Sterne said.
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s office visited Blu Mar on Aug. 16 and found a DJ, people dancing without masks and not social distancing, and an exotic dancer dancing on top of the bar, Sterne said. Blu Mar does not have a license that permits adult entertainment, he said.
On Aug. 22, Suffolk sheriff’s officers returned with investigators from the State Liquor Authority and the State Police Task Force and found a line of people waiting to enter the restaurant without observing social distancing, Sterne said. They also saw 11 people standing on the patio drinking, which is not allowed under state regulations because of the difficulty in social distancing, he said.
Investigators returned an hour later and saw a number of patrons standing around the bar and patrons and employees without face coverings, he said. In addition, an 18-year-old undercover agent twice was able to buy alcohol, he said.
Erdem’s 75 Main was accused of similar violations.
After 75 Main’s license was suspended, Erdem told Newsday on Tuesday that “we’re never going to win in this stupid virus if we don’t behave. Am I upset [about the suspension]? Yes. But on the one side, I know Cuomo and the officers are right.”
Drinking in hidden basement room
At Sazon Ramirez II, investigators with the liquor authority, state police, Nassau County police and the Nassau County fire marshal on Aug. 23 found 14 patrons inside the store drinking beer and six employees and the owner not wearing face coverings, Sterne said. The business is licensed to sell beer, but only for off-premises consumption, he said.
In the concealed basement room, there were 10 patrons drinking alcohol, Sterne said.
In addition to the liquor authority action, Sazon Ramirez II was issued five criminal summonses by Nassau police and four by the fire marshal, and it was cited for 20 building-code violations and six fire and life safety violations, he said. The summonses issued by the police were for violations of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, said Nassau police spokesman Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun.
The four other liquor license suspensions in the past several days were issued to three locations in Brooklyn and one in Oswego County, a state news release said.
Each liquor authority health and safety violation carries a fine of up to $10,000. Suspensions are indefinite and can lead to the permanent revocation of the liquor license.
On Friday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,554 businesses on Long Island and in New York City to look for potential violations of state COVID-19 regulations and found eight in Suffolk County that were not complying, the state news release said. Ten New York City businesses also were found in violation.
New low for COVID-19 hospitalizations
The drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations and the continued low infection rate come as the state expands its reopening, with gyms in much of the state — although not in New York City — having opened on Monday, and “low-risk” school sports set to resume in parts of New York on Sept. 21. Nassau County school superintendents have postponed the resumption of school sports to 2021, although officials later said they were willing to reassess that decision.
It can take up to two weeks after infection for a coronavirus test to show up as positive, so the effect of the gyms reopening is not known.
Out of 93,873 tests statewide Friday, 0.67% were positive, Cuomo’s office reported. On Long Island, 0.6% of those tested were positive.
There were 458 New Yorkers with COVID-19 in hospitals on Friday — the lowest number since March 16 and a fraction of the nearly 19,000 that were in hospitals on some days during the mid-April peak of the pandemic.
In a statement, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran touted the continued low positive-test numbers but said: “Next month will be a whole new challenge. The risk of a second wave is a sobering potential, so we must not let down our guard or become too complacent in our progress.”
Health officials have warned of the possibility of a second wave of infections in the fall as the weather cools, people spend more time in higher-risk situations indoors and schools reopen.
Seven New Yorkers died of COVID-19-related causes on Friday, including one Suffolk County resident, the state reported. The number of deaths in New York since the pandemic began now stands at 25,319.
Nationwide, nearly 182,000 people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
There were 635 new coronavirus cases on Friday, lifting the statewide total to 433,402, the release said. In Nassau County, there were 51 new cases, for a total of 44,554. In Suffolk County, 34 new cases brought the total to 44,712.
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
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