IT'S DO OR DIE!!! SPEAK UP NOW WHILE OUR VOICE CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!! It's D-Day. Crunch time. The end of the line if we don't get some assistance in the form of cash money dollars from Congress or rent relief from Albany or I don't know...

CUOMO ON THE WARPATH!!!! SENDS OUT SECRET SLA SQUAD TO SHUT DOWN BAWDY BARS. Governor Cuomo needs to chill out. He's screaming about bar and restaurant owners not following the rules and how he's gonna shut everyone down and he's recruited state employees and deputized them...

BREAKING POINT!!! RESTAURANTS FADING FAST AS CONGRESSDEBATES NEW STIMULUS PLAN  It has been the longest 4 months hasn't it? Usually we are moving so fast and thinking forward and planning future projects that we don't sit around dwelling on how slowly time is passing.  But these past months? ...

https://youtu.be/aHnCP1KeLAc

BATTLE ROYALE WITH CHEESE!! LANDY FILES LAWSUIT; CHALLENGES 1932A When art and love and passion and all the beautiful human traits and pursuits are banished from the soul and replaced with the cold, empty, calculating reach for money and power and ego, you get.....Landy.  As expected, Landy...

IT'S WAR!!!!! LANDYS FIRE OFF TERMINATION NOTICES, TENANTS HIT BACK WITH 1932A Landy's are just so spoiled and used to getting their way. They bully and frighten and posture and sue and send intimidating notices. They don't scare us anymore though because we have little left to lose. In the past, when...

U.S. BLUES: REOPENING STALLS AS AMERICA BUGS OUT!!! Dear HL Clients, Has everyone just gone bonkers? We have over 25,000 dead New Yorkers and every day, in full view, we documented the pain and anguish and fear that gripped our city and we were first and worst and laid it...

Dear Washington: Send Money STAT!  I'm really happy to see the pop-up construction sites in front of most of our restaurants and bars.  It's gonna be nice to have some action and get that flow of cash moving again.  And good that we got the PPP...

SPECIAL EDITION: BREAKDOWN OF THE NEW PPP GUIDANCE... AND IT'S GOOD NEWS! Dear HL Clients, Happy Tuesday Everybody!  I’m not sure if it’s your lucky day or mine-maybe it’s both.  Not only are you getting a special Tuesday edition of our newsletter, but it will...

SPRITZ BLITZ!!! BIG VICTORY IN FIGHT FOR OUTDOOR DINING He likes us. Right now, De Mayor really likes us!!! After seven years of turning his back on the hospitality industry, the Flying Mayor finally snapped to it, unbuckled and recognized just how important we are to NYC.  Watching his presser today...

It's Alive!  It's Moving! It's Alive! It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!!!It feels like the mid-90's again in NYC.  Those were the days of illegal after-hours clubs, smoking whatever, wherever, rolling down gates for the neighborhood crowd and locking doors for dance parties in dining rooms. The LES was turning the corner, the Brooklyn pioneers were...

THE CITY REOPENS: OPTIMISM ABOUNDS As I walked around Brooklyn today and took in the long lines at City MD for antibody testing I guess, I was hit with the familiar sights and sounds of city commerce.  Construction people in their fluorescent fatigues were keeping the bodegas busy,...

GUEST COLUMNIST: SABRINA BROCKMAN I'm pleased to share a column from Sabrina Brockman.  Sabrina is the owner of two locations of Grandchamps, a community- focused restaurant serving Haitian cuisine in Bed Stuy and the Navy Yard, Brooklyn.  Check them out here: http://www.grandchamps.nyc/ and please read Sabrina's column below....

CUOMO COMES THROUGH: OUTDOOR DINING TO REOPEN AS EARLY AS JUNE 22ND!! De BLASIO FEELING THE HEAT! I was in the sourest of moods.  A day of talking to Landy had me down in the dumps and questioning the very nature of humanity. You understand. Then, I read that...

They're Alive!!! Our Dearly Elected Show Signs of Life as Senate Passes PPP and De Blasio Pushes Open Streets Things are looking up today aren't they? There's not a bluebird on my shoulder but there is an optimism in the air that has been missing for...

Please consider this... As I was taking it all in, the fanfare and the fear, the proselytizing and the pain, the deep, deep anger; I realized that if I wanted to become more active in the fight to battle racism in our country and city and...

I've got nothing to say tonight.  I don't want to talk or write or do anything other than read and watch and think and mourn and listen.  I hope you understand. We will be back tomorrow and the rest of the week with any important breaking news. Here's...

Captain Cuomo Sets Phaser to 1: Highly illogical to expect outdoor dining will also reopen on June 8th NYC will creak open a week from Monday on June 8th.  Phasers are set to 1 and dammit Scotty, it's not stunning.  While Phase 1 opens nothing new for hospitality it is an...

HOUSE OF YES! PPP Reform Passes; City Council Introduces Open Streets Bill Our favorite bipartisan lion tamers, Phillips & Roy hustled their bill through the House and now it's headed to the Senate  for a vote next week.  Hopefully, Queen Bee McConnell and his drones will get...

Do it!Do it!Do it! Do the Hustle!!!! We need some industry specific assistance and we need to hustle it up now.  We love small business owners and we support all the mamas and the papas but our industry is extra, super-duper challenged and we need our dearly elected...

DeBlasio Enters the Fray: Deals Major Blow to Landy!! Congratulations to everyone who got behind 1932 as the Mayor signed it into law today!  Perhaps that elusive tunnel light will soon come into view and we will be able to hoist ourselves further out of this crater...

Hot Time!! Summer in the City So, here we are, a few months in with summer at our door and most of us are hanging in there but it ain't easy.  The PPP money is going to run out soon and DeBlasio is in lala land and DT's abracadabra plan to...

We have been so laser focused on the plight of restaurants and bars that we thought it was high time to expand our horizons and check in with the industry's unsung heroes; caterers. They are the toughest and most compassionate breed of hospitality people. They are empathic therapists, sly, sleight-of-hand artists and wily...

Pelosi Spits Fire! Madam Speaker has had it.  First DT holds a squaretable with all men....and Ivanka (whom Trump calls honey at the meeting), then the hydroxy stunt to divert our attention as he openly dismantles the foundations of checks and balances in our government by firing the...

Open 'Em Up!!!! Someone told me today that Memorial Day Weekend is coming up.  It was the first I was hearing of it.  Once it settled in that summer was on its way, I quickly started feeling much more optimistic.  Warm weather is still in the cards. Trees and...

Trump Declares PPP Fix "So Easy"Mnuchin's Head Explodes!!!Today, our boys Will Guidara and Sean Feeney, along with other industry bigwigs, threw down in a Restaurant Squaretable with Trump, Mnuchin, Pence, Kudlow, Jared and Scalia.  All the big boys and... Ivanka.  Not one female restaurateur to represent the industry. Zippo. Absolutely...

READER'S BATTLE PLAN Today's Q of the D was for you to send me your ideas for how the City, State, and Federal governments can help us out. Here are your thoughts: In the food industry we are facing a crisis of distribution. Farmers are dumping milk and ranchers are...

MORE BATTLES AHEAD!!!!! Fresh off a nice little bundle of victories with the City Council, we need to decide on our next battles.  So, first let's recap. We won't lose our shirts if we turn in the keys and we have some added leverage with landlords.  Delivery fees...

CITY COUNCIL COMES THROUGH!!! The NYC City Council showed up today.  They made a loud statement that they are willing to stand up for us and that they are on our side in the fight to keep restaurants in business.  They passed a bundle of bills, including 1932,...