Why New York Has Such Strange Rules About Alcohol

The drinking culture modified the landscape

Prohibition also brought about huge social changes, Okrent said. “The saloon was a male-only institution, and with Prohibition, the speakeasy became anybody can come,” he said. “And once you have men and women in the same place? You’ve got to have food, you’ve got to have music. That’s the creation of the nightclub.”

The era also brought us the saloon powder room, Mr. Okrent said. “Saloons had a men’s room, if they had anything. With women in the bar, they had to create a bathroom for women.”

Proprietors worked with what they had — often the little space underneath the staircase — and added a toilet, a sink and a mirror. “It was it was an architectural phenomenon,” Mr. Okrent said. “And it came out of Prohibition.”

Prohibition-era restrictions are still affecting New York City

Wegmans cannot sell wine because of regulations set up almost 100 years ago. And that’s the same reason, as my colleague Luis Ferré-Sadurní reported, that if a bar runs out of vodka or whiskey on some random busy night, it would technically be illegal for the bartender to just buy a bottle from the liquor store down the street.

New York State has a system that strictly divides the industry into producers, distributors and sellers, such as liquor stores or bars. A bar can buy liquor only from a wholesale distributor. These distributors have a lot of political power, and if you go far enough back, that power also stems from Prohibition, Mr. Okrent said. The original wholesalers were members of the organized crime community, who became suddenly legitimate when Prohibition ended.

“Dec. 5, 1933, they were mobsters,” Mr. Okrent said. “On Dec. 6, they were wholesalers.”

Cocktail enthusiasts should know: It’s not all bad news

Yet another Prohibition-era regulation that persists: It is still illegal for liquor stores to open before noon on Sundays. So New York City residents planning 10 a.m. Sunday mimosas have to buy the Champagne on Saturday.

But one restriction in New York City eased recently. During the first year of the pandemic, to-go drinks were popular with struggling businesses as well as thirsty New Yorkers craving a walktail. Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul made their legalization permanent. Cheers to that!