Hey, guys. I just checked, and guess what? It's STILL 2020!
Unfortunately for the 20 million people who live in New York, that means Andrew Cuomo is still governor. And that really stinks.
Andrew Cuomo was undoubtedly wearing his turkey mask last week when he made the decision to shut down all indoor dining in southern parts of Staten Island, which had become an "orange zone" for COVID-19.
An orange zone must mean something, but it's probably stupid and just made up by some guy who wants to take your freedom. So I don't really care what an orange zone is. But apparently, it's enough to shut down indoor dining in New York.
Enter Mac's Pub, which is situated inside the Staten Island orange zone where indoor dining is now prohibited.
On November 20th, in advance of the shutdown, Mac's Pub declared itself an "autonomous zone" (similar to CHAZ, but way more clean-cut, and actually quite pleasant to visit).
Nice move Mac!
So Mac's decided to stay open, spitting ever-so-kindly into the turkey-masked face of Governor Cuomo and all of the other New York libs.
But on November 24th they were hit with a $15,000 fine and asked to stop doing business at the property.
The next day, on November 25th, the authorities came back to void the $15,000 fine because they're super nice like that, right?
Nope!
The city did drop the fine, but they're now throwing smaller fines of around $1,000 apiece at Mac's, which will probably add up to 15k eventually. Because I'm guessing these guys aren't closing anytime soon.
(Mac's is not going to pay the fine either way)
A few days later the New York State Liquor Authority came by to revoke Mac's liquor license.
And Mac's found yet another loophole:
"So it doesn't seem like we can do business. So here's what we're going to do for everybody. We're going to give everything away for free. So now you can come to Mac's Public House and you can eat for free and you can drink for free. We just ask that you do make a donation towards us so that we can still pay our bills. Other than that we're still here."
Beautiful!
As of the most recent YouTube update, Mac's has been served a cease and desist letter by the New York State Health Department and now we must all wait for the rest of the story to unfold. The health department agent came accompanied by local police and it was quite cringe:
It seems to me as if Mattoos Entertainment is following this story very well on YouTube, so check there for more videos. I'm sure this will gradually grow more delicious with time.
I want to leave you with a quote from owner Keith McAlarney:
"They all know what they are doing is illegal. We're not backing down. You think you scared me by building in the fact that...I don't have a license now to serve liquor, well guess what? That liquor license on the wall, if that liquor license is going to come off the wall, it's going to be done by Cuomo. You want to come down here and pull that license off the wall? Or de Bozo, you want to come down here and pull that license off the wall? Feel free to end up coming down and we'll have a conversation before you even think of stepping foot on my property. I will not back down."
