Drinking

Lawyer Takes Aim At Bottomless Brunches

THIS is why people hate lawyers.

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Well, we have a new candidate for most hated lawyer in New York.

Manhattan resident and lawyer Robert Halpern is suing the State Liquor Authority over the city’s weekend staple, bottomless brunches. The gist, for the uninitiated, is that for one price, a patron is able to have both brunch and unlimited amounts of alcohol (usually Bloody Marys, mimosas, or similar fare).

Yes, they are as magical as they sound.

The Liquor Authority has a rule that bans the sale of unlimited alcoholic beverages, but brunch is able to skirt the prohibition because they’ve ruled “service of alcohol is incidental to the event.” Sure, that loophole was originally intended for things like weddings, but making it to Sunday morning (or early afternoon) certainly seems like reason enough to celebrate to me. But as the New York Post reports, Halpern thinks booze is anything but incidental to the brunch experience:

“The Liquor Authority is supposed to promote temperance, not “massive consumption,” he said.

Yet, the “bottomless brunches encourage young adults to drink excessively in short periods of time in order to get the most bang or their buck,” he added.

“They are the drinker’s equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet,” Halpern said.

I mean… I don’t want to opine on Halpern’s legal argument lest it provide him with any fodder, but regardless of whether or not brunch meets the technical requirements for the Liquor Authority’s loophole — why else are you coming for brunch? Weekend mornings were a time when the restaurant industry used to be slow, and combining eggs with lots of cheap booze is an easy way to get people in the door. And they’re fun! So lighten up, man.

Halpern, who lives at the corner of First Avenue and St. Mark’s Place, says the brunches are responsible for changing the neighborhood for the worse over the last 30 years:

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“Bottomless brunches lead to more drinking in the neighborhood, which leads to more noise, more crowds and more uncivil behavior,” Halpern, 62, gripes in court papers.

“I hear the noise. I hear the shouting. I hear people outside my window — more people treating every evening as a celebration,” he fumed to The Post on Wednesday.

Yes, the East Village is different in 2017 than 1987, but don’t go around pretending it was all sunshine and rainbows back then.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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