Somebody pour them a stiff drink.
New York restaurant and bar owners are bracing for the impact of announced tariffs that could shake and stir the hospitality industry — if they even go into effect.
President Donald Trump’s recent threat of 200% tariffs on all wine, Champagne and spirits from the European Union has sommeliers, cocktail slingers and proprietors — from haute hotspots to laidback watering holes — wondering what the White House will serve up next.
With Others, a wine bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, recently celebrated its first anniversary — a joyful occasion marred by a sense of impending doom, owner Shana Nasiri told The Post.
“Tariffs on Old World wines, especially French and Italian, are definitely concerning,” Nasiri said. “Those regions are the backbone of my list and where I have the deepest connections, so shifting away from them to keep prices approachable would be a big change.”
According to Nasiri, “Margins are already tight, and running a wine bar in Williamsburg is (already) expensive.”
Blocks away, Bar Madonna, another haute Williamsburg haunt, has a plan of action — should drink disaster strike.
“All the wine we carry is Italian wine,” owner Eric Madonna said. “But if we have to switch to domestic, we will.”
Open since last year, the Boot-centric boozer tows a line between modern and old-school Italian bar — relying almost solely on old country imports.
Madonna already knows how he’ll stave off at least some of the blunt impact — if and when tariffs go into effect.
April 2 is the announcement date for tariffs and Trump has suggested he may not go as hard on some tariffs.
“I may give a lot of countries breaks,” he said Monday. “It’s reciprocal, but we might be even nicer than that. You know, we’ve been very nice to a lot of countries for a long time.”
“We started to stock up on bottles early when we heard the news,” he said. “But there is only so much space for storage in our building.”
Jahdea Gildin, sommelier at the East Village restaurant Luthun, said the tariffs will be “devastating for the majority of the restaurant industry.”
”Everyone already knows that restaurants run on a very fine margin, of which the majority of their profit, if any, is made off of alcohol sales,” the wine whiz said.
“There will still be price points that are available, but it will force the quality level to drop if maintaining profitability. While this may not directly affect all places, it will certainly affect many, especially the small, local businesses that are the heartbeat of New York City.”
Others are taking a glass-half-full approach.
Abraham Merchant, president and CEO at Merchants Hospitality — the company behind NYC’s dual Philippe Chow locations, as well as the Beekman Tower’s Ophelia Lounge and Art Bar in the West Village — sees an opportunity, “especially for American producers.”
“At our properties, we are proactively exploring ways to highlight more domestic spirits, wines, and craft beverages, which could be a silver lining of these changes,” Merchant told The Post.
“The U.S. has an incredible selection of high-quality products, and this could be an opportunity for local and regional producers to gain more visibility in NYC’s competitive hospitality scene.”