Historic Forest Hills Eatery Struggles To Survive Sans Liquor License

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A historic Forest Hills restaurant is in danger of closing if it doesn't secure its liquor license soon, says the owner.

"We really, really need help," said Roy Guzman, longtime cook-turned-owner of The Cottage, an Irish eatery that's stood on 72nd Avenue near Austin Street for more than 50 years. "We're an Irish restaurant and bar; we need a liquor license to survive."

Guzman has been trying to secure a liquor license for his eatery since becoming owner in 2020 after the longtime owner of the pub — formerly known as the Irish Cottage — died of COVID.

The process, though, isn't easy, and has been made all the more difficult by the pandemic, said Guzman.

"Right when I took over there was only take out and all these restrictions and regulations that kept changing," he said. "We got in debt with the rent and expenses."

In January 2021, Guzman applied for a liquor license. He was given a conditional approval in March, which granted him six months to submit documents for a license certificate, the State Liquor Authority confirmed with Patch.

The approval was contingent on several stipulations, including a Certificate of Occupancy, which necessitated that building violations from the 1980s be closed — a task that Guzman said fell on him to resolve.

"The landlord didn't want to fix [the violations] because why is he going to fix it if he doesn't need to, but I needed the paperwork for the license so I hired people to fix it. All those things cost time and money," Guzman said. Patch was unable to contact the landlord.

In the interim, the owner started selling beer — a move that, at the time, he thought was appropriate under the conditional approval.

"I thought they gave me six months to get the paperwork otherwise they're going to cancel the license," he said. "I didn't know the conditional approval means you have no license."

In December 2021, investigators with the State Liquor Authority visited the pub and were served beer, Guzman and the authority confirmed. Later that month, his license was disapproved.

"The Licensing Board, having considered the foregoing facts and circumstances, determines that [Roy Guzman] lacks the requisite character and fitness required to traffic in alcohol," the disapproval letter, obtained by Patch, reads.

Guzman, said he now realizes what he did was a mistake. "I made a mistake that was a big mistake. I didn't understand then," he said.

The owner returned to square one and resubmitted an application for a liquor license in March — a process that the State Liquor Authority said can take 22 to 26 weeks. The authority confirmed that the application is pending as of the time of this article's publication.

Guzman, now two months into what could be a six and a half month wait for approval, worries that his business won't survive that long without the license.

"We're suffering," he said. "It's simple: as soon as you open the door you start spending money, and if money isn't going up we're going to be gone in a few more months. We won't survive only serving food."

Guzman's son organized a GoFundMe to support the restaurant — $265 of the $50,000 goal has been raised as of the time of this article's publication.