How to read the New York liquor license pending list
What the SLA pending list shows, what Conditionally Approved means, and why the active license file can fool you.
What the pending list is
The State Liquor Authority publishes applications it's working on: premises address, business name and the date it received the application, along with a status. Applications marked NA- are new applications, and those are the only ones we use.
What the statuses mean
IntakeComplete and Under Review mean the state is working through it. Conditionally Approved is the closest public signal to opening, and we label it separately.
Don't trust the active file's dates
The active license file has an “original issue date”, but we checked: it equals the last issue date on all 58,492 rows, so it moves on every renewal. It can't tell you what's new, and we don't use it.
New York City restaurants
New York City restaurants get a health inspection before the permit is issued, labelled pre-permit. These can also be a new owner at an existing restaurant.
Sources: New York State Liquor Authority applications and New York City health inspections. Written from the public records themselves; check with the agency for anything legal or binding.
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