Blaz-Andy feud bites on dining

Mayor de Blasio said Thursday he learned the state would allow indoor dining in city restaurants just an hour before Gov. Cuomo announced the move a day earlier.

De Blasio (inset) has assured the public in recent weeks that his administration is in nearconstant contact with the governor’s office, but the late notice on indoor dining appears to contradict the notion and marks yet another chapter in the ongoing feud between the two.

“There were very productive conversations. They went on for quite a while,” de Blasio said Thursday at a City Hall press briefing. “After my press conference yesterday, I’d say sometime in, you know, the hour or so after that, the state made clear that they felt they were ready. We expressed our view as the city, and they went forward with the policy.”

For weeks, de Blasio has resisted setting a date on the reopening of indoor dining at restaurants, but it’s the state that has the ultimate say on whether or not to allow it.

Cuomo confirmed Hizzoner’s accounting of events, but suggested it wasn’t intended as a slight. The late notice came, the governor said, because discussions with “interested parties” were “ongoing until I actually made the announcement.”

“He is sufficiently in the loop,” Cuomo said. “We had these conversations extensively over the last few days. [Council Speaker] Corey Johnson also, the comptroller’s office, restaurateurs, etc., health experts. It’s a judgment call.”

At his Wednesday press conference, just before Cuomo made the big announcement, de Blasio said that “there’s more work to be done” before indoor dining could be resumed.

“We have to really do that fine-tuning on indoor dining to see if we can get somewhere,” he said Wednesday. “We will have an announcement as early as this week.” The announcement that came just hours later was not the mayor’s.