New York City has received a legal green light to continue cracking down on on-premise kava bars and restaurants, after a Manhattan federal judge ruled this week that city public health and safety officials have the authority to close those businesses.
The ruling came down Monday in a lawsuit involving the owners of tiki-themed kava cafe Kavasutra, which served steeped drinks made from the kava plant. The restaurant was closed in 2022 when the city seized its inventory, citing a ban on prepared foods and drinks made with kava.
Kavasutra’s owners attempted to argue that steeped kava drinks should count as single-ingredient foods, in line with FDA guidelines. However, the judge sided with the city, declaring kava an illegal food additive (modifying water).
Kava is a psychoactive plant native to the Pacific Islands and has a historical use in Pacific Islander cultural traditions. However, kava has also been controversial over purported side effects, including liver damage, and for its euphoric properties.
But controversy hasn’t stopped the plant from becoming a popular platform for on-premise “sober curious” bars around the country, as well as in CPG with brands like Melo, Leilo, White Rabbit, New Brew and Mitra9 producing ready-to-drink relaxation beverages made with kava as their hero ingredient.
In 2023, the New York Times profiled several kava bars in New York City, which had seen their businesses boom with the rise of the sober curious movement. But since then the city has quietly been working to shutter many of them, and this new ruling opens the door for more strict enforcement.
Although the raw kava plant is not banned in NYC, kava-based beverages are formally outlawed.
Industry group The Kava Coalition strongly opposed the decision, claiming it relied on “discredited allegations” around kava’s supposed impact on the liver.
The Coalition cited a March 2025 FDA letter that confirmed steeped kava drinks are recognized as single-ingredient foods, suggesting that New York’s laws, as well as those of any other state looking to ban or restrict the sale of kava, may conflict with federal policy.
“Kava is more than a beverage. It is a tradition, a livelihood, and a bridge between cultures,” the coalition stated. “We intend to see it treated in law as it has been in history: as a safe, respected, and protected food.
It’s unclear whether there could be any regulatory ramifications for CPG brands in the kava space.
Dallas Vasquez, co-founder and CEO of kratom and kava beverage brand Mitra9 – which sells its products in New York – said that he hasn’t seen any impact or similar crackdown on the RTD side of the kava category in the city or state. He questioned why the city had decided to “single out” kava bars, noting that there is FDA guidance for the category.
“This industry, whether it’s kratom or whether it’s kava, has always asked for regulation, and have always been, for the most part, pro regulation,” Vasquez said. “It’s just that we’ve never been able to get the why, or we’ve never been able to get frameworks that support the guidance on how to operate.”
Mitra9 also has a sister company which operates multiple kava bars in Florida, Vasquez said, where the concept is more developed and has more support from the state government.
But murky regulatory territory is nothing new for most kava producers.
Several kava CPG brands, including Mitra9, have already found themselves tangled up in the increasingly popular – and allegedly addictive – blend of kava and kratom, another plant with euphoric effects existing in a legal gray zone.
The FDA announced earlier this week that it will begin a crackdown of its own on concentrated, synthetic kratom products. That move will likely impact bars in Florida, where kratom and kava have similarly enjoyed on-premise success.
Vasquez, who said that kratom products make up the majority of Mitra9’s business, praised the ruling and believes it will be good for the industry and an example of the regulatory framework kratom producers have been asking for.
“I would say this is probably the most clear major announcement in a number of years for the industry,” he said. “It’s really great to see the politicians and others start to understand and publicly announce that – quote, unquote – ‘kratom’ and the kratom plant is not on their radar, but they were specifically worried about this particular alkaloid in the plant.”
The Ruling Creates Bad Press for Kava
Sol Broady, founder and CEO of canned kava beverage brand Leilo, said his company has contributed to legal defenses for kava bars in New York. He called the ruling “odd and alarming” for its defiance of FDA policy on kava.
Declaring kava a food additive modifying water, he argued, would be like banning tea or coffee because they are also additives to water.
“What doesn’t make sense is that you cannot consume kava without water,” he said. “You’re not just going to, like, eat it and ingest it. So, it’s just a really strange and oddly specific way to interpret the law.”
While the ruling won’t impact Leilo’s ability to sell its RTD kava drinks in New York, Broady said it has and will continue to impair its business partners, as Leilo sold its products in a number of kava bars in the city.
In an email, Amy Bett, co-founder and CEO of kava beverage maker Melo, echoed those concerns, stressing that there is an “established historical safety record of traditional Kava.”
“We urge regulators to align with federal law, international standards, and scientific evidence by recognizing traditional Kava beverages as safe, lawful food products — not prohibited food additives,” Bett wrote.
Broady also worried that the ruling will further a false impression with consumers that kava is dangerous, noting the 2002 study cited by the court concerning liver damage from kava use has since been debunked and is no longer recognized by the FDA or the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, headlines linking kava with liver disease have again cropped up in the wake of the ruling, Broady said, which could hurt consumer confidence in kava drinks.
The conflation of kava with kratom has also been detrimental, he suggested, noting that the proliferation of products blending the two ingredients has stoked controversy and led many to wrongly believe that kava is addictive.
“I was just out at an event this weekend and someone I was talking to asked what I do. [I mentioned] Leilo and kava,” Broady said. “He was like ‘Have you ever tried kava yourself?’ And I was like ‘yeah, of course.’ He’s like ‘yeah, but I know a lot of people who deal drugs don’t touch their own supply.’
“That’s the impact for a very casual consumer of the news.”