Hearth now has six tables (with two chairs each) set up for diners on First Avenue and East 12th Street... it's a scaled-back version of what was previously proposed last summer with 38 seats total.
Meanwhile, over on Avenue A at East Seventh Street, Black Market rolled out their sidewalk cafe this past weekend...
15 comments:
These corners are frenetic at best. I'd rather dine at the Holland Tunnel entrance.
agree with 8:05 however I prefer dining at the Lincoln tunnel (it's classier).
Yeah, thanks for making it even harder for people to pass by on the already way-too-overcrowded sidewalks.
sidewalk seating can really help small businesses.
Sidewalk seating is a positive; it livens up the neighborhood and I suspect makes it a bit safer as well. It can be a pleasant experience for diners and drinkers, but usually not so on the avenues, which are far too noisy and exhaust-fume ridden.
Nevertheless, sidewalks in the village, at least on some of the streets, should be widened. Trash disposal is the major problem, since mountains of trash bags block walkers.
The Hearth outdoor section would be far more appealing if they removed the vandalism from the walls first.
- East Villager
I love Hearth so I support whatever they do. They're a good business.
@11:34
I don't believe sidewalk seating is going to "liven" up 1st Ave and 12th St. corner or make it safer. The corner is overcrowded with foot traffic to/from the L train, not dangerous or dull.
Outdoor seating will only narrow the congested sidewalks and add to noise.
Hearth is a good restaurant, but outdoor seating on this corner is not a good idea.
@ East Villager - livens things up - is the neighborhood dead or are you smokin something? Have you stepped out on a nice weekend day or weekend evening - the hood is plenty lively - in fact you can't even walk down the street half the time. Most of the sidewalk cafes in the neighborhood operate illegally by serving from the sidewalk, thus making it even more difficult to get by for a fully ambulatory person, forget if you are in a walker or wheelchair or have a stroller. Sidewalk cafe's are nice if you don't live above one.
I am at a loss to imagine why anyone would pay Hearth's prices to eat outdoors where you are (unavoidably) sucking down taxi, car, and bus exhaust with your food - and you're wide open to have your bag or purse stolen. I just don't get the appeal of this particular restaurant's outdoor dining situation; it's such a narrow sidewalk there.
I lived at 12th and First and there is no room for a sidewalk cafe there. This is pathetic.
If you go onto Yelp, Black Market has numerous, horrendous reviews, lamenting the atrocious, holier than thou, hipster wannabe service, with customers tearing this place to shreds. Most are one stars. I've lived on 7th since 2010 and refuse to go inside because of the attitude. A friend of mine also said the service is sour and pretentious and not worth the amount they are charging. On a few occasions, they ignored him at the bar, while the bartender was texting someone, even when the bar was virtually empty. He rolled his eyes and and sauntered over to him like it was a huge demand. I wonder how they are subsisting, especially next to a construction lot.
Now you can eat your $66 chicken in the curb.
On the curb. The o and I are too close together
I am not sure how it could bother a person not living within a close proximity. Hearth has had not a single complaint during the 12 years they have operated there. And no, I am not in the bracket that can dine there regularly, but Marco has been very community sensitive and generous.
I wish this negative energy was being spent protecting alphabet city from big box stores and landlords making our bldgs dorms.
And I am not employed nor paid by Hearth.
Per "livening things up"…Perhaps I should have been more specific. The neighborhood is lively, but often in less than appealing ways: car traffic and the obnoxiousness of car horns and alarms, drunken stupidity on the streets.
Cafes, on the other hand, can provide a more calm and positive form of street life.
I agree about the problems of narrow sidewalks, but I propose the solution be to widen the sidewalks, and more radically, consider making some streets pedestrian only.
The other issue I do have, though, is calling all these places "cafes", when they are generally full-service restaurants, which often will not permit one to sit with just a coffee, but insist that one order a meal.
Would that we had more true European-style cafes.
I do live above a sidewalk cafe, actually, and I like having it there. The street is depressingly desolate in the winter without it.
- East Villager
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