In a snow alert situation, restaurants are required to secure their furniture, remove electric heaters from the road, and remove overhead coverings, if possible. Restaurants don’t, however, need to remove any structures or barriers this time around.It's possible that restaurants will be able to resume roadside dining this evening at the earliest.
The city recently imposed more guidelines on restaurants, such as requiring that streetside barriers being filled with 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of sand or soil.
And the structures, many of them quite elaborate, looked to have made it through Winter Storm Gale...
... and even some of the less-sturdy-looking structures along St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue seemed to fare OK...
The next question is whether NYC bars-restaurants will be able to survive winter with a ban on indoor dining, reluctance on behalf of patrons to eat outside in cold weather and other ever-changing restrictions that will make staying open extremely difficult, owners and operators have said.
Restaurant industry officials point to the state's own data showing that restaurants and bars made up 1.4 percent of COVID-19 cases in the last three months, compared to private gatherings, which constituted nearly 74 percent.
14 comments:
The bars and restaurants may be open tonight, but will people go? Let's hope the novelty of eating/drinking in a streetside shed surrounded by snow seems romantic enough to try for at least a few days.
That's a relief the outdoor seating survived. These poor small businesses can't sustain another unplanned spend. If only we could do something to stop the a-hole taggers from continuously costing these poor people money.
A large percentage of the restaurants exist on the transients that no longer exist and it is economically healthy, if sad, for them to shutter. Many more could survive if rents were in line with revenues, but debt loads and taxes based on the old transient surplus make that adjustment untenable for the REITs/debt manager type landlords.
Thanks for the wonderful pic of my building (Veselka pic)! I'm borrowing it to send to distant friends.
Based on the state’s own stats, it’s ridiculous to re-close indoor dining and will massacre the industry.
I will be more than happy to support local restaurants with take out and delivery, but I won't be enduring outdoor dining anytime soon. Sorry.
The city seems obsessed with creating stupid new requirements for outdoor dining. 10k worth of sand? Take the roofs off during snow? What madness.
Looking forward to these messes being off the streets, but hope they work for the restaurants for now. Even though they are indoors outdoors, hope that doesn’t affect virus.
I know it’s been mentioned before but I don’t see the difference between these fully enclosed heated “streetearies” and actual indoor dining rooms as per COVID transmission
10,000 to 20,000 pounds of sand? Seriously, 5 to 10 TONS of sand per restaurant? Where is that coming from; are there going to be large trucks doing sand deliveries? (Maybe there already are, but I don't go outside very much these days, and certainly not in today's snow.)
Outdoor dining with four full walls, a door, and a roof - and a heater, too. Honestly, if this is allowed, you might as well open up the dining room for patrons because I’m not seeing much of a difference.
For those commenting on the outdoor structures being no different than indoors. The requirements are that if 75% or more is enclosed , they should operate at 25% capacity, same as indoors was required.However, I have seen many that are operating at 100% capacity. Out of a covid concern, I filed two 311 complaints on line. When I followed up on line later that day, the two complaints' status indicated they were opened and immediately the case closed out. So the city does not follow through on complaints of risky situations. Do as I say, not as I do!
outdoor dining structures must be 50% open, and must have 2 sides open, one being parallel to roadway. Otherwise as some commenters have said must comply with indoor dining rules. However, the City has a policy of no enforcement, so it is all irrelevant.
Emperors-who-wear-no-clothes deblasio and cuomo seem hellbent on killing off small businesses and restaurants in NYC and NYS. Their contradictory and non-sensible edicts and decrees make it clear that they are more interested in social control enforced by a police state.
Terrorized weasels like anonymASS 4:42 are part of the problem, acting as enforcers for the state!
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