1 more week for the pandemic-era curbside dining structures

Photos by Stacie Joy

You have one week to dine in one of the neighborhood's remaining pandemic-era dining structures. 

By the end of the day on Nov. 29, bars and restaurants must remove street dining structures to align with the city's permanent Dining Out NYC program. 

As previously noted, the significant change with the new guidelines is that enclosed, year-round roadway dining structures will no longer be permitted. The revised regulations stipulate that roadway cafes must now be open-air, easily portable, and simple to assemble and dismantle. 

Additionally, these establishments are restricted to operating only from April through November. (Sidewalk cafes are permitted year-round.) 

Ahead of next Friday, curbside dining structures continue to come down around the neighborhood (and other parts of NYC). For instance, on Wednesday, workers demolished the large streetery outside Eastpoint on Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street.

With the takedown deadline looming, a cottage industry has popped up...

Here's some background via a Nov. 4 article at Streetsblog about the timing of removing the structures: 

Businesses enrolled in the program had to either conform their set-ups to city's new designs to get the extension to Nov. 29 or take down their old-set-ups on Nov. 1. Many opted to simply give up their street seating sooner rather than set up new streeteries for just a few weeks. 

The city required restaurants to either apply for the permanent program or take down their sheds by early August, which caused the first wave of restaurant demolitions. Those that did sign up for the new program had to bring their roadway set-ups in line with the new design guidelines by Nov. 1; all street seats must come down by Nov. 30, even if they've been updated. 

DOT officials have said there were around 3,0000 roadway and sidewalk café applications as of late September. That's in contrast to the 13,000 participating in the temporary program in 2020.