The rundown eateries that have sprung up in droves during the COVID-19 pandemic may soon be a thing of the past thanks to tough new regulations, with thousands of restaurants across the city closing down as they’re not worth the money and hassle.
“Dining out in New YorkThe rules, which took effect on Aug. 3, require restaurant owners to pay a four-year license fee of between $1,050 and $2,100, plus annual fees based on the size of their sidewalk cafe, and more if their establishment is below 125th Street in Manhattan.
Restaurants must also meet a number of other regulations, including being able to store the sheds in a separate location from December through April (sidewalk dining is permitted year-round), making sure the sheds don’t encroach on trees, keeping the sheds at least 15 feet away from fire hydrants and ensuring an ADA-compliant installation.
“Unless you have a really big storefront to be able to take it down, set it up and store it, I don’t think it’s worth it,” said Maureen Donohue, owner of Donohue’s Steakhouse, a long-established Upper East Side steakhouse that demolished its location two weeks ago.
Donahue said the pandemic-era outdoor dining cabins have saved her business: They once made up 35% of her revenue, but without them, she will have a hard time renewing her lease.
“It’s too expensive…” [but] “It’s nostalgic,” she told the Post.
Donahue is not alone in drawing the same cost-effectiveness conclusion.
Fewer than 2,600 restaurants applied for permits by last week’s deadline, according to the city Transportation Department, a significant drop from the roughly 6,000 restaurants that advertised COVID-era dine-in permits last month.
Restaurants surveyed by The Washington Post lamented the extra revenue dining provided, but most saw the pandemic’s legacy as an expensive headache resulting from additional restrictions this year.
“There are too many regulations, so we’re going to get rid of this and be done with it,” says Sam, the morning manager at Kawa House, a cafe on Bedford Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “I get why the city put in place regulations, and let’s be honest, these buildings are big and in the way.”
He declined to say how much it would cost to demolish the cafe, but stressed that the costs of maintaining it would not be worth it — just demolishing the existing building could cost thousands of dollars. The gates of hell.
A similar, but temporary, open restaurants program implemented during the pandemic saw 13,000 diners open at its peak, all of which self-certified under an emergency executive order without an application or approval process, according to the Department of Transportation.
DOT noted that the Aug. 3 deadline only applies to those with existing equipment.
“We continue to accept applications and expect the number of applications to increase by April 1, the inaugural Dining Out New York season,” the Department of Transportation said.
Facilities that don’t comply with the new rules or remove existing sheds will be subject to fines of at least $500.
“It’s a New York thing. When something works in New York, they want to restrict it,” Thomas Grubb, 84, a Long Island native and Upper West Side transplant, said of the Dining Shed on Monday afternoon as he sipped his second gin martini twist at the Dining Shed outside Arte Café, an Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side.
“Why remove it? Sitting outside is good for your health,” he said. “I always like to sit outside. I like watching people go by.”
The revamped outdoor dining program is based on “lessons learned” from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has saved 100,000 jobs in New York and “led to quality of life issues as some restaurateurs were unable to maintain a loosely regulated outdoor dining environment,” Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said in a statement to Dining Out NYC. announcement In February.
Residents at the time described so-called quality of life issues as ranging from rat infestations, rowdy late-night guests and “slum”-like shacks blighting otherwise upscale streets.
In some cases, outdoor dining establishments have been transformed into homeless shacks, public lewdness stages and storage sheds, The Washington Post previously reported.
“My neighborhood was quiet before this program started. Now it’s a nightmare,” one member of Manhattan Community Board 3 said of the haphazard Dining Shed program in 2021. “Some people are drunk and making noise in the street, fighting, harassing women, harassing passersby until 4 in the morning. I can’t sleep.”
The new rules were voted on by the City Council last summer as part of a bill to create a uniform program that takes into account the unique circumstances of each borough and neighborhood, said then-Bronx City Councilwoman Marjorie Velazquez, the bill’s sponsor.
“This is not a bill that’s for everyone, and that’s what’s so great about it,” Velazquez said at the time. “I’m proud to have advocated for small businesses through this process and I look forward to seeing them thrive.”
To comply with new structural restrictions, some restaurants, such as Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co., are hiring architects to reopen for outdoor dining.
General manager Naseem Mays told The Washington Post that outdoor dining is worth the cost for the seafood restaurant and that he plans to keep the option despite the city’s new restrictions.
“We can set up an additional 75 seats outdoors, and the extra seating will definitely be a benefit as it will bring in more customers and bring in more revenue. [rather] “The gains are greater than the losses,” she explained.
Mr. Mays said owner costs increased by about 20% but declined to provide specific figures, but noted that maintenance costs ate up about 15% of the extra profits.
Lawrence Bonduritch, owner of Bin 71 wine bar on the Upper West Side, said he pays about $1,000 a time for both sidewalk and street applications, “plus we have to pay annual fees.”
“It all has to be removed by Oct. 31, at our expense,” he said. “Then we have to rebuild it to their specifications. It’s a lot of work, but will it be worth it? We’ll know in two years.”
Donahue told The Washington Post he doesn’t like the new structural changes and believes they are unsafe because new regulations no longer allow for enclosed huts that surround patrons on all sides.
“When I was building it, it was a steel structure with plexiglass all the way to the top,” Donohue said. “You could drive down Lexington Avenue and not have to worry about pieces of tin flying and hurting somebody. There was a fence all around. It was 100 percent safe.”
City Councilman Keith Powers (D-4th District), who represents Midtown, Stuy Town and the Upper East Side, told The Post that outdoor dining had been a “savior” for the restaurant industry during the pandemic, but that regulations are crucial now that the crisis has passed.
“In my district, we have some beautiful, wonderful buildings and some buildings that have never really received any attention or care since they were first built, so we had to address this issue,” he said. “This is a pandemic response program that was launched very quickly, and we’re really just figuring it out right now. It’s still early days.”
Powers said his father is in the restaurant industry and he understands the benefits of expanding outdoor dining, but he wants to see an “approval process that works.”
“I’m a big proponent of outdoor dining. I think it’s been a lifeline. I think for a lot of businesses, getting out there has been an opportunity to expand,” he said.
“Neighbors have complained about previous programs and we’re trying to find the right balance between the two.”
