New York City’s first “Curbside Dining Week” is set to take place from September 5th to September 12th, with over thirty restaurants offering exclusive discounts and special menus.
Organized by the non-profit organization OpenPlans and the tour group Untapped New York, the event aims to showcase New Yorkers’ love for outdoor dining. Jackson Chabot, the initiative director of OpenPlans, stated, “New Yorkers love dining al fresco, and we hope to highlight this cultural aspect through this event.”
Some of the participating restaurants offering discounts include The Mansion on York Avenue in the Upper East Side with 20% off the entire bill, Ray’s on Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side with 15% off, Sean Og’s Tavern on Woodside Avenue in Queens with a $35 set menu, The Barn Café on Hoyt Ave in Long Island City with 10% off the entire bill, and Postmark Café on 6th Street in Park Slope with 15% off.
During the pandemic, outdoor dining became a lifeline for restaurant owners. At its peak, an estimated 12,500 restaurants across the city had outdoor seating. However, issues such as garbage, rodents, drug use, graffiti, noise, and odors arising from outdoor dining areas also led to complaints from neighbors.
In response to these concerns, the City Council passed new regulations, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) implemented stricter rules, significantly reducing the number of participating restaurants. Currently, only around 800 restaurants have conditional approval or official permits, with regulations stipulating that curbside dining areas can operate only between April 1 and November 29 each year.
The organizers of the event aim not only to offer discounts to diners but also to advocate for the right to outdoor dining. They hope to convey to city decision-makers that outdoor dining is essential to public space, promotes community interaction, and supports the restaurant industry, calling for improvements in current policies.
OpenPlans has put forward several demands, including year-round availability for curbside dining, making it more affordable for small businesses by simplifying costs and procedures, designing regulations to be more flexible and locally friendly, expediting administrative reviews, incorporating community input, and encouraging increased participation in underserved areas due to limited service resources.