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Deal With It: New Yorkers Love To Eat Outdoors
By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 15, 2011
Modified May 15, 2011
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published May 15, 2011
Modified May 15, 2011
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If there's anything that New Yorkers love more than swirling a champagne flute around in public at 2 p.m. on a Sunday, it's the feeling of swirling it around outdoors. But what about those poor souls who live above these vulgar outdoor eateries? They moved into the most desirable neighborhoods in Manhattan to be left in peace! Today's Post details the "backlash" (scare quotes ours) against outdoor eating by the people who have to put up with "herds of patrons blocking sidewalks with their precious poodles and strollers."
There are 1,020 outdoor cafes open in the city, a few hundred more than there were in 2006, but Little Italy/NoLita leads the city with "207 licensed spots and 30 applications." Most of the ire in the piece is directed towards restaurants in the West Village, with one resident carping, "At 10 p.m. on a Saturday it's wild. It's hard to live your life dodging the cafe society." The "cafe society" that rules the mean streets of the West Village sounds pretty rough; her Realtor really should have warned her about all those amenities.
A restaurant providing outdoor seating "must leave eight feet of sidewalk clear between its perimeter and the curb and waiters can't serve outside the dining area," but in our previous life as a server, we found that this last provision is generally ignored, especially when dodging those aforementioned strollers to pour Tiffany's thirteenth bellini. As long as New Yorkers stay addicted to feeling the breeze "in front of bus stops with trucks roaring by," these NIMBY folks will have to keep redialing 311. Or maybe just wish for winter.
Tagged
brunch
little italy
nimby
nolita
Outdoor cafe
west village
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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