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City Expands 40 Open Restaurant Locations To Weekdays

By

Ben Yakas

Published Sep 16, 2020

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A photo of outdoor diners in lower Manhattan

Scott Lynch/Gothamist

By

Ben Yakas

Published Sep 16, 2020

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Up until now, all of the city's open streets which were being used as part of their Open Restaurants program—giving restaurants more outdoor space in lieu of indoor dining—has only operated on weekends and some holidays. But this afternoon, the city announced that for the first time, 40 of these locations will get expanded weekday hours.

“Restaurants deserve every chance they can get to serve more customers this fall – and, as the weather gets cooler, New Yorkers deserve every chance they can get to enjoy outdoor dining,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio**.** “The Open Streets: Restaurants program has been a success, and we’re proud to grow its reach and give restaurants more tools to make it through this crisis.”

You can see a full list of the participating streets below. The majority are located in Manhattan, with a few in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. Weekday hours will begin as early as Thursday, September 17th, varying by location. Hours for each participating location can be found on the city's Open Restaurants homepage.

Weekday Open Restaurant Streets

The Bronx

Brooklyn

Manhattan

Queens

There are now 87 participating Open Restaurant streets altogether across the five boroughs. According to the latest city data, as of Wednesday, there are 10,273 restaurants utilizing outdoor spaces around the five boroughs for dining; 935 of them are in active roadways, 3,594 are on the sidewalk only, 5,400 are both in the roadway and on the sidewalk, and 344 of them are on Open Streets where through traffic is prohibited.

The Open Restaurants program is set to end on October 31st, but Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested this week that he wants to make it permanent, calling it "a stunning success." A group of politicians are also pushing to make outdoor dining permanent year-round.

"Allowing restaurants to safely continue exterior dining with the use of heat lamps and other equipment to provide a warm, ventilated environment, will provide restaurants the ability to earn vital additional revenue,” the politicians wrote in a letter to de Blasio on Monday. “This will also prevent restaurants who have paid tens of thousands of dollars for barriers, platforms, and safety-related equipment, from having to demolish and find storage for these items until the following year."

Tagged

open streets

restaurants

mayor bill de blasio

outdoor dining

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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