Most of NYC’s outdoor dining sheds are about to disappear
Most of NYC’s outdoor dining sheds are about to disappear
by BalboaBaggins
42 Comments
xSloppenheimer
Good. Too many examples where restaurants don’t maintain their outdoor seating and you’re basically sitting in trash.
smallblackrabbit
One less thing for the people in NextDoor to complain about.
miiija
Good. Now do QR codes as menus
goldenapple212
I’d be happier about this if it didn’t just mean more cars and parking spots
GaelicInQueens
Eating outside Scarpetta was an interesting experience, the waiters basically doubled as security for your dinner lol
Raginghangers
I have loved the increase in outdoor dining and feel shitty about this— especially for those of us with immunocompromised relatives in the midst of a Covid surge.
HFY_HFY_HFY
I feel like usage has fallen significantly. Fewer people eating out as everything has gotten more expensive and COVID savings are depleted?
MisuCake
Yes what we need is 2 more parking spots for every restaurant 😍😍😍
T_Peg
On one hand it’s nice to have outdoor dining options. On the other hand it was rarely pleasant. Kinda hard to enjoy a meal when you’re breathing in the fumes and soaking up the sounds of a road 18 inches away from you and NYC’s colorful cast of lovable buffoons causing a scene on the sidewalk now and then. Probably a pain for wait staff too. I’ve seen too many almost get bumped into while carrying stuff across the sidewalk to the table.
LordTeddard
objectively outdoor dining is a good thing. full stop. the discourse here arises from its implementation and the lack of leadership surrounding our streetscapes and priorities. seeing seating for 10’s of people get expunged for a couple parking spots is horrific. that said, a lot of the dining sheds were falling apart and standardization was necessary, even if that standardization should have been more permanent and less of a poison pill to the entire ecosystem.
additionally dining on the avenues has to contend with either fast-moving or gridlock/fume-spewing traffic inches away. more of a barrier is needed here to separate diners from vehicles & bikes and unfortunately the city doesn’t have the political will to design their streets for humans & pedestrians over cars.
who_is_athrun_zala
How many people commenting here actually work in a restaurant and have to deal with the shit show that these dining spaces were? Good riddance. Would gladly have two more spaces in front of my restaurant
akmalhot
Many of them are complet shanty shitholes now, it was fine to put those basic ones up 3 years ago, but if you haven’t updated the falling apart shanty shed it should go .
Brooklyn-Epoxy
This is a colossal failure of New York City government.
President_Camacho
When you think about it, it will become evident that NYC allocates nearly all its street areas to car use. Everybody has to cram into tiny sidewalks, while vast amounts of street area are allocated exclusively to car use. Neighborhoods aren’t for their residents, neighborhoods are for drivers passing through. The imbalance is so obvious. If you look at NYC streets before the adoption of the car, they were a vast multiuse system for everyone. Now however, nearly all exterior space in NYC is devoted exclusively to cars.
MaineRMF87
Great more free parking. As if NYC wasn’t car centric enough already
JealousBreadfruit704
Good!
FitzwilliamTDarcy
I’m all for outdoor dining, but all too many of these are absolutely disgusting, unsanitary eye-sores.
eltejon30
Like many I love outdoor dining, but the execution as it currently stands is not ideal. I live a couple of doors down from a busy restaurant with outdoor dining sheds and the amount of rats this has brought to our block has been obscene. I’ve lived on the same block for years with no rat issues until the sheds went up. The rats were attracted by all the food outside and set up permanent camp at the food source, spreading out across the entire block. In addition to that, I often see people loitering in the sheds in the dark after the restaurant closes, which makes me feel uneasy walking home.
I now honestly feel unsanitary eating in the outdoor sheds because of the rat situation. However, if the city would expand the sidewalk so we could have just tables and umbrellas like most restaurants around the world do, I think that would solve many complaints.
casicua
As a diner, I love eating outside – however, a lot of these were poorly maintained, kind of dangerous and often became havens for critters and pests.
They definitely needed standardization and some level of oversight. As with most things implemented by the city, however, the standards were onerous, expensive and didn’t address the actual issues. I have a few friends who own bars and restaurants and when the new guidelines came out, most of them just decided not to keep the dining sheds because the requirements were just too expensive and risky. Simply applying for the permit was thousands of dollars and had no guarantee of approval.
The city is SO bad for small business. They somehow have endless funds to pump into subsidizing massive billionaire real estate developers and cops, but they treat small businesses like crap and that’s largely why the city is gradually turning into a giant corporate chain strip mall.
andylui8
Good lol it’s just filled with young people playing loud music smoking weed hanging about after their meal here in the LES
slimthiccdaddy
Missed opportunity for a sidewalk expansion in a city where sidewalks are clogged in most of the city
discussionandrespect
Good
Patient_Bad5862
Honestly, the new rules aren’t great but it still provides a path for outdoor dining. The one thing I agree with is that they should come down in the winter. The majority sit unused during winter months.
ohwhatsupmang
Those sheds look like shit and the traffic of workers and people in between them is annoying also. They look so terrible. If they all had personality than maybe but they’re hot boxes and asking for homeless to come in and take a shit or piss at night.
Artistic-Dot-2279
The sheds were gross—happy to have them go. I haven’t felt comfortable eating in one in a couple of years, and I love dining outside. I just think of the mildew and mold smells plus the pests.
Hopeful-Mirror1664
I’m glad to see them go. They were useful for their original intended purpose but they soon became eyesores. I’m all for a few sidewalk tables for those restaurants that have room for them., otherwise I prefer indoor dining.
tripledive
I have 3 shed on my street and they can never street clean properly. And the rats. I can’t wait till it’s gone.
jus_here_and_there
I’m glad. Some have tables and chairs on top of the cellar doors. Other have had rats in them at night, and they can be eye sores as well. When executed well, they’re amazing, but the majority of restaurants don’t do it.
yec8rod
Good. That’s where the rats go at night.
chakrablocker
Meh id rather the city invest in real public spaces.
jasperjerry6
What about Balthazar? They need that area
Affectionate-Rent844
I feel like this has been a headline for about 18 months.
PhoneOwn615
I rarely eat out these days because the tipping situation is awful
ItAstounds
When I’m in them I always feel like a UPS truck is going to careen out of control and kill us.
Sure-Ad-5324
So we lost on the congestion tax and now we lose outside dining…
Fuck it, let’s call it a day and put the highway through Washington Square park.
Mission_Ad_2022
This is such a big change for NYC dining culture.
FormOk7965
I saw a rat run from next to a shed into a building. Daylight. It doesn’t help that the garbage bins are placed next to the sheds for pickup. I don’t feel safe eating in a shed due to possible rat feces. It’s a shame, because the restaurant owners are very nice. I know they are just trying to make a bit more money, but if it brings rats, no thank you!
cmgbliss
Buh bye.
Those things are ugly and take up parking spaces. Sidewalk tables are cleaner and not such eyesores.
RevWaldo
Shed As A Service! Standardized design! We set it up in the spring and take it away in the winter!
s_deezy
outdoor dining, conceptually, is a great idea but for how expensive a meal is at a restaurant here the outdoor experience pales in comparison to being inside often you’re sitting in a wooden shed, sweating or freezing, eating a $30 plate of pasta. I also feel really bad for servers needing to shlep food inside and out and sometimes you feel forgotten out there.
2Dprinter
Bar owner here. I know people have mixed feelings about this topic but something worth mentioning:
The new plan from the City basically guaranteed that small restaurant owners would be forced to get rid of their outdoor dining. The fees are high, but the requirement that they be dismantled each fall and then reconstructed each spring comes with a very high price tag. Most small NYC spots also don’t have realistic storage space to house everything during those off months.
I understand and agree with the criticisms about the former state of affairs. Lots of legitimate concerns about pests, garbage, stagnant water pooling, effects on bike lanes and parking, etc. All accurate and 100% valid.
But if the City actually wanted restaurants to buy into a better regulated model that worked well for residents, entrepreneurs, guests, and the public at large, this would have looked very different. Change was absolutely needed, but every restaurant owner I know dismantled their outdoor seating and has no plans to bring it back.
DIYsurgery
Another thing about the outdoor sheds that isn’t mentioned enough is how friggin noisy it is to have outdoor diners. People actually live on these blocks too, and noise ordinances used to be a thing.
42 Comments
Good. Too many examples where restaurants don’t maintain their outdoor seating and you’re basically sitting in trash.
One less thing for the people in NextDoor to complain about.
Good. Now do QR codes as menus
I’d be happier about this if it didn’t just mean more cars and parking spots
Eating outside Scarpetta was an interesting experience, the waiters basically doubled as security for your dinner lol
I have loved the increase in outdoor dining and feel shitty about this— especially for those of us with immunocompromised relatives in the midst of a Covid surge.
I feel like usage has fallen significantly. Fewer people eating out as everything has gotten more expensive and COVID savings are depleted?
Yes what we need is 2 more parking spots for every restaurant 😍😍😍
On one hand it’s nice to have outdoor dining options. On the other hand it was rarely pleasant. Kinda hard to enjoy a meal when you’re breathing in the fumes and soaking up the sounds of a road 18 inches away from you and NYC’s colorful cast of lovable buffoons causing a scene on the sidewalk now and then. Probably a pain for wait staff too. I’ve seen too many almost get bumped into while carrying stuff across the sidewalk to the table.
objectively outdoor dining is a good thing. full stop. the discourse here arises from its implementation and the lack of leadership surrounding our streetscapes and priorities. seeing seating for 10’s of people get expunged for a couple parking spots is horrific. that said, a lot of the dining sheds were falling apart and standardization was necessary, even if that standardization should have been more permanent and less of a poison pill to the entire ecosystem.
additionally dining on the avenues has to contend with either fast-moving or gridlock/fume-spewing traffic inches away. more of a barrier is needed here to separate diners from vehicles & bikes and unfortunately the city doesn’t have the political will to design their streets for humans & pedestrians over cars.
How many people commenting here actually work in a restaurant and have to deal with the shit show that these dining spaces were? Good riddance. Would gladly have two more spaces in front of my restaurant
Many of them are complet shanty shitholes now, it was fine to put those basic ones up 3 years ago, but if you haven’t updated the falling apart shanty shed it should go .
This is a colossal failure of New York City government.
When you think about it, it will become evident that NYC allocates nearly all its street areas to car use. Everybody has to cram into tiny sidewalks, while vast amounts of street area are allocated exclusively to car use. Neighborhoods aren’t for their residents, neighborhoods are for drivers passing through. The imbalance is so obvious. If you look at NYC streets before the adoption of the car, they were a vast multiuse system for everyone. Now however, nearly all exterior space in NYC is devoted exclusively to cars.
Great more free parking. As if NYC wasn’t car centric enough already
Good!
I’m all for outdoor dining, but all too many of these are absolutely disgusting, unsanitary eye-sores.
Like many I love outdoor dining, but the execution as it currently stands is not ideal. I live a couple of doors down from a busy restaurant with outdoor dining sheds and the amount of rats this has brought to our block has been obscene. I’ve lived on the same block for years with no rat issues until the sheds went up. The rats were attracted by all the food outside and set up permanent camp at the food source, spreading out across the entire block. In addition to that, I often see people loitering in the sheds in the dark after the restaurant closes, which makes me feel uneasy walking home.
I now honestly feel unsanitary eating in the outdoor sheds because of the rat situation. However, if the city would expand the sidewalk so we could have just tables and umbrellas like most restaurants around the world do, I think that would solve many complaints.
As a diner, I love eating outside – however, a lot of these were poorly maintained, kind of dangerous and often became havens for critters and pests.
They definitely needed standardization and some level of oversight. As with most things implemented by the city, however, the standards were onerous, expensive and didn’t address the actual issues. I have a few friends who own bars and restaurants and when the new guidelines came out, most of them just decided not to keep the dining sheds because the requirements were just too expensive and risky. Simply applying for the permit was thousands of dollars and had no guarantee of approval.
The city is SO bad for small business. They somehow have endless funds to pump into subsidizing massive billionaire real estate developers and cops, but they treat small businesses like crap and that’s largely why the city is gradually turning into a giant corporate chain strip mall.
Good lol it’s just filled with young people playing loud music smoking weed hanging about after their meal here in the LES
Missed opportunity for a sidewalk expansion in a city where sidewalks are clogged in most of the city
Good
Honestly, the new rules aren’t great but it still provides a path for outdoor dining. The one thing I agree with is that they should come down in the winter. The majority sit unused during winter months.
Those sheds look like shit and the traffic of workers and people in between them is annoying also. They look so terrible. If they all had personality than maybe but they’re hot boxes and asking for homeless to come in and take a shit or piss at night.
The sheds were gross—happy to have them go. I haven’t felt comfortable eating in one in a couple of years, and I love dining outside. I just think of the mildew and mold smells plus the pests.
I’m glad to see them go. They were useful for their original intended purpose but they soon became eyesores. I’m all for a few sidewalk tables for those restaurants that have room for them., otherwise I prefer indoor dining.
I have 3 shed on my street and they can never street clean properly. And the rats. I can’t wait till it’s gone.
I’m glad. Some have tables and chairs on top of the cellar doors. Other have had rats in them at night, and they can be eye sores as well. When executed well, they’re amazing, but the majority of restaurants don’t do it.
Good. That’s where the rats go at night.
Meh id rather the city invest in real public spaces.
What about Balthazar? They need that area
I feel like this has been a headline for about 18 months.
I rarely eat out these days because the tipping situation is awful
When I’m in them I always feel like a UPS truck is going to careen out of control and kill us.
So we lost on the congestion tax and now we lose outside dining…
Fuck it, let’s call it a day and put the highway through Washington Square park.
This is such a big change for NYC dining culture.
I saw a rat run from next to a shed into a building. Daylight. It doesn’t help that the garbage bins are placed next to the sheds for pickup. I don’t feel safe eating in a shed due to possible rat feces. It’s a shame, because the restaurant owners are very nice. I know they are just trying to make a bit more money, but if it brings rats, no thank you!
Buh bye.
Those things are ugly and take up parking spaces. Sidewalk tables are cleaner and not such eyesores.
Shed As A Service! Standardized design! We set it up in the spring and take it away in the winter!
outdoor dining, conceptually, is a great idea but for how expensive a meal is at a restaurant here the outdoor experience pales in comparison to being inside often you’re sitting in a wooden shed, sweating or freezing, eating a $30 plate of pasta. I also feel really bad for servers needing to shlep food inside and out and sometimes you feel forgotten out there.
Bar owner here. I know people have mixed feelings about this topic but something worth mentioning:
The new plan from the City basically guaranteed that small restaurant owners would be forced to get rid of their outdoor dining. The fees are high, but the requirement that they be dismantled each fall and then reconstructed each spring comes with a very high price tag. Most small NYC spots also don’t have realistic storage space to house everything during those off months.
I understand and agree with the criticisms about the former state of affairs. Lots of legitimate concerns about pests, garbage, stagnant water pooling, effects on bike lanes and parking, etc. All accurate and 100% valid.
But if the City actually wanted restaurants to buy into a better regulated model that worked well for residents, entrepreneurs, guests, and the public at large, this would have looked very different. Change was absolutely needed, but every restaurant owner I know dismantled their outdoor seating and has no plans to bring it back.
Another thing about the outdoor sheds that isn’t mentioned enough is how friggin noisy it is to have outdoor diners. People actually live on these blocks too, and noise ordinances used to be a thing.