The city’s open restaurant program will now continue through October.
Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images
With the indefinite postponement of indoor dining, New York City Mayor de Blasio has announced that the city’s open restaurant program will run through October. Originally, the plan, which is an expansion of the usual sidewalk cafe regulations and allows restaurants to use sidewalks and sidewalks, was supposed to run on Labor Day. (The regular alfresco dinner would continue until October 31). Additionally, de Blasio announced that the city will add 40 blocks of space to open restaurants, including in Sunset Park, Blind Tiger in West Village, and on a stretch of Woodside Avenue that includes the original Elmhurst location of Ayada.
When de Blasio first announced the return of cookouts in June, he called it “the way forward.” Some owners and workers who spoke to Grub Street say it has been a struggle as they have had to deal with the city’s oppressive summer weather, continued lack of business, and security concerns. Yesterday, the United States recorded a record 70,000 cases of coronavirus in one day. States across the country have reversed their reopening plans as cases increased, with spikes linked to bars. There are other security concerns. On July 5, a man drove his car to the outdoor dining area of a restaurant in Jackson Heights, injuring five people.
Some owners, such as Derek Wu of Wu’s Wonton King, say they are unwilling to open any dinner service for fear of the safety of employees and customers. Nikol Burgos Sevilla, who works at the Prospect Heights bar Sweet Polly, says he would have had “much, much more difficulty” to return to work for a different boss. That question, whether the owners are transparent and doing enough, has been developing across the country. A Texas bartender who received coronavirus says his boss warned him not to speak, as others have. In some cases, customers have responded hostilely to security guidelines, with Washington Send reporting that two restaurant employees in the Washington, DC area were assaulted for enforcing the mask rules.
