City Green-Lights Frightening Middle-of-the-Street Restaurants

Good news for fans of dining in the middle of busy Manhattan intersections: the city just green-lighted applications for twelve pop-up cafes that will jut out into the street. The Post reports that these mini-eateries with accompanying tables and chairs, will extend six feet past the curb and replace parking spaces, gutters and in some cases, lanes of traffic. Potted plants will line the areas, to protect diners from speeding busses, taxis, motorcycles, trucks, bikes, vespas, and the like. The project was the idea of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who is also responsible for that pedestrian plaza in Times Square.

The lucky restaurants that got the okay from the Department of Transportation include: Salume and Housing Works Cafe in Soho, Tea Spot and Chez Jacqueline in the Village, and locations of Le Pain Quotidien in the Village, Midtown and Chelsea. The pop-up cafes will be adjacent to the bigger restaurants, so diners have the option of eating inside, where it's safe, or outside, where they might get nicked by a pedicab driver signaling left. These death-defying new eateries still have to get the final approval of the neighborhood community boards before they can open up for business.
· It's feast & furious [NYP]
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