NYC Restaurateurs Spend Thousands to Comply With Last-Minute Outdoor Dining Rule Changes

Restaurateurs are frazzled over last-minute changes to outdoor dining rules

NYC restaurant owners are expressing frustration over seemingly last-minute outdoor dining rule changes enacted by the city that are costing them thousands of dollars to make the adjustments, the New York Times reports.

When outdoor dining got underway on June 22, owners worked quickly to be in compliance with the rules created by the city’s transportation department, which included having barriers between outdoor seats and the street that were a maximum of five feet apart. Last week though, the transportation department added new guidelines that required these barriers to be at least 18-inches thick, a requirement that wasn’t initially specified.

Some owners including Ivy Mix and Julie Reiner of Leyenda and Clover Club, and Ori Kushner of East Village sandwich shop Foxface say they’ve been slapped with warnings from the city that their outdoor seats taken away if they weren’t in compliance. They have since spent thousands trying to make fixes to their barriers. Other spots across the city have been forced to shutter until they are in compliance, according to the Times.

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— Eater Young Gun and the owner of Bushwick vegan cafe Sol Sips, Francesca Chaney, is hosting a workshop later this month for people looking to start their own business.

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— Villa Mosconi and Monte’s Trattoria owner and chef Pietro Mosconi is opening a new restaurant in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

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— 17-year-old East Village bar B-side has made a return — after initially shutting down permanently — and is now offering outdoor seating.

— NYC’s latest outdoor dining ploy is greenhouse-style dining on a rooftop in the Financial District.

— Uber has reached a deal to buy rival Postmates for $2.65 billion.

— Digging this move: