Aussie Favorite Bourke Street Bakery Takes Its Sausage Rolls and Meat Pies to Chelsea

Crowd-favorite Australian import Bourke Street Bakery has expanded across town. The cafe and bakery — known for its savory sausage rolls, flaky meat pies, and top-notch sourdough bread program — opened a second NYC outpost in Chelsea this weekend, at 162 Eighth Avenue, at the corner of West 18th Street. The new bakery will be stocking the same hits as its two-year-old Nomad shop, and, similar to the Nomad opening, customers are already flocking to the new location to load up on pastries and bread.

New York’s food pantries permanently funded by state program

Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation over the weekend that turned a temporary, pandemic food relief measure in New York into a permanent, state-funded program. Gothamist reports that the state has committed $50 million from its annual budget to food pantries and other emergency food providers to buy produce and meat from upstate farms to help feed New Yorkers in need.

International tourism in NYC is rebounding

Things are looking up for restaurants and food vendors that have been struggling to survive without tourism in NYC due to the pandemic. The New York Times reports that some restaurants and vendors, including Bo’s Bagels in Harlem and Halal Guys’s food cart near Times Square, have been seeing noticeable upticks in traffic weeks after the United States lifted its international travel ban on November 8.

Weigh in on the city’s permanent outdoor dining plans

Every New Yorker has had an opinion this year about the proliferation of outdoor dining patios — and now the city wants to hear about it. NYC has been working toward ironing out a permanent outdoor dining program for awhile now, but before anything is set in stone, representatives from the Department of City Planning and Department of Transportation are launching a months-long slate of public surveys and roundtable events to gather feedback on the plans. According to Gothamist, New Yorkers can fill out a survey here weighing in the benefits and drawbacks to a permanent program; attend borough board meetings over the next month where plan details will be discussed; and sign on to virtual meetings in January where residents can give feedback on the program.