It's official, New York City's first-ever Curbside Dining Restaurant Week has launched, with a plethora of eateries offering exclusive discounts and promotions through next Friday. The event is not just a shindig to celebrate outdoor munching, but also a move aiming to press for modifications to the city's alfresco dining program, which, according to ABC 7 New York, launched as a COVID-19 stopgap and has since become a mainstay craving further refinement.
Altogether, 39 restaurants across Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx have joined the initiative. Examples include Ray's in Manhattan, where diners can net a sweet 15% off their entire bill, and in Brooklyn, Someday Bar is doing $3 Hard Seltzers and brews. Sara Lind, Open Plans' Co-Executive Director, vocalized the need for changes, saying, "City leaders must make curbside dining year-round, flexible, and equitable so that it truly supports small businesses and reflects the diverse, dynamic energy of this city," as per 6sqft.
Though Curbside Dining Restaurant Week is a festivity, it's also firmly rooted in advocacy. Open Plans is pushing for a number of adjustments to NYC’s al fresco dining initiative, including making it an all-season affair, reducing and simplifying fees, and streamlining the application process to lighten the load on business owners who already stretched thin during the pandemic. These aims come amid statistics published last August by the Daily News, which indicated a mere 2,500 eateries out of an initial 13,000 continued outdoor dining, marking an 80% drop.
City Comptroller Brad Lander threw his support behind the week, stating, "With Curbside Restaurant week, restaurant owners, patrons, and neighbors can all see how outdoor dining adds to the vibrancy of their communities." Meanwhile, the number of curbside setups has noticeably dwindled, with business owners citing seasonal formatting, cost and complexity as their chief barriers to participation. Seemingly, the seasonal charm, has its price, as per 6sqft.
For a full deck of the participating restaurants and deals on offer, ranging from free topping at Honey’s Ice Cream by Bear Donut in Manhattan to complimentary desserts at Sunnyside’s Soleluna in Queens, check out 6sqft.
