Chelsea Market, Meatpacking District. Photo: Google Maps
Despite ongoing complaints and concerted efforts to dismantle them, the city’s streeteries are staying put. In this week’s issue of New York, Simon van Zuylen-Wood tracks the epic rise and nonexistent fall of plywood dining — an unlikely artifact of early-pandemic life and a repurposing of public land that is now set to change our cityscape forever.
As van Zuylen-Wood reports, the erection of thousands of dining sheds created new business opportunities (just ask the city’s new go-to “propane guy”) and transformed our sidewalks into ad hoc dining rooms, a menagerie of wildly different ideas brought to life by purposely lax regulations. In some ways, these structures are glorious examples of ingenuity in the face of impossible adversity; in other, equally visible ways, they are kind of gross. They are also, in one form or another, here to stay.
The Pavilion at NeueHouse, Flatiron District
This private club says its “exoKnit pavilion” has a “digitally woven photo-luminescent canopy.”
Goldbar, Little Italy
Completely windowless yet not officially indoors.
Toloache (now Kuxé) andthe Malt House, Greenwich Village
Slows traffic to a crawl, improving your meal.
Branded Saloon, Prospect Heights
Is it more Gerrit Rietveld or Amy Sillman? Discuss.
Tomi Jazz, Midtown East
If it’s not raining, small combos are playing.
The Izakaya NYC, East Village
Stopped by the city mid-construction.
Vicolina, Upper East Side
A mossy fantasia distracts from the concrete.
Fresh & Co, Greenwich Village
Easy to take down if the neighbors gripe.
Jongro BBQ, Koreatown
If it’s well ventilated, won’t diners smell trash?
Scarpetta, Nomad
Those doors open right into the bike lane.
Panna II, East Village
It got blown over at least three times.
Rangoon, Crown Heights
Bright, pleasant, gorgeous at night.
Suprema Provisions, West Village
Fun for a goof once; ridiculous thereafter.
Jolene, Noho
It’s not just private. It’s opaque.
Terremoto Coffee, Chelsea
Water- or sand-filled barriers can top 1,500 pounds and maybe divert a car.
Quality Meats, Midtown
There’s a proper bar in there.
Il Buco, Noho
Nicely blurs the line between shed and patio.
The Chai Spot, Little Italy
Maybe the only dining shed in which you can lie down (legally).
Photographs by AFP via Getty Images, @CORONASHAXX/Jacob Reidel, John Tymkiw, Alamy Stock Photo, @bicycult/Twitter, Jeremiah Miss, Christian Larsen, Getty Images, Google Maps, Quality Meats
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images (street); John Tymkiw (Goldbar, NeueHouse, il Buco); @coronashaxx/Jacob Reidel (Vicolina, Tomi Jazz, Branded Saloon, Jongro BBQ, The Chai Spot); John Tymkiw (Izakaya NYC, Jolene); Jeremiah Moss (Panna II); @bicycult (Scarpetta); Richard B. Levine/Alamy (Chairs); Google Maps (Terremoto); Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images (Bubbles); Christian Larsen (Rangoon); Courtesy of Quality Meats (Bar); Stephanie Goto (Daniel)
