{"id":279040,"date":"2021-06-19T20:37:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T17:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/death-of-nycs-restaurant-scene-was-greatly-exaggerated\/"},"modified":"2021-06-19T20:37:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T17:37:25","slug":"death-of-nycs-restaurant-scene-was-greatly-exaggerated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/death-of-nycs-restaurant-scene-was-greatly-exaggerated\/","title":{"rendered":"#Death of NYC’s restaurant scene was greatly exaggerated"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Death of NYC’s restaurant scene was greatly exaggerated<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Apocalypse Not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the triumphant story of New York City restaurants this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Big App<\/a>le\u2019s dining scene not only survived the coronavirus, it whipped its murderous, spiky tail \u2014 despite what the \u201cexperts\u201d predicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember how \u201cTop Chef\u201d host Tom Colicchio forecast<\/a> in March 2020 that 75 percent of all New York City restaurants would close?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember Dirt Candy chef-owner Amanda Cohen\u2019s statement<\/a> that \u201cwe\u2019ll have to rebuild the city\u2019s restaurant business from scratch?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surprise, New York Times<\/a>, New Yorker<\/a>, Eater.com<\/a> and other organs that claimed nobody with a brain would ever eat indoors again: Almost every place is full right now \u2014 indoors and out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fifteen months of viral carnage and intermittent lockdowns did not result in everyone eating out of cans at home. Restaurants that were supposed to be dead meat are gleefully stomping all over the beaten bug\u2019s face. Owners are hurting, employees are at the breaking point \u2014 but the scene and the magic endure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, analysts say that about 1,000 New York City eating places have closed<\/a> since March of 2020 \u2014 a regrettable toll but a relative handful compared to the total number of Gotham restaurants, which is estimated to be anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, new places are popping up all over the map. Have you heard about Dagon, Le Pavillon and Carne Mare? Or Gage & Tollner (\u201cnew\u201d after a 20-year hiatus) and Victor in Brooklyn? Or Ruta Oaxaca Mexican in Queens, which had the cojones to open in the dead of \u201csecond-wave\u201d January?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, we lost some beloved favorites. The toll ranged from egg cream hangout Gem Spa to Thomas Keller\u2019s uber-priced TAK Room. Some 320,000 workers lost their livelihoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But truly \u201ciconic\u201d places that perished were very few. Old John\u2019s, a 70-year old Upper West Side diner, will reopen this month after \u201cpermanently\u201d closing last winter. Bond 45 reopens next week. High-end Le Coucou will reopen in September. So will Gotham Bar & Grill, The Polo, Trattoria Dell\u2019Arte, Delmonico\u2019s, and scores more. Cohen\u2019s Dirt Candy didn\u2019t take so long: Despite her grim forecast, she reopened her vegetarian hot spot for outdoor service in July of 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t supposed to be this way. Critics warned that indoor dining would send everyone to emergency rooms. Ever-shifting rules for capacity and curfews drove owners to drink. In the name of COVID-19 \u201crelief,\u201d Washington lawmakers basically paid workers to stay home, leaving restaurants without people to cook and serve customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tom
Despite doom and gloom predictions from Tom Colicchio and restaurateur Amanda Cohen, NYC\u2019s restaurant scene has bounced back and is alive and well.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images (2)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some deep thinkers \u2014 motivated by irrational contagion fears or malevolent politics \u2014 seemed to want restaurants to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in the end, the coronavirus, which killed 33,000-plus New Yorkers and shattered what remained of brick-and-mortar retail, laid only a glancing blow to the dining-out scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One not-so-dirty little secret is that some restaurants are raking in even more dough than before, thanks to outdoor seats for which they pay no additional rent. Upper East Side neighborhood bar Finnegans Wake, which once had two-dozen-odd indoor seats plus bar stools, set up scores more tables on the sidewalk and in the street overnight. High-end Marea on Central Park South sprouted an alfresco courtyard and sidewalk seating; all areas were packed inside and out on my last visit two weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Extra revenue might not mean extra profit for owners struggling to pay off loans and landlords \u2014 but it sure beats an empty house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How did so many places pull through? Thank government relief programs (for which Colicchio and the New York City Hospitality Alliance fought tenaciously); landlords who cut breaks on rent; owners\u2019 love for their businesses; employees who bravely came to work before the virus was tamed; and New Yorkers\u2019 insatiable need to eat and drink amidst others, even if it meant freezing their winter patooties off in a poorly-heated tent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Some
Some restaurants, like Dagon, were even brave enough to open this year and are now thriving.<\/figcaption>
Matthew McDermott<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the end, restaurants are a unique economic and social<\/a> breed and, on a certain level, impervious to the travails of the larger economy. We need them less to eat than to be human, and New Yorkers never wanted or needed to feel human as much as we do now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March 2020, I wrote that, once the virus was tamed, \u201cWe\u2019ll again share tables together from Belmont to Bensonhurst.\u201d And, \u201cmaybe more of the old [restaurants] will make it through than we dare to dream.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

No more maybe: Most of them came through, bloodied but unbowed. Those who predicted far worse should eat their words \u2014 and stay home.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Death of NYC’s restaurant scene was greatly exaggerated” Apocalypse Not.\u00a0 That\u2019s the triumphant story of New York City restaurants this summer.\u00a0 The Big Apple\u2019s dining scene not only survived the coronavirus, it whipped its murderous, spiky tail \u2014 despite what the \u201cexperts\u201d predicted.\u00a0 Remember how \u201cTop Chef\u201d host Tom Colicchio forecast in March 2020 that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/niagra-bar-avra-medison-estiatorio.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[109880,72095,109912,4953,21774,22512],"class_list":["post-279040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-19-21","tag-dining","tag-food-critics","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}