Cafes Permitted to Extend Outdoor Services

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs announced early last week that restaurants will be able to use portable natural-gas heaters to extend their outdoor dining seasons into colder months—but not all Morningside eateries will take advantage of the new rule.

This new rule stemmed from the repeal of an earlier law that banned the heaters and prohibited sidewalk cafés from operating between Dec. 1 and Feb. 8.

“Together with the restaurant industry, we have found a new way to hold off winter,” DCA Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said.

“By extending the ever-popular outdoor café season, the energy of our city streets will continue well into the winter months, as our visitors and residents alike take part in what is truly the quintessential New York City dining experience,” added George Fertitta, the CEO of NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization.

Columbia parents Isabel Guy and Duffy White of Connecticut echoed this sentiment as they enjoyed coffee and their daughter’s company on a crisp Saturday morning at the Hungarian Pastry Shop’s sidewalk café. “It’s very New York,” said Guy, mother of Sophia Guy-White, CC ’10. But would she continue to dine outside in December? “There would be a temperature at which it would be too cold.”

Café Swish doesn’t plan to keep its outdoor café open in the colder weather for that very reason. Larry, the restaurant’s manager, who declined to give his last name, explained that it will close its sidewalk café at the end of October, despite the new law. He added that the restaurant’s customers would not want to eat outdoors in the cold.

But Hungarian Pastry Shop manager Philip Binioris said that they have always kept tables outdoors throughout the year. Even in the winter, “If people want to sit out there, we have tables for them,” he said. “Yeah, you know, you need to smoke a cigarette.”

The number of restaurants with sidewalk cafés is at an all-time high—there are about 900 of them in the city. Tom’s Restaurant manager Mike Zoulis said the DCA’s new policy would likely affect his business and that he might consider opening an outdoor café of his own “if it’s a year-round thing.”

But in light of the city’s alleged desire to cut down on energy consumption, some are objecting to the new law on environmental grounds. Morgan Whitcomb, SEAS ’09, said the use of hundreds of portable gas heaters would “be a waste of natural gas.”
“Every little bit helps, and it’s not good for the city to overlook something like this,” she said.

DCA spokesperson Dina Roskin declined to comment on the subject.

Students have mixed reactions about whether they plan to take advantage of sidewalk cafés’ extended seasons. Rachel Vishnepolsky, CC ’10, said, “I like sitting alone outside and watching people watch me eat.”

But Nora Hirshmann, BC ’11, said, “Probably not. I had a bad experience when I was assaulted by a homeless man at an outdoor café. I don’t feel that they’re safe. I would rather just eat inside and enjoy my meal.”

Betsy Morais can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.