![]() ![]() "Despite setbacks," says Csencsitz, "New York has always found a way forward.At around 100 seats, the new restaurant isn’t small, but it’s a far cry from its former 800-seat home on Elizabeth Street. After the nearly two-year roller coaster, most businesses have endured, some in surprising ways.Īt Gotham, old regulars and new diners alike promptly fill the reimagined space. Despite the question marks presented by new variants, openings continue to tick up to 2019 levels. Operating a food business in New York City is difficult, and hundreds close every year, pandemic or not. The rent deals and deferments that saved many businesses will come due soon, too. The expansion of outdoor dining has altered the landscape of New York City and provided restaurants an essential lifeline, but precisely how permanently remains a question as community boards fight back against what they claim is increased noise and litter. Veselka and Di An Di have both been humming along for months.īut pandemic-era hurdles still remain: The number of workers in full-service restaurants has dropped more than 30 percent compared to 2019, as staff shortages and supply chain issues continue to hamper most restaurants around the country. Jing Fong waits for Con Edison to turn the gas on as it completes renovations on the space. November 9 Gotham, the first major restaurant to permanently close as a result of the pandemic, reopens. "We want the packaging to reflect the Di An Di experience." "We aren't a cheap place, so if the customer is paying a lot, then we want them to be wowed," says head chef Dennis Ngo. With Di Di, it regularly spends between $1,000 and $4,000 a week on packaging and accoutrements. The restaurant had spent $5,000 on disposable paper and plastic goods during the entirety of 2019, when it was dine-in only. Catering to the inherently visual medium, the Di An Di team invests in fancy packaging. ![]() Di Di, which means "To Go," launches with a "secret menu" on Instagram alongside some of the traditional Di An Di offerings.Īs restaurants cycle through various offerings and opening times to find a profitable sweet spot, Instagram becomes a lifeline and a de facto menu for countless spots. Meanwhile, the team at Di An Di pivots to a fast-casual Viet-Cajun concept primed for takeout and delivery. But there are few takers in a deserted Lower East Side - gross sales average less than $500 a day, compared to more than $3000 each night pre-pandemic. A small menu of banh mi, fried rice, and salad rolls are also offered to comply with regulations that food items must be sold alongside alcohol. But through the eyes of four restaurants as they experienced the past two years - a beloved 24-hour diner, an iconic banquet hall, a young neighborhood restaurant group, and a power-lunch titan with a galaxy of stars from the New York Times and Michelin - we might at least have some perspective on it.Īpril 7 An Choi reopens to sell takeout cocktails, which are allowed by the State Liquor Authority for the first time. There’s still no official count of the number of restaurants that closed, and there likely never will be. The pandemic is ongoing another variant looms. We’re a long way from fully comprehending this moment. Some 20 months later, the industry has largely recovered, but scars remain, and they run deep: Local institutions are gone, forever altering the texture of the city’s neighborhoods droves of workers have left the industry behind and many surviving restaurants remain buried under a mountain of debt. The connective tissue of social life, a medium for culture, and an economic engine that provided more than 300,000 jobs - predominantly to immigrants and people of color - New York’s restaurants and the people behind them experienced the epitome of nearly every form of havoc wrought by the pandemic. No aspect of life in America’s largest city was left untouched in its early days, but perhaps none was as drastically or visibly altered as its restaurant industry. It was almost two years ago that New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. ![]()
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