New York City: Manhattan Restaurants - The Haves And The Have Nots

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  New York City is still fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Recently restaurants & cafes got the permission to restart their indoor services, but only with 25% of their former capacities. In order to compensate the loss the administration still permits outdoor dining. The city closed some streets - or segments of them - for car traffic and  reserves a lot of space for tables & seats, at least on weekends.

There are now two kinds of restaurants in Manhattan. Those who have enough outdoor space for the services and those who have not, because the streets are too busy or needed for other purposes. Apparently many dives in my Lower East Side neighborhood and in East Village, who sell fast food, are flourishing, because they can make ample use of streets which are closed for car traffic. It seems that some have more out door capacity than indoor and they attract a huge crowd, apparently fueled by the government checks. On the other side many decent middle class restaurants have to struggle and many businesses are closing for good because they cannot cover their rents anymore.

The remaining middle class restaurants responded to their restricted business and they cut their menus - and maybe their staff. I got the impression that the average quality of restaurant food declined in the recent months because the restaurants hire fewer chefs and kitchen staff and purchase less fresh food. Time will tell how New York´s restaurants and their customers will respond to falling temperatures - Winter is coming.