One of the tangible ways in which a COVID change is perceptible here in New York are the streets themselves. New York always had a good dining scene. People would come from all over the world for New York’s unique international cuisine; culinary tastes are available from all over the world.
These days, while I can’t comment on the food itself, I can tell you the outdoor dining has redefined the vibe on the New York City streets.
It started in the summer after the lockdown ended. The big question of how restaurant dining would continue in a pandemic was something everyone wondered about.
Overnight, it seems, makeshift outdoor structures and scaffolding sprouted along the Upper West Side’s Broadway and Amsterdam streets, and Columbus Avenue. Garlands of little fairy lights and little round colorful paper lanterns often illuminated the new café’s dining areas. There was jazz music piped into the area, and sometimes even live jazz music, to add to the ambiance. COVID or no COVID, it was charming. Especially passing these eateries by at sunset or night time. New York streets became animated with diners, with music, with conversation and sit-down socializing.
As the season progressed into late summer and fall, the outdoor structures became more elaborate. Many white tents with built-in translucent French window cut outs, or partitioned dining areas embellished by beautiful floral décor and overflowing flower boxes or baubles hanging from the ceiling, became the norm.
Around Sukkot time, the streets seemed to be teeming with actual sidewalk Sukkot. Wooden huts with foliage for decor seemed to be another aesthetic and practical answer to the outdoor dining challenge.
Then what once seemed to be a magical fairytale vibe of a plastic rounded globe or igloo, its full roundness with the intimacy of just a few people nestled inside, resembling the pumpkins from Cinderella’s famous transformed carriage — became ubiquitous. Passing people by sitting tucked inside them, even if it were not raining, but especially if it was, gave the blurred colors of the scene — people smiling, breaking bread together, sharing a meal together, cocooned within so whimsical an architectural wonder — a sense of playfulness, a storybook-like vibe. These scenes had a fantasy, make-believe kind of atmosphere, but it was the new “real-life” right here on the sidewalk, gathering for little-distanced dinners.
We got used to this lovely atmosphere that brought life and accent to the streets, enjoying the creative ways in which outdoor seating was devised. There was a mystique to it, as you’d pass tents or huts lit up by amber candles in one of the most urbanized cities in the world.
How would this all continue once the weather turned cold? Well, it’s January. And let me tell you, the weather hasn’t dampened people’s spirits or diminished their desire for outdoor dining pleasures. I know restaurants are suffering terribly due to the COVID restrictions, but around here, cold wind or even snow, many seem to still be teeming with people.
Adapting with outdoor heaters to keep diners warm, and some diners showing up with blankets to spread on their laps, the outdoor dining scene here seems to be going pretty strong.
There have been fun pop-ups too, such as adorably packaged grilled cheese-with-soup stands. Pizza trucks — I saw one that from afar, its white and red aesthetic looking like an ambulance, turned out to be a Neapolitan pizza truck! As a pizza lover myself, I won’t argue with that being its own kind of emergency.
The next layer of outdoor dining or entertaining I must explore are New York rooftops.
I’m already dreaming of my New York rooftop adventure, perhaps sipping a hot chocolate as I’m inside a cozy translucent plastic globe or illuminated by amber light yurt, watching an outdoor movie on a big screen, 1950s style, or listening to a live symphony on a mildly breezy, faintly cold New York rooftop.
With the development of outdoor dining, pedestrian sidewalk life has taken on a whole new meaning here throughout COVID, but New York rooftops are coming to life even more than usual as the next COVID adventure to be had in New York City, creatively adapting to all of the COVID restrictions.
This city.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
