Outdoor dining to resume in Manhattan after winter storm

Dining structures hold up despite snow

Snow and sleet temporarily paused outdoor dining yesterday, but it’s back on in Manhattan now that the storm has passed. (Getty)
Snow and sleet temporarily paused outdoor dining yesterday, but it’s back on in Manhattan now that the storm has passed. (Getty)

Outdoor dining can continue — in Manhattan, anyway — on Thursday after a temporary, storm-related pause. The resumption of curbside eating is still to be determined in the outer-boroughs, however.

Starting Wednesday, restaurants were forced to suspend outdoor dining and remove or consolidate curbside streeteries, as the city anticipated eight inches of snow from a winter storm.

An accumulation of snow could have led those structures to collapse, and the city worried that snow plows would hit and damage such structures, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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However, it seems like such structures have stood up to the storm.

“For the most part they held up” through last night’s storm, Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson said during a press conference on Thursday.

But businesses have yet to weather the financial storm. Indoor dining was once again suspended earlier this month, forcing restaurants to rely on takeout, delivery and outdoor dining.

“There’s a lot of businesses hurting,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said during the press conference. “Nobody wants restrictions.”