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Everything You Need To Know About NYC’s Open Streets: Restaurants Program
Clusters of restaurants all over the city can now overflow into the street for outdoor dining on weekends.
On July 2nd, Mayor de Blasio announced that clusters of city streets will now be blocked off to cars on weekends, allowing restaurants to expand their outdoor dining space from 5pm to 11pm on Friday nights, and noon to 11pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The Open Streets: Restaurants program was initially set to expire on Labor Day weekend, but it has been extended until October 31st, weather depending.
This restaurant-specific initiative is part of the Department of Transportation’s larger Open Streets program, which currently blocks off dozens of miles of streets around the city to cars during weekdays (predominantly between 8am and 8pm). You can learn more about the program here.
The Open Streets: Restaurants program includes areas in all five boroughs, such as Arthur Avenue in Belmont, 5th Ave in Park Slope, Reed Street in Red Hook, Doyers Street in Chinatown, 41st Ave in Bayside, and East 101st Street on the UES. You can find all of the Open Streets: Restaurants areas listed by borough here.
If you’re looking for an outdoor dining spot where you won’t have to deal with cars zooming by your table, we wrote a guide with all of our favorite NYC restaurants participating in the Open Streets: Restaurants program.
Suggested Reading
For my first outdoor dinner of Phase 2, I had a $69 veal parm at Carbone. It was a surprisingly calm experience.
