Pizza always finds a way.
Forced by the city to return the space formally occupied by curbside dining to private car owners, a resourceful Brooklyn slice shop has parked a school bus in the so-called parking lane and is inviting diners to eat inside.
Outdoor dining rules rolled out by Mayor Adams and the City Council this year bar sales-tax-generating outdoor dining in the curb from Nov. 29 through March so that the space can be handed to private car owners. But what about people who are simply eating in a parked motor vehicle?
Apparently, that kind of parking ain't Kosher: L'Industrie Pizzeria has already received a warning from the city, according to Department of Transportation spokesperson Will Livingston, who declined to state which rules or laws the business was breaking.
Livingston added that if the L'Industrie set-up does not come down, the restaurant will be fined — and violations for unlicensed premises start at $500 for the first offense, and $1,000 for subsequent offenses, which can add up, even at $5 a slice. In addition, the business could "jeopardize" its application for future outdoor dining permits, said the agency rep.
So apparently it's illegal to eat on the bus, but perfectly fine if you drive up in your own car, park it for free, and have a delicious slice in your vehicle along the same curb.
Advocates panned the policy as an "absurd" way to manage the public realm, especially after eateries came to rely on their curbside spaces for revenue.
"Business owners shouldn’t have to stage little acts of resistance, as fun as they are, to use space that they have come to rely on," said Jackson Chabot, organizing director at Open Plans, Streetsblog's parent organization. "It’s becoming clearer everyday that we need a revised version of Dining Out."
L'Industrie's school bus set-up has no seats and instead relies on a counter and some standing tables, unlike its previous outdoor set-up, a breezy wooden patio that could sit more than a dozen eaters.
L'Industrie workers and the owner declined to speak to Streetsblog for this story (though they did speak to us when we ordered).
The restaurant's ingenuity shows the need to allow business to set up shop on the curb regardless of the time of year, said a Council member who wanted the all-year-round pandemic-era outdoor dining program to remain that way.
"It’s unfortunate that city policy returned this curbside space to parking or vehicle storage rather than more dynamic uses like outdoor dining," said Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn). "Credit to L’Industrie for a creative solution to keep outdoor dining alive."
Under the permanent program, dubbed Dining Out NYC, establishments must pay recurring fees to use the curb. That along with the winter restrictions led to a steep decline in the number of participating restaurants and bars: DOT has received just 1,414 applications for roadway dining as of late November, down from as many as 8,000 restaurants actively participating during its peak, the agency estimated.
L'Industrie's yellow vehicle blends in well in its north Brooklyn area, where local schools store their pupil movers in public space all the time, including illegally in bus stops (see below) while the pizza bus was being eagerly used by hungry members of the public.
One industry expert lauded the industrious move.
"It is certainly very creative, entrepreneurial, and sends a message," said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a trade group for restaurants. (Rigie, however, questioned whether it was legal.)
L'Industrie isn't the only restaurant to use an actual motor vehicle for outdoor dining.
The wine and chocolate bar Ayza in Midtown has served customers in a retro trolley since the pandemic began more than four years ago — and it has not moved since. City officials recently also warned the owners they would have to remove it.
Ayza is now working with a mechanic to get the throwback tram moving again, and plan to relocate it by the end of the year — likely by selling it, according to co-owner Zafer Sevimcok. Guests and passersby would regularly take pictures of the streetcar, he said, and kids often wanted to sit in its driver's seat.
"Unfortunately right now, the trolley, although it makes so much sense, we are not in the guidelines," Sevimcok told Streetsblog. "It’s hard to accept all the efforts will go to waste, just by thinking outside of the box to save the business."
"We love the trolley, we don’t want to get rid of it obviously. In the four years of time we had it, it served us very well."
Another restaurant, the East Village mainstay Il Posto Accanto, also initially said it would defy the city's orders to take down its E. Second Street shed, fearing the owners would have to lay off staff without the extra space, reported EV Grieve. But co-owner Beatrice Tosti di Valminuta told Streetsblog last week that she and her husband would indeed remove the dining area, which they started doing this week.
"We can't keep it going, but it's tearing our hearts out," she said. "Everyone loves the dining area, but the rules are the rules."
