On a recent sunny afternoon, I sat outside Sicily Osteria in the belly of Restaurant Row, having a dream moment: slowly nursing a Negroni and people-watching. Suddenly, the street degenerated into a nightmare that is too often New York City's reality: I was surrounded by honking, stinking, menacing machines.
Exhaust perfumed my gin. Engines and horn noises muted my delightful conversation. Heavy machinery blocked my views of the people and the trees. But none of it could block my thought: Restaurant Row would be a whole lot better off without cars on it.
As it happens, the general manager of Sicily Osteria, Angelo Nasti, agrees. He wants Restaurant Row to be pedestrianized.
“People like to sit outside and not be bothered by the cars,” he said.
Nasti scoffed at the notion that blocking private automobiles from the street would reduce his customer base. “Pretty much all our customers walk here or come by public transportation,” he noted.
Restaurant Row — technically W. 46th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues — offers more than a century of culinary history within a single city block. In that block, there’s more than 30 globe-trotting restaurants as well as vibrant nightlife including clubs and jazz bars. One of its restaurants, Barbetta, has been around more than 100 years, making the Row a precious historical relic — a landmark, if you will, that is defiled by modernity in the form of cars.
Those businesses deserve to thrive another 100 years, and pedestrianizing the street can help make that possible. We already know Open Streets are better for business than car-sewer streets. And with the advent of congestion pricing, there’s more of a reason to ditch cars in the toll zone. And it’s common-sense that, on a strip with dozens of restaurants, people should be free to roam around and enjoy the scene.
Hell’s Kitchen resident Anna Young, who was eating outside at Le Rivage, the charming French bistro beside Sicily Osteria, said she doesn’t dine out as much as she would like on the block due to the inhospitable traffic.
“It’s a vibe thing,” she said. “Nobody wants to be next to noisy traffic while trying to have a conversation with friends.
“When you think of people eating outside on the streets, you imagine just people and no cars, and I think that’s what people want when they think of an ideal outdoor dining experience,” she added.
The manager of Le Rivage, Thibaud Muller, thinks pedestrianizing the street could unlock all kinds of revenue-generating possibilities.
“There’s so many things the street could be if it weren’t a sewer for cars,” Muller told me, such as a platform for restaurants to put out more tables or host theatrical performances, like the ones that take place on Columbus Avenue open street.
Without cars, Muller said, the street would be livelier, and more potential customers would flock to Restaurant Row.
“Right now, there’s loud honks and noisy engines every two minutes, so of course it would be better for business if there were no cars passing by,” he said.
Managers at two other Restaurant Row eateries, Dim Sum Palace and Becco, said that if the street were opened up, they’d put out more tables, which would allow more people to come eat and generate more business.
“Pedestrianizing the street would be amazing for our business,” said Dim Sum Palace manager Raymond Lau. “The ability to attract more customers and put out more tables would increase our revenue, and personally I’d like it if the street were a little quieter and more pleasant,” he added.
Cathy Gallagher, manager of Becco, agreed: “We’d definitely put out more tables if there weren’t cars on the street, and it’d be a more comfortable dining experience.”
Officially, the Times Square Alliance — which comprises the businesses on Restaurant Row — is lukewarm, but at least listening to its members.
“We are open to an enhanced pedestrian experience while balancing the needs of everyone who lives and does business” on the block, said the business improvement district's president, Tom Harris.
There’s safety reasons to close the street to cars, too: People should be free to wander the street, checking out all the cool restaurants, without the fear of being squashed flat by a machine.
“I wish they would close Restaurant Row to cars so I wouldn’t have to worry about a car hitting and maybe killing me,” said Hell’s Kitchen resident Nestor Rodriguez.
Given the demands for the Row to be safer and more pleasant, it's infuriating that city’s leadership allows motorists to desecrate what could be one of the most charming and vibrant spaces in Manhattan.
But it's beyond merely being insulted by cars; if the status quo continues, not only will the liberation of Restaurant Row be off the table, but the whole Open Streets program could collapse.
The city's car-free open streets are funded for just one more year under Mayor Adams's proposed budget. Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani has pledged to expand the program, but his main rival, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, declined to commit to that.
A strong commitment is needed: The pandemic-era Open Streets program has contracted in recent years, with several popular locations cutting back operating hours due to budget constraints. In March, city Department of Transportation officials told volunteers in a closed-door meeting that the program needed around $5 million to keep operating at its current capacity.
Open streets groups say the program needs even more funding, however, asking for $48 million over three years.
The DOT, which runs open streets, declined to comment.
Money or not, it's just a fact of New York life that people should dominate public space.
“There’s no reason to squish hundreds of people on the sidewalks so that a handful of cars can occupy all the space,” said Hell’s Kitchen resident John Leobellio. “A car in Manhattan is not a necessity, and the city should cater to the people who want to be outside enjoying the weather on an otherwise lovely street.”
