A Wistful Goodbye to New York’s Beloved And Reviled) Outdoor Dining Sheds

Thousands of restaurants survived the pandemic by building makeshift dining rooms on the street. Now they’re gone—and already inspiring nostalgia.

- Joshua Chaffin

In 2020, New York City was mired in the depths of the Covid pandemic and Stacy Pisone was puzzling over how to create an outdoor dining shed worthy of her shuttered restaurant in Chelsea, the Empire Diner.

With her architect friend, Caroline Brennan, she eventually conceived a structure just across the sidewalk on Tenth Avenue that blended hip and historic. Their shed featured porthole windows stenciled with the Empire's art deco logo, wall sconces, a curved roof and other period accents that nodded at the original, built by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946.

There were also modern amenities: A row of ceiling fans cooled diners in the summer while heaters warmed them in the winter. Music was piped in through overhead speakers. The cost? "North of $150,000," Pisone estimated.

The 45-seat Pavilion, as they dubbed it, soon became more than a pandemic-era substitute for a shuttered diner. It was a neighborhood attraction in its own right.

But by Nov. 30, New York City restaurants were required to remove most outdoor sheds. Those wishing to reintroduce them must apply for city permits and comply with new regulations from the Department of Transportation that will reduce the size and scale of future sheds. So on a recent morning, as traffic whooshed past, workmen sawed away at a tangle of the Pavil ion's exposed wires. Then they pulled down a section of roof, leaving a pile of debris where diners had been served days earlier.

"It would be easier if a bus just hit this thing," one of the workers said, unceremoniously.

The Pavilion was one of thousands of outdoor dining sheds that blossomed on New York City's sidewalks and streets during a lethal, once-in-a-century public health emergency. On March 16, 2020, as public health authorities struggled to halt the spread of the Covid-19 virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order that limited restaurants to take-out service only.