Covid-Influenced Ingenuity: NYC Restaurateur Designs Sidewalk Chalets
Fancy a cocktail? Come on in to outdoor dining in New York City. Images courtesy of Festivál.
In New York City, “streeteries” have popped up all over, born out of pandemic necessity, designed on the fly, and built on cold sidewalks. There are urban yurts at Missy Robbins’s Lillia, igloos at Café du Soleil and pink, beach-inspired cabanas at Daniel that bring the South of France to East 65 Street.
At Festivál on the Upper East Side, proprietor Tyler Hollinger has created something akin to Aspen-inspired cabins just steps from the Queensboro Bridge, reimagining the 300 square feet in front of his restaurant as mountain huts. There patrons can sip Experts Only cocktails—Ten to One Rum, Gonzalez Bypass PX Sherry, and Wood’s Vermont Ciders, served warm—in private, heated spaces.
With indoor dining shuttered in New York City—and sales down by more than 75% as a result— restaurateurs like Hollinger have had to get creative about running their business anywhere except, well, where they normally run their business. So they’ve taken to the streets and sidewalks, setting up a variety of outdoor structures and staying open in rain, wind, and nor’easters.
While you’ll likely never have to build sidewalk chalets in your day-to-day, what if overnight your way of doing business completely vanished? What if, like Hollinger, you had to rethink everything? And what if the organizations you looked to for support—the government, in this case—provided some of the biggest roadblocks?
Hollinger, who has a background in experiential marketing, discusses how he busted through bureaucracy to redesign the restaurant dining experience amid Covid-19 and the lengths he’s gone to keep his businesses running during the pandemic.
These three chalets built on the sidewalk make the most of 300 square feet of public space.
Tell us about what makes the urban chalets unique.
These are private dining cabanas patrons book for 90 minutes at a time, and they are only for you and your party. I’m a big skier and I thought it would be cool to create our own mountain warming hut, on the sidewalk. And that’s what we did.
Once you enter the cabanas you are transported to a different world for a short period of time. Be it the North Pole, or a Hokkaido mountain top or an Aspen ski hut. They are designed to immerse you in an experience, not just a dinner.
The chalets are made from reclaimed wood and each cabana features a tin roof, pine-scented candles, Persian rugs, infrared heaters and fleece blankets for added warmth and comfort. One even has a farm table from my own apartment. All together, they can hold 18 people at a time.
We’ve seen outdoor dining spaces pop up across the city. What sets these apart?
They are safer than other outdoor dining situations, such as a tent. Let’s not forget, that outdoor dining still means that you’re dining next to strangers in outdoor dining rooms that have been built on the sidewalk. We have private dining.
How have customer responded?
It’s the warmest table in town. I can’t even keep up with the demand for them. But there are only three of them.
Constraints often spur creativity. What were the biggest constraints you faced during the three week design and build process?
The city tried to stop us at every point in the way. The Department of Transportation didn’t want us to put anything in the street, then the Department of Buildings didn’t want us to put anything on the sidewalk. Then the New York City Fire Department said propane heaters were fine, but then they told us they weren’t fine because they need to be five feet from the building and 10 feet from the street, But the sidewalks are only 12 feet wide. What are we even talking about?
Everyone was telling us we couldn’t do it, from the landlord to every government agency.
How did you ultimately work through all of these restrictions?
We decided to do what is safest for our customers and built them anyway in just two days.
Then Governor Cuomo came out with a statement that said patrons dining outdoors aren’t allowed to use the bathrooms inside restaurants.
Somehow the Governor thinks that if you’re dining outside, you don’t need to use the bathroom. So I guess the thing I’m going to construct next is a mountain latrine in the form of a cute outhouse on the sidewalk. (Editor’s Note: Shortly after this interview took place, Governor Cuomo’s office retracted its bathroom directive because, duh.)
Gotta love a good floorplan. See how Hollinger designed the chalets down to the inches.
You’ve designed a temporary fix with the chalets. What needs to be done to get to the root of the challenge restaurants and bars face during forced closures?
The RESTAURANTS Act needs to be passed immediately. If you look at the data, the service industry is wildly affected by the pandemic. Congress is trying to give support to everyone, and it’s just not the case that everyone has been equally affected by it.
Imagine if your income was only 25% of what it normally is—how would you pay your bills? Now that the government has taken away the 25% seating capacity from indoor dining, you’re seeing more restaurants and bars close across the city.
What you are doing with the chalets really feels like long-term innovation. Will they be a new staple of restaurant dining in a post-pandemic world?
Yes. When the spring is in bloom we will transition the cabanas into open air "Derby Day" patios where you and your friends can relax in the cool breeze, watch the Derby, and wave at passersby. It's also fair to note that we have had an idea of exactly this to end homelessness in New York City. We call them "tiny homes" and I made a whole documentary about this, HOME STREET HOME.
How are you personally holding up? And what are you doing to keep your spirits up?
Due to the slowdown, we have had to cut almost everyone—we have one bartender, one chef, and our dishwasher. I am there all the time day and night, 70 hours a week. I waiter and bartend, answer phones, cook soups, clean floors. The only thing that keeps me going is my new daughter: Remy Hollinger was born into this world earlier this month!
