Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

New York has become the city that never eats

New York has become the city that never eats

Is there anything more extraordinary than dining in New York City? Whether you’re sitting down for the Michelin star experience of a lifetime at Le Bernardin or squeezing in at the counter of Vanessa’s Dumpling House on the Lower East Side ($1 a pop), the New York restaurant combines atmosphere with quality food in a way that few other cities around the world can match.
Every cuisine is on offer, 24 hours a day: and if you’re willing to do a little research beforehand, you can all but guarantee yourself a meal worth every penny. Under normal circumstances, cuisine competition between London and New York isn’t really a contest at all. Of course, London has its staples. And options have dramatically expanded in recent years; but from old classics — like the American Bar nestled in the Savoy Hotel — to new barbeque joints (like SMOKESTAK, out east past Shoreditch), many of its dining highlights have been inspired by — or lifted from — New York.

But if the Big Smoke’s restaurants have vastly improved in recent decades, they’ve still got nothing on the Big Apple’s — or, at least, they didn’t. Until Covid-19 came along.

Every major city saw its restaurant industry collapse during the pandemic. Dining out, particularly indoors, was, in both London and New York, one of the last things to return. While neither city’s dining scene has recovered fully, London’s comeback has been far quicker.

According to data from OpenTable leading up to the end of March, restaurant reservations in London sat 13 per cent below their pre-pandemic levels. In New York, reservations are nearly 40 per cent below the 2019 baseline.

Just as it’s impossible to ignore how full and bustling London’s hospitality scene feels once again, it’s impossible not to notice how much quieter New York feels. The Omicron surge didn’t help things: New York City dwellers rushed out of the city in droves, dropping the city’s number of seated diners down to 70 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.

But even on a visit in mid-February, the buzz (and the people) were still missing. From bistros around Grand Central Station to dimly-lit French restaurants in Brooklyn, the tables were empty and the ambiance slightly eerie. It’s a strange feeling, to miss the strangers that used to be crammed into tables and booths next to you. But their absence is acutely felt. Compare this to London, where people are back to spilling out of the pub into the streets.

Where tables are sparse, it’s not due to lack of customer demand, but a lack of staff. The labour crunch is a shared problem in both cities, created by the shutdown of economies and the outflow of service industry workers that has put further strain on the hospitality sector. For customers, this means longer wait times and slower service, but for restaurant owners, it means finding the extra cash for wage boosts to entice workers back: in New York especially, these costs threaten to make or break establishments. According to Eater New York, an online dining guide for the city, some 1,000 restaurants have already folded in New York since the pandemic first hit, with estimates that the unofficial figure will run far higher.

The staggering difference between London’s bounce-back and New York’s freefall can, in part, be explained by how the respective governments responded to the plight of hospitality at the height of the pandemic. Neither New York State or the federal government offered anything like Britain’s furlough scheme, which allowed restaurants in the UK to hibernate their employees and spring back as soon as restrictions were lifted.

But perhaps the biggest difference wasn’t what either city’s officials did at the start of the crisis, but the decisions that came after.

When vaccine passports were being debated last summer in Britain, groups like UK Hospitality came out against them, citing not just the bureaucratic hurdles restaurant owners would need to jump — like implementing checks at the door — but how vaccine certification might usher in a change in consumer behaviour, turning people off the restaurant scene altogether.

In London, the debate was won, and vaccine passports were never brought in for dining. But New York became the case study of what happens when you do introduce them — and how badly wrong it can go.

Proof of vaccination for dining inside was brought in last summer and became more onerous as months went on. By Christmas this year, all children over the age of five needed at least one Covid vaccine dose to be allowed inside at a restaurant. Fines were threatened if restaurants didn’t comply, so checks were taken seriously. Not thinking twice about it, I brought my proof of vaccine along to a downtown restaurant right before New Year’s, but was asked to show a photo ID as well as my certificate. Having left it back at the hotel, I managed to get away with it — just — by matching my credit card details to my proof of vaccination.

After a string of lawsuit threats and restaurant closures, Mayor Eric Adams scrapped New York’s scheme at the beginning of March, a great relief to the thousands of restaurants just trying to survive. With the Omicron wave having settled, and onerous restrictions lifting, its residents are hoping the city can enjoy a new lease on life. ‘My Covid-worried friends made a reservation for us to sit inside our favourite Italian joint,’ one New Yorker tells me. ‘It’ll be the first time in over two years.’

When I last wandered around the city I tried to stop by one of my favourite spots, Bar Sardine, in the West Village: not much on the outside, but some of the best cocktails and tostadas around. To my horror, but not surprise, it had closed. One of the many restaurant casualties of the past few years.

Still, I’m not ready to hand the food title over to London just yet. As restrictions lift, and life finally returns to normal, the best parts of New York City are bound to return. And they must: it’s the city that never sleeps, not the city that doesn’t eat.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Britain's Online Safety Law Sparks Outcry Over Privacy, Free Speech, and Mass Surveillance
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
UK's Online Safety Law: A Front for Censorship
Parents Abandon Child at Barcelona Airport Over Passport Issue
Bus Driver Discovers Toddler Hidden in Suitcase in New Zealand
Switzerland Celebrates 734 Years of Independence Amid Global Changes
China Enforces Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency Activities
Grok 4 Video plus Voice, can identify wildlife!
George Soros tells the World Economic Forum: "President Trump is a con man and the ultimate narcissist, who wants the world to revolve around him."
Hamas are STARVING the hostages.
The UK Does Not Have a ‘Far-Right’ Problem
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
JD Vance Warns Europe Faces “Civilizational Suicide” Over Open Borders and Speech Limits
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
×