Robert Marino Testimony: New York City Chef Group

Uh I'm here today to talk about one of our restaurants, a restaurant called Nietzsche in Hell's Kitchen.

As a group, we've operate we've operated, we do operate 16 restaurants all in Manhattan.

Many of those have been in business over 20 years, some as long as 30 years.

And we uh believe strongly in um bringing bringing business out to the street and and the positive benefits that that has for the community and walkability and livability and safety.

Um so it's been a big part of what we do.

Uh over the years, as we've analyzed commercial spaces before signing a lease, the first things we look at are is liquor license possible and is sidewalk cafe possible.

Uh and if I the answer to either one of those is no, we continue looking uh because it really is a vital part of our business model.

Um I think um with with the new program right now and the new regulations, I think a lot of what's been lost is some of the um very detrimental changes specifically to the sidewalk law.

Uh so in Hell's Kitchen, we have three restaurants uh in the ground floor of the Film Center building between 44th Street and 45th Street.

That's that stretch of Ninth Avenue's only commercial building.

We have the corner of 44th, the corner of 45th, and then a little restaurant called Nietzsche in the middle of the block.

That restaurant has has only 50 seats inside and always had 20 uh 24 seats outside.

Uh so by far our busiest months of the year were April, May, June, you know, July, and August, as the restaurant, you know, grew in size by 50%.

Um, so we were very surprised when as we started applying, and we're not eligible for roadway in in any of these three restaurants because we're on the busy stretch of the avenue.

Um, so we were you know, we assumed, okay, we'll go back to our existing, you know, permitted approved, you know, sidewalk setup that we've operated for 20, you know, for uh for 20 years and 15 years, and things will will be fine.

Uh we were shocked when we applied for NITSA to see that clearances had changed, and now we went from 24 seats to 14 seats.

That might not sound like much, but you know, it's it's a 40 percent, you know, decrease in seats.

That's the difference between having one server outside or two servers outside.

Uh it's you know, over the course of a busy day, lunch and dinner, that's you know, could be 50 people, you know, less people that we serve.

Um so we're really surprised that the sidewalk program specifically did not take into consideration the the original approved plans and basically changed clearances, and in many cases, especially in in uh in midtown, it it um has been very detrimental.

Uh and so we've you know, we we take a lot of pride in in having done business in Hell's Kitchen and Ninth Avenue for for 20 plus years, and we're happy that it's busy and thriving and people out there.

We think our are doing business outside does a lot for the safety of the neighborhood and does a lot to bring tourists that far west and to also serve the neighbors and people who live there and people who work in the theater community.

Um, and now making changes to the program I think is the exact opposite of of what we were uh hoping would happen.

And um, you know, I I encourage everybody to to spend the time thinking about roadway, which is a new program, but not to forget sidewalk, uh, which which has been operating for you know for 40 years across across the city.

Okay.

Great, thank you very much.

I mean, I have a number of questions for this panel, and I know some of my colleagues do as well.