The Hudson Beach Cafe in happier times.
By Tessa Abraham
Two new spots — including a cafe in Riverside Park at 105th street — went before the community board committee on Wednesday night to try to secure liquor license.
The Ellington Inn had actually applied for a license to reopen the Hudson Beach Cafe at 105th in the park last year, leading us to believe it could actually reopen in the summer. But alas, it’s still closed. Hopefully, this new application means we’ll be drinking with a view of the Hudson this summer.
The other bar, tentatively called “Bob’s Your Uncle,” would open in the former home of the Ding Dong Lounge.
1. Hudson beach & west 105th st. Also known as 106 Amsterdam rest corp d/b/a TBD
– approved for both licenses (with no opposition)
-separate license for up and downstairs because the stairway connecting them is not controlled by restaurant
-bathrooms and prep room have to be renovated (the rest of the downstairs is outside)
-will be open April 1-November 1
– live music including acoustic will have to be approved by park dept
2. 929 Columbus Avenue (West 105th st.) – d/b/a TBD
Concept name: “Bob’s your uncle”
-no live music because residences are above the restaurant
-wanted to be open 3pm-4am 7 days a week but community board was not happy about this
-community board recommends approval with the following conditions: 1. Hours changed to 3am-2am Sunday-Wednesday and 3am-3am Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 2. Neighbors are provided with contact info 3. Plan for sound attenuation 4. there is a security personnel
-application was approved with no opposition
There were also some sidewalk cafe applications, as detailed below.
Sidewalk Cafe’s are great. Unfortunately, they have grown so much that there are hardly any sidewalks left. Combine the gargantuan “recycling bins” that are never closed and the other bits of street “furniture” and you have a sidewalk that requires pedestrians to walk single file if they can get around the skate boards, bikes and scooters.
Does anyone know why restaurants are allowed to keep their tables and chairs out all winter when clearly no one is dining outside?
I LOVE sidewalk cafes! They add warmth and life to our streets, even in the winter when they are empty.
Anyone who’s ever been to Paris knows about the charm of sidewalk cafes! We need to keep them in our city!
Am also curious about Marsha’s question – why restaurants are able to keep tables and chairs on the street during the winter?
Also, it seems that on Amsterdam Avenue between 79th Street and about 83rd Street, with multiple sidewalks cafes plus bicycles (delivery & non-delivery) chained to bike racks plus new trees and tree guards, there is very little room on the sidewalk to actually walk… During the warm weather, people end up “waiting on line” to walk on the sidewalk…..
Hooray for a re-opened Hudson Beach!! Please let them also somehow serve coffee on the lower level during those early morning ball games.
Fingers crossed that “Bob’s Your Uncle” will be a sufficient replacement to Ding Dong, the only bar to ever give the UWS a little punk edge.
I love our sidewalk cafes!!! But I also love the Upper West Side for our sidewalks that are (mostly) wide enough to calmly stroll up and down. We are so lucky in this, I think. I’m not gonna name names, but I do see a few cafes gobbling up a lot more sidewalk space than they need. Us walkers have to uncomfortably shuffle past.
Sidewalk cafes make sense. But the concept has been abused by establishments that just expand the space onto the sidewalk with entirely enclosed spaces that are cooled in the summer and heated in the winter. These structures end up being permanent and serious encroachments on the sidewalk, and it’s hard to see how they fit the original intent of outdoor dining implied by sidewalk cafes. A good example is Indus Valley Restaurant at Broadway and 100 Street.
Those types of expansions are regulated differently, as “enclosed sidewalk cafes”, and are much harder to obtain licenses for.
Does anyone know the grand opening date planned for Bob’s Your Uncle ? Thanks.