New York Magazine – July 08, 2019

40 new york | july 8–21, 2019

FOOD TASTES BETTER OUTDOORS.

No one really knows why. Something to

do with happy childhood memories of

summer vacations, camping trips, and Mister Softee?

Or heightened organoleptic senses, and the ecstatic

effect of ozone molecules on neural colonies, as an

article we once read in a food journal suggested?

Whatever it is, everything tastes pretty great when

seasoned with sunshine, fresh air, and blue skies. New

York, however, is not exactly known as a mecca for

outdoor dining. We have sidewalk garbage moun-

tains, after all, plus strutting pigeons, pizza-eating

rats, chronic horn honkers, and ambulance sirens

competing on a regular basis with sunshine and blue

skies for the attention of our neural colonies.

Which is not to say that outdoor dining in New

York, especially during the high season, isn’t a worth-

while pursuit. Sometimes you just have to adapt to the

situation at hand, as we did the other day while eating

lunch at one of Greenwich Village’s most popular

sidewalk cafés. When a Cat 277D multiterrain loader

began doing donuts in the construction site ten feet

from our table, and generally behaving as if it were

auditioning for the demolition derby, we simply tight-

ened the straps of the hard hats and goggles provided

to us by the maître d’, adjusted our Bose noise-cancel-

ing headphones, and ate our burrata.

But dining alfresco in New York is no joke. Where

else, for instance, can you nosh a hot dog in the place

(the Coney Island boardwalk) where hot dogs origi-

nated? Or slurp an Italian ice from a 75-year-old ices

outfit while watching a serious bocce match in an

outdoor public space called Spaghetti Park? Or tuck

into some West African fufu by a body of water

known as a meer, which means “little sea” in Dutch?

In the pages that follow, we’ve listed and ranked

alfresco eating experiences, both new and old, fac-

toring in not only the deliciousness of the food but

also the summery excellence (or at least distinctive-

ness) of the environment in which you eat it. Because

when it comes to dining outside in New York, con-

text is like umami: a major flavor enhancer.

THE (^) BEST THINGS TO
EAT ALFRESCO
AND (^) WHERE TO EAT THEM
RANKED
RO B
PATRONITE
and
By
ROBIN
RAISFELD
OUTDOORS
Photographs by
DAVID WILLIAMS
GOES
UNDERGROUND
GOURMET
The
EAT ALFRESCO
.
.
.