NYC Restaurants Play It By Ear as Sandy Approaches

Maison Premiere vows to remain open

By James Mulcahy

The subways shut down at 7 PM last night, and it seems likely that they will remain nonoperational until at least Wednesday after the worst of the storm has passed, but many city eateries remain open. Last night almost seemed normal in many neighborhoods - a spot check in Hell's Kitchen found that the restaurants (and the bars) were packed, and pizza joints were so slammed that they reported three-hour turnaround times. The Dutch issued a defiant message to Sandy, saying "Our honey butter biscuits are no match for hell & high water," while one Brooklyn based bartender reported that the Sunday night patrons were in higher spirits than usual, saying "it got crazy once people realized they didn't have to work."

Numerous restaurants vow to stay open today. While eateries like Pok Pok NY are so close to the water that they inevitably had to shutter (and hopefully avoid flooding that's already happening in low lying areas), restaurant ranging from The Breslin to Maison Premiere vow to stay open through the worst of it (the latter is promoting a "Sandy Party" on their Twitter account).


If you want to keep up with who's open, Eater has an excellent running log of status updates from city eateries. Many of them are also taking to Twitter and other social media to announce their plans. With  people hunkering down in hotels after being evacuated, it's a pretty good bet that food and beverage offerings at larger properties will remain open. Authorities are warning city dwellers about the seriousness of this storm, and even though some joints are keeping the ovens burning, we think restaurant hopping is highly inadvisable.

Of course, New York residents have long relied on online delivery service Seamless during weather events, and at press time over 70 restaurants were still offering online ordering this AM. We are sure that number will dwindle as the day progresses. We'll be continuing to blog for those of you with cabin fever, but our most important message is a simple one: stay safe! Head to the Google Local New York page on Google+ for links to information on evacuation centers and other resources.