Pop Up Cafes expanding to Brooklyn

New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today announced that the agency is accepting applications from businesses interested in participating in the City’s innovative Pop-up Café pilot program to create more accessible public space while promoting and partnering with local businesses. The program is intended to provide outdoor public seating in areas where sidewalks are too narrow to get approval for outdoor cafés, using curbside space to establish seating areas that are sponsored by local businesses. The first Pop-up Café in New York City opened earlier this year on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan and was jointly sponsored by Fika Espresso Bar and Bombay’s restaurant, who report that business is up as much as 14% since the Pop-up Café was installed in August. The City is looking to build on this success by expanding the program in 2011 to include interested businesses in all five boroughs.

“Small businesses are the backbone of New York City’s economy and we need to do everything we can to help them through today’s difficult economic climate,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “The City’s first Pop-up Café has been both an innovative public space and also an economic boon, and now enterprises across the city can buy in to this cost-effective, creative use of our streets.”

Businesses interested in participating in the 2011 Pop-up Café Program can apply through the DOT’s Website  HERE.. Local partners would be responsible for the cost of design, construction and maintenance of each Pop-up Café, which must also meet the City’s technical criteria and design guidelines before they can be approved.