Opening a restaurant in New York is, above all else, not easy. Beyond the basic stuff you need to know there are hundreds of hurdles a prospective restaurateur must pass—not to mention thousands of dollars they must spend—before they make it to opening night (which doesn't even come close to assuring success). But it doesn't necessarily have to be this way! Last December the city started to make moves to make the process easier with a program called the New Business Acceleration Team—think of the city's Business Express program, but for restaurants—and the first trickles of a plan are starting to emerge.
The Daily News reports that Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith hosted a crew of big name restaurateurs—including William Tigertt (Freemans, Peels) and Will Regan (the Lambs Club)—to discuss the issue and "got an earful."
The biggest issue seems to be all the hurry up and waiting involved in the process. Not to mention the endless, and often redundant, permits and approvals and inspections. One person spoke of six week waits for 12 minute meetings with the Department of Buildings, while another talked of having to redo kitchens after getting conflicting instructions from the same DOB. "We probably spent $60,000 on expediters and consultants—not to mention the same problems of paying $25,000 a month rent for an extra four months on the schedule while we got signoffs," Tiggertt said.
So what's the city want to do? The most promising idea seems to be replacing the current cacophony of permits with the creation of a "restaurant license" based on a simple set of steps any budding restaurateur would need to check off. While that idea slowly works its way through the city's bureaucracy, though, restaurants are stuck with the system in place.
