The Upper West Side is unsurprisingly leading the way on outdoor-dining innovation. Bubbles meant for one group at a time are now available at several restaurants. And this week, Smoke Jazz Club, which just reopened for live concerts, installed pods that resemble mini houses. They’re meant to protect people from Covid-19 as they eat and listen to jazz (played live from inside the restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays). Steve Heise took these shots on Tuesday.
If you go, please remember the famous adage: people in glass houses shouldn’t throw breadsticks.
How do they disinfect the glass houses after each patron? Eating outdoors was safer bc it was in the open air. The glass houses enclose the space. How is this any different from eating indoors?
Excellent point SW on how tiny sections are disinfected. If they solve that issue, it’s a brilliant concept!
I guess the thinking is that they are not fully enclosed, and more importantly, that the diners in them seem to be separated from different diners in other bubbles/house thingies.
I wish us all luck in this new weird world, and most of all, I hope we will all remember how fortunate we are to still be alive looking at these outdoor dining choices and getting to comment about them…at least that’s what I try to do as I am rolling my eyes while navigating the sidewalks. Stay well everyone.
Somebody please explain to me how this is any different than indoor dining? Seems like total optics to me.
It’s like eating in your own private indoor space, but the key is deploying disinfectant after every parton is finished. I also wonder is a good UV light may be as effective as spraying down the walls with disinfectant… you’d almost have to squeegee them down, which is labor intensive. AND I wonder how quickly the plexi (or vinyl as some others are using for bubbles) would get cloudy?
How is this not worse than indoor dining – these shacks and bubble tents are pure Petri dishes. Indoor dining = bad, but these bubbles = safe? Lol – yeah right.
I’ll take indoor dining with adequate spacing every time over this silliness. Proves just how absurd all this has gotten.
I live near here are both Smoke and Cafe Du Soleil are meticulously spraying down and cleaning the inside of these covers between each seating. Between the cleaning and the frequent sidewalk washing, our neighborhood is actually looking better than it has in a long time!
We wanted to address some of the understandable questions about our outdoor dining PODS. Fortunately, we can open panels on our plexiglass houses to recirculate and exchange air between guests. We also sanitize the interiors with UV light and disinfectant spray after each use. Our servers never enter the pods during service. The health and safety of our guests and our staff is extremely important to us which is why we do not have any dining in the club. We believe these our outdoor pods and our cleaning procedures are as safe as dining out can be these days.
Perfect structures for upper west siders throwing stones.
We don’t throw stones. We vote. I happen to love this place and am glad they’re hanging in there.
Smoke Jazz Club, I applaud your ingenuity and I apologize for the people who just don’t get it.
I had brunch there once.It was TERRIBLE.
How are they cleaning them between customers – the virus can linger a very long time – airborn – from talking, coughing, singing, etc
THANK YOU for hiring musicians again! I trust you are taking all safety precautions.