Upper West Side favorite Boat Basin Cafe has permanently closed
Photo by WalkingGeek on Flickr
Another beloved New York City establishment has shuttered. The Boat Basin Cafe, a laid-back waterfront restaurant at the 79th Street marina, will not reopen for the season next year, Gothamist reported on Wednesday. The Upper West Side hangout announced its permanent departure in a Facebook post, citing a “local construction project” as the reason for the closure.
The Boat Basin Cafe first opened in 1997, serving affordable American fare and cold drinks alongside Hudson River views. Open between March and October, the open-air restaurant included a patio on the marina, an area for barbecues, and solid happy hour deals.
The city’s planned reconstruction of the West 79th Street rotunda, which first opened in 1937 and connects the neighborhood to the West Side Highway, with access to the Hudson River Greenway, will force the cafe to shutter during the work. Construction is expected to take at least four years, West Side Rag reported late last year.
The project involves upgrading the structure, expanding the concession space, making it ADA compliant, and adding a reinforced traffic circle parapet.
John Szydlik, who worked at the cafe for 14 years, told Gothamist: “They closed it for good.” Szydlik said the city will allow operators to bid on the new space, but Boat Basin Cafe owners will not apply. “We’re totally out of it now,” he said.
The sad news comes less than a week after 6sqft learned about the closure of City Bakery, the Union Square shop known for its cookies and hot chocolate.
[Via Gothamist]
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