Neighbors press Manhattan CB2 over repeated complaints at Cafe Select application

Neighbors of Cafe Select testified March 11 at the Manhattan Community Board 2 Outdoor Dining Working Group that the applicant’s prior outdoor dining — particularly a roadway shed during the pandemic years — had caused noise, late-night disturbance and repeated sanitation complaints.

Georgette (last name withheld in testimony) and Laura Tenenbaum described repeated late-night noise and patrons congregating outside the restaurant, and they urged the community board not to approve a roadway shed or sidewalk configuration that would expand activities closer to Petrosino Square’s eastern edge. “It was quite disruptive,” Tenenbaum said of the past roadway operation. “I found the roadway shed when it was established before to be very intrusive — aurally and visually.”

Owner Oliver Stum testified that Cafe Select has maintained a sidewalk license since 2009 and that the restaurant’s current application reflects revised DOT requirements. Stum said the recent application reduces the roadway footprint compared with earlier temporary structures and that he had trimmed the layout to meet DOT guidance. He told the group he had received a DOT direction to make the roadway smaller and that he complied. "We made the roadway much smaller because the DOT wanted that," Stum said.

Board members and staff noted outstanding technical issues in the application packet: incomplete checkboxes on the furnishing inventory and potential conflicts with curbside loading and signpost clearances. Committee members recorded corrections they expect applicants to make in their filings, including ensuring the site plan marks the principal building entrance and aligning the plan with DOT’s loading-zone map.

Outcome: The working group closed the public hearing and the committee asked the applicant to submit corrected site plans and to address the neighbor concerns in a written stipulation; during the business session the committee recorded approval with required modifications (application to be updated to show correct clearances and furnishing zone compliance). The committee also asked the applicant to coordinate with DOT on street signage and loading-pocket clarifications.

Why it matters: This application illustrates the tension between neighborhood quality-of-life concerns and outdoor dining policy. The committee emphasized that applicants must follow the new dining-out NYC and DOT rules for both sidewalk and roadway dining and that past compliance history will inform the committee’s evaluation.

Ending: The committee’s approvals and conditions for Cafe Select require a corrected, DOT-refereed site plan and written responses to neighbor concerns before the permit is treated as final.