Bundled-up customers vs. New York City restaurateurs
Harsh winter weather in the Big Apple has given proprietors and customers a new flashpoint for fighting, as if either party needed more cause. Restaurants in the super-expensive real estate market tend to be small, making seats and closet space precious. Yet the audacity of customers is anything but small, as patrons demonstrated this week by turning empty chairs and tables into places to dry their snow-soaked coats, scarves and hats. So what if other patrons had no place to eat, or the establishments were losing sales opportunities.
The situation is festering into an out-and-out turf war that even has its own name: winterspreading.