If you’ve dined out in recent years, you might come away feeling like your wallet is smarting. What started as some tuna crudo, a seasonal salad, fries, a main course, and a couple of glasses of wine quickly adds up to three figures before you’ve even considered your dessert options. But that $20 plate of tuna crudo, however, represents more than just restaurant owners overcharging for shits and giggles—it covers fair wages for staff, rent, utilities, among a litany of other costs.
Several local restaurant owners told Greenpointers that operating a business in New York City is more challenging—and costlier—than ever in 2025.
Dining out in New York City has always been expensive, and running a restaurant in the city has always been a daunting and competitive enterprise. The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to upend the industry entirely. Those lucky enough to make it through faced new challenges on the other side, now with the added obstacle of dealing with them while trying to make up for lost time. Even restaurants that don’t plan to close anytime soon now find themselves positioned terrifyingly close to precarity. Many diners left the pandemic isolation with newfound habits intact, drinking less and ordering in more. Inflation across industries means that owners and diners feel the squeeze, in an ouroboros of dueling bottom lines. That delicate balancing act leaves some restaurants struggling to survive.
As TJ Gargan of Teddy’s Bar and Grill puts it: “Our margins were already thin. At this point, you can see through them.”
Several beloved Greenpoint and Williamsburg restaurants have closed in recent years. Some cited high rents or landlord issues (Marlow & Sons, Pencil Factory, Sippy Cafe). Others closed for personal reasons. More frequently, restaurants that close often point to a general glut of increased costs across the board — insurance, legal and accounting fees, marketing, sales software, utilities, credit card fees, linen laundry, grease trap cleaning, exterminators, refrigeration repair; the list goes on and on.
Ramiro Lescano opened Tabaré in 2009, as Williamsburg was emerging as a dining destination, with fewer restaurants to compete with.
“I could count with my fingers the ones that I liked,” Lescano recalled to Greenpointers.
Over the past twenty or so years, the population and cultural caché of Greenpoint and Williamsburg have risen tremendously, along with their dining scene.
Lescano credits Tabaré’s comparatively low rent as the reason they can continue to make it work, but he acknowledged that not every restaurant is as fortunate.
With skyrocketing rents and the cost of living constantly rising, many local residents may find themselves with less pocket money for non-essential expenses. A 2024 survey by restaurant software Toast found that “55% of respondents are dining out less frequently” in recent years. Grocery prices have increased 29% since 2020. Trump administration tariffs continue to jeopardize costs and access to crucial ingredients. According to a recent article by Business Insider, “The National Restaurant Association estimates that to maintain a modest 5% profit margin, the average restaurant would need to raise prices by 30.3% from where they were on 2019 menus.”
That dynamic between what owners can pass on in costs and what customers will accept leaves many restaurant owners apprehensive about the future. Ask too much, and you risk driving customers away. Ask too little, and that plumbing bill for a burst pipe becomes a death sentence. Several owners we spoke to share a sense of wanting to demystify the costs that lead to your bill racking up.
“I can’t fault guests for having their own budgets and wanting to get their money’s worth, but buying things like seafood locally from responsible purveyors, preparing them to order, and putting in the labor necessary to not only serve consistently good food but also constantly develop new dishes, is just expensive!” said Tara Noble, of the soon-to-shutter Cecily.
One cost diners likely aren’t aware of? Insurance. Restaurant owners overwhelmingly agreed that insurance costs continue to increase, with no end in sight.
“The insurance every year keeps going up and up and up. Like, it’s significantly going up and up—it’s crazy,” said Jenny Olbrich, who owns the Greenpoint bar and pizza place, The Esters.
“It doesn’t matter if you have infractions or no infractions. We have zero issues, and our insurance rate is still $50,000, and we shopped around to see if there’s anything cheaper, and there’s not,” she continued.
Noble said Cecily’s liability insurance was almost $20,000 a year, “and would be much higher if we didn’t carefully ride the razor’s edge and keep our alcohol sales (the thing we make the best margins on) under 40% of our total revenue.”
“That’s also not even considering workers’ compensation and disability insurance, which add another 10,000,” she continued.
Lescano says Tabaré went from paying $3,500 to $22,000.
“It feels like we’re paying large amounts every month, yet when something actually happens, nothing is ever covered,” said Ivana Somorai, who owns the coffee shop Rhythm Zero. “Feels like we are scammed each time we call them.”
In a recent survey of more than 300 restaurants in New York City, owners said insurance premiums and coverage were one of their top three concerns (the other two were lack of customers and cost of labor).
Some of these new costs come as a necessary corrective to the restaurant industry’s reputation for long hours, low pay, and a pervasive culture of abuse. A new generation of workers hopes to break that cycle, though doing so requires more resources.
“We want to pay our staff well. We want them to have a life. We want them to be able to pay their bills, and we want them to be able to survive in this world and buy their groceries and stuff, but with the rising costs of all that, now they need more money, so we want to pay that,” said Olbrich.
Restaurants must also navigate the gauntlet of regulations set by city and state agencies, including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the FDNY, and the State Liquor Authority.
“The city is not helpful. The city is pretty freaking brutal,” Olbrich lamented.
Rhythm Zero recently shared on Instagram that a Department of Health inspection forced them to temporarily close their West Village location. In an email to Greenpointers, Somorai stated that their inspection issues were actually related to the city’s Department of Buildings and that they were involved in a legal battle to resolve them. However, when a DOH inspector arrived, they proceeded with the shutdown regardless of the plans that were in place.
“Essentially, they spent six hours on the phone with their office and ultimately decided to close us, not telling us anything, she gave us a document listing our violations, sealed our doors, and left,” said Somorai.
On Instagram, the violations were listed as a lack of physical doors separating them from a neighbor and a requirement to build another bathroom. Apparently, updating their tax address helped resolve the issues. Following these seemingly arbitrary rules on top of continuing to pay staff made for a frustrating situation all around, especially since their insurance refused to cover it.
“The biggest issue with the DOH is the lack of consistent rules for everyone. There’s no clear rulebook to follow, and no reliable point of contact,” continued Somorai, who ended up working with a consultant to help fix the situation. “They say there’s a phone number to call, but when we did, we were told someone would get back to us within 1 to 5 business days — and they never did.”
Restaurant owners were divided on the issue of whether the city bureaucracy has improved (in one noted benefit, DOH now gives advanced notice for inspections). However, the city’s revamped outdoor dining program drew criticism for its shaky rollout. The city recently retooled the pandemic-era program, but many bar and restaurant owners found the new requirements too costly and onerous, and therefore neglected to apply. Specifically, spending thousands of dollars to construct an outdoor shed, only to dismantle it every year, proved too much of a headache. (City Council Member Lincoln Restler recently introduced a bill to legalize year-round outdoor dining.) Still, for some, it’s a headache worth incurring.
“The outdoor dining program has changed our business in such a positive way. We have been able to almost double our seating capacity, which obviously is a boon for any NYC restaurant that has a lack of space,” said Gargan. “Of course, we are using the newly generated revenue to dig out of a hole for two years.”
Like any other art form, dining out is subjective; everyone’s metric for judging whether they got their money’s worth varies. Some diners actively seek out refined and innovative dining concepts, while others simply want a good burger. Many of us exist somewhat in the middle of this spectrum. And it’s those middle diners who might feel those effects most of all, with moderately-priced, casual spots in decline.
“When I first opened, I had the rock-and-roll crowd, I had the yuppies, I had the old Polish people, I had the families, I had the cross-section of people that are coming in, but I’m also noticing now that as things get more expensive, it’s not quite like that anymore,” said Olbrich.
As the neighborhoods’ base of wealth increases and attracts more chains and larger restaurant groups, which have more muscle and deeper pockets to weather the industry’s uncertainty, those scrappier upstarts face a tougher road ahead to stay afloat.
“Now, it seems impossible for a group of waiters, friends to open a restaurant in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, with the cost of construction and everything so much higher,” said Lescano.
Some top-down solutions could help even the playing field a bit. We found widespread support for commercial rent stabilization among the owners we spoke to. Greenpoint and Williamsburg’s state assemblymembers, Emily Gallagher and Julia Salazar, recently introduced a commercial rent stabilization bill to the state legislature. This would create a commercial rent guidelines board similar to the one that controls residential rent regulations and help give tenants the right to renew their lease without facing a massive rent hike. Other owners hoped that tip reform could help create fairer wages for staff by allowing counter-service restaurants to pool their tips. Everyone agreed that something needs to be done about the insurance industry.
We may have passed the halcyon days of the dollar slice, but chefs will continue to flock to the area in the hopes of fulfilling their dreams. For those who live and work here, earning the respect and regular patronage of the local community means everything.
“This neighborhood is so fucking wonderful. We have regulars who exchange gifts with our servers when they go on vacation. We have a regular who found out I played Dungeons & Dragons and gifted me his Dungeons & Dragons miniatures from when he was a kid in the 1980s,” said Noble, reflecting on Cecily’s past two years as its closure looms.
“I’ve had more wonderful, earnest moments with guests than I can possibly count, and been brought to near tears an embarrassing number of times by just how great folks can be.”
Running a restaurant will never guarantee success, but it should come with fewer obstacles to making ends meet.
Well written. Looks like more and more will close, The few that will remain open will have sky high prices and only the well to do will be able to afford it.
Thank you so much for this wonderfully written article about the state of the restaurant industry. The neighborhood has changed significantly in the 15 years since our arrival. Unfortunately, it is way too expensive to live here and operate any small business. In addition, the restaurant/hospitality industry has so many regulations making it almost impossible to open a place here unless you have very deep pockets. We are grateful that we came into the neighborhood 15 years ago, and appreciate all the amazing people who embraced us from Day One. I explain to our guests that we would not be able to start now with what we began with in 2010. I find that to be a very sad statement. With that said, we are truly grateful to still be in Greenpoint!!!
Wait until Mamdani’s proposed $30 minimum goes into effect. That, by itself, will guarantee that many mom & pop retail businesses (including bars/lounges restaurants and consumer goods) will close because the owners won’t be able to pay their employees. Careful what you wish for. All of you clueless dopes who voted for the grinning communist-in-democrat-clothing can look in a mirror to see who was responsible for this. None of you know, or comprehend, just how destructive a socialist government is. If socialism is ever fully implemented, say good bye to your carefree partying lifestyle. Your present way of life will no longer exist. You won’t be able to afford going out to your favorite overpriced restaurant or bar because you’ll earn a lot less money because whatever level of wealth you might have attained will be redistributed so that everyone is at the same level of poverty.