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There’s nothing like a diner—ask any New Yorker, and they likely have a favorite. A fabric of the city, diners have buoyed us through our everyday life, from a welcome stop on a morning commute to a much-needed midnight jaunt during a tipsy night out. But according to the New York Times, diners are disappearing at a record pace, due to rising rents, shrinking profits and gentrification. Now, a West Village mainstay is asking for help, hoping to not become the next casualty.
La Bonbonniere, the beloved greasy spoon located on Eighth Avenue near West 12th Street, posted a call for help on GoFundMe. Organized by Gabriel Nussbaum and Happy David, the donation page is requesting funds to help keep the diner open, due to costs associated with the forced dismantling its dining shed and renovation costs.
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“The mayor said the dining sheds have to come down,” said the GoFundMe page. “Bonbonniere survived COVID because of your support and because of its dining shed success. Who could have guessed that eating in the middle of 8th avenue would become part of our routine?”
This call for help seemingly resulted from the ongoing saga of dining sheds in New York. As reported on Time Out, Saturday, August 3, was the deadline for restaurants to reapply for the new program for outdoor dining, Dining Out NYC. Restaurants that did not apply must remove their current outdoor dining set ups. Failure to comply will result in fines, starting with $500 for the first offense, and going upwards of $1,000 a day. And while the new guidelines will help to standardize the outdoor dining program—including rules around walkways and approved structures—according to owner Gus Maroulletis, the costs to participate in the program are left to restaurants to figure out.
“More than 30,000. Take it down, put it back maybe 50,000, 60,000 and now November I have to take it out again," said Maroulletis to Fox 5.
New York’s unofficial talent scout, Nicholas Heller (@newyorknico) is helping to spread the word, calling out to his community to help while detailing where the funds would go. Shooting for a goal of $100,000, the money raised would go toward removing the outdoor structure, a new awning to help prevent flooding, interior restoration and to help support staff during the renovations. If they raise enough funds, the diner will reinstate their outdoor dining structure in 2025, aligning with the new code.
Translating to “a little candy dish,” La Bonbonniere has been in operation since the 1930s. Currently owned by Maroulletis and Marina Cortez Arrieta, the doors of the diner have remained open through it all, including 9/11, the blackout of 2003 and Hurricane Sandy. And while they have helped their community, in return, the community helped them right back. Struggling to keep its doors open during the pandemic, the diner launched its first-ever GoFundMe on March 26, 2020. The initial posting requested funds to help survive closures, abide by city mandates and help with lost wages.
“Right now it’s just the owners, Marina and Gus, working seven days, all the boys have been sent home, and they’re pulling in nothing, maybe $120 a day, trying to keep it alive,” said the original post in 2020. “When the city reopens, what will the city be, without a place like Bonbonniere? If Bonbonniere is gone when we’re all back in business and hungry for lunch, then what has New York become?” said the original post.
The owners still hope that they won’t know a city without their restaurant and hope that this last push will keep them open for the future ahead.
“If it outlasted the covid shutdown, it can survive the dining shed teardown … but not without some love from the neighborhood,” reads the donation page.
As of this writing, the GoFundMe has raised over $82,000 with a goal of $100,000. To learn more and donate, head to the page here.