This Sprawling Hester Street Dining Shed has HVAC Hookup

Photo: New York Shitty
Pandemic-era dining sheds are veering from the initial purpose, now becoming fully-fledged outdoor dining rooms. Some more brazen than others, like the one at Izakaya on East Fourth Street which briefly flirted with a mezzanine level.
Ambition is in the curbside air. Restaurants are now installing HVAC systems – mainly window units – in order to help keep customers cool while dining in these street shanties. For instance, at Hou Yi Hot Pot at 94 Hester Street installed a professional air conditioning system on its block-spanning dining room.
Which is great and all, but doesn’t enclosing the shed to keep it cool defeat the initial aim of the shed as part of Open Restaurants? To deter large parties from gathering indoors where proper ventilation is suspect. Guess it’s just recreating the same issue on the sidewalk.

Photo: New York Shitty