Morningside Cafe
Did you know that way back in 2001 the Parks Department put out a Request for Propsals (RFP) for a cafe concession in Morningside Park at the plaza overlooking the ballfields at the south end of the park. The result was the Muscoota cafe kiosk which operated for a short time at that location. Ever since Muscoota went out of business we have advocated for reissuing an RFP and a couple of unsucessful attempts to revive this cafe location were made. The subsequent RFP's got no bidders until finally a new RFP was released by NYC Parks in January of 2019.
Our organization sprang into action to solicit potential bidders from the neighborhood. Eventually the city selected a successful local bidder. We attended all of the public reviews of the project and introduced the concessionaire at our community events and are just thrilled that now in the Spring of 2024 construction is underway as seen below.
We are told that the Morningside Cafe intends to open its kiosk for business before the end of the summer. The cafe will operate on a seasonal schedule April - October going forward. The cafe will close at 9pm. We recently were happy make introductions for the concessionaire at Manhattan Community Board 9 where he will be applying for a license to sell beer, wine and cider along with his food offerings.
Crabman Mike is a second generation Harlem business. We are thrilled to welcome him to the park and can't wait to sample some of his seafood!
