NYC startup deploys reusable outdoor dining shacks

A clampdown in New York City is forcing thousands of restaurants to ditch their outdoor dining pods — and one local startup smells an opportunity.

Architects Nick Flutter and Nikita Notowidigdo, founders of Re-Ply, have created a modular system that can not only build and customize dining huts – but also dismantle and reuse them.

Re-Ply installs the structures in April, takes them down in December and refurbishes, winterizes and stores them during the off-season – and then puts them up again in the spring.

The service is attracting a growing crowd of restaurateurs who spent five and in many cases six figures to build elaborate outdoor dining structures, which they are now being forced to dismantle for good.

“Our company is installing structures now under the new rules,” Flutter said. “We have helped more than 100 restaurants with materials for their 2025 permits.”

While more than 13,000 outdoor dining spots flourished in the Big Apple during the peak of the pandemic, only 2,600 restaurants applied for new post-pandemic outdoor dining permits by the Aug. 3 deadline.

Restaurateur Stratis Morfogen, of Diner24, has hired Re-Ply to rebuild his outdoor space, which he decided to tear down ahead of schedule.

His new structure cost about $35,000 to build, plus an additional $5,800 a year “to install, remove, renovate, winterize, store and reinstall” in the spring.

“Real estate is expensive, and this is a way to expand your real estate,” Morfogen said.

He believes the city needed to get rid of the “equal towns that ruined outdoor dining,” as many dilapidated structures became homes for rats and vagrants.

Other clients include Lowerline, a popular 12-seat New Orleans-inspired venue in Prospect Heights. Its new cover — which has been up for about a week — marks an improvement on the old structure that first went up in 2020, said chef and restaurant owner John Verlander.

Re-Ply built the new Lowerline structure, and Verlander rents it for $1,200 a month, which covers the cost of building, maintaining, installing, storing, removing and putting the structure back up again.

“I was worried about how we were going to be able to do this, tear down a facility for four months of the year, and I was kind of hoping that a company like this would come up with a solution,” Verlander said.

Re-Play’s modular installations come with lightweight roofs, screens, a “mouse-proof perimeter” and an acoustic roof that “deflects sound away from your upstairs neighbors,” according to the company’s website.

Pricing reflects the size and complexity of the structure, and customers are invited to customize. Morfogen said he wanted his shelter to be a pastel purple color to match the neighborhood. The modular structure comes with a banquette for 20 people. He is spending another $4,000 on tables and chairs to seat 20 more people, expanding his total outdoor capacity to 100 seats from 60 before the pandemic.

“The structure is modular, but the finishing touches make it special,” said Morfogen. “They totally incorporated our aesthetic of a cool retro diner. We’re a nice addition to the neighborhood, it’s pretty cool and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.”

The architects work for Australia-based global architecture firm BVN. Re-Ply began during the pandemic, when businesses boarded up with plywood during the Black Lives Matter protests.

“After the city jumped on board, the plywood was removed and put into garbage trucks. We collected it and recycled it,” said Flutter. “We designed a simple external barrier system and made it available cheaply.”

Added Notowidigdo: “As the rules continued to evolve, chairs and tables with barriers turned into a roof and walls and small structures, small buildings on the street. We didn’t expect to be doing this four years later, but it developed into something bigger.”