New York City is known for many things – the hustle and bustle of Times Square, the iconic skyline of Manhattan, and of course, its vibrant and diverse nightlife scene.
From trendy rooftop bars to underground clubs, the city truly offers something for everyone. But as the city continues to evolve, so too does its nightlife.
“Nightlife Mayor” Jeffrey Garcia, the Executive Director of New York City’s Office of Nightlife, is poised to tackle the challenges and changes that lie ahead.
Garcia brings a successful career in the hospitality industry to the post. With a background in restaurant management and event planning, Garcia brings a unique perspective to his new role.
His experience in the industry has given him a deep understanding of the needs and challenges facing businesses in the nightlife sector.
This knowledge will undoubtedly be an asset as he navigates the complexities of New York City’s nightlife scene.
From the challenges of crime, congestion pricing to the impact of sanitation, Garcia hopes to create a more enjoyable and accessible nightlife experience for New Yorkers and the City’s millions of guests.
Total Food Service sought out Jeffrey Garcia with a goal of sharing his vision for shaping the future of New York City nightlife.
With a deep understanding of the needs and challenges facing businesses in the nightlife sector, Garcia is well-equipped to tackle the complexities of this dynamic industry as he ushers in a new era of nightlife in the city that never sleeps.
For those who don’t know you, can you share a little bit about your background?
I am a New York City kid, born and raised in Washington Heights. My mother migrated here from the Dominican Republic. I went to the Good Shepherd School up in Washington Heights.
Then eventually my mother sent me to the Dominican Republic to live with my grandparents when I was a little kid. We eventually came back to the Bronx.
Talk about your career in law enforcement?
After a short stint working in retail, I joined the police department. In 2014 I retired as a first-grade detective, which is one of the highest ranks you could achieve within that structure.
Then after I retired 10 years ago, I got into the restaurant and nightlife industry as an owner.
How did your work on the police force prepare you for the restaurant industry?
In both cases, it’s really about dealing with people you know, because I did deep undercover work for many years and in many ways, it is all about acting.
I found that I really enjoy just talking and dealing with people and the food industry allows you to do that. In 2015 with other stakeholders, we launched the Latino Restaurant Association to tackle advocacy.
We found that there were many Latinos in the industry, but they had very little representation. We really had no voice but deserved to sit at the table.
It took a lot of hard work, and getting an association off the ground required getting a number of people to trust what we were going to do for them.
What impact did the Pandemic have on launching the organization?
It gave us a common issue: funding to survive that created a frenzy.
COVID gave us that seat at the table. We really got a lot of exposure, but most importantly we were able to help a lot of Latino restaurant and bar owners.
If you remember with the first rounds of PPP loans that came out from the government, none of that funding went to minority business owners.
We got a hold of our local Congressman up in Washington Heights and told him, listen, what’s going on here. Our owners need help and none of this money got to us.
So, he went on the floor of Congress, really pushed and eventually, that second round of PPP went at least initially, mostly to minority businesses.
We were able to secure at least 2 to $3 million between local CDFIs in the Bronx to help business owners throughout the city. That accomplishment-built credibility for us with the City.
We were then able to work with the City to get thousands of masks, PPE equipment, hand sanitizers, thermometers for our member restaurants to take temperatures and keep safe.
You got an education in how City government works!
Absolutely, a real understanding of how the NYC’s agencies and SBS can help local businesses. It was a good experience with a lot of hardships and, tragedy to work through.
It gave business owners an understanding that they kind of need to learn more about their businesses and they can’t just depend on their accountant or bookkeeper.
With the first step being to understand their POS system so that they can extract information. They need to understand how to get their tax reports and the documents they needed to be able to get approved for these loans and grants.
How did the opportunity come along with the City to become the next Executive Director of nightlife?
I heard about the position when it first came up and thought I should apply. I’m very honest with myself and I simply didn’t think I was ready at that time.
But it continued to intrigue me to be a voice for this industry that means so much to the City. When I heard that Ariel Palitz was leaving, the timing felt right.
I knew that I had learned and really grinding to support our Latino Restaurant Association members.
I had been doing the work in so many lanes that fit what the kind of experience needed.
I began the application process and I’m happy that the mayor chose me. I’m here and excited every day.
What is the agenda that you inherited from Ariel?
I’ve only been here for six months but it feels like I’ve been here forever. I had a big advantage of having worked with many of the players already.
Ariel did a great job of leaving us teed up. At the top of that list is how law enforcement engages with nightlife and restaurants throughout the city.
We have been able to continue to work on eliminating very harsh and demeaning enforcement tactics being done to this industry.
So, it was all about nightclubs, bars and restaurants being penalized?
Exactly. Penalized and eventually shutting a business down. We forget that owners in many cases had to borrow money from family and friends to open the businesses.
In many cases, both the families that operate these businesses and the 20 plus employees and their families depend on these jobs to survive in the City.
Unfortunately for whatever the reasons were, it didn’t happen before Ariel left but we were able to get it done last year. We’ve been able to build an engaging partnership with the NYPD.
My understanding of what makes them tick has helped us. It needs to work from the top down with precinct commanders and talking to their special ops lieutenants who then tell their guys.
Because bottom line is the relationship we have with the local uniform cop, who is walking into these establishments every day.
Is the bottom line the position is you’d like to see more, less, or same in terms of patrols on the street at night?
Our mayor has always said that public safety is the priority for prosperity here. Obviously public safety is needed if people are going to want to be out at night and want to, take the train or drive, people need to feel safer to visit the City.
We want the right type of policing being done to make people feel safe. Without that it simply won’t work.
The other issue that’s out there right now is congestion pricing and the impact on the industry.
I need to defer to the Mayor on this. He says that maybe it should be revisited.
I know they have a 4,000-page report that justifies why all that needs to get done. But I think a lot of the businesses are really, really going to feel this.
That you’re coming out to a restaurant in New York City and you’re coming from Jersey, which a lot of people do on the weekends. You’re talking about, $120 right off the bat, just to get into the city, park, gas, tolls.
And I think that can have a real impact on the amount of folks that really come out.
What about the financial impact on the liquor/beer or food distributor, being able to deliver product to the City’s restaurants and nightclubs?
The consumer will end up with paying more. The restaurant owner can’t just take on all these costs with everything that’s higher from minimum wages to higher costs for products.
What do you think best practices are for NYC to deal with waste, trash and rats?
While I was still in my advocate role, I worked very closely with the hospitality alliance and city government, on this new implementation of containerized carting.
With the food establishments, they were the very first ones to start that program right now and all businesses now have to do it. It will move into residential as well.
I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like I’ve seen less rats ever since we started doing that. I had some skepticism as to how it would work and small establishments and where would they keep these things and how would they look, but I think the program overall is doing really well.
I think compliance within restaurants, at least from what I see is good.
What impact do you think the changes in the City’s outdoor dining program will have on the rat and sanitation issues?
Again, in my former role as advocate was the criticism of the sheds. With those now essentially eliminated or replaced with new structures with the new permanent program, we will see improvement.
Remember during Covid, in many cases restaurants survived because of their outdoor dining programs. It was a lifeline for this industry that helped save or bring back a hundred thousand jobs.
We are in a very different place now. Many operators are analyzing does this still make sense for us? I think you’ll see the program self-regulate.
When you get up in the morning, what are you thinking about every day to maximize the impact of the office?
I see us as a liaison between city government and our associations and alliances and their operator members. Our job is to make their daily work easier.
How can we make an enforcement more palatable? What happens when they have to deal with a fine? Is it something that is curable or how can we make it curable?
We want to offer some peace of mind for them by knowing that they have an advocate in city government that is here to work for them. We expanded our programs to include commercial lease assistance and capital finance programs.
We can also assist with pre-inspections or help you with walkthroughs and identifying potential pitfalls. Really trying to get the voice that we’re here to help and educate.
How will the change at the top of the SLA (State Liquor Authority) impact the industry?
They do have a new leader in Lily Fan. I think she understands small business and is from NYC. We would like to see inspectors that are pro-business.
Just like we were talking about with the NYPD, it needs to filter down from the top. We want to develop an understanding of when they inspect, what is it that happened and what’s going on? How can we mitigate the issues? So far, we’ve been working well with them.
We meet with some of the inspectors while we’re out doing educational meetings at the precinct level or borough levels. We get to engage a lot with them.
I think that the relationship will get better, and I think we’ll be able to do better work, but it’s going to take some time.
If I’m a restaurateur or bar operator, I have several options of where to turn for guidance. Where does your office fit?
If you’re even starting a business or even thinking about it, we can help. The Alliance and the State Restaurant Association can help with legislation and educational tools. Our role is to help you with anything having to do with city government from permitting to issues with fines.
If you’re going to start a business in New York City and you reach out to us, you could probably open up in half the time than if you were doing it by yourself, because this is what we’re here for.
What’s the next step to access your team?
We have a hotline number @ 917-273-0065 and email nightlife@sbs.nyc.gov for you to reach us. Our webpage is Nightlife. Social media is also a big way for them to do that as well.
What’s the impact and the legacy that you’d like to create?
I would like to see more nightlife and for NYC to continue being this vibrant, wonderful city. I just read a number that one in every three tourists that travels here has nightlife as a priority.
We need to continue to make sure that the city is safe for people to come and enjoy it. We also want to continue to make sure that we grow nightlife throughout the city, because what we’ve realized from the pandemic and post pandemic is that there’s so many great places in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
So, it’s not just Manhattan that they have now to enjoy.
All photos courtesy of NYC Office of Nightlife
To learn more about Jeffrey Garcia and the NYC Office of Nightlife, visit their website.
