Mott Haven is making room for expanded outdoor seating on Alexander Avenue.

Starting Saturday, the entire road between Bruckner Boulevard and 134th Street will be shut down to traffic to allow for more outdoor dining.

Volunteers helped build setups and put up dividers for restaurants, barbershops and other businesses looking to offer outdoor services.

The expansion for businesses to move outdoors was brought to fruition thanks to the Bronx Community Relief Effort, Dine-out NYC and the Department of Transportation.

The Open Streets Dining will continue every Saturday and Sunday on the block until at least Oct. 31.

Hudson Smokehouse owner Kenneth McPartlan says the additional outdoor dining brings a "huge sigh of relief and gratitude."

"We opened up in the middle of March, just a few days before the shutdown," McPartlan says. "So we were hit pretty hard from the get-go and this is going to help tremendously."

Third Avenue Business Improvement District CEO Michael Brady says extra seating is a "godsend" for businesses that lost money during the pandemic.
"We don't know if indoor dining is going to be happening anytime soon and a lot of these restaurants really bank on these holidays to make them whole," Brady says.
If things go well, the initiative will be expanded to every weekend and possibly Thursday and Friday nights.

Officials tell News 12 they hope to bring different people to the area who wouldn't normally be in Mott Haven.

Officials say they hope to bring similar setups to other parts of the Bronx, including Melrose and Westchester Square.