Senior center café gets outfitted with a touch of class from a New York staple

This summer, senior centers across the city have reopened after more than a year of closures due to COVID. 
One Inwood senior center is getting a new outdoor café, with a touch of iconic class from a legendary New York five star hotel.

In the courtyard of a senior center at NYCHA’s Dyckman Houses in Inwood, seniors were stepping out is style Friday — by just stepping outside. 

After a tough year of isolation and loneliness, there’s lots of food and fun with a historical twist. Carol Weeks, the program director at the center, said familiar tables recently added to the courtyard were a standard from the former Bull and Bear Steakhouse at the Waldorf Astoria. 

John Thompson, 74, who lives at the Dyckman Houses, said he loves “The elegance of the tables, and [to] come out have lunch with your friends and pretend you are at the Waldorf.”

Its one of the only outdoor cafe areas specifically for NYCHA residents — a big victory for the neighborhood and huge step forward helping the community get back to normal, said the president of New York Foundation for Senior citizens, Linda Hoffman, who runs the center.

According to NYC’s Department for the Aging 98% of older adult centers are open and serving meals right now. NYCHA’s LaGuardia houses and Mott Street senior centers are next, getting a makeover Waldorf style, too.