Even temporary outdoor restaurant areas are stretching skyward in Manhattan — with an East Village eatery getting busted Friday trying to build a duplex dining shed.
“What the actual f***? A 2 Floor shed being built!” tweeted downtown community group LES Dwellers along with photos of the elaborate-looking wooden sidewalk setup being built outside The Izakaya NYC on East 4th Street.
LES Dwellers confirmed that an official complaint had been lodged, and it also got the attention of at least one city council member.
“This is insane,” tweeted Margaret Chin, whose district is further downtown than the eatery, with her message including an exploding-head emoji for added effect.
“Next thing they will be skyscrapers,” another follower tweeted of the double-decker area busily being built early Friday.
Izakaya owner Yudai Kanayama, 30, confirmed to The Post that he had planned to build the two-story shed — but ditched his plans because “people were talking s–t.”
It left him deciding to make “just a rooftop with skylights — no more seating,” he said.
“It’s OK — I have other locations,” he said, without elaborating on whether that meant he had planned similar two-tiered dining areas at his original restaurant a few blocks away on East 6th Street or the offshoot in Ridgewood, Queens.
But even his Plan B was shot down Friday with a ticking off from an inspector for the city’s Department of Transportation, which controls the Open Restaurants regulations allowing outdoor structures amid the pandemic.
“They’re not allowed to be doing that,” said the inspector, who did not give his name but confirmed he was there over a complaint “that it’s dangerous that somebody built that.”
Kanayama was ordered to immediately remove the second level to avoid getting fined, sources confirmed to The Post.
“We’re taking it down,” Kanayama said, with the workers immediately starting to dismantle their work Friday.
An inspector will return next week to check that the order has been abided by, sources said.
A spokesperson for the DOT confirmed to The Post that “two-story outdoor dining structures are not allowed under the Open Restaurants program.”
“While we celebrate Open Restaurants, dangerous structures on our streets are unacceptable. DOT will require any unsafe structures to be removed immediately,” the rep said.
Kanayama insisted the knock-back would not deter him from still using the outdoor area, even if it was forced to remain grounded.
The old shed had been a point of pride for the Japanese restaurant, which regularly bragged about its heated Kotatsu seating areas.
Before it started getting torn down, the structure sparked bemused reactions online, with one person writing, “If this weren’t so horrific it would be hilarious.”
Amid the outrage, one commentator instead reckoned the structure “rules” — just for another follower, KarenK, to reply, “Oh, it’ll really ‘rule’ when too many people are up there and it collapses.”
Progressive mayoral hopeful Joycelyn Taylor, meanwhile, called it a perfect example of “give them an inch they’ll take a mile.”
“Only in NYC!” she tweeted.
