# Are There Infinite Restaurants in Manhattan?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 7, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521 "2022-11-07T18:52:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/1 "2022-11-07T18:52:12Z")
Say I live in Manhattan with sufficient time and money. I decide to experience every food option in the city, so I eat dinner at a different restaurant every night. Will I eventually run out of restaurants or is there on average more than one new restaurant being opened every day on the island?
Would the answer be different if I were to eat both lunch and dinner each at a new place each day?
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/2 "2022-11-07T18:55:53Z")
This is a great question, which I have always assumed to be true. When I lived briefly in other cities, I commented that they were fine, but Manhattan is essentially infinite. I love that you use the same terminology for the same reason.
I’m sorry I don’t have an FQ answer, but I look forward to someone coming in with one.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/3 "2022-11-07T19:01:53Z")
OK, these numbers may be skewed because of the pandemic, and it says “NYC” not Manhattan, so may include the boroughs, but wow:
> **[A Record Number of Restaurants Are Opening in New York City. Sort Of.](https://ny.eater.com/2021/7/23/22526288/nyc-restaurant-renaissance-restaurant-openings-2021)**
>
> After a year of COVID-related ups and mostly downs, New York City is experiencing one of its busiest seasons for restaurant openings in over a year.
> Close to 700 restaurants opened their doors between March and May 2021, according to the latest available data from Yelp, but more than 1,000 opened over that same period in 2019. In May, typically one of the year’s busiest months for restaurant openings, the number of new openings dropped by 300 restaurants from 2019 to 2021.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/4 "2022-11-07T19:02:26Z")
The answers appear to be, yes there are effectively an endless supply of new places to eat in Manhattan. As an example:
> **[A Record Number of Restaurants Are Opening in New York City. Sort Of.](https://ny.eater.com/2021/7/23/22526288/nyc-restaurant-renaissance-restaurant-openings-2021)**
>
> After a year of COVID-related ups and mostly downs, New York City is experiencing one of its busiest seasons for restaurant openings in over a year.
> Close to 700 restaurants opened their doors between March and May 2021, according to the latest available data from Yelp, but more than 1,000 opened over that same period in 2019.
Someone did some of the math, but didn’t account for openings:
> **[It Would Take 22.7 Years to eat at Every New York City Restaurant](https://vinepair.com/booze-news/new-york-restaurants-eat-at-every-on/)**
>
> You can't walk a New York City block without passing a restaurant. But how long would it take to eat at them all? We crunched the numbers.
> If you want to make this Herculean task of eating at every restaurant listed on Open Table in New York City, you can make it something more manageable by breaking it up by borough. It’d take 12 years for Manhattan,
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/5 "2022-11-07T19:04:14Z")
I was just about to post that second one!
I imagine that over 22.7 years, an additional few restaurants may have opened…
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/6 "2022-11-07T19:05:48Z")
And how many will close before you ever go through their doors?
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/7 "2022-11-07T19:06:09Z")
Add in street vendors and food trucks, and infinite food choices expand even further.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/8 "2022-11-07T19:06:27Z")
Lots but the turnover per year appears to be higher than needed.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/9 "2022-11-07T19:08:44Z")
If you add in street vendors and food trucks, maybe it goes from countable infinity to uncountable?
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/10 "2022-11-07T19:20:10Z")
Are you counting “ghost kitchens”, which are basically delivery-only restaurants? Because an increasing number are of this variety.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/11 "2022-11-07T19:41:23Z")
Which aleph would that be? If restaurants are like integers (countable infinity) and restaurants plus food trucks/vendors are reals (uncountable), maybe adding in ghost kitchens make it like whatever infinity includes complex numbers.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/12 "2022-11-07T19:58:42Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> If you add in street vendors and food trucks, maybe it goes from countable infinity to uncountable?
OTOH, chain restaurants would reduce the number of restaurants you’d want to visit. I see 12 Burger Kings and 12 Taco Bells in Manhattan, for example; maybe you visit one BK and one TB, but not all 12 of each.
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### Author:  [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/13 "2022-11-07T20:05:19Z")
Yes, I was wondering about chain restaurants. Counting each one separately would make the total number much higher, but I bet that even not doing so the number would be effectively “infinite”.
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### Author:  [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/14 "2022-11-07T20:08:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Are you counting “ghost kitchens”, which are basically delivery-only restaurants? Because an increasing number are of this variety.
Pretty sure Open Table only lists actual restaurants. Not only that, but restaurants which _take reservations,_ excluding a huge number of more casual places.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/15 "2022-11-07T20:15:36Z")
You should follow the example of Wowbagger the Infinitely Well-Fed and do them in alphabetical order.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/16 "2022-11-07T21:03:01Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> Which aleph would that be? If restaurants are like integers (countable infinity) and restaurants plus food trucks/vendors are reals (uncountable), maybe adding in ghost kitchens make it like whatever infinity includes complex numbers.
I know it’s just a joke, but any collection of NY restaurants is aleph-zero. It’s trivial to come up with a system for assigning a unique integer to each possible restaurant. (Or at least until someone’s restaurant concept is designed to break the system, but any such system breaking resaturant could be accommodated.)
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/17 "2022-11-07T21:11:06Z")
> [@naita](#):
>
> …any collection of NY restaurants is aleph-zero. It’s trivial to come up with a system for assigning a unique integer to each possible restaurant. (Or at least until someone’s restaurant concept is designed to break the system, but any such system breaking resaturant could be accommodated.)
There’s probably a Gödel joke in here somewhere…
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/18 "2022-11-07T21:13:18Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> There’s probably a Gödel joke in here somewhere…
Time to start up a Gödel restaurant in NY where there is always one menu item that’s not on the menu.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/19 "2022-11-07T21:24:11Z")
Ah, there’s a good Gödel joke. I lol’d.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-infinite-restaurants-in-manhattan/974521/20 "2022-11-07T22:38:32Z")
And while we’re at it with the mathing, the count of all of the complex numbers is the same as the count of all of the real numbers, which is also the same as the count of all of the real numbers between 0 and 1.
Back on topic, most restaurants are very short-lived, because there are a lot more folks who think they’d run a good restaurant than there are who actually would run a good restaurant. It’s not uncommon for a single location to run through six or eight failed restaurants before getting one that succeeds. So if we restrict ourselves to only restaurants that have been in business for at least, say, two years, or maybe five, we’ll have much fewer restaurants to deal with, because the majority won’t last that long. Any idea if that’s enough to catch up with all of them?
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