#NYC restaurants battling rat problems in early reopening stage

As if New York City restaurants don’t have enough to contend with, they’re now battling armies of rats.

Resilient restaurateurs, battling back from the COVID-19 outbreak and lock-down, are worried that outdoor diners just now returning will flee amid the pesky and persistent vermin.

“Last night, a customer had a baby rat running on his shoe and I let you just imagine his reaction,” said Giacomo Romano, the owner of Ciccio, an Italian restaurant in SoHo, to NBC New York.

Ciccio said the filthy conditions of nearby Father Fagan Park, now a gathering spot for skateboarders, was making the rat problem worse.

“There are a lot of new holes in the ground-cover by the plants,” Romano said.

One parkgoer told the station he watched several rats go from one spot to another as he sat on the park bench.

Pasquale Giacobbe, who owns a barbershop nearby, said, “I already don’t have the help from the state, no loans from nobody. At least they can come do something (about the rats), for all the tax we pay.”