#The Rooftop at Pier 17 is new hot spot at South Street Seaport

With the threat of the coronavirus still wafting through the summer air, restaurants located on New York-area waterfronts are having a velvet-rope moment.

The Rooftop at Pier 17 — part of Howard Hughes Corp.’s South Street Seaport redevelopment — launched its new backyard experience called The Greens on Aug. 1 — and already, its patches of fake grass are booked through the end of the month, the Web site shows.

The Greens offers 28 socially distanced mini-lawns — complete with cabanastyle lounge chairs, umbrellas, Yeti coolers and USB ports on a massive roof overlooking the East River. Each socially distanced patch is 14-by-14 feet and can accommodate up to eight people.

There’s also a 32-footwide LED screen to watch sports and movies while food and drinks get delivered to your patch. Think lobster rolls for $26, hummus and pita for $14, or a Veuve Clicquot package for two that costs $221. The latter comes with a yellow-label bottle of the French champagne, a shrimp cocktail and two cheddar burgers.

The rentals cost $1.59 per 90-minute session — a booking fee that’s donated to The Bowery Mission to help feed those in need. (And yes, that could feel awkward for couples who just threw down $221 on the Veuve Clicquot package.) The next bookings, for Aug. 31, opened on Monday.

In Harlem, restaurateurs Ian Duke and Michael Trenk have docked a Vietnam-era helicopter carrier at the West Harlem Piers and turned it into a floating restaurant that opened its doors last month.

The Baylander— which offers beachy bar foods like beer-battered fish-andchips tacos for $12 and a frozen rum-based lemonade for $10 — has been drawing big crowds, especially in the late afternoon, Duke told Side Dish.

“We have lines around sunset,” he said. “People want to see the sunset from the water.”

Despite high demand, running a restaurant during the coronavirus is no walk in the park, Duke admitted. Like all other outdoor restaurants, the Baylander still suffers from reduced dining capacity due to social distancing requirements and an inability to shelter customers from bad weather conditions, including last week’s heat wave.

Prior to the coronavirus, Baylander had been anticipating room for 200 seats, including indoor dining. Now it can accommodate just 125 people.

“Everything new and different takes time,” Duke said.

“Based on what our guests are saying, we hope we did it right. It’s doing well. Everyone wants to be outside.

“We’re providing a safe, friendly environment that feels about as normal as we believe it can be.”

Eliana Stefanitsis is hoping that her waterfront seafood restaurant in Edgewater, NJ, benefits from the surge of people looking for an escape from the concrete jungle when it opens later this week.

“It gives people a chance to feel like they’ve left the city, even if they are just 15 minutes away,” said Stefanitsis, who plans to launch a surf-and-turf menu — including sushi, an oystershucking marble bar and 15pound lobsters — which was delayed in April due to the coronavirus.

The Yacht Club’s lighthouse-shaped facade guides diners to the massive 13,000-square-foot waterfront eatery, which will offer tented outdoor seating for 75 people overlooking the water.

Inside there are seats for 300 people, including a main dining room and a private room, for when indoor dining returns.

The menu offers fish tacos for $12 and a $59 seafood tower that includes oysters, clams, mussels, crab claws, crawfish, shrimp, lobster and crabmeat.

“At this point, we can only think optimistically and say that things can only get better,” said Stefanitsis, who owns the eatery with her dad, Jerry Stefanitsis. “Even though we have restrictions, we take them as challenges to work a little harder and follow our passion and not be compromised by the pandemic.