New operators for food services coming to Orchard Beach

Orchard Beach needs a new vendor for food services.

The Bronx Riviera is in need of food.

The city's Department of Parks & Recreation announces that a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) has been issued for the renovation, operation and maintenance of three snack bars and the operation of up to 20 mobile food units at Orchard Beach.

“For more than 75 years, Orchard Beach has served as the Riviera of the Bronx, delighting New Yorkers with its 1.1 mile sandy beach and promenade,” said Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “No trip to the beach is complete without delicious food and we are hoping to find high quality, interesting food offerings for the beach’s snack bars and carts.”

The deadline for RFP submissions is Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 at 3 p.m.

The contract expired at the end of the 2011 summer season for the previous company that ran food services.

Jump below to find out where you can obtain the RFP if you're interested.

Orchard Beach, the Bronx Riviera, named #2 in the City

A report on city beaches released last week has gotten quite a bit of attention, but no one has really discussed Orchard Beach (no one talks about second place). But from where Orchard Beach's shoreline used to be, to where it is now (the best in the city), it just shows what the parks department can do when it really puts everything else on the back burner and focuses on something (yes, that was a very backhanded compliment. Just pick up the Riverdale Review to see the saga of Memorial Grove.)

Anyways, for your consideration, here is a story from this week's Bronx Press.

By Brendan McHugh

Orchard Beach during the July 4 celebration.

The titanic improvements to Orchard Beach’s shoreline earlier this year vaulted the Bronx Riviera to the second best beach in the city, a new report claims.

A 27-page report, completed by the century-old organization New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P), shows sweeping improvements for all of the city’s municipal beaches. The report measured the quality of shoreline, drinking fountains, bathrooms and pathways.

“The news is overwhelmingly good,” the report said. “The city’s beaches have shown extraordinary progress since the first Report Card on Beaches in 2007.”

In 2007 and 2009, Orchard Beach received grades of “Challenged.” But in 2011, mainly due to vast improvements to the shoreline, received the second best grade overall, including a perfect 100/100 on the quality of the shoreline and a 98/100 on the pathways. 

“While every feature showed improvement, shorelines improved most dramatically, rising from a grade of F in 2009 to a perfect score of 100 in 2011,” the report said. 

Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers and the city’s parks department put $13 million dollars into the beach, re-grading the land with 268,000 cubic yards of new white sand. As part of the Orchard Beach Shoreline Protection Project, the Bronx Riviera nearly doubled in size during the five-month project.

Prior to the reconstruction, the 1.1-mile-long shoreline was so bad that beachgoers had to take a literal step down to enter the water.

Jump below for the rest of the story.

Two weeks left of SalsaFest

Photo courtesy of Marisol Diaz.

I've always been a bit jealous of some of the other boroughs (the one with the "too big to fail companies" and those on Long Island). It always seems like they have the best free concerts. However, because of a new summer concert series at Orchard Beach, the Bronx is showing that it has the ability to host those same great concerts.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and new hairdo (or lack thereof) helped kicked off SalsaFest over the weekend in the first of a three-weekend concert series in the Bronx.

A Warm-Up party preceded the concert last Thursday at Pregones Theater, where there was a screening of the award-winning documentary by City Lore, "From Mambo To Hip Hop, A South Bronx Tale” followed by a discussion on the history of salsa music by film co-producer Elena Martinez and multi-Grammy nominated percussionist Bobby Sanabria, who was inducted to the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2006 and appears in the film.

“The Bronx helped propel salsa into an international phenomenon, and we’re welcoming visitors and native New Yorkers to experience it here this weekend in what will become a new annual celebration,” Diaz said. “With the popularity of TV shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ more people than ever are curious about this rich, rhythmic music. The weekend festival is a chance to put down the remote and put on your dancing shoes.”

The first ever “Bronx SalsaFest” continues at Orchard Beach with two more weekends packed with live music and dancing.

On Sunday, July 17, jazz legend and Grammy award-winning flutist Dave Valentin performs live at Orchard Beach. On Sunday, July 24, sizzling salsa returns to the beach with popular band Tipica 73.

Both concerts are part of the Summer Music at Orchard Beach concert series hosted by Diaz and the Bronx Tourism Council. The events are sponsored by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Bronx Lebanon Hospital and Latino Sports. Sets start at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

For more information visit ilovethebronx.com and bronxsalsafest.com.

I'm not much of a salsa fan, but if the crowds are passionate enough for this, I can imagine the borough's "music leaders" (whomever they may be) could entice some of those great free Central Park concerts to shuffle up here. Or is that just a pipe dream?