On a New York City avenue near midtown Manhattan's Restaurant Row, several former restaurant windows are currently dotted with For Lease signs. But one features a surprising promise in the middle of a pandemic: "Coming Soon." "I want to go forward — no surrender," said Salvatore Fraterrigo, who placed that sign at his Sicilian restaurant Norma, a 70-seat trattoria set to open this month after the pandemic pushed back a planned spring launch.

Opening a restaurant in America's most expensive city is daunting at any time. But doing so during the coronavirus crisis is forcing nascent New York City restaurateurs to cook up survival strategies before they even take their first orders.