As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted... I had just started a column on the New York restaurant business on September 11th when the first plane hit the World Trade Centre, and of course it never got written. So here goes again, and now that six weeks have passed, it is clear that however badly restaurants in the Big Apple were doing before September 11th, they are in much worse shape now.

More than 70 restaurants in Manhattan have closed since September 11th, including American Park, Roy's, Hudson River Club, Au Mandarin, Grill Room and Coco Marina. Some 15,000 chefs, waiters and managers have lost their jobs, according to Tim Zagat, chairman of the New York visitors' and convention bureau and publisher of the Zagat Survey restaurant guide - and there will be thousands more laid off this winter.

Little Italy in lower Manhattan for example, which depends almost totally on out-of-town tourists, is dying. On Friday, the popular Due Amici restaurant had three tables of diners, which was at least better than Wednesday when no one at all showed up from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. "We're afraid the European tourists won't come for the holidays, or after," said manager Emanuele Braico.

In fashionable TriBeCa nearer the disaster site, many eating establishments were closed for several days and when they re-opened there were few customers.

But bad news for restaurateurs can be good news for diners. Not so long ago it was difficult to get a table at the TriBeCa Grill, Robert de Niro and Drew Nieporent's trendy New American spot on Greenwich Street - just five blocks from where the World Trade Centre stood. We went there on September 24th, the day it reopened, and found it empty but for three other tables; we had the full solicitous attention of the manager and chef who came by our table to ask if everything was to our liking.

So when we decided to go to the TriBeCa Grill again on Friday, we didn't bother making a reservation. Big mistake. The joint was packed. Unable to make himself heard, the manager just shrugged and indicated the roomful of cheerful, noisy customers, including Bill Clinton and the TV sitcom actor, Jerry Seinfeld, hemmed in at the very table where we had dined in splendid isolation four weeks ago.

It was the same story nearby at Chanterelle - and at Rocco's and Nobu. So we decided to try for a spaghetti del padrino at Gigino's Trattoria which is just a block from the Ground Zero exclusion zone. It also was booked out, with a queue of hopefuls at the door, and we were lucky eventually to get a tiny space in the crammed, noisy Flor de Sol next door.

At least Gigino's had a special explanation for its dinner rush. A film called Dinner Rush has just opened in New York which was shot in the barn-like restaurant featuring Danny Aiello as the owner who is terrorised by loan sharks from Queen's, who want to take over the establishment. So it is really trendy to dine at Gigino's, where Danny Aiello has his own table.

The surge in popularity of TriBeCa restaurants could otherwise be attributed to two things, explained Ana Marie Mormando, director of the seven-member "Once Is Not Enough Restaurant Group" which includes Gigino's.

One reason is a discount "Restaurant Week" in Manhattan with special deals to lure customers back. The other is a TriBeCa Chamber of Commerce promotion to encourage people to come downtown again, backed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who also dined in TriBeCa Grill to push the city's new ad campaign: "Volunteers needed. To grab a bite. To catch a show. To shop. To see a ball game. To go to a museum. To jog in the park. To laugh. To be New Yorkers again."

So, ironically, it has become quite the thing to be seen dining on the fringe of the war zone. And it helps that the best restaurants are located there. "TriBeCa managed to maintain its good neighbourhood feeling despite the fact that it had started to become so fashionable," said Ms Mormando.

"I mean, even the so-called stars that moved down here were looking for a second (Greenwich) village and like it because it is more comfortable and family oriented."

"I'd say trade has come back very strongly, considering everything," said Tracy Nieporent, marketing director for the Myriad Restaurant Group which operates Nobu and the TriBeCa Grill.

"The mood is starting to pick up. I wouldn't say people are walking around with lampshades on their heads, but they're not perpetually solemn. People are celebrating birthdays again, throwing parties, showing that terrorism is not going to stop them living their lives."

But overall, the September 11th strike against New York was a disaster for the restaurant business all across Manhattan, which depends on the fourth quarter to make 35-40 per cent of annual revenue, according to Mr Zagat. He pointed out that restaurants may look full but are good at hiding trouble by pulling out tables to look busier.

Sales are down 47 per cent and newer restaurants without a good reputation and customer base are teetering on bankruptcy.

"Throughout the city it was unlike anything we had seen before, absolutely," said Ms Mormando, referring to the aftermath of the attacks. "The fourth quarter is the quarter where everyone really gears up. Naturally, the summer was a little softer than last year, when we had a fabulous year along with the economy, but we had a very wonderful first week in September throughout our company at least." In one area - the suburbs - restaurants are doing better than before. They do not depend on visitors, and fewer borough residents go to Manhattan now to dine, said Mr Zagat.

During the early days of the emergency, many restaurants provided food for the rescue workers. Volunteers came to work night shifts, including Harrison Ford and Brooke Shields, who served helpings of top-notch cuisine at Bouley Bakery on West Broadway. New York's chief tourism promoter, Cristyne Nicholas, put perhaps the best spin on events when she said she would like to think the donations would encourage a taste for fine dining among an untapped resource.

"I hope when this is over," she said, that the rescue workers "will be going to Le Cirque and Jean-Georges."