New York City is now implementing seasonal regulations, requiring all remaining dining booths located on roadways to be dismantled by the end of this week. The future of these dining sheds, widely seen during the pandemic, is currently uncertain and it’s unknown how many will be reinstalled next year.
Earlier in the summer, most of these makeshift outdoor dining areas had been removed, following the termination of the city’s emergency outdoor eating program called ‘Open Restaurants’. This initiative had been introduced as an immediate pandemic response, seeing success across the city.
City records indicate that during the span of the program over the past four years, approximately 13,000 restaurants made use of outdoor dining facilities. Among these, close to 8,000 establishments stretched their arrangements into the roadway, seizing the opportunity to serve customers in a unique, al-fresco setting.
The dining sheds that still remain are associated with food service providers that enlisted for the city’s new enduring alfresco dining initiative, baptized ‘Dining Out NYC’. Under itsegis, this fresh program is designed to be operational during the warmer months, from the beginning of April until the end of November.
Eateries that had submitted their applications in the early days of August had the privilege of maintaining their roadside dining areas throughout the remaining season of this year. This measure was put in place to ensure consistency and minimal disruption to both businesses and patrons.
However, provisions have been made to penalize establishments that allow their dining sheds to remain without the necessary permissions. The city has established a fine system, where an initial violation attracts a penalty of $500. Thereafter, any repeat offenses will incur an escalated fine of $1,000 until the shed’s removal.
When the time comes for these dining sheds to be reinstated next year, they will undoubtedly have a new appearance. This will be a stark contrast to the diverse array of outdoor dining sheds that characterized the streets of New York during the pandemic period.
Under the new ‘Dining Out NYC’ program, supervised by the city Department of Transportation, there will be a shift towards using standardized, modular designs for these outdoor eating areas. The financial implication of this new requirement could see establishments having to fork out tens of thousands of dollars as per the official estimates.
Preliminary reports from the Department of Transportation show that, thus far, about 3,000 applications have been received for the outdoor dining program. These predominantly consist of applications for dining spacings located within roadways, out of which approximately 1,400 have been submitted.
The remainder are applications for sidewalk cafes, which, unlike their roadway counterparts, have the flexibility to operate throughout the year. However, they must adhere to the guideline that their operations should not obstruct pedestrian traffic in any manner.
Applications for both types of dining setups are accepted year-round, helping to accommodate the varying operational seasons of outdoor dining establishments across the city. However, the city’s authorities have not provided any concrete data on how many applications have been approved.