It’s the end of an era for New York City: Many of the outdoor dining structures that sprung up out of necessity during the pandemic and now remain, depending on which side of the road you’re standing on, an oasis for sipping cold margaritas or an ugly home for rats, are coming down. Just a small fraction of the thousands of restaurants who utilized al-fresco dining plan to keep the sheds up under new city rules that kick in this weekend.
At their peak, over 12,000 restaurants utilized outdoor dining as they sought an answer to keep diners safe during the worst of COVID starting in 2020.
But under the new program, a scant 15% or so — around 2,000 restaurants — have applied to keep their outdoor dining set-ups, according to numbers from the city Department of Transportation, which oversees the program. Those include applications for both sidewalk cafes and retaining outdoor sheds. Around 940 restaurants have applied for sidewalk café set-ups, 500 for roadway dining and nearly 500 have applied for both, as of Friday afternoon.
The reasons for the low numbers vary, including more stringent city regulations, new fees and the logistical challenge of disassembling the sheds and storing them during the winter months. But, whatever the reason, the result will be fewer seats, fewer sheds, and for some small businesses, less income. New Yorkers will start to see the changes immediately.
“It’s going to be a shock for the system,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance.
For over four years, restaurants have been able to set tables and chairs out in the streets and on sidewalks for free and under looser city regulations than existed before the pandemic. The Department of Transportation estimates that several thousand restaurants continue to offer outdoor dining, according to a DOT spokesperson.
While some outdoor dining sheds are well-maintained, others quickly fell into disrepair, with graffiti, noise and trash. Some neighbors were up and arms about how the sheds, they said, and lawsuits even challenged the city’s program in court, slowing down progress on the permanent program.
Opponents of the outdoor dining program even blamed an explosion in the city’s rat population on the structures, saying they were magnets for the rodents looking for scraps of food.
The City Council moved slowly to reach the legislation making the permanent program, mulling over different set-ups, finally signing off on the program a year and a half after it was first introduced.
Starting Saturday, Aug. 3, the deadline for businesses to apply to keep their existing set-ups or start taking them down, new city rules on the dining structures will kick into effect. With the formal application process and new restrictions, businesses have had to make tough choices about how to move forward.
Roadway dining structures, like sheds in the street, will only be allowed between April 1 and November 29 every year under the new rules, and must be disassembled and stored away during the winter months. Sidewalk cafes will be permitted year-round.
“I think we’ll see a significant reduction in the amount of outdoor dining across the five boroughs, but we’re hoping that many more restaurants submit their application before the deadline,” Rigie said, adding that, based on the total number of applications submitted by the deadline, he thinks the city will have to re-evaluate and make some changes to the rules and the application processes — which include extending the application deadline.
Charlie Marshall, owner of The Marshal in Hell’s Kitchen, said outdoor dining was a boon to his business during the pandemic. It allowed the shoebox restaurant to expand its footprint and seat more people. However, his restaurant is ineligible to apply to the new program because it’s located in a no-standing zone on 10th Avenue, although they did apply for the new sidewalk seating program.
To make up for any lost revenue, Marshall said, he plans to focus more on catering and special events.
“Anybody’s in the restaurant business, they know that you’re just constantly adapting, especially during the pandemic,” he said. “This is just one more thing we have to adapt to.”
Anthony Galan, a manager at Bella Luna on the Upper West Side, said the restaurant took their outdoor dining sheds down in July in anticipation of the new rules.
“We were just told to take them down, and we did,” he said, adding that it wasn’t feasible for them to keep their set-up, which served 30 people at a time, under the new city rules. “It was kind of an ordinance by the city at that point.”
Application fees are $1,050 if applying for either sidewalk dining or sheds in the street, or $2,100 for both. There’s also a security deposit and an annual fee that ranges from $6 to $31 per square foot.
“Outdoor dining enriches our communities, and we’re excited to make it a permanent feature of New York City streets,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “Our new outdoor dining program is the largest and best in America, and I encourage all interested restaurants to apply.
Jason Birchard, the third-generation owner of Veselka in the East Village, said that the decision to keep the outdoor dining setup was a no-brainer.
“It’s always been positive for me, regardless of the fee,” Birchard said. “It’s not outrageous — I mean, it was better when it was free, but regardless of that, it was still a win, win for me. I think New Yorkers liked the ability to eat outside.”
Birchard said he’s following all the new protocols and has submitted his application through the city’s portal.
The new rules were finalized in February after a lengthy rulemaking process during which the city received feedback from restaurant owners and residents.