Outdoor dining sheds exploded in popularity during the pandemic and provided spaces where New Yorkers could eat out while observing social distancing. Now, many of them are set to disappear.
Saturday marked the deadline for restaurants to apply for New York City’s new outdoor dining program, known as Dining Out NYC, or dismantle their outdoor setups. Establishments that fail to do so would face a $500 fine for the first offense, and $1,000 for each subsequent offense until the outdoor setup is removed. But a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, which oversees the program, said it had received fewer than 3,000 applications as of Saturday afternoon.
By comparison, some 13,000 establishments participated in the temporary program, Open Restaurants, during the pandemic.
Restaurants participating in the new program will have to pay separate license and revocable consent fees. The license fee, which covers a four-year term, will cost $1,050 for a roadwalk or sidewalk cafe, or $2,100 for both. The revocable consent fee’s cost varies depending on the location and size of the outdoor dining cafe.
Outdoor dining structures will look different under the new guidelines, which also standardize their design. Sidewalk seating areas must remain open and cannot be fully enclosed or roofed. The new designs are likely to cost tens of thousands of dollars, according to official estimates.
The new rules also mean sidewalk sheds will only be erected seasonally, with the season ending on Nov. 29 and resuming on April 1.
Although outdoor dining proved widely popular, not all New Yorkers were fans of the abandoned sheds that now-shuttered restaurants sometimes left behind.
“These deserted dining sheds have become eyesores for neighbors and havens for rats,” Adams said at a 2022 event where he announced the removal of two dozen abandoned outdoor dining structures.
John Rodriguez, owner of Brooklyn restaurant Dos Hermanos, said he didn’t bother to submit an application by Saturday’s deadline because of the cost of storing the sheds during the off season.
“We’re going to have to get rid of it because it’s too expensive,” he said. “We have to take it down every year to rebuild it again. Storage, it’s going to be a big factor.”
“The outdoor area helps us. It might not make a lot of money, but it brings in some money,” Rodriguez said.
For Kayla Michelle Martinez, the loss of many outdoor dining spots meant something she grew to love was mostly going away.
“It creates community when you’re sitting outside. It makes the busy city something nice to just sit down and relax and just people watch,” Martinez said as she sipped coffee in a dining shed outside a cafe in Fort Greene.
“That’s like a big thing about being from New York, is just the fun of watching people and sitting outside and especially when it’s warm out,” she added.