New York City is likely to see a steep drop in restaurants offering outdoor dining in roadways after its permanent al fresco program phases out the pandemic-era structures next month — with less than two dozen restaurants, cafes or bars currently lined up to get roadside "streeteries" approved by the Department of Transportation.
Businesses have three weeks to apply to transition from their temporary street setups to the permanent program — but only 23 have public hearings scheduled so far to move forward, according to city records.
There are "hundreds" more applications pending said officials at DOT, which runs the program, but officials declined to share more detailed numbers.
The emergence of the curbside structures during the pandemic marked a historic reallocation of street space away from parking. But new rules established by the City Council and Mayor Adams last year included the onerous requirement that businesses relinquish the curb and take down their set-ups for the entirety of December, January, February and March. Deterred by the extra cost and hassle, many restaurants have opted not to participate in the roadway program at all.
"Even if we’re going to make a little less money, that’s fine for us not to deal with all this extra work," Thiru Rajamani, owner of Dosa Royale in Fort Greene and Dino in Clinton Hill. "It’s a hassle, putting it up, picking it up."
The city's decision to force the eateries to give up the road space to car parking again between November and April was the key driver for many businesses to abandon outdoor dining in the street, restaurant operators told Streetsblog.
"I am absolutely not doing the roadside, I can’t afford it," said Sam, another Brooklyn restaurateur who asked not to be fully identified. "I can’t afford to build and take down every year, that’s just way beyond any expense a small business can handle."
Several establishments are instead opting for outdoor dining only on the sidewalk, which will remain year-round, following a trend in other cities that scaled back their initiatives.
The drop in participation comes as no surprise to the food and drink business owners that warned repeatedly against the seasonal pause. That may have been the goal all along of leaders like City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who said outdoor dining "should be [on the] sidewalk" in the lead-up to the permanent program's creation.
Low uptake
It's unclear exactly how many restaurants have applied for sidewalk or roadway set-ups under DOT's permanent outdoor dining program, also known as Dining Out NYC. Agency officials declined multiple requests to provide a clear number.
The extent of the drop-off won't become fully clear until the program takes off, but based on preliminary data in public filings, it is poised to echo what happened in Paris two years ago, when the numbers of outdoor structures plummeted from 12,000 to 4,000 after officials in the French capital made their program seasonal. Closer to home, in Philadelphia, the number of participating restaurants fell to just 13 from a high of hundreds.
DOT on Monday released an "urgent notice" reminding establishments to apply with less than a month to go before the deadline — possibly channeling lack of interest so far in the permanent program.
"Act now! Food establishments with existing outdoor dining setups have until August 3 to apply to participate in Dining Out NYC or remove their setups,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez in the release.
Businesses can apply for outdoor dining at any time, but those with existing structures must do so by Aug. 3 to keep them going as they work their way through public review, or else face fines starting at $500 and rising to $1,000.
All roadway café applications have to go through a public hearing, but sidewalk cafés only have to do so in certain cases, such as when the local community board recommends disapproving an application, per the city's rules, so there are probably more applications for setups on the pedestrian spaces.
Only 23 businesses so far have had or are scheduled to have public hearings on roadway café proposals, — along with one restaurants scheduled for a hearing on a sidewalk café — since applications opened in March, according to notices DOT posted in the City Record in May, June, and July.
The public notices are "not the total number of applications submitted," DOT spokesperson Anna Correa told Streetsblog in an email, adding the agency has fielded "hundreds of applications," a vague figure that the agency also provided Gothamist back in May.
DOT declined several requests to explain the discrepancy of the low numbers of notices versus applications, share more detailed numbers or clarify how many were for roadway versus sidewalk setups.
The decrease is dramatic from the more than 12,500 businesses that availed of the outdoor dining program at its peak two years ago, according to research by New York University. DOT estimates that "just a few thousand" restaurants still have their setups in place, Correa said.
The downward trend marks a huge missed opportunity for the city to reallocate a fraction of its curb away from the storage of personal cars, advocates said, urging the Council to rethink the seasonal moratorium.
"Outdoor dining at its peak repurposed about 1 percent of our curbs — why can't restaurants and diners have that tiny percentage of space year round if they choose to?" said Jackson Chabot, Director of Advocacy and Organizing at Open Plans (which shares a parent organization with Streetsblog). "Our city has to be more ambitious than this if we ever hope to create real change."
The decline of outdoor structures also reduces options for people who want to dine while lowering the risk of spreading disease, as Hell Gate reported, as Covid-19 infections are back on the rise this summer.
Back to the curb
Most restaurant owners who spoke to Streetsblog said they will more likely apply for a sidewalk permit only, because they can keep it going year-round.
"We don’t 100 percent know whether we will build one in the street, but we certainly would want to apply to have a sidewalk café at the minimum," said Robert Sanfiz, executive director of La Nacional, a storied Spanish restaurant with an elaborate roadway setup on 14th Street in Manhattan.
"It’s tough, because our space we took great care to make sure we beautified the block," Sanfiz added. "When that is gone it’s going to feel very empty on 14th Street."
Still, Sanfiz and others praised the city for loosening the restrictions on sidewalk cafés compared to the pre-pandemic program, which limited the outdoor seating to just a handful of neighborhoods, largely in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
"We are definitely appreciative of the fact that we can have outdoor sidewalk cafés," Sanfiz said.
The pandemic program expanded outdoor dining from just 1,400 restaurants pre-Covid, and the 2022 NYU study showed it reached into neighborhoods that never had outdoor dining under the old rules.
The 23 roadway cafés in the pipeline so far, while a small data set, are concentrated in wealthier parts of the city, including northern Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan. Only three are in Queens and none are in the Bronx or Staten Island.
One South Bronx coffee shop owner said she was still weighing her options, but dreaded taking down her award-winning street seating structure styled after a graffiti-covered subway car, which became a community hub over the last few years.
"Having to take it down is just super sad to us," said Majora Carter, who runs Boogie Down Grind on Hunts Point Avenue. "The expense of doing that, frankly, is going to be a bit of a problem."
A rep for Council Speaker Adams said they anticipate more applications to roll in closer to the deadline, and defended the part-time program that "strikes the right balance."
"The permanent outdoor dining program, agreed upon by the Council and Mayor Adams' administration, strikes the right balance for restaurants, neighborhoods, and New Yorkers to continue dining outside uninterrupted under a system where laws now apply and there is no pandemic-related state of emergency," said Mara Davis in a statement.
"We anticipate more applications will be filed closer to the deadline. DOT's outreach encouraging restaurants to apply is nonetheless important, and the Council will continue its oversight and assessments of the program overall."
