Hinsdale's Outdoor Dining May Get Permanent Boost

HINSDALE, IL — Outdoor dining has become a lot more popular in Hinsdale during the pandemic, so the village may make permanent changes to its infrastructure if that remains the case.

Restaurants on First Street have set up tents downtown, extending into the street. As a result, the village made First Street a one way to make way for outdoor dining.

This year, Nabuki and Fuller House restaurants want to keep their outdoor dining tents at least through New Year's Eve, if not longer, Village Manager Kathleen Gargano said at Tuesday's Village Board meeting.

Village President Tom Cauley said the village may eventually extend the curbs to give permanent space for outdoor dining and get ornate planters to section off the dining, rather than continuing to use jersey barriers. But he said the village wants to wait to see how outdoor dining fares in 2022, which "hopefully will be a fairly normal year."

"If you go to cities in Europe, they have lots of outdoor dining, even in fairly cold climates such as Germany. It's year-round," Cauley said.

He said the village may find that people still like outdoor dining, pandemic or not

"They may say they want it forever," Cauley said. "We need to see how it plays out in a more normal setting before a permanent solution."

The village plans to keep First Street a one-way downtown because Nabuki and Fuller House still plan to have tents through December.

"If we're going to have outdoor dining next year, to move (First Street) back and forth would be confusing," Gargano said. "It just makes sense to leave it the way it is."