NYC Outdoor Dining Will Be Permanent, Year-Round: De Blasio

NEW YORK CITY — Outdoor dining will be a permanent, yearlong feature of New York City’s restaurant scene.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday announced the everlasting extension to the city’s Open Restaurant initiative, which sprang up amid restrictions to indoor dining during the coronavirus pandemic.

He framed it as a way to help “save” the city’s struggling restaurant industry.

“We’re going to make that permanent, we’re going to make it year round,” he said during the announcement on WYNC’s Brian Lehrer Show.

De Blasio said the Open Streets with outdoor dining program also will be permanent. It currently offers expanded space for restaurants on 85 streets citywide that are closed to traffic on certain days.

Within minutes of de Blasio's announcement, leaders of a prominent restaurant group — NYC Hospitality Alliance — hailed the move.

“Outdoor dining has transformed New York City’s streetscape for the better and has been a critical lifeline for thousands of small businesses and jobs throughout the five boroughs during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Andrew Rigie, executive director, and Robert Bookman, the group's counsel, in a joint statement. "Today’s announcement to make outdoor dining permanent, to allow the use of heat lamps to keep customers warm outside during the cooler months, and to allow restaurants to utilize adjacent space where feasible so they can accommodate more guests and generate much needed revenue is a major step to rebuilding a stronger, more resilient and livable city."

The move requires some administrative and City Council-approved changes, de Blasio said. He said officials will work on arrangements for outdoor heating through the winter.

Restaurants can also build enclosed, heated outdoor spaces for dining but those must follow indoor dining capacity limits currently set at 25 percent, he said. As an alternative, they can opt for continued open-air seating, he said.

“That’s a choice for restaurant owners, they can do either way,” he said.

Indoor dining returns to New York City on Sept. 30.