NYC’s outdoor dining era is over: Fewer than 3,000 restaurants apply for sidewalk seats under new rules

During the dark days of the pandemic, diners in New York City hoping to enjoy something similar to a typical restaurant experience were introduced to a "stop the spread" friendly compromise: outdoor dining sheds.

The small, enclosed dining spaces became popular while Covid-19 was tearing through the nation and helped restaurants stay afloat during the social distancing days. But now a new city program threatening hefty fines may see the majority of the sheds go the way of bespoke Etsy face masks and ivermectin shills.

Saturday was the final day for restaurants in New York City to apply for its new "Dining Out NYC" program.

Restaurants that have not registered with the program that continue to operate dining sheds will be fined $500 for their first offense, and an additional $1,000 for each additional offense until the sheds are removed.

Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council reached a deal in May that made outdoor dining a permanent fixture but with several requirements standardizing the spaces and regulations when they can be erected on the city's streets and sidewalks.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the program, said in a statement that fewer than 3,000 restaurants have applied for the program as of Saturday afternoon, Gothamist reports.

During the pandemic, approximately 13,000 restaurants were participating in the city's Open Restaurants outdoor dining program.

The new rules require restaurants seeking outdoor dining spaces like the sheds to pay for separate revocable consent and license fees. The latter is good for four years and costs $1,050 for a roadwalk or a sidewalk cafe, or $2,100 to license both.

The revocable consent fee varies based on the location and size of the outdoor space.

Previously, outdoor dining spaces varied in size and shape. Some restaurants erected small, wood-framed structures decorated with string lights, while others employed egg-like plastic bubbles to shield guests from others' airborne particulates.

Dining Out NYC will force a standardized design for all future outdoor dining structures and sidewalk dining. Under the new plan, fully enclosed spaces will be prohibited, while umbrellas, awnings and other coverings that can be easily torn down are encouraged.

Outdoor dining sheds will also only be permissible between April 1 and November 29 going forward.

That's going to be a problem for some restaurants, as they'll be required to tear down and store the sheds during the off-season. John Rodriguez, a Brooklyn restaurant owner, told Gothamist that storage costs were going to be a "big factor" for him going forward under the new plan.

He said he still planned to keep the outdoor dining area because, despite the costs of the new regulations, the spaces brings his Dos Hermanos restaurant more customers.

For other restaurants, like Manhattan's Indochine, the new standardized designs required by the city will be a marked downgrade from their current flashy outdoor cabana.

Jean-Marc Houmard, one of Indochine's owners, told the New York Times that the restaurant spent approximately $80,000 building their swanky black and red-trimmed cabana. He said he wanted the space to "look like a little bit of a tropical fantasy outside of the restaurant." Now he'll need to invest in umbrellas if he wants to continue operating a covered outdoor dining space.

Houmard told the Times that his fantasy cabana will soon be little more than scrap.

“Unfortunately it’s just going to go to a dumpster,” he said.

City officials have insisted that the plan will overall be better for both residents and restaurant owners under the new guidelines.

“The program that sprang up out of necessity has matured,” deputy mayor for operations Meera Joshi told the New York Times. “Now we have standards to ensure that all outdoor dining structures are beautiful and well-maintained, and that they work with our overall streetscape to transform what it feels like to be outside in New York City for the better.”

She said the guidelines would ensure there would be "no more shabby sheds" dotting city streets.