New Yorkers can once again enjoy dining in restaurant roadside sheds year-round and enclosed sidewalk cafes during the coldest months of the year under a package of bills the City Council passed Thursday in a move to expand outdoor dining.
Many of the city’s streets were lined with curbside tables during a pandemic-era outdoor dining heyday, but unkempt sheds, rodent infestations and dwindling parking spaces prompted lawmakers to pass regulations limiting the program. An estimated 12,500 restaurants citywide had outdoor dining setups at the height of that period, according to a 2025 city comptroller report, or nearly five times the 2,700 the city Department of Transportation says are currently allowed to operate.
“It certainly is a re-imagining of streetscapes,” Andrew Rigie, head of the nonprofit New York City Hospitality Alliance, told The City Reporter. He said the program’s expansion would create jobs, generate tax revenue and “help small businesses survive.”
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who sponsored the measure to bring back roadside sheds throughout the year, said Thursday that the city recorded a 90% decline in restaurants offering outdoor dining after the Adams administration implemented restrictions on the program in 2023, because, Restler said, it became “stupidly expensive” to reconstruct the structures every summer. The program also experienced a backlog of hundreds of permit applications this spring, with outdoor dining season running from April 1 through Nov. 29, Comptroller Mark Levine found.
‘Getting the Balance Right’
The legislative package also allows restaurants to weatherproof and winterize their setups, pay their annual fees in quarterly installments to reduce financial burdens on small businesses and requires them to clean up trash and keep out pests. (In 2022, former Mayor Eric Adams took a sledgehammer to an allegedly rat-ridden Manhattan sidewalk cafe.) Restler emphasized that, under the bills, operators would be penalized for repeated violations related to cleanliness and vermin.
Council Speaker Julie Menin said Thursday that the legislature is trying to fix a “broken” system through these measures.
“This is about getting the balance right: supporting our small businesses, creating jobs and keeping our neighborhoods clean and livable,” Menin, a former restaurant owner, said in a statement.
The promised expansion comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration pledges to cut red tape for small businesses. His Commission on Government Efficiency recently approved a ballot proposal to reduce the outdoor dining application timeline by an estimated 75%. Voters will get to vote on it in the November election.
“Mayor Mamdani proudly supports this much-needed legislation to improve outdoor dining and looks forward to working with City Hall to implement a year-round program that is more accessible to more restaurants and ensures our streets can be used in a variety of ways to benefit all New Yorkers — not just vehicles,” City Hall spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said in a statement.
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The post Bon Appétit: Year-Round Roadside Dining Set To Return to NYC Under Newly Passed Bills appeared first on The City Reporter.
