Hope is on the menu for Big Apple restaurants.<\/p>\n
City Council Speaker Julie Menin vowed on Wednesday to revive year-round, pandemic-era outdoor dining \u2013 after many eateries dropped out of the program entirely in 2025, citing an expensive, lengthy approvals process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big one, we will finally fix the city\u2019s outdoor dining program to make it year-round and reduce the regulatory burdens for restaurants,\u201d the newly-minted speaker said at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York.<\/p>\n
Pandemic-era year-round al fresco dining could soon return to New York City streets, NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Manhattan Democrat said she would push to enact measures that \u201cwill help small businesses survive and adapt by clearing up policies of the past that can lead to closures and job loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPreventing job loss is vital to maintaining New York as the economic capital of the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The effort marks a renewed push for Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler\u2019s outdoor dining bill<\/a> introduced in October, which Menin co-sponsored. A new version of the bill would need to be introduced to the council this session, a Menin rep said.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani, at an unrelated press conference Wednesday, voiced his support for the return of a year-round outdoor dining program, which got curbed under his predecessor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n The council in 2023 applied seasonal restrictions to the program, only allowing for al fresco eating from April to November.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big one, we will finally fix the city\u2019s outdoor dining program to make it year-round and reduce the regulatory burdens for restaurants,\u201d Menin said. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n The effort marks a renewed push for Brooklyn councilmember Lincoln Restler\u2019s outdoor dining bill introduced last October, which Menin co-sponsored. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n Restler\u2019s bill called for removing the restrictions, as well as allowing for larger streetside dining setups.<\/p>\n The bill would notably ensure a \u201cstreamline\u201d of the tedious review process for restaurants vying to operate a sidewalk or roadway caf\u00e9\u00a0\u2013 which resulted in a backlog of more than 3,600 applications for outdoor dining sheds last February.<\/a><\/p>\n The cumbersome process required for roadway dining includes Department of Transportation, local community board and city comptroller\u2019s office approval. For sidewalk dining, that process also requires a council member to sign off.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The DOT resorted to issuing conditional licenses last year due to the lengthy backlog of applications \u2013 while restaurateurs shelled out tens of thousands of dollars on dining sheds,<\/a> licenses, lawyers and insurance to meet the rigid requirements.<\/p>\n Restaurants also must pay \u201cconsent fees\u201d based on the size of the setups.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the issues is the very high cost to the revocable consent fees,\u201d Menin told ABC7<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s another area we are looking at, I have a bill that addresses that, that will bring those fees down.\u201d<\/p>\n Restaurateurs shelled out tens of thousands of dollars on dining sheds, licenses, lawyers and insurance to meet the rigid requirements last year. Getty Images<\/p>\n Only about 400 establishments had full approvals last year, and thousands more participating restaurants were granted conditional permits.<\/p>\n