New legislation aims to restore New York City’s outdoor dining program to its pandemic-era scale by eliminating seasonal restrictions. Council Member Lincoln Restler on Thursday introduced Intro. 1421 to restore year-round outdoor dining, which ended following new rules and restrictions approved by the Council last year. The legislation would also allow grocery stores to apply for sidewalk cafe licenses, eliminate seasonal limits on roadway cafes, and permit certain cafes to expand their frontage with approval. The proposal seeks to scale back aspects of Dining Out NYC, the city’s current outdoor dining program. According to Restler, the seasonal schedule and stricter rules have made it difficult for many businesses to participate.
“Outdoor dining was the silver lining of the pandemic. While a legislative overhaul of the program was required to formalize rules and processes, it has unfortunately forced restaurants to jump through arduous hurdles to participate in the program and has dramatically reduced the number of businesses benefiting from outdoor dining,” Restler said.
“New Yorkers hunger for the days when outdoor dining was available year-round. We need to make it easier for our small businesses to participate in the program and give New Yorkers more places to gather and dine together.”
The city’s curbside dining program began during the pandemic and quickly became a lifeline for restaurants that could no longer seat patrons indoors. It helped many eateries survive and soon became a staple of New York’s culinary scene, transforming sidewalks and curb lanes into vibrant spaces for dining and connection.
However, when the City Council approved a permanent seasonal outdoor dining program in 2023, stricter rules made it more difficult for restaurants to participate. Under the current guidelines, restaurants must disassemble and store dining structures in the winter, pay new fees, and follow specific design standards, as 6sqft previously reported.
In August 2024, the Daily News reported that only 2,500 restaurants—about 15 percent of the roughly 13,000 that once offered outdoor dining—had applied to keep their al fresco setups, an 80 percent drop.
Besides removing seasonal restrictions, Restler’s legislation would create a process allowing small restaurants and cafes with limited street frontage to install full roadway dining structures if neighboring businesses approve.
It would also revise clearance rules to permit roadway dining as close as eight feet from an intersection—a significant shift from current policies that, in some cases, require up to 20 feet of clearance. These roadway dining structures could also serve as a form of hardened daylighting, a street safety design that improves visibility at intersections.
Finally, it would allow businesses licensed by the state’s Department of Agriculture—such as grocery stores and specialty food shops that sell items like coffee and sandwiches—to participate in the program.
The bill is co-sponsored by Council Members Julie Menin, Chi Ossé, Shahana Hanif, Shekar Krishnan, Keith Powers, Crystal Hudson, and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, praised Restler’s proposal as a step toward restoring the original program’s scale and schedule.
“Over the last five years, New Yorkers have demonstrated that their appetite for outdoor dining is too large to be satisfied by existing regulations. Strengthening and lengthening the program is one of the best ways to make our streets welcoming to people, not just cars,” Lind said.
“The legislation introduced today is a major, much-needed step toward restoring both the scale and year-round schedule of the original program, while preserving key reforms that have helped address prior issues that arose. By restoring year-round outdoor dining and simplifying the process for restaurants, the City Council is making it possible for more businesses to succeed and creating more time and more ways for New Yorkers to enjoy public spaces.”
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