Sunshine is in the forecast, but the chance of dining al fresco for New Yorkers is still low.
City restaurants say their outdoor seating is limited or non-existent due to new regulations — which first went into effect last August and place a litany of size and clearance restrictions on setups — and a bureaucratic backlog.
“So many people are calling and asking to reserve tables outside, and I have to keep telling them no,’’ Enrico Proietti, owner of Bella Blu on the Upper East Side, told The Post.
At present, the restaurant has just four tables-for-two outside as it awaits full approval on what it had previously — a popular outdoor gazebo — and seating for twice as many.
After applying for a permit months ago, Proietti finally had a Zoom appointment with the community board last week and is now in a holding pattern until a board vote on May 16.
“We are all waiting to put up our structures, and they were supposed to start [issuing approvals] in April, but it will probably be June before we can have them, and by then, everyone will leave for the Hamptons!” he said.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has received 3,200 applications for outdoor dining permits. Of the remaining 2,600, there are roughly 1,800 sidewalk setups that are being allowed to operate while they are being reviewed and about 800 larger setups stretching into roadways that have been granted conditional approval, as the DOT has sought to cut through red tape that caused a backlog.
“The vast majority of restaurants that applied were eligible to participate at the start of the roadway outdoor dining season,” a DOT spokesperson told The Post.
But, 600 applications are still in-process and have not been approved in any way, and only 82 restaurants — 45 with sidewalk dining and 37 with roadway setups — have been granted full approval.
“The DOT realized they had a backlog at the end of the winter, and began to roll out conditional approval to try and speed things along,’’ explained Mara Davis, the City Council’s Deputy Press Secretary. ” “Because it took so long, [some restaurants] might not have designed or purchased any structures yet.”
Even for applications for simple sidewalk dining (and not elaborate structures that can spill into parking lanes), community boards get 40 days to review, and city council gets 45, according to the DOT. Once the community board meeting happens, depending upon the outcome, the DOT may be required to hold a public meeting and the City Council has an opportunity to review. The restaurant also has to pay for advertising to make the public aware that the community board meeting is happening.
The approval process is a complicated one. After applications are accepted by the DOT, community board hearings must be held, and once permits are obtained, a second round of community hearings are necessary before additional licenses from the State Liquor Authority (SLA), required to serve booze outdoors, can be granted.
“Having to go back and forth between the SLA and community boards on top of running the businesses and dealing with build-outs put these people in a can’t-win situation,’’ said Max Crespo, the co-owner of Roadway Cafes, a company that constructs sheds for many of the city’s top restaurants including Sant Ambroeus, Balthazar, Lure and Village Taverna.
Rosanna Scotto, whose Midtown restaurant Fresco by Scotto had a sprawling lemon garden with seating for 40 last year, filed her application last August. She was only just approved for a scaled back plan for this year that will only have seating for 12.
“The process is crazy,’’ she told The Post. “We are planning for it to be beautiful with lots of flowers, but it’s very cumbersome and expensive. We [were] thousands of dollars into this without knowing if we [would] have approval.’’
Diners are fed up.
On a recent warm spring night, Aly Josephs, a 23-year-old who works in marketing, was so desperate to dine outdoors, she was sharing a chair at Bel Ami on Lexington Avenue with a friend.
“People are hogging chairs; they stole the other one right from our table,’’ she sighed. “We just want to be in the sun.”
“Sometimes, at this point, I just wind up getting take-out and going to the park.”
Josh Trill
Josh Trill, 27, who works at an insurance company and lives on the Upper East Side, was lucky enough to get an outdoor seat at nearby Sojourn Social — a must since he has a dog.
“Before, [we] could go almost anywhere, but now I have to Google to find places [with outdoor seating],” he said. “Sometimes, at this point, I just wind up getting take-out and going to the park.”
Last week, the City Council held a hearing to consider loosening the new ordinances and reducing fees, though it has yet to change any policies.
“A lot of problems were raised and a lot of potential solutions presented,’’ Davis said. “We will evaluate for possible next steps.’’
Until then, nabbing a sidewalk table is likely to be a challenge.
“Things are getting better,” Crespo said, “but right now, it’s easier to find a boyfriend than an outdoor dining seat in New York.”
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