As temperatures in New York City soared into the 80s on Wednesday, diners crowded around the outdoor tables at a Serafina restaurant in Manhattan, looking for an Aperol spritz to help beat the heat.
“People just want to sit outside in this neighborhood,” said Anne Kassi, 36, the manager of the restaurant, on Ninth Avenue in the meatpacking district. “The people-watching is amazing.”
Kudzai King, 33, a tech executive who was hanging out a block away, said that “it feels a little Paris,” and that New York’s sidewalks should similarly be dotted with bistro tables and chairs.
But in recent years, the number of restaurants across the city that can offer outdoor seating has dwindled to just over 2,000 from 6,000 to 8,000 at any given time during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when eating inside a busy restaurant increased the risk of infection.
This April, the start of the outdoor dining season, most dining setups the city has approved are for small sidewalk areas, said Lincoln Restler, a city councilman who represents several neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Only 500 restaurants across the city are operating outdoor dining sheds in roadways.
Former Mayor Eric Adams’s administration adopted stringent rules that created an April-to-November season for outdoor dining and imposed strict guidelines on what types of setups were allowed.
“The Adams administration introduced extensive red tape,” Mr. Restler said, adding that the regulations did not work for many restaurants’ business models.
Restaurant owners who did not comply received hefty fines as the city cracked down on the variety of tents, huts and sheds that had sprung up. Some were inventive and treasured, such as a repurposed trolley car, while others were worn-down rat havens.
“The program has been a failure,” Mr. Restler said, but added that the new designs imposed by that program had succeeded in curbing rat issues associated with outdoor dining and improving safety.
Now, Mr. Restler has introduced a bill to expand the outdoor dining program by streamlining the application process and allowing for year-round outdoor dining.
“It’s great for the hospitality work force and should add lots of new jobs,” he said. “Most of all, it’s great for all of us who get to enjoy a meal outside on a beautiful day.”
Mr. Restler said he hoped the City Council would be able to pass his bill before the end of the summer, which would mean that it could go into effect before the end of the current outdoor dining season.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tasked his transportation commissioner, Mike Flynn, with making the New York City “streetscape the envy of the world,” according to an opinion essay Mr. Flynn wrote in The Daily News. Part of that ambition includes working with the City Council to “rekindle the spark of outdoor dining,” he wrote.
Vincent Barone, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, which runs the outdoor dining, said the program “was one of the few silver linings from the pandemic.”
“The Mamdani administration is eager to work with the City Council to help it remain a defining feature of the city’s streetscape,” he said.
The speaker of the City Council, Julie Menin, is a co-sponsor of the bill and said in a statement that she was committed to coming up with “a program that works for everyone.”
“The Council is determined to fix the outdoor dining program and restore it year-round as part of our mission to create a more vibrant New York,” she said.
Ms. Kassi, the Serafina manager, said she wanted to return to the days when there were fewer restrictions on outdoor dining setups.
She said that her restaurant used to have an entire casita that stood in the roadway on Little West 12th Street, a cobblestone side street. Now, Serafina has three smaller outdoor dining options, all of which have to be enclosed by a perimeter. The seating areas are demarcated by railings and planters, which limit many of the tables to a maximum of four people.
“I understand the rules, but I think about the business, too,” Ms. Kassi said. “If we could have normal outdoor seating like in Europe, that would be perfect.”
Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times.
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