Outdoor dining is back baby, all year round

^The future of our block, probably.

We are yes in my backyard types around here, and given that we live in a concrete jungle, by “in my backyard” I of course mean “on my sidewalk.” That is why we’re excited to break the news along with our sister publication The New York Times that outdoor dining will resume year-round in NYC. What I mean specifically is that: (i) outdoor street dining is now permitted for the dead-of-winter months (December to March) along with April to November; and (ii) the city is going to be less ridiculous and punitive in fining so-called “noncompliant” outdoor structures. Upshot: city restaurants should be incentivized to set up shop again outside en masse.

The history here is that during COVID, in order to boost lagging business for restaurants, the city permitted outdoor dining on the streets (“street” cafes are distinguished from “sidewalk” cafes, with the former being like what you see in the picture shown here and the latter already being allowed year-round, like the patio at Sogno Toscano). In 2023, the city council and mayor enacted rules to, among other things, only allow outdoor street dining from December to March, in effect requiring restaurants to construct and deconstruct the outdoor cafes every year—and thus seriously disincentivizing them from bothering with it all at all. These new rules roll all of that back.

Of course there are the detractors, including our (other) sister publication The New York Post, which refers to outdoor street dining as a “roadway-hogging menace”: https://nypost.com/2026/08/13/us-news/nycs-roadway-hogging-menace-is-back-with-a-vengeance/. Won’t someone think of the roads! We’re happy to discuss the issue with The New York Post editorial board over drinks and maybe even appetizers, outside, any day of the year.