Major Steps To Advance ‘Dining Out NYC,’ Nation’s Largest Outdoor Dining Program

Photo: @NYCMayor

Final Rules Offer Clear Guidance to Restaurant Owners, Expands Access to Safe, Clean Outdoor Dining in All Five Boroughs

Program Applications to Open in March, First Approved Dining Out NYC Setups Expected to Be On City Streets This Summer

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, and Chief Public Realm Officer Ya-Ting Liu today released the final rules for the city’s permanent outdoor dining program, “Dining Out NYC.” Offering clear guidance for restaurant owners as they work to create new set-ups before the program’s launch in March, the final rules prioritize equity, expanding access to safe, clean outdoor dining in all five boroughs. The rules were finalized following a robust public outreach and engagement campaign, led by DOT and the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS).

Dining Out NYC represents one of the most significant efforts of the last decade to reimagine the city’s streetscape to support all New Yorkers and small restaurants while creating vibrant public spaces that improve quality of life and continue to accelerate the city’s economic recovery. The new program draws on lessons learned from the temporary outdoor dining program created during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saved 100,000 jobs across the city but led to quality-of-life issues as a subset of restaurant owners were unable to maintain loosely regulated outdoor dining setups.

“Between Dining Out NYC, our campaign to get trash bags off of New York City streets, our efforts to remove scaffolding that has been up for far too long, and the hundreds of millions we’re investing in public realm projects across the city, we’re fundamentally transforming what it feels like to be outside in New York,” said Mayor Adams. “As we build the largest outdoor dining program in the country from the ground-up, we must center our efforts in equity to make sure every New Yorker in every borough and every neighborhood has the opportunity to enjoy our city.”

Today’s released final rules outline requirements for a safe, clean outdoor dining program, while providing restaurant owners with the flexibility to develop creative outdoor dining setups that are appropriate for their establishments. Final program rules include clear design requirements; siting criteria on where outdoor dining setups can be located in relation to other street features, like subway entrances, fire hydrants, and more; and the types of materials that can be used in outdoor setups. They also require that the setups preserve clear sidewalk paths and emergency roadway lanes — including water-filled, rat-resistant protective barriers for roadway setups —– and use easily moveable furniture and coverings. Ultimately, the final rules will create a lighter-weight outdoor dining experience with lines of sight, as compared to the fully-enclosed shacks of the temporary, COVID-19-era program.

Before 2020, outdoor dining in New York City was permitted exclusively on the sidewalk, and almost only within Manhattan. Under Dining Out NYC, outdoor dining will be expanded citywide, permitted year-round on the sidewalk and, from April 1st to November 29th, in the roadway. The new program creates an equitable, accessible fee structure for participating restaurants, with rates varying by location and setup size as codified by local law, and with significantly lower fees than those under the previous sidewalk café program. In the pre-pandemic program, run by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, sidewalk cafés south of 96th Street in Manhattan paid $40 per square foot, while the rest of the city paid $30. The new program expands eligibility to more parts of the city and significantly reduces fees for cafes everywhere, with cafes outside Manhattan and above 125th Street paying 67 to 80 percent less, and cafes below 125th Street in Manhattan paying 22 to 75 percent less.

With the rules now finalized, in March, DOT will launch a streamlined online application portal where restaurants can apply to participate in Dining Out NYC. A restaurant’s outdoor dining setup will need to comply with the program’s design requirements within 30 days of their application approval. On this timeline, the first approved Dining Out NYC setups will hit New York City streets in the summer of 2024. DOT will notify all restaurants now participating in the temporary program to submit applications for the permanent program through an extensive in-person and digital outreach campaign. Restaurants that did not participate in the temporary Open Restaurants Program are also welcome to apply for Dining Out NYC.