Dining Out NYC’s rollout has been stifled by a difficult application process, lagging approvals, and questionable policy decisions.
Hotel Delmano, Williamsburg (Photo by Ethan Andersen – April 23rd, 2025)
Checking in with NYC Outdoor Dining
On April 1st, 2025, the New York City Mayor’s Office proclaimed “Al Fresco is Back” as Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez celebrated the return of outdoor dining season in New York City. This announcement marked the beginning of the City’s new permanent outdoor dining program, Dining Out NYC. After the freewheeling pandemic-era program came to an end in October 2024, legislation passed by the New York City Council now requires food establishments to apply for a license, pay a series of fees, and abide by stricter sidewalk and roadway dining guidelines.
The new municipal program appears to have stumbled out of the gates. After an estimated 12,000 cafes, bars, and restaurants participated in sidewalk and/or roadway dining from 2020 to 2024, there were only about 3,400 applications for the new program. Not only was there an underwhelming number of applications, the approval process was lagging behind. As of April 22, 2025, just 67 restaurants were fully approved and issued outdoor dining licenses. Neither the delay in approvals nor the lack of applications come as a surprise. Dare to step into the labyrinthine DOT website in search of a specific link and you’ll quickly end up with ten different or maybe identical tabs open and $5,000 in fees. The whole thing seems to be well-intentioned, but many have complained that it’s too convoluted. Brad Lander, City Comptroller and Mayoral candidate, called for a revision of the program back in February, suggesting the City improve the user-friendliness of the application process by allowing applicants to save partially filled-out applications and file their applications in-person.
Thankfully, in late February ahead of the season launch, DOT cut the red tape on roadway dining, granting conditional approvals to all roadway dining applicants that have been heard at a legally mandated public hearing. Still, just 726 conditional approvals for roadway dining structures had been issued as of April 22, 2025. Of those, almost 63% of them are in Manhattan and 92% of them are in either Manhattan or Brooklyn. This concentration in Manhattan and Brooklyn is disappointing considering how pandemic-era outdoor dining benefited communities in the outer boroughs. In a 2022 study by NYU Wagner’s Mitchell Moss and Dominic Sonkowsky, it was found that the pandemic-era’s Open Restaurants program was especially helpful in fostering the growth of outdoor dining beyond the established restaurant corridors of Manhattan. Communities of color more than doubled their share of the City’s outdoor dining establishments, going from 20% to 41%, while low-income communities went from 17% to 31%. The City seemingly missed on what was a rare chance at a home run, non-partisan policy that contributes to a more vibrant, communal, and economically thriving city. But still, not all hope is lost.
In April 2025, the NYC Council held a hearing on outdoor dining, acknowledging some of the complaints that they were receiving. Council member Julie Menin didn’t mince words in her critique of the program, “this rollout, in short, has been nothing short of disastrous.” The main issues raised at the hearing were with the application and review processes, delays, and design requirements. Another glaring issue raised was the seasonality of the program. While sidewalk-based outdoor dining is permitted year-round, the roadway dining season runs from April 1st to November 29th each year. It’s a real shame; not only do establishments lose out on the additional space and potential business from December to March, they are forced to store or discard their roadway dining sheds, adding to the already costly endeavor.
I’ve yet to find a compelling reason not to allow for year-round roadway dining other than vague references to sanitation and snow removal. While sanitation in and around restaurants is always a valid concern, snowfall in NYC is hardly worth fretting over. However harrowing it may be, NYC has an increasingly temperate climate. The US National Weather Service reported that in the 2024-25 winter season NYC got just 15.4” of snowfall compared to its historical average of 29.7.”. The City also recently went 700 days without significant snowfall (>1 inch) from February 2022 to January 2024. Temperature isn’t a convincing reason for a winter moratorium either. In December of 2024, NYC had two days with highs of 60° and eleven days with highs in the 50s. In March of this year, there were nine days that got up to at least 60° and March 29th got up to 81°!
Outdoor Dining in Williamsburg
Curious about how outdoor dining was playing out in my own neighborhood, I talked to restaurant owners/managers in Williamsburg about their thoughts on the new program. The overwhelming sentiment from those I spoke with was that outdoor dining is absolutely a positive force in the restaurant industry and it became a vital component of the City’s recovery and social scene coming out of the pandemic. Sean Snyder, manager of the buzzing beerhall Radegast, said that outdoor dining was the only way that they were able to stay open during the pandemic after previously having no outdoor dining at all.
Steve Papa, an owner of Ace’s Pizza, remarked that Williamsburg is a sink or swim area for restaurants because of high rents, so they are more likely to participate in outdoor dining than other areas that aren’t as affluent. This sentiment is reflected in the lack of participating restaurants in outer boroughs where margins are often slimmer, so they can’t afford the upfront investment that roadway dining now requires.
Radegast and Ace’s Pizza in Williamsburg (Photo by Ethan Andersen – April 23rd, 2025)
A manager at Hotel Delmano, an upscale bar with plentiful outdoor seating, said that they used a lawyer to help with the application and paid about $5000 in fees to the City, but were able to save money on their shed because the owner designed and built it himself. He had heard that other restaurants were paying upwards of $100,000 all-in for their outdoor set-ups. Additionally, he supported the idea of a year-round roadway dining season, citing that they always welcome the opportunity for more business. When asked about his general feelings towards outdoor dining he said that it “makes the city so much better. As long as people are respectful of neighbors, it’s value added. After COVID, people are very isolated and on their phones. Any time you can have people outside, that’s great.”
Some of the more pleasant Williamsburg roadway set-ups from April 2025. Clockwise, starting top left: Modern Love, Sunday in Brooklyn, Juice Generation, George & Jack’s Tap Room, Birds of a Feather.
As of April 23, 2025, the sheds at both Radegast and Ace’s Pizza were unfinished and not yet operable. Given the program’s rushed and brief nature, it makes sense that owners would opt for the cheapest, lowest barrier of entry outdoor dining option. I even saw a handful of other establishments whose “sheds” were merely orange traffic blockades, indicating that they are approved for roadway dining, but simply haven’t gotten around to it. The unfinished business is surely a result of the latency of the program’s approval process. There’s no doubt that these restaurants would want to have extra seats available on these prime early Spring days.
Lattente and Oregano in Williamsburg – Photos taken April 23rd, 2025
It’s clear that the City’s new program has been regressive compared to pandemic-era outdoor dining. It has had an especially negative effect in the outer boroughs, pushing them back closer to pre-pandemic levels. The City needs to reform Dining Out NYC to streamline the application and approval processes and allow for year-round outdoor roadway dining. Al Fresco is back, but New Yorkers deserve better.
You can reach the author of this piece, Ethan Andersen, at: ea3097@nyu.edu.