NYC restaurants can now have outdoor dining all year round but there are stiff penalties for dirty sheds

There’s something new on the menu for Big Apple eateries.The City Council on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to revive year-round outdoor dining in the five boroughs, reversing a three-year-old move to make the perk seasonal.In a series of measures, lawmakers approved vertical winterization coverings for restaurants and expanded the regs to include roadway cafes — reversing a 2023 vote that made the enclosures seasonal.

“As the summer comes to a close, I’m sure the last thing we want on our minds is the winter months, but restaurant owners are always looking ahead, and we in the council are looking out for them,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin said shortly before the vote Thursday.“After passing a package of bills on outdoor dining that we’re going to be doing today, sidewalk cafes can operate 365 days a year, and for many restaurants, the ability to serve customers outside all year round provides vital revenue,” the speaker added.Menin promised in February that the council would bring back year-round sidewalk dining.“I thought it should be year-round because you’re burdening these businesses, making them pay this enormous fee for six months, and then they have to store the tables and chairs,” she said Thursday.

“And most restaurants do not have space or capacity to store the table.So we had raised those concerns.” In 2023, the council added restrictions to the outdoor dining program during the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams, which barred restaurants from serving fare outdoors during the colder winter months.Merchants complained that even those permits were hard to secure — last year more than 3,600 applications were in limbo due to the city’s “cumbersome” approval process.

Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, who proposed the revision to outdoor dining regs in October, said shutting down for the winter months “nearly broke outdoor dining in New York City.“The explanation for why restaurants no longer offer outdoo...