Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin talking at an Affiliation for a Higher New York breakfast occasion. Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.
Credit score John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
New Yorkers could as soon as once more be capable to get pleasure from outside eating all yr lengthy if Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin has something to say about it.
Throughout a Wednesday speech earlier than the Affiliation for a Higher New York (ABNY), Menin introduced that she intends to considerably reform the seasonal outside eating program established by her predecessor, Adrienne Adams, and former Mayor Eric Adams in 2023.
“We will finally fix the city’s outdoor dining program to make it year-round and reduce the regulatory burdens for restaurants,” Menin mentioned. “These measures will help small businesses survive and adapt by clearing up policies of the past that can lead to closures and job loss.”
Menin plans to basically exchange the present program by way of a invoice launched by Metropolis Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) final yr.
It might undo a change to town’s outside eating insurance policies that led to a dramatic drop within the variety of eating places taking part in this system for the reason that seasonal model rolled out. The present program prohibits eating places from leaving their roadside eating sheds on metropolis streets throughout December, January, February, and March.
Patrons eat at an outside eating shed in New York.File picture by Dean Moses
Simply 400 eating places — 300 on sidewalk and 100 roadside — accomplished the complete software course of for this system final yr, which entails paying 1000’s of {dollars} in charges upfront. One other 2,600 acquired conditional approval, that means they had been allowed to function on the situation that they’d end the applying and pay the charges.
Final yr marked a large drop-off from this system’s peak of roughly 8,000 members through the top of the COVID-19 pandemic — when town first launched outside eating.
“The Adams administration and the bureaucracy destroyed outdoor dining, and it’s time for us to bring it back,” Restler instructed New York News. “Outdoor dining is great for neighborhood restaurants. It’s great for the workers in the industry. And it’s great for street life in our neighborhoods.”
Restler’s laws, which didn’t obtain a vote earlier than the top of the final council session, would take away seasonal restrictions on roadway eating setups and permit a broader vary of eateries to take part in this system — together with grocery shops. It might permit eating places with smaller footprints to have bigger outside eating set-ups.
The measure additionally goals to make the applying course of and guidelines for establishing the buildings much less onerous for eating places.
“Our goal here is for outdoor dining to work and for restaurants and neighborhoods to benefit from it,” he mentioned. “The seasonal nature of the program has been the single biggest obstacle for restaurants to participate because they don’t have the space to store outdoor dining structures. The application process is onerous and burdensome. The cost is exorbitant.”
Council Member Lincoln Restler.Picture by Dean Moses
Though Restler already launched the invoice final session, he mentioned he’ll re-introduce it — a procedural step lawmakers should take when a brand new legislative session begins — through the council’s subsequent acknowledged assembly subsequent Thursday.
The speaker’s transfer was welcomed by Andrew Rigie, government director of the New York Metropolis Hospitality Alliance.
“We applaud her commitment to bringing back year-round outdoor dining and cutting red tape – a vital opportunity that helps restaurants, workers, and neighborhoods thrive,” Rigie mentioned in an announcement to New York News. “We look forward to working with Speaker Menin and the City Council to ensure the program is reformed in a way that is fair and sustainable for communities across the five boroughs,”
