NYC Extending Outdoor Dining Option for Year-Round

New York City is extending outdoor dining options year-round, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday. 

The resumption of outdoor dining comes after the open restaurants initiative has been “an extraordinarily positive experiment, and it’s worked.”

The Open Restaurants program, which rolled out over this past summer, expanded seating options for restaurants closing streets to traffic to create outdoor dining space.

The initiative was started to allow the restaurant to seat customers, while indoor dining was prohibited during the ongoing pandemic. 

Although indoor dining has since then reopened, it’s done so at limited capacity, with restaurants still using outdoor space. 

For a while, it was unclear whether restaurants would be allowed to continue eating diners outside during the colder months because it generated new problems like the use of heating lamps.