Over the last 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant owners around the globe have continuously suffered over the past year- especially small, independent establishments. If there’s one glimmer of hope that many of them have experienced, as public health guidelines continue to evolve, it’s that many cities have relaxed their policies and allowed restaurants to construct temporary shelters on sidewalks and in streets as a means to keep their businesses afloat. But in life after the pandemic, how should we address these setups? Should we turn them into something more permanent and allow outdoor dining to stay?

Outdoor dining is hardly new but was another trend that was accelerated almost overnight as a result of the pandemic. Almost as fast as the workforce adopted working from home, restaurants evolved, set up tables outside, and the entire way we used the streets was changed. There is something that feels very European about the al fresco dining experience that many people in cities have been enjoying. Most of these temporary shelters feel more permanent, with igloos, pods, and roofed stands complete with air conditioning, heating units, televisions, cozy furniture, and electrical charging outlets, they almost feel like the indoors, but just on the sidewalk.

There are some downsides to this way of dining, and they have city dwellers and policymakers wondering what needs to be done to ensure that issues like safety, health, and public transit are accounted for, along with the profitability of the restaurants. All of this confusion and loose interpretation of the “rules” comes from the minimal federal and state regulations on how these setups should look and perform. After all, if there are four walls and a roof- is it really outdoor dining?

Related Article

Outdoor Dining Could Become Permanent in NYC as Architects Innovate