NYC's roadway dining sheds must come down Friday

All of New York City’s remaining roadway dining sheds must be taken down by Friday under new, seasonal rules — and it's not yet clear how many of the sheds first erected in the pandemic will return next year.

Most of the city’s roadway dining sheds came down over the summer, when the city ended its pandemic-era outdoor dining program, called Open Restaurants. About 13,000 restaurants were issued permits for outdoor dining, including about 8,000 in the roadway, over more than four years via the program, according to city data.

The remaining sheds belong to restaurants that applied to the city’s permanent outdoor dining program, known as Dining Out NYC. The new program is seasonal, from April 1 to Nov. 29.

Restaurants that got their applications in by early August were allowed to keep their roadway sheds up for the rest of this year’s season. But restaurants that keep up sheds without permits could face strict fines — $500 for a first offense, and $1,000 for any subsequent offense until the shed is removed.

“New Yorkers came to enjoy outdoor dining during the pandemic and Dining Out NYC has made it a permanent, vibrant part of our streets,” city transportation department Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in an announcement this week. “As the season for outdoor dining in our roadways draws to a close on Nov. 29, I urge all businesses to act now and remove their setups to avoid costly violations.”

When roadway sheds return next year, they’ll look different than the potpourri of outdoor sheds New Yorkers saw throughout the pandemic. The city’s new program, which is run by the local Department of Transportation, requires restaurants to use standardized, modular designs that will likely cost any given establishment tens of thousands of dollars, according to official estimates.

So far, the transportation department says it's received about 3,000 applications for outdoor dining, with about 1,400 so far being for roadway setups. The remainder were for sidewalk-only cafes, which are allowed year-round as long as they don’t obstruct pedestrian traffic.

Applications for the program are rolling year-round, and the DOT said it expects more to come in before outdoor dining starts again in April.

The city didn’t say how many applications were approved.