4,000 Applications for Outdoor Dining. 39 Licenses Issued.

During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, desperate New York City restaurants found a financial lifeline by expanding seating outdoors. Dining sheds began popping up without much city oversight, somewhat haphazardly reshaping the city’s streets.

At outdoor dining’s peak, there were nearly 13,000 sheds outside restaurants — some costly and elaborate, others dingy huts that served as many rats as people. Most sat on the roadway in spaces where cars used to park.

While the al fresco dining options were popular with many New Yorkers, some complained about sheds becoming eyesores and oversized trash bins, and some politicians expressed concern about the sheds’ impact on street parking.

Last year, after wrangling involving the mayor, the City Council and the restaurant industry, the city ordered all the sheds to be taken down as it formalized a permanent outdoor dining program to begin this spring.

Some 4,000 applications have been submitted for roadway and sidewalk licenses. But as Grub Street first reported, many angry restaurant owners say they are stuck in a bureaucratic maze ahead of the busiest dining season. With the start just weeks away on April 1, only 39 licenses have been approved.

“Without roadway dining, I don’t want to continue in this business,” said Philip Guardione, the chef and owner of Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana. “You need outside dining, or you kill restaurants.”