Roadway outdoor dining is back in NYC for 2026, but it’s only a slice of what it once was

It’s finally warming up in New York City, and that means it’s time to eat in the street. The city’s roadway cafes are returning.

Roughly 500 roadside outdoor dining setups have been approved so far this year for the Dining Out NYC program, which allows setups to stay up from April 1 through Nov. 29, according to the Department of Transportation. Another 1,300 restaurants are permitted to operate sidewalk cafes year-round, a department spokesperson said.

According to the transportation department, those numbers are on par with participation in the program compared to the same time in 2025. But they’re a far cry from the approximately 8,000 restaurants that participated — either with sidewalk or roadside dining – during the peak of the city’s year-round emergency outdoor dining program started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leading city officials now say they’re working on making the program year-round once again.

The emergency program, which allowed restaurants to erect outdoor dining “sheds” all year for free and with few restrictions, was praised by restaurant owners, who said it got them through an uncertain time, and criticized by some community groups, who complained the roadway cafes took up parking spaces and attracted rats.

The city required roadside cafes to shut down in autumn 2024, as during then-Mayor Eric Adams’ administration it transitioned to a more restrictive, seasonal program. It required restaurants to fill out extensive license applications, pay for using the street and rebuild the sheds every year while adhering to specific structural requirements.

Restaurateurs immediately criticized the move, saying the application process was too long and cumbersome, and its seasonality made it too expensive for small businesses to participate.

That process has also been plagued by delays in processing applications. The DOT says many restaurants haven’t completed a cumbersome multi-stage approval process required under the current law. About 700 of the 1,300 sidewalk cafes have fully approved licenses, but the rest are operating under conditional approvals while the city works through the backlog.

In February, Council Speaker Julie Menin promised to overhaul Dining Out NYC and bring back the roadside sheds 365 days a year, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would support the move. In a Daily News op-ed earlier this month, DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said the agency will work with the City Council to bring back year-round dining sheds and cut red tape.

“Outdoor dining was one of the few silver linings of a difficult chapter in our history,” Flynn wrote. “With the right adjustments, it can remain a defining feature of the city’s streetscape — helping small businesses flourish while creating vibrant public spaces that bring neighbors together.

Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, has been one of the loudest voices calling for an overhaul of the program. Rigie said it’s time for city officials to move forward with urgency.

“ Unfortunately, this season may be out of reach for many restaurants because how long it takes for a restaurant to apply for outdoor dining to actually start setting up,” he said. “ We just need to move quickly because time is of the essence, especially with the outdoor dining season upon us.”