Council Speaker Menin to push for return of year-round NYC outdoor dining

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Feb 4, 2026

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NEW YORK — City Council Speaker Julie Menin plans to bring outdoor dining back to the streets and sidewalks of New York City year-round, she said Wednesday.

The practice, which surged during the pandemic, but has been scaled back significantly under additional regulations put in place by the city, drew widespread praise but also complaints from residents and many community boards.

“This is a big one, we are going to fix the outdoor dining program and make it year-round,” Menin (D-Manhattan) said in morning remarks at the Association for a Better New York. “These measures are going to help small businesses survive and adapt by basically clearing up policies of the past that can lead to closures and job loss.”

The outdoor dining program during the pandemic had very little oversight, allowing restaurants to set chairs and tables out on the sidewalk and in curbside street lanes.

Then, a controversial bill in 2023 made the outdoor dining program permanent, but piled on extra requirements: Restaurants can offer dining alfresco only from April to November, while during the off-months in the cold weather, establishments must tear down their dining structures, only to have to reconstruct them again in the warmer weather.

The program’s redesign angered restaurants and diners alike, since the program added more fees and other restrictions. While more than 12,000 restaurants citywide participated in outdoor dining during the pandemic and immediately afterward, that number subsequently fell by more than half.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday he supports the planned revamp of the program, which was first reported by Politico.

“Yeah, I do support outdoor dining year-round,” he said at an unrelated news conference.

The plan, according to Menin’s office, is to use City Councilman Lincoln Restler’s bill, introduced last year and co-sponsored by Menin, to reinstate year-round outdoor dining and make it easier to open an outdoor setup.

“We’re going to overcome the dumb bureaucratic hurdles that the Adams administration put in place. We can do better. We will do better,” Restler, D-Brooklyn, said. “We’re gonna bring back tremendous dynamism to our streets.”

Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurant owners, praised Menin’s push, describing her as a “friend to small businesses.”

“We’re thrilled to see her prioritize restaurants, nightlife and other local businesses through meaningful policies — like reforming outdoor dining, so small restaurants, workers, neighborhoods and communities across the city can benefit,” Rigie said.

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