#NYC’s outdoor dining program will resume next year — COVID or not

New York City’s outdoor dining program, born out of the coronavirus crisis, will return next year whether or not there’s a resurgence of the killer bug — and the city is also looking at extending the program this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

De Blasio, speaking during his daily City Hall press briefing, said that more than 9,000 eateries across the five boroughs were taking part in the city’s “Open Restaurants” initiative.

Hizzoner recently extended the program through Oct. 31, but said Monday restaurants may be able to continue utilizing seating on city sidewalks and curb lanes beyond that date.

“We’re going to look at whether we can go farther this year. It’s still an open question,” de Blasio said of the program.

What’s for certain at this point is, “We are going to be doing this again next year,” said de Blasio, explaining that due to “tremendous success” of the initiative, starting June 1 next year restaurants will again be able to put out tables and chairs on sidewalks and streets.

However, it’s possible next year’s outdoor dining plan may begin even earlier in the spring “hopefully under much, much better conditions,” de Blasio said.

The mayor said that over the weekend he was out in his old neighborhood of Park Slope strolling around, and “It was just absolutely amazing – restaurant after restaurant filled with people, but the right way.”

“It was so good to see the life and the energy. It just felt like a beautiful New York City moment,” de Blasio said, adding, “It was a reminder that a lot of restaurants have been able to survive because of this initiative.”

Big Apple restaurants financially-ravaged due to the coronavirus pandemic were able to open for outdoor dining on June 22 when the city entered Phase Two of the state’s four-phase COVID-19 reopening plan.

De Blasio said because of the city’s outdoor dining program that allowed eateries to apply for sidewalk and curbside seating through an online self-certification process, an estimated more than 80,000 New Yorkers “have gotten their jobs back.”

Eateries in the city were supposed to be able to resume indoor dining in early July when the Big Apple moved into Phase Three, but that was delayed following a troubling uptick in coronavirus cases across the nation.

There is still no time-frame for when restaurants in the city will be permitted to have indoor dining.