Restaurants split over whether to make pandemic outdoor sidewalk dining permanent
BOSTON - Sipping a glass of wine and eating a meal outside in Boston's North End or Waltham's Moody Street could become a thing of the past. The pandemic laws that allowed restaurants to set up tables on sidewalks and roads, are set to an end March 31, unless local and state lawmakers extend them again, or make them permanent.
"Permanency is great for us because we can order our furniture, fix all our stuff," said Tim Burke, who owns In a Pickle Restaurant in Waltham. "I just think, community. I mean you come out here...and it's such a great positive energy."
Just as unseasonably warm weather descended on the state Thursday, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association was asking restaurants to push state legislators to allow for outdoor dining again this summer, and beyond.
"Guests in Massachusetts like outdoor dining, and now people are not hesitant to put on a sweatshirt in April or sit under a heat lamp in October. We never really had that thought process in Massachusetts before, so it is exciting," said Massachusetts Restaurant Association President Stephen Clark.
In the restaurant-heavy North End, the City of Boston called a meeting to discuss the status of outdoor dining and whether to make it permanent. Last summer, North End restaurant owners were charged a $7,500 outdoor dining fee. It has the neighborhood split over the issue.
"We're not equipped. We don't have the space in this neighborhood you know, the streets are too tight," said Francesco Graceffa who owns Dolce Vita on Hanover Street. "It's a little bit crazy because you've got to bring the food from downstairs in the kitchen, go right through outside, through the door, you've got to watch for people walking on the sidewalk, otherwise you're going to dump everything."
