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NYC’s Open Restaurants program will return next summer

Outdoor dining is back on the menu for 2021.

Will Gleason
Written by
Will Gleason
Content Director, The Americas
open restaurants
Photograph: Belmont Business Improvement District
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Get used to eating on the street!

Mayor de Blasio announced that the city’s popular “open restaurants” program will return for warm-weather dining next summer. Tentatively, restaurants will be able to use the curbside space that many have taken advantage of this summer starting June 1. (And when we say “many,” we mean it. Take a look at this interactive map to see all of the “open restaurants” that can currently be found in NYC.)

In a press conference yesterday, the mayor focused on how popular the program has been so far this summer (over 9,7000 restaurants) and how many jobs it has created (approximately 80,000.) He also said that the “open streets: restaurants” program will be coming back which has shut down dozens of roadways across the city to cars for weekend dining. You can check out our top picks of those car-free offerings here.

Mayor de Blasio also didn’t rule out the idea that the open restaurants program could be extended to be year-round. The program is now set to spookily expire on October 31. 

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

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