Green tarpaulin covered street The cafe in front of Rosemary Bistro Cafe does not attract much attention; An unattractive but useful structure that has popped up all over the city in the wake of the pandemic. While an older Chevy Chase D.C. crowd enjoys Covid-safe meals here, drivers heading downtown on Connecticut Avenue only notice the structure when they have to suddenly merge left to get around it. But in the minds of a few outspoken neighbors, the continued existence of this nondescript platform is unacceptable.

One morning in August, the cafe’s owner, French-born restaurateur Frederic Darricarrere, subject of a petition We call on the municipality to remove this as soon as possible. The building, which has been there since 2020, is legal and licensed. However, the petition called for it to be scrapped as it claimed the street was damaging other businesses on the block; Some owners of these businesses were behind the petition. Carolyn Papetti, co-owner of the adjacent Italian Bar, explained in an email: “Simply put, this street blocks the visibility and therefore viability of the Italian Bar.” The petition collected more than 500 signatures; Meanwhile, Darricarrere started his own petition to show his support.

The question of how to handle D.C.’s streets as the pandemic subsides has become more pressing: While restaurant owners and some customers are reaping the benefits of added outdoor tables, skeptics point to problems like increased road and sidewalk congestion and perceived unattractiveness. Now the city is finally stepping in to resolve situations like dueling Chevy Chase restaurants. A new set of guidelines published in September District Transportation DepartmentIt bans – after years of negotiations – lanes that would normally be used by traffic (rather than just parking). Rosemary Bistro Cafe’s structure, which occupies a full strip of Connecticut Avenue, clearly violates these new restrictions; It will need to be dismantled by next July. “My plan is to follow the rules,” says Darricarrere.

Many streets in D.C. will continue to be permitted under new guidelines that DDOT inspectors will begin implementing next summer. In fact, the rules are intended to make the program permanent throughout the city. But restaurants will have to comply with updated restrictions that dictate where streets can go and what they will look like. Owners will also have to pay an annual “public space rental fee” of $20 per square meter to the structures.

The new requirements ban indoor street types that resemble rustic cabins with high walls that recreate the interior rather than providing more of a patio-dining experience. These structures tend to hide stop signs, crosswalks, and bike lanes from drivers and pedestrians. The new rules also fix an accessibility issue: Where many streets now have a ramp away from the sidewalk to the street-level dining area, they will now have to make the tables flush with the sidewalk on a platform. DDOT is also eliminating standing streets in loading zones and in front of bus stops.

The city will hold hearings where restaurant owners and the public can provide feedback on the proposed strategy guidelines, which may still be modified. All restaurants with an existing state permit that expires in December will have it extended through July 2025.

So what will all this look like in practice? For a preview, all you have to do is head to 18th Street in Adams Morgan. The neighborhood’s main street was until recently filled with dilapidated dining structures of various heights, colors and materials; this was a chaotic gathering that was popular with diners but not exactly carefully thought out.

In September, city workers demolished all of those temporary streets, leaving the commercial strip strangely bare, and began replacing them with specially built prototypes that comply with the new rules. The shiny, Norwegian-designed structures are made of metal and beautiful wood trim, giving the street a clean, uniform look. Paid for by DDOT, the Adams Morgan streets are a gift to the 33 bars and restaurants on 18th Street and a test run for what similar setups could look like around town once the new rules go into full effect.

While the new structures are undeniably more attractive, they have not put an end to the debate. Some residents, including restaurant owners, think the city should move away from what was originally intended as a temporary response to extraordinary events. Bill Duggan, owner of the Adams Morgan bar Madam’s Organ, thinks they are bulky, take up needed parking spaces for customers and delivery vehicles, harbor rats and hide sidewalks from view of passing police cars.

Madam’s Organ is one of the establishments on 18th Street that has a new street paid for by the city; Duggan says he chose this option over the motorcycle and scooter parking area that DDOT suggested as an alternative. But overall, he sees situations as more negative than positive. “The most important thing is that if you go there at night, you will see that most of them are empty,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a great look for the city.”

Rarely American Commercial streets changed as quickly as in the summer of 2020, when cities across the country began allowing outdoor dining for desperate diners. Kim Vacca, who was hired on DDOT’s neighborhood planning staff in February of that year, found her job changing rapidly. Approving permits for these outdoor structures, a small part of his predecessor’s job, quickly became the majority of his job.

That June, three months after Mayor Muriel Bowser issued her first stay-at-home order, Vacca’s team allowed D.C.’s first streets to take over parking lots on 18th Street. At first they were makeshift and simple: indoor tables and chairs were pulled onto the street and surrounded by concrete Jersey barriers. The weather was nice, and customers who felt comfortable dining outside were grateful for the opportunity to visit a restaurant, regardless of the surroundings.

But indoor dining restrictions continued into the winter and then into 2021. Streets began to become more detailed and significant with relatively little guidance from DDOT. For example, the agency never made formal rules for winterizing structures, but restaurants did so anyway; it has variously enclosed what used to be entirely outdoor spaces and sometimes even received grants from the mayor’s office for heaters and insulation.

As the pandemic subsided and dining returned to normal, many restaurateurs and customers realized they didn’t want the street to disappear. “What was a necessity has become a choice for many people,” says Daisuke Utagawa, who still maintains his setup outside Daikaya and Tonari, two neighboring restaurants he owns in the Penn Quarter. “There is streetside seating in all the attractive cities of the world. “It adds value to the city that is difficult to calculate.” It also adds value to you to be Calculate it as additional income. Darricarrere says his business accounts for half of his business during the warmer months, and other business owners say the extra tables increase revenue.

Zones were initially granted permits for 90 days, but DDOT decided to renew the temporary program and did so again after the first year. Since then, the rules have continued to be renewed, with some changes made as the situation changes. The latest temporary permit expires at the end of this year; The new rules are intended to be permanent.

Many restaurants have had to scrap their outdoor structures, in part because of the effort required to operate and maintain them. Today, it is virtually non-existent in large parts of the District (east of the Anacostia River, much of downtown and Petworth, the majority of Northeast D.C., and the upper Northwest). That’s why, for example, Rosemary Bistro Cafe’s street stands out: There’s nothing else like it nearby, so drivers don’t expect to encounter what suddenly appears in their lane.

About half of the pandemic-era streets in Georgetown are now demolished. However, street dining has proven durable and popular, and even before DDOT issued its new guidelines, the Business Improvement District was working on ways to make the structures more attractive and permanent.

Streets built in chaotic styles that do not match Georgetown’s historic appearance have not always been popular in the neighborhood. But they did accomplish something important: Accidents and serious injuries in the neighborhood were cut in half, according to a report by the Georgetown BID. The theory is that eliminating a lane slows traffic overall and makes it easier for pedestrians to cross busy M Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

Now the BID is fully behind the idea of ​​making Georgetown streets permanent. “Initially, we thought these were a response to the pandemic, not realizing how big of a benefit it would be to the neighborhood,” says Faith Broderick, the BID’s director of economic development. “Because we left the strategies out for a long time, we were able to monitor their effects. We’ve seen a much higher rate of rentals from restaurants; “We see a lot of foot traffic.”

However, there can also be disadvantages for restaurant owners; especially the expense and effort required to keep up with changing rules. James Wozniuk opened Makan in Columbia Heights on March 8, 2020, a few weeks before the mayor’s stay-at-home order. After months of waiting, Wozniuk paid the contractor approximately $10,000 to build a wooden theatre. Wozniuk has been preparing to remove the structure about every six months since 2020 when the interim program expires, only to delay it when DDOT renews the program.

Wozniuk says the upcoming stricter rules will likely spell the end of outdoor installation, which will no longer be compliant. He could tear it down and replace it with a new one, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort: “I have to spend a lot of money building it, spend a lot of money tearing it down, spend a lot of money rebuilding it, and then I have to pay rent; “I’d rather tear down the street and be done with it.”

How many other restaurateurs will make the same calculation? Outside of Adams Morgan’s testing process, building owners will have to pay out of pocket to optimize their structures, and many restaurants are already struggling. DDOT has $750,000 allocated to help subsidize transit. Part of this will go to a consultant who will create harmonious street designs for the restaurants. Another portion will likely go to grants for owners to purchase materials. The Ministry has not yet decided on these exact amounts.

However, this funding will not be enough to cover all the work that needs to be done. Many districts do not meet the basic interim guidelines currently in place, let alone the new permanent requirements. “Almost every street will need to change something,” says Vacca, “whether it’s shifting a pole an inch or tearing it down completely and starting over.”

This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Washingtonian.