Business community appreciates outdoor dining extension

Date: 4/19/2022

WESTERN MASS. – The recent news that the state would support continued expanded outdoor dining options has been well received by local restaurateurs and business leaders.

On April 1, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a $1.6 million supplemental budget bill that included extensions for outdoor dining and sale of alcoholic beverages to-go until 2023. Following the signing of the bill, the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) approved guidelines for outdoor alcoholic beverage service.

Originally instituted during the coronavirus pandemic to assist dining establishments hindered by closures and capacity limits, the outdoor dining allowance was one of the few benefits businesses have seen the past few years, according to Vince Jackson, the executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce.

“I think outdoor dining is the future. This is one of the silver linings of the pandemic,” said Jackson. “We have over 100 food and beverage establishments, so it is super good news for them.”

Since its inception and subsequent extensions, the business community and local government have been working to develop creative solutions and opportunities for outdoor dining to take advantage of and maximize its positive financial and community impact.

According to Jackson, outdoor dining will be the focal point of establishments in Northampton through a multitude of avenues. For one, there is a new outdoor space on Masonic Street this year, and outdoor dining in general will be a key component of the Main Street redesign that is supposed to occur within the next couple of years.

Annie Lesko, who is part of the city’s administration as well as the licensing and economic development coordinator for Northampton, told Reminder Publishing that businesses need to complete an application for temporary extension of licensed premises for outdoor dining extensions. After applying, if they have a liquor license, they need to attend a License Commission meeting for approval.

“Most of the restaurants that did outdoor dining last year have already submitted applications and been approved for this year,” said Lesko. “The city does its absolute best to try and accommodate every establishment that asks for outdoor dining in the street so that we can continue to foster economic recovery downtown.”

According to Lesko, Summer on Strong – the collaborative outdoor dining space on Strong Avenue utilized in 2021 – will return this year from May 3 through Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend.
Myriad businesses in Northampton have already applied and been approved for outdoor dining, including but not limited to La Veracruzana, Fitzwilly’s, Packard’s, Local Burger, India House, Dirty Truth and Progression Brewing Co.

“Outdoor dining has always been an important factor for any restaurant able to offer a patio service and with the expanded offerings that cities and towns have allowed in streets and sidewalks – including here in Northampton with our Summer on Strong program – has been nothing short of business saving over the past few years,” said Homestead chef and owner Jeremy Werther. “This is something we at Homestead, and I, personally, feel should continue into the future and hopefully keep growing.”

Homestead will once again be participating in the Summer on Strong program, and according to Werther, outdoor dining in general has been a true lifesaver.

“I can say with full certainty that if we did not have the outdoor offerings available to us over the past two seasons – and into this third one coming up – we would not still be here and able to offer our food and drink to our community,” said Werther. “As with many restaurants, and all businesses, one week in the wrong direction over the past couple of years could have put us in a position that wouldn’t have allowed us to re-open.”

Much like Jackson, Werther is confident that outdoor dining will be a future asset beyond 2023 and believes restaurants like theirs should be able to utilize patio space beyond the extension.

“Obviously, I’m really excited about [outdoor dining],” said Kyle Anderson, the general manager of The Dirty Truth, when asked about the extension. “I think it would’ve been detrimental to everybody’s business and well-being if that didn’t happen. The only trajectory that I would like to see is that this just continues and becomes the normal part of business in the summer.”

For this year’s outdoor dining season, Anderson said that his business will be able to add almost 40 seats to their capacity, which is 50 percent more than what they can do inside. “When people come to Northampton in the summer, they’re looking to sit outside, so we’ve often a lot of businesses that have access to outdoor dining … so this has really changed our ability to really attract more business in the summer,” he added.

Anderson also told Reminder Publishing that the take-out alcohol program was not as significant for them since most patrons are deciding to stay on-premises when they visit. He added that he wished the state would allow small businesses to lower their take-out alcohol prices instead of charging the regular on-premise prices.

“I think that the excitement that the outdoor dining has brought to every smaller and large city over the past couple years just shows the potential that the outdoor dining has,” said Anderson. “I think rather than think about all of the obstacles and hurdles, [the state] should be gauging the excitement of the business owners and community.”

Progression Brewing is another Northampton business participating in the Summer on Strong event, and according to taproom manager Chris McKenney, the outdoor dining aspect continues to be a positive facet.

“From this standpoint, it’s a huge revenue center,” said McKenney. “But I also think it’s just a great thing that attracts additional foot traffic and attraction to downtown Northampton. We haven’t been able to do it in the past, so with hopefully COVID [-19] in the rearview mirror, I’d love to be able to extend this moving forward.”

Members of the Amherst business community attended a breakfast last month with Baker to speak about the importance of extending these provisions and said that they are thrilled with his decision.

“Several of our businesses are very much looking forward to returning to outdoor dining and while I remain positive that we are heading in the right direction in terms of COVID[-19] and cases, the daily news continues to chip away at my optimism,” said Gabrielle Gould, executive director of Amherst’s Business Improvement District. “If we do see a spike we will absolutely be needing and very much dependent on outdoor dining once again especially if another mask mandate or any restrictions on capacity are placed.”

Gould added that the town had recently received a grant from the state to build two to three “very attractive and semi-permanent ‘parklets’” downtown to help combat possible traffic complications.

“We will hopefully construct these as a pilot program to see what attractive, well maintained, and not ‘throw together in pandemic panic’ outdoor dining can look like. These will be in locations that have worked over the last two years and complement the downtown’s traffic and parking patterns,” she said.

According to Holyoke Director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development Aaron Vega, he and his licensing team are currently trying to get certain city restaurants to comply with the ABCC advisory by amending their liquor licenses to include the expanded outdoor space.

To Vega’s knowledge, Fiesta Café is the only place that actually went through the process of amending their license to include the outdoor space and that was pre-pandemic. He added that JP’s Restaurant was probably the only restaurant that created a new outdoor space as a result of the pandemic.

Crave owner Nicole Ortiz initially opened her business in August 2020 with just a food truck before she opened a storefront in early 2021. She said the pandemic allowed them to apply and get approved for seating on the street right outside the restaurant to extend seating outside.
Ortiz said Crave would be looking to expand their outdoor dining space. She added they will be submitting plans to the city soon to block off two parking spaces in the front of the building and create a cool new outdoor dining environment.

“We’re trying to make it similar to you know, Northampton or places like that where it’s a friendly environment and people feel comfortable to sit down and eat outside,” Ortiz said. “We’re just trying to bring that to Holyoke.”

Ortiz added she hopes to keep the outdoor dining permanently for her business as it provides a unique experience and also adds seating to the already limited indoor dining space.

“I hope that the city sees how important and how nice it could be to have something like that downtown so we definitely want to keep it as long as the city will allow us to,” Ortiz said.
Vega noted that other outdoor spaces around the city have been temporary, and he was unsure if all local restaurants were aware of the state’s extension as they still needed to get local approval and permits. He added that the city will be delivering their outdoor dining guide to restaurants next week in response to the ABCC advisory.