Eats on the streets: What’s up with outdoor dining?

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Although we in the Bay Area are lucky enough to be able to dine outdoors for much of the year, in the summer months you may find yourself wanting to enjoy the warm evenings and spend mealtimes outside all the more. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some public sidewalks and streets became a location for those wanting to safely patronize local eating and drinking establishments. Since then, cities have been contemplating the ongoing status of businesses offering seating in the public right-of-way, and of keeping key areas closed to cars (while balancing concerns about accessibility, parking and aesthetics). Here are the latest policies from several cities on the Peninsula.

San Mateo

San Mateo first adopted a permanent outdoor dining program in 2021, with amendments made in 2022 and 2023.

San Mateo has three different types of permits for outdoor dining areas: One for businesses wanting to include outdoor seating on the sidewalk or in the street within the downtown pedestrian mall (B Street between 1st and 3rd avenues); one for restaurants to wanting to build seating in parking spaces in front of their business; and one for ground-level food services businesses to construct a dining platform in the pedestrian mall. 

There are currently 29 restaurants enrolled in the outdoor dining program, city staff said.

Rafat Haddad, the owner of 3 Bees Coffee on 3rd Avenue, has been in business for 22 years and is glad to see San Mateo become more pedestrian-friendly. He’d long been interested in offering outdoor seating for his downtown cafe, even pre-pandemic, and said his was the first business to go through the program after it was approved by the city (3 Bees is currently listed on the city’s website as an example of an approved parklet.)

“This opportunity came and I jumped on it right away,” he said. 

But the process wasn’t easy, Haddad said, and it included an architect, a contractor, the city and multiple inspections. 

“It was kind of a tough process, but I was willing to take it on because I believed in it,” he said. 

He eventually joined forces with his neighboring business, Avocado Toast, to apply for a shared parklet space. He said so far, the headaches that come with the regulation process have been worth it. Currently, 3 Bees has room for about 10-15 to dine outside, and it’s proven very popular with customers, Haddad said, noting that a patron recently held her neighborhood association meeting in the outdoor area. 

“That is something that a lot of residents of San Mateo are welcoming,” he said. “I have a lot of regular customers, and in the summer, they ask (to sit) outside.” 

Redwood City

Downtown Redwood City has long been popular with outdoor diners. This year, the City Council approved a permanent pedestrian mall on the 2000 block of Broadway and Redwood Creek, between the Main Street parking lot and Marshall Street garage. According to Amanda Anthony, Redwood City’s economic development manager, restaurants wanting to offer outdoor dining via sidewalk tables or parklets must apply through the city’s Outdoor Business Activity program (which consolidated three previous programs). 

“As with any permit, they will need to submit plans for review, make any adjustments per the feedback from our planning, building, and engineering staff, and once approved from a design and safety perspective, get an encroachment permit (basically a permit to use the public right-of-way), and finally sign a license agreement (one year). This is renewable annually,” she wrote in an email to this news organization.

There are currently 47 businesses that have applied, with three more on hold due to changes in ownership. 

“We’re still working through many of the applications to the new program, and there have been some unforeseen challenges,” such as bringing some cafes up to current code, businesses not being able to get consent from their property owners, and businesses pushing back against guidelines, she said. 

At the June 24 City Council meeting, modifications to the program were approved that give businesses a bit more flexibility. 

“Businesses can, with adjacent property owner and business owner consent, go into the adjacent frontage,” Anthony said. “They can also move forward with their parklets in their own frontage without their landlord’s consent – only notification – which should allow about 8-10 additional businesses to move forward with their parklet.”

While downtown hotspot Vesta has always offered outdoor dining, co-owner Courtney Borrone said that public interest in dining al fresco has increased exponentially since the pandemic and she is glad the city is working to maintain the outdoor dining scene. 

“There is a definite benefit to the quality of community life when outdoor dining is present; there is a pervasive vibrance in a downtown area when restaurants and businesses flow into the outdoors and engage with the community,” she said in an email. “We are so grateful that Redwood City has embraced this new lean towards permanent outdoor dining.”

Palo Alto

Palo Alto has three efforts underway that relate to the future of outdoor dining in the downtown and California Avenue areas, said Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, the city’s chief communications officer. 

The Car-Free Streets program is an evolution of the temporary Uplift Local Summer Streets program that closed parts of the California Avenue and downtown areas to cars during the pandemic. California Avenue is currently closed to vehicles from El Camino Real to Birch Street and Ramona Street is closed between Hamilton and University avenues. Debate over how to proceed with California Avenue has proven contentious over the years, with frustrations mounting over what some have seen as the haphazard look of the street and slow progress improving it. Recently, the design firm Urban Field Studio has been meeting with the Cal Ave. community to discuss improvements and future design of the car-free zone. 

“Over 100 workshop participants shared ideas about design concepts to help inform the work ahead,” and more engagement is being planned, Horrigan-Taylor said in an email. 

The city is also working to formalize its parklet program, including the development of a preapproved parklet design. A user guide including the preapproved designs will become available to restaurants in August. Restaurants with existing parklets need to comply by November with the city’s revised rules. The regulations apply to businesses in downtown and parts of California Avenue, but not the car-free areas, which have their own rules. 

“By 2025, all parklets will transition to the new regulations, with the City continuing enforcement and permitting through the new ongoing parklet program,” Horrigan-Taylor wrote.

Palo Alto is also exploring other improvements to University Avenue, including wider sidewalks and more public gathering spaces, she said. 

For Palo Alto restaurateur Maico Campilongo, co-owner of California Avenue’s Terún and iTalico, outdoor dining on the Peninsula is something that’s always made perfect sense – both from a restaurant owner’s perspective as well as on a personal level. He said he knows a lot of people adore dining al fresco, “because I’m one of those people.” 

He grew up in southern Italy and said in the summer there it can become too hot to eat lunch outdoors. In the Bay Area, though, “We have the best weather in the world,” he said. And as a father to three kids, he also enjoys being able to sit outside and eat with his family in the safety of areas closed off to traffic. 

Since the city began experimenting with closing parts of California Avenue during the pandemic, the streetscape of the neighborhood is “a work in progress,” Campilongo said, and he looks forward to the planned improvements. 

“We need this street looking better as soon as possible,” he said. 

Mountain View 

Mountain View launched its Outdoor Patio Program last fall (replacing its previous Sidewalk Cafe and Castro StrEATs programs). The policy lets downtown businesses that have been approved for an outdoor patio license extend their seating and operations into the public right-of-way (while conforming to the program’s design standards and guidelines). 

As of this spring, 30 businesses have been approved for outdoor operations on Castro Street and the surrounding sidewalks, said Mountain View’s Chief Communications Officer Lenka Wright in an email. The city charges an annual fee for the patios, based on square footage. 

“In addition, the City provides and installs the fences that define the outdoor patio areas under the license agreement, and the City is also providing grants to businesses to purchase new outdoor furnishings in compliance with the standards/guidelines,” she wrote. 

According to the city’s website, patio areas of up to 750 square feet are permitted for businesses in the area covered by the Downtown Precise Plan, including the pedestrian malls (Castro Street between the east part of West Evelyn Avenue and Villa Street, Villa Street and West Dana Street, and West Dana Street and California Street). 

“Usage by patrons has been increasing steadily. We expect that trend to strengthen into the summer,” Wright said.