Sacramento restaurants will be allowed to expand outdoor dining into sidewalks, some streets
The city of Sacramento could have a lot more outdoor dining options when the state allows restaurants to reopen.
Sacramento restaurants will soon be able to set up tables on sidewalks, in parking lots and even in some streets, city leaders announced Wednesday. The idea is to allow diners to enjoy meals and drinks at safer distances from other people, reducing their chances of contracting the coronavirus.
Officials are also hoping the new program – called “Farm-To-Fork Al Fresco” – will help restaurants, many of which will be required to drastically reduce the number of tables they use when they reopen to allow for social distancing.
“The guidelines that have come out thus far in restaurant dining will significantly decrease capacity of most restaurants,” said City Councilman Steve Hansen, who represents midtown and downtown, where more than 100 restaurants are located. “Their ability to pay their bills is depending on a certain volume.”
State health officials have so far allowed several northern California rural counties to reopen dine-in restaurants, as well as stores and offices. Sacramento County has not yet received the green light because it has not gone two weeks without a virus-related death and also does not have the required number of “contact tracers” to locate who has come into contact with infected people. Sacramento County will likely formally request the state grant approval to reopen dining rooms next week.
When the county is allowed to open its dine-in restaurants, the new outdoor dining options will go into effect, Hansen said.
“It just gives, I think, restaurateurs some hope and the public some security in knowing we’re thinking ahead,” Hansen said.
Downtown streets will not likely be closed, but some areas, like between 12th and 13th streets, have pedestrian areas where outdoor dining can be expanded, Hansen said.
Low-speed, low-volume streets in midtown will be good candidates for closure, Hansen said, such as the portion of 20th Street that typically closes on Saturdays for the Midtown Farmer’s Market. R Street in the Ice Blocks could also close, to allow restaurants like Iron Horse to expand its outdoor patio space, he said. Pedestrians and bicyclists would still be allowed to use the street.
Another option is to close just one lane of traffic for dining, or use on-street parking spaces, Hansen said. Officials have also been discussing putting up tents to provide shade, hang string lights and allow musicians to play music to provide an atmosphere “where people can enjoy this new reality as much as they did the old one,” Hansen said.
Restaurants need any help they can get, said Brock McDonald, executive chef/partner of Beast + Bounty, LowBrau, Milk Money and Block Butcher Bar (soon to rebrand as plant-based Love Child). LowBrau and other restaurants in the MARRS Building are prime candidates to spill into 20th Street, which regularly shuts down for concerts during summer months, and Beast + Bounty’s neighbors in the Ice Blocks could very well expand too.
But some patio meals become less desirable as temperatures rise, and efforts to cool customers can only go so far. Beast + Bounty, in particular, relies on a refined aesthetic with a color scheme of soft greens, pinks and golds; trying to shade outdoor customers with “a bunch of Jack Daniel’s tents” wouldn’t fit, McDonald said.
“I think it’s great the city is trying to do this,” McDonald said. “Yeah we’re the City of Trees, but it’s hot. The last thing I would want to do is sit outside and eat dinner when it’s 100 degrees out, and we’re going into the mouth of the beast right now.”
Typically, restaurants must go through a lengthy city process before they are allowed to add patio seating, Hansen said. If the seating is not on private property, it takes even longer.
The Bay Area cities of San Mateo and San Jose have announced similar plans to allow restaurants to expand outdoor dining, as have Tampa, Fla.; Louisville, Ky. and Charleston, S.C.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Visit Sacramento, the Midtown Association, and Downtown Sacramento Partnership also support the idea, and held a press conference to announce it Wednesday in midtown.
“I personally can’t wait to relax on a warm night with a Delta breeze and enjoy a meal from one of our great restaurants,” Steinberg said in a news release.
When restaurants reopen for dine-in service, more than 125 locations in the central city will be able to offer outdoor dining, the release said. An updated list of restaurants offering outdoor service will be available at www.visitsacramento.com, www.exploremidtown.org and www.godowntownsac.com.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 3:09 PM.
