Several metro-area cities are fast-tracking changes to rules so that restaurants and bars can create temporary patios by Monday, when they are allowed by the state to reopen for dining outdoors amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The list of cities that approved new rules this week is a long one and includes St. Paul, Minneapolis, Blaine, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, West St. Paul and Woodbury. Generally, the regulations allow a business to potentially spill out into parking lots, sidewalks and green space — and, in some cities, into on-street parking.
South St. Paul has called a special council meeting for Friday to take up changes, while Bayport is planning to to do so Monday.
“This is the time for us as local leaders to step up and support some ailing businesses,” West St. Paul Mayor Dave Napier said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
In Hastings and Stillwater, that means letting businesses convert on-street parking to dining area “parklets” in the cities’ historic downtowns. The two cities, as well as Apple Valley, Farmington, Lakeville and Oak Park Heights, already had made temporary changes to patio regulations before Gov. Tim Walz’s announcement last week that, beginning Monday, restaurants would be able to serve customers in outdoor dining areas under certain conditions.
Walz’s announcement was surprising and disappointing for many restaurateurs who expected that some indoor dining would be allowed with restrictions. Many bars and restaurants do not have outdoor dining areas, while some owners said they could not justify reopening on-site dining with their small patios.
Last week, Brian Ingram of Hope Breakfast Bar called the patio-only restriction a “death sentence” for small restaurants like his St. Paul eatery off West Seventh Street. He estimated the outdoor-dining-only restriction would allow him to only seat 10 to 12 people on the restaurant’s 20-person-capacity patio when the required six feet of spacing was factored in.
On Wednesday, St. Paul gave bars and restaurants some relief. The city council unanimously passed a resolution that paves the way for “expanded use of the public right of way, temporary street closures, on-street parklets and expanded use of park space.”
As of Wednesday, West St. Paul had received applications from 11 businesses. They include Beirut Restaurant, Fireside Lounge and Southview Country Club, all three of which are along or just off South Robert Street, and neighborhood businesses El Nuevo Morelos, Gallagher’s Bar, Marty’s Bar and Cherokee Tavern.
For Brian and Mollie Rubenzer, a married couple who in 2017 bought the Cherokee, a Smith Avenue fixture that dates back to 1933, the plan is to extend their current patio into part of their adjacent parking lot. By doing so, it will let them reach close to the maximum capacity of 50 patrons.
“We’re just not sure if we’re going to start it right on (Monday), because we kind of want to see how it goes a little bit,” Brian Rubenzer said. “It’s a mixed feeling on what to do. It’s a big decision.”
Their plan is open up the dining area on June 8 with a meat smoker and music “to provide some atmosphere out there,” he said. “I’m just going to stay positive about all of this.”
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May 28, 2020 at 06:29AM
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St. Paul among several cities rushing to allow more areas for outdoor dining - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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