Just 50 Philly restaurants applied for streetery permits as city crackdown starts this week

It’s last call for many of Philadelphia’s streeteries.

This week, city officials will start cracking down on the parking-spot dining structures, issuing citations to businesses that have not applied for licenses, which require a dizzying new menu of regulations.

At the height of the streetery boom in 2020 and 2021, more than 800 restaurants had erected some kind of structure to keep business afloat through the worst of the pandemic. Many sank tens of thousands of dollars into ornate structures with ambient lighting and propane heat to keep patrons cozy in all four seasons.

Only a small number will survive. As of Monday’s enforcement deadline, just 50 restaurants had submitted applications to legalize their streeteries, officials told The Inquirer, though they declined to release the names of applicants. None have been approved yet, and confusion persists about the process — the result of lengthy negotiations to bring the unregulated streetery scene up to code.

Deputy Streets Commissioner Rich Montanez said the city has provided ample flexibility ahead of the enforcement. Restaurants will now be told to apply for licenses or face fines for noncompliance.

“This is my final, final warning,” Montanez said. “As we’re going out there, anything we see as a safety hazard — not well kept, tripping hazards, broken boards — we will cite it.”

» READ MORE: Philly restaurants reluctantly dismantle their streeteries ahead of city crackdown. No licenses have even been approved yet.

But even restaurants trying to comply with the new law remain in the dark about what’s permitted.

For example: If you’ve applied for a license, can you keep operating your current structure without fines until your application is approved?

Answers have varied.

Ben Fileccia, of the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said he was under the impression that so long as restaurants had submitted an application, they could avoid fines for now. Montanez echoed as much in a Monday interview with The Inquirer.

“[An unlicensed streetery] is automatic grounds for a citation,” Montanez said. “But we’re asking them if they’re planning to get it legalized, then to go in the system and apply, and then we say ‘here’s the process.’ ”

But the Streets Department’s own website reports “all unlicensed streetery set-ups must also be removed beginning January 9, 2023.” No licenses had been issued as of Monday, officials said, as the application approvals remain ongoing.

Asked for clarification, Streets officials later confirmed that restaurants can indeed continue operating their current streeteries without fines, so long as they have pending applications.

Too little, too late for Stina Pizzeria.

The South Philly restaurant is one of the 50 that have applied for a license. But owner Bobby Sarisoglou said that, because his existing structure did not meet the new regulations, he tore it down Sunday to stay in good standing with the city.

Stina posted an elegy for its streetery on Instagram, drawing laments from his Snyder Avenue regulars. The Inquirer on Monday informed owners of the exception for license applicants.

“That’s heartbreaking to hear,” Sarisoglou said. “We were scared that if we didn’t have it down, we’d get fined.”

He’d already put $10,000 into building the streetery, including running electrical lines under the sidewalk, and then spent another $5,000 to have it torn down and hauled away. Had he known, he said he would have kept his current streetery operating until his application was approved, and then immediately rebuilt in compliance with the new regulations.

Fileccia, of the restaurant association, said the communication could have been clearer.

“[The city] wants to get people moving along this process, but they can’t give anything in black and white,” Fileccia said. “Restaurant owners need things in black and white.”

Many proprietors aren’t bothering with the license application.

Some reluctantly broke down their streeteries last month, well ahead of the enforcement deadline, and expressed frustration with city officials as they said goodbye to the outdoor dining spaces that helped them survive the pandemic and remained popular with patrons.

Some cast the new regulations as draconian. Between the architectural constraints, the $1,750 annual licensing fee, and the outright ban on gas heaters and electrical service lines, some said the rules seemed designed to force all but the wealthiest and largest restaurant chains out of the street.

Streets officials emphasized the application portal will be open year round and restaurants can apply at any time to start the approval process.