MOUNT VERNON — In today’s economy, many business owners are looking for innovative ways to attract and maintain customers. Local businesses such as The Parkside Restaurant and Tavern, and Flappers Bar & Grille, are utilizing outdoor patios to increase clientele and invite patrons to eat outdoors.
Dave Glass, Mount Vernon’s safety-service director, oversees the building zoning permits and building ordinances for the city. According to Glass, although there are zoning codes for business establishments, previously there were no codes for outdoor patios.
“There are zoning codes that set the rules and regulations as far as what businesses can be in one area, and how far from the property line you have to be, and those kind of things, and how big your building can be,” he said, adding that regulations for outdoor patios or sidewalk cafes had to be created in order to maintain a safe area for customers and pedestrians on the sidewalk. “The most important one, we felt at least, was they had to leave a minimum of a 5-foot opening on the sidewalk along the main street; if it is a corner street, they have to leave 4 feet on the side street.”
Other conditions include a fence or enclosure that didn’t impose any visual impairments, and there has to be a second entrance to the outdoor patio or sidewalk cafe; the entrance could not be from the public right of way.
“You actually enter the restaurant in one door and came out into the sidewalk cafe area through a different door, so there are no direct access to these areas from the sidewalk,” he explained.
For over a year, Flappers has been working with the City of Mount Vernon to establish a sidewalk cafe. City officials approved the idea of sidewalk cafes and outdoor patios, seeing it as an inventive feature for downtown.
“When the owner [of Flappers] was in here to talk with us about it, we felt that it was kind of quaint, and might be a good thing to try for downtown Mount Vernon,” said Glass.
Andrea Franz, owner of Flappers Bar & Grille, hopes the new seating area will attract customers, smokers and nonsmokers alike.
“With the smoking ban, I believe that a lot of other places have expanded to a patio, and I have been working with the city for over a year,” she said. “They talked with other downtown merchants and came up with some guidelines; [for example], how high the fence should be. So we came up with something that [the city] would work with.”
Franz said she ran into one problem with her sidewalk cafe: Some individuals felt the handicap access ramp on the curb was too constrained by the fencing.
“When I submitted my plans to the city, I had a diagram, and it was exactly the same dimension the mayor and the city’s safety director talked about, but now they are getting some flack from people saying they don’t have enough room.”
Adjustments have since been made to improve the position of the fence and allow greater access to the handicap ramp.
“[With The Parkside Restaurant and Tavern] there were no issues with zoning permits; there were no sidewalks or public right of ways, so that was a simple zoning permit to construct it on the front,” said Glass. “There were no restrictions as far as they could do what they wanted as long as it was within code, and they are fine out there.”
“We have been wanting to add an outdoor patio to the establishment since The Parkside Restaurant and Tavern opened,” explained Jeff Boucher, owner. “People have said we did it because of the smoking ban.”
However, Boucher said, he wanted it for the appeal it would add to the restaurant. The large green umbrellas and tables enclosed by a fence stand out to travelers on the road out front of the restaurant, and separate the it from the bowling alley next door.
The outdoor eating area has been a great success, said Boucher; a lot of people have utilized the area, not just for smoking, but also to enjoy the nice weather. The area can hold up to 36 people and has 12 tables.
“[It’s] for everybody,” he said.
The new addition at Flappers has been a success as well, and Franz has seen an increase in customers’ response.
“In the evenings, we have people sit out there; when it was really hot — we opened in July — it was a little too warm. But we have had a lot of people out there for lunch in the evenings,” she said.
Although city officials understand the area is used by smokers as well as nonsmokers, Glass said the city didn’t want it to turn into some kind of smoking lounge, where the only ones using it are those standing around smoking cigarettes.
