Sidewalk cafes popping up all over Seattle

It's not something you would have noticed until Seattle's recent run of sunny days, but there's been a surge of bars and restaurants offering outdoor seating.

Since Seattle eased its policy on sidewalk-cafe permits in late 2008, almost 100 cafe and restaurant owners have received approval or are awaiting approval to put cocktail tables and seats along the sidewalk, usually in heavy foot traffic and barhopping areas.

On Capitol Hill, about a dozen cafes and bars have started to plop down small tables and metal chairs or put up railings around their outdoor dining areas.

Ballard, along the popular happy-hour strip of Northwest Market Street, seems to have as many customers drinking and munching outside these days as you would see along the commercial strip of Alki Beach.

In October 2008, the city, under then-Mayor Greg Nickels, made it cheaper and faster for restaurants to get permits to seat customers in front of their establishments. Nickels said he was inspired by downtown revitalization in Melbourne, Australia, and Copenhagen, Denmark.

The new rules cut permit costs from $2,100 — and sometimes as high as $3,700 — to $707 for a 100-square-foot sidewalk cafe, roughly space for four tables with two to four chairs at each table. The permit process now takes about 10 days. Several restaurant owners complained the process used to drag on for months.

Chef Ethan Stowell, who runs three restaurants in Seattle with outdoor seating, recalled being billed almost $3,000 in 2007 for a city permit to put three small tables in front of his restaurant How To Cook A Wolf, on Queen Anne Hill. The process took about two months.

"It was a pain. They (city officials) couldn't have made it any more challenging or expensive" for something that is so beneficial to restaurants and the community, he said.

"I love to see outdoor cafes in every place," said Stowell, who also owns Tavolata and Anchovies & Olives. "It makes the neighborhood look inviting and friendly and vibrant. ... It makes people want to hang out more."

Some objections have come from advocates for the disabled. Bill Wippel, executive director of Tape Ministries Northwest, which records material for the blind, said outdoor tables and chairs can be "obstacles" for those using wheelchairs.

Mark Adreon, who serves on the Seattle Commission for People with Disabilities, a City Council-appointed group, said the objections usually involve outdoor cafes that were "grandfathered" in under an old ordinance, where "some sidewalk cafes forced you to the curb to get around."

Under the new ordinance, sidewalk cafes in downtown must allow at least 6 feet of open space from the end of its sidewalk dining area to the curb. Outside of downtown, the requirement is at least 5 feet, though the city can enforce more walking space in a high pedestrian-traffic area.

Adreon, who is blind, supports the looser regulations, with a caveat. "My concern is that everything has to stay within the confines of the cafe (area). No hanging umbrellas sticking out," where a visually impaired pedestrian could walk into them.

According to city records, around 240 coffee houses, bars and restaurants have permits for sidewalk seating, including 57 approved under the new streamlined process. The city has also approved 18 more applicants and is awaiting payments before issuing them sidewalk permits.

Another 17 applicants are under review, with more requests expected this summer.

"In spite of the fact that we are in the middle of an economic recession," the number of businesses filing for a sidewalk cafe permit or inquiring about it is quite impressive, said Rick Sheridan, spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, which oversees the permits.

After opening a 28-seat front deck before its Cinco de Mayo celebration, Laredos Grill in Lower Queen Anne saw a spike in business.

"We don't have that many opportunities of mild, 70-degree, sunny days. So people want to take advantage of it. They will even come, put their names on the list and sit on the bench and wait" for a table to open up outside, said co-owner Jose Betancourt.

On Capitol Hill, The Buck and Dinette have just started outdoor seating, while popular happy-hour and Saturday night hangouts such as Tavern Law and Licorous hope to follow suit in the coming weeks.

Nearby, the hip, new Melrose Market, with restaurants, a flower vendor and a butcher shop, has seven tables out front, just put in by new tenant Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop.

"It makes the space more inviting from the outside, especially if you don't know the restaurant," said Ben Friedman, co-owner of the sandwich shop. "In Seattle, you only get to use it three months out of the year. ... But it doubles the space. We have 12 seats inside and 14 seats outside. It brings in a lot more people."

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com