Five Boroughs, One License at a Time
The Definitive Guide to NYC's Licensed Outdoor Cafés
Every eatery in New York City permitted for sidewalk or roadway café seating, in one searchable directory. Filter by borough, neighborhood, and seating type to plan your next meal outside — rain, shine, or somewhere in between.
About This Guide
Built From the City's Own Records
A Guide To New York Cafe Restos started with a simple question: which New York restaurants actually have permission to seat you outside? Rather than guess from photos or crowdsourced reviews, we went to the source — the official license register kept by the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), which tracks every business approved for sidewalk or roadway café seating in the five boroughs.
We cleaned, de-duplicated, and organized that register into the directory you see above: 1,284 currently licensed eateries, each tagged by borough, neighborhood, and seating type. A "sidewalk café" license covers tables set up on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant; a "roadway café" license covers seating built out into a former parking lane — the open-air dining setups that became a fixture of New York streets. Some spots hold both licenses at once.
This is a living directory of outdoor dining, not a review site. We don't rank restaurants or publish opinions about the food — we map where the city has legally authorized outdoor tables, so you can decide where to eat outside on your own terms.
- Data reflects active licenses only — expired or revoked permits are excluded.
- Manhattan holds the largest share of licensed outdoor seating, driven by dense sidewalk frontage below 96th Street.
- "Roadway café" seating expanded citywide after 2020 and is now a permanent, permitted program.
- Restaurant names and addresses are standardized from the source register for readability.
- This directory is refreshed periodically as new licenses are issued by the city.
Get In Touch
Report a Correction or Say Hello
Spot a restaurant that's closed, a license that's out of date, or a favorite outdoor spot we're missing? Let us know below. We read every message.
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Looking for a specific borough? Jump straight to the filters above and narrow things down by neighborhood or seating type — sidewalk, roadway, or both.
Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 2026
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