New Bedford al fresco

from The South Coast INSIDER - October 2020

Conversations in quarantine

NEW By Steven Froias BEDFORD

New Bedford restaurants have begun serving a side of fresh air with their meals.

dapting to the pandemic, New Bedford and much of the South Coast is learning to love dining al fresco during the summer and fall of 2020.

The Federal Reserve Bank, in its regional Beige Book of regional economic activity, noted that a full third of restaurant sales in Massachusetts were the result of outdoor dining. They wrote that it “is unusual in Massachusetts where fewer than 20 percent of restaurants had outdoor dining options before the pandemic.”

Though due to the Covid crisis, cities, towns, and restaurants are discovering that patrons are enjoying eating in the sun or under the stars, even after indoor dining resumed.

Accommodating streetside, sidewalk, and parking lot service in the City of New Bedford was largely possible thanks to an aggressive effort by the city to design and then execute a plan to reopen its eateries. A Restaurant Reopening task force, led by the city’s Department of Planning, sought and received input from many sources in late spring and early summer as it formulated its ultimately successful plan.

Now, after a satisfying summer, it is seeking to extend the winning streak into the fall, with the help of a MassDOT Shared Streets and Spaces grant award which will allow the city to create a total of six outdoor “dining parklets” downtown and on Acushnet Avenue in the North End.

A PLANNED REOPENING

As the state came out of total shutdown, the City of New Bedford moved to help the battered restaurant industry. Indeed, even during the days when only take-out was permitted, city personnel moved swiftly to identify curbside pickup spots where possible before developing a robust outdoor dining plan.

Jessica Coelho, owner of Tia Maria’s European Cafe in the downtown historic district, seized the opportunity to take part in the reopening group.

She tells the New Bedford Economic Development Council that, in addition to innovative changes in the way her eatery conducted business, it was “very beneficial to be part of the restaurant reopening group,” she says. “It allowed us to open for outdoor dining quickly.”

Outside her door soon will be one of the “dining parklets” that are meeting the next moment with innovation when it comes to supporting the restaurant industry through the pandemic.

DINING PARKLETS

In total, six dining parklets will be created in New Bedford. They are outdoor dining spaces carved from the streetscape with special flooring, seating, and lighting and will be built in front of existing restaurants in “cluster” areas downtown and on Acushnet Avenue.

Some parklets will also feature space for entertainers to perform, and yes, they will come with heaters, too. City DPI personnel will handle the installation, while individual restaurants will provide day-to-day maintenance.

The six dining parkelets will be found in the following areas:

Two parklets will be in places along Acushnet Avenue – a dining destination in the city with over 30 bakeries and eateries which have been featured in recent years during a Love The Ave and North End Restaurant Week promotion.

One parklet will be situated in front of Cafe Portugal at 1280 Acushnet Avenue.

It’s part of a cluster of eateries over two blocks that also includes the popular bakeries Chocolate Com Pimenta and Sara’s Central American Bakery. Nearby are also three other destination eateries, Cafe Europa, Taqueria La Raza, and The Breakfast Klub.

The second will be placed in front of another beloved restaurant, Cafe Mimo, which has called The Ave (as it is known) home since the 1970s. This parklet will also help activate an existing area with outdoor seating, the Phillips Avenue Pocket Park, located across from the Puerto Rican Bakery, Lorenzo’s.

Some parking will be eliminated to ac- commodate the parklets, and the traffic pattern of the street altered, too.

Downtown, two parklets will be found on Purchase Street, in front of the wild- ly popular Pour House Tavern and Cafe Arpeggio, in the Bristol Community College Cherry & Webb building.

Finally, two other dining parklets will be placed on North Water Street, one in front of the aforementioned Tia Maria’s at 42 North Water Street and the second a block away in front of The Whaler’s Tavern.

INTO SPRING

Officially, the dining parklets are sched- uled to be in place and ready for use through the month of October. However, due to the overwhelming positive re- sponse to the idea, they may very well be up and running sooner. The plan is to keep them operational until October 31, but that may be extended if the weather remains good into November.

Come next spring, the parklets will then be brought back, depending on the situation. Covid aside, during a recent online stakeholders meeting discussing the implementation of the parklet proj- ect facilitated by Tabitha Harkin, Director of City Planning, and Anne Louro, City Preservation Planner, their popularity was undeniable. Many comments suggested the use of parklets beyond their use as a pandemic remedy.

As the Fed discovered in its research, Massachusetts has embraced outdoor dining in a big way – and it may very well be a lasting bond between restaurant patrons and nature, as well as these import- ant small businesses and city planning.