As the City of Alexandria starts to close the window on unchecked outdoor seating, several businesses have started the process of making their Covid seating permanent.
While the city is ending unregulated outdoor seating, it’s kept an avenue open for restaurants to legitimize their outdoor dining and make it permanent.
Gostov Boulangerie (2213 Mount Vernon Avenue) and Barkhaus (529 E Howell Avenue) have both filed applications in recent weeks to keep the current outdoor seating arrangements that were authorized through COVID-19 temporary outdoor business permits. At Barkhaus, the new seats are in addition to outdoor seating previously approved for the restaurant.
“Seats have been in place since June 2021,” the Barkhaus application said. “Total seating is equal to 40 outdoor dining seats. Total number of patrons will remain the same.”
The outdoor seating eats up parking for the Barkhaus site, reducing off-street parking to 3 spaces, but the restaurant said guests are encouraged to walk, use Uber pets or carpool.
At Gostov Boulangerie, the outdoor dining space will add 40 seats to the restaurant.
Both restaurants join Vola’s Dockside Grill, which filed a permit last month to make the restaurant’s expanded waterfront seating permanent.
Photo via Barkhaus/Facebook
