Outdoor dining becomes a permanent fixture in California. How it will work

Remember during the pandemic when restaurants turned parking lots into outdoor dining venues? That move, intended to keep businesses afloat and diners safer from the virus, required loosening some existing laws. Now, new legislation will make more outdoor dining a permanent fixture in California.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law this week that advocates say will help restaurants across the state stay open, reduce construction times, inspire new types of food businesses and offer outdoor dining with a lot less red tape.

In Southern California, with some of the best weather in the nation, the restaurant insiders say they're excited to see how the changes play out.

What you should know about the new laws

• AB 592: This law makes it easier for restaurant owners to offer outdoor dining. Read the full law

How it works: Eddie Navarrette,  president of L.A's Independent Hospitality Coalition, notes that this new law also allows cooking outside of commercial kitchens in “satellite food service areas.” Under the new rules, food prep still must take place in “a food compartment or fully enclosed facility approved by the enforcement officer.”

But that means restaurant owners can cook in a storefront, opening up the option to rent smaller spaces. And  they “can utilize public space such as the sidewalks or the street or the parking lot in lieu of having to rent a large space for a dining area,” said Navarette, who is also the chief consultant at FE Design and Consulting.

“You could have a sushi bar that is right at the sidewalk within your building, but with an openable window,” he said. “So you could literally — I wouldn't recommend this for health reasons — but you could literally high five your sushi chef and greet them in person with no window between them and then they can also serve your sushi out from inside the building.”

There are still a long list of rules to follow. For example: restaurant owners will have to submit a rodent mitigation plan to the health department in order to adopt this new model.

• AB 671:  This law accelerates the time it takes to get restaurant building permits approved. Read the full law 

How it works: A “qualified professional certifier, defined as a licensed architect or engineer” will be able to certify that plans adhere to current building codes. The law then requires “the local building department to approve or deny the permit application within 20 business days of receiving a complete application.”

“ This doesn't mean that you are not required to obtain a permit,” Navarrette said. “You will still have to get a permit. It only allows for the certified professional an architect or engineer to bypass the plan check process for a restaurant improvement.”

Process times will be cut by half, he said, so restaurants can open sooner.

Navarrette said some cities, including Culver City and West Hollywood, don't have the bandwidth to have their own engineers to check architectural plans for restaurants. Instead, they work with private firms to check plans for restaurants.

“This (law) will enable cities to not have to do that anymore and give that power back to the certified professionals that are actually preparing the plans that are certified,” he said.

Why it matters

A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hollywood strikes took a high toll on L.A. restaurants. In all, about 150 restaurant closures have been tied to those economic setbacks in L.A. alone.

And consumer habits have changed in recent years, driven by the popularity of food delivery and higher costs for restaurant rents, labor and supplies.

“ The hardest thing for everyone in Los Angeles right now and in California, and, quite frankly, the nation is the cost of things,” Navarrette said. “Everything is very expensive and no one wants to pay the higher cost to go out.”

These new laws will help reduce some of the costs of running a restaurant and streamline processes, he said.

“ We can effectively do more with less,” Navarrette said.

The laws go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.