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PELHAM, N.Y. Some restaurants in Pelham are as recognizable for their outdoor seating as they are for the food they serve. Those same restaurants will soon be lacking the outdoor option, but some owners say that will not affect their business.
Most restaurants must obtain a permit from the village to offer outdoor seating, and some of those only allow it until mid-November. So patrons who chat and dine outside in the summer and early fall must work their way indoors for the winter.
Denise Amorelli, owner of M.A.D. Café on Wolfs Lane, said her permit starts in the spring and expires on Nov. 15. While her customers enjoy the experience of dining outside, Amorelli said she must adjust to having more people inside her doors.
We have more people crammed into one space, Amorelli said. We just deal with it.
A staple of DeCicco Food Market on Fifth Avenue is the decorative tables with large green umbrellas outside the store. Owner John DeCicco Sr. said he, too, has a permit for those tables, which are screwed into the ground.
DeCicco said that in inclement weather, he and his employees try to unscrew the tables and move them closer to the store. He added that the outdoor seating is a bonus for his customers and that the cold weather will not slow down his store.
That really doesnt bother us, DeCicco said. We only do it for peoples convenience, like at lunch time. It really doesnt affect us.
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