The Trouble With Eating (Outside)

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on May 29, 2007 5:30PM

There may be no visual aids to prove how sad we all get when we close the fortieth day with no sun in Chicago. Still, we don't think anyone will argue that our long, drawn-out winters are what makes summer in this city so brilliant—which is why we're wearing shorts when its 50 degrees and throwing open our windows when its 55.

One of our favorite things in Chicago is the abundance of outdoor seating, beer gardens and places that skip all of that and take the windows right the hell out of the frames. As the weather climbs, however, the city has a message to businesses with outdoor seating: it better be up to par.

The city fields complaints about places with outdoor seating all the time, ranging from "They took the sidewalk and now I have to walk in the street" to "That leaf isn't green enough." And, if the complaint is valid, the city charges the proprietor up to $500 for each offense. Basically, restauranteurs and any other business owner with seating outside has to keep the music down, keep the area green, keep napkins flying off plates to a minimum and keep pedestrians in mind.

Because sidewalk eating, drinking and merrymaking is one of the most popular pasttimes in Chicago of late, we can understand why the city requires business owners to re-apply for the permit each year and provide a detailed diagram of the outside area. We can also understand why the business owners would meet each requirement and pay every fine — places with outside dining are pretty popular in the summer.

What we don't understand is why people live in the city if they don't want to share space with other people. Someone who would take time out of their own lives to call the city and complain that the flowers aren't being watered are like the people who are school bus drivers but hate kids.

Example of what we look like eating outdoors via Metroblogging Washington.