The number of and demand for sidewalk cafés has flourished in Philadelphia over the past few years. Their invasion has significantly grown, and now they're joined by non-eating establishments getting into outdoor seating game.
Outdoor cafés were illegal in Center City until then-Mayor Ed Rendell legalized them by executive order in 1995. Since then, the number of outdoor cafés in Philadelphia's downtown grew 439 percent, according to a new report by Center City District, which started surveying in 2001.
Now in 2016, Center City has 372 of them with 5,579 seats at restaurants, cafés, bakeries and ice cream shops located between Vine and South streets and river to river.
Sidewalk cafés are a benefit to restaurants, because it's a way for them to showcase menus and give "pedestrians a chance to visually sample the offerings."
Outdoor seating, however, isn't limited to restaurants anymore in Philadelphia, where there's been a rise in the "animation of barren office plazas, the activation of parks and other reclaimed public space," according to the report.
To read the full report, click here.
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