The outdoor dining venues that have popped up all over the city and especially in and around Everett Square give the city’s downtown environment a badly needed entertainment style boost.
The outdoor dining areas operated by Oliveiras, the 8/10 Restaurant on Norwood Street, and the Everett Square Deli, are exactly the type of new dining possibilities outside that give added life and a panache to a city now welcoming thousands of new residents in the many modern apartment houses that have been built and which are now going up.
We have noted some complaints by those who question the efficacy of the outside dining venues as though they are mismanaged efforts at clogging up the streets and sidewalks and ruining the bus lanes now stretching throughout the city’s main thorough-fares.
We urge those people offended or even disturbed by the presence of outdoor dining to embrace this as part of the new Everett going up all around us.
Eating outdoors during the late spring, summer and fall months gives the city an entirely different look and feel.
It is also good for businesses coming back to life after suffering through the devastating pandemic.
Cities and towns around us have all gone to outdoor dining in a big way.
In neighboring Revere, the beach has been transformed by outdoor dining.
In Revere, it is understood at city hall that outdoor dining is a perfect add-on to the spate of new restaurants popping up on the beach in and around the new apartment complexes and hotels that have gone up there.
The same should be true here.
You don’t have to be a public policy wonk or expert to understand the benefits of outdoor dining during months when it is possible.