BRICK – Outdoor seating at restaurants became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic when many owners got creative with tents, heaters and awnings in order to accommodate mandates that limited indoor capacity.
Some restaurant owners want to make those outdoor seating areas permanent, as was the case recently when Anthony Zarrilli, who owns the Mantoloking Ale House with his brothers Rich and Mark, appeared before the Planning Board with an application to allow a permanent outdoor seating area for 120 patrons.
Zarrilli’s attorney, John Jackson, said that the establishment has gone from being mostly a bar, selling about 80 percent food/20 percent alcohol, to being mostly a restaurant with 80 percent food/20 percent alcohol sales.
“There would be no additional strain on existing resources,” Jackson said. “This would take the place of indoor seating when it’s a nice night.”
Zarrilli said that the outdoor seating had been “overwhelmingly successful,” and said they had hired a design engineer that had created a site plan that includes a two-to-three-foot-high berm between the busy road and the eating area, which would be in the front of the restaurant. The permanent outdoor seating area would be located behind an existing canopy.
In November, the Planning Board approved permanent outdoor seating for the Tuscany Restaurant on Route 88. This request by the Mantoloking Ale House was also unanimously approved.
