FAL’ FRESCO

City to support outdoor dining throughout autumn months

WOONSOCKET – For many restaurateurs who’ve been financially battered by the pandemic, outdoor dining has been a life-jacket these past few months of predominantly spring and summer weather.

“Getting out there in that parking lot was one of the best things that could have happened to me,” says Dave Lahousse, owner-operator of Kay’s Restaurant on Cass Avenue and The Lodge in Lincoln. “Sometimes good things come out of a bad situation.”

But what happens now that cooler weather is kicking in?

Well, Lahousse isn’t ready to throw in the towel on outdoor dining – quite the opposite – and Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt is stepping in to make sure he and other restaurant owners like him can continue providing outdoor dining opportunities for their patrons – all the way past Christmas if they can find a way to make it happen. And she’s offering some new financial options to help them do that, too.

For starters, Baldelli-Hunt has extended an executive order permitting outdoor dining through Dec. 31.

In a related action, however, the mayor has announced the availability of grants that small business owners, including restaurateurs, could seek to finance any operational contingency driven by Gov. Gina Raimondo’s directives associated with shutting down the economy during the pandemic.

Called “Jump Start,” the new program is designed to provide grants of up to $5,000 for eligible small businesses. Additionally, qualified businesses will be able to borrow up to $15,000 in working capital for such expenses as back