Park Tavern crash spotlights patchwork of Twin Cities patio regulations

The fatal crash on the patio of Park Tavern last month dredged up unpleasant memories for Jeff Kaster, who owns a downtown St. Paul restaurant that’s been hit by vehicles more than once.

“The whole world is so crazy right now. You never know when this stuff is going to happen,” said Kaster, who owns Bulldog Lowertown.

Following what happened at Park Tavern, which left two people dead, Kaster said he’s thinking about adding new protective measures beyond the metal planter boxes that separate his restaurant’s sidewalk seating from the adjacent street.

An SUV plowed into the Park Tavern’s outdoor seating area Sept. 4, killing a restaurant employee and a man who was sitting with a group of co-workers. Nine others were injured. Steven Frane Bailey is facing murder and drunken-driving charges. He has been granted conditional release as his case moves through the courts.

The tragedy reverberated across the Twin Cities, where weather squeezes the number of days a meal can be enjoyed free from brick and mortar on four sides. And, while drivers slamming into a restaurant’s outside seating remains a rare occurrence, the Park Tavern tragedy wasn’t even the latest reminder that there is risk: Just three weeks later, a driver suspected to be under the influence of opioids crashed into the patio at Clive’s Roadhouse in Blaine.

Regulatory protections for outdoor dining vary widely across the metro, and among restaurant owners. Interviews with city officials in Minneapolis, St. Paul and some suburbs found no specific requirements such as distance between tables and streets or parking lots, or protective barriers to separate diners from asphalt.

Still, some cities require different levels of regulation. In Minneapolis, eating and drinking establishments must submit plans to the city for where they place patios as a licensing requirement, said city spokeswoman Jessica Olstad.

Patios closest to traffic, namely sidewalk cafes, “require a secondary license which submits a seating plan and has insurance requirements,” she said.

The city’s four-page regulatory must-do for restaurants wishing to offer sidewalk seating doesn’t directly address safety from vehicles, but it says that “no portion of a sidewalk café (except those with 10 or fewer seats with the approval of Public Works Traffic and Parking Services) shall be located within 10 feet of [a] designated bus stop, taxi stand, traffic signal, crosswalk, pedestrian curb cut, or active loading zone.”

In St. Paul, an ordinance calls for restaurants to provide “safety barriers or other enclosures to protect patrons from any hazards, including vehicular traffic.” At the same time, what form those barriers must take — concrete, foliage or plywood or something else — is not specified.

“[W]e consider requirements on a case-by-case basis depending on the property and its surroundings,” said Casey Rodriguez of St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections.

Rodriguez said his department can impose specific requirements for people’s safety, but “the city must have a basis of facts to support additional requirements on a business or property owner.”

In June 2019, an 18-wheeler turned the corner of Wacouta and Sixth streets in Lowertown and struck the Bulldog’s outdoor seating area, dragging some of the metal planter boxes, tables and customers in its wake. No one was killed, though several people were injured. The restaurant petitioned the city to add cement barriers along the sidewalk, but Kaster said he never heard back.

The Bulldog moved its outdoor seating farther away from the corner after that crash to better guard patrons from reckless drivers. The restaurant had been through it before: In 2014, a driver chased by the Minnesota State Patrol sped off the Interstate 94 exit and slammed into the the side of the Bulldog’s building, injuring several nurses dining inside.

“Thank goodness he hit a giant cement support pole that was on the exterior of the building, but he still sent the people right inside the pole to the hospital,” Kaster said.

Given the restaurant’s downtown location, Kaster said, he often notices drivers speeding or semitrailer trucks making illegal right turns outside the restaurant. While he doesn’t want additional laws that force restaurants to cover the cost of upgrades, Kaster said he is considering making changes following the Park Tavern crash.

“It makes you think, ‘Jeez, do we need to have something that’s more protective?’” he said.

In St. Louis Park, there are no ordinances “specifically pertaining to protective measures such as safety barriers on outdoor patios, although safety is an embedded consideration of zoning,” said city spokeswoman Jacque Smith.

That city’s numerous requirements are specific when it comes to a patio’s hours of operation, noise levels and proximity to residences and whether a wall or fence is needed.

In Minnetonka, city officials have many of the same requirements, but the safety of patio occupants is not addressed head-on.

City spokesman Andrew Wittenborg added that unlike sidewalk cafes, with tables and chairs that are easily moved and taken in from time to time, Minnetonka’s establishments with outdoor dining areas are not temporary structures.

They are “generally part of or attached to the building itself,” Wittenborg said, making it more likely to offer some distance from vehicles coming and going or passing by.

City code in Eagan prohibits outdoor dining areas from being located within a parking lot or other areas where vehicular traffic is intended, such as drive lanes and loading areas.

After the pandemic, Wildcats Bar and Grill put up new outdoor seating in its parking lot, built on a raised-pavement patio with cement bollards and metal roofing with beams protecting customers. Eagan city spokeswoman Sara Horwath said the raised curb and bollards were required as part of the restaurant’s application process to protect the patio from vehicles.

Wildcats co-owner Kim Dahmah noted that the safety improvements were also recommended by the property company she leases from, and that she doesn’t anticipate making further changes.

“I feel confident that ours is pretty safe,” Dahmah said.

In interviews, some owners said the Park Tavern crash has led them to re-evaluate their outdoor seating barriers. Others said they have never experienced crashes and don’t anticipate changes.

Jeff Veigel, co-owner of Isles Bun and Coffee in south Minneapolis, said he does not have concerns about his bakery’s outdoor seating, which has no protective barriers. He’s owned the bakery since 2000 and it’s never been hit by a car in that time, he said. Metal parking meters and parked cars typically lining the street seem to reduce the risk of someone driving into outdoor seating, he said.

“Turning a corner on a city street and accelerating into something, I mean, you’ll see it, but downtown buildings have bollards, and on a lot of city streets you’re going to hit a parking meter or something first,” Veigel said.