Wednesday, March 11
This summer, Berlin restaurants, cafes and bars might be allowed to serve their outdoor guests for two hours longer than usual. At the moment, any outdoor diners or drinkers must move inside at 10 pm due to disturbance of rest rules.
But if the proposed draft of the new restaurant law comes into effect, outdoor dining would be allowed until 11 pm from Sunday to Thursday and midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and the day before public holidays. This could be a win for both summer-evening-enjoying Berliners and a struggling hospitality industry.
These new rules would only apply to what are considered nightlife areas in the city, where there are a variety of bars, clubs and restaurants with regular visitors at nighttime. Districts may designate areas that are considered to be nightlife districts by general decree.
The prerequisite for this change would be that Berlin’s outdoor gastronomy scene should not become disturbing, or specifically “stand out as disturbing”. Districts would be allowed to continue to take measures against high noise pollution, including limiting the opening hours of specific restaurants and bars that do continue to disturb nearby residents.
This proposal has been drafted by the black-and-red Berlin Senate; however, the Council of Mayors must now deal with the bill before it is further discussed and adopted in the House of Representatives. They also want to make it easier to open a bar, café or restaurant with digitalised procedures and a one-stop agency to limit bureaucratic blocks.
