Gigi’s Restaurant, a Vietnamese restaurant located in Maynard, has created outdoor dining options for customers in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy Gigi and Phan Nguyen) 
Family-owned restaurant The Pleasant Café now has outdoor seating available for patrons. (Photo courtesy Rachel Bankey, President, Maynard Business Alliance)
MAYNARD — In an effort to increase activity and revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic, Town Administrator Greg Johnson has established a new ”Extension of Premises” program to assist Maynard’s businesses.
Following Gov. Baker’s executive order on June 1 authorizing local licensing authorities to expand alcohol licensees’ licensed premises for outdoor seating, the Maynard Board of Selectmen, Economic Development Committee and Maynard Business Alliance collaborated to develop the ”Extension of Premises” program. This program allows the Board of Selectmen to approve requests to add outdoor service with one streamlined application.
The program allows restaurant and retail businesses in Maynard to temporarily extend their business premises onto municipal right of ways and parking spaces, private properties and parking lots.
“This program provides relief for local businesses by extending their premises so they can operate under health and social distancing guidelines,” Town Administrator Johnson said. “With extended spaces, restaurants will be allowed to optimize their dining options for customers who need to remain 6 feet apart and retail businesses will be permitted to have temporary outdoor displays. We look forward to working with our local businesses who are interested in taking advantage of this new program.”
To date, 10 applications have been approved for outdoor dining and two applications have been approved for retail operations. All applications have been approved through Nov. 1.
Two Maynard restaurants have seen immediate success since implementing the program.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Pleasant Café owner Frank Dzerkacz said. “People who have never dined in Maynard are coming and giving us a try. It seems like a positive turn-around for downtown. The program is a testament to the town for how quickly and effectively they were able to implement it.”
Co-owners Phan and Gigi Nguyen of Gigi’s Restaurant, which serves Vietnamese cuisine, feel that they have also benefited from their premise extension.
“Outdoor dining has been working out well for us. We love the additional space not only because it helps increase our sales, but it also makes our restaurant look better with all the lights, flowers and umbrellas,” co-owner Phan Nguyen said.
“We are very happy with it so far, even though it is dependent on the weather. We have partially opened our indoor dining space but the amount of customers who can dine indoors is limited,” co-owner Gigi Nguyen said. “I think people are still being cautious and we understand that. We would like to thank town officials for making this transitional process possible for us and for other restaurants in Maynard.”
The Retail Parklet Application can be found here and the application for Temporary Extension of Premises: Outdoor Dining Area on Private Property/Parking Lot/Municipal Right of Way (Parklet) can be found here. There are no application fees.
Anyone with additional questions may contact oms@townofmaynard.net.
For additional information regarding COVID-19 safety and sector-specific guidance for reopening, visit here.
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