Long Beach to consider outside tables at boardwalk restaurants

Long Beach city officials said they will consider allowing outside tables at boardwalk restaurants, two weeks after ordering businesses to remove all of the tables and chairs.

The city council plans to discuss the issue at its next meeting after Council President Karen McInnis on Tuesday night called for correcting the city code in lieu of making individual exceptions.

“Our city code very clearly prohibits the placement of any table or chair anywhere on the boardwalk, other than the benches placed by the city,” McInnis said at the start of Tuesday night’s city council meeting. “It is my sincere opinion that any exceptions to this rule must be codified for the sake of efficiency and clarity.”

McInnis said she asked Long Beach's corporation counsel to prepare an amendment to the city code in time for the Jan. 3 council meeting that would allow boardwalk concessionaires to place tables and chairs, “within reason,” on the boardwalk.

The city issued letters Dec. 6 to five businesses on the boardwalk ordering them to get rid of their outside tables and chairs by Jan. 3 or risk removal by the city. McInnis said the order was issued this month to minimize the effect on summer business when most boardwalk retailers are closed. She noted city officials should have better communicated their intentions.

The boardwalk restaurant Riptides protested the order, following an agreement with the city in May 2021 to pay $100 each for 10 picnic tables on the boardwalk. Riptides has a lease for their boardwalk restaurant through Sept. 15, 2025.

The city’s letter said its directive superseded any prior agreement with the restaurant. McInnis said the city’s rule has been in place since 1985. McInnis noted written exceptions to the code during the pandemic through the statewide declared state of emergency.

Riptides owner Brian Braddish and his attorneys, Denis Kelly and Jon Bell, held a protest Monday with about 50 people on the boardwalk arguing against the city’s order.

They said the city was in breach of contract for its agreement and said the restaurant has had outside tables since 2016. When the city ordered all businesses to remove outside tables from the boardwalk in 2021, Riptides agreed to pay an additional $700 to keep its tables against the boardwalk railing.

Attorneys said the city cannot cancel the contract and they hoped to settle the dispute rather than going to court.

“This is thoroughly unnecessary. The people of the city of Long Beach enjoy these tables. The visitors who come to Long Beach enjoy these tables,” Kelly said. “They’ve become almost a fixture in the city and on the boardwalk … there’s no reason for this.”