Restaurants

The City of New York has announced plans to allow restaurants to edge into the street to use parking spots for outdoor seating and patios.

New restaurants are striving to look like (and to be) community institutions, reflecting old-style pubs, meeting halls and marketplaces.

The "food court", staple of malldom and home of Hot Dog on a Stick, is dead, say retail architects and designers. Higher-end restaurants and softer surfaces are replacing the shiny plastic tables and Orange Juliuses of the past.

In Philadelphia, a number of palatial restaurants have closed due to the bad economy. In their place, several more intimate, neighborhood places have popped up.

In order to get more retailers to set up shop in one San Francisco neighborhood, the definition of "meal" must be established to keep out new places that can't serve one.

An ordinance passed in L.A. that limited the amount of time taco trucks could be parked in one location has been overturned. However, many expect it to come back in a different form.

Restaurants are now a better draw than retail in a tough economy, and new retail centers are upping their percentage of eating places to follow suit.

Mobile taco trucks in Los Angeles may face tougher fines for parking in any one place for too long if proposed restrictions are passed by the county.