Outdoor dining in Cleveland — the patio license, and the second permit nobody mentions

Patio season is short here, which is exactly why the paperwork catches people. Operators tend to discover the second permit in May, with furniture already bought.

What triggers the license

An Outdoor Restaurant License is required any time a food shop wants to serve food or beverages, or conduct commercial activity, outdoors.

That last phrase is broader than “patio.” If you are selling anything outside your walls, assume this applies and ask before you assume otherwise.

The two-permit problem

This is the part that costs people a season:

The sidewalk permit is a different ordinance chapter, a separate fee, and — the part that trips people — a different city division. It goes directly to the Division of Engineering and Construction, not to Assessments and Licenses.

Division of Engineering and Construction: (216) 664-2460. Call them for the application and to ask questions; do not expect the licensing counter to handle it for you.

What it costs and when it expires

• $50.00, non-refundable, per the 2022 instruction sheet.⁴ Cash, check, or credit card; checks payable to the City of Cleveland. Online applications add convenience fees.
• Annual, expiring March 1 — regardless of when in the year you got it.⁴

That March 1 date matters more than it looks. It is the same date your food license renewal is due in Cleveland, and it lands well before patio season. Renew in the February window and you are ready when the weather turns; miss it and you are chasing paperwork in the first warm week of the year, along with everyone else.

What to submit

1. Completed and signed application. Print legibly in blue or black ink.
2. A sketch of the premises, no larger than 8½ × 11, showing the outdoor area where food, beverages, or commercial activity will happen.
3. The $50.00 fee.

The application also asks for your Food Service License number and its expiration date, plus your ward number — worth having in front of you before you start rather than hunting mid-form.

How to apply

In person: Division of Assessments and Licenses, 601 Lakeside Avenue, Room 122, Cleveland, OH 44114, weekdays. Payment by money order, check, debit or credit card, or cash.

Online: through Cleveland’s Permit Portal.³ Pay by electronic check or card, plus convenience fees.

By mail: to the same address. Money orders and checks only — never send cash or credit card information through the mail.

Questions: (216) 664-2264 or DALLicenses@clevelandohio.gov. The city recommends calling before you apply if anything is unclear, which is good advice — a rejected application costs you weeks, and the fee is non-refundable.

If you serve alcohol outside

Your liquor permit describes a specific licensed premises. Extending service into an outdoor area is not automatically covered by it, and the city license above does not address it at all — different agency, different question entirely.

Ask your permit holder of record or a liquor licensing attorney whether your outdoor area is inside your licensed premises as currently defined, and what it takes to extend it if not. Doing this in February is a conversation. Doing it in June, after a complaint, is a problem.

If you want to allow dogs

Ohio permits dogs in an outdoor dining area, and a great many Cleveland patios do it. It is not a free-for-all: allowing dogs turns on a specific rule with seven conditions, and one of them is a document you have to write.¹

Service animals are separate and come first. A service animal may not be refused in an outdoor dining area unless refusal is authorized under the federal and state laws governing service animals.¹ That applies whether or not you allow pet dogs, and it is not a choice you get to make.

If you choose to allow dogs generally, you must:¹

1. Post signs conspicuously near all entrances to the business and all entrances to the outdoor dining area, saying both that dogs are allowed in outdoor dining areas and that dogs may only enter through an outdoor entrance.
2. Provide an outdoor entrance to the patio, and keep dogs from reaching it through any indoor part of the business. On a Cleveland storefront where the only way to the back patio is through the dining room, this is the requirement that decides the question for you.
3. Keep employees from intentionally contacting dogs while working. No petting the regulars.
4. Keep dogs at least five feet from any area of the patio used for food preparation or for storing food, equipment, utensils, or single-use items. Worth measuring before you site a service station or a bus tub outside.
5. Keep dogs off the furniture — chairs, seats, benches, counter tops, tables and other furnishings.
6. Have cleaning supplies readily available for hair, feces, urine, vomit and other debris.
7. Adopt a written policy covering leash or other effective control, instructions for prompt cleanup, and proof of proper vaccination for dogs in the area under state or local law.

Two operating rules follow from it. No food for dogs — water only, and only in single-use disposable containers.¹ And employees must wash their hands using the full procedure after contacting a dog, watering a dog, or cleaning up after one.¹² That means a handsink they can actually reach from the patio without crossing the kitchen, which is a build question, not a training one.

One more line worth knowing: during a public health emergency the state can switch this off. The director of health may restrict dogs from the outdoor dining areas of food service operations, and the director of agriculture may do the same for retail food establishments.¹

The written policy is the piece almost nobody has. It takes twenty minutes, it is the first thing an inspector asks for after seeing a dog on your patio, and it is also what your insurer will want to see if a dog bites someone.

The order that works

1. Confirm your property line and whether any part of the planned area touches public right-of-way.
2. If it does, call Engineering and Construction at (216) 664-2460 and start the Chapter 513 sidewalk permit — it involves another division and is the long pole.
3. Settle the liquor question if you serve alcohol.
4. Draw the sketch — 8½ × 11, showing the outdoor area.
5. File the Outdoor Restaurant License with your food service license number and ward in hand.
6. If you are allowing dogs, write the policy and order the signs now, not the week you open.
7. Put March 1 in your calendar for next year, alongside your food license renewal.

One thing worth saying plainly

The city is explicit that its employees cannot give legal advice, and that its instruction sheets are informational only. So is this page. Ordinance requirements turn on the specifics of your address and your setup — confirm with the division named above before you commit money to furniture, railings, or a build.