When opening Big Shrimpin on the West Side, Prentiss Harris wanted a spot that welcomed customers with more than a small waiting area where cash and food changed hands through a window.
And in a rare twist, the pandemic made that easier, as a local chamber of commerce started helping businesses, including Big Shrimpin, to offer outdoor dining.
This summer, the push for expanded outdoor seating is gaining steam and growing to include more restaurants across more neighborhoods on the West Side, as groups see it as way to revitalize communities and encourage more people to visit and patronize local businesses.
“The Austin area and areas like that, they get a bad rep for violence,” said Harris, 43. “A lot of times, people don’t think people could enjoy something like that because they would be afraid.”
Harris and his partner Tesha Lewis had been running a chicken restaurant at 5963 W. Madison St., just off Austin Boulevard. They converted to seafood so they could offer food not found elsewhere on the block — and they wanted to add a beautiful outdoor space where customers could enjoy their meal.
Back when Harris was growing up between Austin and North Lawndale, he said, outdoor dining was something associated more with Lincoln Park, Forest Park or Oak Park — not the city’s West Side.
Many places offered takeout only, with staff working behind a bulletproof partition.
“You think to yourself, is this place safe? Because these guys don’t seem to think it’s safe,” Harris said.
The couple didn’t want that for Big Shrimpin, which serves everything from salmon croquettes and catfish filets to fried shrimp and oysters.
Harris thought outdoor dining would foster the atmosphere they wanted. And at the time, the Austin Chamber of Commerce was helping local businesses set up outside seating through the city’s Alfresco program, started in 2021 during the pandemic to help neighborhood food businesses stay afloat through outdoor service.
Austin was among the communities chosen by the city to participate in the program. Big Shrimpin ended up being one of nine businesses that got help from the local chamber.
The Austin chamber provided tables as well as planters decorated by local artists. The business group says it plans a similar effort this year, which it hopes to roll out by the end of July.
Big Shrimpin customer Clara Teague can’t wait. Teague, 53, said having more people dining out in the area would increase the sense of security for neighbors.
“I think it would be nice for the area,” Teague said as she walked out of Big Shrimpin with a takeout order. “It would be safer because people would be out here eating.”
Tina Augustus, who spearheaded the Austin initiative, said she plans to have a similar program through the West Side Chamber of Commerce, which she formed last year. She’s hoping to bring outdoor dining to other West Side neighborhoods.
“That was the first introduction of outdoor eating in Austin,” Augustus said. She saw it as a win for businesses getting “creative” to stay afloat, for residents who wanted more out of the neighborhood and for artists who were commissioned to decorate the planters.
“The purpose,” she said, “was to create arts and cultural spaces that are anchored to restaurants.”
Some in the neighborhood remain skeptical.
Paige McCulloch-Burton doesn’t think expanding outdoor dining options in the neighborhood would be very safe.
“Look at the area. People get robbed, people are shooting, all types of stuff,” said McCulloch-Burton as she left MacArthur’s Restaurant in Austin with a takeout order. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
The 30-year-old would rather dine outside elsewhere, even if options expand on the West Side.
“Downtown, other neighborhoods, yes. Here, no ... Ain’t nobody gonna sit outside. We would like to but ...” McCulloch-Burton said with a shrug.
MacArthur’s is on Madison, about a mile east of Big Shrimpin. It also took part in the program.
Maurice Gaiter, a longtime manager at MacArthur’s, said the soul food institution already had an off-street patio, but the Alfresco program allowed them to open more space along Madison itself.
It also created a new appreciation of and demand for outdoor dining — even as the pandemic waned.
“First, there was a time when people really needed it. And now, people are really enjoying it,” said Gaiter, 55.
Even without chamber assistance, Gaiter said they would open extra outdoor seats as soon as allowed. He likes how outside seating allows passersby to catch the restaurant’s good vibes and maybe even run into someone they know.
“It shows the beauty of the community. You can drive by, walk by and see people sitting, enjoying and laughing,” he said.
Some of his customers agree.
Kimberly Petty likes the idea of increasing outdoor dining in front of restaurants.
“It would start turning the flavor of the neighborhood from rough to like more suburban, because like Forest Park, Oak Park, all of them are doing it,” Petty, 55, said while enjoying a meal at MacArthur’s with her friend Anita Carter.
“It would be very beneficial.”
Carter, 51, said outdoor seating would encourage support for local businesses that some people might otherwise overlook.
“I think it would bring more people out,” said Carter, who was born and raised on the West Side. “Because I love to be outside, especially in the summertime, so I think it would be a great enhancement.”
Gaiter, who grew up on the West Side, has worked at the restaurant since 1997. He blames the lack of outdoor dining on the area’s public safety issues.
“To be totally transparent, Austin is an area that’s making its way back from a cycle of crime,” he said. “It’s different on Madison and Central than on Madison and Racine.”
Madison and Racine cross in the West Loop, an area peppered with spots for outdoor dining.
“I’m dreaming of the day where Austin can be like that,” Gaiter said.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
