Two city bistros to update outdoor dining areas

By Grace Lovins

Two Birmingham bistros, Wilders, 458 N. Old Woodward, and Luxe, 525 N. Old Woodward, are seeking to update their outdoor dining setups which were reviewed by the city’s planning board during its Wednesday, March 26, meeting.

Wilders, owned by Birmingham restaurateur Sammy Eid, was originally approved for a dining platform in 2022, according to planning director Nick Dupuis. They returned to the board with a revised design showing a shift from a rectangular shaped deck to a trapezoidal shaped deck.

Per Dupuis, there is an elevation difference in the grading along the street, causing an issue with the platform being flush with the curb, which is required per the city’s new outdoor dining ordinance. Wilders is seeking to elevate the north side of the platform to make the whole platform level with the street.

Dupuis noted the bistro is still maintaining the 24 seat count and they will still be leasing a parking space. Board members gave Dupuis the green light to approve the changes to Wilders platform administratively and did not take formal action.

Just down the street from Wilders, city bistro Luxe returned to the board with an updated pre-application proposing two changes to its outdoor dining setup: the addition of retractable awnings and a reconfiguration of seating.

Luxe’s original outdoor dining layout approved in 2020, Dupuis said, had seating on both sides of the sidewalk. Under the current ordinance, tables and chairs are not permitted in both the furnishing zone and up against the building. Their new proposal reduced the total number of outdoor seats from 48 to 36, eliminating the tables and chairs and the furnishing zone and moving all seating along the building frontage.

They are also looking to install two retractable awnings above these tables on the north and south ends of the restaurant. A prior attempt by Luxe in 2023 to have a revised design that featured awnings was denied due to concerns about it projecting into the walking path in the area.

While most board members didn’t express any concerns with the proposal, Janelle Boyce said she worries about the stanchions with ropes that are shown in the plans to divide the spaces between the walking path and dining area.

“This is really tight and I don’t trust that it’s not going to go all over the place like it always happens to do down there,” Boyce said.

The board agreed to send their concerns, if any, related to Luxe’s proposal to Dupuis before the bistro submits a revised proposal and comes back for another pre-application discussion.