Clarendon's American Flatbread should have limited sidewalk seating soon, but has struggled without an outdoor option this summer. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

When Scott Vasko opened the Arlington location of his American Flatbread pizza restaurant last October, he envisioned diners stretching out on the back patio, enjoying a cold beer and a bite of his wood-fired oven baked pizza.

Instead, his customers have remained inside.

In the jam-packed restaurant and bar market that is Arlington's Clarendon neighborhood, the lack of al fresco dining has taken its toll on the fledgling pizza joint. Nearly every eatery and bar between Court House and Clarendon has some form of outdoor space.

"You have to have it. Right now, I have almost as many tables outside as I have inside," Jon Williams, owner of 3 Bar and Grill, told TBD on a recent evening. "That's an extra 30 percent in revenue."

Faced with opposition from nearby residents, the Arlington County Board denied American Flatbread's permit application for outdoor seating on the patio in July.

The board attributed the denial to a 2004 agreement between the original property owner and the county, which included a condition that there be a 25-foot buffer space between the building and neighboring residential properties. American Flatbread’s proposed patio seating would have occupied that buffer space.

“If the county approved the amendment, and the building was built to our specs, I don't know how we can go back and change it,” Arlington County Board Chairman Jay Fisette said during a July 13 board meeting. The board voted 4-1 against allowing the patio seating, but did leave room to allow sidewalk seating for the restaurant.

While more than 300 residents signed a petition supporting the restaurant’s patio seating, some neighbors argued that the patio represented a commercial business creeping into a neighborhood that is primarily residential.

“There was the sense that it was a little too close for comfort on a nice quiet street with fairly valuable homes,” said Richard Dumas, who lives across the street from the restaurant. “That area right behind American Flatbread, it's literally in someone’s backyard, and you'd have 20, 30, 40 people back there.”

Vasko has been scrambling to file the prerequisite paperwork for substitute sidewalk seating. He’s optimistic that his permit for 12 to 16 seats on the sidewalk outside his restaurant (on the corner of 11th St. and North Fillmore) will be granted before the end of August, but that won't make up for his losses so far this year.

American Flatbread had hoped to open patio seating this summer, but Arlington County denied its application for a permit. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

American Flatbread had planned to put 30 seats on the patio, and to begin using that space in April or May. Vasko planned for an additional $750,000 per year in sales from the patio; instead, he says he is behind his projections by about half that.

"It's definitely adversely affected us," Vasko said. "We have not been meeting our business plan, and it doesn't look as though we will."

Vasko's neighbor in the Zoso Flats building, Screwtop Wine Bar, has also spent most of the spring and summer without outdoor seating, much to the restaurant's dismay. Screwtop has been working on a special use permit for six outdoor seats since March, and finally opened its 10 sidewalk seats in early August, according to manager Amy Sebra.

"Lately, no one has really cared because of the heat," she said. "But definitely in April and May it affected us ... People had cabin fever and they wanted to be outside."

That's why Screwtop focused its energy on getting its permits approved before September. "We've been pushing so hard to get this done, so when fall rolls around, we're ready," Sebra said.

Putting seating on a public sidewalk in Arlington requires a special use permit from the county, and owners must be able to show that their seating leaves enough room on the sidewalk for two wheelchairs to pass each other. Three inspections---one by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission and two by county offices---must be completed before the permit is granted.

Even Hard Times Cafe, a neighborhood institution for nearly 30 years, could probably benefit from more outdoor space, according to the general manager. "I do think in Arlington it's a big deal," says John Pecynski, general manager of the Clarendon location. "If everything was equal and we had more space, I know we'd do a lot with it.

The restaurant has 10 seats on its narrow stretch of sidewalk. Hard Times expanded into the second floor of its existing building in 2009, but a roof deck wasn't an option because the air rights above the building had already been purchased by a neighboring development, according to Pecynski.

"But if we had it to do over again, that might have been something we would have kicked around," he says.

American Flatbread may still be waiting on its sidewalk seating, but Vasko says he has explored other ways to draw people into the restaurant. They have hosted beer and wine dinners throughout the summer, and have been "aggressively marketing" the private dining space for special functions. The restaurant also just received an "excellent" rating from Zagat.com.

"We'll figure it out. We're not going anywhere," Vasko says. "We've got a great local following."