NORTHVILLE — Paul Gabriel poured nine years – and thousands of dollars – into his downtown Northville restaurant, Browndog.
This year, like many before, he invested in new patio furniture and wooden barriers, expecting another busy summer filled with customers dining outdoors.
Now, he’s not sure what to do.
“As a business in Michigan, specifically in Northville, we count on summer revenue to cover a lot of expenses for the year,” Gabriel said. “So losing any seats, let alone our entire patio, is going to be devastating if that’s what happens.”
Gabriel’s concerns follow an emergency motion filed July 18 by the group Let’s Open Northville, whose members are asking the court to hold the city in contempt for allegedly failing to fully reopen streets to vehicle traffic.
The motion seeks immediate removal of all on-street dining platforms, which have been permitted downtown for more than a decade.
Mary Elwart-Keys, Let’s Open Northville founder and spokesperson, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, the motion claims the city’s compliance with the court order is “illusory,” and that Northville has continued to obstruct traffic through permitted outdoor dining and event-related street closures.
It argues that the city is improperly using the right-of-way for dining, in violation of the court’s ruling, and asks the judge to eliminate current platforms and ban future permits.
City officials reject the accusation.
“The City of Northville has fully complied with the court’s order… The streets were reopened ahead of schedule on Monday, July 14, 2025 with safety measures in place for outdoor dining,” the city and Downtown Development Authority (DDA) said in a joint statement.
The press release emphasized that dining platforms comply with all required processes and approvals.
Ten parking spaces are currently occupied by dining platforms, according to the city, with several hundred other free public spaces available behind or adjacent to Main and Center streets.
Gabriel said his permit allows seating for 26 diners, although that number dropped slightly after the city installed concrete barriers for safety when the streets reopened to traffic.
Outdoor dining, he noted, accounts for about 20% or 25% of revenue for the entire year.
“When the weather is nice, you have people who come downtown and put their name on every restaurant wait list until they get the first patio seat,” Gabriel said. “People want to sit outside. If (the court) takes away outdoor dining, people will go to another city to eat.”
Northville DDA Director Kate Knight echoed those concerns, describing the motion as punitive.
Knight said timing of the motion – right in the middle of the busy summer season – makes the potential impact even more severe, especially for restaurants that rely on outdoor seating to stay afloat.
Forcing sudden changes now, she said, gives businesses no time to adapt and risks undercutting one of downtown’s biggest economic drivers.
“We were really taken aback,” Knight said. “Pulling the rug out from under them right now, in the middle of summer, with no time to pivot – that’s bad business.”
Knight said the city complied with the June order by reopening streets from curb to curb, adding more than 30 concrete barriers to maintain pedestrian safety.
Seven restaurants currently have permits for in-street dining: Browndog, Table 5, Le George Mediterranean Bar, Center Street Grille, Exchange Bar and Grill, VillaNorte Cocina Mexicana and Twisted Cork Winery.
All were approved through the city and DDA’s formal permitting process, which includes consent from adjacent property owners.
The policy has remained constant since about 2011, she noted.
“Even the newest businesses we’ve had come in in the past year… signed leases in downtown Northville with the understanding that we have this longstanding tradition of permitted on-street dining,” Knight said.
In response to the court order, Knight added that the DDA also relocated events originally planned for the streets, including its popular Wednesday programming, which was pulled from the right-of-way.
The city has until July 25 to respond to the motion. A decision from the court is expected to follow.
For business owners like Gabriel, the possibility of losing the on-street dining is taking its toll.
“I would be devastated,” he said. “This is the time of year when we make it all work.”
Contact reporter Laura Colvin: lcolvin@hometownlife.com
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: ‘Taken aback.’ Northville restaurants face loss of on-street dining
Reporting by Laura Colvin, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
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