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Twice before, Bar Purlieu’s seating area has sustained damage from a car crashing into it. This time, people were eating there.
Bar Purlieu on Willamette Street will no longer offer outdoor dining in its in-street seating patio after a vehicle crash damaged the structure during the dinner rush Thursday, July 16.
It was the third such crash outside the restaurant. The previous incidents, in 2022 and 2024, had occurred outside of service hours, the restaurant’s co-owner Joe Kiefer-Lucas said. This one was during the restaurant’s busy time.
The in-street seating area is made mainly of wood, with a roof overhead, and takes up space that would otherwise be an on-street parking spot. Metal bollards had been installed next to it to act as barriers.
Eugene police said in an email the department received calls about a two-vehicle collision, along with a crash into a parked vehicle at 6:52 p.m. in the 1500 block of Willamette Street.
Kiefer-Lucas said a vehicle actually crashed into his parked truck, which then crashed into the structure.
“I park my truck there, too, sometimes, just in case. If it wasn’t there this time, it would have been a very different situation,” Kiefer-Lucas said.
No restaurant patrons were hurt, but the thought that customers could have been harmed convinced Kiefer-Lucas to stop seating people in the in-street structure, he said.
“It’s gotten worse, and it’s gotten scarier,” he said. “There’s no lights, no stoppage from 13th to 18th, and people just fly down the street as fast as they want.”
The restaurant will continue to have outdoor dining at a few tables it sets up on the sidewalk.
According to Kiefer-Lucas and Michael Bradley, a spokesperson for the city of Eugene’s Community Development Division, Bar Purlieu is the only Eugene restaurant with an in-street seating structure to get hit multiple times by vehicles.
Permitting rules
Outdoor dining became popular during the pandemic. Restaurants that want to have street or sidewalk seating must apply through the city’s cafe seating program.
The program has three options an establishment can apply for: an annual sidewalk permit, an annual in-street permit and a seasonal in-street permit from May through October.
For street seating, there are multiple qualifications a location must meet to be considered acceptable by the city.
The proposed street area for in-street seating must have no bike lanes, no transit stops, no loading zones, no disabled parking spaces and no yellow curbs. Streets with speed limits of 30 miles per hour or higher are also off the table, and spots within 50 feet of an intersection face extra restrictions.
The application requires a site plan, design drawings, photo of the space and proof of liability insurance. There is a $200 application fee to begin the process, followed by a city inspection.
When approved, restaurants pay a permit fee of $200 to $300 plus an additional $30 to $50 for every linear foot of space they are using. These seating structures also must be removable within 48 hours in case of an emergency, which limits permit holders to using only movable safety barriers.
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