Restaurants on Long Island are calling for an extension on outdoor dining.

Commonly seen throughout communities, parklets are seating areas that are on platforms built over the street. The pandemic prompted many restaurants to create them.

While sidewalk dining is common across Long Island, because of the pandemic, the state said municipalities could allow restaurants to temporarily extend their sidewalks onto the street for outdoor dining. The result was parklets, seating areas that are on platforms built over the street.

In Huntington, residents will continue to see parklets after the town agreed to extend outdoor dining until at least next July.

It was set to expire at the end of the year.

Kelly Antuzzi and her husband set up a dining area in front of their restaurant, Sapsuckers, on Main Street in Huntington.

She said she is thrilled that the town agreed to allow eateries to continue to use the outside areas at least until next summer.

"It's great news for us. Gives us a little more seating and for those who are a little more comfortable eating outside, it gives us a little more diversity, so we're really excited," Antuzzi says.

The owners of Catpurrccino's, a cafe that also has a separate room where they adopt out cats, was another spot that took advantage of the new rule.

"It's been a huge help because a lot of people still don't know that we have food in the cafe. They assume just cats, so now when they drive by, they see that, they know that it's food now," says Catpurrccino's Christopher Cafiero.

And Huntington business are also hoping to recreate a successful event from last year.

During the Christmas season, Wall Street was closed to traffic and a large Christmas tree was put up in the street where people could walk around and enjoy outdoor dining.

"It's a pedestrian walkway. There's going to be different activities. Last year, we had ice carvings, there'll be live music," says Jack Palladino, of Christopher's Pub & Eatery. With the pandemic last year, it really saved our bacon here. We had very limited indoor, so we were serving food outside on the street and it was crazy how busy it was."

Business owners say they are looking for any edge they can get to bounce back from what has been an exhausting year and a half.

Other municipalities, including the village of Greenport allowed the parklets this year but voted to not extend them through this fall and winter.