It’s no secret food tastes good in the fresh air. Now, eating in the fresh air may be an important element for restaurants surviving the COVID-19 pandemic. Creating dynamic outdoor dining is the key to success for restauranteurs.
Design your perfect outdoor patio for your restaurant. Embracing outdoor dining is a benefit that will last long past the requirements of social distancing.
What Does Your Outdoor Patio Need?
Whether you are building a new outdoor patio for your restaurant or trying to revitalize an older one, there are several essential elements you will need to tackle.
Spacing
Given the current demands of social distancing, designing your restaurant’s patio will require attention to spacing for outdoor dining.
A great way to define spacing without looking empty is to place seating between large plantings. These will provide privacy, direction, and room between tables with a classy look.
Plants can also be swapped in and out seasonally (think summer flower pots exchanged for evergreens as winter advances).
Furthermore, use the direction of your seat to angle tables away from each other. Distance may be mandated – privacy is a perk you can provide. Turn your patio into an outdoor space meant to feel secluded.
Space your outdoor seating for a safe and comfortable dining experience.
Lighting
Ambiance is worth it. Anyone who has ever been in an eating establishment with poor lighting knows the effect it can have on an evening out.
Too dark and it feels like you have no idea what your food is. Too bright and it seems like you’re eating in an operating room.
Striking a balance on brightness is especially difficult on outdoor patios in the evening. However, it is a great opportunity to take advantage of solar string lights and flameless candles.
Outfit your outdoor patio lighting to create a pleasant atmosphere and encourage customers to come back.
Flooring
Create a long-lasting, good-looking floor for your patio with a polyurea coating. With more foot traffic due to outdoor dining, you will want your patio flooring to withstand.
Polyurea floor coatings are stronger compared to epoxy – up to 20 times stronger! It is resistant to yellowing in the sun, creating a visually crisper look for coated flooring.
Get style and function from weather proofing your patio surface.
Heating
With winter approaching outdoor dining only remains viable for those restaurants that can provide heating and windbreaks.
From open fire pits that give outdoor dining a cozy, camping feeling to outdoor heaters that make the cold tolerable while you sit down to a hot meal, restaurants hoping to use their patios through the winter will have invest in heating.
Design Your Outdoor Patio
Set up the perfect outdoor patio for your restaurant. Make an investment that will pay off long after the COVID-19 pandemic by making outdoor dining a desirable option at your eatery.
Make purposeful spacing, lighting, flooring, and heating updates to create an inviting, cozy space for the outdoor patio at your restaurant. Get inspired and make changes to take your patio to the next level.