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Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

bloomberg.com

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Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#21

Post by jjulius »

nine_k wrote: post #18
munificent wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Restaurants are already doing take-out. Most people don't eat the food truck, and certainly not when it's cold out, so I don't know what else restaurants would learn from them.

I meant the kinds of food,and its packaging maybe, that is known to work well in the cold. Wrapping things, serving things excessively hot, etc.

There are multiple points in the article we are discussing that touch on how restaurants are pivoting how they serve dishes in order to keep them warm.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#22

Post by echelon »

munificent wrote: post #13
echelon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No restaurant that I can think of has outdoor dining in the winter. I live in Georgia, and our winters are fairly mild compared to northern states. Even so, outdoor dining in the wintertime is very uncomfortable. Winter is going to be very difficult for restaurants. If they don't adapt to serving meals outdoors, they may not survive. They're going to have to change a lot to create a comfortable environment for patron…

> No restaurant that I can think of has outdoor dining in the winter. I live in Georgia, and our winters are fairly mild compared to northern states. I grew up in the South and live in the Pacific Northwest now. I think you see a lot less outdoor dining in the South not because of the winters but because of the summers. It's so hot that eating outside is miserable half the year, so restaurants aren't physically desig…

> It's so hot that eating outside is miserable half the year

This is wrong in my experience. There are hundreds of restaurants equipped for summer dining [1]. Lots of restaurants have open rooftops, patio seating, open-air "fireman"-style garage door walls, etc. Pretty much every BBQ joint and taqueria is outdoors.

Outdoor eating is very popular in the Georgia summer.

[1] https://www.gafollowers.com/13-rooftop-bars-atlanta/

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#23

Post by graeme »

VectorLock wrote: post #20
throwaway889900 wrote: post #11

I think the most odd thing is the cheap hardware store greenhouses for outdoor dining that are shown. I guess those patio heaters don't really do the trick do they?

If you build a greenhouse around your outdoor dining area, is it an outdoor dining area any more?

Depends on how sealed it is. An actual greenhouse would not be. If the area is draughty and has a lot of air exchange it may actually be close to outdoors.

A CO2 meter can give a quick approximation of whether the greenhouse canopy spacs is more like an inside or outside.

My intuition was you’re right. But I could see it being the other way if it’s just a loose shield.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#24

Post by cnorthwood »

VectorLock wrote: post #20
throwaway889900 wrote: post #11

I think the most odd thing is the cheap hardware store greenhouses for outdoor dining that are shown. I guess those patio heaters don't really do the trick do they?

If you build a greenhouse around your outdoor dining area, is it an outdoor dining area any more?

Under UK law it wouldn't be, once the walls exceed 50% of the perimeter it's no longer classed as outdoor

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#25

Post by ryandrake »

rsynnott wrote: post #8
grawprog wrote: post #2

I don't really understand the point of this. Is outdoor dining and cold a new thing? Doesn't this happen every year at winter? Like someone paid money for this? >A report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. indicated that 45F (7.2C) is the temperature below which demand for outdoor dining will collapse. (In a separate report, the company projected that outdoor dining demand would fall to 5% in December before rebounding in…

Up until today (when they were all closed) every restaurant near my house had a crowd of people eating outside in temperatures of around 8 degrees C. That’s not at all normal; they’d normally have abandoned outdoor seating by now. It’s a consequence of COVID regulations.

Seems pretty crazy! I’m from the northeast and I can’t imagine people doing outdoor dining through the winter! Half the point of restaurant dining is the comfortable no-stress environment. Why would people go when they will be shivering outside under a little heater?

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#26

Post by every »

Somewhat along the same line, I expect a resurgence of outdoor beer gardens. Every super-spreader event to-date included a crowd, indoors, with poor ventilation and few if any masks in evidence. That is pretty much the definition of any standard bar, pub or tavern. And hey, outdoors in January your beer stays colder longer as a bonus...

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#29

Post by superkuh »

VectorLock wrote: post #20
throwaway889900 wrote: post #11

I think the most odd thing is the cheap hardware store greenhouses for outdoor dining that are shown. I guess those patio heaters don't really do the trick do they?

If you build a greenhouse around your outdoor dining area, is it an outdoor dining area any more?

My family's plan for watching $sportsball together outside this winter is having everyone in their own small ice fishing tents with personal electric heaters. There's going to be a lot of extension cords running out of the garage.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#30

Post by jariel »

It's common in Europe but didn't quite catch on in the milder US states, maybe it will now.

It's actually a nice concept, but NY state and North it won't work every day, and unlike 'breaking for rain'. there are long periods of at least several days, sometimes weeks, where it's 'too dam cold' which makes it really hard to operate, i.e. 'just on the nice days'.

And FYI for the skiiers chiming in, it's not the same thing. Skiiers are already 'being active', they're bundled up and prepared for cold, and 'doing an outdoor activity'.

That said - Montreal 'defeats winter' with weekend long raves in the dead of winter, getting more 'bundled up' for 'outdoor dining' might possibly be a cultural shift that could be made if enough people were on board and it became 'a thing'.

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