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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

#31

Post by rsynnott »

ryandrake wrote: post #25
rsynnott wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Indoor restaurants aren’t allowed at the moment, so if people want to go out... I can’t see it continuing all the way through the winter, though; while it doesn’t get very cold here (minimum of about 0 C usually) it does get very windy.

And all restaurants, even outdoors, are banned for the next six weeks, anyway.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#32

Post by 908B64B197 »

jariel wrote: post #30

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 thi…

In northern places like Montreal, the issue probably won't be the cold but the amount of snow.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#34

Post by xenihn »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #28

Local heating units (clothing/chairs/IR light beams) with human body temperature feedback to make outdoors comfortable during the winter is totally possible now. What is the best product in this space?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#35

Post by kbenson »

The few times I've eaten outside in the evening the last few months, I've noted how whichever companies that make those outdoor space heaters are probably experiencing a huge boom, as every restaurant capable sports a new or larger outdoor dining area, and even some that aren't capable get public sector help to make it so (e.g. in my city they closed the major downtown strip to auto traffic to allow outdoor dining areas to take up the entire sidewalk and some of the road).

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#36

Post by xur17 »

graeme wrote: post #23
VectorLock wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Following that logic, it seems indoors would also be fine if they open up a bunch of windows?

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#37

Post by nprz »

stephenbez wrote: post #4
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…

> Is outdoor dining and cold a new thing? Doesn't this happen every year at winter? It’s a new thing. You’d normally never eat outside in the winter in cities like Chicago, Boston, or New York, but because of Coronavirus people will.

I doubt they will. Especially once temps hit near freezing, plus with wind and precipitation... If I owned a restaurant I would just make ordering take out as quick and convenient as possible.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#38

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

xenihn wrote: post #34
mensetmanusman wrote: post #28

Local heating units (clothing/chairs/IR light beams) with human body temperature feedback to make outdoors comfortable during the winter is totally possible now. What is the best product in this space?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System

Welp, learned something I wasn't expecting today.

Thanks!

shudder

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#39

Post by nemo44x »

Braising and the like are a really nice thing to learn to make since you make a lot of delicious food in one go and once you get some technique down you can adapt it constantly. You’re limited only by the size of your pot.

Additionally the ingredients tend to be inexpensive compared to “nicer” cuts. Similar to BBQ.

Not to mention the end result doesn’t have to be stews, etc. I like to braise brisket in a liquid of peppers and stock and then use the resulting liquid for salsa’s and shred the meat for tacos.

Re: Chefs are adapting their menus for chilly outdoor dining

#40

Post by eatonphil »

paxys wrote: post #33

Closed streets and expanded outdoor dining is the best thing to come to SF during the pandemic, especially since the weather is mild enough that they can be utilized year-round. I really hope the city decides to extend them beyond December.

Same in NYC. It's so great to see the almost competition by restaurants to outdo each other in designing outdoor spaces.

I really hope these changes stay permanently.

My only gripe is that we haven't figured out the European style where all the seats face the road. :)

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