THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Al fresco patio dining becomes crucial to restaurant success during pandemic
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Donnette Hansen decided to take advantage of the dining-out uncertainties by making about $10,000 in improvements to the multilevel patios at her Rainbow Lodge, considered by many one of the most romantic restaurants in Houston.
She added seating, installed new lighting and gussied up the tiered patios on a hunch that outdoor dining might be a smart way to keep business in COVID times. She was right. Outdoor seating at Rainbow Lodge is in high demand, often filling before the dining room, even on the most sultry Houston evenings.
“For the past 30 years, you couldn’t see patio seating in August with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes. But we are packed,” Hansen said. “The same people unwilling to sit out there at this time last year are willing to do so this year to stay safe.”
Indeed, patios are now a crucial lifeline for restaurants struggling to stay afloat. Other restaurant owners are investing in patio spaces, too, some expanding their footprints to accommodate more people. Indoor seating remains spaced out at 50 percent capacity by state mandate.
Outdoor dining got a civic boost last month when the Houston City Council unanimously passed the More Space Program that allows restaurants to convert 50 percent of their off-street parking spaces into outdoor dining space. A handful of restaurants have taken advantage of the measure, including Pondicheri, which has constructed a decklike structure over four parking spots at Shops at Arrive River Oaks that will expand the restaurant’s patio seating by five tables.
“Who would have thought in Houston in the summer we’d see such a demand for outdoor dining?” said councilwoman Abbie Kamin, representing District C, who supported the More Space initiative. “Patios are making a comeback.”
Caracol near the Galleria recently added tables to serve more diners; Candente in Montrose is extending its patio space; and
Arnaldo Richards’ Picos is planning an outdoor expansion. One Fifth Mediterranean created a patio in its parking lot, and Rosie Cannonball now has one in the outdoor shade of its sister venue, Goodnight Charlie’s, which has been idle during the pandemic.
In early May, Vu Truong, owner of the Phoenix on Westheimer, increased outdoor seating by converting five parking spaces into a patio accommodating nine extra tables. “I knew if we were to survive this pandemic I had to make the leap to add more tables and chairs outside. It paid off,” he said, adding that his three patio spaces allowed him to essentially double his indoor dining capacity and increased his bottom-line profits.
“Anyone who says they can’t survive at 50 percent is not trying hard enough,” Truong said.
Though indoor dining is limited to 50 percent capacity, outdoor dining has no occupancy limits but still must abide by socialdistancing rules, said Melissa Stewart, executive director of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association. Stewart applauded Houston’s More Space Program to salvage restaurant business.
“As we enter our height of hurricane season and pervasive Houston heat, adoption may be a little slow. But moving into September and our considerably better fall weather … I expect to see more operators take advantage,” she said.
Bars and breweries that have been shut down since June 26 recently got good news from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which changed guidelines to allow businesses that have less than 51 percent of gross receipts from the sale of alcohol to apply to qualify as a restaurant and open for dine-in service.
8th Wonder Brewery, the EaDo taproom that has been closed since March, took advantage of this ability to reclassify, reopening last week with the company’s Eatsie Boys food truck providing food. On their side? A huge outdoor space.
“We never thought we’d be so grateful to open our patio space in the middle of the summer,” 8th Wonder co-founder and president Ryan Soroka said. “We like to think that our wonderful beer garden has been a nice attraction for people in Houston. And that it will be even more so now.”
Putting an emphasis on outdoor dining has been crucial to operations at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. In early May, the brewery and restaurant in Sawyer Yards erected two large tents in its parking lot, providing an additional 6,000 square feet of fullservice dining. Originally intended as a space for diners waiting for indoor tables, the parking-lot tents have become more popular than the brewery, said Damien Franco, marketing manager.
“We thought people would sit there and have a few beers while waiting for their tables. But we found that people ended up staying there,” he said. “We anticipated them just being a shaded waiting area, and it ended up being effectively a whole other service area.”
Families, bicyclists and customers with dogs are filling the tents, which fill up Thursday and Friday afternoons and on Saturdays can have a 1- to 2-hour wait. Franco said that the tents are keeping the brewery in business: “We’re having great success.”
Everyone wants to be on the patio, said restaurateur Ben Berg, whose Berg Hospitality Group includes B&B Butchers & Restaurant, B.B. Lemon, the Annie Café & Bar and B.B.
Italia. “They’re the most popular places to sit at all our restaurants,” Berg said of his patios. “People feel way more comfortable being outside.”
And it’s not just for casual everyday dining. Berg said that baby showers, anniversary parties, wedding rehearsals and receptions are all requesting patios.
Even though he anticipated a greater need for outdoor dining — he installed nifty cabanas on the lawn of B.B. Lemon in May — Berg still scratches his head at Houston’s tolerance for the heat.
“We had to turn away people at Annie at 4:30 in the afternoon at the hottest time of day,” he said. “We had nine tables — at 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity — eating hamburgers.”
As patios become a bigger factor in restaurant viability, they might also be signaling more cultural change in Houston. Having passed the More Space Program, the city also is considering a proposal to create outdoor space for dining and drinking by closing vehicle lanes along key blocks of Main Street downtown. The Woodlands also enacted its own More Space program to allow expanded sidewalk dining.
Kamin said More Space represents an evolution of how Houston is using outdoor space. “With COVID, there’s a new emphasis of exploring being outdoors in the city,” Kamin said. “This is a next stop of creative thinking that hopefully will stick around after we recover from COVID.”