Winter is coming for restaurants
Using tents and heaters, owners hope to save outdoor dining until at least Thanksgiving
With winter’s chill just around the corner, Lehigh Valley restaurateurs are taking steps to improve their outdoor oases now — so they won’t be left out in the cold later.
In Salisbury Township, the owners of the highly acclaimed Bolete, a 13-year-old farm-to-table restaurant, are no strangers to making adjustments due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Seidersville Road restaurant, housed in a 200-yearold former stagecoach inn, in mid-March wasted no time in pivoting solely to curbside takeout when that appeared to be the restaurant’s only saving grace, according to co-owner and frontof-house manager Erin Shea, who operates the business with her chef husband, Lee Chizmar.
A few months later, when outdoor dining resumed in the Lehigh Valley, the couple further modified their recipe for success by renting a church-owned field across the street from Bolete to install six wooden patios. The raised platforms allow guests to enjoy private meals under a canopy, surrounded by potted plants, lanterns and open air.
The al fresco experience has been a lifesaver, allowing the restaurant to regain revenue lost from the closure of its dining room, which is too small to reopen at partial capacity, Shea said.
What happens to Bolete’s business model when temperatures drop below freezing in the Lehigh Valley, however, is the million-dollar question. In response to continuing indoor dining capacity restrictions — currently maxed out at 50% for
restaurants that self-certify, Chizmar and Shea have already purchased increasingly hard-to-find propane heaters for their patios and front porch, but even those will “not cut it in December and January,” Shea admitted.
One possible scenario that the couple is considering is partnering with a local shed company, where they’d rent small enclosed structures that’d be heated for private parties.
“We have a lot of different options that we’re working on to get us through the really cold months,” Shea said.
The importance of outdoor dining is not unique to Bolete. The service has played a critical role in the survival of restaurants across the country during the pandemic. Now, with colder days on the way, many local operators are taking similar steps to keep customers cozy and coming back.
“Our patios have the built-in gas heaters, but we also plan on having some mobile units that we’ll be able to put under the tents as well,” said Michael L. Dontas, co-owner of Copperhead Grille, with locations in Allentown and Upper Saucon Township.
“We’ve got our overhead heaters throughout the beer garden as well as wind barriers that we can place up in the front,” added Rich Ryan, co-owner of Brü Daddy’s Brewing Co. in downtown Allentown. “I think we’ll be good for a couple more months, at least until Thanksgiving.”
The year-old Notch Modern Kitchen & Bar, on Hamilton Boulevard in Lower Macungie Township, also is looking to offer outdoor dining through early winter.
The modern American restaurant with an Asian influence over the past month has seen about a “50⁄ 50” split between customers opting for the dining room and those choosing the 60-seat, stamped concrete patio, co-owner Jeff Virojanapa said. The patio, half covered and half under a pergola, features 12 wall-mounted, electric infrared heaters.
“We have a couple of reservations for smaller, private parties for the patio booked in November and December,” said Virojanapa, whose other restaurant, White Orchids Thai Cuisine at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, also is continuing with outdoor dining.
In downtown Bethlehem, Apollo Grill’s extended sidewalk seating and 30-person tent behind the 85 W. Broad St. restaurant (in the Sun Inn Courtyard) have been the business’ “lifeline,” owner Rachel Griffith said.
The tent, which Griffith hopes to utilize through December, features removable walls and upright heaters. Collectively, the equipment costs more than $2,000 a month to rent.
“As much as I would love to think that we’d be able to extend the outdoor dining through January and February, I just worry about the conditions for my staff having to serve in it,” Griffith said. “Obviously, our accessway to get to the tent could be restricted because of snow or ice. But it’s myhope that we can use it for small Christmas gatherings and other private parties around the holidays.”
In downtown Easton, Mick Gjevukaj for the past few months has been using outdoor tents that he purchased at all three of his restaurants: Ocean, River Grille and Three Oak Steakhouse.
He’s planning to invest in patio heaters for all of the establishments, which he anticipates will continue offering outdoor dining throughout the fall and winter.
“People want to dine outside,” Gjevukaj said. “Many people wouldn’t come to restaurants otherwise. It doesn’t matter if the state lets restaurants return to 100% capacity tomorrow, some people are just not comfortable with it yet. Taking the option to sit outside away from people would just be bad business.”
In late spring, Easton and Bethlehem, taking note of the troublesome conditions facing its restaurateurs, stepped in to help by offering parklets and closing portions of certain streets for additional outdoor dining space.
Billy Kounoupis, owner of Billy’s Downtown Diner in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, is planning to implement heaters at his original Bethlehem location’s parklet, which is surrounded by wooden flower boxes and plastic barricades.
He’s also considering investing in a tent for the Broad Street restaurant, but that decision hinges on how long Bethlehem will allow the parklets to continue, he said.
Kounoupis’ newest location on South Third Street in Easton will soon feature a tent and heaters on its adjacent patio, while his largest location on Hamilton Street in Allentown — featuring seating for more than 200 guests — is expected to reopen for indoor dining by the end of October.
“We’re very grateful that the city of Bethlehem and [Downtown Bethlehem Association] has done so much for Bethlehem restaurants,” Kounoupis said. “At this point, though, we don’t know what will occur if it started snowing, if the parklets would have to
be moved for plowing.”
According to Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, he and Bethlehem Public Works Director Michael Alkhal along with the city’s community and economic development director, Alicia Karner, recently discussed the parklets, deciding that they will be in place through at least October and “maybe into the first week of November.”
“Then we’ll evaluate, looking at the weather, and see what the situation is,” Donchez said. “… Because if we get a lot of snow, snow removal’s an important factor, especially on Fourth Street, Main Street and Broad Street, where most of the parklets and the planters are.”
Regardless of how long the Bethlehem parklets last this year, Donchez said it’s his intention to make the outdoor dining areas an annual feature, bringing them back in the spring, even if conditions relating to the pandemic have vastly improved by then.
“It’s been very well-received,” said Donchez, noting the city is further helping restaurants by supplying them with heaters as much as it can. “I think it adds a lot of vitality to the downtown — north and south sides. So, it’s definitely something that I would like to see on an annual basis.”
In Easton, parklets on Northampton Street, Ferry Street, Seventh Street and other roads will continue “at least until the end of the year,” Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said.
The barricaded areas have provided extra dining space for popular city restaurants such as Porters’ Pub, Sette Luna, 3rd & Ferry Fish Market and Easton Taco & Rotisserie.
“We’re having difficulty with the fire code, which doesn’t allow open flames under a tent, even a fire-retardant tent,” Panto said. “A lot of our restaurants have purchased fire retardant tents, assuming they could put heaters underneath, and that’s not the case. They can put infrared or electric heaters.”
The fact that Lehigh Valley restaurants could even resume outdoor dining back in June is due in large part to the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, which advocated for it and worked alongside Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration on the reopening guidelines, according to Mike Axiotis, president of the group’s Lehigh Valley chapter.
Offering outdoor service before guests could be welcomedback indoors “wasn’t even on [the Wolf administration’s] radar,” said Axiotis, who also is president and CEO of Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group, which operates 21 Red Robin restaurants in eastern and central Pennsylvania, including four in the Lehigh Valley.
“On one of the task force calls, we had suggested, ‘Could weoffer outdoor dining only while we’re working on reopening dining rooms?’ Axiotis recalled. “And the governor said that it was a wonderful idea and gave us the OK to work with his administration on what that would look like, what the rules would be.”
Axiotis empathized with restaurants wanting to resume outdoor dining as about 50% of his Red Robin locations, including all Lehigh Valley outposts, have patios.
“Even with the ones that have a patio, we expanded our outdoor spaces and went beyond the normal patio footprint in order to try to pick up what you lose inside with the occupancy restrictions,” he said. “A normal restaurant operating at 25% capacity that doesn’t do takeout, doesn’t do delivery and doesn’t have outdoor seating cannot survive at 25% occupancy. The numbers just don’t work.”
After renting tents and propane patio heaters through much of the summer, Axiotis eventually determined the items were long-term investments worth purchasing.
He also decided to add carpets to the tents, including the first local one erected at the Tilghman Square restaurant in South Whitehall Township, to make the outdoor spaces as comfortable and welcoming as possible.
“Obviously, if it’s 20 degrees and snowing outside, people are not going to want to sit outside,” he said. “But if we have a mild winter and have a conditioned space that’s outdoors, I think people will still choose to sit outside.”
Axiotis, who along with his PRLA colleagues also influenced the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s May decision to allow to-go cocktails in sealed containers, remains hopeful that statewide restrictions on restaurants’ indoor occupancy limits will be lifted in the near future.
He believes restaurants would still have the ability to operate in a safe manner by adhering to other safety measures, including the wearing of face masks, social distancing and installation of plexiglass barriers between booths and tables.
“We’re trying to get back to 50% [occupancy limit] without the restrictions of having to close at 11 p.m., having to have food when you drink and not being able to sit at the bar,” Axiotis said of the PRLA’s stance on the state-mandated regulations. “What we want to do is go back to the original playbook before July 15.”