The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Eateries spend big sums to keep customers warm dining outside
Local restaurants are facing a long winter ahead with increasing COVID-19 cases and a customer base concerned about virus spread and hesitant to eat indoors.
But the creative solutions they’re finding to accommodate outdoor diners in the winter months — like outdoor fire pits, tents and heaters, and mini greenhouses for individual parties — could change the eating-out experience even once the coronavirus is a thing of the past. And Connecticut cities are trying to work with restaurants to ensure the money they’re pouring into these accommodations are worth the while.
“We have an application online that people can fill out for outdoor or tent dining,” said Trumbull Town Planner Rob
Librandi. “They don’t have to go through Planning and Zoning, but we will review the application in our office to double check things like entrances/exits, location, fire extinguishers, lightings, ADA compliance, whether it meets the 50 percent capacity limit for indoor dining, things like that. ... We’ve done our best to streamline the process and the turnaround has been pretty fast.”
Norwalk is also offering a streamlined process for restaurants to get permits for tents and heaters. The application launched last week, and Director of Business Development and Tourism Sabrina Church said there has already been a lot of interest.
The city is allowing people who get tent permits to apply for an extension after a year, which would allow them to keep the structures up until 2022.
“A lot of times, these business owners are spending $10,000 to $15,000 thousand dollars on heaters,” Church said. “It’s a big investment to only use for three months, so we flipped it on its head to let people keep tents until 2022.”
Some Norwalk restaurants already have tents and heaters set up after going through the original tent approval process — O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in South Norwalk being one of them.
Owner Ollie O’Neill replaced the pop-up tents the Irish eatery used over the summer with a bigger tent last week. He is hoping this, plus 10 heat lamps and fire pits will help get the popular restaurant through the winter.
“It’s been an added expense, but ultimately we’re trying to stay in business and keep our staff employed,” O’Neill said. “We hope to be able to it the ground running when all this is behind us. ... We’re going to try to go where the weather allows us to go. We have that nice tent and it’s heated. It’s quite comfortable in there when it’s not windy.”
O’Neill’s is also encouraging diners to bring their own blankets. The new “BYOB” movement is also being encouraged around the region, from Westport to New Haven.
Some restaurants are additionally making investments to improve the safety of indoor dining. O’Neill installed an indoor air purification system which replenishes the air inside the restaurant every 25 minutes. In Stamford, Victor Mathieu, co-owner of Fiesta on Main, said they have poured money into plexiglass dividers and cleaning products to keep indoor diners safe.
“It has made us unpopular at times with our customers, but we believe that the health department and the city of Stamford have committed to safety based on science and we are following their guidelines,” Mathieu said.
Some cities are allowing restaurants to set up tiny outdoor enclosures to allow diners to enjoy a meal without exposure to other customers. After some back and forth, the state approved such structures with strict guidelines in place. Milford’s Dockside Brewery and Waterfront Biergarten has already set up six with four more on the way.
Manager Tom Hanley said each structure can be reserved for four to eight people for up to 2.5 hours. There are three seating times a day to allow time for cleaning, sanitizing and airing out the structures. Each one has its own theme, heater and Bluetooth speaker as well, so guests can stream their own music.
“There were minor roadblocks but (the city) has been very supportive,” Hanley said. “We have a very, very strict policy on thorough cleaning. ... For the winter, it’s the most sustainable thing we have.”
Hanley said since Dockside is mostly outdoors anyways, the structures were “vital” for sustaining business throughout the winter months. The brewery also has an upper deck which it will enclose with retractable awnings and a fireplace customers can sit beside as it gets cold out.
Millwright’s Restaurant and Tavern in Simsbury is taking a similar approach to the outdoor dining dilemma. Its answer: Geenhouses.
“Consider the greenhouses like private cabanas” said general manager Vanessa Walsh.
Chef and owner Tyler Anderson has a two-phase plan to have the private greenhouses up and ready for use by Nov. 21, with an additional install for December to carry the restaurant through the winter months.
Different-sized greenhouses will be available, with the majority of them comfortably seating two to four people and a handful of larger ones offering seating for parties of 10 to 12. Hot air will be piped in and guests can control the music and lighting.
Though she knows safety concerns have kept many people home, Walsh encourages everyone who hasn’t already, to give Millwrights a try. Each greenhouse can have one seating per night and is sanitized twice a day to upkeep health and safety.
“The draw is for friends and families to book,” Walsh said. “Our regular patrons know how important their safety is to us. ... We’re respectful of the fact that people have varying comfort levels.”
But some in the restaurant industry maintain the investments in outdoor dining accommodations may not be worth the payoff. Dani Corbett, general manager of Tigin Irish Pub said while they have experience with obtaining tent permits, they felt this year it wouldn’t be beneficial enough to outweigh the cost.
The restaurant does have patio heaters, but Corbett said they had to start turning them off because customers were moving their tables to be closer to the heat and breaking social distancing guidelines.
“I’ve heard mixed feedback from customers about tented outdoor dining,” Corbett said. “Some won’t go into a tent for dining because they are concerned about the lack of air circulation; others think it’s a great option. As we get into colder and colder temperatures, a tent with a heater is never going to be equal to indoor dining temperature.”