Get Your Outdoor Seating Ready for Summer Dining

 

This article was published on 4-20-2018   and updated on 3-8-2022

Is your restaurant patio ready to handle an influx of summer diners? Warmer weather is on its way, and with it an increase in patrons looking to indulge in an alfresco dining experience. How can you get your outdoor seating area ready, creating an atmosphere customers want to indulge in again and again?

Think Outside the Box

Nothing is better than an alfresco dining experience that invigorates patrons with delicious seasonal food and drinks in an outdoor locale designed to stimulate the senses. An escape from weekly monotony, winning restaurant patio designs give diners an intimate connection with their Mother Nature, their food, and the community. Indoor seating simply cannot compete. 

Tips for Creating the Ultimate Outdoor Restaurant Dining Experience

        Look beyond food

While your delicious menu may be a prime reason patrons visit, looking beyond food to your restaurant patio surroundings is crucial to creating a dining experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

●       Turn your patio dining area into an enticing advertisement

Inspire potential patrons to check out your establishment, turning your business’s exterior into an ad featuring a fun, engaging restaurant patio atmosphere that beckons those driving or passing by.

●       Take advantage of a stellar surrounding landscape

Instead of a ‘canned’ corporate feel, create a unique dining experience with genuine character. Emphasize nearby scenery, whether majestic mountains in the distance, a nearby green space, or a plaza fountain, locating your patio dining area in view. If your surrounding area lacks scenery, create it, adding a green wall, edible garden, fire, or water feature. Construct a unified theme, whether in design theme or mission statement. Options that spark conversation or generate buzz on the social landscape are ideal.  

●       Create comfortable, reliable patio dining space

No one wants to swelter in the sun or worry about fleeing the rain when dining outdoors. Say goodbye to burns from overheated furnishings, soggy seat cushions, and post-storm cleanup. Versatile, adjustable aluminum pergolas ensure unfettered access to space, rain or shine, from season to season. Keep customers cool, dry, and comfortable, dialing in the perfect amount of shade or leak-free precipitation protection at the touch of a button. 

●       Don’t bypass comfort for cost

Your patio dining ‘experience’ will be sorely lacking if you focus strictly on cost. Customers stay longer and enjoy more food and drinks when they’re comfortable. To that end, leave flimsy patio umbrellas and wobbly, hard, temperature-sensitive chairs in the rearview. Instead, enhance comfort and ambiance with well thought out additions such as:

 o   Inviting, ergonomic furnishings

Comfortable, tasteful furnishings that entice customers to stay awhile add to the experience. They showcase your restaurant’s reputation for quality, fuel higher than average purchases, and inspire repeat visits.

 o   A mindful patio layout

Allow ample room for movement. Eliminate seating near high-traffic doorways like those near the kitchen and restrooms to reduce crowding, traffic snafus, and serving accidents.

 o   Comfort control

Incorporate comfort features into your motorized pergola’s design, safeguarding the highly coveted outdoor dining experience. Integrating ceiling fans beneath the shade of your commercial pergola provides an environment up to 30-degrees cooler in the summer heat, while motorized screens offer added protection against harsh sunlight. Overhead patio heaters or fire features like fire pit tables provide warmth on chilly spring and fall days, ensuring patron comfort year-round.

●       Get to know your customers

Instill a sense of belonging customers will look forward to returning to. Tailor the atmosphere to your target market, attracting customers with a dining experience personalized to meet their needs.

 ●       Be community-minded

Create a positive persona, supporting or hosting community events, especially during the hours when patio patrons are few. Or hold your own events, adding a morning meditation class or weekly wine and canvas event.

 ●       Support local businesses

Today’s customers yearn to connect with the community. Show your community support, building a network of locally sourced goods. Store local produce in plain sight. Display local artwork or regionally inspired designs. Note local menu items, helping diners connect with the food on their plates.

 Make the most of available real estate, creating an extraordinary restaurant patio dining space. Schedule a complimentary commercial pergola design consultation, finding new ways to expand outdoor seating. Contact StuXure of Denver at 303-505-6669 today.

 This article was originally published at: https://denverpergolas.com/adjustable-commercial-pergolas/8-tips-for-enhancing-the-customer-experience-in-your-restaurant/