Restaurants Reinventing Outdoor Dining

Just about every restaurant and hotel these days offers outdoor dining, but as we approach the spring and summer months, how can you make your outdoor dining space stand out from your competitors’ outdoor dining spaces? For starters, take a cue from some of these 7 restaurants that are reinventing outdoor dining.

The Greens

In Manhattan's Financial District, Pier 17 offers a fun rooftop space that's a little unlike any other you’ve probably come across. The rooftop has been cornered off into individual “lawns,” set more than six feet apart and able to hold eight guests each. The lawns are outfitted with coolers, lawn chairs, umbrellas and more. While guests hang out on their lawns, they can take in the sights of the Manhattan skyline, enjoy entertainment from the huge widescreen television that plays live sporting events toward one end of the rooftop and chow down on eats from the restaurant.

Soneva Kiri Resort

Dinner by Zip Line @ Soneva Kiri Thailand

You’ve heard of pod dining, but what about treehouse pod dining? This resort restaurant in Thailand is giving guests the opportunity to dine in high style, in individual pods that hang above the Thai trees, with views of the ocean beyond. Guests climb inside and a series of ropes and pulleys take them to their spot high among the trees. Once they're finished with their meal and drinks, down they come.

Caneel Bay Resort

Caneel Bay - Dinner in the abandoned Sugar Mill

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Caneel Bay Resort’s restaurant is offering guests the opportunity to dine among plantation ruins. Enjoying a totally romantic time, guests can take advantage of super-private spaces, surrounded by the outdoors and only the crumbling walls of the sugar plantations from centuries ago. Sure, if you don’t have your own ruins handy, this outdoor dining option can be a little difficult to replicate, but it’s definitely a great example of a restaurant taking a unique space and making the most of it.

The Darling’s Rose Garden

In Chicago, rather than dine inside an igloo or on your own lawn, why not dine inside a greenhouse? That’s what The Darling is offering, with socially distanced greenhouses built for four. The restaurant set up its rose garden with 10 greenhouses (which are regularly sanitized, just fyi) along a stretch of an adjacent closed street.

The Willow Room

Another Chicago restaurant, The Willow Room, is doing much the same thing, only the team there didn’t have a whole closed street to take advantage of. Still, The Willow Room has placed small (though still slightly larger than those at The Darling) greenhouses along its sidewalks and, in the winter, blankets and heaters are available.

Coast Wine House

A winery restaurant in Dublin, Ohio, just goes to show that you don’t need a big city budget to roll out the outdoor dining red carpet for your guests. Coast Wine House is serving eats and drinks in tiny glamping-style teepees, suitable for a handful of diners with the tents’ Adirondack chairs and complimentary blankets.

State Bird Provisions and The Progress

These sister restaurants in San Francisco share a green space that they’ve converted into a unique dining area that shares a dual menu. Rustic wood and metal cubes form separated dining spaces for up to four people, all covered in string lights and street art, for a hip, casual vibe. Especially when you see Patrick and Lolo masked up enjoying themselves.

How Is Your Restaurant Reinventing Outdoor Dining?

As you prep for the upcoming outdoor dining season, how are you making your space stand out? If you need a little help, see how Agency 967 can create a space you (and your guests!) love.