Get Ready to Offer Outdoor Dining at Your Restaurant

If your restaurant has an outside space, or even room for some sidewalk tables, you need to think about growing your business with the outdoor dining trend. OpenTable reports that 55% of Americans prefer outdoor or patio dining when the weather is nice. And if you’re lucky enough to have unique options for outdoor dining, you may attract even more customers. The OpenTable research found that 62% of Gen Z customers like rooftop bars, 77% of Americans want tables with a water view, and 65% of diners are looking for pet-friendly restaurants. Patio dining can make all of those customers happy.

If you think the restaurant’s outdoor dining model is right for you, you need to take these steps to manage it successfully.

6 Steps for Outdoor Dining Success

Expanding your dining room out through the patio doors may seem like a simple concept, but make sure you do it right so your business keeps its good standing in your community, you offer an inclusive experience, you manage it profitably, and you protect your investment in patio dining equipment and technology. Here are the details:

Set Up Compliant Outdoor Dining

The first question you should ask when you think about expanding to patio dining is not just, “Can you?” It’s, “May you?” Learn about local regulations that may limit what you can and can’t do to serve food and conduct business outside. Look into where you can have tables, the setbacks from roads or other businesses that you need to comply with, and even whether you can serve in glasses outside. You may also need to get permits for patio dining and make sure you follow any liquor control board regulations for outside service. You also need to research health department regulations and make sure you follow all food handling, sanitation, and pest control standards.

Offer Accessible Patio Dining

Restaurant outdoor dining spaces can be hard for customers with disabilities to navigate. 

Follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines for your patio dining layout, including space between tables and accessible seating. Table height is important. Make sure there is enough knee clearance and places at the table for people in wheelchairs. Also, make sure that pathways are firm (avoid gravel or stone), level, and obstacle-free. You’ll boost customer satisfaction if you consider other needs, like child-friendly areas and high chairs for families that want to dine outside.

Get Orders from the Outside to the Kitchen

Patio dining tables are typically further from the technology that servers use in the dining room, like stationary terminals for sending orders to the kitchen. To provide the fastest service, take orders outside or at patio tables with a mobile solution, and send orders directly to a kitchen display system. This system will help you organize and prioritize food prep so that all customers, in the indoor dining room, the patio, and on mobile apps and online ordering platforms, get accurate orders with the least possible wait.

Make Settling the Check Easy with Pay at the Table

Even if your customers are sitting outside, they still want the fastest possible service. Avoid the extra time from back and forth to a point of sale (POS) terminal when customers use a payment card. Your servers can take payments tableside, wrapping up by presenting the check, accepting a tip, and completing transactions all in one easy step. Pay-at-the-table solutions improve customer experiences with speed and convenience, but they also have benefits for your business. One server can handle multiple tables without delays, and you’ll turn tables faster. This can help you serve more people waiting for tables outside and maximize revenues.

Have a Weather Plan

When you’re planning to offer outdoor dining, you need to remember that every day isn’t partly sunny and a breezy 72 degrees. Make sure you can provide shade when the sun is shining and cover for your outdoor dining spaces when it rains to protect your investments in outdoor equipment (as well as your customers). You should make sure that any patio dining assets you purchase are rated to resist damage from harsh weather, UV light exposure, and an occasional spill or fall to a hard surface. 

Heaters or fire pits can add atmosphere and keep diners warm in the evenings, and fans and misters can keep guests cool during hot summer days. Also, protect spaces that tend to get windy with barriers, which can also give diners privacy if tables are located in busy parts of town.

Great Restaurant Outdoor Dining Experiences Take Training Your Team

Another key to a restaurant’s outdoor dining success for your business is a well-trained team. Your servers may have great skills and provide excellent service inside your dining room, but they may need to adapt a little to meet customer expectations outside. 

Make sure they understand all regulations that your business needs to comply with and all policies that you set to keep dining outside safe. You should help them anticipate customers’ needs on the patio, like not seating people in direct sunlight and offering to refill water glasses more often. Your staff may need to adapt how they set tables, so napkins and menus don’t blow away in the wind, and follow different procedures for bussing and cleaning tables. 

Also, train your staff on the technology they’ll use, like a pay-at-the-table system or sending orders to your kitchen display system, and make sure your Wi-Fi or WLAN network works reliably outside.

Where to Find the Tech Tools You Need

When you follow these steps, from planning compliant outdoor dining and accessibility to using the right technology and patio dining equipment, you can add a new way to build your business and delight your customers. 

NCC wants to help make it a great outdoor dining season. Contact us to learn about our mobile solutions, order and pay at the table, and kitchen display system that will streamline processes and enhance dining experiences, wherever you seat your customers.