How to Create an Outdoor Seating for Your Restaurant?

Creating outdoor seating can do wonders in attracting customers to your restaurant. It provides an alternative seating and dining experience to customers. It has become a recent trend. Restaurants, with spaces available, are shifting into open seating. And if you haven’t hopped on it too, then you might be losing customers. Outdoor seating can be of multiple types and designs. Different designs could include a front porch setting, backyard patio, rooftop dine-in, or even sidewalk or “bistro-style” seating. Restaurants need to assess and determine which ones work best for their themes and models.

If you too have available space and are looking to turn it into outdoor seating, then we have some tips for you.

1. Get Required Permissions

To create outdoor seating, you will need to get specific permissions and licenses under the law. Eating House License (for serving food in an open space), Health and Trade License (for certifying necessary safety and hygiene benchmarks), Lift Clearance (for verifying the layout, safety gears, and installation), Fire Safety License (for protecting customers from any fire dangers) are some of the permits you will have to acquire for running your outdoor seating legally.

2. Provide A Space With Privacy

You need to finalize the space and its view (if any) in your restaurant property for outdoor seating. Before you decide on the location of your outdoor seating, consider the location of your restaurant. If there’s a side of the restaurant that is more visually appealing or has a nice view nearby, then that is your perfect place for outdoor seating. Going with a front porch patio ensures that everyone passing by the restaurant will see your setting and get enticed to visit. In contrast, a backyard patio can create a secluded space from the crowd and provide the customers with exclusivity and privacy. A rooftop seating provides an open-air ambiance and promises a charming view of the local skyline while enjoying a meal, making it another great place for the customers.

3. Making It Comfortable

The weather in India can be excruciating sometimes, and direct exposure to it while sitting outside is one of the disadvantages of outdoor seating. It can discourage customers from coming to your restaurant. You could even expect decreased interest in outdoor arrangements during extreme weather conditions. However, to redress it to some extent, you can take measures to regulate the temperature. You can install fans and cooling systems for summers. To fight the cold, you can have space heaters. They may not work as effectively as the ones you install inside, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact.

Further, having a shade over the customers’ heads can provide them with the much-required protection from changing weather. Putting the shade can also add to the beauty of your outdoor seating arrangement. There are different shades and ways to use them to achieve this. You can consider terrace awnings for patio areas directly outside your restaurants or cable awnings covering some part of your rooftop seating. You can also consider installing gazebos for private seating if you have a larger property.

4. Add Aesthetics

All things naturally green give an alluring look to any seating. A dining space full of lush foliage can be highly enticing to a customer. It improves the visual appearance of the outdoor seating and keeps the place cool and calm. Making your outdoor seating (and even indoor seating) aesthetically green can easily be achieved by growing plants in baskets, pots, and other containers. You can also grow climbers around and above the shade, you choose for your outdoor seating.

In addition to plants and climbers, decorative lights can be charming too. It can add the much-needed “wow” factor to your outdoor seating. It sets a perfect ambiance for great pictures as well. String lights and lanterns create a romantic atmosphere, making your restaurant the ideal go-to place for date nights.

5. Get the Right Furniture

The furniture you choose for your outside seating can make a huge difference. The furniture for outdoor seating needs to be durable and designed to sustain changing weather conditions. It does not only need to be comfortable but also waterproof and easy to move. You can also consider matching the style of your outdoor furniture to your interior setting and the one that represents your brand.

Rely on smart and updated restaurant POS software and the right people to manage your business operations smoothly while you prepare for the next steps of your business.

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