4th November 2021

A Quick Guide To Outdoor Dining

 

The pandemic has changed the game of restaurant dining. Luckily, management teams from the food and beverage industry from London to Melbourne are fast to embrace change by now. They have become resilient and responsive to combat the challenges presented by COVID-19.

 

Slowly but surely, cities are beginning to open in line with the rollout of vaccines. Restaurant managers may be looking around different ways to amp up the game to their outdoor dining.

 

With that in mind, we have created a quick guide designed to help understand what a venue can do to get their outdoor dining right!

 

6 Tips Outdoor Dining Tips

 

We have gathered 6 quick and easy tips to help a venue owner navigate outdoor dining for their restaurant. The ultimate goal is for a venue to provide their customers a cozy, convenient and comfortable vibe and bring the joy to their outdoor dining experience!

 

Be Innovative

A venue owner might be thinking that having an outdoor space for their business is impossible due to the lack of a dedicated dining space. If an operator is stuck in a dilemma such as this, the opportunity as a supplier is there to help them be creative and apply their imagination.

 

Try to reimagine any available spaces they have around their venue. Whether it be a parking space, their garage, or as simple as a sidewalk, it could even be the back entrance walkway! All of these spaces can be a potential area to introduce as an outdoor dining option.

 

 

Forecast The Weather

Don’t let a little rain or wind keep you and your guests away from the beauty of outdoor dining. Make sure you invest in items that will keep your guests comfortable to weather any storm. Secure your restaurant with a wind and shade shelters, with dropdown blinds, standing heaters, or even fans.

 

 

The Pop-up Window Is The Way To Go

Having a separate or dedicated pop-up window is a perfect opportunity for a venue to cater to extra traffic and for guests who are all about buying their orders and leaving right away. Things to consider when suggesting an idea such as this, is to ensure the planned pop up window is located only within the outdoor dining space. Suggest easy grab and go items like prepared platters, sandwiches, cakes, and coffee.

 

Build With Safety In Mind

Aside from offering a great dining experience, a venue should also provide their customers with security and safety.  Create a buffer between the outdoor dining space and the road or pedestrian traffic by applying a boarder such as fencing or branded commercial barriers or drop-down blinds attached to shades.

 

Spread The News

Make sure there is a plan to drive customers to the restaurant and announcing that they are ready for outdoor dining. Leverage the power of marketing and spread the news to everyone.

 

There are a lot of ways a business can easily market their business such as Facebook, Instagram, and email marketing. Think about collaborating with local businesses to refer their clients, perhaps offer an incentive between both businesses.  Propose a themed night during quieter trading days or other exciting promos to drive customers to book and dine in with their friends and family.

 

QR Code Menus or Order at the Table

Guiding businesses to make sure they have thought of everything to operate COVID safe. Single use or laminated menus, new technology makes ordering easy to provide QR codes that redirect them to an online menu. Aside from offering a safer transaction between the guest and staff, this makes ordering faster and easy in busy times and helps manage staffing challenges.

 

Integrating QR codes to payment options has become easier and allows customers to prepay and leave as they please.

 

Supplier Opportunities

 

There are many opportunities for equipment suppliers to provide solutions, just to name a few:

• Furniture rental or hire
• Furniture suppliers
• Shade & awning suppliers
• Barrier suppliers
• Signage specialists
• Coffee carts
• Sound equipment suppliers
• Heating & Airflow solutions
• Digital Marketing specialists
• Tech order and pay systems

 

 

The Bottom-line

Without a doubt, outdoor dining is here to stay. Help make sure your customers venues have thought of every option to increase their capacity to trade. Use our quick guide to help you add value and shift venues to embrace the option of outdoor dining!