Hibernation season is over, and people are now craving fresh air, sunlight, and a cold drink in their hands on their favorite terrace. Make that your patio by implementing these creative patio season ideas that will help you capitalize on restaurant seasonality.
What Is Patio Season?
Ahh, patio season! It’s that time of the year when the weather is hot, the drinks are cold, and your restaurant is the place to be – as long as you make the most of your patio.
‘Patio season’ is a well-known term in the hospitality industry that refers to those couple of months when people go to restaurants to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air. According to a recent survey by Toast, 70% of diners are willing to wait longer for outdoor seating.
It can bring you additional revenue, but it will also force you to reorganize your operations a little, so everything runs smoothly. Let’s see what you need to do to ensure your outdoor restaurant ideas make customers excited to visit your restaurant.
Read more: 7 Innovative Restaurant Revenue Streams to Expand Your Business
How to Create an Outdoor Dining Area at Your Restaurant
Not every restaurant has a big patio, and some might not even have an outdoor area at all. But the good news is you can make the most of any space with our big and small outdoor dining ideas.
Read more: Outdoor Dining Ideas for Restaurant: Dos and Don’ts for the Hot Season
Here are some key elements you should consider when setting up your outdoor restaurant patio:
- Clean the floor, gates, windows, and patio seating and equipment. You haven’t used them in a while, so they’re bound to need a good clean. If you’ve never used the patio before, you need to purchase outdoor furniture.
- Repair or replace any seating, umbrellas, and equipment that is not in top condition.
- Ensure you have shaded areas as well as sunny ones to appease all customers.
- Add outdoor lighting to make those nights on the patio truly magical.
- Purchase some natural bug repellents to ensure customers are comfortable while sipping their drinks, not dodging mosquitos.
- Allow customers to order by scanning a QR code to take some of the pressure off your employees who need to constantly scan both the interior and exterior of the restaurant.
- Create an outdoor bussing station equipped with plates, cutlery, and napkins to reduce the time waiters spend retrieving these basic items.
- Rethink staffing to ensure you’re never under or overstaffed and do cross-training to ensure all staff know the basics of each other’s roles and can step in in case of an emergency. You might need to hire some additional seasonal staff to help with the extra foot traffic.
- Decide on a pet policy. Customers are bound to ask you if they can bring their pets. If your patio is pet-friendly, advertise that online and offline to attract pet parents.
- Allow customers to reserve a table and specify they want to be seated outside to avoid arriving at the restaurant and realizing all the outdoor seats are taken.
Outdoor seating restaurant ideas
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Seating is one of the most important aspects of a dining experience. You want your customers to be comfortable, but you also don’t want your seating to look like everyone else’s. Depending on the type of restaurant you own, here are some outdoor seating ideas you can try:
- French bistro furniture featuring bamboo or metal frames and a woven design.
- Fun and eclectic pieces featuring wooden pallets, colorful pillows, and artsy prints.
- Industrial-style furniture made of iron or steel will give your restaurant an effortlessly chic vibe.
- Relaxed atmosphere featuring bean bags, chaise lounges, and hammocks that will transport your customers to a holiday in the Bahamas.
Read more: How to Create an Effective Restaurant Seating Strategy
Restaurant exterior design ideas to help you stand out
Do you want potential customers to pick your restaurant over your competitors this patio season? Then you must try out these easy-to-implement restaurant exterior design ideas:
Read more: 15 Restaurant Design Tips That Will Attract More Customers
Motorized awning
The easiest way to ensure nothing ruins your patio season is to install an awning that you can pull out when it’s raining and retract when the weather is nice.
Once customers find out they can still enjoy the patio even if it’s raining, they’ll be lining up for a seat at your restaurant.
Misting system
Another way to make your restaurant the place to be this summer is to protect customers from the scorching heat with automatic mist cooling systems.
Keep guests comfortable and refreshed and they’ll come back for more.
Heating options
It might sound counterproductive to install a heating system in summer, but depending on where your restaurant is located, temperatures can drop significantly in the evening.
Not to mention this is a good strategy for extending patio season well beyond the summer months.
Outdoor restaurant decoration ideas
You want your patio to be more than just a place to sit down and eat. Think beyond seating and invest in some decorations that will give your restaurant a fresh new look:
- Let nature complement the space. Plant flowers, grass, and trees to turn your patio into a sanctuary.
- Add decorative lighting. Lights don’t have to just be functional; they can turn your restaurant into an Instagrammable place if you know how to use them.
- Bring in tiki torches. Kill two birds with one stone: create a vacation ambiance and keep bugs away from your customers.
- Add a fire pit. If your restaurant is chasing that summertime holiday vibe, a fire pit in the center for colder summer evenings is just what you need.
Read more: What Makes a Good Restaurant Atmosphere: 8 Tips & Tricks
Ace Patio Season with These Outdoor Dining Ideas for Your Restaurant
If you want to fill all your outside tables, you need to up your advertising game. Start with these outdoor restaurant ideas that will persuade people to book a table:
Add refreshing patio specials to the menu
Patio season is nothing without a couple of changes to the menu that reflect the weather and people’s disposition.
Whether you want to create a dedicated seasonal menu for the entire summer or add daily or weekly specials to provide customers with more variety, the menu creator from GloriaFood makes it extremely easy to edit your menu in minutes. Learn more from this video tutorial:
We recommend adding the summer menu items at the top of the menu in their own special category so they’re easy to spot:
You can use this menu for pickup and delivery and also convert it into a QR code for dine-in. Here’s how:
Offer promotions for classic summer foods and drinks
Melt down the prices, offer typical summer freebies, and create group deals to attract more people to your restaurant patio.
Here are a couple of summer promotion ideas you can try:
To learn more about creating a variety of promotions using our online ordering system, watch the tutorial below:
Organize a patio opening party
Kick patio season off in style with a bash that will get people excited about summer, as well as your restaurant.
Here are a couple tips for the perfect opening party:
- Hire local musicians and entertainers;
- Create a signature dish to mark the moment;
- Offer discounts and deals all night long.
Promote the event in advance on social media to get people talking and create FOMO (fear of missing out) by urging customers to book a table for the grand opening because the seats are limited.
Bring in live entertainment
Live entertainment doesn’t have to be a one-time thing. Organize periodic restaurant events featuring musicians, comedians, actors, and professionals who can teach cooking or bartending classes.
Let your restaurant be the answer to “Where are we going to do something fun tonight?”
Promote patio season on your website and all across social media
Let your customers know you’ve opened the patio gates and periodically post photos of guests enjoying themselves on the patio on social media (with their permission, of course).
The first place where you should post about your patio is on your restaurant website.
Follow these instructions to create your own restaurant website in minutes. Then, add an announcement section like the one above to the homepage:
Use social media to announce upcoming patio events:
- Post photos on Instagram Stories;
- Add short clips of a vibrant evening on your patio on Instagram Reels;
- Create an event on Facebook an encourage people to attend;
- Jump on TikTok trends to promote the event.
You can also edit your Google Business Profile to include outdoor seating to let people who find you on Google know that they can be seated outside.
Conclusion
Take advantage of patio season by decorating your terrace to appeal to your target audience, sprucing up your menu with summer specials and discounts, and entertaining your guests with creative events.
You might also like:
- 10 Restaurant Food Promotion Ideas to Say Goodbye to the Summer Season
- 10 Ice Cream Marketing Ideas to Sell More in the Hot Season
- 10 Free Marketing Ideas for Restaurants to Implement Right Now
