Grand Rapids are trying to do outdoor winter dining so what about Lansing could we do it and would you try it? With coronavirus impacting us from March until now it wasn't that hard for restaurants to do outdoor dining. Now that fall has come the weather will be here soon and it will be getting colder and snowy so will outdoor dining be able to survive through the winter?

Grand Rapids is trying to make outdoor dining work with heaters and other things to make eating outside a little better. There are some other places around the world putting outside tables in plastic bubbles to keep weather and COVID away. These are just some of the new ideas for outdoor dining but in the middle of January in Michigan unless the bubble is heated I don't see anyone wanting to do it.

I would love to eat outdoors in the winter in a bubble but again it has to be heated or I might as well eat at home with the window shade open. Another thing with the eating outdoors in the winter is you have to worry about your food getting from the kitchen to your table and staying warm. Most of the time during the middle of winter in Michigan it can get to single digit temperature or negative temperatures, so your hot food might be ice cold by the time it gets to your table.

In addition, in winter the ground could be icy resulting in slips, so just imagine you see your waiter with your food coming over only for the waiter to slip on some ice causing your food to be on the floor and potential injury to the waiter.

I would enjoy these igloos in London. You can still enjoy eating outside without being outside. These igloos also provide better warmth than tents and you can put a space heater in these to keep tables warm. These igloos are built with wood and apparently don't seem all that hard to make as the restaurant below is expanding this idea.

Restaurants with covered porches will have an advantage through the winter cause you can add space heaters to the porch to keep everyone warm. There aren't many around Lansing, I do know of one at the Carababa's on the west side of Lansing, but places that have covered porches should definitely take advantage of them in the coming months.

Another suggestion I have for outdoor dining are for restaurants to give blankets to patrons. I would even take one of those really big winter jackets that football players wear sometimes on the sidelines over their padding.

You can see more about what restaurants may do this winter here.

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