I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

It is warm in Maine right now.  

Unseasonably warm.  

It will be in the 70’s this weekend, with the potential to break records.  

Anyone want to guess how many phone calls I fielded today about the patio?  

I get it.  

Everyone in Maine wants to be outside, because winter is coming. 

But keeping a patio open, or reopening a patio is not an easy task.

First, we closed out patio early this year not because of discomfort of the guest, but because we got a number of complaints about cold food. When it’s 54* outside, and you drop mashed potatoes at the table, they are cold in about 60 seconds. The same is true of the steak you ordered. When people began to complain, in order to maintain quality, we closed the patio.  

Closing out patio, isn’t just about the act of not seating it. It has to be weatherized. The plumbing has to be drained. The bar has to be emptied. The furniture stored.  

We couldn’t open our patio even if we wanted to.

And then there is staffing.  

We have a 100-seat patio, do I just schedule 3 people daily, just in case the weather is nice? What do I do with them when it’s 45* outside? It also requires an extra host and extra food runners.  

So I understand your wanting to be outside…

But from a business standpoint, it’s does not make good business sense, to be on call for weather that may not happen.  

I’ll be jealous of all of you eating outside on Saturday and Sunday, but I’ll be happy to not have the stress of figuring out how to cover the staffing needs to have out patio open.