Greensboro restaurant-goers will have several enhanced dining locations from which to choose this weekend with the addition of new outdoor patios at more than a dozen downtown eateries.
Installation of the steel frame patios — a sidewalk-level platform with three walls covered in decorative wood paneling — began on Monday. They’ll replace the large concrete barriers placed in front of restaurants for outdoor dining during the pandemic — short-term fixes that allowed restaurateurs to keep their businesses afloat amidst the social distancing requirements of COVID-19.
Downtown Greensboro Director of Strategic Initiatives Rob Overman says the outdoor dining program has steadily grown in popularity since it began three years ago.
"Folks that may not have been huge fans of dining outdoors have discovered a love for it," says Overman. "People have traveled to some of the large cities and seen it there. They feel very prideful that Greensboro is replicating that sort of program. So, folks seem really receptive to it."
The price tag for the entire project is roughly $450,000. Last year, Elm Street saw nearly one-million visits, and Overman says with the addition of permanent outdoor dining units, he expects that number to rise.
According to the National Restaurant Association, nearly four in ten consumers say the availability of outdoor seating would make them favor one restaurant over another.