As the weather gets colder and outdoor seating is still in full effect, restaurants are looking for new ways to keep their customers warm. The Catalyst talked to two different restaurants owned by NDB families; 31st Union in San Mateo and Sundance in Palo Alto. They are quite different from each other, as 31st Union is a casual restaurant and Sundance is a high-end steakhouse, so their situations are a little different. They are both using outdoor seating, take out, and were recently granted permission to have 25% indoor seating.

“Taking a 100 percent indoor dining business model and converting it to an outdoor / take-out business model is almost financially impossible,” Galen Fletcher, the Managing Partner of Sundance, told The Catalyst. “Certain restaurants are set up better for this, however a ;white table cloth’, high-end steakhouse is not. We are surviving with outdoor dining and take-out, however, it is not enough moving forward. With the weather getting colder over the next several months, we may be facing more layoffs and financial burdens that could be catastrophic.”

If more indoor seating doesn’t become available soon, there could be more and more negative effects.

31st Union is slightly better set up for this situation, and because of the recently nice weather, they have had a great response to the outdoor seating.

“We have 7 tables outside on the street and sidewalk, surrounded by a protective barrier. The weather has been great the past few weeks, so outdoor dining has been popular,” said Susan Hunsaker. “We anticipate doing a lot more take-out orders as well as some indoor dining. We really don’t know what diners will decide to do. The cold weather will definitely make things more complicated.”

They do not know what to expect but they are prepared for many different situations. They just want to keep their customers happy!