On Patios
Happy Summer! If your life is governed by the ups and downs of the school year, I hope your children's ended gracefully. For us it was memorable. My eldest daughter is the lacrosse goalie. Her high school team made it to the state finals for the first time in eight years. They were up. They were tied. They were down. They came back. They fought like hell and lost 16-14. There are a lot of really beautiful things about women’s sports, but perhaps the most beautiful are the tears and hugs after a trying loss. The girls were warriors. They were inspiring and they were magnificent.
Since you’re hopefully already out the door on the way to the Vineyard or the U.P., I’ll keep this note as short as possible. After storefronts and names another top question we get at Revel is about patios. It should come as no surprise that we are pro-patio. Maybe only Eric Weatherholtz loves them more. Since it’s the beginning of summer I thought a few tips to maximize the outdoor good times - and the profits that come with them - might be well received.
Fourteen feet is a magic distance in real estate. A 14’ deep patio lets you put two 60” four tops, an ample aisle, and a little room for some planters or a fence. Or four offset rows of 30” square tables. You can do a lot in fourteen feet. Much less space is a nice outdoor area but it isn’t a patio.
As much as I wish this was Paris this isn’t Paris. Charming rows of bistro tables facing the street rarely work in the U.S. They fail for a lot of reasons. One of the simplest reasons is that no one ever covers them with an awning.
Another reason sidewalk cafes rarely work is not because our sidewalks stink, it’s because our streets do. They’re car sewers and no one wants to have a meal next to a car sewer. Don’t put patios right up at grade against busy streets.
Check your local listings. As if you need another reason why we aren’t Paris, local liquor license laws often inhibit great patios. Make sure you know what they are.
One thing license laws used to prohibit was detached patios. Great in theory, but in practice Covid-era dining sheds are awful. Even NYC agrees. Some are well done (like a lot of things: Balthazar) but most are rough. They’re under-used, poorly built, feel terrible, and block the views. If your tenants have them my best advice is either pay to improve them (and charge rent) or take them down.
Good times are not being had here. . .
Normally you can’t charge rent for the patio unless it’s really winterized, but it’s not unreasonable to charge CAM on the patio SF. Restaurants use a lot more trash and parking than a tailor or a bookstore. Adding CAM to the patio SF is fair.
Now that I said you could charge (some) rent on winterized patios y’all are all going to put roofs on them all. But please be careful with patio roofs. Your tenant will promise it will look like Tuscany. If you leave to them it will look like Tijuana. Eric Kronberg did a fabulous job on an old center here I wish I’d bought. Make patio roofs fun and engaging. And don’t cheap out! This is the first thing people see.
Unless of course you put your patio in the back. This is an old school move that requires a deft hand. It’s hard to manage loading and trash and patios but they can be magical when done right.
Motorized louvered pergolas are great. Expensive, but great.
You know what isn’t expensive? Camo netting. I know it sounds janky and it often can be, but boy dappled shade is the single best outdoor condition there is.
Tables with umbrellas are the universal language that good times are being had.
. . . but they’re definitely being had here.
Stay away from the cheap plastic roll-down sheeting. The first week will look fine. Then it will look scabby or like the emergency tents that Hollywood Movie Scientists quarantine space aliens in.
Have you ever seen how they do it in Austria? Four foot plexiglass walls keep the wind out. Giant Jumbrellas keep the rain & snow off. Electric heaters fastened to the arms keep it toasty. Fantastisch.
You know what they do well in Germany? Beer Gardens. Think about rolling out a pop-up beer garden at your property this summer.
No, I actually don’t know why sushi restaurants in this country don’t have outdoor dining. Two great tastes that ought to taste great together.
Plants, people. Plants. And trees and shrubs and bushes and ivy and flowers. Make sure you and your tenants landscape the **** out of the patio. We’re outside for a reason and concrete isn’t it.
Just one word, Benjamin: plants.
There are a million tiny ways to make great outdoor spaces for eating and drinking and making merry. Take your team out for a day-long patio tour in your home town. Eater will inevitable have a Best Patio list to start from. This is the fun part! Go see what works and what doesn’t and what you like and what you don’t. We’re all social creatures and we’re all wired to love the great outdoors. Great patios make for great times, and great times make for great sales and rents and profits. That’s worth celebrating.
What We’re Working On. Travel! It may be getting out of hand? The good news is I’m well on my way to keeping diamond status. Chicago, Gainesville, Madison, Kansas City, DC, Philadelphia, Chattanooga, NYC, New Jersey. And that’s just June. In fairness I’ve got college visits driving some of this. If I am headed your way and you want to get a coffee or a lunch please let me know.
Summer Reading. Some books I’ve enjoyed that you might also. I can attest that all of them go well with a drink outside. Book reports not required.
Havana Nocturne. The rise and fall of the mob in Cuba. If you wanted background on Godfather II, this is it.
Speaking of illegal booze: Last Call: the Rise and Fall of Prohibition is great, though I hate to say the Ken Burns doc might be better.
The Guns Of August. JFK was said to be reading this when the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out. The definitive account of how the world stumbled into WWI.
House of Cards. Was it really sixteen years ago that Bear Stearns went down? Reads like a suspense novel.
One Summer: America 1927. Everything Bill Bryson writes is fantastic. Lindbergh and Babe Ruth and the summer America became “modern.”
Public Enemies. Story of the 18-month Depression “crime wave” that created Dillinger, Bonny & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker family and the FBI.
A River Runs Through It. The movie is good but the book is great. "It is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
Hedy’s Folly. Bio of 40’s Hollywood star Hedy Lamar. In her spare time she invented communication technology for the war effort (that became wifi, bluetooth and GPS).
Me Talk Pretty One Day. Maybe the funniest book I’ve ever read? I laughed so hard in public my wife had to move she was so embarrassed
Kitchen Confidential. I feel like everyone has read this but if not, you need to. I miss Anthony Bourdain.
Spritz. Cocktail recipes to make your summer better. If we can’t be Paris then maybe we can be Rome.
Thanks for reading! If you’ve enjoyed this feel free to forward to a friend who might also.
For those new here, I run a retail development and consulting shop in Atlanta. Our mission is to make great retail places, and I write regularly about commercial real estate through that lens.
If you’ve got a mixed-use project that could use some creative thinking — or a great patio space you’d like to share— please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.