Patio, No

I have a question for restaurant owners everywhere.

If your restaurant has a patio (or even if it doesn’t), why is it necessary to have your front windows and doors open on a hot day? Is it because you assume that everyone loves sitting on the patio, and by opening doors or installing big garage-style windows that open to the street that customers seated indoors will feel like they’re on that patio? Or is it just a way to get around running the air conditioning?

Because not everyone wants to sit outside.

Greg and I went out for lunch today. We arrived at our destination to find that the place had all the windows and doors open, and that it was actually hotter inside than outside on the patio, where there was at least a breeze.

I’m currently balancing on a very thin precipice with my allergies. Six weeks in and having tried three different medications, I’m finally at a point where I can actually go outside to get from point A to point B, but sitting for an hour or more in air full of astronomical amounts of mold spores is really not fun.

Plus the fact that it’s currently 30C, with a humidex of 37C.

Now, sure, restaurants are probably counting on the sun-lovers filling up their patios. And that’s fine. Wring every last ounce of “fun” out of this weather before Fall kicks in, if that’s your thing. People who want to eat their lunch in the stinking hot, sucking in cigarette smoke and exhaust fumes… good for you. But I’d like to be able to eat indoors, where I don’t have to deal with the heat, the stink or the allergens.

Except that someone has decided for me that indoors should mimic outdoors. And that if I want to sit inside at their restaurant, it’s going to be like the outside, even though they have the ability to offer their customers two different settings to accommodate people who want to eat in a room that is a reasonable temperature.

So, we walked away. Headed on down the street to another establishment where we could sit in air-conditioned comfort. Where my eyes didn’t burn like fire from the outdoor air, and where we could enjoy our meal without having to suck in car exhaust and cigarette smoke.

Please, if you own a restaurant… consider the fact that not everyone enjoys the hot weather, or eating outdoors. You may think that big open windows will draw in customers and make them feel as if they’re eating outside. But there’s likely just as many customers that are turned off by those windows being open. Customers like me, who will take their business elsewhere because your big open windows make me physically uncomfortable.