Despite rainy days forecast for the week ahead, New Canaan received true, prolonged tastes of spring with picture-perfect weather the past two weekends. With Spring at long last arrived in earnest, local restaurateurs such as Henry Rosenbaum of Boulevard 18 began preparation for the resulting demand for outdoor dining.
“We are thrilled,” Rosenbaum said on a recent evening at Boulevard 18, also a top-5 most romantic New Canaan restaurants selection. “We had people out on Friday and Saturday night on the patio, which was the sign for spring.”
Cava is one of several Restaurant Row establishments with outdoor seating.
In addition to the idyllic al fresco dining on Main Street at Boulevard 18, New Canaan’s “Restaurant Row” has several options, including Cava, Tequila Mockingbird and the soon-to-be-reopened Farmer’s Table where chef Robert Ubaldo and partner Lucia Leone are working nonstop to get the former Bistro Bonne Nuit space ready for business. NewCanaanite.com received an impromptu peek at the new Farmer’s Table space, which will feature an open kitchen and rustic design in addition to the sidewalk patio.
Locali will double its capacity once outdoor seating is established.
Perhaps no business on Restaurant Row will benefit more from outdoor seating than the postage stamp-sized Locali. One of New Canaan’s newest establishments, Locali will double its 28 seats with the opening of the patio at the corner of Locust Avenue and Forest Street. Across Locust at Carpe Diem, the attractive patio is sure to be a destination for many diners this upcoming spring and summer.
Sidewalk seating at Chef Luis on Elm St.
Burger denizens will be able to eat under the sun/stars at Station Eats on South Avenue, while over on Elm Street, one can expect high demand for the outdoor seating at Chef Luis, Elm and Solé. And getting a table for Sunday brunch at Rosie might be made slightly easier with the addition of a few sidewalk seats. Even so, as Rosenbaum told NewCanaanite.com, the “free advertising” a patio provides will–more often than not–draw more people inside an establishment.
Boulevard 18 partner Henry Rosenbaum.
“It functions as an invitation to our restaurant,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s almost like having the Coke at the supermarket – it’s an impulse. It just makes a restaurant look and feel better when you have people outside on the patio.”