By Alexis Jarossy
Let’s face it—everybody likes to drink outside. Once the warmer seasons start to roll in, bar patrons opt for available outdoor seating over whatever is inside. Unlike the indoors, furnishing an outdoor space presents a different set of issues. Your location (for example, east coast versus west coast), the type of clientele to which you cater, and what sort of space limitations you may or may not have, all factor in to what you will purchase to furnish your outdoor space.
“One of the most important things to remember when setting up an outdoor space is that your biggest asset is just that—it’s outdoors,” says Andy Hersch, managing partner, Gramercy Management Group, which manages the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego and its newly re-opened rooftop lounge, Float. “You can utilize your natural surroundings even though you may be in a downtown setting. Since you are trying to build a nightlife venue outdoors, you want to give it a feeling of being open and airy, but also trendy and aesthetically pleasing.”
To coordinate with the hip, upscale environment of the hotel itself, Float was designed as a combination pool and nightlife lounge, with white walls, marbleized and stained concrete flooring, and open, comfortable cushioned seating with fire pits. The most obvious deterrent for any outdoor space is the unpredictability of the weather. Although San Diego experiences mild to phenomenal weather throughout the year, even Float is not immune to rainy days. Even though the bar area at Float is covered to accommodate customers during a light rain, the furnishings exposed to the open environment all must be able to withstand inclement weather, or be easily relocated indoors if need be.
In other areas of the country, the outdoor season may be limited to only the late spring to early fall months. Aside from variable weather conditions, steps also need to be taken to make customers comfortable as the seasons transition from tolerably chilly to delightfully warm and vice versa.
Kevin Croke, director of sales and marketing at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, says that maximizing the profits of mad46, the hotel’s outdoor rooftop lounge, means extending its open season to best capitalize on the sheer profitability that an open-air venue offers. “We try to stretch the season out as long as we possibly can, from about April to the last week of October,” he says. “In the fall we have electric heat lamps, blankets, and pashmina scarves to keep people here as long as we can.”
On days or evenings when it’s too nice to be inside, but outdoor festivities still require a jacket, the EvenGLO heater from IR Energy, a Superior Radiant company based in Stoney Creek, Ontario, was designed specifically with theth outdoor bar and restaurant area in mind. “The EvenGLO uses an electric spark recognition controller in concert with the valve, so there is a high-fire setting and a low-fire setting with about a 15% differential between the two,” says John Ciavarella, product manager at IR Energy. “If you turn the heater on the high setting, you have the option of turning it down to a definitive low setting, or turning it off. There is also the option to turn it up to a definitive high setting should it not be warm enough.”
The EvenGLO requires permanent installation (which includes running a pipe with a continuous flow of gas, and a 24-volt wired signal to facilitate its electronic capabilities), in which case it becomes a fixture in your overall layout. However, its sleek appearance can blend in well with a clean floor plan, as it is vertically-oriented and not bulky like typical space heaters. Its unique design also enables it to be a cost effective element to your outdoor furnishing budget versus the cost of using traditional space heaters.
“We have the largest top reflector that we know of in the marketplace,” says Ciavarella. “The design creates a large comfort zone with 58% greater coverage than the market leader. Also, because you can control the high or low output, you don’t always have to burn the maximum amount of gas every time you use the heater. There is a cost savings in terms of gas consumption and variable electric output of the heater while you are keeping people as comfortable as possible.”
The permanent installation and remote-control operation of the EvenGLO also eliminate the possibility of it being knocked over or manually adjusted by a bar patron. Ciavarella warns that free-standing space heaters can be a liability when discerning bar patrons can access and move them to suit personal comfort levels. “There is also the concern that someone who may have drank too much might inadvertently knock one over,” he says. “And while most are built to shut off when tipped to a certain angle, it becomes a nuisance to the wait staff or bartender who is now fixing the heater and not paying attention to serving.”
Before installing permanent gas and electric lines you’ll want to ensure your outdoor bar or lounge area looks and feels like the kind of place in which your patrons can be comfortable and will want to stay. No matter how eager people are to hang out and enjoy cold beers and summer cocktails on a sunny day, no one wants to do it standing around in a cramped alley between your dumpster and that of the bar next door with paint chipping off the walls and into their drinks.
If you are renovating a new outdoor area or if you are just giving your current one a facelift, you want to achieve an aesthetic that coordinates with the open environment, but is also visually appealing, comfortable, and low-maintenance.
Outwater Plastics, in Bogota, New Jersey, distributes a line of wall panels that achieve the appearance of authentic stone, brick, natural rock, bamboo or wood, among others, without the cost of installing the real thing. The FauxStone Panels are ideally suited for exterior use in commercial applications that include drywall beautification, point of purchase displays, signage, or themed environments (Tiki bar, anyone?).
“The panels achieve the authentic look for a fraction of the cost,” says Outwater Plastics product and sales manager, Joey Shimm. “They are lightweight, impact resistant, and dimensionally stable, as well as impervious to adverse climate and weather conditions. They never require painting, staining or waterproofing, and because the FauxStone Panels are unaffected by moisture, insects, UV or most common solvents, they can be used in applications that might be potentially unsuitable for other types of media.”
The interlocking panel design makes installation of the FauxStone Panels simple enough that it won’t require hiring out labor to lay bricks or stones one by one. For commercial applications, they are available in a fire-rated format that complies with fire safety and building codes.
“These panels really offer time-saving and cost-saving alternatives to labor-intensive piecemeal fabrication,” says Shimm. “We’ve even come out with pre-manufactured corners and ledgers to cover up any unsightly seams in the installation. Do these require a professional or permit as if you were doing plumbing or electrical work? Absolutely not. If you feel comfortable using a saw and hammer, you can refer to the installation instructions online.”
When it comes to seating and tables you want your customers to be comfortable, and in an outdoor setting that means not being sticky or sweaty on chairs and stools. Your furniture choices will not only need to be able to withstand adverse weather conditions, but also the good times to be had by your summer-cocktail-loving patrons, and the insects hovering around for spilled drinks and bar snacks. Investing in furniture that can be easily cleaned and maintained is especially important in an environment where the elements can turn a spilled drink into a really sticky situation.
Croke advises that, aside from making sure your furniture is durable and weather-resistant, you need also to make sure you have a good preventative maintenance program that ensures you keep your furniture in great condition.
“The benches we use at mad46 are made of teak, and we just recently included some metal chairs and tables to accent the outdoor space a bit,” he says. “The sun beats down on the space on nice days, and then sometimes you have rain, so once a month we refinish the furniture for protection and reseal them to ensure they last. During the off-season, we pull all of the furniture inside the building to store it and protect it from the winter weather.”
The All-Weather Outdoor Collection from Modern Line Furniture, of Rahway, New Jersey, features four basic models of customizable, modular rattan furniture. Their rust-proof frames and durable, covered foam cushions, which are available in a variety of colors, can withstand poor weather or spilled drinks, and are easily cleaned with soap and water. The collection’s basic components are comprised of a right and left chaise, corner pieces and chairs, and singular, square bases that offer 20 different combinations of seating and table arrangements.
“The line is weather-resistant, with stain-proof pillows, and is very cost-effective,” says Boris Zhuravel, director business development at Modern Line Furniture. “Because the furniture is modular, you can set up a sofa sectional one night and the next night make love seats and chairs.”
Modern Line Furniture’s All-Weather Collection is lightweight and easy to re-arrange, should a special occasion or the needs of your clientele call for it. The cushions are not attached to the bases and can be placed on a coffee table piece, for example, to turn it into an ottoman or open corner seat at the end of a sofa arrangement.
“This flexibilty allows you to better service your clientele,” says Zhuravel. “Instead of fitting the client into the furniture, you fit the furniture to the needs of your clients, which results in higher profits for the bar or club.”
“Make sure your furniture is attractive, comfortable and has nice color, as well as furniture that allows for easy flow of traffic,” says Croke. “Our rooftop has all of the furniture on one side giving people room to walk though, instead of having to slither between furniture to get to the bathroom or the bar. You want good furniture that isn’t bulky or overly heavy and would prevent as many people sitting in one particular area as possible. At mad46, we stayed away from large tables that only seat four people, and instead went for bench seating that allows four people to sit while other people can stand and mingle.”
If your outdoor space is not located on a rooftop or out the back door of the bar, owners and managers with storefront open-air seating may have to be concerned with keeping their outdoor crowd and their alcoholic beverages within the confines of their legally allocated property. The Diverse-A-Rail from Ornamental Post, Panel and Traffic Control, in Pineville, North Carolina, is a wrought iron post and panel combination that can be set up along the perimeters of your establishment in order to keep paying customers within your property lines. The Diverse-A-Rail’s open, light appearance governs the boundaries of your property without looking bulky or uninviting. Capable of being set up and taken down on a daily, seasonal, or permanent basis, the Diverse-A-Rail also has interchangeable panels in each section that can be customized with your bar or lounge’s logo or daily drink specials. It’s even possible to generate revenue from them by selling the panel space to your distributors, who can display and promote their products and logo as well.
An outdoor bar or lounge space is an automatic draw during warmer seasons, but in order to maximize your profits from having one open, you need to keep patrons comfortable, during transitional periods or otherwise. Keeping in mind that furnishing an outdoor space requires different considerations from indoors, bar owners and managers will want to construct an area that can withstand environmental factors, as well as be cost effective for what may only be a temporary window of operation.
