Dining in the Great Outdoors!

Although the official start of summer isn’t until June 21st, Memorial Day is considered the “unofficial” kick-off to warmer weather, longer days – and outdoor dining.

Grills will be dragged from garages. Tables and chairs hauled to the deck. Entire outdoor kitchens will be set-up and stocked. All of this so we can enjoy - after a long hard winter stuck inside - with finally being about to eat - outside!

I am in love with outdoor dining. I will brave heat, wind, rain and sometimes bugs just to eat outdoors. I have been know to Google local restaurants just to find one with "outdoor seating". Come summer - even with an entire restaurant full of empty tables, I will still ask - "Do you have anything outside?"

I will happily leave the comfort of a climate-controlled, gently lit indoor restaurant to sit in 90-degree, humid sunshine that forces me to wear sunglasses in order to see my dining companions. Doesn't matter. I am eating outside!

Wind whips my hair into my mouth as I chew - no big deal. I am eating outside! A hike down the deck and through the restaurant to get to the restroom - doesn't matter. I am eating outside! There's just something about eating outdoors that makes everything taste extra delicious.

There is something magical about eating outside that makes it worth the risk. When it doesn’t burn, the sun feels lovely; when it doesn’t gust, the wind feels playful. The night can seem more romantic outside. And eating outdoors is inherently more casual than dining inside. It’s hard to feel too formal while listening to frogs croak or watching squirrels race by.

So join me! Enjoy yourself - find someplace special to plop yourself down in a comfy chair pulled up to a table on an deck somewhere and breathe in the intoxicating air of the great outdoors!

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
if one has not dined well." -Virginia Woolf