Restaurants felt the heat this summer as outdoor dining declined by as much as 50%

Emily Gabos and Monica Pagan chatted at a waterfront table overlooking the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. A breeze blew off the Delaware River, and clouds covered the sun.

But on Thursday evening, as temperatures hovered above 90 degrees, they were one of only a handful of groups at Liberty Point, the multilevel Penn’s Landing restaurant that can seat 1,400.

In the summer, Gabos said she typically opts for outdoor dining, though “with the weather, I’ve been doing indoor” dining more often this year.

The friends decided to eat outside at Liberty Point only because they figured it would feel cooler under the restaurant’s colorful shade canopies by the river.

Nearby, friends Peggy Klappenberger and Daneene Paquet shared empanadas before the Duran Duran concert at the Wells Fargo Center. The pair, who drove up from the Annapolis area for the show, said back home in Maryland they, too, gravitate toward breezy outdoor spots, often on the water.

After all, “winter is always coming,” Paquet said with a laugh.

By and large, however, fewer people have been willing to brave the elements — including heat, rain, and wildfire smoke — to dine alfresco this summer, according to eight hospitality executives who own or manage 26 restaurants in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

Restaurateur Avram Hornik, who owns Liberty Point, said sales were down about 30% overall in July and August, relative to last year, at the Penn’s Landing spot and his dozen other restaurants, bars, and pop-up venues, including Morgan’s Pier and the traveling beer garden Parks on Tap.

In the 15 years that he has run outdoor restaurants, “this summer has been essentially the worst … in terms of heat and rain and smog,” he said.

» READ MORE: Philly’s summer was so ‘normal’ it was unusual, weather service says

At Brick & Brew in Havertown, the rooftop lounge has closed for weather reasons more days than not, said marketing director Gabriella Kelly, resulting in a 50% decline in outdoor-dining sales.

“I think people just want to go home and sit in the air-conditioning,” said Laura Lacy, co-owner of Attic Brewing Company in Germantown.

Her staff have opened the bar in the outdoor beer garden — which has twice as many seats as the inside — about half as often as they did last year, she said.

The past two weeks have been particularly tough, she added. The brewery has made about $10,000 less than it did during the same period last year.

“Our business has been down all summer, and we were trying to figure out whether it was because people were traveling more or whether it was because of the severe weather that was happening. We think it is a little both,” Lacy said. “It’s a bit scary. … We really need the fall season to bounce back. "

Marie Keith is happy to eat outside — if the conditions are right.

When the weather is comfortable, the 60-year-old Media woman said she prefers the atmosphere of porches or patios, places that feel like an extension of the indoor restaurant. She’d rather eat takeout at home, she said, than pay more to sit on a bustling street or in a parking lot.

“It’s a pavement. You’ve got people walking by. You’ve got cars parked in front of you,” she said. “I just find that less desirable.”

And weeks like this past one, when temperatures approached 100, she wouldn’t eat outside anywhere.

“I want the air-conditioning,” Keith said. “If the ice melts faster than I’m drinking my drink, I want to eat inside.”

Record-high heat this summer has left restaurant patios and outdoor bars deserted from Chicago to North Carolina to Texas, with chains such as the Cheesecake Factory reporting nationwide declines in sales from outdoor dining.

The temperatures are not only keeping customers away but putting a strain on some workers, whether they’re cooking food in sweltering kitchens or making less in tips as they serve fewer tables.

The latest hurdle for restaurants and bars comes as some continue to recover financially from the coronavirus pandemic.

For many businesses that made it through the height of pandemic, outdoor dining has been their saving grace. Many restaurateurs created, expanded, or enhanced outside spaces to accommodate more demand due to customers’ virus concerns.

In 2021, seeing a desire for year-round outdoor dining, Carlos Meléndez turned the expansive outdoor patio at his Conshohocken restaurant, Coyote Crossing, into a “winter garden” with heat lamps and a retractable pergola.

And even this summer, umbrellas and trees created ample shade on the patio, so dinner business was not affected much by extreme heat, he said.

Rainy weekends in July had more of an impact, he added, noting the restaurant saw a 10% dip in business that month before bouncing back in August.

In Kensington, the lush outdoor patio at Martha typically draws in customers in all seasons, even during sleepy summer weekends in the city and COVID-19 surges, said general manager Daniel Miller.

This summer, though, it’s been noticeably empty, he said.

Thanks to private events, business overall is down only about 5% over last summer, he said, but “we’re getting a lot of people [who] go sit outside for 10 minutes and then ask to come inside.”

Restaurateurs are in agreement about one thing: Outdoor dining is not dying, but environmental factors could mean it becomes less popular in the summer.

“It’s really too early to tell whether this is normal variation in weather or an indication of what’s going to happen in the future,” Hornik said. “Climate change is real, but the question is how is this going to affect Philly in the short run? It’s not very clear.”

If summers continue to be this extreme, Hornik said he’d consider opening his outdoor venues a few weeks earlier or closing them a few later.

Lacy, at Attic Brewing, said she’d think about investing in a tent or larger plants that provide shade.

For now, several restaurant executives said they’re hoping a nice fall will make up for the summer losses. At Brick & Brew Havertown, they’re planning live music, Eagles watch parties, and comedy shows on the roof in the coming months, Kelly said.

“Hopefully the weather calms down a bit,” she said, “and there isn’t some crazy rain or another element out of our control.”