Some of you may know, it is our Birthday Weeks! Lulu Blue and I have our birthdays exactly two weeks apart. We start the celebrations on her birthday, and end with mine. It’s two weeks of spoiling ourselves and forgetting the word “no”. This year is a little different. We haven’t been able to have any dinner parties with friends, or big family gatherings. In fact, we are back to a more stringent lockdown in the Bay Area.
The one thing that I have actually enjoyed during this pandemic is seeing some of my favorite restaurants get creative with outdoor dining. One of my most favorite things about Europe is the little cafes that spill out onto the sidewalks, with cozy little tables set up and people enjoying the warm days or cool evenings. Austin, Texas has something similar on Rainey Street. Outdoor bars with beautiful twinkle lights and live music drifting through the neighborhood. It’s lovely.
That’s probably a big part of the reason I love that city. We don’t have a whole lot of that around here, at least not until recently. So, I have been thoroughly enjoying the new trend, and I had hoped that this would start to become the new norm. After all, this area is well suited to this. We don’t get a lot of extreme weather. Here I have compiled some of the dreamiest little corners of outdoor pandemic dining from local spots and around the internet.
This is our little downtown. The street was closed off to create more space for people to sit and walk around while giving each other the proper amount of space. What a treat this has been!
Little tents popped up all around. This is Sushi Confidential. It’s pretty good.
Mo’s is a pretty great breakfast and lunch joint, and their outdoor dining almost combines with Opa’s next door. How cool is that? Like being in two restaurants at once!
Okay, moving on from our little corner of the world, here are some outdoor dining ideas that I absolutely adore!
I love this so much! I dearly hope that this is something that sticks around for a while. And I am patiently waiting for outdoor dining to be safe and allowed again here in the Bay Area, because I think I am going to want a little late birthday celebration!
In the meantime, I will stick with champagne and caviar for lunch.
Love,
Maca
