February 24, 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has had a seismic impact on the restaurant industry over the past year: countless closings and hibernations, lost income and wages, continuous pivots, and a heightened emphasis on takeout and delivery, for starters.
But what about the physical restaurants themselves?
Before the pandemic, you might have found the interior of your favorite local eatery packed with tables and chairs, paper menus stacked by a host stand, and not a patio table in sight. Now, one section of a dining room might be cordoned off for takeout orders, while those who are dining in scroll through a menu on their phones. Outside, heat lamps glow by bistro tables on narrow, snowy sidewalks.
The team behind the up-and-coming experiential dining concept,
Ke’nekt™, has released a rendering and discussed the idea behind their new indoor/outdoor beer garden branded as “The unCommons”. The space draws inspiration from trends that have emerged in a hospitality world highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. One “post-Covid” hospitality trend the team believes is here to stay is an increase in outdoor dining space.
“One trace of normalcy that remained in 2020 were small outdoor gatherings when the weather was just right, great food was on the grill, fun games on the lawn and, most importantly, good friends all around,” says company founder and CEO, Josh Rossmeisl. “Outdoor dining and experiences made most of the positive memories this year as groups of friends and family headed outdoors for rare ‘together time’. This isn’t going away after widespread vaccination,” Rossmeisl asserts.