The practice of eating outside is perhaps not always refined. A quick trip to a park to eat a packed lunch is also – technically – the same thing.
However al fresco dining as it’s called is a growing and increasingly attractive alternative.
It’s the practice of taking yourself to an upmarket eatery and choosing from a menu and sitting outside with your order. It’s basically the same thing as indoor restaurant dining.
The opportunities for this are limited but the potential is increasingly visible.
There are holidays abroad on offer that mainly appeal because of the attractiveness of taking time out (literally) to eat under different skies. This is different from the same colour and decor at home.
The potential of restaurants to provide this is limited however.
The street space outdoors is extremely restricting in places and especially tightly packed.
The pavements in London for example don’t offer a wide variety of opportunities for this and its public squares are often kept cleared for events or general gatherings of people such as international visitors.
The premier nature of it is also not apparent in an often soaked local natural environment and so it makes sense to offer more tables indoors than out.
This is a just a peculiarity of time and place.
We all want to visit on warm summer days of brightness and sunshine.
Yet the ordinary everyday life of any large metropolis is the stream of office workers or business people seeking a bite to eat in a location unfamiliar to the stresses and strains of modern day living.