The heaters came first. Then the thick, warm chair cushions. The glass door walls that went in earlier this year gave Stella's Black Dog Tavern in downtown Plymouth a true year-round patio, something more and more restaurants are seeing as a necessity as customers seek an al fresco meal whether the weather is optimal or not.
Next up for
Stella's Black Dog is an outdoor fireplace. It goes in this week and will be a focal point of a sold-out seating celebration Nov. 20. The date coincides with the one-year anniversary of owner Bob Ostendorf purchasing the restaurant and bar.
"The patio just keeps evolving. The first thing we did was make the patio bigger. We added the cover, and the heaters were great, but not enough for temperatures under 30, " says general manager Rose Drys. "With the glass door walls and the fireplace, the lights that will be up for Christmas and the snowfall, it will be so beautiful. It will be like you're sitting out in the snowfall."
The restaurant was the first, or among the first, in downtown Plymouth to have a winter patio, she says, and the only one to have a cover for rain.
"It's crazy not to use the space. It is an extension of our dining room," she says. "It more than doubles our occupancy. It's imperative we make it part of our dining room."
Source: Rose Drys, general manager, Stella's Black Dog Tavern
Writer: Kim North Shine
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