Restaurant Patio Design Ideas to Maximize Sales and Guest Experience

Written By David Hopkins

Beautiful Patio Design at our Client, Bar Locale, in Newmarket, Ontario

Your patio is not just extra seating, it is one of the highest-margin revenue drivers in your restaurant.

With patio season approaching, this becomes an even bigger opportunity for restaurants in Canada to improve profitability, especially with the right strategy and execution in place.

Once a restaurant is up and operational, approximately 50% of incremental sales go straight to the bottom-line profit. This is because there are very few costs associated with a lift in sales — your restaurant is already up and operational, and all those costs are already being incurred — rent, utilities, cleaning chemicals, your kitchen line is already staffed, etc., etc. The only costs associated with additional sales are the cost of product (approx. 30%), some incremental labour costs (typically 15%), and a few operational costs, such as merchant fees.

Once a restaurant is open, improving revenue is the number one driver of success, and the right patio design can help you do just that. One of the few great things that came out of COVID in some cities, such as Toronto, was the elimination of much of the red tape for patio licensing and the increase in the number of restaurants able to have patios.

There are a number of restaurant patio design ideas and operational considerations to maximize performance:

  • Menu design that your kitchen can execute at higher volume, supported by strong restaurant menu engineering

  • Efficient POS and ordering systems for outdoor service

  • Patio coverings and weather protection strategies

  • Rain plans and service contingency workflows

  • Labour planning aligned with unpredictable weather

  • Strategies to extend patio season and maximize ROI

Patio menu and the ability for the kitchen to execute — if you are a 100-seat restaurant and, in the summer, you also have a 100-seat patio, it can be a very different operation in terms of execution — ensure the menu can accommodate effectively. Keep in mind that excellent guest experience trumps all in a restaurant, so having a patio is pointless if you can deliver a 10 out of 10 guest experience

Similar to the above, ensure your POS technology is effective for the patio – whether via mobile ordering, QR codes, or an outdoor POS station. Again, execution excellence, supported by a strong restaurant operations manual, is critical to success.

Patio coverings are critical — whether for rain or for shade. Sitting outside is such a treat for our country, where we only get to do it for half of the year, and we need to ensure it is comfortable for the guests.

Similar to the above, ensure that if your patio isn’t fully covered, you have a rain plan in place. Active table checks and a strategy for sudden rain showers make for an overall smoother execution

Plan your labour effectively — with our weather being very inconsistent, having proper labour forecasting and scheduling, along with utilizing on-call shifts, can lead to much smoother execution and a maximization of sales revenues

 And lastly, look into extending your patio season at both ends. There are many great companies and products that can enclose your patio, and while it may not be fully winterized, a properly enclosed patio with heaters can extend your patio season by months. It may cost some investment to do it properly, but the ROI can be massive (again, remembering that 50% of incremental sales go to bottom-line profit). If a $100,000 investment can give you an additional $100,000 of revenue, then that is a great Return on Investment ($50,000 annual profit return on a one-time $100,000 investment spend).

A well-designed patio can significantly improve guest experience and drive meaningful revenue growth.

Happy Patio Season!!!!

David Hopkins