Kicking back in the waning sunlight of a beautiful day, basking it its fading warmth, sharing a few drinks, maybe a bottle of your favorite wine. The music floating through the air is soft and pleasant, and you’re eagerly anticipating the sumptuous food you’ve just ordered as you relax on the restaurant’s outdoor patio and reflect on a perfect summer day. Hold on. This is Green Bay, where it often seems as if there are only two seasons—
winter and July.
Perhaps there are few things better than dining outside on a summer evening, but what restaurateur would be crazy enough to spend the resources on an outdoor dining area that can only be used a few months out of the year?
Quite a few, actually.
On the heels of one of the snowiest winters in the past decade, several Green Bay restaurants are eagerly looking forward to seating people outdoors. Here’s what they had to say about how they do it, why it works and why they wouldn’t change a thing.
Hinterland Brewery and Restaurant & Lounge
Hinterland’s owner Bill Tressler says that the natural courtyard formed between Hinterland and the neighboring buildings made it the ideal location for a dining area that is completely enclosed.
Customers can enjoy the urban feel of the courtyard—flanked by flowering vines and a sugar maple—while feasting on the restaurant’s upscale American cuisine, including items such as oysters and wood-fired pizzas. Hinterland offers its complete restaurant and lounge menu in the outside dining area, which opens as soon as the weather is hospitable, according to Tressler.
“Would I open an outdoor restaurant in Green Bay? No. But [our courtyard] is a great experience for people who like to dine outdoors,” Tressler says. “It’s a great place to have good food, a few beers and listen to music.”
Patrick’s on the Bay
Patrick’s has two outdoor dining areas: a terrace attached to its dining room and a grassy hill complete with dining tables, as well as 20 Adirondack chairs for those who would like to look out at Green Bay while they sip their drinks or wait for a table.
“[The outdoor dining area] is certainly something that a property owner of this place would have a responsibility to use,” says owner Patrick Berndt. “It makes such a huge difference in the dining experience for our guests. To not use it would be silly.”
Summer Sundays are a special treat for Patrick’s customers, when the main kitchen is closed and everything—from selecting your favorite seafood or steak from a giant ice tray to preparing the entire meal—is done outside. Even the music, which is usually a jazz mixture in the dining room, relaxes on Sundays as the evening air fills with the sounds of bands like the Beach Boys and Chicago.
Stratosphere Fine Dining
As soon as the weather is comfortable outside, Stratosphere serves a casual mix of American food for both lunch and dinner on its patio, which overlooks Baird Creek.
“The view is just beautiful,” says Julie Metzler, whose son Scott owns the restaurant. “It’s a great thing to take advantage of.”
Although the patio wasn’t completed until the last half of the past summer, Metzler expects it to be a huge hit this year.
“I know how we are,” she says. “When it’s nice outside, you get off work at five, and people want to go outside and eat. [The patio] is awesome.”
Thornberry Creek Country Club
Boasting the second highest point in Brown County, the view from Thornberry Creek’s terrace is “absolutely beautiful,” according to Donelle Walters, the restaurant’s general manager.
“When it’s warm out, we don’t have enough room to seat everyone,” she says. “[Dining on the terrace] is very much in demand.”
Thornberry Creek offers its complete menu—including pepper-encrusted lamb, wood-fired pizzas and its spectacular Sunday breakfast—on the terrace, which overlooks the golf course’s first tee box and 18th green.
“It’s just fun because you can actually watch the golfers,” Walters says. “The view is just gorgeous and relaxing.
“I think it’s an asset even if you’re just looking [at using the terrace] six months out of the year,” she adds. “There are not a lot of places that have outdoor dining, and if they do, it’s at ground level, where as this, it’s above all the rest.”
And believe it or not, the above-mentioned restaurants aren’t the only ones in town who offer al fresco dining. Once the temperatures heat up, you’ll find the following restaurants opening their doors for customers who want to enjoy their food under the cover of blue sky: Angelina’s, Legends Brewhouse & Eatery (Howard and De Pere locations), A Bravo, Noodles & Co. and Atlanta Bread Company.
So go on, enjoy the weather, because summer only lasts so long.
