Vancouver restaurant entrepreneurs are not only opening larger restaurants, but also opening restaurants with larger patios than any the city has ever seen.
The rationale of more patio space for larger restaurants is that they become more efficient because kitchens, washrooms and other non-dining square footage can be a smaller percentage of total restaurant space.
Also, outside dining space is more lucrative than indoor space between April and September, according to several restaurant owners.
“The more patio seats you have, the better, because it’s where everyone wants to sit for half the year,” said Mahony & Sons principal Chris Mahony, whose company opened a restaurant with a 300-seat patio at Stamps Landing in September 2014.
Mahony and four of his brothers also operate a restaurant with a 160-seat patio at the Vancouver Convention Centre and one with a 120-seat patio at the University of British Columbia.
“If you get known for having a patio, and people know that you have the capacity, they make the effort to go to your restaurant because they know that there’s a good chance of them getting a table,” Mahony said. “If they go where there is a little patio, they know that it could be hard to get a seat.”
Large patios not only serve as a destination, but also help lure passersby because people see patrons enjoying themselves and want to be part of the excitement, Mahony said.
“The attraction of activity outside the restaurant has been my push to the city, landlords and the province for years,” said Tap & Barrel owner Daniel Frankel, who believes he has operated downtown Vancouver’s largest patio since 2003. That was when he opened the Mill Marine Bistro & Bar at Coal Harbour, which has a 250-seat patio.
Frankel has since closed the Mill and plans to reopen it as TapShack Eatery at the end of June with a same-sized patio.
He is opening his first TapShack on June 7 at a site on the seawall under the Burrard Bridge. It has a smaller 60-seat patio but Frankel said its patio is as large as the site allows.
“Our convention centre Tap & Barrel has a 289-seat patio and that was tough to get,” he said.
His landlord for that site, on the east side of Jack Poole Plaza, is PCI Group, but the project was a public-private partnership that includes the public PavCo.
Frankel said he had to make elaborate presentations with 3D renderings to persuade PavCo’s board to allow him to build the patio in advance of that restaurant opening in 2012.
Frankel’s largest patio in Vancouver is now at his 550-seat Olympic Village Tap & Barrel, which has 298 patio seats and opened in 2013.
Other relatively new, large restaurants with significant patios include the 500-seat Cactus Club Cafe at Jack Poole Plaza, which opened in 2013 and has a 200-seat patio, and the 429-seat Glowbal restaurant at Telus Garden, which opened in mid-2015 and has 150 patio seats. •
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