Are Portable Ice Houses The Key For Outdoor Dining in Minnesota?
When Governor Walz announced that restaurants may begin serving outdoors, most people scoffed at the idea. Outdoor dining in a Minnesota Winter? Restaurants are allowed to serve outside with a 50% capacity capped at 100 people. Would people show up in their snow pants, boots, jackets, and winter hats?
Maybe our friends over in Michigan have a better idea. There's a bar in Michigan that is inviting guests to set up their portable shelters in their parking lot for outdoor dining. It's pretty genius if you think about it. Guests bring their own portable shelter, they stay within their group, it's outdoors, and you can even bring your heater to stay warm.
The name of the place is the Sand Bar and Grill, and it's located in Middleville, Michigan. Fox 17 has more on that story. Isn't this a great idea?
A lot of us already have portable ice shelters. With the all the lakes we have too with restaurants and resorts, we could probably even set up on the ice and fish nearby these restaurants and get to go orders.
We need to figure out a way to support these bars and restaurants. At no fault of their own, they've been hit the hardest by the pandemic. So whether or not we see this trend happen here in Minnesota, we need to support them with outdoor dining. We have a list of businesses that are offering to go orders, take out orders, delivery, and gift certificates for sale.