Winter Is Coming. Restaurants Are Getting Ready

Winter Is Coming. Restaurants Are Getting Ready

Winter Is Coming. Restaurants Are Getting Ready

Entrepreneurs, designers, and restaurateurs themselves are devising novel ways to extend outdoor dining into the frigid months.

By Leigh Buchanan , Editor-at-large, Inc. magazine@LeighEBuchanan

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Diners on the expansive patio at Aurum Food & Wine , in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, enjoy glorious views across the Yampa River to the Howelsen Hill Ski Area, which at night is lit like a Christmas tree. Forced by Covid to reduce indoor capacity by half, owner Phillips Armstrong converted a turf lawn, normally a play area for children, into additional seating, bringing Aurum's outdoor-dining capacity to around 130 socially distanced customers. But with lower temperatures around the corner, Armstrong worried how to preserve some of that outdoor business.

His solution: yurts.

Armstrong recently ordered six yurts, four for the Aurum in Steamboat