Just Returned From CA-curious question..
 

I just returned from 2 glorious weeks touring California with 3 of my visiting Italian relatives. My relatives made a very good observation and I'm curious myself. With the glorious California weather, and the no smoking indoors policies....why aren't there more outdoor cafes as in Europe? It seems to us that there should be so many, yet we saw very few. In fact we saw more in Chicago where they can't be used all year round. Just curious??? Carol

For L.A. at least, we're working on it! But we have city codes that cause most of the problems. In other words, red tape.

There are lots of restaurants that have outdoor dining, but if you're near the beach, it gets cold & damp in the evenings. It's a rare night when I want to eat outside at the beach. Daytime is another matter.

Many states or cities prohibit alcohol being sold on or within several feet of a sidewalk (which is usually part of the public right-of-way.) Without alcohol sales outdoor dining areas don't make money.

In my neighborhood just about every restaurant has an outside eating area, but Dayle is right ( and I'm not near the beach), when it's in the eighties during the day and drops to the fifties at night, it's chilly. The heaters help a bit. Also, some of the cafes are right on busy streets so you compete with the traffic.

Personally, I've seen many outdoor establishments in L.A. Of the finer restaurants, many have their outdoor seating in an enclosed garden area, not visible from the sidewalk.<BR><BR>My only hypothesis on why not more would be the number of busy streets (with cars, noise, and fumes) in L.A. Not exactly a quaint walking area.

Yes, the busier streets and cooler nights do make sense. Not quite the quaint streets like through out Europe....why didn't I think of that!! I was just considering the glorious year-round daytime temperatures. Carol