Daily Herald Opinion: Outdoor dining is back this winter, and it's helpful when towns allow it

Remember in 2020 when we'd do pretty much anything to support local restaurants? Ordering takeout multiple times a week, paying extra fees and offering generous tips to the wait staff, to name a few.

You might also remember restaurants doing what they could to increase business when many people were nervous about eating indoors. This included outdoor dining throughout the fall and winter of 2020 and 2021. Heated outdoor tents and individual dining structures resembling igloos and greenhouses became the norm outside many eateries.

And people took advantage of them.

These outdoor dining options are still around this fall and winter. St. Charles, for example, is allowing outdoor dining through the winter on First Street Plaza in the downtown area. But for some people, these individual dining structures are a reminder of the pandemic's uneasy days.

One of our Facebook commenters called them "stupid" and a "COVID relic," while another asked, "What earthly reason would a person want or need to dine in an igloo?"

So glad you asked, because we can think of a few good reasons.

First, as the saying goes, don't knock it until you've tried it. Eating in a glass-enclosed structure during a snowy winter day can be beautiful. Think of it as your own private snow globe.

It's also a unique way to have a private meal, avoiding strangers' loud conversations, complaining, coughing or chewing. A Facebook commenter agreed with us, saying "It's almost like my own private space where I don't have to be disturbed by annoying people while enjoying my beers/food." Who can argue with a quaint alternative to crowded indoor dining?

Finally, it's a way to support your favorite local eateries. Some restaurants might still struggle to get customers in the door during an active flu and COVID season. And owners who invested in these structures are finding a use for them two years later, rather than throwing them away. That should be applauded. If it helps bring in business and keep our favorite restaurants up and running, we're all for it.

And we hope more towns will follow St. Charles' example and allow year-round outdoor dining as a means of supporting local businesses.

We encourage you, the diner, to give one of these igloos a try. You might find you enjoy the experience, especially on a cloudless winter day as the sunshine beats down through the glass and keeps you warm and comfortable.

And what was once a pandemic dining necessity to many might help restaurants prosper during slow times and help all of us appreciate this unique dining experience in a new post-pandemic light.