Betty’s patio is a popular top in the summer on King St. East. Photo: Preeteesh Peetabh Singh/The Dialog
It’s patio season!
Toronto is full of bars and patios where people can relax after a long day at work, or just enjoy a good time with friends on a weekend.
With the onset of spring, restaurant and bar owners have started working on their patios to make them functional before people start to prefer to sit on the patio, bored of the interiors which they have been looking at for the past six months.
Riddy James, student at Ryerson University, says, “I like patios only in the summer, the weather like this today is beautiful. It’s a nice place to relax, have a smoke and just enjoy the weather.”
If you take a walk around the Esplanade or the Distillery District on a Friday evening, you might have a hard time finding yourself a table on the patio.
“When you are inside, it’s a different social atmosphere. When you are in, everybody is quiet, introverted, sort of in their own groups, but when you are outside people are louder, the conversations are bubblier,” says patio lover Leighton Peart. “If it’s a nice summer night, that’s always the best. Who doesn’t like moonlight, and some drinks with your friends? The chicks are always great; that’s a plus.”
Patios are not entirely associated with drinking. People like to just sit outside in a restaurant or their personal patios, having a nice conversation with someone over a cup of coffee while absorbing the warmth and the sun.
Sergey, who declined to give their last name, who was chilling out on the Yonge and Dundas Sq. patio says he likes it for “all the good reasons such as the weather, sun, tan etc.”
One of the most important reasons for the patio to be popular in summer is the terribly cold and long winter. People just want to get out of their sheds and have some outdoor fun with some light clothes on.
Stacey Arkhipova, a student and part-time worker says that she loves the patio, “mainly because its kind of warm now; before it was really really cold.”
You don’t always find happy and satisfied people on the patios. Arkhipova complains about the encounters she has to face sometimes with overly drunk and out of control people.
“Usually you go outside and end up probably talking to more people than the people you are with to begin with. But sometimes you don’t want to be outside because crazy people come up to you, especially if you are downtown, and one thing they know is that you are trying to be nice to them but they just don’t have the same mindset,” says Arkhipova.“Some people just don’t know how to handle their drinks.”
Patios are handy for all the smokers as they don’t have to shuffle in and out. They can just light up while having a drink. What’s better than being comfortable in your own seat?
All those social introverts in town, get ready to abandon the music and the couches inside a pub and hit the patio for the summer. For all you know, it won’t last long.
