Rant: Summer Dining Is Needed

We had a brutal winter, with record amounts of snow, which kept many of us from leaving our homes and dining out at local restaurants. There were multiple snow emergencies when the ;public was supposed to remain home and off the roads. Many businesses had to close for at least a few days and as I mentioned this past February, this caused numerous restaurants to suffer financially. Those losses are not easy to make up, and require our assistance.

My advice then was simple and it remains the same right now: Dine out more.

With the improving weather, and summer around the corner, you have no excuse not to dine out at a local restaurant. You can sit at one of the many patios or enjoy one of their summer specials. You can enjoy some fried clams or a lobster roll, or maybe a fresh Sangria or summery cocktail. You have plenty of choices, a wide range of cuisines, and there isn't any snow to impede driving or parking. With pleasant weather, it's great to walk around the Boston area, exploring the various neighbors, and checking out restaurants, food trucks and more.

Why is this necessary? Well, if you don't give your added support to restaurants at this time, then don't be surprised if your favorite places might have to shut down. For many restaurants, especially the smaller ones, their profit margins can be small so that the lack of business during those snowy months hurt them significantly and they need this time to try to recoup their losses. Your patronage is needed now to help all of these restaurants to recover from a brutal winter. They need to have a better summer business than  normal.

Now that the snow is gone, it's easy for people to forget about how it affected local restaurants. Memories can be short but I want to remind people who might have forgotten. Restaurants benefit our communities in many significant ways and deserve our support. We need to make the restaurant industry have one of their best summers ever, rewarding the chefs and servers, kitchen  staff and support staff. We need to give them our business so they can continue to stay in business.

Dine out more.

It couldn't be any more simple. And it's a pleasant experience. Check out new restaurants and don't forget old favorites. I know we can do it.