Bring Your Dining Outdoors Napa Style
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Bring Your Dining Outdoors Napa Style
Here in Napa outdoor dining is almost mandatory. Our weather permits this amazing experience nearly 365 days a year. Even when the sun is not shining and our winter months set in. Creating the right experience outdoors can warm up any meal. You don't have to live here in the Napa Valley to experience Napa Style outdoor dining in your backyard. Just follow the few ideas we have outlined below and you will be the hit of the neighborhood with your own outdoor dining experience.
Eating outdoors is almost always better than eating indoors especially as most of us are ordered to shelter in. Let's shelter out in the back for an amazing outdoor dining experience Napa Style. Cooking outdoors can be a whole lot of fun too, especially if you love to fire up the grill. Getting outside to eat mixes things up a bit and gives any meal more of a relaxed feel. With the sun shining on your face, it's easier to let go of the stresses you might have had to put up with during the day. If you love dining outdoors, you need to have just the right area to make your experiences as good as they can be. There are some awesome elements you can add to your backyard or another outdoor area to make it the ultimate place for outdoor dining.
Create an Outdoor Food Prep and Cooking Area
If you love to eat outdoors, it's great if you can also cook outdoors. While you can make your dishes inside and bring them out, you're then stuck in the kitchen while you're cooking or preparing food. If you're trying to have a sociable family evening or maybe even throw a party, that can leave everyone else having fun outside while you get everything ready inside. But an outdoor area where you can cook and prepare food will help you stay involved with the action so you can cook and socialize at the same time.
Many people already have a grill outside, and might have something like a pizza oven or other outdoor cooking equipment. However, have you ever considered creating a full outdoor kitchen? If you have space, you can have an oven and space to prepare food so you can cook anything you want without having to go inside. Think about the ways that you like to cook before you decide what you need for your outdoor kitchen. Since you probably have more space outside, you can consider having a huge grill or a stone oven. You also need to think about making your outdoor kitchen weatherproof. You might shelter it, cover it up when you're not using it, or just choose your materials carefully.
Make Your Ingredients Easily Accessible
When you like to cook outdoors, having to keep going back inside to get things can be annoying. One solution is to have storage outside, including a refrigerator. There's also another interesting way you can have easy access to your favorite ingredients when you cook outdoors. If you also like gardening and growing your own produce, a kitchen garden is a perfect solution. Depending on the climate, soil, and other conditions in your backyard, you could grow a variety of things to use in your cooking. Herbs are often some of the easiest things to grow, and adding fresh herbs to your food will always make it better. You can also try growing fruit and vegetables, many of which are easy to start producing. Whenever you want to use anything, you can pluck it straight out of your garden.
Set Up a Deck or Patio
If you love dining outdoors, you obviously need somewhere to dine. While you can put furniture straight on top of the grass, it is better to have a firmer surface. With a deck or patio, you can create a dedicated space for dining and socialize. If you don't already have one, you need to decide which is best for you. A deck is often raised, while a patio is simply paved at ground level. You could also consider other options, such as a gazebo or going with a pergola for added shelter. You'll have to work out how much space you have available and think about how to install your new dining area. Some people decide they're going to take on a project and build something themselves. But you'll need to know what you're doing and ensure you have enough time.
Get the Right Furniture
You can't dine outdoors without the right furniture. Everyone needs to be able to gather around and enjoy a meal together. Furniture is an important component as it really sets the stage for what is expected. From a formal setting to a rustic mixed furniture look, you'll want to start with the centerpiece... The Table! Setting the table is as important as the furniture itself. To bring out the Napa Style in your backyard dining you'll want to use rustic, farm tableware, and its perfectly ok to mix and match your pieces so it looks pieced together. Hitting yardsales is a great place to find unusual tableware. You also need to consider the practicality and comfort of your furniture. Can you leave it outside all year? Do you want comfy cushions, and where can you store them when you're not using them?
Add Dinner Entertainment to Your Dining Area
A lot of people like some kind of entertainment while they're eating. Some people put music on, and others might listen to the radio or watch TV - although which has become a big backyard thing. . If you want to create a sociable and relaxed outdoor dining area, you might consider some entertainment outside too. For example, you could install an outdoor sound system so that you're able to play your favorite music while you eat or socialize. You can also get televisions suitable for outdoor use, which is weatherproof, so they're protected from the sun and rain.
Set Up for the Evening
If you want to create the ultimate outdoor dining area, it needs to work for evenings, as well as during the day. It's no use if you have to go inside once it gets dark and perhaps a bit cooler. The main thing you need to make your dining area work in the evening is some good lighting. Outside, you arguably have more lighting options than indoors. You wouldn't want to have flaming torches in your living room. You can combine natural light from candles and other flames with artificial lighting. You can even have a fireplace or fire bowl. For artificial lighting, solar-powered lights are a good idea, but you can also safely wire in some wired lights.
Living in Napa has its benefits and dining alfresco is definitely one of them. We spend more time outside than we do inside. With COVID19 closing most everything down and us sheltering in place is a great option to take it outside.