We spend our working lives looking at what makes an outdoor space work — what holds up in the rain, what stays usable in November, what turns a yard into somewhere people stay an extra hour.
So we started writing down the places that have already worked it out. These are city-by-city guides to the best patios, beer gardens, courtyards and rooftops in the country — independent places, not chains, with a note on what each one does differently and an honest answer about which ones survive the cold.
The cities so far
- Best Patios in St. Louis — Soulard's walled gardens, and the one that stays open all winter
- Best Patios in Chicago — back gardens and beer gardens, and an honest answer about October
- Best Patios in Minneapolis and St. Paul — including a garden with a working trout stream
- Best Patios in Denver — fire pits, and why the season runs longer than it should
- Best Patios in Kansas City — the Crossroads, the Westside, and a rooftop above Main Street
- Best Patios in Columbus, Ohio — German Village brick courtyards under old trees
- Best Patios in Dallas — where the problem is August, not winter
- Best Patios in Fort Worth — on the Trinity River, and off it
- Best Patios in Austin — the ones that solved the shade problem properly
- Best Patios in Atlanta — under the tree canopy, and along the BeltLine
More cities are being added. If your city isn't here yet, it's probably on the list.
Why we bother
We sell the structures that keep outdoor spaces usable when the weather turns — pergolas, gazebos, fire pits and heaters — mostly to families building something permanent in their own backyards.
The thing we notice writing these guides is how few patios are built for more than four months of the year. The ones that are — the fire pits in Denver, the misting fans in Austin, the year-round courtyard in St. Louis — are the ones people talk about. That's not a coincidence, and it's the same problem whether you're running a bar or just trying to eat outside at home in October.
Run a patio that belongs on one of these lists? Tell us about it — 1 800 914 0074, or text 352 274 6387.