Planning on going out for dinner anytime soon? Plan on sitting outdoors. New York City just extended its outdoor dining program indefinitely, establishing a model for other cities听but also creating a conundrum for both diners and restaurants. How do you make sitting outside comfortable when it鈥檚 cold, dark, and wet? I think I鈥檝e got the answer.
The Problem
As of the end of September, restaurants in New York City have听reopened听indoor seating听but . Similar measures are in place elsewhere. Even if all of those seats are full all of the time, such a听limited capacity likely doesn鈥檛 provide enough income to enable restaurants to cover their costs, let alone make enough money to justify remaining in business. To expand the number of available seats and听offer another option听for diners who don鈥檛 feel safe eating indoors, restaurants have been adding tables outdoors, and local governments have changed regulations to expand outdoor dining options. 听to free up space for outdoor tables.
Eating on a patio or sidewalk听is easy during the summer months, but as the days grow shorter and temperatures begin dropping, keeping the experience enjoyable becomes difficult. Restaurants have been experimenting with awnings, heaters, 听covering individual tables. But the boom in demand for those products is intersecting supply-chain issues created by the pandemic, and many restaurants are to cover and heat their new alfresco听spaces.
Those who want to visit their favorite restaurants this fall and winter may find themselves exposed to inclement weather. The way to deal with that? Start thinking about dressing for dinner like you听dress for the outdoors. The right layers will enable you to remain comfortable throughout both seasons.
It Starts with Base Layers
By wicking sweat away from your skin, base layers help keep you warm by keeping you dry. They can also provide听a small amount of insulation.
Factors to consider: Sitting down to enjoy a meal is a static activity, so you want to focus on retaining body heat. Because dressing fashionably often precludes bulk, base layers, particularly on听the bottom half of your body, may be your best chance to add warmth.
Materials to choose from: You鈥檒l find base layers made from silk, wool, or synthetics. Silk offers an exceptional amount of warmth for its thickness听and can most easily be layered under garments like tight jeans without adding bulk. Synthetics are better able to manage moisture听and dry much quicker. Wool tends to be a good middle ground between the two, while providing听a level of thermal regulation that the other materials can鈥檛 match. While听silk or synthetics can become unbearably warm indoors, wool is capable of remaining comfortable听across a broader range of temperatures. The finer the size of the wool fibers, the softer it will feel next to your skin; this is what varieties like merino are known for.
The best options: REI听sells that are affordable, create听an appreciable amount of warmth, and should fit under your existing clothes. Those will get you through fall weather, but when temperatures really begin dropping as we enter winter, you鈥檙e likely going to want something a little thicker. is woven without seams听and with integrated ventilation. That makes its pieces more adept at听responding to changing temperatures and activity levels. While you鈥檙e active, the 200-weight Intraknits remain as cool as 125-weight base layers made using traditional technology, but they remain much cozier when you鈥檙e not moving.听 are pieces made of听250-weight merino wool.听You鈥檒l likely struggle to layer those under your normal, fashionable clothing, but you鈥檒l be wearing the warmest base layers possible.
Stylish alternatives: If you want to stay warm without looking like you鈥檙e on a ski trip, pull听on some silk base-layer bottoms before getting into your听jeans, and add a merino Henley on top. I鈥檝e been making good use of听听this fall. It听offers a ridiculously cozy next-to-skin feel听and looks as good on its own as it does layered under a collared shirt.
Add Midlayers for Warmth
By trapping warm air next to your body, midlayers add warmth.
Factors to consider: It鈥檚 going to be hard to predict what kind of conditions you鈥檙e going to find at restaurants in the coming months. Tent and awning walls may not be allowed at all听or only with limited coverage. Even if the place has propane heaters, it听may not have enough to provide even coverage for all tables. Midlayers you can shed and add as needed will allow you听to adapt.
Materials to choose from: Let鈥檚 talk about shirts, sweaters, and the like. Where possible, try to听avoid cotton. Even though eating dinner is a stationary听activity, any moisture from sweat or precipitation that enters a cotton garment is going to make it feel cold. For that reason, wool is your best choice here, with synthetic fleece materials coming in a close second.
The best options: For button-down shirts, real wool flannels are ideal. I covered the reasons why听and presented multiple options in this article. Sweaters are the other obvious choice. sells ethically sourced cashmere items . Layering a wool sweater over a wool button-down (or athleisure top)听will allow you to easily respond to changing temperatures.
Stylish alternatives: Fleeces don鈥檛 tend to be terribly stylish (although some of my colleagues may disagree), but , a Swedish outdoors brand, sells听a variety of options in good colors that are听designed to flatter athletic bodies.
Puffies鈥擶ithout the Markup
Puffy jackets (and puffy pants) are able to trap a high volume of warm air, providing more warmth than heavier materials.
Factors to consider: The merits of the materials involved in puffies are commonly misunderstood, and people end up paying more for a logo than they do for function or style. Regardless of materials used, the warmth of a puffy layer is based on听its thickness. Puffies can be worn as a midlayer听or an outer layer. Thin puffies may provide little to no additional warmth beyond that offered by a sweater, but they can easiliy听be layered under additional garments. Very thick puffies, on the other hand, can cope with the coldest temperatures yet prove difficult听to layer under a shell. An outer face fabric that鈥檚 treated with a water-repellant coating听or equipped with a water-resistant or waterproof membrane听can eliminate the need for an additional shell layer, but it typically hinders breathability.
Materials to choose from:听Duck down is usually gathered. Goose down is normally plucked. Because geese are larger, they also produce larger down clusters, and larger clusters create higher fill-power numbers.听Look for the ratio of clusters to feathers on an item鈥檚 labels; in all cases, a higher ratio of down is better. Fill power defines the packability of the insulation used, not its warmth.听Listed as a three-digit number, fill power is the volume (in cubic inches) that one ounce of down can expand to fill. Down clusters lose their ability to loft, and therefore provide warmth, if they get wet. In recent years, some companies have听treated down听with听durable water-repellent (DWR) coatings to prevent that. This is important not just for rain and snow听but also if your perspiration enters the down. DWR-treated down cannot yet perform as well as synthetic insulations when wet, but synthetic insulations are only just now getting close to the compressibility of down. Down is also capable of outlasting synthetic alternatives, and听garments made from it can be worn听for decades.
The best options: Unless you鈥檙e a dogsledder,听a big down parka made from low-fill-power down is typically a poor choice for activewear due to its bulk听and lack of breathability, but sitting down at a restaurant is a听situation that actually merits wearing听one. Direct-to-consumer brand听听sells parkas just as warm as others on the market听and just as nice as anything else out there鈥攂ut typically at half the price.
Stylish alternatives: There鈥檚 much more nuance involved in the creation of lightweight, packable puffy items. And听layered appropriately, a lightweight, packable puffy will better allow you to respond to changing conditions.
Aether recently sent over one of jackets for my wife, Virginia, to try. Made from an ultralight, pre-baffled shell material and 800-fill down, it looks听smooth听and has a feel that sets it apart from most technical layers鈥攚ithout sacrificing breathability or weather resistance. Cut like a bomber jacket, the Senna is fitted with a stretchy hem that holds the jacket tight to the wearer鈥檚 body. Together with a spot-on cut, it鈥檚 the most flattering puffy I鈥檝e ever seen anyone wear. At $375, it鈥檚 actually reasonably priced for such a nice piece of clothing, and it鈥檚 .
Meanwhile, I鈥檝e been loving听. Cut like a button-down shirt, it features a stretchy face fabric that facilitates total freedom of movement. It鈥檚 also equipped with 800-fill down, which means it can easily be stuffed into a bag during the day without taking up much space. And听unlike many puffy jackets made for men, it鈥檚 cut for flat stomachs, not Santa Claus听bellies. At $200, it represents exceptional value.
What About Pants?
It鈥檚 really difficult to find pants capable of keeping you warm and dry in inclement weather听without greatly sacrificing style. Most of us likely have long-running loyalties to certain brands that we know fit our bodies just right, and most of those nontechnical brands make their jeans or trousers from cotton听or similarly suboptimal materials. Semi-technical options, like , are an excellent choice听as they combine synthetic fibers with cotton to provide a very small amount of stretch and weather resistance. But those will still wet out in pouring rain, then hang on to that water for long periods of time, keeping you cold.
Rather than suggesting you show up at dinner wearing hiking pants, one solution might be to bring along a blanket. packs down small enough to fit into a purse or a small backpack, weighs one pound, and will keep your legs warmer than any pair of dayglow听shell trousers. The DWR-treated synthetic shell fabric is also capable of shedding light precipitation and blocking the wind, making it听the perfect insurance against unexpectedly cold conditions听or a table without adequate weather protection.