Print Works Bistro, Green Valley Grill rank among best U.S. restaurants for outdoor dining
By: Nakylah Carter, Triad Business Journal
July 19, 2022
Best Restaurant for Outdoor Dining
A Greensboro restaurant group has landed two spots on OpenTable’s 2022 edition of the nation’s 100 Best Restaurants for Outdoor Dining.
Print Works Bistro and Green Valley Grill, owned by Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, both made the list. Open Table’s list was curated from 13.6 million verified diner reviews between May 2021 and April 2022 and features restaurants from 25 states.
“We looked at outdoor dining not as just a place to put some tables and parts and people, but we decided we would design what we call outdoor rooms and each location has its own sort of design intent,” said Dennis Quaintance, CEO of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels.
Print Works Bistro’s outdoor space at the Proximity Hotel is the Creekside Terrace, and Green Valley Grill’s outside area at the O.Henry Hotel is the courtyard. The company also owns Lucky 32 in Greensboro that features an outdoor veranda.
Green Valley Grill and Print Works features shading and discrete overhead fans to help customers stay comfortable and to keep the bugs away from the food.
“We’re constantly working on the gardens adjacent to these areas,” Quaintance said. “I personally think that getting to dine outdoors in an environment that is carefully considered is great.”
Quaintance told TBJ that the company, which is 100% employee owned, was “delighted” to be on the list.
“The Triad is so tiny. I mean there are over 300 million people in the United States and less than 1 million here. It’s improbable that even one, let alone two, restaurants would be featured on the list,” he told TBJ.
“I think Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem are often sort of under appreciated, wonderful communities and to be able to have someone in Charlotte or Raleigh read that there are two restaurants in Greensboro it’s like, we do some fun stuff up this way too.”
Nationwide, the number of restaurants listing outdoor dining spaces grew exponentially, according to OpenTable, a platform that connects over 1 billion people with restaurants annually and provides software that helps restaurants with reservations, payment, reviews, operations and many other things.
Two other North Carolina restaurants made the list — The Oyster Rock Waterfront Seafood in Calabash and Sunset Terrace at Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville.
“Outdoor dining played a major role in buoying the restaurant industry over the last few years, and restaurants took note – whether adding, expanding or elevating their offerings,” said Susan Lee, Chief Growth Officer for OpenTable. “Offering outdoor dining is now a key part of restaurants’ business, and we’re happy to see that diners continue to embrace it.”
California held the most restaurants on the list with 37.
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