Since 1989, Southern California’s Summit House Restaurant has been beloved by locals for being a charming, hospitable place where friends and families can meet to eat, drink, chat, and take in the hilltop views of North Orange County’s countryside. The owner and management team value taking care of not only their guests, but the people that take care of their guests as well. With this philosophy in mind, they created cozy, hospitable dining spaces and have truly prospered.
Before Covid, Summit House Restaurant-goers preferred to sit inside the restaurant’s warm, inviting cottage atmosphere. Aside from an afternoon happy hour, they had a hard time getting visitors to sit outdoors because of the dropping temperatures and chilly ocean breeze. Hit hard by the pandemic, they had to start thinking about the ever-changing indoor dining policies and come up with a serious plan of action to stay in business.
To meet the demand for outdoor dining spurred by the pandemic, the Summit House leadership expanded the restaurant’s patios into what is now the Summit View Terrace – a new outdoor dining area where patrons are able to enjoy the open air and stunning panoramic views in comfort thanks to 12 Infratech CD-Series heaters.
View this post on Instagram
“What the Infratech heaters do is turn the patio space into a very consistent atmosphere with very consistent temperatures. We can make all 85 new seats comfortable every day of the year,” explains Summit House Restaurant owner, Gary Parkinson. They were able to add 20 tables to the new patio – almost doubling their revenue and hitting record numbers every day of the week. “In May of 2021, our total food and beverage sales increased by 12% over 2019. By June, we were up 18%. In September of 2021, we’re up 28.8%. It has helped us tremendously in our seating capacity.”
The wants and needs of restaurant customers radically changed with the pandemic. Because regulations required outdoor dining upon the initial reopening, customers became accustomed to sitting outdoors – with many growing to prefer it. At Summit House, patrons found that they can have just as much fun sitting outside in comfort, enjoying the beautiful views. When Summit House hosts ask visitors if they would like to sit indoors or out on the patio, about half now ask to sit outdoors – whereas two years ago they were seeing a rate of 99% requesting inside seating and only 1% outside.
“It’s been a breath of fresh air that has brought a new light to the restaurant. Especially after this dark time that we’ve been through,” says the restaurant’s General Manager, Mark Fleshner.
The team installed our commercial-favorite Solid State controls for efficiency and ease of use. It’s a simple, quick-adjusting dial that tells you 1-10, and you can decide how hot you want to make it. You can feel the heat changing as soon as you make a change to it. “The heaters definitely are an asset to my staff. I don’t have to take them away from their jobs to set up a heater – they can focus on taking care of our guests,” says Mark. An integrated timer function ensures that the staff never has to remember to turn the heating system off at the end of the day.
All in all, Summit House Restaurant found Infratech heaters to be a critical asset to their new outdoor space. Gary explains why: “I would recommend Infratech in a minute to other restaurants. We’ve found that in comparison to gas heat, the gas heat blows away with the air. With Infratech, we can have some breeze blowing and we still have consistent heat. We turn them on and the space is warm when the guests first walk out there.”
Mark also raves, “Our job as restaurateurs is to take care of the people that are coming in – with Infratech heaters, you just turn them on, they do their job, and it’s done. It’s amazing to me how small they are, and what a big job they do heating a certain space area.”
Learn more about the advantages of adding Infratech heaters to your space here.