Sitting Out
I think you have to be in America to sit at an outdoor table at a restaurant and stare at a parking lot and admire the view. It was a very nice parking lot, with lots of flowers in the medians and framed quite picturesquely by some chain restaurants and swiftly flowing streams of shiny vehicles, but for all it’s quaintness it was still a large square of concrete. In Europe the cafe tables look out over rolling vineyards or squares full of monuments or cerulean blue Mediterranean waters. In America we’re happy if outdoor seating exists.
Luckily it exists more and more in Baltimore. This was going to be a piece on Kiss Cafe, where I sat tonight, but instead I think I’ll write about outdoor seating in general.
Water is the greatest ally of those looking for outdoor seating, because it gives us something to look at. Off the water, outdoor seating is hard to find because all we have to look at in this country is road. Even nice spots with a heavy concentration of outdoor seating, like Belvedere Square in north Baltimore, are essentially built looking out upon parked cars. We’re so proud of our cars we can’t let them out of our sight.
I’m sure a scientific study would show the frequency of outdoor seating increasing as you approach the water, building up in neighborhoods like Canton and Federal Hill and Fells Point, even when the water is half a mile away and far out of sight, until you hit the harbor and the restaurants there, with their vast balconies hosting hundreds of tables overlooking the tourists below.
The sad thing about outdoor seating in America is that it requires perfect weather. Parking lots radiate the sun’s heat and cars give off tremendous amounts of gas, so without a cool day with a slight breeze, sitting outside is intolerable. It doesn’t help that Americans love their air conditioner more than they love their fresh air. So it’s not surprising that outdoor seating in Baltimore is most plentiful around the harbor, where a breeze off the water can keep the weather tolerable. In fact, we’re lucky to have some water to sit around.
