Heated Outdoor Blankets

Restaurants that added heated blankets to their outdoor seating during the pandemic discovered that the combination of warmth and open air creates a dining atmosphere that neither indoor seating nor unheated patios can replicate. Places that kept the blankets after restrictions lifted are doing better business on cold evenings than they did before. Usually heavy fleece or wool with a battery-powered heating element sewn into the lining, each blanket drapes over your legs like a lap blanket while you eat. The warmth from below combined with the cold air on your face creates a contrast that feels luxurious in a way that climate-controlled indoor dining doesn't. Heating elements run on a rechargeable battery lasting about 3 hours on the medium setting, and the blankets are machine washable with the battery removed. At $5 per blanket rental, the spot near campus feels fair because the alternative is eating inside with a 45-minute wait or eating outside in the cold. The blankets expand the usable outdoor season by about 2 months on each end, from April-October to March-November. Additional revenue from those months more than covers the cost of the blankets. I ate outside last week with a heated blanket wrapped around me and a bowl of soup in front of me. The experience was better than any indoor meal I've had this winter.