PORTLAND, Maine — There are few things that bring joy to local businesses in Maine quite like a warm, sunny day.
"When I see Todd in the morning, psh, I'll tell you what, I am doing my happy dance when he says it's going to be 80 and sunny and gorgeous," laughed Erica Dionne, owner of the food truck Muthah Truckah.
On Friday, Dionne had her truck parked outside of Austin Street Brewing, and business quickly ramped up around lunchtime.
"We are jammin' when it's sunny," Dionne said.
"You can't deny the feeling that's in the air right now," William Fisher, owner of Austin Street Brewing said. "As soon as the weather warms up, the patio opens up, and we have a whole other group of people start coming through."
Business was already ramping up at Austin Street on Friday afternoon. Fisher and Dionne agree, when the weather is this nice, it means even more foot traffic and a bump in business after the winter.
On Friday, you did not need to look far to see folks enjoying time in the sun. More businesses are beginning to bring tables back outdoors and setting up outdoor dining on sidewalks and parklets.
"It's really nice just to see everyone out and about enjoying a day off from work or with their family, and just coming in and out and enjoying the deli," Olivia Mosca, a Sisters Gourmet Deli employee, said.
During the warm weather months, Sisters has several tables set up outside of its Monument Square location.
"'Street-eries' we often call them, have really expanded since the pandemic. The pandemic didn't have many good things, but one of them was we realized, 'Oh, we can do this here and people will take advantage,'" Cary Tyson, executive director of Portland Downtown said. "I think it's because we're cold so often we don't think of sitting outside, so we've seen an extraordinary expansion of outdoor dining opportunities."
"It really helps our restaurateurs who are coming out of the off-season, providing extra seating, people just flock there," Tyson added.
Tyson said Portland Downtown has already placed picnic tables for the community to use in Monument Square and plans to place additional seating in areas in the Old Port next month.