Community Corner

Riffle's Restaurant Gets Approval for Outdoor Seating

There will be eight new tables for dining outside at Riffle's Restaurant.

This article was posted by Aysha Jamali. It was written and reported by Julianne Pitcher.

As the summer weather continues to attract locals to downtown Northville, Riffle’s Restaurant's plans to offer outdoor seating to its customers is finally underway.

Although owner Bill Riffle originally wanted to have outdoor seating when he opened the restaurant in November 2008, he was not able to do so until now, he said. 

Find out what's happening in Northvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“There were some issues with the city, whether I had to take the furniture down or not for certain events, but now the city said that it’s fine.  We can keep them up, and if there are certain events that they want them taken down, I said that what I can do is not serve out there and have people use them as extra seats for the patio,” Riffle said.

Having been in the restaurant business for 25 years, Riffle thinks that outdoor seating is very beneficial to the community, he said.

Find out what's happening in Northvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Well, first of all, it’s going to benefit the look of Main Street. We’ve got brand new, very colorful furniture and umbrellas. Also, it will definitely be a benefit to the restaurant. It gives people options,” Riffle said.

While the approval has been given by the city and the permit has been issued, all that the restaurant is waiting for is the furniture to arrive. The plan is to have the outdoor furniture ready for customers to use by the beginning of next week at the latest, he said.

Riffle said, “We have eight tables going in, seating approximately 26 people.  A few tables will go out front, but part of our seating will be along the wall, which is a very shaded area.  It will be under the trees, so you wont be exposed to the sun directly.” 

Riffle’s will eventually offer full-service outside, but not when the furniture first arrives. Instead, Riffle’s will follow what Next Chapter Bookstore & Bistro and a few other places do, he said. 

“Customers will come in here to place their order. Then, they’ll sit outside, where a waitress will bring their food out to them. That way, the waitresses will get used to going out there," he said. 

In addition to adding one or two more servers to its staff to make up for the extra seating outside, Riffle has plans to introduce a few new items out there as well.

“I understand people sitting on a patio prefer finger foods instead of a knife and fork type food. Even though we do have some finger foods on the menu, I’ll probably start looking into running more specials like that, on summer-style and easy-eating foods,” Riffle said.

Even though outdoor seating can only be used a few months out of the year in Michigan, patios are becoming more common in cities like Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, Plymouth and Northville, he said.

Riffle said, “People like to sit outside and be seen, especially when you have a small, quaint, little town like this, with a very small main street going through it. You wouldn’t want to sit on a four-lane highway on a patio looking out, but in a city atmosphere like this, it’s just an ideal situation.”

Are you looking forward to having a new place to dine outside in downtown Northville? Tell us in the comments.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Northville