While working from home, the importance of separating work and personal life has become prevalent and necessary now more than ever. Both on campus and uptown Athens, options for workspaces are plentiful and functional. However, these spots can fill up rather quickly, or can personally become overused. A great, often overlooked alternative to structured indoor spaces is found within outdoor seating.
While indoors is ideal in poor weather conditions, utilizing outdoor seating is an easy way to “accidentally” enjoy the weather when it’s nice. On hot days, shade and seating may be found underneath Donkey’s, Brenen’s or Court Street Coffee’s outdoor overhangs, or on The Front Room Coffee House patio. Camping out on College Green is another classic study/lounge spot favorite, providing a break from familiar walls and giving way to shade with trees.
Alongside Front Room’s patio, traveling a few feet further in Baker Center presents an even more secluded, large patio complete with various options for seating. This patio also sits on Baker’s fourth floor next to the ballroom, providing a beautiful lookout onto The Convo and West Green. It’s a great sunset spot, and is very easy to enjoy. Baker harbors plenty of chairs and spaces allowing for outdoor options to seem unnecessary, but the views and environment created outdoors makes the extra steps worthwhile.
Similarly, Schoonover also houses a patio off of its main floor, filled with tables and chairs. It’s a convenient place to hang out for a while, as Court Street remains close for grabbing a quick coffee as does campus for making it to other classes. For Journalism majors, the location could not be better as many necessary classes may be found within the Radio Television Building or Schoonover itself. When Schoonover’s lobby fills up and seating becomes scarce, the patio certainly stands as a commonly missed scene worth being scoped.
In March, Brenen’s also incorporated more outdoor seating. The shop reinstalled their parklet, providing another beautiful patio to enjoy. The “Streatery” is complete with three tables and tons of booth space, allowing for space to grab a bite or work. Not to mention, the location is incredible.
Donkey also took to construction and opened limited indoor seating in May 2020, showcasing their freshly installed new bar seating area on their upstairs patio. While not fully outside, it is an open patio and the bar seating is spacious, facing outward onto W. Washington and Court. While many of us are returning to Athens, these new coffee shop sights and spaces will be exciting to check out, while also providing options to change it up.
Utilizing outdoor seating is a great way to alter surroundings and enjoy Athens. The variety of patio options, furniture and spots serve as reasons to continually scope out the entire scene and find the underrated outdoor areas.
Lauren Patterson is a junior studying journalism. Please note that the views and ideas of columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Lauren? Tweet her @lpaatt.