In a past reality that seems almost like a dream, Seattle’s outdoor dining existed only in the summer months, when we were all just happy to be in actual sunshine, even if it disappeared as quickly as the tables and umbrellas.

Then, during the early days of the pandemic, dining stopped. Everything stopped.

From a seat at the bar inside his restaurant, The Ballard Cut — which opened June 11, 2020 — Tommy Patrick watched his business dry up and, like most restaurant owners across the city, he wondered about the future. With the mandates rapidly changing, he liked the idea of outdoor dining, but was uncertain how to maximize his existing space.

Today, Ballard Avenue may be the city’s ultimate outdoor dining destination — many now simply refer to the street as “the Ballard Avenue Café Street” — but it took untold vision, focus and cooperation to make it happen.

As the pandemic raged, Patrick figured he could raise some extra cash by selling whole bottles from his unique collection of whisky and build a wooden pergola on the street in front of his restaurant. That was easier said than done at a time when every penny was crucial and additional investments with no guarantee on return seemed foolhardy. Not to mention the logistics and permissions needed to build a large wooden structure in a place normally reserved for parking.

But Patrick’s “do-whatever-needs-to-be-done-and-do-it-quickly” work mentality and conditioning as an athlete in high school trained him to make quick decisions, and this was one of those times.

“My first job was as a bartender in Port Orchard after someone who was supposed to be running the bar left,” he remembers. “At 21, I helped flip this bar to 400% of what its sales were before we started, and realized I was good at this.”

The experience gave him the confidence he needed to rise in the hospitality industry. But he always knew that true success would only come from experiencing every facet of the food and beverage world, working with people who would teach him not just the tricks of the trade, but also the empathy and quick thinking needed to stand out in such a difficult industry.

It’s not like he started completely from scratch. He had worked as a dishwasher and prep cook at the restaurant his mother owned, Bethel Square, in Port Orchard. He recalls dropping crab pots, trolling for salmon, digging for clams and gathering oysters. He learned how to catch, cut, clean and cook seafood, which came in handy this September, when he rebranded his third restaurant, the formerly Filipino-focused Bunsoy, into the seafood and small plates restaurant Sailfish.

In addition to seafood-heavy camping adventures, he remembers mixing sodas together to make them taste better — experimentation that lent itself well to the whisky world, which factors sharply into his business model at The Ballard Cut. More than 950 heavily curated whiskies are available.

Not expecting to pivot from his whisky education and cocktail skills so soon after opening, the city’s swiftly moving dining regulations motivated Patrick to get the design engineered for the first pergola in Ballard — at The Ballard Cut — which cost upward of $10,000.

“I told everyone in the neighborhood what I was trying to do,” he says. “I emailed the plans to 60 different people, and got it put on the SDOT website as an approved outdoor structure for anyone to use. I knew we’d be the first two penguins off the iceberg, but if it all worked out, we could all go swimming together.”

Thankfully, other businesses started swimming alongside him, erecting pergolas of their own. When he opened his second restaurant, Parish NW, on Nov. 11, 2020, he remembers that, just three days later, the city announced that indoor dining would once again be shut down. Patrick took the last bit of money he had and installed another pergola.

While all the changes were happening to indoor dining, the Ballard Farmers Market was also experiencing a dramatic shift in operating, and vendors felt uncertain about the future. The market was moving from the middle of the street to the outer edges of the sidewalk, potentially interfering with the patios. Patrick worked with the Ballard Alliance and the market to strike a compromise.

“We needed to keep the market going and restaurants were fighting to survive,” says Doug Farr, director of the Ballard Farmers Market. “That’s when Tommy came to the table and said, ‘Let’s work together, not apart.’” As a result, the market changed its hours to accommodate busy dining times. Farr adds that the vendors also love the pergolas.

Tim Baker, owner of Italian restaurant San Fermo on Ballard Avenue, says that the street has now become Seattle’s poster child for outdoor dining.

“Our sidewalks aren’t built for cafés,” he notes. “But outdoor seating expands the capacity of businesses when they really need it, and creates the vibrancy of a European city with a longstanding café culture.”

Joel Miller, an official with the Seattle Department of Transportation, calls the move “one of those uplifting stories” during the pandemic, noting that the department, the Ballard Alliance, City Council member Dan Strauss as well as the restaurateurs and market vendors all worked together “to figure out how to survive and thrive.”

The experience changed things for the community and for Patrick personally. He joined the boards of the Ballard Alliance and the Ballard Avenue Landmark District to continue to help shape the community.

“I was just trying to keep my business going,” he says, “but from what others have told me, Ballard is now the outdoor dining destination of Seattle.”

And, ultimately, Tommy Patrick is the man to thank for that.