Two local businesses have now opened their long-planned patio spaces, and are serving customers in the great outdoors of Fremont.
The owners of Black Label Premium Burgers and Shakes on Bell Street and Semo Pasta+Wine on Main Street had both applied for an expanded liquor license area where alcohol can be served and sold with the intention for both restaurants to add outdoor patio spaces to their existing locations.
The two applications were approved by the Fremont City Council during the council’s July 11 meeting. The plans were also OK’d by the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, allowing for both restaurants to serve alcohol to adults 21 and older on the patios.
Laurel Korman, co-owner of Black Label with her husband, Jason, said the patio at the restaurant at 1755 N. Bell St. was unable to be opened in time for the John C. Fremont Days festival in mid-July, but it is now open for customers.
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“It has only been open since the beginning of August. We got the approval from the city council, but we had to wait for our expanded liquor license to be approved,” Laurel said in a telephone interview. “When the weather has been good, (the patio) has done really well. The days it has been really hot, (the patio) has been slower.”
The Black Label patio is on the southside of the main structure of the restaurant, and is enclosed with a large security fence. Inside the fence are numerous tables with massive, colorful umbrellas for shade.
In a prior interview with the Tribune, Jason said the patio is 15 feet by 65 feet in size, and had been on the couple’s radar for months.
“(We did it) so we would have outdoor seating for people to sit outside when it is nice out,” Jason said in July. “It is something we’ve talked about for a while.”
Over at Semo Pasta+Wine, the patio in front of the new restaurant has been open several weeks and features two four-seat tables surrounded by low-fencing and lush plants and flowers.
Messages left for owner and founder Chef Drew Statz were not returned by press time.
On Aug 8, the patio space at Semo was getting a new decorative paint scheme on the windows of the restaurant.
Amber Rosete and Destiny Rosete, the mother-daughter artist team at Art & Soul Painting of Fremont, were working diligently to decorate and paint new signage onto the windows of the Semo storefront that are next to the patio space.
Amber said Statz had hired the duo to add the hours and other details of the restaurant to the windows for better advertising to passersby.
In a July interview, Statz said adding the patio dining option was an obvious goal of he and his partners at the new farm-to-table restaurant.
“Before the nice months end, we want to put a few tables out there so folks can enjoy the outdoors. Main Street is beautiful, and I would argue our stretch of Main Street is possibly the nicest with all the fresh flowers out front,” Statz said. “If I was out on a nice night, I would love to sit outside and eat and have a nice cold bottle of wine.”