It's Summer: Eat Your Pesto Al Fresco

We're a funny crowd here in the Northwest.

First we complain about the rain, and then we slosh through puddles on our daily jogs. Since summer weather finally broke through the clouds, we've been complaining about the heat. Then we spend our lunch hour basking in the sun.

This time of year, when we dine out, we want an outdoor table, please. After all, it might rain again next week.

Eastside restaurateurs know their customers.

They've created patios, decks and squeezed tiny tables into niches and fenced off sidewalk areas for customers. Some have flowers, some have umbrellas and many cater to our wish to be outside and pampered, too.

On the upscale end, walk into Gerard's Relais de Lyon outdoor dining area in Bothell and you've stepped into a French garden.

On the casual side, Wildfire Ranch BBQ in Issaquah offers outdoor picnic tables on which you can get sauce up to your elbows on its barbecued ribs.

Some restaurants offer views.

Diners at Woody's Grill & Bar in Woodinville, for instance, can watch hot-air balloons float over the Sammamish Valley from one of the restaurant's 14 outdoor tables.

Want a water view? Expect to wait for a table at Waters Lakeside Bistro or the beach club in the lower half of the Yarrow Bay Grill, both at Kirkland's Carillon Point complex. Cucina! Cucina! Italian Cafe, across the courtyard from the upscale Woodmark Hotel and Yarrow Bay Grill at Carillon Point, has dozens of tables in an atrium and patio.

Go as you are, just off the Sammamish Slough biking trail at Bothell Landing, where you have a choice of outdoor tables at Beth's at Bothell Landing or Black Sheep Cafe.

You can go ethnic with French-Vietnamese food outdoors at Andre's Gourmet Cuisine in Bellevue or with Mexican food at Redmond's Si Senor. There you can also watch the traffic on Bellevue-Redmond Road. Or be glad you're not on Highway 520 as you survey the scene from the back patio tables at Fresh Choice Restaurant on Northup Way.

In Redmond, Frankie's Pizza & Pasta has a deck. Gilbert's Main Street Bagel Deli in Bellevue has outdoor tables, making it look like a Paris sidewalk cafe.

The Kirkland Roaster & Ale House has tables in front and tables on a deck overlooking Lake Washington. Cafe Juanita is building a deck.

Here's a sampling of Eastside restaurants that have outdoor tables. If you're lucky enough to snare one, enjoy. Because if this is summer, the rain can't be far behind.

Bellevue

Andre's Gourmet Cuisine, Azaleas Fountain Court (outdoor tables live up to the name, by a fountain, in a court), Billy McHale's, Chili's Grill & Bar, Cucina Cucina! Italian Cafe, Duke's Bellevue Bar & Grill (where the deck overlooks Bellevue's smallest excuse for a lake), Fresh Choice (a relaxing place to watch the traffic jams on westbound 520), Gilbert's Main Street Bagel Deli, Las Margaritas, Morgan's, Salute of Bellevue.

Bothell

Alexander's Restaurant, Beth's at Bothell Landing, Black Sheep Cafe, Country Cafe, Gerard's Relais de Lyon.

Carnation

River Run Cafe.

Issaquah

Chili's Grill And Bar, Cucina! Cucina! Italian Kitchen, Lombardi's Cucina of Issaquah, The Roost, Stage Right Cafe, Wildfire Ranch BBQ.

Kenmore

Clifford's Restaurant. (overlooking Lake Washington and Kenmore Air Harbor).

Kirkland

Beach Cafe at Yarrow Bay (watch boats and how the monied-half lives, plus you get a spectacular view of Seattle and Lake Washington), The Bagel & Chocolate Soup Company, Beamer's, Brown Bag Cafe, Cafe Juanita (deck nearly ready), Calabria Ristorante Italiano, Cucina! Cucina! Italian Cafe at Carillon Point, Hectors, The Keg, Kirkland Roaster & Ale House, Milestone's American Grill, Ristorante Paradiso, TGI Friday's, Waters Lakeside Bistro (lower level of Woodmark Hotel at Carillon Point).

Redmond

Brown Bag Cafe (numerous tables on flower-decorated deck), Casa Miguel's, Frankie's Pizza & Pasta, Si Senor.

Woodinville

Buzz Inn Steakhouse, Golden Goat, Las Margaritas, Texas Smoke House Bar-B-Q, Woody's Grill & Bar.

Sherry Grindeland's phone message number is 515-5633. The e-mail address is: sgri-new@seatimes.com