Harmonize Meals

Nature provides a peace-inspiring backdrop – here’s how we harness it

Updated November 2025. By Cassy Aoyagi: Al fresco dining unifies two great strategies for creating harmony: sharing a delicious meal and gathering in nature. While I love to cook, I enjoy creating just-right natural spaces even more. Here are a few ways we set the table for harmonious connection long before anyone

Outdoor spaces feel more spacious. Bea’s Secret Garden | Garden Conservancy Pasadena Open Days

Place with Space

Wrapped in lush, leafy foliage, an al fresco dining area equal in size to a home’s dining room will feel more spacious. People tend to stand and move about, mix and mingle, in a way they will not indoors. This brings a relaxed vibe amplified by the oxygen and visual variation of the natural environment.

Views of nature create a sense of calm. Showcase Spanish, Holmby Hills

Trade TV for Trees

Where open floor plans invite the TV to dinner, we like to create spaces that invite the trees. Their rustling beauty adds a calm to conversation that no game, show, or gameshow can match. For those who prefer later meals, a fire pit can also provide a fun focal point or post-dinner retreat.

Carlson Kitchen Outdoor
Forbes Magazine featured the delicious entertainment space of the Seascaped Contemporary.

Serve Snackies

The grape vine that softens this fencing nourishes the eye – it can also be harnessed to save the hangry. Of course grapes can be selected, washed in the outdoor sink, and displayed in a lovely dish – they can also be a delightful reward for those invited to make themselves at home and snatch a snack.

Harvestable hedges wrap al fresco dining at the Kaufman Ranch is shade, privacy, and snacks.
An edible forest contained a delectable array of fruits and veggies growing between
edible native plants at the 2014 Pasadena Showcase House.

Invite A Stroll

Collaborating on a meal invites conversation and connection. We love offering guests the opportunity to select their own salad greens and distinctive flavors. We often add biodiverse, native hedges and a selection of sages – each can engage the adventurous in taste-tests to find just the right match for the meal.

At the Kaufman Ranch meanders through the blooms are the natural post-dinner entertainment.

While post-meal movement indoors tends to be minimal, al fresco dining invites more of a stroll. November blooms, walks and trails to other outdoor living spaces invite exploration and movement.

After al fresco dining at the Veloz, a secured slope invites a stroll to incredible Verdugo Mountain Views.

Whether you choose to host your meals indoors or out, we wish you harmony, connection, collaboration and joy during the holidays and always.


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