Summer-Fall Social Districts in the Thumbcoast
*Update Oct. 2020, The Social District in Downtown Port Huron has been extended indefinitely! Enjoy the Social District year round now, Cheers!
Summertime is until September 22nd in the Northern Hemisphere, more specifically in Michigan’s beautiful Thumbcoast region. Temperatures in and around the Port Huron area average 70° in September, perfect weather for outdoor activities like visiting parks, beaches, attending events or dining al fresco.
The city of Port Huron has created a new ‘Social District’ of restaurants and bars allowing customers to take advantage of new outdoor spaces for dining with an adult beverage. Social districts are areas municipalities allow people to dine and drink from open containers outside, using the newly established cocktail legislation from the State of Michigan. The social district area for Port Huron includes one block on each side and along Historic Military Street/Huron Avenue from Beers Street to Court Street. New outdoor dining spaces are a pocket park at Water and Military, a beach-like area with sand & seating at McMorran and Military along with many restaurants and boutiques adding additional seating outside.
Port Huron’s Social District Map 
Pocket Park at Military & Water St., Port Huron 
McMorran Beach at Huron Ave.. Port Huron 
Courtesy of the Raven Cafe
The City of St. Clair has also enacted an outdoor café and social district areas of public and private property adjacent to businesses that serve alcohol. The Riverview Plaza in St. Clair is a fantastic place to try this out, there is a grouping of restaurants here and there is often live entertainment in the courtyard between all of them. Many communities, like Port Huron and St. Clair, along the Thumbcoast have businesses that are expanding ways to enjoy their delicious meals with outdoor seating as well. Extending area’s where people can socially distance is helping local restaurants maintain customers by creating a safer zone allowing a sense of summer normalcy.
“Everything tastes better outdoors.”
Claudia Roden, cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist
Riverview Plaza
War Water Brewery, St. Clair
Riverview Plaza Park
St. Clair
