"Food and wine seem to taste better outside," says Ruth Granberg, a Minneapolis bon vivant to whom warm weather signals informal meals taken under an umbrella. "I'm willing to put up with bees and the other inconveniences of eating outside because it enhances all of my senses. It hits some inner core."

That same resonance is felt by Bonnie Dodson, an American novelist living in Vienna who is inexplicably drawn to al fresco dining wherever she can find it. "There's something seductive about the air and colors are more vibrant," she says. Her enjoyment of a meal is intensified by being able to listen to birds, watch the light change, and feel the wind that's blowing through the trees. "Outside you can see all around, whereas at an indoor restaurant even if you're seated by a window the view is restricted."

For most of us who eat indoors far more frequently than not, meals in the open air can stand out in our memory and be appreciated with a heightened passion.

In The Gastronomical Me, M.F.K. Fisher particularly remembers a roadside supper shared with her family. "That night I not only saw my Father for the first time as a person. I saw the golden hills and the live oaks as clearly as I have ever seen them since; and I saw the dimples in my little sister's fat hands in a way that still moves me because of that first time; and I saw food as something beautiful to be shared with people instead of a thrice-daily necessity." The family finished with a still-warm pie, "deep, with lots of juice, and bursting with ripe peaches picked that noon....and then drove on sleepily toward Los Angeles, and none of us said anything about it for many years, but it was one of the best meals we ever ate."

Dining outdoors in cities like New York can be an altogether different experience. "Sidewalks are for people to walk on, not eat on," says Jonny Powell, who hates the smell of car exhaust and the crowds of passers-by. But he'll willingly go with his wife Flo Karp to an enclosed patio -- which is, in fact, the only way Flo will eat outside after a disturbing occurrence. "It was a summer night and I was at this downtown sidewalk cafe smoking a cigarette after my meal," she recalls. "This guy came up and asked if he could bum one. Then he asked for a light." The first match she lit was snuffed out by the wind. So was the second. And the third. He punched her in the face. "No more sidewalk cafes," she says.

To avoid this sort of bizarre encounter, as well as a myriad of other unappetizing possibilities -- sidewalk spittle, tossed garbage, honking horns, being asked for money -- consider these appealing, hemmed-in urban retreats:

Aureole
34 E. 61st St., 212-319-1660

Bryant Park Grill
25 W. 40th St., 212-840-6500

Brunetta's
190 First Ave., 212-228-4030

Casanis
54 E. 1st St., 212-777-1589

Danal
90 E. 10th St., 212-982-6930

Elias Corner for Fish
24-02 31st St. (Astoria), 718-932-1510

Gascogne
158 Eighth Ave., 212-675-6654

Grove
314 Bleecker St., 212-675-9463

Home
20 Cornelia St., 212-243-9579

I Trulli
122 E. 27th St., 212-481-7372

Miracle Grill
112 First Ave., 212-254-2353

Provence
38 MacDougal St., 212-475-7500

River Cafe
1 Water St. (Brooklyn Heights), 718-522-5200

Roettele A.G.
126 E. 7th St., 212-674-4140

Verbena
54 Irving Pl., 212-260-5454