Gloria Malaihollo straightened and smoothed out a white rug under a long and low wooden table topped with plates, utensils and candles set up on the sand near the Redondo Beach pier. Pillows were placed next to the table for seating under an umbrella staked securely into the sand to provide shade.
The luxurious picnic setup stood out so much among the standard beach blankets and folding chairs that a few people walking by stopped to snap photos.
But Malaihollo wasn’t gearing up for a nice relaxing afternoon on the beach. It’s the 35-year-old Anaheim Hills resident’s business.
Malaihollo’s company The Table Service is part of a growing industry that has exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic as people desperate for something to do outdoors book pop-up picnics set up by professionals on beaches, parks, backyards, hilltops and other picturesque locations.
“I think the pandemic has really helped this a lot. Even though restaurants are reopening a lot of people still don’t feel safe. And for us, what we do is different, it’s fun and you can bring your own food and you can set it up to be more secluded from everyone,” she said.
These picnics can be as simple as a table and pillows over a blanket with a few decorations for two people, or as elaborate as money can buy. Some companies offer private chefs, musicians, painting and yoga classes, movie screens, popcorn machines and even a photographer so you can show it all off on Instagram.
“You just show up, everything is there for you and when you’re done you just leave and we take care of it all,” said Malaihollo, whose company sets up picnics in Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as the Inland Empire.
And business has been good since she opened it along with her business partner Stephanie Rende in February 2020 just before the first stay-at-home order in March. Since its launch her company has put together more than 300 picnics.
Table Service offers picnics that can include things like a movie night with an outdoor screen, lounges and pillows and popcorn machines with prices starting at $180.
The veteran
While Malaihollo’s timing coincided with the pandemic, some pop-up picnic producers have been around for longer, such as The Picnic Collective, which opened in Costa Mesa two years ago.
Like a lot of their customers, 63-year-old Laguna Beach resident Julie Schoenfeld first heard about the company when she saw one of their picnics during a walk on the beach.
She quickly booked a picnic for herself and friends.
“The table was beautifully lush with a beautiful umbrella, flowers everywhere — the table setting looked like something out of a magazine,” she said of her own picnic.
The Picnic Collective, founded by 27-year-old Lauren Rivard of Costa Mesa, sets up picnics from Malibu to San Diego to the Inland Empire. It has 28 employees and franchise locations out of state in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
“I was super surprised at first that it blew up the way it did because I just felt this was something that was fun for me and that I could do,” Rivard said.
The former marketing director started the company after throwing a birthday picnic for herself in Laguna Beach when she turned 24.
“We figured out how to lug all of the equipment out to the beach; we figured out how to work with the florist, get a caterer, all of those things and we realized how there was really no one-stop-shop solution for this kind of thing,” she said. “And we had a lot of people walking up to us asking if they can hire us to do it, so that was the real aha moment,” she added.
She now offers several picnic packages which range in price from $399 for a two-person picnic that runs up to two hours to options that can cost well into the thousands depending on what people want to add.
“We take care of everything from there. We set it up and take it down; we have an in-house florist; we do cheese boards in-house,” she said.
Setups also include low wooden tables, which Rivard described as “very bohemian-looking,” as well as the company’s signature white fringe umbrellas.
They can also add balloon garlands and peacock chairs for the guest of honor. People can also bring their own food or for those willing to spend, they can get the “sushi on the sand experience,” she said, with all-you-can-eat sushi rolls being made on-the-spot by a chef.
And like other companies they can also provide drinks, but since drinking alcohol in public is not allowed, Rivard offers options such as virgin margaritas and a lemonade stand.
“We can even provide a live acoustic musician to come out if someone wants to go really crazy,” she said.
While The Picnic Collective launched two years ago, the pandemic has increased business substantially Rivard said, noting that before the pandemic happened they did about 300 picnics a year, but since the pandemic took hold they’ve done about 1,000 picnics.
“I think it breaks up the monotony of everything that’s going on right now and it lets people get out and about,” she said.
Saved by the picnic
For Long Beach siblings 25-year-old Haley and 22-year-old Grace Shanton, the picnic business has been a savior during the pandemic.
After they were both laid off from their jobs due to the pandemic, they started their pop-up picnic company Blankets & Bottles in January.
And, like Rivard, the idea came to them after they set up a beach picnic for Grace’s birthday in August.
“We set it up in Malibu, a very simple picnic but we got a lot of great feedback from what we did set up. A lot of people asked if we were doing it professionally and that sparked the idea in our minds,” Haley Shanton said.
Now the sisters set up picnics for events with prices starting at about $160.
They are doing about five picnics a week in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Their company offers custom created picnics that their clients plan out with the company’s “picnic stylist,” and they can include items such as music from a record player, candles, table decorations, silverware and dishes.
Other options include a charcuterie board, a s’mores bar where people can roast their own marshmallows and games such as Jenga. Customers can even have a painting party with a canvas and paint so they can create art while they picnic.
Grace Shanton thinks part of the appeal is that it’s something new for people to try. But even as restaurants re-open people will continue to want to picnic in luxury, so they’re glad the pandemic pushed them to follow a career path they may not have pursued otherwise.
“I definitely think the pandemic has set up the whole luxury picnic industry. Before you would see a couple of people doing it but definitely the pandemic forced people to go outside their comfort zone and do things they wouldn’t typically do, like bringing furniture down the beach to have a picnic,” Grace Shanton said.
More information
The Table Service: thetableservice.com
The Picnic Collective: thepicniccollective.com
Blankets & Bottles: instagram.com/blanketsnbottles
