The independent clause is "WE ARE NOT EATING ON THE PATIO" the reason why, is because the second part of the sentence cannot stand on its own, due to the fact it has a because in it. because is a transition word.
Your answer would be that the independent clause in the sentence is the following one: "we are not eating on the patio".
Explanation:
The sentence above is a complex sentence. A complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence because it represents a complete thought; it contains a subject and a predicate and does not depend on any other clause to complete its meaning (1). On the contrary, dependent clauses depend on the meain sentence to complete their meaning. 2 cannot stand alone as a sentence because it is a dependent clause. That is why the sentence is grammatically incorrect.
