With the weather turning colder and strict indoor dining mitigations still in place, some local restaurants and bars have found ways to provide creative outdoor dining experiences.
Domes at Solemn Oath
Solemn Oath Brewery transformed their 4,200 square-foot summer beer garden into a winter dome forest.
Customers can enjoy a drink in one of the 12 domes set up in the new winter wonderland.
“We’re just gearing up for the winter and giving people a place to get out and support some local businesses and we take a lot of pride for being a place like that for the community and we’re excited to share it with everyone,” said Solemn Oath Brewery owner, John Barley.
The brewery is also keeping safety in mind.
Between each party, tables and high touch surfaces are sanitized, an electrostatic fogger is used to disinfect air space, and the domes are aired out for 15 minutes.
Barley spent around $20,000 on the new set up, and he believes it’s worth it.
“One of our goals here is to get fresh local beer into this community and these are an investment for us to continue to do that for the next four months,” said Barley.
Winter Villas at Fiammé Pizza
Fiammé Pizza also sees the $17,000 they put into their outdoor space as an investment.
The pizzeria set up six holiday-themed winter villas in their parking lot.
“We insulated the walls to make sure that the guest is warm, we also ran lights as well as heaters inside and we also have speakers in there so we can set a mood,” said Preston Gaspar, general manager at Fiammé.
Like Solemn Oath, the restaurant has a thorough cleaning process.
“In between parties what we do is we take a fogging machine which has sanitizer in it,” said Gaspar. “So we fog the air and then we open the door and ventilate for 15 minutes and then we wipe down every high contact surface area.”
Greenhouses at Fiammé
As another seating option, Fiammé has four warm greenhouses and plan to build two more.
Keeping doors open in the colder months until indoor service can return.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ reports.
