Dinner in a snow globe is an alternative reality for eating out

Technically, there wasn't a special occasion, but it felt like one. Just going to dinner at a restaurant felt like celebration enough after not doing it for 10 months. We've been take-out and stay-home people during the pandemic, but we made an exception to try out Aperitivo Restaurant's new snow globes where we could dine in our own airspace.

Three plastic globes arrived at the Gunbarrel restaurant just before Christmas. Owner Edward Vanegas ordered them in early November. "We were worried about January, February, March, that we were not going to be able to be sustainable just working off of delivery and use of the patio with heaters," Vanegas said. The globes cost nearly $5,000, but he got a grant from the City of Boulder to pay for them.

The plastic domes were originally made for gardens, Vanegas said, but the company pivoted during the pandemic to sell them to restaurants. He said he's lucky to have them since the website said the company is no longer taking orders due to high demand.

The globes are also called igloos or bubbles. For me, it felt like being in a see-through tent. In theory, you could see the stars, but condensation makes that tough. It did, however, make the artificial starlight outside the dome that much more beautiful, smearing and bending the neon Aperitivo sign, lights of the restaurant's Christmas tree and glowing lanterns. I imagine it would be pretty cozy to be in the snow globe during a snowstorm.

"The coolest thing is to be protected from the elements, have a little bit of a heat source," Vanegas said. "And have protection from the sanitization, get out of the house, be out in a social environment with a view and dine socially like that. People are begging to do it."

It's your own private world, other than the server. Ours was Joseph, who came in only a few times through the zippered door. He wore a mask, as did we as a courtesy to him too. We only took off our masks to eat and drink. Vanegas said the restaurant limits the time and frequency that servers enter the globes.

That helps retain heat too, if you can call it that. There is a 15-AMP space heater that glows orange with a fake fireplace. It's all the fire restrictions will allow, though the globe is treated with retardant. I could feel the heater putting off some warmth, but we kept on our hats and winter coats and I was glad I wore my snow boots for my chronically cold toes. It was only 20-something degrees outside the plastic walls.

Apertivo takes reservations for dinner and asks for a minimum of three guests at night with a 75-minute limit. It's first-come during the day. The globes are sanitized with a fogger system between seatings.

With so many things taken away during the pandemic, it was nice to have something different to do, someplace new to go. An alternative reality with a touch of magic. "As a child, when you shook the snow globe, you always wanted to be inside," Vanegas said.