Judith Davidoff
Igloos at ZuZu Cafe heat up on sunny days and will extend the fall outdoor dining season for a while.
ZuZu Cafe, 1336 Drake St. near the Henry Vilas Zoo, isn’t a big restaurant, or in a busy shopping area. But the neighborhood favorite is one of the few Madison restaurants that has adopted dining “igloos” to extend its season for outdoor seating as cold weather moves into Madison.
“We were able to purchase them back in July,” says managing partner Sabri Darsouni of the four domes. “I kind of predicted then that things [with COVID-19 cases] were not going to get any better and that if I waited until fall, the igloos would be flying off the shelves. I don’t think you can even find them any more.”
The igloos look like clear plastic teardrop umbrellas (without handles, of course), but with a zippered door like a tent, and they sit over the wrought-iron patio tables in front of the cafe. The cafe also has a number of heaters that patrons eating or sipping coffee outside can use, but not inside the domes. “The igloos are more of a windbreak,” says Darsouni. “A heater inside of plastic is kind of a scary thing.”
People like the igloos, Darsouni says. “On a sunny day, they do get warm inside. They help on a rainy day, too — they stay pretty dry.”
Darsouni has also added lights outside, which helps outdoor dining in the evening, as ZuZu is open until 8 p.m. and these days it’s dark by 6:30 p.m.
But Darsouni doesn’t think people will want to be sitting outside once it’s below 25 degrees or so. Seating capacity inside ZuZu is 12 at the current 25% restriction. “We’re happy to have people coming,” says Darsouni, “and we’re getting a lot of support from the community. It warms our hearts. We know people care.”
Outside of Madison, the Iron Amethyst Inn bed and breakfast at 21 S. State St. in Mazomanie has three new “garden domes” in its beer garden that can be rented for 90 minutes to three hours, with domes being thoroughly cleaned and disinfected between time slots. Each dome is furnished with an electric fireplace, a sofa and even a chandelier. Drinks, appetizers and a charcuterie board are served and owners Justin and Jennifer Martinez hope the domes can be a get-away-from-it-all experience without people needing to go too far afield.
Robinia Courtyard, which featured heated igloos last winter in its courtyard, should be getting them out in mid-November.
Over at Brothers Three, 614 N. Fair Oaks Ave., co-owner Matthew Stebbins has been working on the restaurant’s “game plan and strategy to best prepare for winter.” Stebbins says that he’s been fortunate at Brothers Three, because plans for creating a new patio space had been in the works before COVID-19 hit; so was the addition of garage doors to the front of the building to open up the interior.
Stebbins says that “anything, even the addition of a couple seats, is key for our business’s survival.” He has propane heaters on the patio that look like roaring fires. “They look great, but they are not the best for heat,” Stebbins says. “If you wanted to get patio heaters now, you could probably find them but at three times the normal price.” He’s also wary of inflated propane prices this winter or even a propane shortage.
Stebbins is in the final stages of a plan to enclose the overhang with canvas panels and to add electric heat. “It’s heavy-duty canvas panels on runners, with doors on two sides. You can shove them aside. They’ll be custom-made for that space,” says Stebbins, who thinks they should prove versatile even after COVID-19 restrictions.
“You have to make decisions to spend money looking at the long term,” he says.
Stebbins has been trying to make the patio an inviting place where “people can feel safe and be safe, and try to enjoy themselves. The hospitality side is why people go to restaurants — the important thing is to create that environment where people can feel safe, relax and appreciate things in life.”
Old Sugar Distillery, 931 E. Main St., is also trying to create a welcoming ambience. Old Sugar has three fire pits available for reservation Friday and Saturday, and offers a package that includes use of the fire pit, seating, a bundle of firewood, a s’mores kit with locally made Wm. Chocolate and four cocktails, for $50.
Cafe Hollander, 701 Hilldale Way, has standing heaters and table heaters now, but is working on installing a heated tent on the ground level patio by early November, according to Eric Wagner, CEO of the Lowlands Group, which owns the restaurant.
Other restaurants are looking to expand their interior seating instead. Amanda Fox of Heritage BBQ and To-Go, 5957 McKee Road in Fitchburg, says its tents are coming down and they will be working on building out their indoor space for seating. Tents are already down at Heritage Tavern, 131 E. Mifflin St., though the tables in its outdoor space are still there and they have added propane heaters to the patio, says Fox. “It’s not an easy solution to put heating in a tent.”
Caitlin Suemnicht, chief operating officer at the Food Fight restaurant group, says that there are “overhead gas heaters in the covered patio at Everly, so we are planning on extending our season there for as long as possible. Other than that, we are not adding heaters or covering to any of our other outdoor areas.” Some other Food Fight restaurants — Johnny Delmonico’s, Fresco and the Avenue — will be closing for the winter.
The city’s Streatery program, which during the summer permitted restaurants to expand their outdoor dining areas on sidewalks and in city parking spaces, has approved or is in the process of approving a number of permits for heaters at Taiwan Little Eats, Lucille, Merchant, Young Blood Brewing, City Bar, Osteria Papavero, the Ivory Room, Genna’s, the Tornado Steakhouse, Monday’s and Rare Steakhouse (permitted) as well as the Irish Pub, the Settle Down Tavern and Whiskey Jack’s (in process). “Businesses using pop-up tents can continue to use them but are not able to add walls to the tents without becoming an inside establishment and all related capacity requirements are then in effect,” Madison street vending coordinator Meghan Blake-Horst writes in an email. “Also, these approved heaters are not allowed under tents. In most cases they will have to choose one or the other unless they are able to use an approved electric heat source.”
The Streatery program was initially meant to run until Oct. 25. Now, any Streatery participant wanting to continue its outdoor operation past that date will have to submit new or revised plans for cold weather operations.
[Editor's note: This article has been corrected to indicate Sabri Darsouni's role at ZuZu Cafe is managing partner.]