[UPDATE: Dine Under the Stars has filed for bankruptcy. According to the company, you can file a claim for a refund with their appointed bankruptcy trustee. Visit their site for more info.]
Although the saying that Denver gets 300 days of sunshine per year seems to be based more on myth, dining al fresco in the Mile High does prove difficult in colder, snowier spring months. Leave the Canadians to change that.
The Montréal-based, traveling dining event company Dine Under The Stars will stop in Denver in 2020 from April 1 through April 30, and hopefully again on undetermined dates this fall. Twenty garden domes will be constructed at the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Chatfield Farms location in Littleton near the restored, 1918 dairy barn Hildebrand Ranch in order to offer guests an intimate, four-course outdoor dining experience that doesn’t depend on the weather.
Each geodesic dome can seat up to six people and will be completely weather-resistant with a heater and blankets for colder days and a portable fan for hotter days. According to the owner/partner of Dine Under The Stars, Ryan Wibawa, the event takes place in the spring and autumn in cities where colder climates keep people indoors. The decision to stop in Denver wasn’t difficult.
“It has to be a place where winter is a little bit harsh,” Wibawa said.
The venue at Chatfield Farms, in particular, was exciting for the Dine Under The Stars team due to the mountain backdrop.
“The Denver location is absolutely fantastic. It’s very rare in life you’ll find the opportunity to sit under a dome and actually eat with the mountains in the snow or rain,” he said.
Denver’s growing culinary scene also made the city attractive to the event company, although making plans to stop in the Mile High City has been more difficult than usual due to regulations on obtaining a liquor license.
“It’s a little unnerving because we’ve never seen that before,” Wibawa said. “It’s been a little more challenging, but we really wanted to make it work because of the particular venue we have. It’ll be worth it when we’re eating and looking at that mountain.”
Wibawa, who previously owned nightclubs and restaurants and launched two similar event dining companies called Dinner for Four and Dinner With a View, is no stranger to hosting lavish dining experiences. But he says Dine Under The Stars is a bit different than his other ventures. The concept for the outdoor dome dining began when Wibawa changed his perspective on dining out.
“In this Instagram generation, people aren’t just going to a restaurant to eat. People are going to restaurants for the experience of going out. We wanted to use that concept — this idea that people are going for the sake of taking pictures of their food and friends and having a reason to step foot out of the house,” Wibawa said. “With social media, dining has now become this whole experience and so the venue has to take it up a notch. We have to step outside of the box, and in order to step outside of the box, we need to actually step outside of a restaurant.”
The domes might be a good reason to step outside of the house, but they are actually designed to feel like home.
“Once you get inside these domes, you don’t want to feel like you’re outside anymore. You want to feel like you’re in the warmth of your home. The domes have indoor laminated hardwood floors like you would have in your living room. The dining table is not an outdoor dining table. It’s one that you’d have in your dining room,” Wibawa said. “You get this really homey feeling. There are blankets. You feel like you’re inside a private little home with you and your favorite people. It’s heated, it’s warm and it’s a good time.”
According to Wibawa, the goal of Dine Under The Stars isn’t really to see stars as the name suggests, but rather to enjoy the surrounding natural environment and indulge on delicious cuisine with friends and family.
Although the event largely focuses on the atmosphere, Wibawa promises quality food and drink are also top priorities. The four-course meal will include an appetizer, two main entrées and a dessert and accommodate any dietary restrictions and allergies.
Wibawa says the chef and partnering catering company will be announced by January 21, and that unlike most traveling event companies, Dine Under The Stars is completely devoted to providing locally sourced cuisine.
“It is a local chef, it is a local [catering] company and there’ll be an emphasis on local, homegrown, organic food. We only bring in local chefs. We bring in a celebrated chef from each city. It’ll be a chef from Denver,” Wibawa said.
There aren’t any clues as to who the chef is yet or what’ll be on the menu, but Wibawa says Dine Under The Stars searches for talent based on professional food critic reviews, photography, restaurant reviews, blogs and other online mentions. Although Wibawa is unable to sample each chef’s food individually, he says popularity is of utmost importance.
“Eating someone’s food in person isn’t really a good way to tell if they’re a good chef or not [for Dine Under The Stars]. What I do know is that the people who have experienced it before — if they’re going out of their way to rave about it and the food looks presentable — chances are that person won’t disappoint,” he said.
Chefs must also have the ability to prepare dishes that accompany a wide variety of taste preferences in order to be considered.
“We do not choose chefs that are nationally or regionally inclined. That’s a disqualifier for us because we’re trying to include everybody. You cannot hope that everyone is going to like Italian, Mexican or Thai food. Although all those things sound fantastic, they just won’t please everyone. We take a mainstream approach. We don’t like to put national or regional twists on food,” Wibawa said.
For the month-long event, the selected chef will have the option to prepare a rotating menu.
“The food changes. What the chef cooks on week one might not be what he or she cooks on week two. We try to stay with what’s good at that very moment in that city. It’s not possible to anticipate what the menu will look like,” Wibawa said.
Guests will just have to be surprised.
Dine Under The Stars will be located at the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms at 8500 West Deer Creek Canyon Rd., Littleton, CO 80128. The spring event will run from April 1 through April 30, 2020, with reservations at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Each reserved dome will be $90 and seat up to six people at $76 per meal. Make reservations here.
Correction: the article was updated to change the reserved dome price from $45 to $90. By using an online promotional code, domes can be reserved for $45. This price does not include tax and convenience fees.
“Because eating outdoors is hard. Let’s mess that up.” We’ve reached peak privilege.
So Dine under the stars in Denver will be in Littleton?, I don’t like that, I’m a Denver resident and if you say Denver, well make it Denver and not Botanic Gardens in Littleton, this article is not accurate when you repeatably refer to Denver when in reality its in Littleton . What was wrong with the Botanic Gardens that is actually in Denver?….Dumb!
How do you make reservations?! I live over 2 hours away in NE Colorado. I want to set a reservation for my hubby and I!
Hi Catrina!
Thanks for reading. You can make reservations to Dine Under The Stars at this link: https://reservations.dineunderthestars.net/den-spring.
This looks very interesting. I have signed up with my husband and four friends- we are very excited about it!
Just a note/correction-the total cost is actually $124/person. $76 only covers the meal- not tax, fees or gratuity and does not include dome rental. The dome is $107, not $45.
Hi!
Thank you for reading. We are happy to hear our article spurred you to make a reservation for Dine Under The Stars. We have double-checked the pricing for the event and you are correct that the domes are priced at $90 each (minus the tax and convenience fee) rather than the online discounted price for $45 each. We will correct this error!
How/where do you get the promo code? Anybody know?
You talk about a promotional price if $45 for online dome but no where do you give the promotional code
I’m trying to pay for my reservation and I’m unable too. I have a confirmation number and paid for my dome. Please help
Hi Jeanie! Sorry to hear you are having troubles with your reservation. For further help, we recommend you email den@dineunderthestars.net with specific questions. Thanks for reading!
Hi I’m trying to reserve for me and my husband but the website makes me put 4 guest. Can I do a don reservation for 2?
Hi Natasha! Sorry to hear you are having troubles with your reservation. For further help, we recommend you email den@dineunderthestars.net with specific questions. Thanks for reading!
Wheres promotional code ? I only need reservation for 2, if appreciate the help
Hi Denise, at the time of the article publication there was a promotional code on the Dine Under the Stars website. If you can’t seem to find it, we recommend you email den@dineunderthestars.net to ask. Thanks for reading!
I set a reservation for my husband and I but I have other questions, like it’s EXACT address, what exactly we’re going to be eating, things like that. Can someone contact me so I can ask questions??
Hi Jordan,
Thanks for reading! The exact location for Dine Under the Stars will be the Denver Botanic Gardens (Chatfield Farms) at 8500 West Deer Creek Canyon Rd., Littleton, CO 80128. However, as for the menu, we recommend you email den@dineunderthestars.net for further questions.
I sent an email regarding getting our money back sends this is postponed for 6 months. No one got back to me, so can I get an answer regarding whether or not we can be refunded due to the coronavirus causing this to be rescheduled??
Unfortunately, this isn’t our event nor are we connected to its organization, we just reported on it. The best contact we have is here:popup@dineunderthestars.net
We hope that helps.
Horrible! My husband and I eloped in December. We decided to do this in lieu of any ceremony or reception. Dine Under the Stars has filed for bankruptcy.
We were told several times the event was pushed out to October. Checked the site and the event wasn’t postponed. They’ve filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. All social media has been removed and their site has been replaced with a PDF with little information and no contact. No one has reached out to notify us.
Why is no one talking about this? We are not the only people out of a large sum of money. Someone, please do a follow-up story.
Hi Jenna,
We are so sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident regarding Dine Under the Stars. Since we published this piece back in early January, we did not anticipate the impact COVID-19 would have on this event and would have never encouraged readers to attend if we had believed cancellation or postponement was even a remote possibility. There is no exception for the headache that we’re sure this has caused you and your husband and it’s certainly no way to celebrate such a momentous occasion. We’ll do our best to get in touch with our contact at Dine Under the Stars and will relay your frustration. We will look into this matter and provide coverage for a follow-up story if we find that this issue is not addressed promptly. Thank you so much for letting us know of this matter.
Has there been any follow up? We are out $678 dollars as we reserved it for a group of 6 friends and have still not received any funds back. That is a ton of money to lose!! Please let us know if you were able to get into contact with someone from the company.
Apparently the company filed for bankruptcy and you can file a claim for a refund with their appointed bankruptcy trustee. You can go to their site for more info. https://duts-static-production.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/pdf/DUTS+Bankruptcy+Notice.pdf,,
Here are all their contacts but their emails are no longer working beyond an auto-reply, it seems.
ryan@dineunderthestars.net
popup@dineunderthestars.net>
Khrystyna Prokopovych
Manager Account
Your link to file for our money goes to a letter. Is there a contact I can call for my money? No one has reached out to me.
These are the only contacts I have:
ryan@dineunderthestars.net
popup@dineunderthestars.net
kp@dineunderthestars.net
I have followed up to see if they have more contact info to share.
Yes I hope there is a way to get a refund. Mine was $581.59. 53.61 for the the dome and 5 dinner for $527.98. Appreciate if we can get that trustee number.
Hi 303!
I’m wondering if there’s been any follow up on this news story… I, like the comments above, am also out $500 and keep getting the automated responses. It’s now been almost 6 months since the scheduled event and 10 months since I paid for this and no sign of anyone doing anything about this. I’m in shock of how unethical Dine Under the Stars is and truly disappointed by this and the fact that it seems as if no one is doing anything about it. I know we would all truly appreciate it if 303 could get some insight on this situation.
Unfortunately, we’ve reached out multiple times and keep getting the same info. But we will update here if we find anything or hear news.
We, too, would appreciate any help in how we can file a claim with the bankruptcy attorneys as we’re also out $582. Our dinner was rescheduled to Oct. 12th and we never received any sort of communication that it was happening or that the company went out of business.
We are in the same boat. No refunds, no attorney contact info, no communication at all. Pretty Pissed off at the moment.
Same situation here. $685 and it has been too long to file a dispute with the bank.