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Aurora Restaurant Annette Builds Innovative Greenhouses For Outdoor Seating This Winter

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- As the summer days are starting to wind down, many restaurants are faced with the challenge of having outdoor seating during the winter months. Annette at the Stanley in Aurora believes they have the answer.

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"We are planning on building about 12 small greenhouses for outdoor dining in the winter that we are going to heat with small portable heaters and put one table in one greenhouse and have a winter wonderland village," Nelson Harvey, the owner of Annette restaurant, said.

Harvey is hoping his plans pays off. He got the idea to use the greenhouses for private dining after doing some research on "Restaurant De Kas" in Amsterdam.

"We figured that, we had this big tent, outdoor wedding style tent that we been doing but if you put walls on it and you put heaters in it that you're basically inside, Nelson added.

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"If every couple of groups of four had their own little pod, we figured that they would be safer and make people feel safe and would be nice and intimate and kind of fun at the same time,"

Nelson tried to build up the greenhouses all by himself, but it was too tough. Building one took him almost five days to complete. So, he sent a message on Instagram asking for help and his regulars, friends and even former employees came to the rescue.

"They responded! Within about 24 hours we had about 25 people committed to help us do this and that was all that we needed. That was really inspiring way that folks in our community came out for us," Nelson said.

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Out of the 12 greenhouses, two will seat four people and 10 will seat up to two people. Nelson is hoping all the greenhouses done and ready to roll in the next couple of weeks.

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