By Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor, Podcast Host Published Dec 10, 2020 at 12:31 PM

Beginning today, you can experience not only the Lux Domes experience at Cafe Benelux, but also new outdoor dining experiences at all Lowlands’ restaurants, including Buckatabon Tavern and Supper Club, Centraal Grand Cafe and Tappery and all Cafe Hollander locations.  

“The Lux Domes are a beloved Milwaukee winter tradition for so many people,” says Eric Wagner, Lowlands Group CEO. “And now we’ve added similar, yet wholly distinct, outdoor experiences at our other Milwaukee-area grand café and supper club locations. With the holiday season approaching, we felt it was important to direct our energy and resources toward providing our guests with safe and innovative spaces to come together.”

Each outdoor experience is tailored to the restaurant’s distinct concept with private dining structures which seat up to six guests. Each 90-minute reservation includes a new Lowlands Snackuterie box, which includes a variety of noshes and snacks (from ham and rolls at Buckatabon to brunch boxes (with items like egg salad, candied bacon, smoked gouda, bagels and fruit) at Cafe Hollander. Family style meal boxes (including options like the burrata and lasagne dinner, slider boxes and Friday fish fry boxes) are also available, as are drink packages, including options like apple pie mules and old fashioneds.

Choose your experience

Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club
7700 W Harwood Ave., Wauwatosa, (414) 271-7700
thebuckatabon.com
Buckatabon features three cozy Frank & Larry’s Northwoods Shanties, “quintessentially Wisco” which aim to bring the best of the Northwoods ice fishing experience to you (no fishing license required). 

Café Benelux
346 N. Broadway, (414) 501-2500
cafebenelux.com
Cafe Benelux has brought back their Lux Domes experience as well as the new Lux Winter Loft Bar. The rooftop experience features six private domes and one large heated tent for additional socially distanced outdoor dining. The ground-floor features an uber-cozy enclosed porch on Broadway with heated canopy dining.

Cafe Hollander - Brookfield
20150 Union St., Brookfield, (262) 785-4490
cafehollander.com
After shopping at Corners of Brookfield, guests can celebrate the “Ski-son’” at the Après Ski pop-up bar on the ground level or get cozy with a view by renting one of nine individual Dutch row houses on the Hollander rooftop. 

Cafe Hollander  - East Side
2608 N. Downer Ave., 414-963-6366 
cafehollander.com
Dine inside, outside, or in the East Side Hollander’s new socially distanced Dome Village, which features four patio-side domes, and four additional canal houses dotting the adjacent Downer Ave. parklet.

Cafe Hollander - Mequon
5900 W. Mequon Rd., (262) 236-0107 
cafehollander.com
Hollander in Mequon conjures the North Pole with five cozy, decked-out canal houses in their Holiday Row on the Patio. 

Cafe Hollander - Wauwatosa Village
7677 W State St., Wauwatosa, (414) 475-6771
cafehollander.com
It’s Holiday Row on the Bridge at Hollander Tosa where guests will find six cozy canal houses, providing family-ready photo opps and the spirit of Amsterdam to the Village.

Centraal Grand Café and Tappery
2306 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., (414) 755-0378
cafecentraal.com
The Winter Garden of Eten in the Centraal courtyard now features a sizeable heated tent with clear oof panels and whimsical Bohemian decor. Socially distanced seating is available, along with a live music series on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings through Dec. 19.

Safety

Among the first to be approved for Milwaukee’s Moving Milwaukee Forward 72-point safety plan, the restaurant group has implemented its plan at all locations, including those in the surrounding suburbs. In addition to its enhanced COVID-19 cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing processes, Lowlands Group has put a variety of procedures in place to keep outdoor dining as safe as possible. Precautions include staggered reservation times, which allow the individual domes and greenhouses to undergo thorough sanitization followed by treatment with a fog atomizer machine, which generates micron fog that targets airborne pathogens and bacteria invisible to the naked eye. 

“There’s nothing more important to us than the safety of our Lowlands family and guests,” says Wagner. “Over the past nine months we’ve been consistently and continuously innovating and updating our restaurants to create comfortable, safe ways for people to get out and enjoy some time together. With the holidays around the corner, our focus is on providing appropriate spaces for guests and families to gather without losing the magic and spirit of the season.”

For more details and to make reservations, visit lowlandswinter.com.

Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor, Podcast Host

Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with each and every dish. She’s had the privilege of chronicling these tales via numerous media, including OnMilwaukee and in her book “Milwaukee Food.” Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. 

When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or recording the FoodCrush podcast, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.