With the gas outage, Ellina Aspen prepares to cook outdoors with a stove and propane tank for their evening hours of operation on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Aspen business operators Monday once again were resigned to a force outside of their control and hitting them in the cash register.
During what is supposed to be Aspen’s most lucrative time of the year, they were grappling with yet another setback a natural gas outage reportedly triggered by an intentional act on a public utility.
“This is just par for the course in 2020,” Chris Lanter, the co-owner of both Cache Cache and Home Team BBQ, said Monday.
2019-2020 Passapalooza at Snowmass Village. (Photo by Jeremy Swanson)
2019-2020 Passapalooza at Snowmass Village. (Photo by Jeremy Swanson)
Construction on the lighting installments for the light festival in Snowmass Village on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Construction on the lighting installments for the light festival in Snowmass Village on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
2019-2020 Passapalooza at Snowmass Village. (Photo by Jeremy Swanson)
“It is beautiful and it’s beguiling. It is attractive,” says Anthony Rowe, an artist with the creative collective Squidsoup. “And we hope it makes you forget about this COVID crap that’s going on at the moment if for a moment.”