Parisian Glass Dome’s Second Life in California

A historic Parisian glass dome, once gracing a famous establishment, now presides over Tiffany's Bistro at Chateau Big Bear. Once a symbol of Parisian nightlife, it's now accessible to the public for dinner and live music.

Look closely at the glass today and you can still locate tiny pockmarks and imperfections– said to be the marks of champagne corks stood out beneath it during its Parisian nightlife days. The hotel’s proprietors have because placed roughly $500,000 into recovering the dome, and it currently sits over the tables of Tiffany’s Bistro, the hotel’s in-house dining establishment and live songs place, doing exactly what it always did: presiding over an area filled with people having fun, just a number of thousand feet higher and several thousand miles from home.

Know Before You Go: Visiting the Dome

Know Before You Go: The dome is inside Tiffany’s Restaurant at Chateau Big Bear Boutique Hotel, open to the general public (not just hotel visitors) for dinner and live songs Friday and Saturday evenings, 4– 11pm, with online music from 6– 9pm. It’s ideal seen at night when the area’s lighting brings out the tarnished glass. Walk-ins just– no appointments taken. Validated vehicle parking is offered on-site.

The Dome’s Parisian Origins

The 57-foot dome was initially mounted in a Parisian tango residence during the city’s so-called “Golden Age of Brothels,” a period when private casino and satisfaction homes appointed extravagant decorative glasswork to match their credibilities. Eventually afterwards phase shut, the dome was thoroughly taken apart panel by panel and delivered throughout the Atlantic, eventually locating its way to Estate Big Bear, a French-inspired hotel constructed in 1987 in the San Bernardino National Park.

A Transatlantic Journey to Big Bear

In a ski community two hours from Los Angeles, in a restaurant offering alcoholic drinks and bar treats, hangs the largest Tiffany-style stained-glass dome west of Chicago– and it didn’t start out anywhere near a mountain.