photo by: Submitted photo

Ryan Robinson is pictured with a reindeer he has raised as part of his Snow Globe business, which operates a Christmas-themed pop-up bar and restaurant at Dempsey's in downtown Lawrence.

The thrills are multiplying — and maybe the reindeer too.

After starting Snow Globe, an over-the-top, Christmas-themed pop-up bar and restaurant in downtown Lawrence last year, local entrepreneur Ryan Robinson is on the way to expanding the idea across the Midwest.

Snow Globe opened again in Lawrence earlier this month, although this year it is located at Dempsey’s, the bar and hamburger restaurant at 623 Vermont St., rather than along Massachusetts Street like it was last year.

Otherwise, though, the offering is similar: a bar and restaurant setting that is inundated with every type of Christmas decoration imaginable. The space has about one mile worth of Christmas lights, for example.

“Clark Griswold has nothing on me,” Snow Globe owner and and founder Ryan Robinson said of the fictional “Christmas Vacation” character known for garish holiday decorations. “I have that over-the-top personality.”

Just a bit. Enough that this year he purchased a couple of live reindeer that he now brings to the downtown Lawrence location on weekends. He purchased the reindeer shortly after ending Snow Globe for the season last year, and he has trained them to walk around on a leash, allowing people to pet them.

“I basically treat them like my dogs,” said Robinson, who lives in rural Douglas County. “I take them for a walk every day. They come up on my porch.”

Currently, he has two, although that may change since he has one male and one female reindeer.

But the expansion that is less speculative involves Snow Globe itself. In addition to the Lawrence location, Robinson opened a location in Des Moines, Iowa, inside the Exile Brewery.

“That has turned out really well,” Robinson said. “In fact, it is kind of crazy up there.”

The Des Moines location already has had 20,000 people go through it, and is expected to top 40,000 by the end of the Christmas season. The Lawrence location is expected to have about 15,000 people, with more than half of those coming from outside Lawrence, Robinson said.

photo by: Submitted photo

Snow Globe expanded to Des Moines, Iowa, pictured above, and plans to locate in about a dozen other cities next holiday season.

Those types of numbers have Robinson planning for a major Midwest expansion next holiday season. He said the goal was to have a dozen Snow Globe locations within an eight- to 10-hour drive of Lawrence.

Yes, Lawrence’s new export to the world may be over-the-top Christmas parties. Robinson definitely is stocking up on the decorations to pull it off.

“I’ve gone from owning a semitrailer of Christmas decorations to semitrailers to soon it will be a warehouse full of Christmas decorations,” he said. “Sometimes I think I’ve lost my mind.”

But Robinson has been down a similar path before, although his last journey involved lots of paint instead of lots of decorations. Robinson formerly operated Silverback in Lawrence, which ended up being the lead operator for the once-popular Color Run events. Perhaps you remember those 5K events where runners were peppered with colored powders and finished the race kind of looking like a piece of human tie-dye art. For about six years, Robinson’s company oversaw the logistics and operations for many of those events, staging events in about 100 cities per year at its peak.

While Robinson is not promising that Snow Globe will get that big, he does think the concept really resonates with a lot of people. It gives them a chance to experience something that they wouldn’t ever take the time to do themselves.

“I think it resonates with people because people like to come in and say ‘wow, whoever put this up is crazy,'” Robinson said.

photo by: Submitted photo

Decorations, dining and drinks are a big part of the Snow Globe experience.

He thinks the concept has a chance to be popular with restaurant and bar owners, who essentially hire his company to set up Snow Globe operations inside their venues. He said both Dempsey’s and the brewery in Des Moines have experienced triple-digit percentage increases in their revenues during the holiday season. Thus far, the business model does not involve the venues charging an admission fee, but rather visitors order food and drinks off the menu, and then a percentage gratuity is added to the bill, to fund the snow globe operations.

In Lawrence, the menu features hamburgers, sandwiches, a full bar and also a brunch menu. The brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays is designed to be kid-oriented, with a princess theme. Plus, often Santa Claus, and sometimes even The Grinch are at the location during those times.

Robinson recommends patrons make a reservation at snowglobepopup.com, although he said walk-in business also is allowed, with available spaces mainly on the weekdays.

Robinson moved the pop-up bar to Dempsey’s from its former Massachusetts Street location, because he liked the hamburger and food menu at Dempsey’s. He also likes being on the 600 block of Vermont Street because he plans to have other events there in the future.

His production company will host a cornhole tournament — the tailgate-favorite, horseshoe-like game where you toss a bean-bag through a small hole — in early May. Top prize is scheduled to be $10,000. Dempsey’s will be the headquarters for that event, which will involve shutting down that block of Vermont Street, while more than 2,000 participants compete in cornhole matches.

“I like that stretch of Vermont Street because we can have events that still bring people downtown, but we don’t have to close down Massachusetts Street to do it,” he said.