It’s Thursday night in February and, despite the lack of snow
outside, Bol, an upscale bar, restaurant, and bowling alley located in
Vail Village, is packed. Patrons lounge in comfy leather chairs, watch
sports on up to 15 different televisions, and roll down 12-pin alleys
fit for the White House.
But mostly they eat. They chow on everything from gourmet pizza with
speck and figs to grilled calamari to a $90 serving of Kobe ribeye. This
new hotspot in Vail is tucked into the eastern corner of Solaris,
the development created by Peter Knobel, a former telecommunications
executive from Long Island—and it’s only one of the diverse experiences
the complex offers. Solaris also includes 900- to 6,500-square-foot
luxury condos, a movie theatre with waiters that serve you cocktails and
dinner (try the salmon with lemon-whipped potatoes and New York strip
steak) during the coming attractions, art galleries, a skating rink, a
coffee shop, and Matsuhisa, a five-star Japanese restaurant. It
sparkles, it overwhelms—and it was very close to never existing.
Back in 2005, when the project was initially proposed, some town
council members, whose votes were necessary to approve the project,
feared the massive structure—547,000 square feet—would block the
mountain views. But in a November 2007 election, those council members
lost their seats to officials who supported Knobel’s project.
