Reservations for both Miracle STL and Sippin’ Santa are sold out, but limited seating is available for walk-ins (Our advice: Arrive early and with a small party).
[FOOD NEWS]
Holiday Bars Pop Up in STL Written by
LIZ MILLER
W
ith Thanksgiving now in the rearview mirror, the winter holiday season is now unavoidably omnipresent. Malls have hung oversized ornaments from the ceiling with care and the Hallmark Channel is airing its cheesy Christmas films around the cloc Fortunately, a few bright lights are here to guide us away from the tinsel-covered consumerism and back to one of our favorite coping mechanisms: alcohol. Last week, two holiday-themed pop-up bars opened in St. Louis: Miracle STL (2800 Indiana Avenue) and Sippin’ Santa (3146 Locust Street). Miracle STL is located inside Small Change, the Benton Park dive bar run by Ted and Jamie Kilgore, owners of Planter’s House in Lafayette Square. Sippin’ Santa, however, is popping up in Midtown. As in years past, Miracle STL is serving signature and new cocktails such as the Snowball Old-Fashioned and the Run Run Rudolph. For our money, though, we want to try the Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel cocktail, which is made with chocolate gelt-infused mezcal, campari, sweet vermouth and Pedro Ximenez. At Sippin’ Santa, holiday cocktails are Tikithemed, including the Christmas Eve of Destruction and Papa Noel. Like other Miracle locations across the country, the St. Louis pop-up bar is selling holiday mugs with 10 percent of sales donated to Action Against Hunger and St. Louis-based Santa’s Helpers Inc. Reservations for both Miracle STL and Sippin’ Santa are sold out but limited seating is available for walk-ins (Our advice: Arrive early and with a small party). Miracle STL and Sippin’ Santa are scheduled to run until December 28. The former is open from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Sunday and the latter is open from 4 to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Several other spots in town will be getting in on the festive fun this season too. From Friday, November 29 through mid-De-
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
Holiday spirit never tasted so good. | COURTESY MIRACLE STL cember, holiday pop-up bar LIT will be serving Christmas-themed tipples to sip by the glow of Christmas lights at Molly’s in Soulard (816 Geyer Avenue, 314-241-6200). Open from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and 6 to 10 p.m on Sunday. The bar is serving a cocktail list dubbed The 12 Drinks of LITmas, which includes an alcoholic build-your-own hot chocolate bar. Molly’s has been inundated with reservation requests since sharing news about the pop-up bar, so calling the bar at 314-241-6200 to ask about dates and times is advised. In early December, yet another holiday pop-up bar will debut. From December 5 through Janu-
DECEMBER 4-10, 2019
riverfronttimes.com
ary 5, Paddy O’s (618 South Seventh Street, 314-588-7313) will host Mistletoe, a new Christmasthemed pop-up concept. For one month, the bar will be wrapped in glittering holiday decor — including St. Louis Blues- and St. Louis Cardinals-themed Christmas trees — and a festive photo booth to match its menu of limited-time tipples. In addition to the winter wonderland inside, you can also rab a seat by the fire pits outside and purchase a s’mores kit to ma e o er the ames uests can also park at Paddy O’s, grab a drink and then take a trolley ride to the Anheuser-Busch brewery lights display Friday through Sunday. Catch the fun ThursdayO-
through Sunday from 4 p.m. to midnight. Walk-in customers are welcome, but to guarantee yourself a table, the bar requests you make a reservation online. Next up, on Sunday, December 15, from 1 to 3 p.m., The Hideout (210 North Euclid Avenue) will host a holiday cookie decorating class with Yellowbelly pastry chef MJ Stewart and holiday cocktails from co-owner Tim Wiggins. Although not a holiday pop-up bar per se, we’re including this in our roundup because Stewart and Wiggins are both incredibly talented and their work is deserving of your time, plus, did we mention holiday cocktails? Guests will be able to throw back two drinks and take home six decorated cookies. Tickets can be purchased online. nd finally as e creep closer and closer to Christmas Day, there’s one more holiday drinking event to pencil into your schedules: the eighth-annual 12 Bars of Charity. Happening on Saturday, December 21, this holiday-themed bar crawl benefits a be y o local charities: Stray Rescue of St. Louis, The Dudes-St. Jude Children’s Hospital, World Pediatric Project, Friends of Kids With Cancer, Autism Speaks St. Louis, Gene Slay’s Girls & Boys Club of Saint Louis, WISH STLMake-A-Wish Missouri & Kansas and St. Louis Hero Network. The pub crawl rules are simple: Assemble a team of friends and family, choose a charity to support and then visit one or more of 26 bars, which will donate a portion of their daily proceeds to the charity of your choice. Tickets are available for purchase through Eventbrite. With so many boozy ways to avoid Hallmark Channel Christmas films this year perhaps the holiday season won’t be so bad after all. n