Usually when you walk into Hotel Monaco’s Vault Bar, you get an immediate high-heels rush, like you’ve entered a posh, hip New York boutique.
Prepare yourself.
For two weeks the silver-walled space is looking more like an ugly holiday sweater translated into a bar—colored twinkle lights are strung back and forth along the ceiling, the walls are wrapped like packages, fuzzy red stockings are hung along the windows and even the servers are dressed like elves. Old Christmas movies like Elf are looping on a TV screen and Burl Ives or someone like him croons non-stop.
Food and Beverage Manager Tommy Girrbach, with a little help from his spouse, spent days combing stores for Christmas kitsch, then decorated the entire bar themselves—the result is definitely extreme Christmas.
Miracle Bar, a pop-up concept, takes over bars all over the country (only one per town, though), providing a menu of special drinks to go with the over-the-top decor. Try a Snowball Old Fashioned, made with spiced brown sugar and rye, or a Falalalalala, a mix of mulled wine syrup and Prosecco.
Once you order one of the crazy cocktails, you’ll feel the Scrooge in you ooze right out.
Miracle Bar is open through December 26.
