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December 5, 2024
Why Are There So Many Holiday Pop-Up Bars?
Powered by Instagram, nostalgia, and Christmas spirit, scores of holiday-themed pop-up bars have opened across the country in recent years to seemingly become a fixture in holiday traditions.
In New York City, the most famed holiday-themed bar and restaurant is Rolf’s German Restaurant, which has long attracted lines outside its Gramercy location during the holiday season to experience its roughly 15,000 ornaments mounted on the ceilings and walls, as well as wreaths, garlands, 800 dolls, and over 200,000 lights strung throughout the restaurant.
The recent holiday pop-up craze, however, is largely attributed to the opening of Miracle on Ninth Street in the East Village in 2014. Set against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, the bar is known for its cocktail lineup of seasonally spiced drinks with names such as Christmapolitan, Snowball Old-Fashioned, and Jingle Ball Nog served in signature glassware — from Santa-hat-wearing T-Rex mugs to cups shaped like Santa’s pants — by bartenders wearing everything from ugly holiday sweaters to Will Ferrell-style “Elf” costumes.
Bathed in warm colorful lights and plenty of glitter, the space is fitted not only with plenty of Christmas nods — shelves strung with vintage cards, chairs enveloped in Santa-hat covers, and a ceiling rigged with gift-wrapped boxes — but also a menorah-crowned, blue-and-white Hanukkah Hideaway nook.
In a recent review of Miracle on Ninth Street, Forbes stated, “To some, it might look like a department store window display exploded all over a dive bar. But for others, it’s like stepping into the set of a Hallmark holiday movie setting, where everyone can be the main character.”
The location is open for about two months over the holiday season and then reverts back to The Cabinet, a bar specializing in agave spirits.
Miracle on Ninth Street founder Greg Boehm also created a tiki-themed spin-off, Sippin’ Santa, and has franchised both concepts to reach over 200 globally this year. For a franchise fee, partners receive holiday-themed barware manufactured by Cocktail Kingdom (also owned by Boehm), cocktail recipes, printed menus, playlists, and social-media-ready professional drink photos to promote the bar.
Joann Spiegel, VP of both Miracle and Sippin’ Santa, recently told Food & Wine, “To see the Miracle concept be embraced across the country, and now globally, by both large cities and small towns is truly remarkable, and a testament to how the holidays really bring people together.”
Across the U.S., many bars and restaurants are transforming into seasonal holiday pop-ups, independently crafting Yuletide-themed drink and food menus without franchisee support. They’re also enhancing their festive décor to create Instagrammable moments, with some even offering guests the chance to cozy up by a fireplace.
An article on Cleveland.com profiling 33 holiday pop-up bars this year in the Greater Cleveland region stated, “In the age of flashy social media marketing campaigns, the trend of Christmas bars has exploded, with watering holes competing with each other to create the most Instagram-friendly decor.”
Also feeding their popularity is the fact that pop-ups are only open for a limited time, which creates FOMO (fear of missing out) urgency. The bars additionally capitalize on the continuing craft cocktail trend that has seen some classic drinks return from obscurity.
The pop-ups further offer an elevated social experience, supporting everything from office parties and pub crawls to family gatherings with out-of-towners. Michael Giacomini, VP of Red Cow, a holiday-themed bar in Minneapolis, told Fox 9 in Minneapolis, “Instead of just your average, let’s go out to dinner with the family and do that. How can we make it fun? How can we make it something of a memory for people.”
Outside the holiday season, bar pop-ups dedicated to Halloween have also been a trend across several cities in recent years as well as some for lovers around Valentine’s Day.
Discussion Questions
What’s driving the surge in openings of holiday pop-up bars?
Will holiday pop-ups further increase their foothold in the coming years as holiday traditions and other holidays (i.e., Halloween, Valentine’s Day) become bigger pop-up opportunities?
Poll
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Neil Saunders
Managing Director, GlobalData
David Biernbaum
Founder & President, David Biernbaum & Associates LLC
Lucille DeHart
Principal, MKT Marketing Services/Columbus Consulting
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I don’t think this is a new thing. There have always been holiday pop-up bars, mostly because people drink and socialize more during the holidays. But socializing and the need for novelty and experience have come back strongly since the pandemic. More demand equals more pop-up bars!
When it comes to seasonal products and peak-season products, pop-up businesses make a lot of sense.
American’s love to drink at this time of year, and without supplemental pop-ups, supply cannot meet demand.
A bar with three lines deep of people standing ahead of it is not to everyone’s liking.
Halloween pop-ups make even more sense, and the reasons are obvious. Commercial property owners are also very fortunate to be able to lease out vacant spaces.
At a recent Retail Cities event in Chicago, we found ourselves in the hotel bar after our day one sessions. That bar just happened to be recently converted to a Mariah Carey Christmas pop up bar. Aside from the Mariah Carey videos, music and over-the-top Christmas decorations, the bar featured drinks with Mariah’s Black Irish Liqueur. Thus a commercial benefit to the theme. The non conference attendees filled the place up and were having a terrific time. If you can fill a hotel bar on a Tuesday night early in the holiday season, more power to you.
Pop-up bars offer festive, social experiences that pull in younger consumers who are drinking less than older cohorts.
The limited-time nature of these Instagram-worthy seasonal destinations creates a sense of urgency.
Novelty, fun and nostalgia help these establishments captivate consumers and compete for share of wallet during the most important shopping season of the year.
Consumers are social and curious by nature. Pop-up bars and other venues introduce novelty and newness, feeding the scarcity model and resulting FOMO. Location selection and crafted experience are crucial for success. A pop-up bar can add to the festive nature of the holidays.
These are just holiday themed, impulse bars. Any smart bar owner would be leveraging any holiday with a special themed event for everyone to use as an excuse to come to their bar and celebrate. This is a reflection of what successful bar owners do to increase their sales and encourage more people to come and party at their bar. Sports bars have been doing this for years. Other bars embrace holidays and food specials to shift the atmosphere at their bar during special times of the year. The opportunities to change your bar’s focus, to meet your customer’s needs are endless.
Pop up bars generally lean on nostalgia as a way of getting people through their doors – an 80s bar, a pirate bar, etc. As Christmas is inherently a nostalgic holiday, coupled with higher-than-normal alcohol consumption for most people, this interim business model not only makes sense, it works too.
Social media has definately amplified what bars and restaurants have been doing to create themselves as seasonal destinations. The wave of Instagram posts on European holiday/Christmas markets is also fueling the “new” craze. My view is that with the increase in working from home and digital shopping, consumers are looking for environments and destinations more than they have previously. And who doesn’t like a reason for a holiday drink!