Between sleigh maintenance, elf management, eternally keeping tabs on the naughty and nice, and knowing when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake, even Santa could use a drink during the holidays. You may not be Claus-levels of omnipresent this season, but we’re guessing you may need some reprieve, too, which is why we’re directing your attention to the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, home of the 1,300-pound gingerbread bar, Santa’s Tavern.
Now under construction, this freestanding, fully functioning cookie-built cocktail bar is the JW Marriott’s annual festive centerpiece; usually the hotel’s pastry team creates a gingerbread house or Santa’s kitchen, but this year, they’re going boozy with a saccharine installation featuring real cocktails, classes and cookies through January 2.
To be unveiled on Monday, November 27, Santa’s Tavern will be hard to miss; the pop-up bar sits in the lobby of the hotel and is, according to staff, already filling the hotel with the smell of gingerbread. While this feat of dough-based craftsmanship won’t be keeping regular business hours, you can catch surprise gingerbread cookie giveaways and cocktail service throughout the season, in addition to planned events: on December 6, check out a hot toddy tasting, and on December 13, the bar will sample champagne, both as continuations of the hotel’s weekly “liquid intelligence” beverage courses.
Looking to make your mark deliciously? Let the bar or a hotel representative know that you’d like to sponsor a gingerbread brick, and proceeds will benefit the Children’s Miracle Network—and you’ll get your name etched onto the bar in icing.
If you’re hoping to drink festively but Santa’s Tavern is closed for business, you can always head to the JW Marriott’s bar, the Mixing Room, for season-long classics-gone-holidays drinks such as the Santa’s Little Helper, a mule made with gingerbread liqueur that comes served in a copper elf; the More the Merrier cocktail, made with pomegranate, ginger beer, lemon and vodka, sipped through a glitter ball; and the Mistletoe Mimosa, a mimosa made with cranberry and rosé. Then just make your way to the tavern with cocktail already in hand.
Sadly there’s no glimpse of this year’s creation just yet, but you can take a peek at 2013’s life-size gingerbread house and kitchen here:
Santa’s Tavern is located on the ground floor of the JW Marriott at L.A. Live, at 900 W Olympic Boulevard, and is set to open on Monday, November 27.