WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As the reality that Christmas is snowballing toward us, a new Sippin' Santa pop-up bar is now open at Juicy in downtown West Palm Beach.
Joshua Newcombe, the general manager of Juicy, loves Christmas and used his own decorations in the front window.
"It's one of those rare things that, even into adulthood, you can still get nostalgia about. And that's beautiful, man," Newcombe said.
He said on the Griswalds scale of Christmas, "I'm probably, like, in between the mom and the dad of Christmas with the Kranks."
Unlike most Christmas pop-ups, this one has a twist.
"Absolutely Christmas in Florida [themed], without a doubt," said Juicy owner Jason Lakow.
The 600-square-foot locals bar is decorated with Santa hat chair covers, Tiki themes, and oversized tree ornaments.
"There's buoys from boats, paper lanterns, all sorts of really cool things here. Make it really feel like you're having Christmas in Florida," Lakow said.
Every square inch is covered in holiday cheer even Jason's face was sparkling when I interviewed him.
"The glitter is actually from my child. That's, like, completely unrelated, yeah," Lakow said, laughing.
Along with the christmas decor are holiday craft cocktails in festive mugs.
"It's just kind of, like, taking winter flavors and throwing them into a tropical drink," Newcombe said.
"This is the sipping Santa mug. He's got a ukulele. Obviously, he's going through some stuff. No old man gets a ukulele without some serious trauma, and he's gonna surf with it," Joshua said.
"This is already my favorite one. There's a cocktail called a jingle bird that's going in here, Pelican here. Like how perfect business for South Florida, right present under the foot Santa hat on and again, sort of like the tropical Tiki theme to all of these cocktails," said Jason.
Jason says his bar is more than a transaction.
"You go to a bar, you get your drinks, you get your food. Then what happens? You get your check. But here, you see that there's like a line of people outside waiting. You can do a not-so-secret Santa and we send a shot to every single person in line and make a big deal about it," Jason said.
And every day there is an elf on the shelf scavenger hunt the first one to find the "Elf on the Shelf" wins Christmas swag.
The Sippin' Santa pop-up bar is gonna run at Juicy through New Year's Eve.
Juicy Cocktail Bar
202 S Olive Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Hours
Tuesday - Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight.
