It was a chilly Wednesday evening and I was behind schedule, struggling to find my wallet and my keys and, in the rush out the door, forgot my cell phone, so I had to turn around to get it. I was not in a good mood.
But that all changed when I was transported to a winter wonderland at Cheers from the Shelf, the first official Elf on the Shelf pop-up bar.
Located in Morris American Bar in Northwest Washington, D.C., the North Pole-themed holiday bar is a collaboration between hospitality lifestyle brand Versus and the Lumistella Company.
It’s open until Dec. 30 and features festive cocktails, finger foods and a bevy of elves, which representatives for Santa Claus say are sizing up customers from “every nook and corner, secretly determining who’s on the nice list.”
And there are so many elves — at least 50, according to the powers-that-be. Some hang from the ceiling, flying through a snowy clouded sky as if they’re about to go report to Santa Claus; an elf-lined staircase leads to a balcony area with a big tinsel aurora borealis; and boxes shaped like a neighborhood show what your elf might be doing at home while you’re out on the town.
It looks like Christmas exploded in there, but in the classiest way possible.
“What we wanted to do was make people feel like you’re stepping into the reality of Washington, D.C., but now it’s the elf version of what that looks like,” Chanda Bell, co-author of “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition” and CEO of the Lumistella Company, tells TODAY.com. “You know, the Elf on the Shelf sort of lives in these two spaces, right? The human world and then the North Pole.”
As the book celebrates its 20th anniversary, fans can enjoy cocktails on both the “Nice List” and the “Naughty List.”
“For the first time, kids who grew up on Elf on the Shelf are now in college and some of them are young professionals,” Vinoda Basnayake, CEO and Founder of Versus, tells TODAY.com, “We want to tip our hat and nod to kids who grew up on Elf on the Shelf, who want to hold on to the tradition.”
My Review of the Elf on the Shelf Bar
As grown-ups, we tend to get wrapped up in the adulting of it all, with deadlines, car insurance and everything that keeps us clothed and fed. It was really nice to enter an adult space that was designed to make me feel like a kid again.
As I discovered my inner child, though, I was drinking craft cocktails that were very thoughtfully designed.
Favorites include the Nice-Tini, which combines vodka, crème de cacao, coconut cream and peppermint schnapps for a creamy treat; the Snow Surprises, featuring rum with citrus, cinnamon and coconut for a Tiki-style drink; and the Midnight Report, a riff on an espresso martini, dotted with a touch of peppermint and chocolate bitters.
The whole thing felt themed yet stylish. Every single drink came in a different playful vessel or had a delightful presentation: Ceramic reindeer, lushly garnished highballs and other glassware come with smoky coal-esque garnishes, candy-cane rims, LED lights and more.
The food was delectable, too: In addition to pigs in a blanket, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and deviled eggs, my bestie and I tore through the gooey, chocolaty Deconstructed Campfire S’mores, served in a mini cast-iron skillet.
I noticed that people of all ages came through. Groups of 20- or 30-somethings giggled over marshmallow-topped mugs; a tipsy young man bragged about his girlfriend to us, asking us to scope her Princeton University toque; and a pair of cousins, one who lives in town, came to check the spot out.
“We wanted to do something in the Christmas spirit,” Jenny Hofler, a mother of three visiting from North Carolina, tells TODAY.com. “We have three elves and a reindeer, and those elves are crazy, so this was perfect.”
Hofler says she reads the book every year with her six-year-old, 13-year-old and 14-year-old. The oldest has taken the mantle of moving the elf while she’s out of town. “It has become part of our favorite tradition,” she says.
The elves I spoke to for this story say the hope was to ignite the Christmas spirit in kids at heart, down to the striped and suspendered outfits of the bartenders and paintings of elves of all shades on the walls.
Since I drank every single drink on the menu (hey, I’m thorough!) and didn’t cause a scene, I hope the elves put in a good word to the Clauses for me.
