These cozy and festive bars have all the festooning you need to wassail through the New Year.
Written by KIKI DY
FROM CHALET-CHIC to delightful Christmas kitsch, the Hostess City has no shortage of wonderland watering holes where you can sip a spiced coquito, glug a glögg with your girls, or sip a beer with seasonal flair. Here are nine bars where you can get your tinsel on.
JINGLE ALL THE WAYWARD
It’s Christmas at The Wayward for more than just a few months of the year. Walk into Perry Lane’s street-level lobby bar in July and you may find Santa mounted atop a 1960s Ariel motorcycle with a fat cigar in his mouth and a 24-pack of beer on his back. Beneath St. Nick, you can peep head bartender David Hine slinging Pabst Blue Ribbons while wearing an ugly Christmas sweater. The liquor train (with bottles in its carriages) emerges in late November, when guests can once again sip Banana Bread Nog — “Like if tequila, banana bread, and eggnog had a baby,” Hine shares — while getting an upskirt shot of the canonical “A Christmas Story” leg lamp on the bar. It’s all festive and fair game at The Wayward.
JOIN THE NAUGHTY LIST AT THE VINYL ROOM
Walking into The Vinyl Room is akin to stepping into a portal. Similar to the Dalí-esque wax drip of the candlesticks atop the bar, The Drayton’s basement drinkery changes form with the seasons. This year, it’s a library with a dark secret, a salon for scorned lovers, and, for the end of the year, a mustering center for celebration. The Naughty List pop-up is back with all the innuendo you loved last year — sip from an upside down pineapple, peep Mrs. Claus’ rear-end, and see Santa from a new perspective.
COZY UP AT CIRCA 1875
Next door to The Paris Market, which houses what many consider Savannah’s finest winter window displays, a holiday dinner in Circa 1875’s stained-glass wine cellar is a wintertime tradition as fine as any other. Although the ambiance requires no embellishment, Circa always adds tasteful touches like Christmas trees, wreaths, and seasonal tunes. At the bar, chocolate martinis with candy cane rims cap off festive date nights that started with French onion soup and Burgundy by candlelight.
SIP FROM SANTA AT WATER WITCH
Water Witch Tiki consultant Laine Olssom gives coquito credit where coquito credit is due. “I didn’t come up with the recipe — Miles Wilford did — but it’s our most proud offering.” The cocktail, which means “little coconut” in Spanish, is a creamy Christmas tipple from Puerto Rico — and one that Water Witch does particularly well. Starland’s centerpiece tiki bar has been serving its take on the rum-based, nutmeg-spiced sipper in a ceramic Santa for the past six years. The heft behind the hooch, which features three types of coconut milk, raisins, and spices, is immense. It takes six hours to make 2 gallons of the coquito base; the bar goes through almost 20 gallons in November and December, Olssom shares. Bonus: It’s completely vegan.
HO HO HO AT THE HAWTHORN MINIBAR
Tyler Routley’s petite, gilded public house invokes festive charm year-round. As fall approaches, the gentlemen behind the bar don their lederhosen for Oktoberfest and come in character for Halloween. During the holiday season, they sport their white, monogrammed 1930s smoking jackets and megawatt grins while serving up mulled wine, house-made eggnog, and spiced cider. For the next round, request an obscure Christmas cocktail from the archives, and be prepared to be surprised.
FROSTY’S AT BAR JULIAN
Starting Nov. 21, Frosty’s pop-up bar takes over Bar Julian atop the Thompson Savannah, where festive programming is as robust as the hot toddies. Holiday hits bingo, trivia, game nights, karaoke, and an ugly sweater soirée fill the convivial calendar. Back again are bouncy allusions to Whoville, Rudolph, and, of course, Frosty the Snowman, but “we’ll have a bit more of a Hollywood holiday supper club feel this year,” says Hazy Blanck, director of events. Round up your Dancer and Prancer for a Naughty Saint Nick (brown-butter-washed Angel’s Envy bourbon, Santa Teresa dark rum, nocino, banana bread oleo, and saline) and skyline views. Better yet, book
an igloo.
POINSETTIAS AT SIX PENCE
Long-loved Savannah staple Six Pence Pub deserves all its flowers — especially the poinsettias at Christmastime. One of the coziest spots in the Historic District, the English pub’s charm only compounds during the holidays. Wreaths wrap the wooded dining room as sweatered locals take to the chairs and Christmas movies play on the tiny TV above the bar. There’s simply nothing quite like a tender pot roast and a pint underneath a tin coffered ceiling.
YUCK IT UP IN A YURT AT THE LOST SQUARE
Although a rare snow is possible on our cobbled streets (as we saw earlier this year), winter in Savannah can be more concept than concrete. Most every Savannahian likely has a memory of a Christmas outing spent in sandals and sunglasses. However, no matter the temperature, that enviable feeling of being an esteemed guest at a Swedish ski chalet can be achieved at The Lost Square’s Alpine Village. From Nov. 22 to Jan. 26, you can gather friends and family for dinner and drinks in a lush yurt strewn with twinkly lights.
NO BAH HUMBUG AT 17HUNDRED90
With fireplaces, a prolific martini menu, and rumored phantoms, 17hundred90 is one of downtown’s most classic Christmas hangouts. Even Scrooge would approve of this tavern’s warmth, peppermint martinis, and the sound of Christmas melodies drifting from the dining room piano.
