Inside the Aggressively Festive Holiday Pop-Up at PCH

Christmas time is here, and Pacific Cocktail Haven is here for it. Kevin Diedrich has decked out his Union Square bar — usually known by the initials, PCH, that it shares with a certain roadway — to become a Holiday pop-up bar called Miracle.

“My staff is calling me Clark Griswold, I’ve got extension cords everywhere,” the bartender told Eater SF, referencing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Here’s how the halls have been decked: Let’s just say the locally famous “Tom and Jerry House” might just be jealous.

Alison Weber

Alison Weber

Alison Weber

Miracle at PCH isn’t alone: It’s one of more than 50 bars, though the only one in San Francisco, hosting a Miracle pop-up. Greg Boehm started the tradition at his New York City bar Mace: Following its intense popularity, he shared his cocktail menu of holiday hits with other bars.

That was relatively easy for Boehm, who runs the barware sales website Cocktail Kingdom: Because he supplies top cocktail bars, he’s one of the best connected people in the industry. When bars like PCH adopt the Miracle menu, they receive custom Miracle glassware from Cocktail Kingdom, thought they’re left to decorate the bars for themselves.

Alison Weber

Miracle at PCH might be the only Miracle in town, but it’s not the only bar capitalizing on the Christmas spirt — or, more precisely, tapping into a public desire to drink highly alcoholic, highly caloric beverages until this dark time of the year has passed. Another Christmas pop-up, Deck the Halls, is also open in the North Beach restaurant space that was formerly The Square. The new owners of space, Nick Floulis (Opavino, Chubby Noodle) and partners Elmer Mejicanos and John Paul Jacques (formerly of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana) will move in permanently after the Holidays with a bar/restaurant called Lillie Coit’s.

Miracle

Miracle runs through the end of the year during PCH’s usual hours (from 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday, from 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and closed Sunday). After that, the bar will return to Diedrich’s regularly scheduled cocktail programming.

• Pacific Cocktail Haven Brings Christmas Pop-Up Miracle to Town [ESF]
• The Square to Become Christmas Cocktail Pop-Up Before Reemerging as New Restaurant [ESF]