The Miracle pop-up bar features a list of holiday-inspired cocktails (Photo courtesy of Noah Fecks Photography).
The Jasper, a bar at 3113 W. Cary St., brings festive flair with the debut of Miracle, an international pop-up bar celebrating five years that kicks off Friday, Nov. 23 and continues through New Year’s Eve.
The concept for Miracle came to New York restaurateur and Miracle founder Greg Boehm, when he received some helpful advice from his mother. She suggested transforming his uncompleted bar, Mace, into a spirited pop-up during the holidays. Five years later, what began as a one-time event now brings cheer to 90 locations across the world including bars in Europe, Asia and Central America.
Miracle presents a menu of signature seasonally-themed cocktails. Snowball Old Fashioned, anyone? The drink blends butterscotch rye, wormwood bitters, spiced brown sugar and orange zest that Mattias Hägglund, co-owner and bartender at The Jasper— also a proud whiskey-enthusiast— says is one of the drinks he’s most excited to concoct. Added bonus: a snowball serves as ice.
A hot cocktail on the menu, Bad Santa, is crafted with hot milk punch with Barbados rum, Trinidad Overproof rum, pineapple juice, lemon juice, eight spices and coconut water. Other playfully-themed boozy refreshments include Jingle Balls Nog, Run Run Rudolph, Christmas Carol Barrel, and “Nice” and “Naughty” shots.
If you’re a bit less spirited and adventurous, trademark drinks from the Jasper menu will also be available during Miracle.
“We’ll have three things we always have which are our draft bourbon and ginger, our draft zombie and the Quoit Club Punch,” says Hägglund who co-owns the Carytown bar with Thomas “T” Leggett formerly of the Roosevelt, and Kevin Liu, owner of the Tin Pan and Carytown Cupcakes.
The Jasper owners and bartenders have been keeping busy to create the merry pizzazz Miracle embodies.
“We’ve been prepping for a long time,” says Hägglund. “We’re making all of the syrups, everything — anything that is homemade we’re certainly making.
Miracle is not a new concept to Hägglund and crew. In fact, before The Jasper was an established brick-and-mortar, ideas for Miracle were already brewing. Two years ago, during a trip to New York, Hägglund and fellow Jasper owners paid a visit to Cocktail Kingdom, a company that collaborates with Boehm to present Miracle.
“While talking with the owner up there, we told him that we were going to be opening a bar in Richmond and that we were really excited about it,” explains Hägglund. “He was like, ‘wow, no way that’s so crazy. Literally, the first thing on my to-do list for tomorrow morning is to start scouting locations for a Miracle in Virginia.’”
The Christmas libations will only be here for the holidays, but Mattias believes it adds to the charm.
“Food and beverage have such a way of connecting us to memory,” says Hägglund. “When you can experience something that brings back that youthful joy and exuberance, it’s a pretty magical thing.”
