The Freehouse Collective group of public houses has decided to do their own thing this holiday season.
In year’s past one of their properties has always bought in to the generic Christmas Popup experience. However, wanting to focus more on an individual cocktail experience, that their customers would actually like, they have decided to host Bar Humbug for Winter 2024. This is a clever generic holiday name that was well workshopped and certainly captured my attention.
Wanting to keep things casual and approachable there is no cover fee or required time slot reservations. The goal is to have it low commitment realizing that majority of winter plants happens on the fly. The drink menu is also friendly at $16-17 for downtown Vancouver prices.
The bar is decorated with metallic ornament balls hanging from the ceiling, Christmas wrapping papering the walls, frosted glass, and tinsel strung trees.
We would work our way through their entire drink menu, including shots; adding on a couple of their speciality food items, minus what was described as “the generic Mac and cheese”. Given the smaller bites and appetizers-like options, this is definitely more of a spot for drinks after work or as a post dinner destination.
The entire drink menu was created by Freehouse’s head bar manager with the goal of providing quality beverages they know their clientele will enjoy, mixed not just with overhead in mind. The result is a diverse and unique cocktail listing that has me ranking it as number one of Christmas pop up for drinks.
Frosty’s Colada is vegan egg nog, bumbu rum, amaretto, pineapple, coconut, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This was my favourite, it combined 2 popular cocktails to make something familiar, yet new. Tropical meets merry, this gave both baked egg nog and zesty pineapple in a slush.
The Jingle Juice is the one to get for novelty sake. Severed in giant Christmas stocking cup, a whole boot created to be shared between two, but I drank it all myself. Olmeca altos tequila blanco, beefeater gin, lime, vanilla, raspberry, mint, lemon, peated whisky aromatics, and sparkling water. It was as viscous as water, and just as refreshing with citrus. It is easy drinking as there is plenty of ice and it does melt down. I just would have liked more of the vanilla, raspberry, and mint medley to come through.
I liked the twist of adding chocolate to an Old Fashioned with the Ferraro Roche Old Fashioned. Jefferson bourbon, hazelnut, chocolate, fino sherry, and spiced chocolate bitter blend. A classic cocktail remixed with a chocolate and hazelnut flavour. Great as a garnish, the ball of chocolate is less appetizing when dunked into the spirit.
The No Coffee After Eight is a play on the name of a mint chocolate brand, so does actually contain coffee and you can have it after 8pm. This serves as their pick me up option with Absolut vodka, double coffee, peppermint, salted vanilla, cinnamon, and candy cane. It has a mild coffee flavour with the lightness of a spritz.
The Sleigh Ride in Central Park is skrewball peanut butter whiskey, jp wiser’s whisky, sweet vermouth, and raspberry. It had a vegetal quality to it with the vermouth, followed by the whisper of peanut butter to wash the palate.
The Jalisco Snowstorm is another more tropical option with lemongrass infused olmeca altos, hendrick’s gin, del maguey mezcal, orange, spruce tip, firewater bitter, yuzu, lime, soda, and edible glitter. Smokey with a botanical green and the overture of tart citrus.
Santa Baby is like a liquid apple crumble with monkey shoulder whisky, spiced orgeat, fennel, acid adjusted apple, black walnut, vegan foam, and nutmeg. This was delicious fall comfort that would be good either hot or cold with fragrant cinnamon and a whipped creaminess.
There is also Gluewhein for those who prefer wine and want something warm. We skipped this one, already being familiar with the mix of spiced cab sauv, cognac, orange, and baking spices.
Not often seen on many holiday drink menus is the option for shots. At Bar Humbug they have 4 different flavours to have the group buying several rounds, each in a Santa’s boot shaped mini glass.
The Chilly Bird is savoury with an undertone of metallic. This is a mix of fernet branca and amaro montenegro.
The Eenie Weenie Spressie Tini is a more potent, caffeine-fuelled shot with coffee liqueur, vodka, mint, and vanilla.
Santa’s cookies were like a peanut buttery confection with skrewball peanut butter whiskey, frangelico hazelnut liqueur, and jp wiser’s whisky.
My favourite is the Mexican Breath Mint that would also serve well as a post dinner shot to wash the mouth. Olmeca altos, candy cane, and a minty rim.
As mentioned earlier there are also small bites to have in between all the drinking. The Sweet & Spicy Glazed Meatballs are a blend of pork shoulder and beef chuck topped with a ricotta salata and crispy sage. Pretty standard, warmed to order it is a little dry at the centre and needs the jus for flavour. I could have used a gravy for moisture.
The Holiday Turkey Sliders are meant to mimic a holiday dinner with sage stuffing, dried fruit chutney, and brown butter gravy; sandwiched between a dinner roll slider. Savoury and slightly sweet the herbs made it feel festive.
As mentioned earlier the Kevin’s Mac n Cheese references Home Alone and is your basic serving of scooby doo spiralled elbow macaroni coated in a truffle white cheddar sauce.
And for dessert they have cookies with a dip they are calling “Drunkaroos”. I appreciate the pun, but this did not resemble “dunkaroos”, nor was the dip made with any spirits to have you “drunk” because of it. As a result this wasn’t as expected and did it did leave me wanting more.
Large chocolate chip cookies meant to be dipped into a cup of butterscotch pudding, topped with whipped cream and candy cane shards. I would have liked the cookies made smaller for more bite-sized, sharable fun, and for the dipping cup to match. Maybe tea cups with the pudding in one and the cream in the other to actually allow for you to scoop up the butterscotch pudding. Flavour-wise this was a tasty pairing sure to please your inner child.
In truth having visited all the Vancouver Christmas pop-ups this year, I can successfully conclude that this is my favourite for drinks. Each well conceived for a variety of palates and a fun menu to have you wanting to try if all.
The Ballyhoo Public House
#103 – 888 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1X9
(604) 423-2771
freehouse.co
