Battle of the Holiday Bars

Frosty’s versus Santa Baby

Battle of the Holiday Bars 2019 begins. My friends and I first visited Frosty’s and then later in the week, trekked to Santa Baby bar. Warning: This battle of the bars lacks objectivity – I went to Frosty’s at night and Santa Baby in the daytime.

Frosty’s

Time Visited: Night

Parking: Choice of easy street parking and a parking lot.

Line: Bring your coat. You will have to wait outside. There were no rules, information or prices posted anywhere. After we left the bar to feed the parking meter and returned, the bouncer made us get back into line, without our coats and wait for ten minutes in the cold. By then, there were two lines and it was never clear what the difference was between the two lines.

Entrance Fee: We chose the $33.46 (tax included) package that included the entrance fee and a drink.

Seats: Were at a premium. You had to be fast to get a set of seats. There were couches, comfy chairs, footstools, and fireplaces. I ended up sitting on a footstool and a fireplace.

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Drinks: One drink came with our ticket. My drinks were medium to weak. I had the Eggnog (weak) and the Grinch. The Grinch was a stronger, tastier and prettier drink. There were three bars throughout the three story venue.

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Fun: Some of the fun at Frosty’s was hampered by the large crowd. It was crowded and the music loud.

• Interactive Snow would fall from the ceiling. It took awhile to pat out of my hair but it was fun.
• DJ: A DJ played a variety of holiday music.
• Photo Opportunities – there were many photo opportunities and stations.
• Santa – you could take pictures with a real Santa in glasses. See and like my Instagram post.
• Dancing Elf – we were visited by a happy Elf who gyrated on our coffee table. See the video on my Instagram.

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Food: None. Some drinks came with a candy cane or a cookie. I do not consider that food. Even though I tipped the bartender, I did not get a cookie with my drink.

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Santa Baby

Time Visited: early afternoon.

Parking: Street parking. We were lucky and found a space across the street.

Line: Bring your coat. You will have to stand in line outside. Again, no rules, prices, or information is posted anywhere. Go prepared to eat because the smell of chicken and BBQ from the pop-up bar across the street will smell delicious and will make you hungry.

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Price: The pricing was slightly better at this bar, $16.53 (tax included), but you then had to pay for drinks and food, so it came out to about the same.

Seats: There were only tables, booths, and bar chairs. That said, there was more space at Santa Baby to move around. We found seats immediately. Again, no signs or directions were posted anywhere. It appeared you just took whatever empty table, seat, booth was open.

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Drinks: Drinks were more flexible with a variety of prices, with both non-alcoholic ($6-$7+ tax) and alcoholic ($14+tax) choices. Coffee and milkshakes could be served with or without alcohol. I drank two drinks, one strong and one weak. There were also shareable drink and cocoa options that were more like fishbowls and cost up to $49. Yes, $49. That is out of my price range for a drink or I would tell you more.

My drinks:

• Peanut butter martini – comes with a full sized Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. Do not order this if you are driving – it is very strong.
• Jingle Juice – weak, came with lots of ice, rosemary, and inedible cranberries.

Food: Decent. I had the mushroom burger. At $3.50. I wished I’d taken the Frito taco with vegetarian chili, guac, and pico de gallo to go. It was nice to have a waitress. At Frosty’s, we had to fetch our own drinks.

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Fun: This is afternoon fun. We did not stick around to see what night fun Santa Baby had to offer.

• Dancing Reindeer: a man dressed as a reindeer hopped around.
• Photo Opportunities: there were lots of photo opportunities at well spaced intervals throughout the bar.

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Verdict?

The snowman wins. Frosty’s was more fun after we secured seats. Despite the rude bouncer, there was more to do and see. Frosty’s is going to go down in my memory bank. It was much more crowded, harder to take photos, and we had no waitress. My preference is not a fair judgment or verdict as I did not visit Santa Baby at night.

Santa Baby had food and a better drink selection. The place was more spacious than Frosty’s and had more photo stations. With all those amenities, why would I choose Frosty’s? Timing played a part in my verdict; during the afternoon, there was nothing to do but drink and eat. There was no dancing on a table elf, no indoor foam snow falling, no great music, no DJ, and no great fashion or interesting people watching.