KIt could hardly be more witty: chains of lights are hanging everywhere, lights are flashing on every corner, festively wrapped packages are dangling from the ceiling, and there are also brightly decorated fir trees in flowerpots. And cheesy, poppy Christmas carols ring out from the speakers. The cool shop in exposed concrete chic is hardly recognizable anymore. And behind the bar, two guest mixers have taken up positions: Sven Riebel, who runs the trendy bar “The Tiny Cup”, and Thomas Lang, who used to be behind the counter in the “Kinly Bar” in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel.
Together they are now running their “Christmas Pop-up” under the motto “Donner & Dasher” until December 23rd. They have thus moved into “You, Me & The Benjamins”, a bar at the beginning of Mainzer Landstraße in Frankfurt, which is run by the makers of the regional café and restaurant chain “Elaine’s World”. The mix of hipster bar and advent pomp seems to be a hit: when you visit early Tuesday evening, the place is jam-packed.
Cocktails with a Christmas twist
As bartender Thomas Lang describes it, there are “popular drinks with a Christmas twist”. So the cocktails taste like cinnamon, vanilla, cloves and cardamom – but they’re still amazingly refreshing. For example, the baked apple gin and tonic for twelve euros: Lang and Riebel have produced a cordial, a kind of liqueur, that gives the drink a strong cinnamon note.
The bartenders have made “Amorelie’s Advent Calendar” (14 euros) out of the classic Old Fashioned: The special thing about it is a strong macadamia distillate that is used. The gin hot chocolate (nine euros) tastes luscious, sweet and also quite spicy. There is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than with such Christmas drinks.
Donner & Dasher Mainzer Landstrasse 1, Frankfurt, Telephone 0 69/3 48 68 73 46, Internet www.elaines.world. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm.