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You should never make assumptions, but it is a reasonable bet that nobody at BK Chalet, an apr\u00e8s-ski-themed pop-up at the Saloon at Clover Club, in Brooklyn, has come directly from the slopes. The slopes are\u2014optimistically\u2014approximately two hours away. The Chalet is on a major urban thoroughfare, and also, while it is chilly here, in the age of climate change, there is generally no snow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
But you can pretend. We are all desperate to pretend, apparently, based on the number of seasonal apr\u00e8s-ski-themed events that have popped up across the country, in places with no skiing and no mountains, in cities where typically\u2014this week\u2019s arctic blast notwithstanding\u2014it isn\u2019t even cold. At the Helena Modern Riviera, a hotel in Orlando, you can, from November until January, scoop aligot and sip Champagne amid the faux snow\u2013covered forest at \u201c<\/span>Orlando\u2019s only ski experience<\/span><\/a>\u201d; the pop-up Apr\u00e8s Ski Lodge at The Press Room, in Greenville, South Carolina, overlooks the fake French Alps and <\/span>features<\/span><\/a> a \u201clife-sized yeti.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n In a literal sense, apr\u00e8s-ski\u2014the practice of warming up over drinks after skiing\u2014requires that one ski first. It is right there, in the name. \u201cIf you take the \u2018ski\u2019 out of the thing, why not just call it happy hour?\u201d asks a skeptical Elijah Safford, whose Taos <\/span>apr\u00e8s-ski pop-up<\/span><\/a> is in an actual ski town, catering to actual skiers. It is a valid point. What are any of the rest of us doing, adopting the accoutrements of ski culture without its central tenet? \u201cIf you take the \u2018ski\u2019 out of the situation, then you\u2019re just, what?\u201d He pauses. \u201cPutting skis on a wall and doing <\/span>shotskis<\/span><\/a> and leaning into the European traditions?\u201d<\/span>
<\/p>\n The answer to this is: yes. That is, with some variation, exactly what the apr\u00e8s-ski pop-up is doing. The apr\u00e8s-ski pop-up likely does have skis on the wall, or at least, signage about skiing (\u201cski patrol,\u201d \u201ccaution: \u25c6\u25c6\u201d) or decorative snowshoes. There is alpine greenery dusted with fake snow; the staff, perhaps, are wearing knit caps and rugged sweaters. The cocktails are cozy, spiced drinks and warm drinks and drinks featuring ingredients like cranberry and pine tincture, with names like \u201cEat Snow\u201d and \u201cCabin Fever.\u201d It is not exactly Christmas-themed, though with all the snowflakes and the pine trees and the twinkle lights and, on occasion, a stray Santa, it does bear some resemblance. Practically speaking, says Kylie McCalla, beverage manager at <\/span>Cindy\u2019s Rooftop<\/span><\/a> in Chicago, \u201cit\u2019s a nondenominational representation of the holidays in winter.\u201d (It is also one that allows bars to extend the party past the end-of-year festive season and into the slog of January\u2014notoriously, the industry\u2019s slowest month.) But unlike, say, \u201cWinter Wonderland\u201d \u2014<\/span>Understory<\/span><\/a> in San Diego did that at this time last year\u2014\u201capr\u00e8s-ski\u201d is \u201cmore adrenaline,\u201d explains Chance Curtis, Understory\u2019s general manager. \u201cIt\u2019s more fun and definitely not as laid-back.\u201d It is a little bit less snow globe, a little more Zermatt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The sad reality is that many of us have not been skiing, in Zermatt or elsewhere. Instead, we are slogging through winter, in grim cities and powderless towns, with no vacations on the horizon\u2014you can barely see the horizon. It gets dark at 4:30 p.m. But you can fantasize that you are elsewhere, living a life of vigorous leisure. \u201cIt\u2019s really just about evoking that vibe,\u201d says Alycia Rovner, the COO of Short Path Distillery in Boston, which is hosting an Apr\u00e8s Ski pop-up at the distillery\u2019s cocktail bar. Has not everybody, in some sense, spent the day scaling some kind of mountain? \u201cNo, you weren\u2019t skiing all day before you came to the bar, but maybe you were working all day, you were out running errands, you were taking care of the kids,\u201d she says. Why shouldn\u2019t you <\/span>also<\/span><\/i> get to unwind, in a seasonal and special-feeling manner that is luxurious and warm and vaguely European? Apr\u00e8s-ski turns winter\u2014a general downer\u2014into an asset. It is a reason for a party.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n This year, for the third season in a row, the Kimpton Shorebreak Resort in Huntington Beach opened its Pier Summit Ski Lodge, an \u201980s-themed ski fantasy pop-up. People come in ski gear and sweaters, says Janice Tugaoen, head of sales and marketing for the hotel; they order raclette and drink mulled wine. \u201cThey love the feeling of being in a place where they get transported somewhere.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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