If you’re seeking a dark and delicious Halloween drink experience, Black Lagoon Halloween bars are popping up all over. The acclaimed “adult Halloween celebration of your nightmares” returns this October with the immersive pop-up across 19 cities worldwide.
Black Lagoon, started in 2019 by bar industry veterans Kelsey Ramage and Erin Hayes, blends frightful fun and sinister Halloween ambiance, captivating guests with its haunted atmosphere and eerie libations. The pop-up concept helps cocktail bars present a dark celebration for those who revel in the mysterious and bizarre, where guests can transport themselves to a world that blurs that line between reality and the supernatural.
The 2023 Black Lagoon locations include:
King Bee (Austin, TX)
Backstage Lounge (Charlotte, NC)
Hospitality 201 at Homestead on The Roof (Chicago)
Nickel City (Fort Worth, TX)
Matilde Mi Amor (Guadalajara, Mexico)
Two Headed Dog (Houston, TX)
Homeboy (London, U.K.)
Lost Property (Los Angeles)
Meteor (Minneapolis)
132 Bar Vintage (Montreal)
Pretty Ricky’s (New York)
Anna’s (New Orleans)
Sister Midnight (Paris, France)
Dirty Pretty (Portland, OR)
Kona’s Street Market (San Francisco)
Rob Roy (Seattle)
Bar Mordecai (Toronto)
Butcher & Bullock (Vancouver, Canada)
Trouble Bird (Washington D.C.)
Black Lagoon pop-ups include meticulously crafted sets, immersive storytelling and a lineup of signature Halloween-inspired cocktails such as the Death Rattle, Hellfire Fizz, Night Crawler and Satanic Panic. Each pop-up bar will feature entertainment, live performances and surprises that the founders promise will keep guests on the edge of their seats.
Can’t make it to a Black Lagoon pop-up? Host your own haunted house party! Adorn your walls cobwebs, chains and scary portraits and don’t forget plenty of skulls and skeletons. Dim the lights, play some creepy music and offer some spooky cocktails, preferably with Halloween hues such as blood red, deep black and fiery orange.
Here’s how to make the Black Lagoon’s Blood Rave mezcal drink plus three craft cocktail recipes developed for scary good Halloween fun.
Blood Rave
1 ½ oz. Montelobos mezcal
½ oz. Giffard Pimente chile liqueur
¼ oz. Fresh beet juice
¾ oz. Fresh lime juice
¾ oz. Miso Falernum
1 dash Absinthe
Add all ingredients with ice and shake well. Strain drink into Mai Tai or double Old Fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a dehydrated lime
Mixologists Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage created this recipe for Black Lagoon.
Headless Horseman
(Large-format)
12 oz. Vanilla bean-infused Monkey Shoulder Scotch whiskey
12 oz. Fresh honeycrisp apple juice
3 oz. Fresh lemon juice
3 oz. Cinnamon syrup (1:1 sugar to water)
1 ½ oz. 2:1 Simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water)
10 oz. Q Ginger beer
10 Dash Angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients, shake well over crushed ice. Pour unstrained into a pumpkin shaped punch bowl. Garnish with 3 orchids, assorted shells and gourds, 2 pine leaves.
Kevin Beary, beverage director at Three Dots and a Dash and The Bamboo Room created this recipe.
La Bruja (The Witch)
1 ¾ oz. Mijenta Tequila Blanco
1 oz. Fresh lime
¾ oz. Mango purée
½ oz. Lemongrass/cinnamon syrup
½ oz. Strega liqueur
¼ oz. Lejay (creme de Cassis) float
Add ingredients in a shaker. Strain the mix from one tin to another via a long pour. Serve into a tall glass with crushed ice. Garnish with cinnamon and rosemary to create witch’s broom
Jose Alejandro Ibañez, principal Bartender at Employees Only in New York, created this recipe.
Grubby Bloody Hands
¾ oz. The Pathfinder Hemp and Root nonalcoholic spirit
¾ oz. Appleton signature rum
2 oz. Black strap rum
¾ oz. Raspberry squid ink syrup
½ oz. Lemon
1 Egg white
Combine ingredients and double shake (without ice, and then with ice). Double strain into pousse café glass. Garnish with Angostura bitters art.
Kraig Rovensky created this recipe for Life On Mars in Seattle.
