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The experience seemed curated more for Instagram than for real life.
Holiday pop-ups seem to take over New York City each year starting sometime in November, from shopping events to winter wonderland-themed parties at restaurants and hotel bars.
Mr. Purple, a hip rooftop bar and restaurant at a Manhattan hotel, recently partnered with Veuve Clicquot to create a pop-up described as "a funky après-ski lodge in the sky," complete with a life-size "snow globe" and Champagne bar serving bubbly, spiked hot chocolate, whiskey hot toddies, and cheese and chocolate fondue.
Vinny Mauriello, managing partner and beverage director of the Gerber Group, which owns Mr. Purple, said they feel they need to make their holiday pop-ups more elaborate each year - partially because of Instagram.
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"I honestly think we have no choice but to do so," Mauriello told Business Insider. "We want to give our guests a new and exciting experience each year and of course, make sure the pop up is worthy of the 'gram!"
He added that at Clicquot Chalet, "guests will feel like they are sitting in a snow globe in the middle of NYC."
I visited Mr. Purple's Clicquot Chalet pop-up on a recent December evening, and while it was fun- and the mermaids were an unexpectedly flashy touch - the experience seemed curated more for Instagram than for real life.
Mr. Purple is a posh lounge on the 15th floor of Hotel Indigo in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood. It has a spacious terrace with views of the city skyline and a very photogenic swimming pool.
The views from the rooftop are pretty fantastic.
When I arrived for the holiday pop-up on a Monday evening, the main indoor bar area was relatively quiet.
It was decorated for the holidays, but not decked-out in ski lodge décor as I thought it would be. But I soon realized the main event was outside.
Outside, Mr. Purple and Veuve Clicquot had teamed up to create a giant "snow globe" on the terrace. It looked cool, but it didn't really resemble a snow globe to me.
I wondered if the Veuve Clicquot-branded skis flanking the entryway were actually skiable.
Christmas trees outside of the snow globe helped illuminate the bar area.
When it's perfectly lit and devoid of people, the inside of the snow globe looks picturesque and inviting — at least, that is, according to this press photo.
But in reality, I found the space to be quite small, and it was crowded with people when I walked in.
There were too many people for me to get a clear shot of the curated décor.
No seats were available when I arrived and standing room was limited, but toward the end of the event, it started to clear out.
I was able to snap a picture of the seating and grab a chair for a few minutes. I had been worried the snow globe would be cold even with the heating, but it was quite cozy.
The pop-up heavily highlighted the partnership with Veuve Clicquot, with bottles perched on a shelf designed to look like a toboggan. (Or is it a toboggan designed to look like a shelf?)
Even the pillows featured the Champagne house's brand.
Rustic touches were scattered around the snow globe, from furry rugs and blankets to this bucket of logs ...
... and this antler chandelier.
At the Champagne bar, in addition to bubbly, they were serving Belvedere-spiked frozen or hot chocolate, a Hennessy cocktail with orange bitters and star anise, and a spiced rum hot toddy, each of which cost $16.
I was looking forward to receiving my hot chocolate in a tall, fancy-looking glass, as the person in line ahead of me did. I'd also seen this photo of the frozen hot chocolate, which looked very fun.
But my hot chocolate was served in a paper cup, which was somewhat disappointing. It came with a small candy cane hooked on the side of the cup, which fell into the hot chocolate before I picked it up. There were tiny marshmallows, at least.
A beautiful, discarded glass sat on the table next to me as I drank my spiked hot chocolate, taunting me. The hot drink was delicious, but I'm not sure I'd want to pay $16 for it. Unfortunately, that's on par for Manhattan rooftop bar prices.
A few days after the pop-up, I looked through photos on Instagram tagged at that location ...
... and I didn't see a single paper cup.
I assume this is because paper cups simply don't look as good on Instagram, as we discovered when we took them out by the pool for a quick photo shoot. And then, speaking of the pool ...
... there were the mermaids. About 45 minutes after we arrived, a mermaid appeared in the heated pool.
She popped out of the pool a few times to pose for photos. My main thought was how cold she must have been; I was freezing and I was wearing clothes.
She was soon joined by a second mermaid. They were beautiful, glamorous, and fun to watch, even if I didn't see how they fit into a "ski chalet" theme. A small crowd gathered to take photos and watch the mermaids swim around.
But it was so cold outside —and the few heat lamps on the terrace didn't help much — that most people lingered only long enough to snap a few photos and then went back to the bar or snow globe.
The platter of cheese fondue with croutons, cornichons, sausage, potatoes, cauliflower, and more, was a highlight of the night. This was complimentary for guests on opening night of the pop-up, but it normally costs $45. Honestly, I enjoyed this much more than my hot chocolate and I probably ate way more than my fair share.
I realized, while scrolling through Instagram shots of the pop-up, that it just seemed more appealing on Instagram than it did in real life.
The snow globe was never empty enough when I was there to get a photo like this.
"Guests will feel like they are sitting in a snow globe in the middle of NYC," Vinny Mauriello, managing partner and beverage director of the Gerber Group, said about the pop-up in an email.
I can't say I felt exactly like that. (And not just because there was no fake snow, which probably would've been a logistical nightmare.) I found the themes of "snow globe," "ski chalet," and "mermaids" to be a bit conflicting.
So while I certainly didn't have a bad time, I left with the feeling that this pop-up — like many of them — looks better on Instagram than it feels in real life. But maybe that's just the social media-obsessed reality we live in.
