It’s a Hanukkah tradition like latkes and dreidels—but with a Boston spin. Hanukkah pop-up Maccabee Bar returns for its seventh year, with Jewish-themed cocktails and snacks at The Charles Hotel’s Noir Bar in Harvard Square (1 Bennett St.).
This year, creator Naomi Levy has added a few new surprises. There’s the “Port Pour-y,” a new cocktail blending Indian flavors: rum, banana, garam masala and lime. Noir will also make its very own sufganiyot this year (flavors rotate daily), as well as latkes, smoked salmon and grilled scallion hummus.
“It’s been a hard year for a lot of us, and so I like to think of Maccabee Bar as a form of self-care—a place to bring together friends and family and to take a moment to celebrate and share. Maccabee Bar is all about joy and fun, and who couldn’t use a bit more of that right now?” she tells me. Can’t argue with that.
Also on the menu: a “Hebrew Hammer,” inspired by jelly doughnuts (vodka, sugar, raspberry and lemon), and the after-dinner-sipper “Shin Shin, Put One In” (dark rum, cacao, oloroso sherry and amaro, with a chocolate gelt garnish). In a hurry? Try a Manischewitz Jell-O shot.
Visit from Monday, Dec. 2, through Wednesday, Jan. 1. It’s open Monday and Tuesday from 4 p.m. until midnight and Wednesdays through Saturdays until 1 a.m. It’s closed on Sundays—but it will open for Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 29, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Check out maccabeebar.com for more information.
