The Ritz-Carlton sets out a chocolate buffet next to its hot cocoa every weekend this season, and grown-ups can spike the cocoa. Across town, Raffles hides a holiday cocktail menu that only its butlers will show you. The Fairmont Copley Plaza puts dogs on Santa’s lap, and the Omni Parker House reads A Christmas Carol in the hotel where Dickens first gave voice to it. Here are 7 hotel bars going big this year, with dates, hours and how to get in.
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Avery Bar
10 Avery Street, Downtown
Avery Bar Chocolat puts a chocolate buffet of sweets and savory bites next to your hot cocoa, topped with whipped cream or vanilla marshmallows. Adults can make it “naughty” with a spirit or cordial, and kids get a classic cup. Saturdays and Sundays, Sat, Nov 28 through Sun, Dec 27, at the Ritz-Carlton, 10 Avery St. $35 to $59 per person on OpenTable.
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Long Bar and Terrace
40 Trinity Place, Back Bay
The Raffles Holiday Tea serves lobster brioche with caviar, a Snow Globe Cheesecake and a Chocolate Ornament. Thursday through Sunday, noon to 2 PM, Fri, Nov 27 through Sun, Jan 3. On Thu, Dec 24 and Fri, Dec 25, it adds butter-poached halibut, duck confit and sticky toffee pudding with spiced bourbon caramel.
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Blind Duck
40 Trinity Place, Back Bay
The hotel’s speakeasy has a secret holiday cocktail menu that only a Raffles butler can reveal to hotel guests. Everyone else gets the holiday list, Fri, Nov 27 through Wed, Jan 6. New Year’s Eve, Thu, Dec 31, is live music, passed hors d’oeuvres and a champagne toast for $195 per person.
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Fairmont Copley Plaza
138 Street James Avenue, Back Bay
Cori Copley, the hotel’s canine ambassador, brings dogs in to pose with Santa on Sun, Nov 29, 11 AM to 2 PM. Only 19 spots an hour. On Wed, Dec 16, 6:30 to 9:30 PM, the Holiday Bacchanal Dinner is five courses with wine pairings in the Grand Lobby, the only night of the year it hosts a dinner there. OAK does a three-course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day prix fixe, 4 to 11 PM, $155++ per adult.
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Omni Parker House
60 School Street, Downtown
Julie Reiner, co-founder of New York’s Clover Club and a Drink Masters judge, made the cocktails at Blitzen’s. It opens at The Last Hurrah on Fri, Nov 27, daily 4 PM to midnight. Ebenezer’s turns Parker’s Bar into a darker, Dickens-inspired pop-up all season. Johnny Kinsman reads A Christmas Carol in the Press Room on Sat, Dec 19 at 7 PM and Sun, Dec 20 at 2 and 5:30 PM, with live foley sound effects.
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Miracle at Kimpton Marlowe
25 Edwin H Land Boulevard, Cambridge
Three new drinks this year: the Sugarplum Stampede, the Christmas Cricket and the Sleigh-Saurus. The collectible mugs include a SanTaRex and a unicorn. Fri, Nov 20 through Thu, Dec 31, closed Thanksgiving, no reservations. It’s 5 to 10 PM Sunday through Wednesday, 5 to 11 PM Thursday and Friday, and 4 to 11 PM Saturday.
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The Fed at The Langham
250 Franklin Street, Downtown
Cocktails inside the old Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, with more than 90 pieces of local art on the walls. Friendsgiving runs Fri, Nov 13 through Thu, Nov 26, with Chef Dan Burger’s turkey sliders. Live jazz every Friday, 6 to 9 PM.