As outdoor dining shutdown looms, Sacramento bar hopes for a Christmas ‘Miracle’
The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar general manager Liz Guerrero is determined to provide Christmas cheer, as she and her staff have done for the last three years. Customers just might have to take it home this year.
The restaurant and bar at 2718 J St. in midtown Sacramento will reopen for takeout Saturday and patio dining Wednesday after being closed since July amid the coronavirus pandemic and an ownership change.
The Red Rabbit will open as a Christmas-themed “Miracle” pop-up bar, a nationwide program in which it’s participated since 2017. Tinsels, garlands, boxes of presents, lights and red Christmas trees have moved outdoors to the front and back patios, which can seat up to 50 or 60 distanced customers.
“Christmas is about to throw up in this place,” Guerrero said.
Yet restaurant patios are on thin ice after Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced new shutdown criteria Thursday aimed at stemming a rising COVID-19 caseload. If intensive care unit beds in the greater Sacramento area (defined by the state as Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties) exceed 85% occupancy, a wave of additional restrictions will ensue, including a regional outdoor dining ban.
Nearly 78% of the greater Sacramento region’s ICU beds are currently occupied, and Newsom predicted Thursday the area will reach the 85% cutoff sometime in early December, along with three of California’s four other regions. Outdoor dining must cease two days after that point.
Guerrero anticipates a shelter-in-place order at some point, she said. She’s been planning the pop-up since March, trying to account for shifting regulations and construction around The Red Rabbit’s bar and indoor dining room. The back patio’s heat lamps and gas fireplace will stay lit as long as the state allows.
“We just ask that people be patient, they be understand, they follow the rules. We don’t make the rules, but we have to follow them,” Guerrero said. “We will enforce mask-wearing, we will enforce social distancing. We just ask that everybody be good, or otherwise you might be on the naughty list.”
Cocktails such as the On Dasher (bourbon, mezcal, sweet vermouth, spiced hibiscus, lemon and bitters) and Christmas Carol Barrel (reposado tequila, coffee liqueur, dry Curaçao and spiced chocolate) will be sold in 10.5- to 32-ounce bottles with food purchases.
The kitschy mugs bearing reindeer or Santa’s likeness normally sell well after customers finish their drinks at the bar; now they’re now a vessel for home drinkers to recreate a bit of the Miracle atmosphere, Guerrero said.
“It’s Christmas, man. People love Christmas. It’s the holiday season, it’s the holiday cheer. COVID can’t cancel that,” Guerrero said. “It’s still Miracle, it’s just Miracle from the comfort of your living room.”
One more change: The Red Rabbit’s Miracle pop-up won’t come down until the end of January. It’ll be open 4-9 p.m. Saturday and 12-4 p.m. Sunday this weekend, then 3-10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 10-3 p.m. Sunday going forward.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 10:39 AM.