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A Christmas-themed pop-up bar reportedly beloved by Taylor Swift opens in New Hampshire

A Christmas-themed pop-up bar reportedly beloved by Taylor Swift opens in New Hampshire

The Goat Bar and Grille's Christmas pop-up bar in Portsmouth. (John Walsh/ Vacation Media)

By Mrinali Dhembla

November 25, 2024

Miracle at The Goat is back on popular demand at one of New Hampshire’s most famous country bars’ Portsmouth and Newburyport, Mass. locations. 

The highly successful Christmas-themed pop-bar is coming back to New Hampshire for a second season—this time, with an additional venue at its latest Massachusetts location. 

Offering a wide selection of Christmas-themed cocktails and elaborate wall-to-wall Christmas decorations, Miracle at The Goat promises to bring festive fun to people of all age groups. 

“It was an amazing opportunity to bring people not just for the food,” The Goat’s owner, Erica Fleury, who runs the business with her husband Al said. “Christmas makes everyone happy, even those going through tough times.”

The Miracle is a worldwide Christmas-themed pop-up bar that came into being in 2014. It partners with bars across the globe to transform their spaces into an extravagant festive vibe for Christmsas. Conceived in New York City, The Miracle has brought its Christmas magic to more than 130 pop-ups across the world in places such as Greece, Montreal, Paris—and now—New Hampshire. 

The Miracle brand name is so widely loved that Taylor Swift was spotted at one of the locations last year in Kansas City. In fact, The Miracle is allegedly Swift and her beau Travis Kelce’s most favorite places since there are three Miracle bars in the Chiefs’ home city in Kansas alone. 

It was Fleury—who in addition to being a co-owner manages the marketing side of things— who had a vision to do something new with her business for Christmas last year. 

“I am online most of the day for my work, and for social media advertising,” she said. “And I happened to see a reel of another Miracle location.”

No sooner than she saw a social media post by The Miracle, she decided to pitch the idea to her team. They soon got to work. The Goat purchased The Miracle’s franchise name, but had to take care of decorations on her own, Fleury said.

With a sprawling Miracle-trademarked cocktail menu, and the restaurant’s signature food offerings, The Goat is excited to open doors to its patrons in Portsmouth this week. 

Fleury specially recommends patrons to try the Christmapolitan—the cocktail Swift was famously photographed drinking—which people can sip on in the backdrop of an extravagant Christmas-themed interior. Those wanting to take a piece of memory back home are welcome to purchase the specialty cocktail mugs. 

“What’s cool about them is that you can only purchase them at Miracle locations during Miracle season. They are not available online anywhere,” Fleury said. “We launched a custom Goat mug this year that we designed from scratch.”

This year’s drink menu features a The Goat original Secret Santa cocktail— a carefully crafted cranberry-infused alcoholic beverage—by The Goat’s team served in a custom The Goat-themed mug that took Fleury and her team a year to design. 

While the food and bar business is mostly known for its top-class live country music events, Fleury highlighted that the music is shuffled—some solo artists, some mixes, but everything with a Christmas touch—a bit for the holidays. 

The monthlong light-filled and picture-perfect Christmas experience is an outcome of careful planning and the work of many, Fleury said. There is a management team, bar staff, construction crew and a mechanical engineer that works tirelessly to bring in a holiday spirit to The Goat. 

This year’s Miracle in New Hampshire will feature an ugly sweater day on Dec. 10, and a chance to have brunch with Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Dec. 14 in Portsmouth and on Dec. 15 in Newburyport. 

 The Miracle at The Goat runs until mid-January, and is first-come-first-served. There is no coverage charge to enter. 

“It’s a project we’ve had so much fun with,” Fleury said. 

Author

  • Mrinali Dhembla

    Based in Manchester, Mrinali Dhembla is Granite Post's multimedia reporter. She's previously worked as deputy editor at The Keene Sentinel, and has experience writing for many national and international publications. When not doing journalism, she likes to cook food (and eat it).

CATEGORIES: FOOD AND DRINK

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