(Local) Black Friday fun: Kick off the holiday season with booze, dancing, music

Thanksgiving has passed. The tryptophan has long worn off, and Uncle Milt's jokes, which were never really funny to begin with, are now positively grating.

You need a drink.

One way to escape the holiday hangover is to head to MG Road, the Wall Street bar founded by the folks behind Chai Pani, where a Christmas-themed pop-up debuts on Black Friday and runs throughout the holiday season.

Miracle on Wall Street is the Asheville iteration of a beloved Christmas pop-up bar launched in 2014 in New York City. Now the production spreads Christmas cheer to more than 50 locations worldwide.

"Who doesn't like to escape to the bar during the holidays?" Michael Files, Creative Director for the Chai Pani Restaurant Group, said. "You can choose who you do Christmas with, hang out with friends and get into the Christmas spirit."

MG Road seems uniquely poised to host the hyper-holiday event. He added, "MG Road already looks like the inside of some Bollywood's cinephile's brain exploded and turned inside out."

Add tinsel and lights, a dancing Santa and flurries of fake snow, and the bar will become a living embodiment of Christmas kitsch, complete with a roster of holiday-appropriate boozy concoctions.

"It's completely perfect for us," Files noted, adding that any bar worth its salt already does the whole craft-cocktail thing. "Now you have to do something that's fun and gets people out."

This fits the bill. Let Files paint the picture: holiday music, hot cider and bourbon, a Santa suit, Christmas sweaters, fresh pine wreaths and Christmas movies projected on a big screen.

Boozy Christmas drinks will include the Snowball Old Fashioned (gingerbread bourbon, wormwood bitters, lemon zest); How The Gimlet Stole Christmas (gin, sage, pine-and-caraway cordial); and the Run Run Rudolph (tequila, coffee liqueur, iced hot chocolate, Mexican spices).

MG Road bartenders will add their own drinks to the mix, plus there will, as always, be plenty of beer available.

All cocktails will be served in Cocktail Kingdom’s custom Miracle glassware, which includes mugs with an extra dose of holiday cheer. "It's all very kitschy in the right way," Files said. "All the drinks are so good, and exactly what you want."

On opening night, the bar will serve pit-smoked Buxton Hall turkey sandwiches, plus desserts like cookies and milk and brownies. The sweet treats, plus some holiday kettle corn, will be available throughout the pop-up's run, which continues until New Year's Eve.

"It's going to be a Christmas wonderland with booze, the perfect thing to escape Uncle Morty and blow off some steam," Files said.

But for those who have a beer-nerd uncle, there's Highland Brewing Company, which this year rolled out a holiday survival kit.

Holidays can be trying, for sure, acknowledged brewery spokesperson Molly McQuillan. That's why, she said, the brewery is working to ameliorate the holiday blues with its Highland Holiday Survival Kit this year.

There's a Highland Crowler for that aforementioned uncle, plus a Highland-branded beer pong kit, complete with ping pong balls. Find also a 15-pack of Daycation, Highland founder Oscar Wong's Oatmeal Cookie recipe and some other brewery swag.

The Holiday Survival kit is $39.97. Highland also has a release party scheduled for its Black Watch Double Chocolate Stout which happens, appropriately enough, on Black Friday at noon.

Highland is at 12 Old Charlotte Highway.

Searching for other ways to get away from any hostile relatives while steering clear of (just as hostile) Black Friday chaos? We've highlighted some of the things you can do around town this weekend.

BLACK FRIDAY FUN

Daily, 6-10 p.m. Winter Lights at the North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way.

11 a.m. Record Store Day Black Friday at Harvest Records with special Black Friday releases and 10 percent off used items, 415 Haywood Road.

Noon, Peanut Butter Stout and LD's Belgian Tripel Ale Release at Catawba Brewing Co.'s South Slope Tasting Room & Brewery, 32 Banks Ave.

5-7 p.m. Live Gypsy Jazz at the Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar, 1 Page Ave.

5-8 p.m. Free Dead Friday with members of Phuncle Sam acoustic at The One Stop at Asheville Music Hall. Free acoustic Grateful Dead series, drink and food specials, 55 College St.

7 p.m. Emily Bodley live at Blue Ghost Brewing in Fletcher, 125 Underwood Road.

7 p.m. Live karaoke night at UpCountry Brewing Company, 1042 Haywood Road.

7:30 p.m. Singer-songwriter Mike Blair at Ginger's Revenge Craft Brewery & Tasting Room, 829 Riverside Dr Suite 100.

8 p.m. Latin Dance Party at Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Dr.

SATURDAY:

10 a.m. Kid Hop Hooray, Wintertime Indoor Dance Party at The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave.

8:30 p.m. Elonzo Wesley at UpCountry Brewing Company, 1042 Haywood Road.

9 p.m. Acoustic Syndicate Annual Thanksgiving Homecoming at The Grey Eagle Music Hall and Pub, 185 Clingman Ave.

9 p.m. Michael Jackson vs. Prince Dance Party, One World Brewing, 10 Patton Ave.

10 p.m. '80s dance party at Post 25 Kitchen & Lounge, 2155 Hendersonville Road.

SUNDAY:

Wind down your holiday weekend at Isis Music Hall with "It’s a Wonderful Life: Live From WVL Radio," Nov. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

Created by the Immediate Theatre Project in partnership with the North Carolina Stage Company, this original adaptation is set in the failing fictional studio of WVL Radio Theatre, and the audience acts as a live studio audience attending the broadcast of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” circa 1946.

Doors open at 5 p.m. for reserved dinner-show tables. There is also theater-style and balcony seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Call 828-575-2737. More at www.isisasheville.com.



