Day Trip: Anu Apte, Rob Roy as Miracle Pop-Up

Anu Apte has the holiday rush down to a science. The owner of Seattle’s Rob Roy and co-owner of Navy Strength and Vinnie’s has transformed one or more of those bars into a holiday pop-up every year since 2014. It’s all part of a network of tinseled bar takeovers called Miracle and Sippin’ Santa. Now in their 10th year, these installations bring seasonal cocktails and festive decor to nearly 250 bars worldwide. Apte credits her managing team of Jojo Kitchen, Rylee Cotey, and Mark Sassi for all the hard work transforming Rob Roy into a Miracle pop-up every November, but the results are worth it. “We keep doing this because we love how happy it makes people,” she says.

7 a.m.

I get out of bed and take my two dogs for their morning walks, then I make coffee. I’m not really a breakfast person. I usually drink my coffee black, but, during Miracle, I add a substantial amount of nondairy milk to it.

8 a.m.

Rob Roy is tiny and doesn’t have a kitchen, so, every day, we prepare everything that will go into that night’s service from scratch. There’s quite a bit of setup. As soon as I arrive, I start to build out a temporary kitchen in the bar with one or two other people who are opening that day. We wheel out a cart full of burners and kitchen equipment, set up our trash and our bar mats, and install a 6-foot-long foldout table. We use the bar top as a work surface, too.

10 a.m.

Once the temporary kitchen is set up, we roast spices on the portable burners, make syrups, and start batching out everything. There are a lot of cocktails on the Miracle menu, and almost all are a one-bottle pickup during service. It’s easier on the bartender that way, it allows us to be really friendly and give people the holiday experience, and no one has to wait too long for a drink. But that’s why setting up and prep is so important and takes so much time each day.

Noon

While some of the ingredients we’ve prepped are cooling, I look in on our deliveries and make sure the booze and produce that we need are coming in. The staff and I do design touch-ups, too. Every day, there’s something we need to fix. People get silly when they drink. We might need to rewrap one of the empty presents, or erase the things people drew on the fake snow.

12:30 p.m.

I check emails and write checks. Because I’m the owner, I’m also the HR person. So, I might be listening to people’s concerns about how the shift went the night before, or if they can stay on beyond the holidays. We almost quadruple our team during the pop-ups, and obviously things slow down in January and February in the bar business.

1 p.m.

I can go until the evening and not feel hungry, but I do make sure the staff eats lunch. They’ll grab a sandwich or a piece of pizza at one of the places in our neighborhood that they like. Sometimes I’ll have a handful of Goldfish crackers.

2 p.m.

We batch all the drinks—there’s usually about eight drinks on the Miracle menu—and put them into bottles for service. Then, we tear down the kitchen and flip it back to a guest-forward space. By the time we open at 4 p.m., there’s already a line around the block.

4 p.m.

I usually don’t work the bar during Miracle, but, if we still need to finish up the batches of cocktails and backup syrups, I might stay and finish those during happy hour, which goes until 6 p.m.

6 p.m.

As soon as I leave the bar, I think, “I’m hungry.” Between the bar in Belltown and where I live in Magnolia, there’s a Taco Time. I go through the drive-thru and eat my burrito and tater tots in the car, and I’m done with everything by the time I get home.

7 p.m.

I take care of my dogs, catch up on admin, and finish out my day. People in my personal life know that they’re probably not going to see me for about two months during Miracle. But, if friends are visiting, there are times when I will go back to the bar to say hi. And then I might find that I really want some eggnog, and suddenly I’m not getting home until 2 a.m.