Last weekend I met up with some friends for an evening of Christmas cocktails and music. Located in the heart of San Marco, Jacksonville, is a craft cocktail bar featuring walls lined with wines and beers and a back room bathed in warm lighting reminiscent of a 1920’s-style lounge. The Grape and Grain Exchange has become one of the most popular bars in Jacksonville for its creative drinks and fun atmosphere.

Every year Grape and Grain Exchange hosts a Christmas pop-up event for the month of December. The pop-up includes a menu specifically filled with holiday cocktails as well as holiday decorations adorning the entire bar. I had heard how popular this event was and how quickly the bar filled up each winter, so my friends and I arrived early enough to grab some seats on the velvet couches and chairs. I ordered from the holiday menu, as I didn’t want to miss out on this limited-time offer, and ordered Elfing Around cocktail, a drink that quite literally tasted like Christmas. A flute filled with prosecco, gin, mulled wine reduction, grapefruit shrub, aromatic bitters and orange bitters sat in my hand as I caught up with friends and sipped on the delicious drink. Some of the other cocktails offered at the bar were served in fun mugs, such as the SanTaRex, a tequila cocktail served in a dinosaur-shaped porcelain mug.

After enjoying our time in the warmth of this beautiful lounge, my friends and I headed across the river to a silent disco called Root Down. Every Saturday, they host a silent disco where guests can rent a set of headphones for $5 and listen to one of three channels. Each pair of headphones displays a color that coordinates to the channel playing. On Saturday, I had the option of listening to Pop and Rap, which displayed a blue light; Latin American pop, a red light; or retro 1990s/2000s music, a green light. I had never been to a place like this and thoroughly enjoyed this experience and cannot wait to try it again.

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor