Themed bar pours on the alpine atmosphere The trip to the Matterhorn
You might even party with a yeti at Montclair’s Matterhorn Lodge
It’ll take a walk through the 1980s and into a keg storage room at the side of a bar and past a metal door to reach this cozy mountain getaway in the Alps, but you better be on the lookout for a naughty yeti when you arrive.
“This is a spinoff of a winter cabin type of thing that we came up with,” said Dave Esqueda, co-owner of The Matterhorn Lodge, a new snow cabin-themed lounge tucked in a “secret” room inside a bar in Montclair. “People like these speakeasy-style bars because when you find one it’s something special; it gives you something to go and tell your friends. It gets people excited,” he added.
Inspired by the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland, the Matterhorn Lodge is a temporary bar that will be open Fridays and Saturdays through March 16. It’s located in a space dubbed The Set, which is within That 80’s Bar, a 1980s-themed establishment co-owned by Esqueda where tribute bands like the Flux Capacitors perform, and DJs play ’80s and ’90s tunes for the dancing crowd.
The Matterhorn Lodge was designed by Jeff Schiefelbein, owner of Sinister Pointe Productions, an Orange Countybased company that develops haunted attractions and works with conventions like Long Beach’s Midsummer Scream. For this project, Schiefelbein said, he was inspired by his love of Disney.
“I thought, why not ride the coattails a little bit of the Matterhorn? It’s cold, it’s a winter theme and we can use the name — it’s a real mountain,” he said. “And when you walk in you get the feel like you just walked in off the mountain and into this lodge.”
After being escorted through a bar storage room, customers will go through a metal door to enter the Lodge. Once inside, it instantly feels as if you’re in a different mountain world as you hear the sound of wind and see bits of snow as you walk down a hallway. There are snow boots, old skis, a vintage sled and lanterns on the brick walls lining the hallway that leads to the entrance of the Lodge.
The Lodge itself is decorated with playful artwork, including boar and goat heads on the walls, along with leather couches, a fireplace, an old piano, a pair of clogs, snow jackets and even a stuffed raccoon and coyote.
The mountain experience is enhanced by Swiss folk music playing and several LED screens that are meant to represent windows. The screens line the ceiling and walls and project various images.
Look up and you’ll see snow falling on the ceiling. Look out the windows and you’ll see a snowy mountain landscape. Keep looking out the window and eventually you’ll see a white, apelike creature walking around and peeking through the windows. Yes, that’s a yeti, and he has an attitude — every once in a while when he looks inside he may flip people the bird or smear certain things on the window.
But be careful, this yeti isn’t just an image on a screen, because as part of the mountain experience he’ll actually come inside the cabin every once in a while to mess with the bar patrons. Don’t worry, there’s no need to run in panic because it’s just a guy in a yeti costume.
“By going with this Matterhorn
feel it gives us the ability to have a little bit more fun with,” Schiefelbein said.
The drinks
Besides having the cabin decor, the Lodge also has a drink menu inspired by the Alps with cocktails like the Yodelay Hee Hee, a sweet, chocolate-infused concoction made with whiskey, milk, chocolate bitters, whipped cream and peppermint candy. For a warmer feel there’s the Saint Bernard, made with rum, lemon juice and ginger syrup and served in a St. Bernard dog collar barrel.
The yeti also has his own drink — the Yeti Martini, which is made with gin, coconut cream, blueberries and coconut flakes. And in case Santa were to show up while on vacation, there are the duo cocktails dubbed Naughty and Nice. The Naughty is a red cognac drink that includes edible gold glitter and tiny spiced pears, while the Nice has blue boba, gin and Champagne.
Once the cabin doors close for good in March, the plans are to continue to transform The Set seasonally into themed bars. It was a Halloween-themed speakeasy named The Macabre Manor before it was turned into a mountain lodge.
“We wanted to do a speakeasy but we wanted a revolving concept,” Esqueda said. “We’re looking at three different themes a year. We might keep the Halloween theme in the fall and then the winter theme, and in the summer we’re going to do something different,” he added.