‘Harry Potter’-style cocktail bar popping up in Fort Lauderdale
The Boozy Cauldron, a ‘Harry Potter’-themed bar featuring cocktails, close-up magic and Butterbeer, will pop up in downtown Fort Lauderdale this weekend.
The interactive drinking event — which artfully sidesteps direct nods to the billion-dollar fantasy juggernaut — is billed as a “four-part cocktail experience” and 90-minute magic show in which a wizarding school professor and his two students share stories “surrounding the famous tavern and the ghosts that still haunt the establishment.”
Whatever that means. We’re just here for the Butterbeer. Fort Lauderdale is a lot closer than schlepping four hours to a certain
Orlando theme park.
“Basically you’re going to a tavern built for witches and wizards for a dark magic class and a moody professor serves you cocktails,” explains Ryan Wieczorek, the Boozy Cauldron’s marketing wizard.
Oh. So that’s what “Harry Potter” fans do when they grow up.
According to the Boozy Cauldron’s Eventbrite page, the gathering inside the “Dark Magic Castle” — ahem, independent movie theater Savor Cinema — will be limited to 120 visitors during timed seatings within the 270-seat theater. Seatings are 7-8:30, 9-10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Saturday. Admission is $40 (plus tax). Although it’s a cinema, no “Harry Potter” films will be screened.
Cocktails — served in goblets and potion vials — will be passed around every 15 minutes in between magic performances and storytelling. Drinks include Transformational Potion, made with raspberry vodka, white cranberry juice, Cointreau and edible glitter; Buttered Beer, a spiked vanilla butterscotch drink topped with whipped cream; Pumpkin Caramel Apple, a martini made with pumpkin liqueur, caramel vodka, pressed apple cider, lemon juice and served with smoke; and Black Magic, a blackberry gimlet infused with gold glitter.
The Boozy Cauldron is the invention of Tampabased event promoter Rock Star Beer Festivals, which programs pop-up bar events across the country. While his Boozy Cauldron pop-up is careful to avoid referencing the J.K. Rowling franchise, Wieczorek says visitors often show up with colored house robes, Sorting Hats, wands and other “Harry Potter” merch.
“We have nothing from the ‘Harry Potter’ universe but we definitely play off the inspiration,” Wieczorek says.
“There’s going to be close-up magic but not card tricks, which are too cheesy. There are illusions and water levitation and disappearing axes.”
Whatever you say. Just don’t disappear our Butterbeer.
The Boozy Cauldron, at 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale, will take place 7-8:30, 9-10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m. March 27. Admission is $40 ( plus tax) via Eventbrite. com.