A Halloween Cocktail Pop-Up Wants Guests to ‘Channel Your Inner Goth Kid’

If you’re a Halloween person, you know that “Halloween” isn’t confined to October 31; it’s a year-round lifestyle, with the spooky season beginning in earnest before the end of September. So rejoice, pumpkinheads: Black Lagoon, North America’s most famous Halloween cocktail pop-up has appeared at acclaimed Belltown bar Rob Roy and will be there until November 4.

Co-founders Kelsey Ramage and Erin Hayes — both widely celebrated bartenders — started Black Lagoon at a New Orleans goth bar in the summer of 2021 during the Tales of the Cocktail trade conference. It’s since gone global, and this Halloween season it will be in 17 cities, including Paris and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Hayes tells Eater Seattle that Rob Roy was picked as the Seattle host bar partly because she’s known Rob Roy owner Anu Apte for a long time, but mostly because “Rob Roy has an amazing history of executing amazing cocktails paired with incredible hospitality.” (This year Rob Roy scored a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Bar.)

The Black Lagoon takeover includes inventive Halloween decorations, costumed bartenders, and (of course) creepy cocktails that combine tropical and fall flavors. The Hellfire Fizz mashes up Lot 40 Dark Oak Rye Whiskey with carrot, turmeric, lemon, Lustau Amontillado, Greek yogurt, spice bitters, absinthe, and seltzer. The Book of Blood, the pop-up’s take on a margarita, features Montelobos Mezcal, Giffard Piment D’Espellette, beet and lime juice, miso falernum, and absinthe.

The goal, Hayes said in a press release, is for guests to “feel fully immersed and transported to new and dark dimensions, while also feeling right at home... We created Black Lagoon as not only a fun and unique way to celebrate Halloween, but also as a safe space for anyone who may feel like a misfit.”

Added Ramage, “We strive for our guests to have fun, have a delicious drink and experience Halloween with no judgment — and not be afraid to channel your inner goth kid.”