Trade Routes' Lunar New Year Cocktail Pop-Up Lands on Polk — Along With a 23-Foot Dragon

AsAs a kid in Taiyuan in the northwestern Chinese province of Shanxi, Trade Routes co-owner Chen-Chen Huo remembers Lunar New Year as one of the most special times of the year. From January 18 to February 12, Trade Routes will host the New Moon Lunar New Year Celebration, a pop-up celebrating the upcoming Year of the Rabbit with special cocktails and an abundance of over-the-top decorations. The event comes on the heels of the bar's Tinsel Time Christmas pop-up and represents a growing number of cocktail and bar pop-ups celebrating the Lunar New Year across the Bay Area. "But growing up here in San Francisco to immigrant parents Christmas was really big, but for me, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year were even bigger." The bar's New Moon Lunar New Year Celebration cocktail menu is comprised of five drinks, including a White Rabbit slushie and a flight of the Chinese liquor baijiu. Once again, the team will go all-out with decor: last year they strung up a 60-foot silk dragon, but this year they'll give the resident reptilian a second friend plus a whole pride of lions. As for the food and drinks, Tsui says he's got his work cut out for him: There's a fresh cocktail menu with about 20 drinks coming for the Lunar New Year celebration.