Note: Frost Ice Bar closed sometime in late 2016.

frosticebarThere is a new trend which I’ve slowly been hearing about over the past few years. Ice hotels, ice bars, places made of ice. For fun. What? Yes, a few months ago Boston got it’s first taste of this phenomenon when Frost Ice Bar opened in Faneuil Hall.

What is an ice bar? Well it’s a 19 degree Fahrenheit room with a bar made of ice. And tables and seats made of ice. Oh and the glasses are made of ice too.

The thing with a place like this is you have to go in with the right expectation. This is not a lounge where you are going to chill (no pun intended) with your friends for a few hours over drinks. This is an attraction that you go to for the novelty. The Frost Ice Bar is run by the same people who operate the Duck Boats in Boston and they are trying to cater to the same market. To enter the bar you need to purchase tickets for a set time which costs $19 for a 45 minute session. It is recommended that you dress warm and then they give you a down poncho and gloves to wear over your winter clothes.

It is too cold in the bar to have a cash register or to even make drinks apparently. When you check in they have you open a tab in the lobby and one person in the party wears a bar code around their neck that connects to the tab. At the bar they only have 8 cocktails available which are pre-made and they pour into the ice cube glasses.

So maybe all of this may feel like a tourist trap or waste of money? But here is the thing. This was the friendliest bar I have ever been to in Boston. From the woman helping us into our ponchos to the bartenders stuck serving us in the cold everyone was just so gleeful. Some of the other patrons were huddled in corners shivering refusing to leave until they got their monies worth… but the majority were dancing around to the pop music and grinning. It is almost such an absurd situation to be in that you can’t help but bop around and be catch the contagious joy that is around.