Ordinary

Ordinary calls itself New Haven's oldest tavern, and every December it closes its regular room to reopen as a fully redecorated holiday pop-up bar spilling onto Chapel Street. The takeover has run under a licensed national concept in one recent season and the bar's own in-house theme in another, but the format repeats each winter: new decor, new glassware and a dedicated Christmas cocktail list built on classic bones dressed up with warming spices. Order a seasonal, spirit-forward cocktail from that list, and expect a small holiday snack menu served alongside it.

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Ordinary occupies the former tap room of the old Taft Hotel, a downtown bar room of carved wood, molded plaster, and a big fireplace that CTbites traces back through a lineage of taverns on the site into the 1600s. Restored to its current form in 2013, it built its name on a serious cocktail program and one of New Haven's deepest beer lists. Come for a classic stirred drink at the long bar and let the age of the room do the rest.

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