Making Christmas: How decorating for the holidays helped save Call to Arms Brewing

When Chris Bell wants to do something, he goes all out. So much so that he has spent thousands of dollars to turn his Call to Arms Brewing, in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood, into a pop-up perfect spot, not only for getting into the spirit of the season while sipping beer, but also for holiday-themed selfies, winter work parties and other festive get-togethers.

“The creativity behind the pop-up is like making beer; I get a lot of joy out of it and to me, making a beer isn’t about throwing a bunch of ingredients together, it’s about evoking things from people’s senses,” said Bell, over the phone as he shopped for said pop-up at Home Depot.

“While generally those senses are the nose and mouth, they are also your eyes and how that beer looks, and Christmas is the same,” he added.

Bell’s wild decor inspiration hails from his hometown of New York City. There, a bar called Rolf’s German Restaurant, which opened in 1968, became famous for its holiday lights and decorations. During the month of December, it’s impossible to make a reservation, let alone get someone on the phone. You just have to go in and hope to score a seat. Now, Call to Arms has a similar following, though this will only be the second year Bell has gone over the top for the Christmas season.

Originally Bell planned on launching the pop-up, now dubbed Big Holiday Energy, in 2020. Of course, that was the time of COVID, and with the lack of in-person interactions and low funds, no one was doing much. Then came another shift, dumping his hard-earned and pricy barrel program to make room for an expensive canning facility so customers could bring Call to Arms’ award-winning Cherry Freedom Fries (a cherry saison), CTA IPA and Oats and Hose (oatmeal porter) home. The brewery also started working on a hazy IPA and a hard seltzer for the first time.

“I spent a ton of time brewing, dumping and changing hazies during COVID, and took a lot of feedback from customers,” added Bell. “I got good at something I wasn’t good at, and now Janet Reno’s Dance Party (an IPA) is our best seller.”

Between canning, working on new beers and tweaking older recipes, Bell and his brewery managed to get through the pandemic without closing. But, he said, it wasn’t easy.

“You kind of question it, as you are taking on loans and working hard to keep everyone safe, and you worry about the employees’ health and jobs,” said Bell. “But I think it’s the natural instinct of an entrepreneur not to give up. You’re blindly confident you will get through it, and though COVID punched me in the gut, I still thought I could keep doing it.”

After the emotional drain of going through the pandemic as a business owner, Bell did think about taking a step back from the day-to-day operations, even though it was all he has ever done since graduating in 2008. Instead, he kept fighting to stay open, and once bars and restaurants started to get their groove back, so did Call to Arms and Bell’s ideas for its future.

And in that future was a massive holiday pop-up.

“After COVID, everyone was like screw it, I want to do what I have been putting off, and people had a new view of life and focused on what they wanted to do,” said Bell, who had been planning the holiday decor for years at this point. “We got a new, fresh staff and that was like a new regeneration.”

Through that refresh, Big Holiday Energy came into fruition. To pull off the multi-room, totally-decked-out bar, Bell enlisted his label designer, Andy Geppelt, to help.

“He really came up with the bulk of it, and knew how to approach it from a design perspective,” said Bell. “I needed Andy’s help to look at each area and find out how to approach it, what will make it fun and exciting and not just stuff on the walls and ceilings. We were hoping everyone would love it and come out [to the brewery].”

Come they did. That first run in December 2022 was a hit. The bar was so packed, said Bell, it was hard to get a seat.

That year, the theme was generically “the holidays,” and each space represented different aspects and titles, which eventually became the permanent names for the bar. There was the White Room, featuring winter and snow; the Blue Room, decorated for Hanukkah; and the Christmas Tree Room, which showcased fully-decorated fake trees hung upside down off the ceiling. The brewery also laced the bar with wrapped presents, and filled the middle space with lights and garlands.

“That Wednesday night, I stayed late decorating and took a picture of the bar, which I accidentally posted to the brewery’s social media,” said Bell, who thought he was pinning a post on his personal account. “I woke up the next day and there were over 700 likes, and that was it. The next Thursday was double the sales and I couldn’t believe it.”