Lobby Treats at The Mandarin Oriental; Attention Cabbies

BACK BAY - The Mandarin Oriental hotel is introducing a new holiday-appropriate pop-up of sorts in the first floor Lobby Lounge. The Parlor will serve four different hot toddies, tea sandwiches, pastries, coffee and coffee drinks, tea, hot cider and cocoa. Service starts tomorrow, November 10, and continues daily from 2pm to 6pm. [Official Site]

WATERFRONT - Calling all cabbies and water shuttle captains! Head to the Barking Crab on Monday for a totally free lunch as part of a Veterans Day promotion starting at noon. [Official Site]

BACK BAY - Today Lolita Cocina and Tequila Bar mixologist Chris Jamison will have his margarita judged by Carlos Santana. Jamison is competing at "Noble Places" Specialty Cocktail Competition at the House of Blues in Las Vegas hosted by Casa Noble tequila makers. Hopefully he'll make a "smooth" margarita: Santana seems to like that adjective based on his 1999 single by the same name. [Official Site]

KENMORE SQUARE - The Hawthorne appears to be the only bar with its own barrel of the Dutch spirit genever. Co-owner/bar director Jackson Cannon personally went to Holland to pick it up, says the New York Times blog Diner's Journal. [Diner's Journal via GS]

[Photo: The Hawthorne/Official Site]