Cabana Bar

This review focuses on the main stand where most tourists go! The one with plush seating on both ends.
The dirty snowman is legit! Basically spiked hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. If I’m not mistaken I believe it’s vanilla vodka, Baileys Irish cream, and hot chocolate.
This is the perfect drink to give you a light buzz in the snow. It’s sweet and tasty with a nice alcoholic touch. For $ 13.50 these are about the same price as any other hotel cocktail.

These are good drinks made the right way, by a real mixologist. Fresh ingredients and quality alcohol are key when on vacation. There’s so much garbage being served elsewhere. You don’t need to worry if you’re bellied up to the cabana. We’ve been buying our libations here for several years now and we’ll be back again next summer.

Try the Bloody Mary!

I’ll probably never be back since i don’t live at Northstar, but the Killer bloody mary was exactly that… KILLER! And the price was just right at about $ 13. Only problem was that it was impossible to keep the condiments from freezing before we could get to them! Frozen prawn, olives, onion and celery… lol.
This is the kind of drink you see someone walking around with and you stop them to ask where they got it. That’s how we found out about the Cabana Bar, and we went on to tell several other people who asked where we got the drink. Gotta love it.
We ordered from the cart and the server was super friendly.

A cool bar to sit at while watching kids go by on the rink. At night, the fire pits are ablaze for everyone to make some smores. Life is good.

The setting: Nice & sunny Sunday, 12:00 pm. No crowds. Non-​skiing families are lounging on the outdoor sofas as I walk up to the quiet, stand-​alone booth.
Me: «Hi, can I get a beer please? A Gordon Biersch.»
Staffer, looking annoyed: «I’m not open yet.»
«Oh. When do you open?»
«In about 5 minutes.»
It’s a captive setting in a corporate ski resort, so it’s really my mistake for expecting a warm, slightly apologetic smile. But man, I know airport bars and hospital cafeterias that can school them on goodwill and service skills.

This is the best apres ski scene I’ve ever come across! Family friendly (which I realize is a funny thing to say about a bar), casual, kick-​back and fun, the Cabana Bar is the outdoor lounge that resides in those orange and brown open air cabanas on either side of the Northstar Village ice rink.
We got lucky and managed to grab some seats around the fire pit both days we were there. Something about this communal pit puts folks in a good mood — the first day the woman next to me whipped out marshmellows and sticks from her some ice cooler and shared them all around the fire. It was great! A lot of laughter and stories about the slopes ensued and we weren’t simply strangers around the same fire anymore.
The second day we purchased a smores kit from the bar and roasted marshmellows with the kids again. This seemed to unleash the kid in others near us. Two pairs of folks who didn’t know each other, struck up a deal and pooled their money to get their own kit which they shared.
The bartenders are fun — have them make you thier specialty drink a «Dirty Snowman,» (hot chocolate, vanilla flavored vodka and Bailey’s). These folks also make an awesome hot apple pie (the drink, not the pastry). My kids give the hot apple cider here two thumbs up.
If you have proficient ice skating kids with you, unleash them on the rink on their own. They can burn excess steam within your full view. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to drive home in peace with an exhausted skier/​skater snoozing in the back!

I am only giving one star to the Cabana bar… but I’d like to give less. Yesterday, after an amazing day on the slopes, I was forced to stand in line for over half an hour to get two drinks. There were 2 bartenders, but both seemed to be moving in slow motion. They weren’t friendly. At 4 pm on a busy holiday weekend, I would hope that the bartenders would pick up their speed (the girl kept drinking her Red Bull between orders) to get good tips. They didn’t get a tip at all from me. The drinks are way over priced ($ 15 for a beer & a hot cocoa drink)…the service is worse that awful.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had extremely poor service at this bar. So it shows that the management does not care about the customers. Never again. And, I’ll tell everyone I know to head into Truckee for their Apres Ski. Burger Me, Bar of America, Cottonwood. They all have amazing service.

The outside bar located adjacent to the ice skating rink in the middle of the new Northstar Village. Great lounge areas with firepits facing a stage where bands play after a long day of riding. Kick back watch the skaters and bands and enjoy a nice adult beverage. I’m imagning it will be a killer place to hang outside when the warm summer season comes around also. Watched a band called «Stung» who played Police and Sting covers. That guy sounded uncannily like Gordon Sumner. Anyways it was chill surreal experience after my last days of snow for the season.