{"id":34299,"date":"2025-12-23T12:04:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/2025\/12\/23\/pop-up-bar-brings-puerto-rican-christmas-and-a-bad-bunny-casita-to-humboldt-park\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:04:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:04:58","slug":"pop-up-bar-brings-puerto-rican-christmas-and-a-bad-bunny-casita-to-humboldt-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/2025\/12\/23\/pop-up-bar-brings-puerto-rican-christmas-and-a-bad-bunny-casita-to-humboldt-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop-Up Bar Brings Puerto Rican Christmas \u2014 And A Bad Bunny Casita \u2014 To Humboldt Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to La Parranda Boricua Pop-Up<\/h2>\n

HUMBOLDT PARK \u2014 La Parranda Boricua Pop-Up is Chicago\u2019s first Puerto Rican Christmas-themed pop-up bar and event space \u2014 and it\u2019s taking the Puerto Rican community dancing into the holidays.<\/p>\n

The Concept and Creation<\/h2>\n

Tucked behind a beige curtain inside Le Lo Lai Gallery, 2716 W. Division St., La Parranda Boricua is a pop-up bar that\u2019s had lines out the door for weeks, said Liana Lorenzo. Lorenzo and Maria S\u00e1nchez, who together own the company Lasting Memories Events, are the creators behind the pop-up, which opened Nov. 28 and runs through Jan. 3.<\/p>\n

Bringing the Community Together<\/h3>\n

\u201cEven on the coldest days and the most snowy, ugliest days, we would think that people weren\u2019t coming, but we already had lines out the door,\u201d Lorenzo said during a recent visit to the bar. \u201cThey want to see Benito and la casita.\u201d Perhaps most notable \u2014 and what\u2019s bringing most visitors \u2014 is a replica of la casita Bad Bunny featured on stage during his Puerto Rican residency this year, a new addition to the pop-up\u2019s expansion. Other Bad Bunny items, like replicas of objects from album covers, are found around the bar.<\/p>\n

The Tradition of Parranda<\/h2>\n

A parranda is a\u00a0Puerto Rican\u00a0tradition that takes place during the\u00a0holiday season with food, music and dancing usually starting at someone\u2019s home, similar to Christmas caroling. The Puerto Rican Cultural Center hosted its 19th annual Parranda at Paseo Boricua event this weekend in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The Pop-Up Experience<\/h2>\n

La Parranda aims to bring the cultural island vibes to the cold streets of Humboldt Park. With Puerto Rican flags everywhere, fake palm trees, inflatable Christmas-themed coqu\u00eds with Santa Claus and musicians, drums and wrapped gifts, the bar literally lights up. Even its ceiling is decorated with Christmas cheer, with ornaments, streamers, stars and boxes from Puerto Rican brands.
\nLiana Lorenzo (left) and Maria Sanchez (right) stand in front of holiday decorations at the Parranda Boricua pop-up Le Lo Lai Gallery in Humboldt Park on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Credit:<\/span> Jeremy Battle\/Block Club Chicago<\/span><\/p>\n

Honoring Puerto Rican Heritage<\/h2>\n

After launching the pop-up for one weekend in a nearby storefront in 2024, the group received dozens of messages asking for La Parranda\u2019s return, Lorenzo said. This time around, there have been five weeks of events, programs and fun to be had at the bar and merch tables out front. Lorenzo, who grew up in Logan Square and now lives in Belmont Cragin, felt it was important to create a pop-up experience for her own community, she said. S\u00e1nchez is from Humboldt Park and now lives in suburban Bolingbrook.<\/p>\n

Bringing Culture Alive<\/h3>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really get this experience in the hood,\u201d Lorenzo said. \u201cI work a lot of events in River North and Wrigley, with all the pop-ups, so I think about how the underprivileged don\u2019t get to experience that and or don\u2019t feel welcome to that community, and it\u2019s not as affordable. We wanted to create a space that brings our community and our culture alive \u2014 intermix the experience of La Isla with Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decorations and Ambiance<\/h2>\n

\"\"Puerto Rican holiday decorations and Bad Bunny merchandise hang from the ceiling of the La Parranda Boricua pop-up in Humboldt Park on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Credit:<\/span> Jeremy Battle\/Block Club Chicago<\/span>
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Introduction to La Parranda Boricua Pop-Up HUMBOLDT PARK \u2014 La Parranda Boricua Pop-Up is Chicago\u2019s first Puerto Rican Christmas-themed pop-up bar and event space \u2014 and it\u2019s taking the Puerto Rican community dancing into the holidays. The Concept and Creation Tucked behind a beige curtain inside Le Lo Lai Gallery, 2716 W. Division St., La […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/12\/121925-Parranda-Pop-Up-14.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1279&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34302,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34299\/revisions\/34302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}