Lovettsville's Cocoa Crawl Has Spent Three Years Growing Toward the Tree Lighting

At 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday in early December, Zoldos Square fills from the edges in. Most people call it the Squirkle. The Lantern Parade comes in, the Lovettsville Elementary School Chorus sings, someone reads The Night Before Christmas, and children hunt for the hidden Christmas Pickle before the tree comes on and Santa shows up. Last year, people in that crowd were also holding a folded passport with five or more cocoa stickers, because the tree lighting was where it had to be turned in.

That passport explains how the town's first holiday Saturday works. The Cocoa Crawl and Wintertainmentfest share a date, and the crawl is set up to finish at the tree. Each year the crawl has started earlier in the day leading up to it. On the Town's event listings for 2026, both fall on Saturday, December 5, and the crawl ends only half an hour before the lights come on.

Three Decembers, One Direction

Look at the start times over three years and the shift is clear.

In 2024, the Town described the crawl as a three-hour outing to sample and buy hot chocolate and cocoa treats at participating businesses, followed by Wintertainmentfest at 6:30. In 2025, the crawl started at noon and added the passport, which tied the afternoon to the evening. The 2026 listing runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the earliest start of the three years. It ends close enough to the tree lighting that a last cup of cocoa downtown can come right before the walk to the Squirkle.

How Last Year's Passport Worked

The Town introduced the passport in 2025. It was the main change that year, and it set the evening's rules:

• You picked up a passport at any participating business and collected a sticker at each stop.
• Five or more stickers made the passport eligible. You turned it in at the 6:30 p.m. tree lighting on the Squirkle for a chance at a Town of Lovettsville gift basket with a Lovettsville Oktoberfest stein, hoodies and t-shirts. The winner was announced during the tree lighting.
• The first 20 people to turn in a passport got a limited-edition Lovettsville Cocoa Crawl mug designed by local artist Sally Sloan-Scott.
• The passport also had a Best Cocoa Creation ballot, turned in with the stickered passport at the tree lighting.

The first-20 mug rule meant arriving early at the Squirkle mattered as much as visiting every stop. The Town's 2026 Cocoa Crawl page tells people to watch for this year's passport, menu and prizes, so the latest version of these rules will be posted there.

What Last Year's Twelve Stops Poured

The 2025 menu shows how each business made the cocoa theme its own. The Town's 2025 Cocoa Crawl page listed twelve stops:

1. 1836 Kitchen & Taproom served a toffee and chocolate chip brownie, a chocolate mousse cup and a chocolate martini.
2. Andy's Pizza & Subs paired classic hot chocolate with a brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate drizzle.
3. Back Street Brews Coffee & Tea House offered chocolate milkshakes, hot cocoa and Mexican mochas, all topped with whipped cream and marshmallows.
4. Daughter Thai made a Cozy Cocoa Matcha and a Thai-style Cocoa Coconut.
5. El Pitayo Mexican Restaurant served "Abuelitas Hot Chocolate" with a slice of chocolate concha, plus mole poblano.
6. Lovettsville Co-op Market had classic and dark hot cocoa with crushed mint candy.
7. Lovettsville Game Protective Association and the Lovettsville Lions Club shared a stop with classic hot chocolate and cocoa bombs.
8. Market Table Bistro split its menu, with hot chocolate and churros on the porch and chocolate bourbon eggnog, a cocoa espresso martini and a chocolate cherry old fashioned in the lounge.
9. Rodeo's Mexican Bar & Grill offered hot cocoa, a Tito's hot cocoa frappe and mole enchiladas.
10. Train to Mumbai served homemade kulfi in mango and mixed-nut pistachio, drizzled with chocolate, plus a chocolate dessert wine.
11. Velocity Wings made a s'mores hot chocolate and a Baileys hot cocoa.
12. Willow's Vintage Charm paired classic hot chocolate with a shelf of cocoa bombs, mixes and cocoa-themed mugs.

With twelve stops and a five-sticker minimum, nobody had to visit them all. You could build a route around a lunch, a coffee and a drink before the tree lighting. Market Table Bistro at 13 E Broad Way is one of the few stops with a published street address. Train to Mumbai's ordering page puts it at 11 Town Center Drive. Most of the 2025 participants also appeared on the Town's 2026 Oktoberfest map in September.

The Corner by the Squirkle Has a New Name

The biggest change since last December is the stop closest to the tree. Twisted Cat Tavern now occupies the corner spot by the Squirkle where Velocity Wings used to be, Loudoun Now reported. It is the second location for owners Peter Godden and Doug Dobbins, who opened their first in Lansdowne in 2023, and the Lovettsville opening was celebrated with a ribbon cutting on August 21, 2026. The tavern is at 20 Town Square #100, and Loudoun Now listed its hours as Tuesday through Sunday, 2 to 11 p.m. Those hours cover the second half of the crawl and the whole tree lighting.

The menu leans toward from-scratch bar food, including Totchos, which are stuffed tater tots topped with slow-roasted pork and beer cheese. The owners told Loudoun Now they were introducing the full menu, patio service and to-go ordering in phases. "We want to create a fun neighborhood vibe that everyone wants to be a part of," Dobbins told Loudoun Now.

There is also a second Thai kitchen in the same building. Thai Love Bistro is at 20 Town Square, Suite 160, and the Town lists it separately from Daughter Thai, so the two are different restaurants.

El Pitayo Is Back for Its Third December

In late summer, a driver accidentally hit the side of El Pitayo, the restaurant that served last year's Abuelitas hot chocolate and concha. After repairs and a wait for permits, it reopened on September 28, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported. No one was hurt in the crash.

The family-run restaurant is in the Lovettsville Town Center development and marked its second anniversary in October. It has about 100 seats inside and about 60 on the patio. "We have regulars from Lovettsville, but people also come from Brunswick, Maryland, and other areas," co-owner Luis Morales told the Loudoun Times-Mirror. Its dining room is one of the larger indoor spots on a cold afternoon, which counts for something when the crawl lasts seven hours.

A Saturday Built Backward From 6:30

Since the evening sets the schedule, the easiest way to plan December 5 is to start at 6:30 and work back:

• 11 a.m. The crawl opens town-wide. Last year, passports were available at any participating business, so your first stop was also your pickup point.
• Midday El Pitayo, Train to Mumbai and the Town Center businesses work well for a sit-down lunch with cocoa or kulfi.
• Afternoon The downtown stops around Town Square and East Broad Way are close together, and Market Table Bistro's porch service suits a cocoa you drink standing up.
• By 6 p.m. The crawl closes. A stop at Twisted Cat Tavern or another business near the Squirkle leaves you a short walk from the tree.
• 6:30 p.m. Wintertainmentfest begins at Zoldos Square, 1 Town Square, with the Lantern Parade, the chorus, the Christmas Pickle hunt, the tree lighting and Santa. The Town's invitation tells people to bring coats, hats and gloves.

Two Nights Later, Inside Town Hall

The holiday stretch continues on Monday, December 7, with the Town's Menorah Lighting Ceremony at 6:30 p.m. in Town Council Chambers, 6 East Pennsylvania Ave. The Town scheduled it for the fourth night of Hanukkah to line up with other events in the area. The evening includes jelly donuts, hot chocolate and the story of Hanukkah. Last year's ceremony was held outdoors on the Squirkle on the second night of Hanukkah. This year it moves indoors on a Monday evening, so the cocoa from Saturday comes back once more.

When the Squirkle is where everyone ends up on a December Saturday, the location of a home in relation to it affects more than its price. If you're weighing a move within Lovettsville or planning a sale in the new year, Carter Braxton Preferred Properties can talk through what your address offers. Request a confidential home valuation and consultation.