Month: June 2021

Ever fallen in love with a place upon arrival? If so, I can relate. Though I’m a native Texan, I usually only traveled to Austin for SXSW and Austin City Limits (ACL). I loved it from the first time I set eyes on it, but that love was offered from afar. Until December 2019, right before the pandemic, when I decided to officially call the “Music Capital of the World” my home.

As a travel and spirits writer weathering a pandemic and resident of the Austin area for a solid year and a half now, I’ve been given the opportunity to experience all of the amazingness the city and surrounding towns have to offer. I’ve sung the praises of Texas whiskey and staycationed in Hill Country. Now I’m eager to share the best of my adopted hometown with out-of-state tourists.

Some good news way up front: Approximately 48% percent of Travis County’s residents are fully vaccinated, with Austin proper boasting even higher rates. Although this doesn’t give us the permission to throw caution to the wind (I’ll be still donning a mask indoors), it does mean we can begin to safely enjoy the spaces and hangouts that prompted me to fall under the city’s spell in the first place.

Below, I’ve rounded up some of my recommendations of where you should eat, drink, stay, and play in and around Austin, Texas this summer. This list is merely scratching the surface but if you want to know my personal favorites of ATX, it’s where to start. Let’s dive in and keep things weird!

Where to Eat:

Austin is the “it” spot for BBQ. You can’t come here without eating some barbeque – I don’t make the rules. Downtown Austin’s Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que (the flagship one is in Llano, TX) offers delicious smoked meats such as brisket and ribs. Are you more of an herbivore? No problem. Whether you’re a vegetarian or vegan, Flower Child offers farm-fresh cuisine that’s as healthy as it is yummy. I’m a serious fan of their gluten-free mac and cheese!

About 20-30 minutes outside of Austin, in a town called Pflugerville is the brilliant Taste of Ethiopia restaurant. Their authentic Ethiopian fare includes lamb tibs and goat kikil – I recommend both. And right down the road in the nearby city of Georgetown is the French-inspired Nightingale Bistro. I brunch at this outdoors gem regularly. I specifically enjoy their short rib hash entrée while sipping a Slow Read (Rittenhouse rye, Cynar, and Amaro Nonino).

Where to Drink:

ATX has some the best watering holes, breweries, and coffee shops I’ve ever experienced in the country. Easy Tiger not only serves locally roasted coffee, but they also double as a beer garden with unique craft beers. You’ll need something to munch on while you enjoy your coffee or beer, so be sure to try some of the treats – particularly the bread – from their in-house bakery.

The Tigress Pub reminds me of the show Cheers “where everybody knows your naaaaaaaaame.” It’s a women-owned, neighborhood bar (with a loyal following) located near North Loop and their craft cocktails are excellent. Our city loves a good Tiki cocktail, and this is the place to get it.

Jester King Brewery is not only visually appealing, but it’s also just overall a wonderful experience. It’s a brewery, farm, and eatery! Where else can you enjoy farmhouse ales while frolicking alongside goats?

Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, Aba, is on my list of places I’ll continue to hit this summer because they just unveiled a new seasonal cocktail menu featuring what they call “groupies.” Groupies are big-batch beverages meant to be shared by 4-5 people and are presented in watering cans. Sign me up. Also, I love their Hill Country Old Fashioned that incorporates caramelized fig!

Where to Stay:

I find that the best places to stay are right outside of Austin. However, if you must stay downtown, I highly recommend the posh Proper Hotel. Out of the 244 rooms and suites, some have a view of Austin’s famous Lady Bird Lake. Plus, while you’re lounging at their rooftop pool soaking in the incredible lake views, you can imbibe on one of the venue’s tasty signature margaritas.

Among my favorite places to stay is Sage Hill Inn & Spa, located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country wine region. You can explore the scenery by hiking or biking. The best part is the B&B’s overlook, which is atop a cliffside, 80 feet above Onion Creek. Plus, your stay includes a three-course dinner. The menu is updated seasonally, but if you have the chance to choose their ahi tuna steak – you should!

A funkier gem is Yurtopia – which features a limited number of hilltop yurts – and the recycled shipping container hotel, Flophouze. Each “houze” has a hammock and comfy chairs so you can catch the stunning Round Top, Texas sunrise and sunset.

Where to Play:

After you brunch in Georgetown at the aforementioned Nightingale Bistro, hit Blue Hole Park for an afternoon of hiking and leisure. This Instagram-beloved lagoon is bordered by limestone bluffs along the south fork of the San Gabriel River. Another scenic place for R&R and a swim is Barton Springs Pool. The natural pool is fed from underground springs with an average temperature of 68-70 degrees.

For my friends who want less nature and more shopping, ATX has an array of unique and whimsical thrift shops. Among my faves are Flashback and Room Service Vintage. On the weekends, you can catch some really cool handmade and vintage finds at The Austin Flea. The added perk? The Austin Flea usually sets up camp at breweries or distilleries, so you can drink *and* shop – a potentially dangerous combination, but who’s judging?

The 2021 WNBA season started with a pair of buzzer-beaters on opening night and hasn’t slowed down much since. This summer has been really damn competitive with 12 games out of 51 total being decided by three points or less, including six buzzer-beaters not even a month into the season!

As Jasmine Brown said, this league is becoming the Women’s National Buzzer-beater Association!

So let’s rank and re-live all the most heart-breaking/spirit-lifting daggers of the early summer.

1. Kia Nurse’s euro-step, halfcourt winner

Yeah this is just straight up wild. Nurse really sprinted in the final few seconds after securing the rebound and casually hit Courtney Vandersloot with a move at the halfcourt spot that you’d usually see inside 10 feet from the rim.

Her shooting touch on this launch is impeccable, too. You’d expect that chuck to launch off the backboard at the speed she was running, but she was so smooth on the release that the rim treated it like a free-throw.

This is the kind of shot that, in real-time, wakes up neighbors of fans. Screaming from the couch is a must.

2. Jewell Loyd’s launch with .8 seconds left

This is Loyd’s season among a stacked lineup that includes the legendary Sue Bird and former MVP Breanna Stewart. Opponents better start treating her as a top scoring threat or they’ll continue to get burned.

Watch the attention Bird gets as she runs off a Loyd screen, dragging a second defender away from the elite 3-point shooter. That was a mistake that Satou Sabally didn’t have enough time to cover for as Loyd cut to the top of the arc and turned in one swift motion to hoist the game-winner.

I mean, damn, look how quickly she was able to plant her feet and square up. She had time to spare!

3. Arike Ogunbowale’s eight unanswered points including a step-back 3-pointer with .7 seconds left

I could have just done a ranking of all of Ogunbowale’s game-winners at this point, but this one in particular was special because she claimed the entire final two minutes against maybe the best team in the league.

First she hit a pair of free throws, then a 26-footer, and then this 28-foot shot. Ogunbowale’s confidence is through the roof as it should be, and she may be the most clutch basketball player on the planet.

4. Sabrina Ionescu’s fadeaway 3-pointer in her first game back from a Grade 3 ankle sprain

Ionescu played all of three games in her rookie season due to the injury and she came back on opening night one season later and just… hit that? What a ridiculously fun way to start the year off and show the world that she’s back.

5. Diana Taurasi’s game clock malfunction 3-pointer

Taurasi’s winner was inevitable the second she touched the ball down two points. Kayla McBride’s contest was spot-on but also pointless as the league’s most prolific-ever scorer called game.

Fans who watched this live may remember the drama that came after. The game clock never started after Taurasi caught the ball and referees armed with stopwatches gathered to determine how much time remained. The game was a mess, but the shot was perfect.

6. Courtney Williams’ swish in overtime to beat the Liberty

The Liberty were one of the hottest teams in the league until Williams’ dagger kick-started their (still ongoing) three-game losing streak. Williams pulled up effortlessly on New York’s very questionable drop coverage.

If this half-court buzzer-beater before the end of third quarter is any proof, this may not be the last game-winner we see from Williams this year.

A lot has been made in recent years about a scene in which Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood and Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones discuss their past in an early scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones is looking for a medallion that was in the possession of his former mentor, Abner Ravenwood. Looking for Abner he runs into Marion, and they have a past, which caused a rift between Indy and Abner. Marion tells Indy, “I was a child. I was in love.” Indy responds, “You knew what you were doing.” That’s pretty much the extent of it, but it’s vague enough that, well, some sinister undertones could be gathered from that exchange. And, yes, Karen Allen has noticed the interpretations of that scene and, as the actor who plays Marion, she has her own interpretation.

The first four Indiana Jones movies have a brand new 4K Blu-ray set and this month marks the 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And it was an absolute delight to listen to Allen recall her memories of making Raiders: From her screen-test with her old Animal House buddy Tim Matheson, to the time she accidentally punched Harrison Ford in the face. Also, Allen said she was told from the beginning she wouldn’t be in the next two movies, but she did take note that fans of the series did seem to miss her (of all Indy’s partners in adventure, he and Marion did seem to make the best team).

When you auditioned for Marion with Tim Matheson, what was that like? I’ve always wondered because you two did Animal House together.

You know, I felt very comfortable with him because we were pals in the making of Animal House. That was such a, sort of, congenial set. I mean, we just all got along so well. And I’m still friends with most of those characters. And if remember, we had a really wonderful time doing it. I auditioned with John Shea as well at the same time, who was a New York actor, who I think we flew out on the same plane together to do the screen test. But no, I had a blast. I don’t remember anything that specific about what our screen test was like – Tim and I – but I think we just had a good time with it. And you’re always a little nervous. I haven’t done that many screen tests in my life. Not many people still do them, even at that time. I mean, it was rare for people to do a screen test, so we were, I’m sure, both reasonably nervous about the whole thing. George Lucas was there.

And probably not realizing at the time, oh, people are going to be able to watch this 40 years later on the internet, a screen test. That is horrifying.

I mean, can you see Tim Matheson and me?

Yes.

On the internet you can put it on?

Yeah, it’s on YouTube.

Oh, interesting. Oh, I’ll have to pull that up and see it.

There’s also one with Tom Selleck and Sean Young.

I think I’ve seen that one. But I never had seen one of mine, I don’t think.

The first time we meet Marion is that scene where she’s drinking shots. In your mind, was Marion playing to the crowd that she almost passed out? Because after she wins she doesn’t seem very drunk.

Well, I think my take on it was that she was sort of faking it. I think Steven’s was more that she was really kind of struggling against it – that they had really taken it a little far this time and she was struggling against trying to stay conscious. So I think we did it a couple of different ways. And I think that’s the take that he ended up using. So it may be more of like, I’m really literally about to lose consciousness. And then I just sort of snap out of it, probably because I really needed the money or something. I’m going to refuse to lose.

That same night she goes on a whole adventure…

[Laughs] That’s true! Well, you see, there’s one point where I have snow up against my forehead, up against my temple. So I go outside and I get this handful of snow, and I have snow pressed up against my temples as Indiana Jones walks in.

Speaking of when Indiana Jones walks in, that scene makes me laugh every time because you’re giving the, “Ah, Indiana Jones. Never thought you’d walk through my door again,” and you’re about to punch him, but he doesn’t know that. And Harrison just has this big smile on his face. Like, “Ah, she’s glad to see me.” He’s really thinking he’s getting a warm welcome.

[Laughs] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

That punch looks great. How close were you to actually hitting Harrison in there?

Well, I clocked him a couple of times.

Really?

I got him a couple of times. Yep. Yep. I did.

Was he mad?

He was slightly annoyed. But I mean, it happens. It happens. I mean, I had never punched anybody in a film before. So they were showing me how to do it, and I was doing my absolute best, and as far as I was concerned his chin just got in the way of my hand.

So when you actually make contact with him, is he finishing the scene where he does the face to the camera. Or is he immediately like, “Oh that hurt. I have to stop.”

I mean, I have to say, I don’t throw a powerful blow.

I bet it doesn’t feel pleasant.

But I don’t think I hurt him. I mean, I think we just kept on going. In truth, really, a missed punch that is filmed well looks an awful lot better most of the time then when you actually do hit somebody. So, the ones where I actually made contact with him were not good. I think I really made contact with him once. And I think I kind of just clipped him a time, maybe one other time as well, but you always hope that that doesn’t happen. But nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s perfect.

Over the last few years that scene has gotten attention because when the two are discussing their past and Marion’s says, “I was a child.” And Indiana Jones says, “You knew what you were doing.” I’m curious what you think of that, because there are some sinister undertones there.

Yeah, I guess you could say that. I think I say I was 16. I don’t know. That’s always what I imagined is she was 16, he was 26. And he was her father’s student. And it’s left very mysterious.

It is.

So we don’t even know what it is. I mean, they could have kissed a few times, and she was just completely bowled over, and he could have just not wanted to get involved with someone so young. And maybe my father would have been furious at him. I mean, what’s great about it is we don’t know what the circumstances are. So she obviously cared deeply for him. He may have cared for her, too. But, in the end, decided it was a dangerous situation and he didn’t want to be involved. I mean, I guess, when something is as vague as that, you can color it any way you want to color it. I’ve tended to color it, sort of, that it was quite innocent. When she says, “It was wrong and you knew it.” I mean, I think maybe he led her on in some way. But when she says she was a child, I think she meant she was 16. Something like that.

I mean, you are the source on this matter. So that’s why I’m really curious what you thought about that.

Yes. I don’t think of him as a pedophile. That’s the direction some of these people are going.

When you were making Raiders, did you know from the beginning you wouldn’t be in the next two movies? And with Temple of Doom being a prequel, I know that changes the dynamics of that movie anyway. But Marion and Indy always did feel like a good team.

They told me from the very beginning that they were going to do three films and that the Indiana Jones character was going to be in the all three. And that Marion was only going to be in the first one. So I knew that from the very beginning. And it’s so funny, because I think people are so engaged with the Marion Ravenwood character that they were really disappointed when I wasn’t in the follow-up ones.

Yes.

And I don’t know why. I don’t know why it’s interesting. I don’t know why they weren’t more forthright in explaining it, because it seems to be this thing, over the years, I’ve had to talk about so much. People think, for some reason, I was left out of those films, but I was never meant to be in them. What was fantastic is by the time we got to the fourth, which I mean, I never knew there would be a fourth, because the plan was always just to do three, that they brought my character back and that they went forward in time enough that we could get back together was great.

Yeah, when Crystal Skull came out we got the backstory of what Marion had been doing. But I remember in 1989, when I’m watching Last Crusade, I’m like, “Yeah, I wonder what Marion’s doing right now while Indy’s flirting with a Nazi sympathizer? I’d rather see Marion than whoever this traitor is.”

I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah, but Marion, I guess, they have another sort of falling out at some point then. And we’d find out in the fourth one that he, I guess, took off and went in some direction and she ended up with child, so…

Yes. Mutt.

[Laughs] … Mutt.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

For the upcoming sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, the show will have a new home on the Paramount Plus streaming platform. The season is set to premiere on June 24, and ahead of then, Paramount Plus has shared a new trailer. Aside from teasing the upcoming season, the clip also offers a brief look at some of the upcoming guests on the show, including Charli XCX and Tina Knowles, aka Beyonce’s mother.

Towards the end of the trailer, we see Knowles talking to a contestant off-camera, saying, “It was right on point.” The video then cuts to a similar shot of Charli, who says, “I am obsessed with your outfit.”

Charli’s love for both RuPaul and the Drag Race franchise runs deep. Way back in 2013, she tweeted, “Current mood = RuPaul.” Then, in 2017, Charli solicited Netflix viewing recommendations from her fans, and in response to the suggestion that she watch Drag Race, she replied, “i want to be a judgeeeee!!!!!!!” In a 2019 interview, she revisited that tweet and was asked if she has gotten involved in the show yet, to which she responded, “I haven’t! But RuPaul: hit me up. I would love to be a part of it.” She also offered her recommendation for the song of hers that the show’s contestants should “Lip Sync For Your Lives” to: “I have a song called ‘Vroom Vroom,’ which I think would be really amazing for anyone to lip sync to.”

Check out the trailer above.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There’s no shortage of movies crossing over into video game genre — and there’s certainly not a lack of it happening the other around either — but every now and then, you find a combination that gives you pause. French video game publisher Microids announced on Saturday that Pendulo Studios, known for their graphic adventure games such as Blacksad: Under The Skin, Yesterday, and Runaway, is developing a game based on Alfred Hitchcock’s visual masterpiece Vertigo. According to Xbox, the game is “freely inspired by the movie masterpiece” rather than a direct adaptation, and will focus on allowing players to “immerse [themselves] in a psychological thriller of a new kind, playing with the limits between reality and fantasy.”

Whereas the 1958 classic follows retired police officer John “Scottie” Ferguson, who quits the force after witnessing another officer’s death and developing an intense fear of heights that induces vertigo, the upcoming game tells a very different story. Vertigo follows Ed Miller, a writer who was supposedly traveling with his wife and daughter when the family got into a severe car accident. Even though no one apart from Miller was found in the wreckage, he insists his family was with him, and begins a descent into madness. In a seemingly Alan Wake fashion, the story follows Miller as he tries to make sense of what has happened and recover his family.

According to Vertigo‘s Steam listing, the game allows players to “experience a powerful narrative experience paying tribute to the visual and storytelling techniques of the thriller genre, investigate through the vision of three characters, and explore several timelines to cross-check the events and separate reality from deceptive memories.”

As of right now, there is no release date for Vertigo, but the trailer did say that the game was coming soon.

On July 19, 2003, in the early days of the Iraq war, Army Lt. Jonathan D. Rozier of Katy, Texas was killed in an ambush while on patrol in Baghdad. He left behind his wife, Jessica, and a nine-month-old baby, Justin.

Jonathan’s death meant that his wife had to make some tough decisions. To pay for daycare, she had to return her deceased husband’s 1999 Toyota Celica back to the dealer, forfeiting the car loan.

“I didn’t want to keep chipping away at my savings to pay for a car that nobody was using,” she told NBC. “It was just sitting in my driveway.”

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She would soon forget about the car until August of 2017 when she was looking for a birth certificate and ran across its 2002 registration papers. Her son Justin, now 14, had his learner’s permit and was turning 15 in three months. Jessica thought that if she was able to find his father’s beloved old convertible, it’d be the perfect birthday gift.

“I wonder if this car is still out there? I was thinking I would go on a years-long search to find this car,” Jessica said.

So she put out an appeal on Facebook to see if anyone could locate the car.

“It was Jon’s car (1LT Jonathan Rozier, KIA Iraq 7-19-03) and when he died, I wasn’t thinking ahead to when Justin (his son) would be driving 15 years later. If you facebookers could work your magic and help me find it, it would be an amazing present for his 16th birthday if it hasn’t become a tin can by now,” she wrote.

Fortunately, the car turned up just a few days later in Utah. The daughter of the car’s owner said her dad may not want to sell it, but was open to having a conversation about the car.

“If I call and he doesn’t want to sell it then my hopes would be crushed,” Jessica said. “It took me 12 hours to get the courage to call him.”

After some discussion, the owner, Jorge Cruz, decided to sell the car to Jessica. Now, the only problem was coming up with the cash to buy it to make some necessary upgrades so it would be safe for a teenager.

Jessica reached out to an organization dedicated to promoting patriotism called Follow The Flag for some fundraising help. The organization got the necessary funds together, bought the car, made some repairs, and had the car shipped to Texas for Justin’s 15ht birthday.

“It’s what we do, it’s something we do in hopes of inspiring others,” said Kyle Fox, the founder of Follow The Flag.

The car was presented to Justin at his birthday party and it was an emotional reunion, to say the least. When Justin got into the car, he was speechless.

“I was waiting for him, for it to click, that’s dad’s car,” Jessica said. “He starts looking at it, gets in, he looks so much like his dad.”

The reunion was just as important for Jessica. “I never got to see him come home,” she told CBS Sunday Morning. “I think I needed that.”

A veteran’s car, and a son’s keepsake

www.youtube.com

It’s no secret Olivia Rodrigo has taken the world by storm with her new music. After her debut single “Drivers License” hovered at No. 1 for eight weeks, her full-length album Sour made her the first musician in history to have three tracks from a debut project in the Billboard 100 chart’s top ten. Fans and celebrities alike have been showing Rodrigo’s music some major love and Kyle MacLachlan is now no exception.

Despite being in his 60’s, MacLachlan is privy to the latest pop culture trends. He made that clear with his latest social media post, which pays homage to Rodrigo’s Sour album with the perfect cosplay. The actor shared a picture of himself edited to be covered with the same stickers seen on Rodrigo’s cover art. “Feeling inspired by @oliviarodrigo,” he wrote in the caption.

This isn’t the first time MacLachlan made it clear he’s a fan of Rodrigo’s music. When “Drivers License” first dominated charts in January, the actor posted a TikTok of his famed Twin Peaks character Dale Cooper driving around to a snippet of the song.

MacLachlan’s Rodrigo cosign makes him the latest actor to give Rodrigo a nod following Zooey Deschanel, who recently shared a throwback New Girl clip which featured the young singer. “Real footage of Olivia Rodrigo crediting me for inspiring her number #1 album,” Deschanel wrote alongside the clip.

Griselda Records’ Conway The Machine is fresh off the release of his new project La Maquina, dropping off the video for its lead single “Scatter Brain” with ATLiens JID and Ludacris. The three rappers menace the camera as they spit rapid-fire verses full of pummeling punchlines. While Conway plays mob boss behind a desk right out of a classic gangster film, JID and Luda do damage in the dimly lit warehouse from their Tonight Show performance of the track surrounded by razor wire and concrete blocks representing their sharp flows and brick-dense witticisms.

Conway and Griselda have maintained their breakneck from 2020, appearing on “Hood Blues” from the late DMX’s posthumous album Exodus, with fellow members Benny The Butcher releasing his Harry Fraud-produced The Plugs I Met 2 project featuring 2 Chainz and Chinx, and Westside Gunn preparing to release his latest Hilter Wears Hermes installment, the eighth in the series.

Meanwhile, JID recently gave an update on the status of his own new music, sharing photos with some of his collaborators on social media, and is preparing to appear at Dreamville’s On The Rocks concert in Colorado. You can catch Ludacris in theaters in the new Fast and Furious film F9 June 25 and rapping on the remix of Justin Bieber’s hit single “Peaches” with Snoop Dogg and Usher.

Watch Conway The Machine, JID, and Ludacris’ “Scatter Brain” video above.

The Utah Jazz will open their second round series against the L.A. Clippers on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City in a highly anticipated showdown of the West’s best team this year and a Clippers team that finally seemed to find their resolve as a unit in the last five games against Dallas.

Against the Grizzlies, the Jazz dropped Game 1 due in part to the absence of star guard Donovan Mitchell before rattling off four straight wins after his return to reach the second round. Against the Clippers, they’ll have to once again face a Game 1 without one of their backcourt All-Stars, this time as Mike Conley deals with a hamstring strain after aggravating the injury in Game 5 against Memphis.

It’s obviously a significant blow to the Jazz, as Conley has been the steady hand for them all season and played a big role in their series win over the Grizzlies, hitting 17-of-31 three-pointers while also orchestrating the offense. In his absence, the Jazz will rely further on Donovan Mitchell to be a creator and will likely give Jordan Clarkson more minutes while Joe Ingles would be the expected man moving into the starting lineup. If there is a silver lining it’s that point guard is not the Clippers’ strength so defensively, adding more size by moving Mitchell to the one and Ingles in at the two isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Still, this is an L.A. team riding high off their showing against Dallas late in that series and beating a confident Clippers team is going to be very difficult without one of your All-Star guards.

If you’re looking for the perfect bottle of single malt whisky to give as a gift this year, Nick Offerman has you covered. The Devs actor is once again collaborating with famed Islay distillery Lagavulin to make a special Ron Swanson-approved whisky. This year’s limited edition release is another in what we hope will be a long line of great whiskies from Offerman and Lagavulin.

Back in October of 2019, Lagavulin dropped the Offerman Edition Aged 11 Years. It was very popular with whisky fans, critics, and Offerman’s fan base and left us all awaiting a sophomore release from the woodworking comedian. Now the wait is over — as announced in the recently launched, “Nick Offerman’s Father’s Day Part Five.” In the video, Offerman is seen enjoying a pint of Guinness (which is owned by the same parent company as Lagavulin) with his father in a classic pub. Someone hands him a rotary phone and he’s told that the distillery made too much whisky and they have no place to put it. Without his help, “it’s all going to go to waste.”

Obviously, Offerman springs into action and finds the perfect barrels for his beloved whisky. He strolls into the Open Gate Brewery in Baltimore and asks if he can have some Guinness barrels. He then calls the Lagavulin employee back and tells him that he has it covered. The shot pulls out to reveal that the actor is sailing a barrel-filled boat from Maryland to Scotland. It’s an admittedly silly introduction to Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish, but it’s also quaint and fun.

Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask

ABV: 46%
Price: $79.99

The Story:

The juice in the bottle is an eleven-year-old Lagavulin single malt. It’s then finished for four months in barrels that once held Guinness at Baltimore’s Open Gate Brewery. Like all of Lagavulin’s expressions, this one has a heavy dose of briny peat-smoke that’s tempered by the sweet, coffee, caramel, and chocolate qualities of the Guinness barrels.

Tasting Notes:

Ocean brine and peat smoke are very much at the forefront. There’s also a great deal of honey and vanilla, as well as the smell of the island of Islay itself (think moss, sea sprayed beach rocks, and wet fields). Drinking it is like taking a trip to Islay and spending the day enjoying freshly brewed coffee and buttery toffee as you breathe in the salty sea air. There’s also a nice chocolate fudge flavor that likely comes from the Guinness. It’s all rounded out with a surprisingly sweet, smoky final note.

The Bottle:

Lagavulin uses one of the most classic and iconic bottles in the world of Scotch whisky. The green-brown tinge with a slightly bulbous neck just feels old-school on your bar cart. This expression stands out thanks to a cameo image of Offerman above the main label. At the very least, it makes for a great conversation starter.

Bottom Line:

While this might seem like a gimmick, there’s a lot more going on with this expression than you’d think. It even won Double Gold Medal at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Resting in Guinness barrels adds pleasing coffee and chocolate notes that play surprisingly well with the ocean salinity, vanilla beans, and peaty smoke. All in all, a really pleasurable sipping experience.

Rating:

95/100 – This bottle is something different. It has more chocolate notes and overall sweetness than some of its counterparts at Lagavulin but the expected peat smoke remains prevalent. I loved every sip and would definitely buy it again. Offerman fans who also like smoky whisky will be downright thrilled.

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As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.