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Fall is upon us, and leaves aren’t the only things dropping. Fall is also bourbon drop season, with new and great bourbon whiskeys hitting shelves pretty much daily from now until the holidays. That means my desk is crowded and my shelves are sagging, which in turn means that it’s also time for yet another new bourbon whiskey blind taste test.

For this blind taste test, my selection was very straightforward. Is it new? Then it’s in. That means there’s a collection of special finishes, barrel-proof whiskeys, bottled in bond, and even single-barrel whiskeys. It’s a wide net. I’ve also included the new Little Book — which blends Kentucky single malts with a majority bourbon — to see where the beloved bottle lands as a blend amongst this crowd of hard-hitting bourbons.

Our lineup today is:

• Old Louisville Bourbon Batch #1
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade II
• George Dickel Tennessee Bottled-in-Bond Whisky Fall 2008 Aged 13 Years
• Penelope Rosé Cask Finish
• Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C922
• Bomberger’s Declaration 2022 Release
• Little Book Chapter 6: To The Finish
• Nashtucky Special Release Aged 5 Years
• Cedar Ridge Port Cask Finished Bourbon
• Knob Creek Singel Barrel Reserve Aged 9 Years

Full disclosure, this was an extremely hard blind tasting to rank. These whiskeys are all pretty much great in their own way and very well-made. This wasn’t a blind tasting where a clear bottom, middle, and top were immediately obvious. So I had to go back and taste these again and again to find ways to rank them above each other (it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it). For the most part, I focused on the depth of flavor and distinctness of that flavor profile — but basically, 10 through one on this ranking was me splitting minuscule hairs (which is what I do). This is how it shook out.

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

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• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best-Known Basic Bottles Of Bourbon, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with a classic sense of bourbon vanilla and caramel with a hint of sour cherry and pancake batter next to a whisper of leather and old marshmallow. The palate has a sense of apple wood followed by black peppercorns, vanilla sauce, marzipan, and black cherries. It finishes a little warm with a hint of winter spice and more of that cherry wrapped up in tobacco.

This is a pretty nice place to start. This is a soft and inviting sip of whiskey.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

The nose on his one is deep and meanders through cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and mace before hitting a sweet edge of toffee covered in crushed almond with a dash of leather, dry sage, and some old oak. The palate starts off lush with a vanilla cream base before layering in sultanas and dates with a hint of gingerbread sweetness and spice. The end hints at cherry bark and grape must with a thin line of winter spice and old cellars full of old wood and dirt floors.

This is just really f*cking good.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Another classic nose! Maple syrup on buttery pecan waffles leads toward apple chips, old leather, and a mix of winter spices and sour cherry vanilla wafers. The palate leans into an apple pie with plenty of nuts, spices, and raisins next to malted vanilla milkshakes, blueberry cotton candy, and a hint of dark chocolate milk powder. The end has a hint of dry anise mixed with cherry and brown sugar with a slight nuttiness leading toward a cherry-cinnamon tobacco finish.

This is another real winner. It’s just solid from top to bottom with serious depth.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

The nose is soft and lightly floral (think orange blossoms) with a hint of vanilla cream, candied cherries, and a hint of dark chocolate. The palate opens with that lush vanilla and then layers fresh strawberries in cream, sweetgrass, and a hint of woody winter spice. The end has a soft sage vibe with a hint of red berries, fresh wicker, and soft vanilla with a light finish.

This was so easygoing. It’s nicely complex but still inviting. The finish was a little light though.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Leather and green chili greet you on the nose with dark chocolate powder, dried sour cherry, and a hint of sourdough. The palate hits on peach skins and cinnamon with a lot of mid-palate heat. A mix of spiced chocolate powder with a woody edge mixes with apple chips, root beer, and a clove-studded orange. The end has a hint of tart berry next to dry sweetgrass and cinnamon-orange tobacco leaves layered with soft cedar bark.

This was really good, but really hot on the mid-palate. It’s obviously barrel proof. But, wow, could have really used a rock.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Wow! This nose is subtle with echoes of sticky toffee pudding, black-tea-soaked dates, sharp cinnamon, salted toffee sauce, vanilla cream, and a twinge of cedar sticks wrapped in old leather. The palate is a lush and silky crème brûlée with dustings of allspice, nutmeg, orange zest, and dark cacao with just a flake of salt and a whisper of dry cedar bark. The end stays lush as prunes and figs mingle with marzipan with a fleeting hint of orange lingers on the senses.

Yeah, this is a winner right here. And yet another great whiskey on this panel.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of warm oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar on the nose next to old leather and singed orchard wood before a sour cherry note arrives with tart apple, orange oil, and some smoked plum. The palate holds onto the grains with a soft oatmeal cookie dough/bran muffin vibe that leads to winter spices, cherry wood, and a hint of vanilla root beer. The end hits a rum-raisin note before slowly descending toward salted vanilla sauce, smoked apricot, and cherry/choco/cinnamon tobacco leaves braided with old cedar bark and sweetgrass.

This is a complex and grainy whiskey — it has to be the Little Book. It’s also freakin’ delicious.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a nice mix of old porch wicker (hardcore nostalgia really) next to supple caramel sauce, white pepper, and a sense of savory fruits like figs and maybe some starfruit. The palate holds onto that savory fruit before some ABVs kick in with a nice mix of woody spices and burnt sugars before the mid-palate leans into green sweetgrass, savory herbs, and a hint of sweet fruit candy that subtly morphs into strawberry soda on the very end.

This is both really good and interesting.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

There’s a nice mix of stewed plums and apples next to tart berries, vanilla pods, and orange zest on the nose with hints of old wood and sweet raisins. The palate mixes cherry jam with dates and prunes next to brown sugars, winter spice, and more old oak. The end layers together Christmas spice cake with vanilla sauce and dried fruits with a light finish.

This is nice but a little soft on the landing. I needed a little more oompf from the finish.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

Big notes of leather, dark cherry, woody cinnamon bark and nutmeg bulbs, singed marshmallow, salted caramel, and whiskey heat all mix on the nose. The palate leans into candied pecan-filled gingerbread sheets next to warm maple syrup, brandy-soaked cherries, creamy yet very dark chocolate with a flake of salt, and a hint of espresso oil, all with a serious underlying heat. The end leans back into the cinnamon bark and layers it with dark cherry and chocolate tobacco packed into an old cedar box and wrapped up in leather.

This was intense but so good. It really, really needed a rock to calm it down though.

Part 2: The Ranking

10. Cedar Ridge Port Cask Finished Bourbon — Taste 9

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $55

The Whiskey:

This yearly (holiday) release from Cedar Ridge is beloved in Iowa. The juice is classic Cedar Ridge Iowa Bourbon that’s then finished in Port casks from the winery next to the distillery. Those barrels are then vatted and proofed with local water before bottling.

Bottom Line:

Look, something had to be last. This is a good whiskey, period. As I mentioned above, the only way to rank these great whiskeys was to look at the depth and this felt like it had the least. That’s not to say it was bad in any way. This just felt like more of a Manhattan whiskey than a sipper.

9. Penelope Rosé Cask Finish — Taste 4

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $52

The Whiskey:

This whiskey takes Penelope’s beloved and multi-award-winning four-grain bourbon blend — 76% corn, 14% wheat, 7% rye, and 3% malted barley — and re-barrels it in hand-selected French Grenache Rosé Wine Casks from the Southern Rhône of France. Once those barrels hit just the right flavor notes, they’re vatted, proofed, and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

I really like this, but it was very light all things considered. That wasn’t a bad thing but it did mean this didn’t quite stand out in this particular group of bourbons. Still, this on a rock or two is a great choice.

8. Old Louisville Bourbon Batch #1 — Taste 1

ABV: 57%

Average Price: $180

The Whiskey:

This is from a brand new (opened in August 2022) blending and bottling house in Louisville, Kentucky. The juice in the bottle is a small-batch blend of seven to 10-year-old rye mash bourbon from MGP of Indiana. Those barrels are married and bottled with no proofing or filtering.

Bottom Line:

MGP barrels are some of the most coveted right now. This is a great example of why. This is just an all-around solid sipper with real depth and nice character. I did want to add a rock, but it wasn’t necessary.

7. Little Book Chapter 6: To The Finish — Taste 7

ABV: 58.725%

Average Price: $125

The Whiskey:

This year’s Little Book is another masterpiece from Beam’s Master Distiller, Freddie Noe. The juice in the bottle is a blend of four-year-old straight malt whiskey finished with cherrywood staves, four-year-old straight malt whiskey finished in applewood smoked barrels, four-year-old straight malt whiskey finished in hickory-smoked barrels, four-year-old straight malt whiskey finished with maplewood staves, and Beam’s classic five-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon, making this a Kentucky single malt/bourbon hybrid. The juice was bottled after blending with no filtering or proofing.

Bottom Line:

This was an outlier for sure, but a delicious one. There was a bit more graininess by way of that oatmeal and bran muffin vibe. Otherwise, this was a classic whiskey with a nice whisper of smoke. Just make sure to add a rock or a few drops of water to really let bloom in the glass.

6. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C922 — Taste 5

ABV: 62.48%

Average Price: $120

The Whiskey:

The last Elijah Craigh of 2022 is also the highest-proof release this year. The whiskey is made from a very low rye bourbon mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley. That juice then ages for at least 12 years before the barrels are vatted in very small batches and bottled without proofing or filtration.

Bottom Line:

Guess what? This was great. Yes, it needs a rock to calm it down a bit. Otherwise, this is a complex and rich whiskey.

5. Knob Creek Singel Barrel Reserve Aged 9 Years — Taste 10

ABV: 60%

Average Price: $52

The Whiskey:

I grabbed a bottle of this from the distillery. It’s so fresh that I actually watched it get bottled this month. The juice in this bottle is a single-barrel of nine-year Knob Creek that’s picked by the experts at Jim Beam. There’s no blending, no cutting with water, no hiding. Just good ol’ Knob Creek at its single-barrel best.

Bottom Line:

This was a classic Kentucky cherry bomb with some serious heat. A single rock will fix that hot Kentucky hug instantly while still allowing all that wonderful and deep flavor to shine.

4. George Dickel Tennessee Bottled in Bond Whisky Fall 2008 Aged 13 Years — Taste 3

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $43

The Whisky:

Nicole Austin has been killing it with these bottled-in-bond releases from George Dickel. This release is a whiskey that was warehoused in the fall of 2008. 13 years later, this juice was bottled at 100 proof (as per the bottled-in-bond law) and left to rest. This fall, new releases of that Tennessee juice were sent out to much acclaim.

Bottom Line:

I kept gravitating back to this one since the ABVs were in check and the palate was so dialed. This really is a great sipper that also makes one hell of Manhattan or Sazerac.

3. Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade II — Taste 2

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $160

The Whiskey:

This bourbon is a blend of 12-year-old, low-rye bourbon from Kentucky and 10-year-old, very-low-rye bourbon from Tennessee. The whiskeys were re-barreled into Armagnac casks from the famed Chateau de Laubade. One set spent two years mellowing on the bottom floor of the rickhouse while another set spent 16 months mellowing on the top floor. After that, the barrels were vatted and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is just a beautiful whiskey. I wish you the best of luck finding one out there.

2. Nashtucky Special Release Aged 5 Years — Taste 8

ABV: 64.08%

Average Price: $95

The Whiskey:

This new whiskey from Nashville Barrel Company is a marriage of Kentucky spirit and Tennessee ingenuity. The juice is made and preliminary aged in Kentucky before the barrels are sent to Nashville to continue the maturation process in a different climate. After five years, the barrels are bottled one at a time at cask strength with no filtering or fussing.

Bottom Line:

This was another one that had zero flaws, delivered an excellent flavor profile, and was super inviting. This was one that I wanted to come back to again and again. And, somehow, those ABVs didn’t blow out the mid-palate. It was warm but not overly so.

1. Bomberger’s Declaration 2022 Release — Taste 6

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $150

The Whiskey:

This whiskey heralds back to Michter’s historical roots in the 19th century before the brand was even called “Michter’s.” The juice on the bottle is rendered from a very small batch of bourbons that were aged in Chinquapin oak which was air-dried for three years before charring and filling. The Kentucky bourbon was then bottled in an extremely small batch that only yielded 2005 bottles this year.

Bottom Line:

This was the most nuanced sip of the flight. It was simply delicious.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

This is what happens when you put 10 really good bourbon whiskeys up against each other. The distance in quality between these bottles is so small. My only advice is to read through the tasting notes and figure out which flavor profile speaks to you the most. Then try that whiskey!

Otherwise, the easiest-to-source whiskey on this list is going to be the George Dickel Bottled in Bond, which can’t stop winning awards and is still very affordable for an amazing 13-year-old whiskey.

If you’re willing to wait a couple of days for delivery, then Nashtucky is the only way to go. And if you’re willing to hunt for your whiskey, then chase after that bottle of Bomberger’s Declaration or Bardstown Bourbon Company Armagnac finish. Happy hunting!

Social media users weren’t the only people lighting up Jimmy Kimmel for laying on the ground during Quinta Brunson’s Emmys speech. Her Abbott Elementary co-star (and fellow Emmy winner) Sheryl Lee Ralph apparently gave Kimmel a piece of her mind backstage. During a Television Critics Association panel for Abbott‘s upcoming second season, Brunson played down the Emmys moment and encouraged everyone to tune into Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night where she planned to have a “good time” with the late night host.

Ralph, on the other hand, made it very clear that she did not appreciate Kimmel’s bit and told him as much. Via The Wrap:

“I was absolutely confused. I didn’t know what was going on. But I was like, ‘I wish that man would just get up off of the ground.’ And then I realized it was Jimmy Kimmel, and then I was just, ‘Ooh, the disrespect Jimmy.’ But that’s just me, sorry. I am so sorry.” She added sarcastically, “Oh, it was lovely that he was lying on the floor during her wonderful acceptance speech.”

“I told him too — to his face — and he understood,” Ralph concluded.

With the Kimmel issue settled, and co-star Lisa Ann Walters loving how “so bold” Ralph has become since her Emmys win, the cast dropped some new details about Season 2. According to Decider writer Meghan O’Keefe, Brunson told the panel that the show will follow the teachers “home” to learn where these people came from. However, Walters made a point to note that the family drama in the second season is not about her real family even though her sister will probably think it spills personal details. “It does not, Laura!” Walters quipped.

Abbott Elementary Season 2 premieres September 21 on ABC.

(Via The Wrap)

10 years ago, a budding Canadian singer named Carly Rae Jepsen splashed into the pop music world’s hearts with her first single, “Call Me Maybe.” Somehow, it’s still her only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and it has gotten ARIA platinum certification 15 times over. But the album it was on, Kiss, was truly about much more than just that one viral hit. Songs like “Good Time” and “Tiny Little Birds” are an integral part of the CRJ canon. Fellow Canadian Justin Bieber even hopped on “Beautiful” and the album hit the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart.

So now that Kiss celebrates its 10th anniversary this week, Jepsen took to Instagram to reflect on the past ten years and what that album meant to her now-illustrious career in pop. “This is my first-ever pop record! And the reason I couldn’t give up on Los Angeles too fast,” she wrote. “10 years ago, I came to LA for one little show and then accidentally moved here forever. It was meant to be a weekend trip but I’d call home every few weeks to say ‘send more clothes.’ We made the album KISS in those months and I sang about my first round of LA hallucinations…”

She thanked fans for sticking with her on the ride and also announced a vinyl release to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kiss. Meanwhile, her new album, The Loneliest Time will be coming out on October 21st.

As Marcus Mumford is getting ready to release his debut album, the Mumford & Sons leader opened up about how Neil Young inspired the project. In a recent interview with NME, Mumford talked about the advice that the Canadian rock icon gave him a decade ago.

Following over a decade of success with Mumford & Sons, Mumford is releasing his album Self-Titled on Friday (September 16). In July, he first teased the LP with his haunting lead single “Cannibal.” Mumford has since followed with the singles “Grace” and “Better Off High.” In the interview, Mumford spoke about how a chat with Neil Young inspired his debut album.

A decade ago, Young gave Mumford advice that turned out to be invaluable for putting together his solo LP. Mumford said:

“Neil Young sat me down about ten years ago and told me the importance of recorded music and that I should pay more attention to the way in which we record because I was always [like], ‘Ah, it’s just an advert for a live show.’ He was like, ‘No man, these things last.’ I felt like on this record, I listened to that [advice]. I paid closer attention to the way it sounded than anything I’d ever done before.”

Back in July, Mumford performed with Joni Mitchell as part of her surprise set at Newport Folk Festival. About the experience of performing “My Funny Valentine” for her, he added, “It was just magical. Joni actually said to me, ‘Your instincts are good, you should just play’, when I was worried about a song. I was like, ‘Well, that’s a tattoo I’ve gotta get! Joni Mitchell says I have good instincts.’ It was just so sweet.”

Check out Uproxx’s ranking of every Neil Young studio album here.

Self-Titled is out 9/16 via Capitol Records. Pre-order it here.

Last week, Modest Mouse announced that they’ll be heading out on a tour this year to for the 25th anniversary of their iconic album, The Lonesome Crowded West. Beginning in November, they’ll be hitting the road across the country and what better way to celebrate the milestone than selling off a bunch of gear that they used to record it and just about every other album and tour that they’ve ever done? Sounds wild, but these are facts only my friends.

Beginning on September 21st, Modest Mouse will be opening “The Official Modest Mouse Reverb Shop” on the Reverb musical instruments re-sale platform. Some of the gear includes Line 6 Variax Acoustic 700s, which were used on the Good News For People Who Like Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank tours, A Wunder Audio Console that they have used for “everything Modest Mouse since 2012” and — perhaps the piece de resistance — a pair of Fender Super Six guitar combos, which they used in the band’s early days up until 2001, including the This Is A Long Drive, The Lonesome Crowded West, Interstate 8, and Building Nothing Out Of Something recordings and tours. “We dragged these amps all around the world for the first 10 years of the band,” Modest Mouse said on Reverb. “If these two Fender Super Sixes could speak, they would be advised to keep their mouths shut.”

The shop goes live on Reverb 09/21 and you can sign up for a newsletter to get notified when the sale is live here.

Phoenix Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver was given a one-year suspension and fined $10 million as the result of a nearly year-long investigation into dozens of reported incidents in which Sarver repeatedly used the N-word, fostered a hostile work environment for women, and more.

That is a considerably light punishment for someone with as much money as Sarver, who won’t lose out on anything else during a year suspension other than the ability to be around the team. The punishment felt particularly lenient considering the last two times NBA owners have been investigated and found to have used racist language — most famously the Clippers with Donald Sterling and more quietly the Hawks’ Bruce Levenson — those owners have been either forced to sell the team (Sterling) or voluntarily sold it to avoid such scrutiny (Levenson).

On Wednesday, Adam Silver met with the media and tried to defend the choice of punishment and the difference between Sarver and Sterling, without offering any specifics and citing it was “proprietary” due to confidentiality agreements.

Silver had the option to suspend Sarver for more than a year but chose not to, citing Sarver expressing remorse for his actions — which is quite the difference from a year ago when Sarver vehemently denied the reporting from ESPN’s Baxter Holmes that proved to be true and accurate.

The more Silver was pressed, the more it became clear there wasn’t really a good answer for Sarver still being an NBA owner. He said the quiet part out loud about the privilege of being an incredibly rich man in America, noting that there’s different rules for owners and team employees (who surely would be fired for similar behavior).

As for the insistence that Sarver has evolved over the last 18 years and many of the allegations are from early in his tenure as owner, Vince Goodwill pointed out that a recent known use of the N-word from Sarver was in 2017.

The truth is, there’s not a good reason for Sarver getting away with this beyond the other owners not liking the precedent being set that using racist and sexist language and fostering a hostile work environment is enough to get someone forced into selling their team. Mark Cuban rather famously called the Sterling decision a “slippery slope,” which we probably should have seen as foreshadowing for the inevitable report that came in 2018 on a hostile work environment in the Dallas Mavericks organization towards women.

This press conference was a reminder that, for as nice as Silver is as a commissioner, his job is to do what the owners want and to then be the meat shield when questions arise. He earned those paychecks on Wednesday, even if the answers he provided were far from what anyone other than the owners wanted to hear.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: There’s a grand conspiracy to make Alex Jones look bad. Only this time around, it’s not about the spy ring that’s reportedly keeping tabs on his wife (both former and current) nor is it the chemicals hidden in soda cans that are trying to shrink his penis. Nope, this latest conspiracy is about preventing the world from knowing that Jones’ new book, The Great Reset, is the biggest best-seller of all time.

While stopping by the Louder with Crowder radio show, Jones boasted that his book has outsold literally everything on the market, but the numbers are being hidden by The New York Times and the publishing industry at large. Via Mediaite:

“Stuff way down their list, we sold dozens of times more. And that’s just in the first month of its sale at cash registers at stores. That’s how that happens. It doesn’t count all the massive amounts that got sold online at Amazon or InfoWars.com,” Jone insisted.

“So it is the number one book, not just fiction, not just non-fiction — all of them. More than any textbook, more than any Harry Potter book,” he declared.

Like most of Jones’ claims, there’s zero evidence to back up his claims. As Mediaite notes, Publisher’s Weekly has The Great Reset selling 300,000 copies, which is nowhere near the juggernaut sales of the Harry Potter books. As for Jones’ claim that sales have been phenomenal on InfoWars.com, he’s provided no data to prove that’s the case. You’re just going to have to take his word for it, which we strongly advise not doing. We mentioned the soda can thing, right? Enough said.

(Via Mediaite)

Donovan Mitchell, apparently, was just like the majority of the NBA world when it came to his surprise when he ended up being dealt to Cleveland out of the blue two weeks ago. At his introductory press conference with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, the three-time All-Star addressed an array of topics, including his belief that he was going to be traded to the New York Knicks.

“I thought for sure I was going back home, I’m not gonna lie about that,” Mitchell said. “But when I found out where I was headed, who I was playing with, the group, the team, the coaching staff, I couldn’t be more happy to be here, to be a part of this organization … and add to do it. I think that for me is what I’m truly excited about.”

When news of the deal between Cleveland and the Utah Jazz broke, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Mitchell was playing golf. Ecstatic to learn none of Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley or Kevin Love were involved, he jubilantly ran around the golf course in celebration. On Wednesday, nearly two weeks later, Mitchell confirmed Windhorst’s report.

“When I first found out, I was golfing, so that report is true,” he said. “I was running around crazy, mainly in fact when I figured out who we kept in the deal because I didn’t know who was in the trade. I just knew I was traded. And when I found out DG, JA, Ev, and Caris (LeVert) and all these guys, I was like, ‘Wow, like we got a talented group.’ ”

Mitchell also said that when Rudy Gobert was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in late June, he “kind of saw the writing on the wall” as to the fact his time in Utah was likely over.

As a fun tidbit, he noted he grew up as not merely a LeBron James fun, but a Cavaliers fan as a whole and loves playing in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

“It’s crazy how life comes full circle,” he said.

Bad Bunny is in the midst of his World’s Hottest Tour of stadiums around North and South America. After passing through Texas last week, his Western US swing begins tonight at Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum. But he was already in the Bay Area yesterday when he decided to bring 80 of his closest confidants out to dinner at a small, but popular Puerto Rican restaurant in the Bay Area.

“Over the phone, they just said, ‘We have 80 Puerto Ricans,’” Francisco Gomez of San Rafael Puerto Rican staple Sol Food told the San Francisco Chronicle. A caravan of black SUVs rolled up at around 6 p.m., and Bad Bunny stepped into the restaurant decked out in full Louis Vuitton get up, including an LV scarf covering his face. At one point, the “Tití Me Preguntó” singer went to the restaurant’s kitchen to err… lend a hand to the cooks, and posted a clip to his Instagram Story of the backstage restaurant jaunt:

Treating his dancers and tour staff to a homestyle Puerto Rican dinner while on tour comes with a reason celebrate for Bad Bunny and his team. On Monday, his album Un Verano Sin Ti, shot back up to the top of the Billlboard 200 chart, marking it’s 10th week atop the charts in 2022. With that, it broke the Encanto soundtrack’s record for the year of weeks at No. 1.

While fans of Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series grew to love Olivia Rodrigo‘s character Nini over the span of the show’s three seasons, it seems she won’t be returning for season four.

Prior to the release of season three on July 27, fans had wondered just how much of a role Rodrigo would play, as her 2021 debut album made her an immediate pop star. She had stepped down from a main cast member for the third season, appearing in only a handful of scenes across three episodes. Still, Rodrigo appeared alongside her castmates at the season three premiere.

“love all these people so so so much. knowing and working with them has been one of the greatest joys of my life. episode 1 of season 3 of hsmtmts is streaming now! wildcats forever,” Rodrigo captioned photos of them together on Instagram, leading many to believe her time on the show was officially over.

Rodrigo’s story arc as Nini finds her traveling to LA to meet her biological dad, before returning to tell her teacher Miss Jenn that she wants to move there for good in today’s finale episode. Basically put, she leaves the school, while being able to wrap up her permanent departure from the series nicely.

“Miss Jenn, I didn’t want to say goodbye because goodbye means it’s over. So I just want to say thank you. After tonight’s performance, it’s clear that there’s already so much talent at East. So I’m gonna go West. Here’s to the start of something new. Forever your Wildcat, Nini,” her character writes in the show, according to Popbuzz.

The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series showrunner Tim Federle had also alluded to Rodrigo’s ending on the show during a July 21 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “This season it’s about trying to give her character a proper sendoff while also leaving room for other characters to really step into the fray and step into the spotlight. And personally, it’s a joy to see Olivia’s music explode in such a big way,” Federle said.

Still, he makes it clear that there is always the possibility for fans to see her acting as Nini again someday, if Rodrigo chooses. “It’s so funny, we are early enough in the season 4 writers’ room that I’d be lying if I told you I had an exactly right answer for that. I would never say never to Olivia, and I would never use the word ‘last,’ because I hope the show goes on and on and on,” he noted in a separate EW interview.