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The connections between the modern NBA and hip-hop are growing all the time and with the latest announcement out of Young Thug’s YSL Records camp, they’ve become the most pronounced they’ve ever been. YSL Records fixture T-Shyne is set to release his new album, Confetti Nights, which is naturally executive-produced by YSL’s founder Young Thug on April 1… along with some help from none other than the Brooklyn Nets’ recently returned All-Star forward, Kevin Durant.

It’s not the first time that an NBA player applied their talents to musical curation. In 2021, Durant’s fellow NBA champ Kawhi Leonard executive produced the Culture Jam Vol. 1 compilation featuring A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Gunna, Lil Uzi Vert, Polo G, Rod Wave, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again. Meanwhile, Damian Lillard, the All-Star guard for the Portland Trailblazers, has had a flourishing rap career as Dame D.O.L.L.A., dropping four studio albums that featured Lil Wayne, Raphael Saadiq, and Snoop Dogg.

In addition to producing albums, Durant has also been a movie producer, commissioning the Basketball County: Something In The Water documentary in 2020. Durant’s music connections came in handy there, too, as he recruited fellow Prince George’s County native IDK as music supervisor for the film.

Meanwhile, YSL Records is coming off a stellar 2021 that saw Young Thug’s Punk on the Billboard charts, followed this year by Gunna’s outstanding DS4EVER. With plenty of the roster yet to release — Lil Keed, Strick, and others are especially anticipated — 2022 figures to be another pivotal year for the Atlanta-based label.

Confetti Nights is due 4/1 via YSL and 300 Entertainment.

The NCAA Tournament is upon us. The first weekend of the tournament is always exciting, with plenty of folks dubbing it the best weekend in all of sports, but it’s also not the easiest event to follow. March Madness will frequently have multiple games going on at once with fans desperately trying to keep up. This can be fun, but if you’re at work and just want to have a game on in the background while you attempt to get something done, it can be tough.

Thankfully, there are more and more ways to watch the tournament popping up every March, and this year, Twitch is getting in on the fun. While Twitch is known for video games, it’s been embracing sports the last few years and even got to stream Thursday Night Football throughout much of the 2021 NFL season. Now, Twitch will offer college basketball fans two ways to enjoy the NCAA Tournament on its website: Let’s Go! College Hoops and SuperFan FaceOff.

Let’s Go! College Hoops will be an option for fans looking for a pre-game show, featuring hosts GrandPooBear, TheBlackHokage, Darryl Reynolds, and more, while SuperFan FaceOff is more of an NFL RedZone-type experience with streamers roshocker22, BridgetCase, uncledrewWNBA, and more. The shows will air on Twitch Sports beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.

In her cover story for Vogue, supermodel Bella Hadid opened up about her cosmetic surgery, and how she regretted it nearly a decade later. “I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” she admitted, after saying she got a nose job when she was 14. “I think I would have grown into it.”

The supermodel has been open about her body image struggles in the past, posting a lengthy Instagram caption about her “breakdowns” late last year. Hadid has since taken frequent social media breaks to help her handle it. “There were people online saying, ‘You live this amazing life,’” she said. “So then how can I complain? I always felt that I didn’t have the right to complain, which meant that I didn’t have the right to get help, which was my first problem.”

Hadid was famously featured on the Real Housewives franchise, where her mother Yolanda was a controversial parent to Gigi and Bella (Gigi’s boyfriend Zayn famously did not get along with her). Twitter users even pointed out how critical Yolanda is over her daughter’s bodies, and she was frequently telling them what they can and cannot eat on the show.

Bella has admitted to struggling with an eating disorder when she was a teen: “I can barely look in the mirror to this day because of that period in my life.” She was also often compared to her older sister, fellow model Gigi.

I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing. That’s really what people said about me. And unfortunately, when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it. I always ask myself, how did a girl with incredible insecurities, anxiety, depression, body-image issues, eating issues, who hates to be touched, who has intense social anxiety — what was I doing getting into this business? But over the years I became a good actress.

Now, Hadid says she is putting her mental health first. “Now everything that I do in my personal life is literally to make sure that my mental state stays above water. Fashion can make you or break you. And if it makes you, you have to make a conscious effort every day for it not to break you. There’s always a bit of grief in love.”

Everyone loves a fun little murder mystery. They’re a blast, especially when they’re filled with big stars and twists and a handful of goofball hijinks. Who did it? Was it that guy? Or was it the other guy? Or the lady in the fur coat? She seems like she has secrets. Let’s keep an eye on her. Better yet, let’s have a quirky detective – professional and slick or amateur and bumbling, or professional and bumbling or amateur and slick – look into her. Let’s get real weird with it, too. Have everyone on the set crank it all the way up to 10 in any way they see fit: outfits, costumes, motives and/or weapons, all of it. Fun little murder mysteries rarely miss. They’re so much better than actual murder. I think we can all agree on that. I hope we can all agree on that. Please do not murder anyone. Definitely do not murder me. I do not think I would like that very much. But I do love a fun little murder mystery. Please, if you are someone who is in charge of these things or has influence over some who is, just go ahead and make a lot more of them.

We’ve been on such a good run of fun little murder mysteries, too. We went through a dark period for a minute there. Murder mysteries were bleak, man. There was True Detective and Mare of Easttown and another True Detective or two and it was all quite grim and full of detectives who did not seem to bathe often enough and had trouble solving crimes because of their demons. They were good, mostly, and a surprising amount of fun in the moment with all the theories and memes and second life they created online, but yeah, a pretty bleak affair. These things move in waves, though. There’s a kind of snap-back that happens after a while where things shift back the other way. That’s what we have here lately. Murder mysteries got fun again. Do you want some examples? I have some examples.

Knives Out was one good fun little murder mystery. You remember Knives Out. Daniel Craig doing his southern accent, Ana de Armas trying to clear her name, Chris Evans in the most comfortable sweaters you’ve ever seen. That movie was great, like a real-life game of Clue but with a slew of funny and talented people — Don Johnson! Jamie Lee Curtis! Edi Patterson! — all being petty and nasty to each other for a few hours before we found out who did it. (So… kind of like the movie Clue.) That’s a classic formula. Daniel Craig looked like he was in heaven, too, free for a bit from playing a humorless James Bond (make James Bond fun and silly again, too, please, but that’s another rant), just chewing up all the scenery he could find in the best way possible. They’re making another one soon, with his character coming back to investigate a new murder in the Greek islands. I hope he says this exact line of dialogue again.

You know what else was a fun little murder mystery? Only Murders in the Building. This shouldn’t have been a surprise, I guess. All Steve Martin and Martin Short have done for about four or five decades now is make neat stuff that people have enjoyed. We should have looked at this one and said, “Hmm, yeah, I bet a show with these two riffing on the murder podcast genre will be pretty good,” but still, there it was, a hoot from beginning to end. It’s cool that Hulu threw some money at them and told them to go nuts a little bit. It’s cool that they looped in Selena Gomez and let her breathe a bunch of life into the whole affair, in a way that made it all feel fresh and new. It’s cool that Nathan Lane got to show up and be devious as hell and it’s cool that Jane Lynch popped up like halfway through as a character named, I swear to God, Sazz Pataki, who was, I swear to God again, Steve Martin’s character’s old stunt double.

Sazz Pataki. Sorry, I just wanted to type that again. Say it out loud right now, wherever you are, even if there are people around. It’s a good piece of business.

Hey, speaking of good pieces of business, did you watch The Afterparty on Apple TV yet? Man, I hope you did. I ate that sucker up. It started with a simple premise — “What if a pop star played by Dave Franco got murdered on the night of a high school reunion and the suspects were a collection of your favorite comedic actors and actresses from other shows you like?” — and took it to dizzying heights. Each episode was styled like a different genre of storytelling, action movies and rom-coms and animation and all of it. Tiffany Haddish played the detective. Sam Richardson and Ben Schwartz were in there, which was good because they should be in everything. This happened, which I kind of just want to present without context. And I will.

These are just three recent good examples. There have been more out there, too. Adam Sandler literally made a movie titled Murder Mystery for Netflix a few years ago and that wasn’t bad, either. It’s all been really cool for me, a dude who loves fun stuff and has seen every episode of Columbo at least once. But I think it’s cool in general, too, for reasons beyond “because Brian likes it.” People have loved watching whodunnits forever. And reading them. Agatha Christie wrote like 600 murder mysteries many decades ago and people still read them on the beach every summer. They’re captivating when done right, especially in a week-to-week television format, where the communal viewing experience adds to the intrigue, with everyone playing detective on their own between episodes, posting all their weirdo ideas about the proceedings. But movies work, too. There’s something nice about introducing a problem and providing a solution to that problem in about two hours. It’s all great. I love it. Everyone loves it. There are probably enough shows and movies about scammers right now anyway. Let’s kill some people again. I mean, uh, fictionally. Only fictionally. I cannot stress strongly enough how bad actual murder is. The worst.

In summation:

• Please make more fun little murder mysteries
• Please do not murder me, or anyone else
• Maybe cast Jake Johnson from New Girl and Patti Harrison from I Think You Should Leave as the detectives and/or murderers in one of these, just to see if it works as well as I think it will

Thank you.

At the end of February, the official Spider-Man Twitter account dropped an image that Marvel fans needed to see come to life regarding Spider-Man: No Way Home. Namely, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland recreating the Spider-Man pointing meme. The photo went over huge with fans who declared it the greatest thing on the internet.

After hiding his involvement in No Way Home, Garfield has been an open book about the highly secretive production, and while stopping by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night, he revealed that recreating the meme was a top priority. In fact, all three Spider-Men barely had time to get on their tights before they were thrust in front of a camera for the hilarious photo.

“Me and Tobey landed on set. They put us in the costumes, and they said, ‘We’re gonna do the meme really quickly…’ That was before we had shot anything,” Garfield said. “We were all kind of like thrown onto a set and told to point at each other, and I think we got one good shot, because the rest of the time we were just laughing and trying not to stare at each other’s crotches.”

While it’s fascinating to hear how obsessed Marvel was with bringing the Spider-Man pointing meme to life, unfortunately, Garfield didn’t reveal the answer to the greatest Spidey mystery of them all: Who wore a fake butt in their Spidey suit for No Way Home? Tom Holland can’t just drop that kind of information and leave people hanging.

Carl’s Jr. is going HAM on bacon. While the rest of the players in the fast food world are busy tripping all over themselves trying to top Popeyes in the chicken sandwich game, Carl’s Jr. decided to pivot and go with the old classic move of just putting bacon on everything and calling it a day, giving us the new Bacon Beast menu. It’s a timeworn move but also… never a bad call.

The Bacon Beast menu consists of three new bacon-loaded products including the Bacon Beast Burger, the Bacon Beast Burrito, and the Bacon Beast Biscuit. The Carl’s Jr. marketing team is surely nerding out over the amount of alliteration they got away with during this campaign. Good on them.

So is the new menu beastly or just bad? We found out by eating the whole Bacon Beast menu to see whether it was full of bangers or just a redundant cash grab of artery-clogging garbage. Let’s eat, beginning with the worst of the trio, the….

Bacon Beast Burrito

Price: $3.99

Fast food has a burrito problem, a problem that is completely of its own making. America loves burritos, it’s pretty hard to not love burritos, so you’d think putting a burrito on your menu, like the chicken sandwich and cheeseburger, is an easy money maker. The problem is there isn’t a single fast food chain out there that seems to be even trying to make a delicious burrito. I know this because most of them don’t warm their tortillas before rolling them up, and that’s the case here with the Bacon Beast Breakfast Burrito.

Before I can get to the build we have to talk about this tortilla. I don’t know for a fact that Carl’s Jr. doesn’t throw their tortilla on the flattop girl, but the tortilla of this burrito is very gummy, chalky, and flavorless, and that’s a dead giveaway that some frozen-then-clumsily-thawed package was merely opened and slapped on the assembly line. Always heat your tortillas people, it makes them more pliable, it awakens the flavors, and it helps the contents inside to melt.

If the tortilla wasn’t bad enough, we have the insides which… also aren’t great. Carl’s Jr’s bacon is incredibly thin, so while this burrito should have a crunchy mouthfeel it’s mostly mushy thanks to the tortilla, layers of egg, and double dose of cheese. It’s loaded with hash rounds to provide some much-needed crunch, but they’re only crispy on the outside, and once they start combining with all the other ingredients that crunch is hardly noticeable.

Also American cheese in a burrito? I mean, I know this is a breakfast burrito but at the very least, use cheddar.

Bacon Beast Biscuit

Price: $3.79

Everything gets better with the Bacon Beast Biscuit. The biscuit, despite being smaller than a burrito, is loaded up with six strips of bacon, a folded egg, and two slices of American cheese (American is acceptable on a biscuit). It has none of the mushy mouthfeel problems that the Bacon Beast Burrito has, instead offering a satisfying crunch against a flakey, crumbly, and buttery biscuit.

It provides the sensation of eating an entire breakfast platter in a single bite and is one of Carl’s Jr’s best breakfast offerings to date.

Bacon Beast Cheeseburger

Price: $5.39

Here we are at the star of the show, the Bacon Beast Cheeseburger. The cheeseburger consists of a single, double, or triple 3.5 oz serving of meat topped with American cheese (the one food American cheese is made for), tomato, pickles, lettuce, mayo, and special sauce served on a sesame seed bun. If you’re scratching your head because that sounds like a pretty standard bacon cheeseburger, you’re right!

Until the Bacon Beast, Carl’s Jr’s only official bacon burger was the Western Bacon cheeseburger, which featured a layer of fried onion rings as well as BBQ sauce in-place of special sauce. It’s delicious, decadent, and sweet-yet-salty, but it’s a bit extra if you want a simple bacon cheeseburger. The Bacon Beast gives you a direct and simple bacon burger fix. I mentioned before that Carl’s Jr’s bacon was thin, and that’s still a major criticism here, but the thin bacon at least tastes good, and that’s all that really matters.

The burger mixes Carl’s Jr’s savory charbroiled flavors with the smokiness of Applewood bacon, providing a cheeseburger that is both crunchy and savory, and full of charred-smokey flavors. If you like the taste of campfire, you’re going to love Carl’s Jr’s first proper bacon cheeseburger.

The Bottom Line:

Skip the burrito, grab the biscuit for breakfast and the burger for lunch. Carl’s Jr’s Bacon Beast Cheeseburger isn’t a game-changing bacon cheeseburger that you absolutely need to order next time you’re picking up lunch, but if you find yourself at Carl’s Jr it’s definitely worth trying, especially if the Western Bacon Cheeseburger has always been a bit too much for you.

If you’re pulling up at breakfast, definitely do order the Bacon Beast Biscuit. It’s the perfect small one-handed drive-thru treat that’ll give you the energy you need to get the day going.

Find your nearest Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s here.

“What happened to equal justice?” That’s what Tucker Carlson wants to know. When news broke that Empire actor Jussie Smollett—who in December was found guilty of falsely reporting a hate crime after staging an attack on himself—was being released from jail less than a week after beginning to serve a 150-day sentence, Carlson was on the air. So of course he had to comment.

As The Daily Beast reports, the Fox News host had his very own, and very Carlson-esque, brand of reasoning for why Smollett is already back at home while those patriotic Americans who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and left several people dead in their wake are still “rotting” away in jail. “You saw this one coming,” Carlson told his viewers:

“Convicted hate crime hoaxster Jussie Smollett was just sentenced to jail, and now he’s been released from jail. Or is about to be. He was just a few days into his 150-day sentence, but this evening an appeals court ruled that Jussie Smollett can go home while he works to get his conviction overturned. Because he’s not a Trump voter. He’s not one of those January 6th guys rotting in solitary for more than a year. He’s Jussie Smollett, he’s a famous actor.”

For the record: Political leanings had nothing to do with the actor’s release. As he’s currently appealing his conviction, a process that his lawyers argued will take well over the 150 days to which he has been sentenced, they pointed out that it would not be fair to have him serve that time—or possibly more—while they’re working to have the ruling reversed. Which makes perfect legal sense, whether you’re an actor or an insurrectionist. But Carlson, of course, doesn’t see it that way—he chalks it up to Smollett being “a Hillary man” (which, as far as we can tell, is what Fox News fans simply call people who probably don’t watch Fox News).

(Via The Daily Beast)

As a The Big Bang Theory skeptic, I’ll admit that I was late in joining the Kaley Cuoco bandwagon. But between the terrific Harley Quinn animated series and her darkly comedic turn in The Flight Attendant, which was a “freaking blast” in season one, I am now fully Team Kaley. You can be, too, just in time for The Flight Attendant to return.

In season two of the HBO Max comedy-mystery, Cuoco’s Cassie is sober and getting her life together. “I’m still a flight attendant and I’ve been making better choices. I moved to Los Angeles. I met this great guy. Picked up a part-time job. I kind of feel like I’m turning into this whole new person,” she says in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the trailer above. What she conveniently left out of her story is that she’s a CIA assist who’s “living in a John le Carré spy novel,” as her friend Annie (Zosia Mamet) puts it. Cassie also has a new voice in her “Mind Palace” this season: her own.

Here’s more:

Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) is living her best sober life in Los Angeles while moonlighting as a CIA asset in her spare time. But when an overseas assignment leads her to inadvertently witness a murder, she becomes entangled in another international intrigue.

The Flight Attendant returns to HBO Max on Thursday, April 21.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

It’s no shock that most of them felt like a variation of the Golden Rule. It’s funny that a lot of folks believe the world would seriously improve if we could just abide by a simple saying that we all learned in kindergarten.

Also known as the “ethics of reciprocity,” the Golden Rule is so innate to humans that versions of it have been found in religions and cultures throughout the world.

Here are 17 of the best responses to P4insplatter’s simple, but world-altering question.

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1. Let go

“Let go or be dragged” an old zen proverb I heard at a meditation class. Really changed the way I let myself worry about things.” — civagigi

2. Simple, but true

“Don’t be a dick.” — WuTangLAN93

3. The Golden Rule

“Treat others how you want to be treated.” — AlbanyGuy1973

4. It starts with you

“I read somewhere that if you want to change the world, you have to change the community, to change the community change your relationships, and to change your relationships change yourself.” — cagibaxii

5. Simple Earth math

“Don’t use more resources than what the Earth is capable of renewing.” — DaethSpiral321

6. Bill and Ted’s rule

“Be excellent to each other.” — pnotar

7. The law of Lebowski

“Fuck it, Dude. Let’s go bowling.” — Bonhomme7h

8. Signal

“Use your turn signal(s) properly.” — futilelord

9. The principle of non-agression

“Simple, the non-aggression principle. You don’t do, initiate or threat any harm unto others, unless acting in true self defense.” — ufrag

10. It works for everything

“Leave it better than you found it.” — Narcoid

11. Generosity and humility

“Be generous and humble. Being generous and kind encourages us to perceive others in a more positive light and fosters a sense of community. Humility teaches you to improve and make a positive impact on the world.” — SuvenPan

12. STFU

“If you are not educated on the subject, sit down and stfu. Let the experts with years of education and experience talk.” — Ch3m1cal420

13. Fairness first

“Everyone gets a chance at one [thing] before anyone gets seconds.” — ehsteve23

14. Permanent daylight

“Obviously making daylight savings permanent.” — ObviousINstruction18

15. Two ears, one mouth

“Listen more, talk less.” — TryToHelpPeople

16. Turn off the lights

“All empty buildings should not have any lights/ac/heating on at night or after business hours depending on the nature of the work. their ac/heating and lights if necessary should only be turned on before the start of the day. This will not only help with energy costs but also with light pollution.” — hadrainsgate

17. Don’t tread on anyone

“You cannot do ANYTHING without consent.” — DeepCompote

It’s quite possible, maybe even advisable, to design a Scotland trip entirely around whisky. That’s just as true for the Scotch newbie as it is for the serious connoisseur. And while plenty of distilleries go back literal centuries, there are also young upstarts changing the game while challenging long-held ideas about what whisky can be. Visit both and you’ll leave with a better understanding of the spirit’s heritage and its next-gen.

When exploring Scotland with a special emphasis on whisky, you’ll naturally want to see a mix of distilleries, but don’t sleep on the whisky bars. Do you want to try an old empire whisky club with mustachioed gentlemen in plaid kilts? Prefer a bar where the cool kids curate the best Scotland has to offer? Both are on the table. Take a tip from a pro: seek out a few whisky bars that offer oyster pairings. You won’t be disappointed

To help you plan the ultimate whisky-centric trip and parse all Scotland’s scene has to offer, we’re highlighting eight stops that bring together whisky’s rich past and its bright future. Four entries are distilleries and the other four are whisky bars. All of them exemplify the rich craft and attention to detail that turned Scotch whisky into one of the most beloved and acclaimed spirits in human history.

It should go without saying that even a list this extensive barely scratches the surface of all the great places to enjoy whisky in Scotland. But it’s definitely a great place to dive in!

PART I — The Whisky Bars

1820 Bar Johnnie Walker Princess Street, Edinburgh

While I’d highly recommend going on the Johnnie Walker Experience at Princess Street in Edinburgh, you don’t have to if you’re not that into Johnnie Walker. What we do insist is that you hit up their rooftop bar.

This bar kind of has it all. The food menu is dialed in, and really highlights Scotland’s best offerings. There’s an excellent selection of Scottish root vegetable plates along with Scottish cheese and, of course, plenty of seafood offerings. And don’t sleep on the beef cheek and truffle doughnuts. Imagine a soft doughnut stuffed with braised beef cheek and grated truffle, with a killer, mustard-y dipping sauce. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a fine whisky — or a cocktail.

Before we get to the whisky, there’s the view. I know, it’s a rooftop bar so the view part should be pretty self-explanatory, but it truly is extraordinary. Basically, you’re looking right at Edinburgh Castle and down Princess Street. Then you can swing around the corner and see the rest of the city all the way to the sea. On a sunny day, it offers every vista you could want.

Then, of course, there’s the whisky. The whisky menu at 1820 touches on every major Diageo distillery (over a dozen of them) by region. Then the whisky list goes well beyond the core lineup to cover special limited releases that don’t leave Scotland, to whiskies that are 20, 30, 40, 50 years old or older. Some of those pours will set you back hundreds of dollars, but there are few other places where you’ll find such a deep bench of dusty whisky bottles available for your drinking pleasure.

Pro tip: Ask the bartender if there’s anything that just came in and isn’t on the menu yet. You might find a true gem.

Is This The Bar For You?

If you’re looking for a hip and trendy place to mingle with locals and tourists over bespoke dishes and trendy cocktails with the best view in town, then for sure. But it’s also a great spot if you’re looking to find super hard-to-find drams that might not be at any other bar in the world. That’s a win-win.

You can find the 1820 Rooftop Bar here.

The Pot Still Pub, Glasgow

If you’re in Glasgow and looking for the one whisky bar that epitomizes the best Scotland has to offer in a pub setting, then you owe it to yourself to spend some time in The Pot Still. The pub is right in the center of the city, within walking distance of tons of hotels, restaurants, shopping, and clubs in the midst of a bustling street front. Inside, it’s a quiet sanctuary for whisky lovers during the day that at night becomes a packed club where whisky and beer lovers alike can meet up and enjoy a great dram before late-night kicks in.

The prime time to drop in is in the early to late afternoon when you can chat with the barmen about the vast collection of whiskies they stock. In fact, if you can’t make it out to any distilleries, you might learn just as much from the dude with the long ginger beard behind the bar as from any distillery tour guide.

The added beauty of the pub is the crowd. This truly feels like a local hangout, even in the bustling heart of the city. If you find yourself there alone, it won’t be long before someone strikes up a conversation. Before you know it, you’ll be getting even more whisky recommendations, and maybe even a bar recommendation or two around town.

Oh, and don’t forget to grab a Scottish pie from the warmer on the bar while you’re there. It’s the perfect snack to soak up some of that whisky you’ll be drinking.

Is This The Bar For You?

Yes is the simple answer. This is a bar for everyone, it’s a pub after all. It’ll skew a little older during the afternoon but you’ll also be able to chat with folks behind the bar about whisky at length. Every evening this turns into a party spot and it’ll be packed with a much younger crowd looking for a good whisky before the party starts at the club.

You can find The Pot Still here.

Bowmore Hotel Lucci’s Whisky Bar, Isle of Islay

Bowmore Hotel, across the street from the Bowmore Distillery (which is 100 percent worth touring), has one of the best whisky bars in the country, let alone Islay. Lucci’s Whisky Bar is one of those bucket list bars if you’re a whisky lover. The bar stocks over 700 Scotch whiskies, mostly from Islay. You can get lost here.

Here’s the play: roll in and ask for Peter. He’ll be your whisky guide. Have a nice chat and go over what you like to eat and drink. He’ll take a moment, and maybe pop in the backroom. Then he’ll bring you a whisky pour that matches your palate so well it’ll blow your socks off.

As with all the whisky bars on this list, the people working behind the bar are human encyclopedias. You’ll learn more chatting with Peter for half an hour then you would in a week of reading, assuming you can remember any of it the next day.

Is This The Bar For You?

If you’re in Islay, it’s almost crazy not to stop here. This is a bar for whisky lovers. You can go deep here. You’ll also likely meet other whisky tourists on the island doing a very similar tour to you, which means you might make some new friends along the way.

You can find Lucci’s Whisky Bar here.

SCOTCH at the Balmoral, Edinburgh

The Balmoral is one of the swankiest hotels in Scotland. Naturally, the whisky bar in the Balmoral is a must-stop. You’ll want to book an experience with Cameron Ewen, the bar’s Senior Whisky Advisor (though there are several “whisky ambassadors” working at SCOTCH that’ll provide an amazing experience as well).

The vibe of this place is old-school “club” from a bygone era, with 500 whiskies at your disposal. You could spend a year here and not get to the end of it all. Moreover, the knowledge of the staff, and especially Ewen, is astounding. If there was a Ph.D. in whisky, Ewen would have it. His knowledge of everything from the terroir to the shape of the glass in your hand is precise, engaging, and always comes with a convivial smile and laugh.

It’s another place you might leave a little too tipsy to remember everything you just learned. Still, you’ll have had one of the greatest whisky bar experiences there is in Edinburgh. You’ll also be a little poorer too. Pours are not cheap here and there’s a private club behind the scenes in case you want to drop even more cash for whisky status.

Is This The Bar For You?

Did you pack a suit or semi-posh evening wear? No? Then this might be a little too high brow for you. While I feel comfortable in a place like this since I’m in the whisky industry, I can see it being a little too high end for the casual whisky drinker, much less the average tourist. That said, you will not find an atmosphere or whisky list like this anywhere else. This is truly a church of all things whisky.

You can find SCOTCH at the Balmoral Hotel here.

PART II — The Distilleries

Kilchoman Distillery, Isle of Islay

Kilchoman Distillery is the new kid on the block on Islay. The distillery — which is attached to a farm and a stone’s throw from one of Islay’s best beaches — was the first distillery built on Islay in nearly 100 years. Opened back in 2005, Kilchoman is a self-contained facility pushing the boundaries of lightly-peated malt with every new release.

It’s also remote. The distillery is perched on a small hill on the far western side of the island, down a dirt road that’s completely surrounded by farm and wild land. Luckily, there are few roads on Islay and small signs pointing the way, so it’ll be hard to get lost. Still, you’ll have to want to go out to this distillery as it’s not on the way to anything.

Once there, you’ll be treated to a family-run experience. The welcome center has an airy open format that’s flooded with natural light. Locally made crafts mingle with bespoke bottles of Kilchoman’s limited edition and unique whiskies. A long bar runs the length of the building where you can taste the core line and limited editions (for about $2 a pour). There’s also a cafe on-site that offers oysters, chowder, and some of the best home-baked bread I’ve smelled in a while.

As someone who’s been dozens and dozens of distillery tours, none were quite as easy-going and personal as Kilchmonan. There was no rush between the malting floor, still house, or barrel house, and it was more like a long chat with an old friend while you wander through a small-time distillery operation run by friends and family.

Is This The Distillery For You?

Absolutely. It’s small, educational, and you might get a chance to pet a sheep on the farm. This is the sort of remote distillery that’s perfect for a lunch stop even if you don’t care that much about whisky. Though the people at Kilchoman are so engaging and nice, you might just care more about whisky by the time you leave.

You can find Kilchoman Distillery here.

The Singleton of Glen Ord Distillery, Highlands

The Glen Ord Distillery is the perfect blend of old and new. The facade of the distillery is built from an old row of rock houses dating back to the 1800s. The distillery behind that is a state-of-the-art facility pumping out some of the most sought-after whisky in the game: The Singleton of Glen Ord.

What I love about the distillery tour is that you’re lured in by this old-school Scotland feel of those row houses, then on the inside it feels like you’re in a pub museum, devoted to great whisky from The Singleton (and other Highland brands from Diageo). The gift shop is full of bottles that range into the 30-40-year-old age range, meaning you can pick up a true one-of-a-kind whisky to take home.

Then there’s the actual distillery. The whole facility was doubled in 2014 to handle the whisky boom (especially in the East Asian market). As you walk through the halls of stills and barrels, you’re met with a sort of awe at the size and efficiency of the whole place. Rows of pot stills line walls backlit by windows (again, allowing in all that natural light), giving it the feel of a post-modern cathedral dedicated to whisky. It’s enough to make you want to kneel at the altar, if there was one amidst the spirit safe and washbacks.

Is This The Distillery For You?

This is the closest to a big-time whisky operation like you might see in Kentucky or Tennessee. That said, it has a deeply Scottish character and you can feel the history. That’s countered by a factory-like tour which might be boring for some or exciting for others.

You can find The Singleton of Glen Ord Distillery here.

Springbank Distillery, Campbeltown

Sometimes you have to go to the end of the road to find the sweet spot. Okay, Campbeltown isn’t technically the end of the road, but it’s very close to it on the peninsula of Kintyre. There, you’ll find a small town — the sort that still has family-owned hardware and toy stores — with a small distillery that has excited whisky lovers the world over, Springbank.

I’m not going to lie, Springbank is a whisky nerd’s distillery and brand. Its footprint isn’t huge in the U.S., yet. Springbank is one of those brands people seek out because it’s so unique (Springbank is one of only three distilleries left in the area) and each release is a banger. When I rolled up to the distillery, there was a line of whisky heads wrapping around the block waiting for the latest limited edition release.

Like most distilleries in Scotland, Springbank opened and closed several times throughout the 20th century. When you take the tour, the strain is still evident in the eras of machines and tools present. That boom-and-bust history is the throughline of the distillery tour. You see the decades of marks on the side of the grist mill where a broom was used to keep the grain flowing. The stills feel like they’re built into centuries-old brick walls, because, well, they kind of are. The whole place feels lived in and alive in a microbiome that helps make Springbank so unique and beloved.

Is This The Distillery For You?

This distillery bridges perfect gap, of being exciting for whisky nerds while also being small and unique enough to engage the passive tourist. It’s a small tour of a compact campus, so you won’t get lost on a factory floor here. There’s a real charisma to the place that transcends whisky.

You can find Springbank Distillery here.

Talisker Distillery, Isle of Skye

A trip to Skye is essential on any Scottish tour. The island is full of natural wonders, from amazing rocky mountain outcrops to wind-swept cliffs over the sea to miles-long white sand beaches. It’s also home to one of the most-beloved distilleries on the planet.

Talisker, nestled right on the beach, is an old-school distillery making some of the most sought-after whiskies right now. The tour of the facility is a gentle walk through the history of a whisky touched by the sea. The highlight is the old outdoor cooling tanks for the stills fed by seawater. Then there’s the old warehouse, where you’ll feel the alchemy from centuries of molds and wood melding with the sea, oak, and whisky to create something unique and delicious.

But it doesn’t stop there. No trip to Talisker is complete without a trip to the Oyster Shed. Just above the distillery, you’ll find a small seafood shed with a patio on the side, where you’ll be able to score dozens of fresh oysters to eat with your newly purchased Talisker. The Oyster Shed also does fish and chip variations, excellent cold and hot smoked salmon, and pretty much every other combo of fresh seafood you can imagine. It’s the perfect cap to a trip to one of the most beloved distilleries in Scotland (and maybe the world.).

Is This The Distillery For You?

If I were to recommend only one distillery in all of Scotland to visit, this would be it. The tour is even-keeled and interesting to outsiders thanks to the amazing tour guides, history, and location. You also get the amazing seafood experience right above the distillery that adds a great layer to the place. Even if you don’t adore the whisky, there’s still enough of a unique vibe and food experience to carry you through.

You can find Talisker here and the Oyster Shed here.

Honorable mentions:

Ardbeg Distillery, Islay— One of the best tours on Islay with a newly expanded state-of-the-art distillery amongst the old seaside town/distillery.

The Malt Room, Inverness — A great whisky bar in the Highlands hidden behind a nondescript storefront with a massive selection of Scotch and a young crew directing and curating the vibe and cellar.

Lagavulin Distillery, Islay — Nick Offerman’s favorite distillery is everything you want in a seaside distillery experience — great tastings in the barrel rooms, a cool and informative tour, and a gift shop with limited edition bottles you can’t get anywhere else.

Oban Distillery, Oban — This distillery predates the town that sprang up around it and is a truly small-time operation with just seven people making the iconic whisky right next to the sea.

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