This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine The drinking man’s guide to circumspection, consolation and celebration with your significant other… Come January you may find yourself saying to your partner, “How did we ever make it through the holidays without each other?” As I prepare for another season with my girlfriend, we realize there are three scenarios we’ll likely face again
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine The drinking man’s guide to hosting the holidays… Hosting a well-planned holiday party takes gumption. And setting the right tone with that first “welcome in” drink is everything. Here are three scenarios you’ll likely run into after inviting your nearest and dearest to bask in the season’s warmest greetings… An Oscar Peterson Christmas The Scenario: Polite Dinner
The drinking man’s guide to holiday parties and the gifts to leave behind… The main objective as a holiday party guest should be to arrive bearing as considerate a gift as possible. And it should come as no surprise that whenever I’m asked, “What should I bring to the party?” before a person can get out the tee in party, I invariably say: “Good
I woke up this morning to a text message from Michael B. Dougherty, author of the latest post at Esquire.com. The text simply read, "BOOM." It was followed by a link to his story. It's about my journey to making the first product to carry my name, The California Shirt. BOOM is right. It's fitting that the first story about a product made from
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine Bobby’s Orange Sweater, The Missouri Horn Of Plenty, Like A Greek Mother’s Milk and The Sacred Place. As the season of halls decked with boughs of holly beckons, we hope you’ll celebrate the harvest by putting aside differences to come together around the same table in appreciation for the bounties of our lives. Today we
Consideration is defined as “careful thought, typically over a period of time.” For the past decade, my central focus has been men’s clothing. For a time in 2009 and 2010, I traveled a twelve-state territory in the center of the country selling shirts and ties to high-end men’s boutiques. Prior to this experience, it had been my dream to build button-downs
I’d like to resurrect the slow dance. Yes, I know. It’s not really dead, but its prominence at casual social gatherings among my friends and loved ones has diminished continually throughout my life. I recall a time as a young boy seeing couples at backyard barbecues swaying their hips between sips from a bottle of Bartles & Jaymes or a tall, gold can of Coors,
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine. For more than a decade, David Hernandez and wife Tereasa Surratt have been busily restoring Hernandez’s boyhood summer camp in Elkhorn, Wisconsin to its former glory; dressing the place with vintage treasures culled from garage and rummage sales all over Walworth County. The result is Camp Wandawega—a living, breathing time capsule, where it’s
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine. We’re taking a slightly different tact with this edition of Rotgut Ingenuity. Our intrepid reporter Max Wastler recently moved halfway across the country. Prior to doing so, he gathered his friends and loved ones in his backyard for a going away party and cleared out his liquor cabinet by improvising on a number
Originally Published for Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine Armed with only a flask and a little ingenuity, Max Wastler elevates common cocktails with supplies from his seasonal surroundings. Plane Class Up Coach: The Aviation There are those of us who still wear a tie when flying, in hopes it inspires a special occasion. For the imbibed equivalent, rely on the last known cocktail recipe book published
I'm thrilled to share some of my favorite Chicago spots in Barneys New York's City Guide: Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits, Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, King Spa & Sauna, Longman & Eagle, the pool at The InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, Intelligentsia Monadnock, A New Leaf, Optimo Fine Hats, and Bavette's Bar & Boeuf.
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine. Armed with only a flask and a little ingenuity, Max Wastler elevates common cocktails with supplies from his seasonal surroundings. The Harold Crick Water “Crick Water” was a cheap cocktail I recall pulling from a ladle in college. It usually involved combining citrus sodas and powdered lemonade and every possible clear spirit we could
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine. Armed with only a flask and a little ingenuity, Max Wastler elevates common cocktails with supplies from his seasonal surroundings. The Sadie Hawkins (Savoy’s Leap Year Cocktail) Celebrating Leap Years has spawned traditions like women proposing marriage and digesting a cocktail that may lead to such activities. On February 29th, also known as Sadie Hawkins
As the 2015 NBA Basketball season gets underway, I wanted to take a moment to recount three of my favorite basketball uniform design stories. One of the first stories about uniform design I remember reading had something to do with the 1988 debut of the Charlotte Hornets' purple pinstripe uniforms. They were designed by Charlotte native, Alexander Julian. With his line, Colours
The good folks over at Ledbury asked for me to put together a road trip mix. I could think of no road finer than ol' Route 66. You can get the whole playlist here. I grew up on Route 66. No, really. In 2005, Missouri named the road along the backside of my parents' neighborhood in St Louis a state scenic
I traveled to Waikiki this week to help Priceline with their #RoomWithAView campaign. Read more about the campaign here, and look for my photos alongside all the contributors on Instagram.
My love for the roadside drive-in is well-documented. I first learned of the Weenie Beenie in Arlington, Virginia while watching the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways on HBO. And then, I remembered the song. I think it was a track I would skip over to get to hits like "Big Me."
Attention, Chicagoans: join me at the Patagonia Magnificent Mile a week from this Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 to celebrate thirty years of the iconic Snap-T pullover. We'll have live music from one of my favorite musicians (I can't say more at this point, but know that this will be a super-secret show from an iconic Chicagoan) tasty food provided by Piece
"Swimming after dark." Just writing it down sends my heart a-reelin'. With Labor Day signaling summer's unofficial end, we have exactly two weeks left to frolic, to feel the heat and above all else, to swim outside all hours of the day. I've had it in my head to throw a big pool party outside after sunset, the kind of pool
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine Armed with only a flask and a little ingenuity, Max Wastler elevates common cocktails with supplies from his seasonal surroundings. Part 2 of our summer cocktail guide. THE RECORD-BREAKER, OR, THE SHARK’S TALE According to John Waldman’s book 100 Weird Ways to Catch Fish, legend has it that ancient tribes of the South Pacific, known
This originally appeared in Five O'Clock, Harry's Magazine Armed with only a flask and a little ingenuity, Max Wastler elevates common cocktails with supplies from his seasonal surroundings. There’s Always Money In… The truest pool rats know that the best pool snack bar offering is the frozen chocolate banana. First seen on the beaches of Newport Beach, California, in the middle of the
When the road calls, set aside the GPS, pull out the Road Atlas, and take the long way home. These three mixes are comprised of the tunes I reached for this year when I felt compelled to exit The Interstate and examine my inner-state. And while, admittedly, my road map was not always within arm's reach, I did find myself
I was asked by my editors at Condé Nast Traveler to weigh in on my favorite bar, and no surprise, it's a place where I actually tended bar. P.J. Clarke'sNew York, NY "I worked here in the summer of 2007," says CNT contributing editor Max Wastler. "The first time I stepped foot in here, I loved everything about this place. It's the only
In honor of National Running Day, here are a handful of my favorite images from my favorite Tumblr, They Call Us The Seekers.
Before I considered devoting a week's worth of posts to David Letterman, I intended to share this story. For some time, I have been fascinated by the evolution of Dave's relationship with a personal hero of mine, Paul Newman. For the uninitiated, I wrote a lengthy piece a couple years ago about Mr. Newman, and I have for many years prior
"I think I'm just nervous all the time. I'm never really relaxed." Late in 1981, Dave Letterman was the age that I am now, 34. His nationally televised morning show, The David Letterman Show, had been cancelled by NBC. When he sat down for this intensely personal interview on a short-lived CBS Cable program called Signature, he was a few months away from
It's about a three hour drive on I-65 from Indianapolis to Chicago, but with brands of humor so similarly absurd, affable, and audacious, Bill Murray and Dave Letterman might as well have grown up in one another's backyards. Over the past thirty-three years, before our very eyes, the two have developed an incredible rapport, one that inherently grew from an
"For David Letterman, this is unquestionably the single worst night of his life. Look at him, I know he's smiling, but that medal hanging around his neck: there's a 40% chance he'll hang himself with it." - Jimmy Kimmel At the 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, David Letterman was honored for his Herculean television achievements. There are so many fat pitches in this seventeen
Before I knew anything about Tom Waits, I knew Dave was a massive fan. Waits has appeared on one or the other of Letterman's shows ten times. It wasn't until I saw Down By Law, Jim Jarmusch's pulp fiction, jail break picture starring Waits, that I understood Dave's fascination. From watching Jarmusch's black-and-white, soupy bayou yarn about three escaped convicts, I could
Who cares if this was staged? It is awesome to watch Julia Roberts flatly call him out for failing to send flowers, and then like clockwork, watch as Pat Farmer strolls in with roses. Then at 6:45, all hell breaks loose. Part One of her first appearance on Late Night. Freshly turned 22, she was there to promote Steel Magnolias
In the summer of 1993, I was twelve years old. It was the last summer I played baseball. It was the summer before I started at a new school, an all-boys school, one that molded my worldview as much as anything. I was a member of a whopping three swim teams. It was the first and last summer I played on
This content originally appeared on basilhaydens.com, part of a four year series, Whiskey
With recent news of a boot shortage at L.L. Bean, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the first-ever factory tour I took with Foster Huntington way back in March of 2009. All photos are mine or courtesy of Foster Huntington.
I'm stuffed. Rather than fight the crowds, I'm going to stay home and cozy up on the couch with a good book and a warm blanket. Consider doing the same. Make your Black Friday a Black Watch Friday. For the full story on this blanket, visit the earlier post. Hope you like the story. Hope you love the blanket. Happy Thanksgiving.
When the time came to name this All Plaidout, a blog with posts about things that are not trendy, about the stories of style over fashion, about the stories behind the clothes we wear, I turned to the rich history of a cloth pattern known as a tartan. I chose the tartan most emblematic of my style, my appreciation of
I recently took a trip to Houston, and while I was there, fourth-generation shirt maker, David Hamilton measured me for this custom Lyle Lovett for Hamilton Shirt. I'll be sharing photos from the factory very soon, but I couldn't wait to share the shirt.
Sitting in traffic. In the rain. On Congress Avenue in Austin. After a day in Houston. The windshield wipers undulated as a Ryan Adams song screeched to an end on the rental's car's cheap stereo. The car smelled like french fries from a Whataburger or a taco from Buc-ee's. I can't remember. All I could think about was what just happened.
"Man, we love a story about somebody who gets knocked down and gets back up." - Charlie Rose, in regards to Billy Reid. Great to see him profiled on CBS This Morning.
Summer. With its unofficial start fast approaching, I'm quick to remember the horrible winter we in the Midwest endured. With the "Polar Vortex," "Chiberia," "Chibernation," and turning boiling water to snow in mind, let us turn our eyes to the sky once more and embrace the sun's rays with a fervor heretofore unseen. Kick off Memorial Day Weekend with my
The multi-talented über-connector Jessica Murnane recently asked me to host one of her For Reals Meals for her plant-based site, One Part Plant. You may recall my girlfriend co-hosted one last year. Murnane was adamant on two fronts: 1) ALL PLANTS. 2) YOU CAN'T KNOW ANYONE YOU INVITE. One was easy. Though I might share innumerable photos of the insides of diners and dive
I was excited to learn this morning of the newly formed Big Sadie, formerly EB & The Moores, fronted by friend, the multi-talented designer, musician, writer, photographer, chef, and all-around good person, Elise Bergman. Alongside her husband, guitarist Collin Moore and fiddle player Jess McIntosh, Elise and band have been performing their own brand of bluegrass at a few locations in Chicago.
I was interviewed about some of my favorite things today for The Manual's Worn Out Wednesday. Check it out. Photo c/o Carolina Mariana.
Thanks to a partnership with entertainment site The A.V. Club, Basil Hayden's is putting me on the road to mix it up with fans of our bourbon and fans of their site. We call this tour "This is My
The tires couldn't spin fast enough as I pulled out of Kentucky. Just after loading up on coffee and chocolate chip cookies at Please & Thank You, my favorite record-store-cum-bakery-and-café, I headed north on a course made of winding country roads, and headed for home. And then, a strange thing happened. Somewhere in Southern Indiana, where I spent four years
So incredibly stoked for my friend N'East Style's Christine Mitchell Adams' new site. Some of you may recall that when it was time for us to create the logo for Buckshot Sonny's, Christine was our first call. When Basil Hayden's asked me to create an image to go along with my title of "Cultural Bloodhound," well, you know the rest. As
Today marks the launch of The Collective Quarterly, a travel magazine told from the perspective of a group of creative individuals brought together to collaborate with one another. Each issue focuses on a single locale: its people, places, and things. For those who have traveled to the place in question, the hope is that fresh surroundings will stoke the creative
Merry Christmax & Happy Neu Jeers Last year, I shared The Holidays Are All Plaidout. This year is a bit different. I began a playlist on December 26th of 2012, adding to it songs I'd hear, songs I'd read about throughout the year that reminded me of Christmas or of New Year's Eve. The edited list includes many new discoveries and other