The Lowdown
Negroni Week, A Modern Classic Manhattan, Monkey Bread, Monster Cookies, Meat Loaf...
Welcome to The Lowdown, a Paid Subscriber exclusive featuring what (and where) I’ve been drinking and eating.
Today’s LAST CALL dispatch is free to all readers thanks to the generous support of Four Walls Irish American Whiskey.
Four Walls Irish American Whiskey
Four Walls Irish American Whiskey, founded by Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day as a tribute to the four walls that hold our good times in and keep our troubles out—the bar—has captivated bartenders and whiskey fans alike since its launch less than a year ago. And now, our friends at Four Walls were just named a 2024 Ad Age Breakout Brand.
"We owe all of our success to the support of the bar community, and there's no better partner to celebrate our first year with than LAST CALL, who weekly honors the bars and people inside that make each of their four walls so special," says Ashley Purdum, Head of Brand Marketing & Communications at Four Walls.
To mark the one-year anniversary, Rob McElhenney has some thoughts on “innovation.”
Heading into fall and the football season, Four Walls' signature shot-and-beer specials will be rolling out at neighborhood bars wherever the better brown is sold, along with expanded retail availability in both Pennsylvania and California.
Learn more about upcoming events at @fourwallsthebetterbrown, and find where the brand is carried by visiting its Store Locator Map.
Drinking
Negronis (Caffe Dante)
79-81 MacDougal Street, New York, New York 10012
Last week I hosted my dear friend, photographer, and creative partner Ed Anderson, who crashed on my sofa for a few days while he was in the Big City for some meetings and meet-ups, including the book party for Second Generation: Hungarian and Jewish Classics Reimagined for the Modern Table, the debut cookbook from Jeremy Salamon that Ed had photographed. I actually sat in/crashed Ed’s first meeting with Jeremy to discuss the project over lunch at Caffe Dante, so it was fitting I met up with Ed at Dante to officially kick off Negroni Week.
Normally I’d hit up several spots over Negroni Week to try various Negroni riffs but last week and into earlier this week has been the most stressed, deadline-wise, I’ve been since the last time I’ve been this stressed (a side effect is that my body is now accustomed to naturally waking up at 3:00 a.m.).
During Negroni Week, Dante teamed up with The New York Cocktail Company to feature their quartet of bottled Negronis. With every order, guests could take their chance with a roll of the dice, and if a six popped up the drink was on the house. This guy rolled a six on his Classic Negroni, while Ed busted with his Chocolate Negroni (though he’s obviously the big winner when it comes to these two respective photographs).
