Esquire Winter 2023

I WAS IN LOUISVILLE FOR THIRTY-SIX HOURS ON A WORK TRIP and had a night to myself. All I knew about the city was that it did bourbon and baseball bats well and that the place I was staying, the Brown Hotel, had invented a famous sandwich, the Hot Brown, one of those dishes whose first bite is a revelation—how have I lived this long without eating one of these?—and whose fifth bite brings you nearer to death. Try it. Once. I asked the concierge at the Brown for a restaurant recommendation. “Proof on Main,” he said. Then, with what seemed like a note of pride, he added: “Esquire magazine called it one of the best restaurants in America.” It was 2010, five years before I started working at Esquire, but I…

There are whiskies, and then there are special-occasion whiskies. You may think older single malts are more rare, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but with the Glenfiddich Grand Series, these aged liquids are also about innovation—each one has a unique cask finish to add an unconventional depth. The Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21-Year-Old ($210) is finished in Caribbean Reserva Rum casks, lending the final spirit a touch of ginger, fig, and toffee. It’s a fun one. The Grand Cru 23-Year-Old ($300) spends time in French Cuvée casks, creating some celebratory vibes. And then there is the Grande Couronne 26-Year-Old ($600), which is finished in rare Cognac casks. It is liquid dessert, the essence of a patisserie, a wonderful end to a big evening. But, really, enjoying a dram of any of…

VERY FEW OF MY APOCALYPSE FANTASIES qualify as cheerful, but there’s one that brings a smile to my face: It’s a few years into the future, and the world is ravaged by war and wildfires. A solemn-looking young boy and his determined father push a rusted shopping cart down a desolate street. Think Cormac McCarthy’s The Road but real, and therefore tacky. The boy tugs at his dad’s sleeve. “Father,” he asks, “were you alive before everything fell apart?” The man nods. “What did you do to stop it?” The man crouches down, puts his hand on his son’s shoulder, and—his eyes watering from emotion and ash—says, “I wrote a brutal one-star Yelp review for an animal shelter because they had a drag-queen story hour for rescue dogs.” We are facing disaster…

A WHILE AGO, I MADE A DECISION: CHAMPAGNE WAS appropriate for breakfast. Not every day. But on the weekends? Or for room service? Yes. Scrambled eggs with toast and bubbly, followed by a coffee to even things, is an easy way to choose happiness in the a.m. This habit soon poured into other parts of my life. Sunsets on the beach. Bubble baths. And, eventually, on the couch with a bag of chips … just because it’s Wednesday. There are some awesome things that you can have too much of. Butter. Drugs. The sun. Champagne is not one of these. Once you start weaving it into your drinking life, something clicks: I can have it this good all the time? Sparkling wine—whether from the famous French region or Spain or New Mexico (its…

IT’S JUST THE SAD TRUTH: MANY CARS LOOK the same these days. Handsome enough but, you know, just another collection of artful swoops on wheels. Which is why when you roll down the street in a Hyundai Ioniq 5, people do a double take as if they were seeing a glitch in the matrix. It’s one of the most delightfully distinctive everyman cars on the road today. Whereas most electric vehicles tend to resemble an inflated dolphin or a frog that’s swallowed another frog, Hyundai’s $42,745 electric vehicle is unabashedly angular; it wouldn’t look out of place in the Roblox metaverse. The playful shape harks back to sporty hatchbacks from influential Italian design maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro—in particular, the Lancia Delta Integrale and the Hyundai Pony, one of the first South Korean…

01_MÉTIER BACKGAMMON SET Métier’s grained-leather set feels like the serious board you’d find in some wealthy backgammon enthusiast’s game room, but it rolls up to fit in a backpack. The details—such as hand-painted edging and magnets that act as anchors—make it elegant and whimsical all at once. The Game of Kings deserves no less. $950 02_DE’LONGHI LA SPECIALISTA ARTE ESPRESSO MACHINE Providing the creative freedom of a barista without the pressure of getting anyone’s name right, this machine has eight grinder settings that let you dial in the exact flavor of the bean, and a steam wand allows you to expand your horizons past simple espresso while starting you on the road to latte-art greatness. $700 03_BRUICHLADDICH PORT CHARLOTTE SC:01 2012 If you love the subtlety of peated whisky, the ones made by Bruichladdich are…