Detroit Opening Day Shenanigans - Spring Break Whiskey Tales

Opening Day in Detroit has a way of turning grown adults into planners, philosophers, and absolute chaos goblins before lunchtime. We’re gearing up for Detroit Tigers Opening Day and spring break energy at the same time, so the talk goes straight to what actually matters: where people gather downtown, how the day flows, and why Greektown becomes the gravitational pull for anyone chasing the full experience.

Tony from Firebird Tavern joins us to break down what Opening Day looks like from the inside. We get into the tent setup, the early doors, the DJ, big video walls, and the behind-the-scenes realities of serving a packed crowd when the city is buzzing. We also talk about building a bar culture that works in downtown Detroit and in Troy, because consistency matters more than hype when the pressure is on.

From there, we do what we always do and follow the drinks wherever they lead. That includes whiskey tasting stories, shelf staples like Woodford, the fun and pain of chasing better expressions, plus how barrel picks actually happen when you’re choosing between multiple barrels. Then we swing into tequila: what it’s like visiting producers in Mexico, why the hacienda mindset feels different, and the bottles we reach for when we want something worth sipping.

If you love Detroit bar culture, whiskey and bourbon talk, tequila recommendations, and the messy beauty of sports traditions, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who never misses Opening Day, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome To Happy Hour

August Gitshlag 0:00

Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I said hey!

unknown 0:06

Hey!

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Man Cave Happy Hour. I said hey! Hey! Welcome to the Man Cave Happy Hour. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

Jamie Flanagan 0:27

It is time for Happy Hour. It is the Man Cave Happy Hour, Whiskey, Cigar, Spears, the stories that go along with it. I am Jamie Flanagan.

Matt Fox 0:35

That guy over there. I like you when you point at me, Matt. August Kitchlag in the house.

August Gitshlag 0:41

And that man who was just talking, the one doing the pointing.

Matt Fox 0:44

Yes.

August Gitshlag 0:44

Is the sexy Matt Fox. We got a whole lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Who's on spring break? Spring break edition. Who's on spring break? I'm not.

August Gitshlag 0:53

Oh boy. Yes, that just happened every day. No one needed it. No one needed that.

Jamie Flanagan 0:58

That is particularly the guy sitting next to you. I need a drink now. It looked pretty good right till then. Right. I was faking it pretty good.

August Gitshlag 1:05

We knew when you walk in the door, what we're getting into today, Jay. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 1:08

No, no, but it is. Up it, it's uh we had the high holy days of March. Well, which leads into spring break and opening day shenanigans. Is what we're talking about today. We're gonna get into some opening day shenanigans downtown Detroit. But who's August? Who's who's like who do we got here? Who'd you bring with who are these strangers?

Matt Fox 1:29

Who did you bring with you, dude?

August Gitshlag 1:32

Well, we have our our glassware sponsor in the house. Oh, yeah. Tony from uh Firebird Taverns. Yo, hey Tony, Tony Bloody. Hey Tony, Tony's here. Uh and uh our esteemed uh whiskey society co-uh cookie eater yesterday, Mr. Barry Mulso's here. Many cookies were devoured. And of course, introduce yourself because you have your voice is David Wright, the motor city hypnotic.

SPEAKER_10 1:56

There it is. That's right, that's right. Right before my podcast, which begins in about 55 minutes. It depends on what happens on this podcast. Let's just be let's just be honest, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 2:11

ISH. But uh yeah, apparently always ish.

August Gitshlag 2:16

I'm on spring break. And and as is Tony. His uh his wife and kid are in Punta Cana. Oh well, he's gotta stay back for opening day logistics.

Jamie Flanagan 2:25

Opening day logistics, pretty much.

August Gitshlag 2:28

You had to stay home for opening day logistics, you know. Right, can't go off to the beach. So, yeah, we're talking so after March is like rife with shenanigans. The high holy holidays of drunken obligation, as I call them.

Jamie Flanagan 2:41

All your Polish ones and then all you got your Irish ones, right? Punchy Day, run, and the name rude. We're gonna talk about that.

August Gitshlag 2:48

St. Patrick's.

Jamie Flanagan 2:49

Oh, I'm just looking at me like St. Patrick's.

August Gitshlag 2:52

He says it to me like he's my dad. Like I got caught.

Spring Break Meets Opening Day

Jamie Flanagan 2:54

Oh, you didn't get caught, and then parade is like enough with the St. Patrick. I'm as an Irish guy. I'm like, oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph's enough with the St. Patrick's things already. You know, I already drink. There's a yeah, I got hey, I got this. But then we slide into spring break, and very often of late in the last few calendar years, it varies from year to year, but the last handful of calendar years, Tiger's opening day is like falling right into and around spring break, which has been very, very convenient for a fella like me who teaches who likes to go to spring go to the opening day.

August Gitshlag 3:31

Well, last year we uh we all napped on my couch after uh opening day. I remember that. That was a full day.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

That was a on the same couch.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

Yeah, that's pretty close. Actually, it was just these guys.

Matt Fox 3:43

Foot to foot.

unknown 3:44

Okay, right.

Matt Fox 3:45

That was practice. I have an L couch. It's an L. Yeah, that was practice because then we did a day game together. I showed up to that one and we just started and we didn't stop. Oh, yeah.

August Gitshlag 3:56

And again, we all fell asleep on the couch, Master. Yeah, pretty much.

Matt Fox 3:58

Yeah, we're watching soccer or some shit.

August Gitshlag 4:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh yeah, I am very loyal to all the Tiger weekday day games. I believe there's 12 of them this year. I have tickets to all 12. I just love a reason to get the hell out and go down to a random.

SPEAKER_10 4:13

One day, one ticket. Well, there are August? Yes, because it was gifted to me. Yeah, perfect.

August Gitshlag 4:17

A buddy of mine has a season ticket package, and he can't go to any of the day games. He's a long haul truck driver. He goes, if you'll use them, I'll give them to you. Run any money, he goes, No. Dang, done.

Jamie Flanagan 4:26

Yeah, nice getting better by the minute.

August Gitshlag 4:27

And of course, the first one first one's April 16th. Well, look at this smoke show just walked in the door.

SPEAKER_10 4:33

I can't see, dude. I'm already here.

August Gitshlag 4:37

Uh you can't hypnotize me that much. All the hypnotism in the world is not gonna make that happen. Never know.

Jamie Flanagan 4:46

You will find me sexy, and you know it. As does everyone else you're looking for, yes. But so uh downtown shenanigans. There's there's like, and then okay, and then we have uh like what is it, Memorial Day on the 4th of July. We always have reasons for parties.

August Gitshlag 5:02

Well, that yeah, I guess I never thought about that, but mine would not end until I go to the Indy 500.

Jamie Flanagan 5:07

Till you're gonna be MMA, and then you then you're then Memorial and Fort. Well, that's Memorial Day, the Indy 500's not Memorial Day.

August Gitshlag 5:17

But I don't really consider the Indy Indy to be a high holy holiday of drunken obligation in the Detroit sense.

Jamie Flanagan 5:22

But there no, well that's a that's an away game in the Indiana sense.

August Gitshlag 5:25

I mean, in my own personal you don't drink and carry on. No, I'm saying I do, but it doesn't kind of fall in the calendar of all this shit that happens week after week. Rationalize all of May off until Indy 500. Right. Oh, I forgot to share the podcast on some.

Jamie Flanagan 5:42

So yeah, no, but uh, there's a lot of fun to be had. I you know, and it's not all drink it, drink it, drink it. You can have juice. Yes, you could with your with your. I never knew that. I had juice yesterday. The occasional, you know, snack.

unknown 5:56

I did.

Jamie Flanagan 5:56

You had juice yesterday? I had juice yesterday. What else was in it, Jamie? I now here's the thing, right? I sat down and we were at uh the whiskey tasting at uh whiskey taco foxtrot, and uh they do uh whiskey society, they do a tasting, and uh, but you know, a little welcome cocktail. I'm like, I'll have a drink, and I'm like, oh, mimosa, eight bucks, and then it was like mimosa bottle eight uh sixteen dollars. So I'm like, well, okay, one drink, one drink for eight bucks, a bottle for sixteen, and these guys that got uh your favorite well I am cocktail I opened with a French 75 at each of these, which is champagne-based. Yes, and so I figured, all right, I'll get a little champagne. You could like freshen up your drink with a little champagne.

SPEAKER_08 6:38

Which one I do freshen it up more. Oh, sure.

Jamie Flanagan 6:40

I would sure I would share it with you guys, and so I get the bottle of champagne, I get the bottle per second.

August Gitshlag 6:45

Yeah, but what happened after I order this French 75? Then Barry sits down and orders a French 75, then Tony sits down and orders a French 75, I'd be sure then Rob sits down and goes, The fuck are you guys doing? I don't have a whiskey on the other side.

Jamie Flanagan 6:58

He had a very valid point, though.

SPEAKER_08 6:59

It was kind of incongruous, right?

Jamie Flanagan 7:02

But so, and then I get this bottle, and like everybody's like, No, no, we're good, we're switching. So I'm sitting there with a bottle of Prosecco on my own. I'm like, All right, well, here we go, Sunday. You and me, baby.

August Gitshlag 7:14

And then it leads up to us.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

You and me, baby. Sunday.

August Gitshlag 7:19

We're on our way out, and the guy's offering to fly us to Kansas City. Seriously, the whole podcast. Oh, hey Matt. Yeah, flying to Kansas City. We're getting flown to Kansas City, put up in first class accommodations to do the podcast live from this venture capitalist family who bought their own historic whiskey name. Okay, well, with their own, but and they said they did it with it was a$17 million facility bought with$15 million of tax credits.

Matt Fox 7:43

You you had me at Hey Matt.

August Gitshlag 7:45

Yeah, I know.

unknown 7:46

I know.

August Gitshlag 7:47

So he wants us out there, and like this is like the great, great, great, great grandkids of this guy that founded this Rieger whiskey.

Matt Fox 7:55

Yeah, when and where? Come on.

August Gitshlag 7:57

Well, that's that those are emails that have to go back and forth. All right, coming to come. And their other their other stipulation was Jen Cherry has to come along. Yes. Oh wow, that's the reason that cat might not let me go.

Jamie Flanagan 8:07

So but she's like she's like bendy and foldable. We could put her in carry-on like that. She's little, she's little, she's she's a wee bitty ting. But yeah, so yesterday was uh I had juice with my bottle of prosecco that's all yeah. I thought I was gonna share and did on my own. Uh, and then today we're doing whiskey and we're gonna do a whiskey tasting. Yes, because we're heading downtown for the the shenanigans around the spring here and and the tigers opening day.

August Gitshlag 8:37

The weather is looking up.

Downtown Detroit Party Traditions

Matt Fox 8:38

Yes, it's only supposed to rain in the morning.

August Gitshlag 8:41

If it rains, they keep it. I want this rain to hit us. It was supposed to rain all day today, and then it goes novel every day. I hate it when it doesn't rain when it's supposed to, because that means it's coming another day. Delayed. I don't want that day that they say it's gonna rain, it doesn't rain, and then it just pushes everything back. But you know what? That's always shitty.

Matt Fox 8:56

Baseball on the rain is fun. Well, you know, you get out of your blade runner gear.

August Gitshlag 9:01

Remember the year we had was it 2018? We had two uh opening days, yeah. Because it rained and they rained it out. Oh I ran into Detroit News, and I'm like, yeah, it's fine, I get to get drunk tomorrow too. Says Pampshamic City Clerk August Gitchon. Right there in the Detroit News. That was fun. Yay! Yeah, but uh yeah, that was that was that was an interesting set of quotes. But yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 9:24

Um so yeah, but right in the the the epicenter, the mecha center, really party central for uh in in uh along the Greek town strip there, right in the heart of uh the city is the Firebird Tavern, yes, which is a destination.

Matt Fox 9:41

Yeah, Firebird Tavern 1.0, it's the first one, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 9:44

In and of its own, just any day and anytime they're open. It's it's a historic building in Detroit. It is a it is a it used to be Maryland's on Monroe. It's that's what I remember. I try to I try to tell people they're like, What do you what are you talking about? Maryland's on Monroe, and they're like, I still don't know. And I'm like, Okay, well then go away. If you don't know this, you don't know that, then go away.

August Gitshlag 10:04

Where no, no, that just made me think. Which one was Metro Music Cafe that had the wall of CDs and you were allowed to pick a CD and pick and play Metro Music Cafe?

Jamie Flanagan 10:13

Metropolitan Music Cafe. That was it, was it downtown Royal Oak? No, there was one in Greek town.

SPEAKER_10 10:17

There was one at Wind Out, also.

August Gitshlag 10:19

Oh, I never went to the one that you know you know what I'm talking about in downtown?

SPEAKER_07 10:22

Yeah, they used to uh uh fill out a little sheet and they would play music.

August Gitshlag 10:25

Yeah, you fill out a little sheet, yeah, like a like a karaoke request thing. Yes, and they would pull their their CDs off. Which what's space?

Jamie Flanagan 10:31

I'm looking for uh Sound Guard and Big Thumbsacks. Music menu. That's what it was.

August Gitshlag 10:34

Music Motor City Music Cafe was, I think, actually in Windsor. Okay, but music menu, that's what it was called in Greek town. Okay, music menu, that was right on the corner.

Jamie Flanagan 10:46

That was like that was that that gray building right on the corner where the the people mover station is and and the walkway to the casino to the oh in the trapper's alley part?

August Gitshlag 10:57

Almost Mati is that something okay it was around there, yeah. All right, there's some there's other some kind of music menu. We used to go there, and we used to always go to Trappers and Trapper's Alley. That oh that corner. Okay, that corner. That was that was the mess music menu. Okay, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 11:12

So downtown Detroit, and and really, I mean, Tony, you got a great spot there with the the Firebird Tavern. It because that is really because you got the ultra lady next to you, right? Yeah, parking lot. There's a parking lot, yeah. You got you guys, is it battle royale over the parking lot?

SPEAKER_07 11:29

Well, you know, people need to park somewhere, yeah, yeah. So you know, whatever.

Jamie Flanagan 11:34

Yeah, and then uh parking downtown is a little nutty right now, but so it's but you got you got those guys right there, and you guys, you guys are staples. I like to think so. And then how long is is that a fishbone still there? Or am I like the fishbones is still there, yeah? Yeah, all right. So there's a fishbones right there as well. So, but I mean, and then that's all like super close to all the stadiums.

Matt Fox 11:56

Yeah, how many opening days has the fireburn tavern been involved in with the tigers?

SPEAKER_07 12:02

Uh this is our 13th.

Matt Fox 12:03

13th yeah, so you've been you've been there for the time.

SPEAKER_07 12:05

Doing the full tent the full tent deal? Yeah, well, uh COVID, we didn't do the tent, obviously. And in 18 we didn't do one, yeah, just having the rain that year. Yeah, you were alluding to that earlier. We just didn't do it for whatever reason. Those two years. Well, COVID.

Matt Fox 12:19

Is there any year that stands out for you besides? Have you ever not the good times?

Jamie Flanagan 12:23

Have you ever not pitched a tent?

August Gitshlag 12:26

Ladies and gentlemen, Jamie Flanagan.

Jamie Flanagan 12:29

Just working all the time. Working the comp. My tent is always pitched. I'm 12 years old. Give me a break.

August Gitshlag 12:37

Anyway, yeah, does any of the years stand out? I mean, I think what stands out is the year that you had the opening day in the draft, all within like a week of each other.

SPEAKER_07 12:46

Because it was a draft, and then it felt like 26 minutes later, opening day was sure, sure, sure, sure.

Jamie Flanagan 12:51

Yeah, how was that how was that draft weekend for you guys?

SPEAKER_07 12:54

You know, if we didn't do the the tent-ish thing, oh, you did a tent for the draft? And then we have a really good partner uh with McNaughton McKay, which is a big uh electrical firm roundtown, and they rented us out. Okay. And um that was a made draft for us.

Jamie Flanagan 13:13

That was a nutty party draft.

SPEAKER_07 13:16

It was a week long to be outside, like in that little bubble. Yeah, they want you to leave their bubble. It was just like the brick. You're more in campus martial.

August Gitshlag 13:28

Yeah, like everyone was like, which was the one with the people with the grand grand truck.

Jamie Flanagan 13:34

People open the door, where's all the people?

August Gitshlag 13:35

Great grand truck screw. You couldn't get to it. They put a fence right outside their door. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 13:42

Okay, here that's all the people. I love Grand Trust.

August Gitshlag 13:45

I love that, I love that little bar. Yeah, they were the perfect exam. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Come on, why didn't you?

SPEAKER_05 13:52

Jamie's got his shirt up, nice to have a podcast shaking your ass on a podcast.

August Gitshlag 13:57

You can twerk it up some more, buddy. Jamie's pulling their shirt off.

Jamie Flanagan 14:03

It was just watch the replay. That was uh you didn't miss it. That was like Bert Kreitcher special. Yeah, that was my the bear special.

SPEAKER_07 14:13

I think now let's not let's not pretend that it wasn't great. It was great. Sure. But I think in terms of numbers where you get opening day numbers, like we didn't approach those days. We didn't approach those numbers.

August Gitshlag 14:23

Well, Thursday was pretty nuts in there. It was nuts. Yeah, again, but there's four more days, three more days of it.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Right down the mic on the bubble.

August Gitshlag 14:33

It was outside in that bubble, you know. I think that's uh it's interesting to see on TV. I'm gonna see it differently now when I watch it in Green Bay.

SPEAKER_07 14:42

Everybody will be crushed. Everybody's crushing it. And then next we have draft. I'm not sorry, yeah. Final four in the same week opening day. So that will yeah, that'll be great as well.

Firebird Tavern And Greektown Memories

August Gitshlag 14:52

Hopefully, Jeremy Fears stays at MSU and we can have a nice little final four with our own Spartans in it. Freshman and out. Yeah, we'll see. He's a he's not a freshman.

SPEAKER_10 15:00

Especially if they won the championship, he'll he'll go in the draft. Yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag 15:05

They're not gonna win the championship.

SPEAKER_10 15:06

Oh, sorry.

Matt Fox 15:07

Yeah, they've already got it.

August Gitshlag 15:08

Thanks for reminding me. Oh, too soon.

Matt Fox 15:10

Too soon, too soon, too soon.

August Gitshlag 15:12

But Michigan has a well-built team. No, Michigan has a well-built team. They can make a real run. But Arizona, I think, is the is the second best team, and I think that's the real national championship.

Jamie Flanagan 15:20

It'll be it. It'll be uh as a competitor. Is that uh today or tomorrow?

August Gitshlag 15:24

Saturday, Saturday, and then the championship game is always on Monday night.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Monday. Yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag 15:28

I'll probably go down to see uh Alvin at the Detroiter. It's kind of my tradition for the Monday night national championship game. I go see Alvin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Detroiter. I haven't been there a long time.

August Gitshlag 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

So Tony, I gotta I gotta ask Tony.

Matt Fox 15:42

Okay, there's a there's an establishment in Troy called the Firebird Tavern. I heard of that. Yeah, any relation? How's that going? You know, because you guys, that that location that you're in changed ownership so many times. Different restaurants, there's a barbecue place, there was a burger king, or so location, location, location, location, location, location.

SPEAKER_07 16:01

How's that how's that how's everything going for you in Troy? For us, we're we're approaching two and a half years now. That's fantastic, right? And the uh in the trend, if you will, has been up every month for the last 15 years. Oh, oh, that's wonderful. Like we are doing what I think we thought it was gonna do now.

Matt Fox 16:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 16:16

Where in the beginning, I think, you know, it was a little bit like, damn, dude, did we miss this?

Matt Fox 16:21

But it's a different vibe, it's a different beast altogether, right?

Jamie Flanagan 16:26

Right. You gotta market it differently, you gotta push it different.

SPEAKER_07 16:29

You gotta it took us about a good 10, 12 months to really get the vibe of of the why of people were coming to Firebird, and what was their their thing? Where out in the in the burbs, it's just a little bit different energy. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. Where it's I don't want to call it utilitarian, but like you're gonna go out and have a drink, you're gonna eat, you're gonna meet some friends, you're gonna go downtown. Right. You're going to do something. Yeah. Um do a game, you're going to a concert, you're going to a well, your your trivial nights downtown are locals. No, 100%.

August Gitshlag 16:58

Yeah. There are probably there's there's more people live downtown than ever in my lifetime ever before.

SPEAKER_07 17:03

Locals and regulars. Keep it, keep it, keep it growing for sure.

SPEAKER_10 17:06

So is is there is there a big difference between the two locations, how you run them and manage them?

SPEAKER_07 17:12

No.

SPEAKER_10 17:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 17:13

The culture's a culture, baby. Yes. That's why I was that's why I was getting to it. That's a good answer. Trust me. We could take X and put it in over her, or you know, him or her over here.

August Gitshlag 17:23

I go to their Christmas party every year. You don't know which staffer is from which place.

SPEAKER_07 17:26

Yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag 17:26

They're all they're all on top of it.

SPEAKER_07 17:29

Well, when everybody's when everybody's naked, I was like, you know what?

Matt Fox 17:36

Pineapple's upside down.

SPEAKER_07 17:38

Who knows?

Matt Fox 17:39

What's happening? On your menu is your old fashioned that you guys make. And when I every time I go there, I'm like, Do you have the old forester statesman?

SPEAKER_07 17:51

We do. Give me a statesman! We do. Well, and that's what I for sure.

Matt Fox 17:55

Yeah, but and I always ask, can you make the old fashioned with the statesman? Because you make it with something else. Another, I think you make it with a different old forester.

SPEAKER_07 18:02

On our menu is is Buffalo Trade. Buffalo trade.

Matt Fox 18:05

But can you do that with the statesman?

August Gitshlag 18:06

And they do it. Well, you have two different do you have two different liquor distributors because you're two different counties?

SPEAKER_07 18:11

Or is it just beer you have to do with liquor's the same?

August Gitshlag 18:14

Liquor's the same, beer is different. Beer is different. Yeah, you're you're done by county.

SPEAKER_07 18:17

That is wild. It's it's it I still cap it up. Yes. See, I'm surprised if I could.

SPEAKER_10 18:23

I would always think it would be a state issue, not a county thing.

August Gitshlag 18:26

Beer distributors were given out as favors after World War II. And the and the territories are very weird. Like the most like the goofiest of all of them is Pediprin, which has all of Macomb County and just Hamtramock.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Well, okay.

August Gitshlag 18:37

So that's why Ham Tramic bars often don't carry Budweiser products because Pedaprint's real pricks about it. Like, we're only here one day for one hour. You want it, you get it then. You gotta open up at eight nine in the morning, have someone there on Tuesday, and if you're not there, you're not there, and then they're like, No. And then you can't get there's like only things that Pedaprin's for you. Yeah, so like small stop carrying Budweiser products because they weren't gonna be able to do that.

Jamie Flanagan 18:59

Like, I'm not getting my ass out of bed for you, right?

August Gitshlag 19:01

Exactly.

Matt Fox 19:05

No, I mean I I'm proud of you, Tony. Yeah, you've come you've done so many fun things make me blush now. Give them a little gold. Honestly, man, give me a little ghost. I've seen you rarely, but you know, I'm still proud of you.

SPEAKER_07 19:15

Yeah, we're doing it, man. You know, the the one thing I think you know, experience teaches you anything, right? Like, is you know, that's you know what makes people uh happy. It's pretty easy. This business isn't hard, it's just difficult.

August Gitshlag 19:29

It's not hard, it's just difficult. Yeah, so what are what are we passing around here? Everyone just dives on that you're gonna be able to do it.

Two Locations One Bar Culture

Jamie Flanagan 19:35

Tony, down at the firebird, you guys, you do we've done a couple tequila taste. We did a tequila tasting with you. That's right. And uh, but you've done you do like bourbon barrels and tequila barrels. Do you do you go the extra mile for our customers? Do you know it's always I see you pouring it? So you brought what uh because we we want to talk about opening day and what's in store for opening day this year, and then because it's like mega shenanigans with tents. August sent me like, here's the artwork for the show, and he sent me a video, and I'm like, Well, there's a link underneath the video.

August Gitshlag 20:09

This is like a five-minute video. There's a link underneath the video that had that that took you to the ticket site that had the artwork. Um you gotta click through it there, spring break.

Jamie Flanagan 20:19

It's more than that's like what campaign is like sober up. That's like six clicks, man. How's your video? I I clicked it and I watched the video. I'm like, this is a video. What are you doing to me, bro? Gone. Your mom stick your prosecco right over here, yeah.

August Gitshlag 20:35

Anyway, but so prosecco bottle you gotta hey, stripped it at a medium pace.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

Right.

Jamie Flanagan 20:45

What what happened yesterday stays yesterday. No, it doesn't matter.

August Gitshlag 20:50

We're talking about it right now. All right.

SPEAKER_05 20:53

Well, what happened yesterday?

August Gitshlag 20:55

The picture will go up in the show notes of Jamie and his bottle of champagne. Yes, it will. It will.

SPEAKER_07 21:00

I thought it was a strong play, Frank.

August Gitshlag 21:01

I yeah, I mean, look, it's easy to make fun of, but we all are kind of proud of you.

SPEAKER_08 21:06

I would have done it.

August Gitshlag 21:07

It was pretty damn smart, and we're all a little bit envious.

SPEAKER_08 21:10

And there was a bunch of women there, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 21:12

I was going for value, yeah. Value, it was hard.

SPEAKER_08 21:15

Value, value. That's hard to argue.

August Gitshlag 21:17

No, it's like clipping a coupon. That whole thing, that whole event was$25 for going for that tasting and the show you get, and the fun, the entertainment is the best$25 you're gonna spend. Yes for sure. Well, it's because Jen is good as Pat.

SPEAKER_07 21:31

That was the third one that I've been to. Yeah, they were different yesterday.

Matt Fox 21:34

There was a level of this see that's Jen Cherry and the showmanship she had. She w were they dressed up in Girl Scout, you know. Yeah, like a thing. But yesterday there's a different bag. Excuse me?

August Gitshlag 21:45

They were there were thespians in the room. Thespians. T H Spians. I love thespians. Yeah, but they they they paired the whiskeys with the Girl Scout cookies. It's kind of a fun thing. Very good pairings. I sent a picture of it to uh Monica, who is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan. She's like, what what what is this? Where are you? What is going on? She's her big question was tell me about the Amaro Lemon. That's one we've never done. That's an interesting crossover. It was amazing. She goes, That's they they've done we had an event with the Girl Scout Lemon. Was that the coffee one with the Amaro Lemon? Uh right either right after or right before COVID, where they took like a whole case of Woodford Reserve and put a bunch of Girl Scout cookies in each of the bottles and and like and just and then even strained into it. And then they had they had like the thin mint with the bullets for the uh you know, tag along Woodford Reserve, and they had it all why not exactly.

Jamie Flanagan 22:40

I vaguely remember that those are probably all shite though.

August Gitshlag 22:43

It was it was just flavor, it was just cookie.

Jamie Flanagan 22:45

There were probably two or three of them that were right.

SPEAKER_07 22:47

It was cookie dough in mind, like yeah, I'm hungry, I gotta eat it all right.

Jamie Flanagan 22:51

No, I want the Samoa flavored one. So that was one of my controlled. That was uh that was one of them. That was one of my picks. So there were four, and Jen asked, What were your favorites? The Samoa pairing was yeah, that's the best cookie.

Matt Fox 23:03

And why is that? And why is that? Is because of the coconut, the caramel, the chocolate.

SPEAKER_07 23:08

Yeah, you know, I don't like those are all in the bourbon friendly tree. I don't like coconut the flavor wheel, if you I don't like coconut.

Matt Fox 23:17

I got Samoas in my car right now, fellas.

SPEAKER_10 23:18

I can go get why why are they in your car, dude?

Jamie Flanagan 23:21

I had a Samoan in my car. Cut him some slack, it's a Samoan's different Tony Rocky Hora. What?

August Gitshlag 23:30

But anyway, I'm gonna go so far as to call him fat. I mean, Samoan, man. Cut him some slack. What's he gonna do? Hey, hey, he's wearing a wig. Leave him alone. You threw him out the window for rubbing his girl's feet. Uh speech in general. You're getting you're gonna fiction references, right?

Matt Fox 23:47

I know, I'm I'm aware.

SPEAKER_07 23:51

Yeah, there isn't a few F bombs in there.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

You can say fuck here. This is a podcast. There's no FAA.

SPEAKER_07 23:59

Uh-oh.

August Gitshlag 24:00

Well, what's the most F-bombs in a movie is still Django Unchained. Oh, well, is it really? Is there the most F-bombs? Django.

Jamie Flanagan 24:06

That is like that.

Matt Fox 24:07

Is a good movie, and it was historically accurate too.

Jamie Flanagan 24:11

With the little boy blue uniform, the sunglasses, you know. Oh, yeah. I like the little boy blue uniform he had. That was fun.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Well, he needed the money.

Jamie Flanagan 24:24

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Oh no, that's what I think comes back.

Matt Fox 24:29

So back to Firebird Taverns.

SPEAKER_10 24:33

So Tony, I'm just sitting in front of me. I'm waiting to taste this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 24:39

We've all I've been knocking on often. How often do you pick a barrel and how often uh bourbon and then tequila? Is that tequila, bourbon? Do you do more than tequila and bourbon or just those two? All right. So how often do you pick barrels? All right. So each because you got to go to Mexico for the tequila, right? Because that's where it's done. And then the bourbon's Kentucky, yes. Correct. Fair play. And you get a team. You could do the MGP thing.

SPEAKER_07 25:05

Well, we call it R D on our state. Yeah, absolutely.

Jamie Flanagan 25:09

Gotta do a little what line item is that R D R D.

Matt Fox 25:14

That's the 401k line. Yeah, that's right. So for my server.

SPEAKER_07 25:18

I text insult and it's like on how long the last years because it turns out they're booked, man. Oh, really? COVID really screwed some shit up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, wait, wait. All these party stores are much bourbon sitting on it and out.

Jamie Flanagan 25:34

Oh shit with the tariffs, too, because like Canada's in buying shit. They can't do they can't. Europe isn't getting a whole lot. That's right.

SPEAKER_10 25:41

Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 25:41

So they're like, they're like they're they're uh million barrels. They're about ready to explode. You're about to there's about to be a fire sale. So that board's well.

SPEAKER_10 25:52

That being said, are they gonna lower the price just to get rid of it? You're gonna start seeing some things.

August Gitshlag 25:57

Kentucky's gonna go half off like Kroger and Meyer. Well, that's gonna get weird. Freaking open sound that's gotta get extreme.

Jamie Flanagan 26:04

All right, but Tony, how often? So once a year you head down there. You would is there a uh a distillery or two, or is there like one you're like, these are my people, they love me, I love them. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 26:14

We did one with uh Jefferson Ocean. Jefferson Ocean, you know. Okay, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 26:19

Really? Jefferson Ocean. Yep. We didn't want to. Did you did they put you on the on the sea for like six months? They like strap you to a mast and say so we deal with it. Okay, fair plan.

Matt Fox 26:30

But you can go onto the ship where they put the barrels down.

August Gitshlag 26:33

I don't know that you can go into a shipping container. Did you have a little semen with you?

SPEAKER_07 26:37

Uh no, he was uh he wasn't in him. Just a little.

Jamie Flanagan 26:43

Thank you very much. All right, sorry. I just what I was doing. That's a lot of barrels today. I said semen. I know.

SPEAKER_10 26:53

Is this a champagne carrying over? It is of 12. Okay.

August Gitshlag 26:56

No, that's well, he walked the door saying, I just finished a bottle of Jameson triple barrel. We're like, okay, that was a way to walk in the room, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Hey, and the pints, and I brought pizza.

August Gitshlag 27:08

And you brought food. And he brought pizza. I brought pizza. He texted me, can I bring a charterie board? I'm like, okay.

Jamie Flanagan 27:14

I said, Do we need are we entertaining? All right, but no, but Tony, so Am I entertaining?

SPEAKER_05 27:21

Do you find me funny? Tell me also funny about me.

Matt Fox 27:30

I think we should take this moment. Back to it. Take this moment for our for our sponsor, not just our glassware sponsor. Who else is our sponsor today, Jamie? I am usual.

Jamie Flanagan 27:42

I can't even met who is it.

SPEAKER_05 27:44

Oh, my Irish radio. Oh, Flatigan, you bastard. Oh, you always gotta sneak it in there, don't you?

Jamie Flanagan 27:52

That is it. That's it.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

You can't let it go.

Jamie Flanagan 27:55

No. 24-7. My Irish radio.

SPEAKER_05 27:59

You always gotta sneak in the Irish radio site.

Jamie Flanagan 28:02

My IrishRadio.com. Oh, Scottish one anyway. That's it. That's it is a really fair play. You're welcome. So Tony. I love you got your cap like ready to go.

SPEAKER_10 28:11

Absolutely. So Tony just is on topic, but off topic. The movie Snatch. Nothing. I couldn't wreck I couldn't stand a catalog.

Jamie Flanagan 28:22

Yeah, I love it. Why are there why are there subtitles below me? Once I need them. All right, yeah. The end of ADD is perfect for me. Oh, we just know wherever this is.

SPEAKER_10 28:34

We never know where things are gonna end up.

Jamie Flanagan 28:36

It's a little bit off.

SPEAKER_07 28:37

I can operate in this lane.

Whiskey Society Stories And Pairings

Jamie Flanagan 28:38

All I gotta say is my mom, as you're watching, thanks, mom, for being here. Yeah, like, subscribe, leave a comment, do all those podcasts. We're not done, we're not done yet. No, we're not done. No, I'm just telling my mom to subscribe. He's just talking to his mom. Leave it alone, August. She's 95. Thanks for pointing that out. Does she know the internet? Does she do meatloaf? No. Chili con queso and pierogies.

SPEAKER_10 29:08

That's uh don't make yourself a dang quesadilla.

Jamie Flanagan 29:10

She's got this great not really. It's like that it's like growing up. She get your cheesy poop. Let's go. Let's go back to like growing up. They would have guessed, and we'd like go upstairs, you know, the kids, and they would make this like cheese dip. It was a chili con queso. Yeah, cheesy. The kids would never gate it, get it, you know. It was always well, you weren't deserving of it. No, I know, I know. All right.

August Gitshlag 29:30

Can I can I steer this Amtrak back onto the rails for a moment? Good luck. I was trying. Okay. All right. Tony, give us the details about uh opening.

SPEAKER_10 29:40

So you're still waiting to taste that. Right, right, right.

August Gitshlag 29:43

So, but we have a bottle here. Oh, we're on that part. Okay, we're still doing that.

Jamie Flanagan 29:47

So we do a bottle here, but you do tastings with with with tequilas and you do casings with bourbons. This bottle in particular, how much what it as number barrel number what? What do you think it is? Because you've been doing you said 13, 14 years, 13, 12.

SPEAKER_07 30:01

This is our fifth pick, and we did it in uh May of eight of 2018.

Jamie Flanagan 30:05

All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_07 30:06

Started off well, well, the two barrels that we selected to make this for us. Uh five and a seven year.

unknown 30:13

All right.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

So that's been around for 13, 15 years now. So that's what I didn't taste at a six.

August Gitshlag 30:18

And this is your private stash at home, right?

SPEAKER_08 30:19

Like you didn't well, you can't get this up to prior to the well, the way they do it out of the middle schools.

SPEAKER_07 30:26

The master distiller will bring in six barrels into this room, a room like this. I mean, we'll taste A with B. They blindfold you with C, and then we'll taste A. All right, we'll just do this fucking thing. Drop your trap, and then we kind of get wear it down like a almost like a no, we don't do that. Wow, that was slow on the uptake.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

I was trying to I was trying to be a good one.

SPEAKER_07 30:51

So we gotta get those NCA bracket thing down. Yeah, that's right. And then we're like, okay, well, you know what? I like D and E. That's uh that that's a fun combination, and then whatever, whatever that af this one ended up. F that one I want to be good. Uh and it was one of the coincidentally, it's one of the usually Owen and I don't agree. Okay, oh, okay. Really? Yeah, I like this one. He's like, I like this one. But we always bring a bud. Well then you rock, paper, scissors, for that shit. You know, he's the tiebreaker. How long have you known Owen? Oh he was he was fraternity brothers with this with a guy that we uh uh initially invested in pulse with at our fancy. All right, nice. Uh just rehab 25 years, 30 years now. That's fair play.

Matt Fox 31:31

So, but you finally agreed on something.

SPEAKER_07 31:34

Yeah, we agreed on this one. All right, nice. This must be it. All right, let's start.

Jamie Flanagan 31:39

So, this is the five-year anniversary bottle.

SPEAKER_07 31:41

Yeah, from 2018.

August Gitshlag 31:43

So, this is this is and you said it was seven-year-old juice when you put it in the bottle.

SPEAKER_07 31:46

Yeah, so this is this should be pretty good. That's why I was kind of excited.

SPEAKER_10 31:50

So, this this this is this is from one barrel. That's and that's it.

August Gitshlag 31:53

No, two barrels, two barrels, two barrels blended.

SPEAKER_07 31:55

Yep, a five and a seven year got it.

August Gitshlag 31:57

And this is you can't get this at your at your brick and mortars. This is out of your basement, right? This is out the basement part. This is dad's closet for sure. Yeah, I was gonna say you can't even sniff this stuff.

SPEAKER_07 32:06

But the Tony archives. How many, how many I knew the boys would like Tony?

Jamie Flanagan 32:12

Thank you. The toekives, yeah. So, but uh when people come into the Firebird and are are ordering like one of your barrel proofs if you have it, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:23

If uh when we have it, it's it's on the menu.

Jamie Flanagan 32:26

Yeah, so that but they can order a barrel, uh one of the barrel drives. Not right now, but when they have them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you out right now? Are you you're tapped out?

SPEAKER_07 32:34

All right, we we sell that stuff pretty quick.

unknown 32:36

Oh, that's nice.

Jamie Flanagan 32:37

Do you sell it by the bottle?

SPEAKER_07 32:39

Do you buy the the do you do like we don't sell it by the bottle, but we uh harden does that, he'll let us walk out with bottles. Yeah, yeah. Oh my god.

August Gitshlag 32:47

God knows we've done it.

SPEAKER_07 32:48

Right, fair play. Because we we sell a lot, you know what I mean? Like we sell a lot of cocktails, so we we want it, but we'll give it to friends and family like or doing this kind of yeah, yeah, all right. Oh well.

Jamie Flanagan 33:00

Like the taco fox track guys, they do whiskey cluby kind of things. All right, that was fun. Oh, that's uh I had a I had a good day yesterday.

August Gitshlag 33:09

We're having a good day, good day.

Matt Fox 33:10

Having a good day. This is uh this is a tasty treat. That's good. That's that's a tasty treat. This is good.

Jamie Flanagan 33:18

So now it goes like Woodford, people say, Oh, you know, you do a bourbon podcast. And I'm like, really? I don't know, I don't know anything. I really don't, but they're like, What do you have? I so one of my one of my like favorites they have on the shelf is the Woodford double double O. Double O double O said. I haven't I I haven't had the double doubled, and now it's like quadruple double double double, but there's like a double double double double, yeah, yeah. But the double O's mess around.

Matt Fox 33:44

What did when did Tim Hortons come into this?

Jamie Flanagan 33:46

I know, I know, I know, right? But I do like a good day. You messed around. I got a triple double, you know. I do I do like the double oaks and people say, What do you have in your shelf at home? Yeah, skewed it. But Woodford is always a good call. Woodford is good call, yeah. You can do a good job.

Matt Fox 34:03

It's a it's a staple to have on the shelf.

SPEAKER_07 34:05

Yeah, right. It's one of those things, uh, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 34:08

And then like August said earlier about the Buffalo Trace. He's like, he's like, ah, you know, it's like you know, it's if there's a regular buffalo on the uh the shelf, I'll probably pass it unless it's a barrel. It's unless it's a barrel.

August Gitshlag 34:19

I just don't enjoy the regular taste of buffalo trace anymore because I've been spoiled with so many different expressions that have a little more depth of flavor to them. And they're doing problems. For sure, first world problems. Podcast world problems, yeah. You know, when you get access to all this stuff, that's right. And you know, you drink it next to each other, which we started doing. Can't we want you to put a P on your head side of the mattress tonight to do an app?

SPEAKER_07 34:44

We couldn't even recreate it if we wanted to.

Matt Fox 34:46

This guy's pretty. This this is pretty. Yeah, so Tony, what is the one thing that's on your shelf? Because uh, bottles are conversation pieces. What is the one bottle that's on your shelf that you hope starts a conversation?

SPEAKER_07 34:56

At home or in the bar?

Matt Fox 34:58

Both. Great, okay.

SPEAKER_07 35:01

You know what? We we just recently started getting some weird things like Elmer Telee and some uh and like Melort. You said it. We only get the finest Melords. Oh my god.

August Gitshlag 35:18

That's a cata in the bottle. Yeah, you have the barrel-aged? The finest barrel-aged Malorts. It's real. We had it.

SPEAKER_07 35:23

No, just regular old in the mill Melort tech. I love that. I love that. And we just had uh a white label of uh of Weller uh that the hockey boys sucked down the other day. Wow so we're starting to get it.

August Gitshlag 35:36

The hockey boys, like the Red Wings?

SPEAKER_07 35:38

Uh no, we got this group of guys that come to Troy all the time after hockey games. Oh, Troy was drinking white label Weller.

August Gitshlag 35:44

Okay. I've had it once, I don't even know the difference. Yeah, they took it. They're all now. It's weird. Because you're spoiled.

Matt Fox 35:48

Okay, we know.

August Gitshlag 35:51

I like Weller. Yeah, your friend's own parts.

SPEAKER_07 35:54

Oh, I got uh I got a birthday bourbon that I'm um at that's oh the old forester? Yeah, yeah, I've got it. I'm telling you, Dave Harden, or else I would never have tried it. I'll take that over anything.

Jamie Flanagan 36:08

We were we were joking on the statesman, but nice stuff. The old Forester 120, the 1920 prohibition. Brilliant, all the old foresters. I think they're hard to go wrong, anything they make.

August Gitshlag 36:20

Heart hard dandy. That was a COVID uh find for me was buying that the the old forester 101 rye for$22 or something at Kroger. That that and Canada Dry got me through COVID.

SPEAKER_07 36:34

And of course, Wild Turkey, because it was half off because they brown foreman who uh who creates Woodford is a sponsor for us for opening day, and I'm gonna find out on Friday whether or not uh I'm gonna do a uh old Forster barrel.

Matt Fox 36:50

Oh, nice, excellent. What time does the uh tent uh end up?

Jamie Flanagan 36:53

So what's happening downtown on opening day? When do you open? 9 a.m. 9 a.m. baby. Do I need pants? What's happening? Optional. Pants are optional.

August Gitshlag 37:02

Uh I had pants on last year. I won't not in the morning.

Matt Fox 37:06

They were off by 11, you know.

Jamie Flanagan 37:10

What happens out to every days with a 10? Like six. I don't even know. I can't get served without pants.

SPEAKER_07 37:16

I'm assuming he's got house shoes on and pajamas, and his hair is just he's just a mess. I'm like, why am I seeing you right now?

August Gitshlag 37:23

Well, the only reason I got out of the car was because you were standing there, so I get out of the car, I'm like, Tony, looking like Frankenstein's monster.

SPEAKER_05 37:31

I am not smelling like morning farts and free and and and flannel.

SPEAKER_07 37:37

Some crazy ass pajamas pants. Oh my god. What is happening right now?

Jamie Flanagan 37:41

Oh, that's a good look now.

SPEAKER_07 37:42

Stick with that. I don't want to see you right now.

Jamie Flanagan 37:44

Like, what is this? Use you be you. Get out of here to keep you being you. But so opening opening day is uh is is kind of a it's a fiasco, it's a city event.

August Gitshlag 37:55

Let's point out orchestrated shit. It is now. You can't you can't buy tickets at the door.

Jamie Flanagan 38:01

I love I love that.

August Gitshlag 38:02

That's not say it. You cannot get in, you cannot buy tickets at the door, right? For for ours? Yeah, for oh, yeah, you can. Oh, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_07 38:10

Thanks about it, I didn't know if you had a pre-buy on the event price.

August Gitshlag 38:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 38:16

Uh, to avoid some conversion, tax issues, congestion in you know, tax issues. You know, because if we're at capacity, you can't bring people in. Sure, sure. Well, I brought a ticket. Well, I know, but you left.

Jamie Flanagan 38:28

Yeah, sorry, you can't come back. Sorry, Steve. We have to wait for that because I mean you and your wife Karen will have to wait for a minute. So we've changed some things that way.

Matt Fox 38:37

You have to pay, and they would have to pay a second time to get back. Yeah, they can come back. I'm just having to wait.

Jamie Flanagan 38:42

Click it, click, click, click. I heard you had some smoke shows of uh bartenders down there.

SPEAKER_07 38:48

Yeah, they're okay. They're all right.

Jamie Flanagan 38:50

I'm just picking on your cat. So Catherine. Yeah, Catherine, if you can see her in the angle. Yeah, but uh Catherine was down there spilling drinks last year. Yeah, but no, it's it's fun. You got uh you got a tent with a DJ and are there like alternating one DJ all day or the other huge video walls, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 39:10

You can watch the game, um, which is kind of unique to to anything that we're not trying to have. And there's the big video wall up on the up against the wall, yeah.

Matt Fox 39:17

Are your DJs playing Moni Moni over and over again?

SPEAKER_07 39:20

Uh no, they'd get ninja kicked. Yeah, if if I would just ninja kick them right off the stage.

Matt Fox 39:26

So is it alternating DJs or the same guy all day?

SPEAKER_07 39:29

It's one guy he runs a show, he knows what he's doing, and then he'll have some guys come in uh because you can't do it the whole time.

Jamie Flanagan 39:35

Well, he's got to take a breather. Yeah, he's gotta be tag me out.

SPEAKER_07 39:38

Cut me, Mick. Cut me, yeah, cut me.

Jamie Flanagan 39:40

I need a break.

SPEAKER_07 39:41

Yeah, that's right. He's gotta go to the corner, get down the back.

Matt Fox 39:44

I'm seeing three, Mick. I'm seeing three. Yeah, hit the one.

SPEAKER_07 39:51

They weaken the legs. Yeah, ice cream and broads, you can't do it.

Barrel Picks Bourbon Talk

Jamie Flanagan 39:58

We're 12. All right. That's fine with me. So let's talk about tequila. So, but you do some tequila picks too, because you do a bunch of bourbon picks. So uh what's uh what's something that surprised you when you were down in Mexico picking tequila? What is something that uh was like, oh, I didn't know that was a thing. How was that? What okay?

SPEAKER_07 40:19

That makes tequila tequila jumps a thing, yeah, is how happy they are to work at their hacienda. Oh, yeah, is a is in a is created in a hacienda, a little uh living, working community. That's what the fuck they do. They make this tequila and they're happy about it. Boy, when I say they're happy, I'm not just trying to be like a weirdo about it.

Jamie Flanagan 40:41

Like, I mean, they are it's like Santa's elves on tequila. Oompa loopas.

SPEAKER_07 40:51

I mean, they're all they're dancing, they're having a great time. It's a wonderful place to be a lush green, they're making cherros in this green feel. Oh my god, yeah. I'm like, ah really was in tequila. I know, man. This it was great. Uh yeah, they just their hospitality and just uh and it, you know, how how important it is to them. I mean, they they really get into it. I mean, they they get in to making their tequila.

Jamie Flanagan 41:14

I mean, like, yeah, and that's so from uh because tequila it's like it's a different beast, right? You got the agave plants, yeah, and then they they they you gotta process them and ferment them, yeah. So it's like yeah, is it is it from you know, because you talk about then you got the North Cow process on top of everything else. Well, we got our friends over at Motor City, uh Motor City Gas, right? Yeah, and he's like grained grained glass, yeah. Rich is amazing, yeah. And yeah, and it's like, but oh tequila, because that's a different beast, it takes a little longer to grow one of those big balls of fun, right?

SPEAKER_07 41:50

Well, I mean, from a time perspective, it sits in a barrel for five years or it's it grows in a field for five years, right? You know, every kind of so it's kind of ish. Uh okay depending.

SPEAKER_08 42:00

Oh, we're back to ish. Same bookends, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 42:03

All right, but tequila, you know, they just don't age it more very long. You know, uh you know, they'll go 14-15 months or whatever.

SPEAKER_10 42:10

Yeah, so so what are you like if you're talking about brands? Because because I, you know, I like a good margarita, but yeah, for you, like what are your top couple of brands as far as tequila goes?

SPEAKER_07 42:20

Herdura. Siete Lagos. I've taken the hardura. Is where we go and pick uh, which is like seven tongues, it's an amazing editor-free tequila. I mean, it is really good. All right to drink the hell out of that when we're when we're in uh Guadalajara.

SPEAKER_10 42:39

Now, not to push a third party, but my buddy started Antil Tequila, and he's been doing it for about eight years now. So Antill tequila, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 42:49

Did they sale it here in Michigan?

August Gitshlag 42:52

Yeah, tell them to send us a box of that.

SPEAKER_10 42:55

Send us a box. We did a podcast with him. I had him in okay, yeah, as far as like because he again, very long story short, he was he was a corporate big wig making three figures, and he's like, This sucks figures that year. I'm sorry, four million, maybe six figures, whatever. He's over a hundred thousand figures, making a lot of money. He just walked away from it and said, I can't do this corporately anymore. Yeah, or his rep or whoever, uh, whoever does get him back, uh whatever. You know, I know he is uh he relocated from Detroit to Atlanta. I don't know if it was close or not, but but yeah, I'll I'll I'll shoot him a message. Yeah, all right.

Jamie Flanagan 43:35

So Dave, uh your uh ride or die, tequila. What's your ride or die?

SPEAKER_10 43:41

Jeez. I it's see, it's hard because I don't because most something with a little plastic red hat.

Jamie Flanagan 43:46

It's a margarita. No, that's mine. That's me. That's me. I'll have boys. That's me. Honestly, it's been something something with a hat.

SPEAKER_10 43:55

Honestly, I go with Antiel just because it's somebody I know and support.

August Gitshlag 44:00

Yeah, you suppose that's the one that you have to finger bang the worm out of. Is that tequila or is that Mescala?

SPEAKER_03 44:06

I think that's uh gonna like that one at all. Is that Mescala?

Matt Fox 44:10

I don't believe it's a Mescala. I wasn't gonna hit the butt. That was forced. That was it.

August Gitshlag 44:13

That was it. That was it was there, it was there, it was uh still there. That bottle sat in my parents' basement for 25 years.

Matt Fox 44:19

As did the worm, yeah.

August Gitshlag 44:20

The worm in the tequila was the tequila worm bottle that everyone was always dared to drink on Christmas. And maybe one drunk uncle would take a swig. See, I can't because I've had it since the 80s into the 2000s. It was in our house. You know, one I still PTSD over Poltergeist 2.

Jamie Flanagan 44:34

One that yeah, one that I enjoyed, a tequila, Trace agave's. Yeah, lovely. It's like reasonably priced, yeah, and and and is it's like it's like uh plantation grown, so it's all from one plantation.

August Gitshlag 44:48

I'm very much the darker the better with tequila, though. I do not like silver tequilas at all. You gotta put it into a margarita or else don't you know? I gotta El Naore's the the darker, more you know, exactly. What about you, man? Tequila family.

Jamie Flanagan 45:02

What's uh if you're gonna call a tequila, you're like, hey, we gotta try this. Let's do a pour. And it's early in the night, and you know, it what are you gonna call it?

SPEAKER_08 45:11

Thinking straight. I gotta go with the aerodora. I think that's good.

August Gitshlag 45:16

Bang for your bucket of bar. You see a bottle of herodora, you're not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_08 45:19

Oh, yeah, you won't be disappointed. We'll be disappointed. All right, I'm I'm I concur. My first experience with it was I was down in uh Puerto Bayarta about uh 30 years ago now, with a with a buddy of mine. We went down there getting stupid. Yes, I was. I was yeah, you were a seven, yes. Yeah, the laws are loose there. Order up a shot of tequila in a in a in a bar in this little tiny cantino off the main drag, and they didn't speak any English in this place. I spoke no Spanish, all I knew was Siniello, thank you, Michael. And uh, so she she discussed I hold on kind of thing, you know. She came back out with a plate of lines and salt and a bottle of Eradora tequila. Hey, and it was like seven and a half dollars for the whole damn thing. You know what I mean? I'm like, Really? I get it.

Jamie Flanagan 46:07

I I didn't want to pay for just mine, I was paying for them all. No, no, that was all. Oh, hey, bottle, oh yeah, goddess.

SPEAKER_08 46:15

I'm drinking it with her because there was the mark.

SPEAKER_07 46:18

Why do these bottles keep coming?

SPEAKER_05 46:20

That's how they find out who you really are. They all drink like flanagan down there.

SPEAKER_10 46:25

Bottled deep.

SPEAKER_07 46:26

Absolutely. I was bottled deep. I think everybody drinks rain, no dry January, there ain't no sober October. They don't even know how to do that.

Matt Fox 46:33

So what was the tequila that we had with the three of us? We did a show, and we had a gentleman that came on, he was a distributor. Padre, it was Padre, yeah.

August Gitshlag 46:42

Was it Padre? It was the they came in the leather thing on it. Yeah, they had the mat that came out of the Padres. And he opened up the case, and there was El Padre or something called Padre. It was El Padre, El Padre Padre.

Jamie Flanagan 46:56

The label culturally insignificant.

August Gitshlag 46:59

It came in a lace leather label, like the leather bound books, and with the little skull on it, with the skull on the skull skull.

SPEAKER_10 47:07

Is it the Necrocomicon?

Jamie Flanagan 47:08

Yeah, that's exactly what I reminded. Oh, right, exactly. I thought it was the blue outfit. And then the girl was wearing the spider-mill outfit.

Matt Fox 47:14

Nick Doom!

Jamie Flanagan 47:15

Wait, what brought a bit of a oh you know? If I wasn't uh on spring break, I could blame us on someone else. I'd blame it on the pints, Padre Azul.

August Gitshlag 47:31

Padre Azul. That sounds that sounds right. It had the skull on top of it. Yes, yeah, the name was like Leo or something.

Jamie Flanagan 47:37

Yeah, skulls.

unknown 47:38

What?

August Gitshlag 47:39

Yeah, at the time, the ones that we had had the leather on them, they were the special bottles.

Jamie Flanagan 47:44

That's the brand. They were like the the wrestling masks tied around the bottle.

August Gitshlag 47:48

Their cheap one was a hundred dollars. Yeah, cheap one was a hundred bucks.

Jamie Flanagan 47:51

But they were good.

August Gitshlag 47:51

They were they were good, nice flavor, a lot of flavored nice tequilas. This one's 80 bucks for this the reposado here.

Matt Fox 47:58

Which uh Tony, can I take another nip?

SPEAKER_07 48:00

You can do anything you want. Cheers. Can I? Yeah, cheers.

Matt Fox 48:02

I'll show me to my shirt off.

SPEAKER_08 48:07

As long as the pants stay on, you know, it's one thing to get them singing, but once they start stripping, look at it. Yeah, weird. That's the I paid the boat. I paid the boatman.

Jamie Flanagan 48:16

We're good.

SPEAKER_07 48:16

Oh you've seen that shit. Yeah, paid the boatman.

Jamie Flanagan 48:19

We're right.

August Gitshlag 48:20

Well, that was pretty good. I I enjoyed that tequila. And that guy was he really wanted to show it off. He had, like you said, he had the the leather bound bottles and he had the the whole presentation open up the case, like click click.

Jamie Flanagan 48:32

Outside of the August, outside of that sponsorship, is there a tequila that tips your fancy? Is there uh because I like the trace agave. I I I dig those guys. Like I said, the darker the better.

August Gitshlag 48:46

The hero de has always done me well.

Jamie Flanagan 48:48

Yeah, I dig it. Anybody else got a I Samatea? I did those Tony and uh Gino, Giovanni, Gino, but uh uh uh the uh Caicos hardest store. Okay, Caicos Market. They turned me on the Samateas. Oh, yeah, nice.

August Gitshlag 49:07

Okay, there was one that I wanted to try that you can't get here. Tony. That is Cheech Marketing.

Jamie Flanagan 49:12

You and I you and I will do wait wait wait wait wait wait. I gotta I gotta dram at home. You'll like you'll be don't threaten me with a good time.

SPEAKER_07 49:19

I mean El Mayor is a hope, we got El Mayor is a really, really nice one. Like if you do it right, if you just sip tequila and don't be an asshole. If it's not wearing a red hat. You can do it for 42 hours.

Jamie Flanagan 49:35

No, if your tequila is not wearing a red hat, yes, you're good.

SPEAKER_07 49:38

You can sip on tequila. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. When we're in Guadalajara, we would get a liter because they they only still they don't have pints, they have fucking liters. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Fox 49:47

All right, all right, guys. Okay, don't threaten me with a guitar. Three three more episodes, okay.

Tequila Trips And Favorite Bottles

SPEAKER_07 49:54

Heineken in a thing of tequila. And turns out you can do that for 42 hours straight.

SPEAKER_05 50:01

42 hours straight.

Matt Fox 50:05

At the 43rd hour, you're like, hey, you and then wake up and get your hands off my hiny.

Jamie Flanagan 50:10

Here's the here's the scientific equivalent. You don't remember, it turns out you can't stand on the table, rip shots, and you can't a lot.

SPEAKER_07 50:19

No, but if you just stay right here with it, yeah.

Matt Fox 50:23

All right, it just it's it's a leveler, is that what you're telling? Yeah, slow roll. Slow your roll.

Jamie Flanagan 50:28

You can ride that with the road. Men of men of a certain age are able to do that.

August Gitshlag 50:33

Yeah, that's that's what you did yesterday. Yeah, we all slowed our rolls. You are you are men of a certain age.

SPEAKER_07 50:37

I didn't slow shit yet.

August Gitshlag 50:39

I seemed to you went, oh, you went home and cooked a ridiculous dinner.

Jamie Flanagan 50:46

Why are you cooking 40 pounds of beef? Yeah, quiet! Yeah, just woman, I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_05 50:53

Cooking, I love you, baby.

August Gitshlag 50:55

I mean, I was having such a good time. I missed the the Yukon shot to beat Duke. Yeah, shot it from half court. Yeah, really?

Jamie Flanagan 51:03

Shot that end of the world, yeah.

Matt Fox 51:04

You watch both if you watch the reactions of both coaches. Oh my god, it's so good.

SPEAKER_05 51:11

What was that shit when we were growing up?

SPEAKER_07 51:12

But uh the uh the um agony of defeat and my world of sports, yes, yes.

August Gitshlag 51:20

The camera that was on like breaks in half, you know. Camera on Hurley's mom and dad. Oh when the mother goes yells it out.

SPEAKER_08 51:30

Yes, that was one of the most beautiful things ever. That was a great guess. Did you share that with us, Kat? Was that you that found that one? Yes, she found that.

SPEAKER_07 51:37

I saw that today, too, and I thought, you know what? That is just bank.

August Gitshlag 51:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 51:41

Do you have wine or anything? Good. I'm good.

August Gitshlag 51:43

Checking on we gotta start locking that liquor cabinet. All our shit's gone. It's all the old soul is gone. There's no redwood empire in there anymore. Everything's gone. That's because we drank it all. Nope, nope, we gotta lock it up.

Jamie Flanagan 51:54

A lot of us is who's taking it?

SPEAKER_05 51:55

A lot of it is you, right?

SPEAKER_10 51:59

So, Tony, one time, and I'm laying the speed. So just on me speed, we had a tasting of the single barrel old soul, it was fantastic. We drank a lot, and Matt said, No, no, no, no.

Jamie Flanagan 52:14

We no we drank a lot, and then some. I called in six minutes today.

SPEAKER_10 52:20

So Matt says Matt says to me, Go ahead and take that, take the rest of the bottle home, which I did. I happen to I knocked it out. I get here the next week, and August and Jamie are like, What the hell?

Matt Fox 52:33

We are ransacking the studio. Somebody poked us in the pooch. What the hell's going on? Tony, I walk in the studio, and these two are like, What happened to that old soul? What the hell? I don't know. I couldn't remember what I was like.

SPEAKER_10 52:47

And I'm like, Yeah, I took it, it's all gone. I drank it all.

August Gitshlag 52:50

I look like Yoda ransacking little toolboxes, throwing things over my shoulder, like the old soul. Black out blackout Matt was no help.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

I gotta tell you, you teck assers are inspiring me in the fucking podcast.

Matt Fox 53:03

Just so just so I can be an ADD.

SPEAKER_10 53:07

Absolutely. We go whatever the hell you want.

August Gitshlag 53:10

Tony, you realize you're welcome here any Monday you want to come in. I will now remind you every Monday, here's what we're doing, here's the time.

SPEAKER_07 53:23

I mean the nicest way I can say it, like you're my kind of assistant. Sunday, absolutely, we'd love being asshole. In term of endearment, like me and my friends are like, Oh, he's one of us, he's one of work on our asshole.

Jamie Flanagan 53:34

So it's funny.

SPEAKER_10 53:36

I I golfed with a couple of buddies for the first time. I didn't never golf with them, and the first hole I shank a drive. I'm like, fuck off. And they're like, Oh, you're you're you're fine. You're one of us, you're one of us. Welcome home. Yes, I'm in.

Matt Fox 53:49

Yeah, this is fun, fellas.

August Gitshlag 53:52

For mercy's sake, it's a Monday after a Sunday.

Matt Fox 53:54

Yes. Well, your Sunday. Your Sunday.

August Gitshlag 53:57

Well, yeah, you guys are on spring break, it's not really Sunday.

unknown 54:00

It's a good time.

Matt Fox 54:00

I mean, you guys had you guys had a good time.

SPEAKER_07 54:02

Sunday, fun day when you can day drink. That's kind of that's kind of a fun Sunday for me. That's kind of my ideal Sunday, quite frankly.

August Gitshlag 54:07

I I was very I enjoy that. Then the next one's early, it's April 19th, a little earlier than the other ones.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

What does that mean?

August Gitshlag 54:12

Honky tonk. Well, because usually it's the last one. It's like the last Sunday. It's a it's a couple weeks early for some reason. But it's honky tonk themed, so I gotta get me a cowboy hat, right, Kat?

SPEAKER_01 54:22

Yeehaw!

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Yeah!

August Gitshlag 54:24

I got a Stetson I can wear.

SPEAKER_01 54:27

I I normally sit on the sideline. Every once in a while I'll come over. But I did want to say, from the bartender's perspective, how fun opening day is.

SPEAKER_07 54:36

At a girl.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Okay. At a girl. Yeah, it is that's and how giggly August came home last night. I don't know what you did to him, Tony, but you're to blame, Tony.

SPEAKER_10 54:49

I guess I didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

No, I blame it on the French 75s. Oh, I was gonna say the reach around, but okay.

SPEAKER_07 54:56

There was just no acting thing. So it's fine. Same thing. Same thing. Hashtag. Isn't that even really cheating? No. Ain't gay unless you kiss it. I got that. That's like shaking hands. Docking.

August Gitshlag 55:12

Wow. Well, thanks, Kat. Oh wow. I'm glad you like my giggles. Yeah.

Closing Plugs And Next Show

SPEAKER_02 55:17

I'm glad we could uh aren't I just the cutest?

Jamie Flanagan 55:22

So coming up. Next is the uh Motor City Hepnotist.

SPEAKER_02 55:25

Yes, yeah, and we're gonna try to try to keep the volume down in the other room when we do a whole other show. You're all good.

August Gitshlag 55:31

We're doing a whole other show from the uh from the tonight's show studios over there. Oh yeah.

Matt Fox 55:36

Oh man. All right, man cave happy hour.

August Gitshlag 55:39

Man cave happy hour.

Matt Fox 55:40

Like, subscribe, all the leave a cast things, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 55:43

All the podcast places. That's it. And then the motor city hypnotist. Next, he's coming up. Motor City Hypnot. Tony, thank you for being here. You are welcome. What's the firebird? What's the socials on the Firebird? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 55:55

Firebird tavern.

Jamie Flanagan 55:56

Oh, Firebird Tavern.com, Google it, Facebook. Yeah, all of it. That's it. All of them. You are uh a marketing maven. Yeah, that's slow down.

Matt Fox 56:04

August turned into an Irishman really quickly.

August Gitshlag 56:08

I was gonna I had on I had on some I was gonna say a potatoes in my hand and I got out of Irishman. All right, I had a line, but I was gonna I'll leave him alone.

Jamie Flanagan 56:15

Somebody with somebody with the mouse pulled the plug on the shit already.

August Gitshlag 56:18

That was Jamie Son of it.

Jamie Flanagan 56:19

Hey, Jamie, Jamie Flanagan over here. Oh August gets lagged.

August Gitshlag 56:23

Matt Fox. And thank you to our guests. Dave, Barry, Tony, and Katherine. Cheers. See you next time. Glad you guys. We'll see you next Sunday. Or Sunday, Monday. Monday. That's Sunday. There's no big Sunday. We'll see you Sunday.

SPEAKER_07 56:37

Friday.

August Gitshlag 56:38

Well, yeah, I'll see you Friday. Well, Jamie will be at church. Please.