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Mexico City, It's a Big Place

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Mexico City is a big place. We all know this, but unless you're right in it, a scale is just a fact that you can agree with and not much more. When you approach by plane, you get the overview and you begin to have a better impression of that fact. A city that stretches as far as you can see into the mountains in every direction.

When you land and take that taxi to your apartment, that impression may fade a bit as it becomes less apparent when you're on ground level, only going block by block. Maybe you hop neighbourhoods here and there, still only covering a small portion of the city. Roma to Condesa, San Miguel Chapultepec to downtown D.F.

Yesterday I had a day that gave me a bigger impression than flying over the city ever has. After a group breakfast, I was taken by a brewery we work with at Casa Barriles in a transport van out from the downtown area, through the city, to its outskirts and hours beyond to San Juan del Río.

The van was filled with Mexico's craft beer distributors, heading out to Cerveceria Primus for a brewery tour, some sensory training and a discussion on the state and potential of the craft beer industry in Mexico.

Thank you beer for letting us see new places and meet new people.

Driving through more of the city than we had done previously, passing out of the main district and into the countryside gave me more of an impression and made its scale more real than it seems from above. 

Heading in one direction for hours and still being surrounded by city is an overwhelming thought when you imagine zooming out. You can fit the entire city of Vancouver 14 times into one Mexico City. Going from north to south would be like getting in the car and driving straight from Vancouver to Whistler and being surrounded by buildings, intersections, traffic, pedestrians the entire time. City block after city block for 100km. Then, you realize that is just one road around Mexico City, and maybe even just cutting around the outskirts.

Mexico City is a big place, and if you want to feel small while having an adventure, put it high up on the list.

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Bell's Scotch: Selling Booze without Bikinis

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The folks over at Bell's South Africa know about heart strings. Sex sells, but so do stories, and stories tend to stay with us longer than a hot flash in the pants.

Father and son? Whisky? Overcoming adversity? Pour me another! Watch this story unfold, then tell me you aren't thirsty for some delicious, golden, throat charming scotch whisky.

Below is a bonus on the making of this ad. 

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Marriage: Now on Video!

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Around sunset on May 22nd, 2013 the lady and I pulled the trigger on a couple, "I dos!" and kissed in public in front of a whole bunch of our friends and family. While all this was going on, one of our dearest friends, Tom Nugent, was there to capture it all on video.

It's hard to imagine we could be any happier with the way it turned out. The colours, location and the human beings in it all create a special video for us, that almost feels more like a short film. So go on, press play, we hope you enjoy it.

If you do, check out more of Tom's work on his website, Facebook and Instagram.

Love & Lace Wedding Decor

If you liked the look, feel and decor of the wedding, Katy is now running a decor business called, "Love & Lace" in the Mayan Riviera (Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and other areas). If you're having a wedding down here, or know someone that is, contact us here and Katy will get back to you right away.

To see more photos of the wedding and the decor, visit Lucky Girl Photography's website, where they have two posts: One here, the second here.

More Info

  • The song is, "A Song For Zula" by Phosphorescent.
  • The wedding took place at The Beach Hotel in Tulum, where we all stayed.
  • Shot and edited by: Tom Nugent.

The staff at The Beach Hotel, their sister hotel, Cabañas Tulum as well as the restaurant El Bistro were like family the entire time. They were completely accommodating, attentive and put up with a lot of Canadians drinking a lot of beer and rum. I think maybe at some point, the hotel itself deserves an entire review post. If you go to Tulum, stay there, say hi for Mikee and Katy, or maybe we'll see you there. We stop by to say hi and have a beer on most weekends and stay there whenever we spend the night in Tulum.


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It's A Giraffe!

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Hey look, it's a giraffe sailing a boat while partaking in a beverage or two. What glory! This beautiful Love & Rum piece was dreamt up by my wife, Katy, created by Jesse Robinson Williams and apparently inspired by... me. I'm going to go ahead and take that as a positive, regardless of whether it is or isn't.

We're going to be getting them made into some shirts real soon, so keep your ear to the ground and a drink in your hand.

Interested in more stuff from Jesse? We featured him a little while back in our Seven Deadly Questions series. Check out his site here for more work and follow him on Instagram.

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Eat & Drink: Blue Eyes & Deano Burgers.

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Here's a weekend grilling recipe for you, signed, sealed and delivered according to how Dean Martin and Blue Eyes himself enjoyed their patties.

While the original recipe here doesn't call for a grilling these burgers over a hot flame, and I don't want to insult "The King of Cool" here, but cooking a burger on a kitchen frying pan? What are we, savages? 

Martin Burgers

Ingredients

  • 1lb. ground beef
  • 2 oz. bourbon — chilled

Instructions

Preheat a heavy frying pan and sprinkle bottom lightly with table salt. Mix meat, handle lightly, just enough to form into four patties. Grill over medium-high heat about 4 minutes on each side.

Pour chilled bourbon in chilled shot glass and serve meat and bourbon on a TV tray.

Sinatra Burgers

  1. Call for Deano.
  2. Tell him to make you a fuckin' burger.
  3. Drink his bourbon.

And there you have it. The original recipes are below and so is a 43 minute performance by Dean Martin that you can listen to while chugging burgers and cooking bourbon this weekend.