The Best Rocks Glasses for Whiskey Lovers by William Goodman

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In recent years, whiskey aficionados have achieved the kind of stature more often associated with oenophiles. These spirits obsessives are as passionate about their favorite small-batch bourbons and special cask-finish scotches as wine lovers are about the best Napa Cabernets. And like their wine-sipping cousins, serious whiskey collectors understand that premium glassware can elevate the experience. Our favorite whiskey sippers are rocks or double-Old Fashioned glasses.

Rocks glasses have wide rims to allow room for the rocks, aka the ice. And if you’re partial to a slow melting cube so too much water doesn’t dilute your dram, you’ll want to be sure one of those giant rounds of ice can fit into the glass. If you take your bourbon neat, the wide rim allows for the gentle and more delicious aromas to waft out. Narrower rims can concentrate the scent of alcohol, which can shift the whole experience of drinking a cask-strength beauty from delicious to downright unpleasant.

And if you’re going to buy new barware, make it worthy of your best bottles. That Macallan 18 needs something respectable. The four we’ve highlighted here should live up to it nicely.

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The Best Cocktail Shakers to Make Bar-Quality Drinks by William Goodman

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Anyone who’s ever stepped foot into a bar knows the unmistakable sound of a cocktail shaker. The percussive, locomotive-like sound signals that you’re just a few moments away from enjoying a refreshing drink that’s been handcrafted for you. That shake and, more importantly, the cocktail it presages don’t have to be limited to your favorite bar. A cocktail shaker can be the perfect way to elevate your cocktails from home.

Shaking helps to better mix, dilute and chill your drink and that, in turn, leads to an overall better cocktail. With these factors in mind, here are four shakers that will instantly make your drinks taste better while bringing the bar experience that much closer to home.

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'Rona Recommends: The 23 Best Shows to Watch While You're Socially Distancing - Better Call Saul by William Goodman

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I’ve already spilled a fair amount of digital ink on this site about my love for Better Call Saul, but allow me to go to bat once more for a show I consider to be superior to Breaking Bad. The Saul Goodman-focused prequel/spin-off has its first four seasons available on Netflix, while its fifth season currently airs on AMC—which means there’s no better time to get caught up than right now.

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The Best Wine Coolers to Store Your Favorite Bottles by William Goodman

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Caring for your wine collection is just as important as sourcing the perfect bottles. Storing wine in the optimal environment will help it age long and well. While a dedicated wine cellar may be the best home for premium wines, having a storage option at hand in entertainment rooms and kitchens is always a smart idea.

Enter the wine cooler. No, not the sugary drink from your college days, a wine cooler—a.k.a. a wine refrigerator—serves as a kind of mobile wine cellar. It stores your collection at a proper temperature and ideally behind tinted glass to prevent degradation from light sources. The best ones also have dual adjustable climate zones—one for reds and one for whites—and offer flexibility in shelving to allow for Champagnes and magnums. The cooler’s minimalist size means it can fit in nearly any room of the house, from the kitchen and pantry, to a library, living room, cinema room or man cave.

Regardless of where you place yours, a quality one will let you store your wines in ideal conditions while keeping them nearby for the right occasion. Here are our four favorites on Amazon.

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The Best Kamado Grills for Your Backyard Barbecue by William Goodman

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Grilling is an ever-evolving art form. Charcoal grills, once the standard, eventually gave way to gas grills for faster cooking times. And now we find ourselves reaching back to old-school, tried-and-true methods—albeit with new approaches and methodologies. Which is where the kamado grill comes into play.

You’ve probably seen a kamado-style grill without knowing its name. The rounded, ceramic egg-like grills got their start in Japan and China hundreds of years ago. Known for their unparalleled level of heat retention, the grills found a place among cooking obsessives who plied them to grilling and even smoking smoke a variety of different kinds of meats.

The ceramic construction allows for heat to stay trapped for long, extended periods of time. This means that it’s now even easier to cook excellent barbecue or perfectly grill steaks from the comfort of your own backyard. While the grills take a little time to get the hang of, it won’t be long before you will cooking meats like a barbecue pitmaster. Here are four of our favorite kamado grills to help elevate your grilling into something sublime.

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The 15 Best New Pieces of Spring Menswear to Buy This Week by William Goodman

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As we come to the end of the first full week of April, spring has definitely arrived. While you can’t—and shouldn’t—get out as much as you used to, that’s no excuse to skimp on style. This week brings an array of fantastic seasonal trappings: Rowing Blazer’s shorts are as comfy to wear around the house as they are when you’re headed out for a quick walk, Universal Works and Sebago’s Big Bird-yellow boat shoes will undoubtedly put a spring in your step and John Elliott’s classic Escobar sweatpants are cozy stalwarts you’ll live in all weekend long. Those selections, and more, below.

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The Best New TV Shows & Movies This Week: 'Better Call Saul,' an 'Insecure' Preview, and More by William Goodman

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I learned to stop trying to predict what would happen in shows a long time ago. Solving a mystery box show like Westworld, or even trying to ascertain the final fate of Walter White in Breaking Bad, never seemed like a compelling use of my time; I’d rather sit down and let the show just wash over me completely.

Yet, sometimes you can’t help yourself.

Every now and again, you get a general sense that an upcoming episode of a show has the DNA to be something special. A few factors had already aligned to make this week’s episode of Better Call Saul, “Bagman,” draw my attention. For one, this marked the first episode back for Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan since El Camino; regardless of whether or not you felt that story was necessary, Gilligan undeniably elevated his directorial talents with the project. Add in the increasing darkness around the show, a factor I keyed into last week, and the general plot behind this episode (Jimmy having to go and pick up Lalo’s $7 million bail money from the Cousins), and all the elements were there: “Bagman” was primed to be a capital “I” important episode.

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'Rona Recommends: The 23 Best Shows to Watch While You're Socially Distancing - High Fidelity by William Goodman

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I didn’t think it was possible for me to love actress Zoe Kravitz any more than I already did...and then I started Hulu’s High Fidelity. Rebooted and retooled from the 2000 John Cusack-starring film, Hulu’s 2020 take (showrun by Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka) swaps Chicago for Brooklyn and a male lead for a female one—providing a vehicle for the aforementioned Kravitz to completely and utterly shine. Freed from the dourness that wrought most of her character in the mangled second season of Big Little Lies, Kravtiz through her portrayal of Rob gets a chance to offer a full, well-rounded, and vibrant performance.

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