Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2019 i Garden & Gun

About That Bar on the Cover... I hate to break it to you, but you can’t order a beer at the “bar” on our cover. That’s because it’s not an actual dive bar, just our representation of one (the brainchild of our creative director, Marshall McKinney). To pull it off, we dialed up the photographic duo Adam Voorhes and Robin Finlay, who built the set and took the photograph (they also found Pete the squirrel). That inviting sign is the work of neon pop artist Todd Sanders, of Roadhouse Relics in Austin, Texas. You may have seen his creations on the cover of the Kings of Leon album Mechanical Bull, hanging on a few of Willie Nelson’s barns, or at the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles. Wanna guess…

LETTERS “My soul buddy was an orphan dog my friend found on her porch but did not want” WHAT A HOOT In the Social Chatter section (Letters, December 2018/January 2019), apparently a Yankee submitted “How’s your mama and them?” The correct expression is “How’s yo mama n ’nem?” It’s almost one word. Marion V. Smyrl Columbia, South Carolina Julia Reed is the reason I subscribe to G&G, although I have grown to love the dog pictures. Her piece on cats (The High & the Low, December 2018/January 2019) had this eighty-one-year-old cackling like a Rhode Island Red at egg-dispensing time. Jo Middleton Fredericksburg, Virginia CAMELLIA ROYALTY What a wonderful article about my favorite flower (“The King of Camellias,” December 2018/January 2019). Camellias deserve a place in every Southern yard. Marie…

ARTS Photo Finish A LOWCOUNTRY FINE-ART PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES THE SPIRIT OF CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL By Latria Graham It is early morning in a South Carolina marsh, and the photographer Kate Griswold is waiting. The chatter of crickets masks her breath as she stands near a swamp tupelo, comforted by the sounds she has come to know during the hundreds of hours she has spent outside: the cackle of marsh hens, the rustle of cordgrass as it sways against her boots, and the suck and plop of the pluff mud as it tugs at her soles. A raspy bellow gives away her quarry’s location, and a great blue heron, belly deep in the marsh, gingerly picks its way toward shallower water. Eventually the bird decides the time has come to…

BOOKS Catch and Rerelease A QUINTESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF FISHING ESSAYS STILL HOOKS THE HEART By Jonathan Miles Thomas McGuane’s The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing, which is being reissued in February, is not a new book; most of it, aside from seven new essays, was first published in 1999. But twenty years is twenty years, which means thousands of otherwise literate anglers might conceivably be unaware of this masterpiece of fishing literature, might now be struggling to express streamside notions and sensations that Mc-Guane articulated better than anyone since Roderick Haig-Brown. It deserves a refreshment of praise. The forty essays in The Longest Silence constitute a kind of trout-bum scripture in which the prescription for transcendence isn’t ritual or prowess but rather diligent immersion: “from air to water,” as…

TASTEMAKER Cutting Up WHETHER HE’S TALKING CALAMARI OR COLLARDS, CHEF AND COMEDIAN DUANE NUTTER CAN ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT FOOD “Kale was in first class looking back at all the other leafy greens in coach. And then out of nowhere, collard greens go and get on a private jet” Duane Nutter may be the only chef in culinary history to appear on both Food Network’s Iron Chef and Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots (he was a semifinalist). But, then again, the man known in stand-up comedy circles as the Mad Chef is full of surprises, including pioneering the idea of haute cuisine in an airport as the chef of Atlanta’s One Flew South. These days you’ll find Nutter behind the pass at Southern National, the acclaimed restaurant in Mobile he…

Great Greens Get a taste of Mississippi’s finest At the family-owned Bully’s Restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, Greta Brown Bully, her husband, Ballery Tyrone Bully, and their colleagues strip and stem collard greens. They core and chop cabbage. They wash grit from mustards and turnips. And they cook those greens down until they turn soft and velvety. In a moment when fresh greens cooked with care can be hard to find, Bully’s over-delivers, serving three different versions daily. — J.T.E.…

MADE IN THE SOUTH As the Wood Turns ARTISAN WYATT SPEIGHT RHUE RETURNED HOME TO NORTH CAROLINA TO FIND HIS NICHE By Michael Graff PHOTOGRAPHS BY GEOFF WOOD A few blocks west of the downtown Swansboro, North Carolina, waterfront, off a side street that curls behind a fast-food chain, beyond a long warehouse building where he rents a work space, next to an old Chevrolet Silverado surrounded by weeds, Wyatt Speight Rhue kicks his boot against a log that might be of great value. “You don’t see a lot of elm around here anymore,” Rhue, wearing work pants and a flannel shirt, says softly. “I’m gonna see what I can do with it.” The elm log is surrounded by dozens of others—pine, black gum, holly, pecan, plum, magnolia—that Rhue has…

SOUTHERN ACCENT When Life Gives You Lemons... ADD THEM TO A WINTER ARRANGEMENT By Haskell Harris PHOTOGRAPH BY MARGARET HOUSTON For the Charleston, South Carolina, floral designer Sara York Grimshaw, citrus is a comforting sight. “There is nothing like looking out into the landscape and seeing bold yellow fruit hanging heavy in the middle of winter,” she says. So she has a hard time harvesting the slightly sweet Meyer lemons in her own garden to eat—“but I have no problem taking choice cuttings for arrangements.” To best incorporate lemons, Grimshaw keeps things tonal. “I love layering the same color into the arrangement to elevate the star.” Here, ranunculus and tree peonies provide billowy texture, while privet berry branches add structure. A footed vessel brings height to the look, though Grimshaw…

A Delta Housewarming SOMETIMES A ROCKING PARTY IS THE ONLY WAY TO BREAK IN A NEW ABODE BY JULIA REED ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL WITTE Since I was twenty-five, by which time I’d been away from home for almost ten years, I’ve fantasized about building a house, a retreat of sorts, in or near my hometown in the Mississippi Delta. I hadn’t realized how long I’d actually had this particular dream until a few weeks ago when I found a love letter from the man I almost married that brought me to my knees. In it, he envisioned the place that even then he knew I’d always wanted, and that he had wanted for both of us. “Could you hang orchids from the veranda like you do in Malaysia, and grow…

The doors are open at our new Atlanta outpost Amy Sinclair Garden & Gun Club Atlanta, GA Opened last spring at the Battery Atlanta, in the shadow of the Braves’ new stadium, the Garden & Gun Club is our take on the perfect Southern bar. It’s intimate and full of touches Southerners will appreciate (including host stands made with Charleston, South Carolina, ironwork), with food and drinks that reflect the region’s ingredients and history while also putting a spin on tradition. You’ll of course find a range of Southern classics on the cocktail list (to date our Proper Old-Fashioned has been ordered 4,237 times), along with originals such as the Rabbit Will Run, a bourbon, vermouth, and spiced-pear combo. To devise the menu, we partnered with the James Beard Award–winning…

ADVENTURES An Island Apart A WEST INDIES GEM, NEVIS OFFERS BEAUTY TO SPARE AND A TRANQUIL ESCAPE FROM THE CROWDS By Mike Grudowski PHOTOGRAPHS BY TARA DONNE One day in 1990, Tim Thuell, who at the time was managing a private club in Bermuda, received a call from a friend, a Bermudan hotelier named David Dodwell. Dodwell had just acquired a property on an island “so remote, so removed,” he told Thuell, half in jest, “that you’d never want to go there.” The inn sat on the spacious grounds of a onetime sugar plantation on the breezy Atlantic shore of a drowsy, all-but-forgotten former British colony in the West Indies, an island called Nevis. Thuell took the bait, he tells me in his office at Nisbet Plantation, near a stone…

AN INTERNATIONAL SPORTING EXCURSION FISH PATAGONIA with GARDEN & GUN ARGENTINA NOVEMBER 2–7 Join David DiBenedetto, G&G editor in chief, for a fly-fishing trip of a lifetime, complete with fine wine, outstanding cuisine, majestic countryside views, and luxury lodging at Patagonia River Ranch. Trip inspired by “ARGENTINE DREAM: FISHING PATAGONIA,” written by Charles Gaines, in the August/September 2017 issue of G&G . For more information: GARDENANDGUN.COM/ARGENTINA2019EVENTS@GARDENANDGUN.COM Space is limited.…

Super Slush On February 3, Super Bowl LIII touches down in Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Two Urban Licks serves a bourbon-powered Coca-Cola slushy. To make your own, you can use any bourbon (Two prefers Four Roses), but in Atlanta, the Coke is nonnegotiable. Bourbon and Coke Slushy Yield: 1 cocktail INGREDIENTS: 2 oz. bourbon ½ cup ice Coca-Cola PREPARATION: Fill an ice tray with Coca-Cola (about a can and a half) and freeze. Combine bourbon and both kinds of ice in a blender and blend until they form a slush. Pour into a glass and, if you like, garnish with a cherry or a slice of lime.…

G & G PARTNER EVENTS MARCH 8–10 6 TH  ANNUAL TEQUILA AND TACO FEST Destin, Florida Join Florida’s Emerald Coast for the annual Tequila and Taco Fest in HarborWalk Village featuring a weekend of tasty tacos, signature tequila cocktails and a VIP tapas event with G&G. MAY 3 STITZEL-WELLER AFFAIR Louisville, Kentucky Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey hosts the fourth annual pre–Derby celebration featuring dinner with live music and, of course, fine bourbon. MAY 9–12 FISH TO FORK Amelia Island, Florida Dine on fresh catch and seafood specialties from the nation’s top chefs at the sixth annual Fish to Fork weekend hosted by Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.…

EXPLORING CHARLESTON SINCE 2011 Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall opened High Wire Distilling in 2013 and have been spreading the gospel of small-batch spirits to Charleston, South Carolina, visitors and natives alike ever since. The lightning in their bottles? It all comes down to historic ingredients, local sourcing, and constant collaboration with the city’s vibrant culinary community. HISTORY LOVES COMPANY CHARLESTON, SC Why Charleston, South Carolina? We made a deliberate decision to start High Wire in Charleston. We wanted to be close to the coast. We also knew that this business would have a retail component—a tasting room—that would bring us face-to-face with our customer, so being in Charleston was a huge win for us because there’s a really sophisticated crowd here. From the culinary…

PRESENTED BY THE CLIFFS BLUE RIDGE BOUNTY The unique setting of The Cliffs communities—seven private clubs nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains—offers members epic mountain views, world-class golf, and mealtime magic In the Carolina mountains, the seven Cliffs communities pair world-class golf—on scenic highland courses designed by the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio—with food and drink on par with the best of nearby culinary capitals Asheville and Greenville. Yes, these private mountain and lake retreats offer destination-caliber dining. “Our members tend to be well-traveled food lovers, and when they come back home to the club, we want them to enjoy the level of food and service they’re used to,” says executive chef Francis Turck, who leads a crew of seven executive chefs stationed in…

Social Chatter GARDENANDGUN.COM AND BEYOND Good Dogs, Great Names We received nearly 8,000 entries in our annual Good Dog Photo Contest last fall. The pictures were amusing, as were many of the dogs’ names: Pappy, BooBoo, Taco, Willadeene, Tippet, Boadie, Broom, Roo, Bear, Penny Loafer, Hope, Calamity Jane, Biggie, Miss P, Velvet, Nick, Arlo, Coal, Spätzle, Boone Doc, Diesel, Spike, Wraggles, Whiskey, Cannoli, Huck, Buoy, Tallulah Belle, Peet, Pepito, the Honorable Judge, Oaklee, Gully, Boudreaux, Mason, Solomon, Hasell Mae Holcomb, Barnum, Cabela Jane, Beauregard, Sir Maximillian D’Barc Barkington, Studebaker, Olive, Lorelai, Vader, Margaux, Wesson, Beckett, Forrest, McGee, Posy, Grady, Remi, Knox, Jäger, Goose, Maverick, Benson, Fenway, Lady Bird, Riggs, Urkel, Gatsby, Harper, Tupelo, Derby, Elton, Dapper, Lennox, Wrigley, Parker, Dover, Winston, Guinevere, Angus, Moultrie, Magnolia Mae, LeRoy, Hank Jr., Little…

MUSIC Natural Talent A NASHVILLE NEWCOMER WITH A TIMELESS VOICE By Matt Hendrickson Alysse Gafkjen On days when Dee White decided to go fishing, he’d get up early, an hour before the sun even thought about coming up. He’d fill his cooler with Mountain Dew, and if he remembered through the sleepy fog, grab a box of Honey Buns on his way to launch his bass boat at Jordan Lake in his hometown of Slapout, Alabama. Though he was still in high school, White was a skilled fisherman, entering bass tournaments all over the state. “I had more L’s than W’s,” he says. But often he would just go out on his own, sometimes not returning until well after dark. “If I could talk someone into going, I might get…

Well Seasoned A classic Edna Lewis cookbook returns “I have tried, in working out these recipes, to give you all kinds of suggestions to make food taste the way you remember it,” wrote the Virginia-raised chef Edna Lewis in her 1988 cookbook, In Pursuit of Flavor, which Knopf is reissuing in March. Lewis, who died in 2006 and was revered as the first lady of Southern cooking, knew every trick in the book (because she wrote it): Season she-crab soup with roe. Punch up cheese straws with extra-sharp cheddar and cayenne. Balance a salad with both bitter and sweet greens. As Mashama Bailey, the heralded chef of the Grey in Savannah, writes of Lewis in the book’s new foreword: “Three decades later, her voice continues to lead the way for…

THE CHEFS RECOMMEND: Charred Green Cabbage Yield: 4 servings INGREDIENTS 1 large head of green cabbage 2 tbsp . melted butter 1 lemon Kosher salt PREPARATION Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the outside of the cabbage and place it in the oven on a baking sheet. Roast for about 2 hours, until outer leaves are very dark and a small knife goes into the core easily. Remove from oven and carefully peel off and discard dark leaves until you reach less-browned layers. Cut cabbage into quarters, then brush with melted butter and char on a hot grill until caramelized, about 2 minutes. Squeeze lemon over top and sprinkle with salt to taste. Top with chopped chives and roasted sunflower seeds. Serve with any grilled or roasted meat or…

MIXING in STYLE SOUTHERN STYLE Bar Belles FIVE UPGRADED WAYS TO SERVE CLASSIC COCKTAILS By Haskell Harris 1 FRENCH 75 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID RINELLA Food styling by Anna Hampton 2 oz. London dry gin | ¾ oz. lemon juice | ¾ oz. simple syrup | 2 oz. champagne | Long lemon twist Combine gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill shaker with ice, cover, and shake vigorously for about 20 seconds. Strain cocktail into a coupe. Top with champagne; garnish with a lemon twist. 2 BLOODY MARY Bloody Mary recipe courtesy of Cochon, New Orleans For one pitcher (about 10–12 drinks): 1 (46-oz.) bottle V8 juice | 2 tbsp. black pepper | 2 tbsp. grainy mustard | 1 tbsp.…

PRESENTED BY COLUMBIA SC Columbia is Calling A guide to the ultimate romantic weekend in COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA There are some places that simply make people fall in love. Then there are the truly great places, the places that couples seek because they make people fall in love twice—both with the destination itself and with each other. That’s what happened when Nashville-based lifestyle blogger and tastemaker Ashley Wilson and her husband, Trey, spent a long weekend in Columbia, South Carolina. From eating and drinking to shopping and sightseeing, each found more than enough reasons to make this capital city a regular escape. STAY Hotel Trundle “For us, the hotel was a highlight of the trip. We were greeted with our choice of sparkling rosé or local beer (CottonTown Brew Lab’s…

GARDEN & GUN PRESENTS THE SOUTH’S BEST NEW BARS Sure, they’ve got great drinks and distinctive settings. They might specialize in brandy or vermouth or, of course, whiskey, and the food sometimes rivals the meticulously crafted cocktails. But the best part? These recently opened establishments will make you feel right at home By WAYNE CURTIS PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW THOMAS LEE THE SOUTHERN CRAFT-COCKTAIL RENAISSANCE IS STILL DOING BOFFO BOX OFFICE—THE SHOW’S RUN IS NOW WELL INTO ITS SECOND DECADE. BUT THE STAGE DIRECTION FOR THE CURRENT SCENE HAS SEEN A CHANGE IN PROTAGONIST: “Exit: Mixologist. Enter: Bartender.” Or, more precisely, reenterbartender. The early acts of the revival emphasized the specialized handiwork of drink masters armed with eyedroppers and hand-carved muddlers and house-made this and that, served up in hushed…

Voice in the Wilderness PART APPALACHIAN STORYTELLER, PART MODERN-DAY THOREAU, MAURICE MANNING HAS CARVED OUT HIS OWN SPOT IN THE PANTHEON OF AMERICAN POETS FROM A TWENTY-ACRE SWATH OF KENTUCKY WOODS By Erik Reece Photographs by Eric Ryan Anderson While at work on his most recent collection, One Man’s Dark, the poet Maurice Manning began to have vivid dreams. In one, he traveled to the Eastern Kentucky farm where his great-grandmother Lillian was raised. Standing in a dark barn, Manning saw sunlight sifting between the old wooden boards. He walked through a dogtrot, then out a door at the back of the barn. A meadow opened up, and there his great-grandmother, dead since 1980, appeared to him—as a little girl. Manning interprets the dream this way: “She was saying, ‘This…

If You Go You can book flights from the United States to the small Vance W. Amory International Airport on Nevis (usually by way of San Juan, Puerto Rico), or fly to neighboring St. Kitts (often a more flexible and less expensive option), and then cross the Narrows to Nevis via a short ferry or water-taxi ride. On the island, taxis are abundant, but renting a car lets you explore at your leisure (note that on Nevis, you drive on the left). The official currency of St. Kitts and Nevis is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, but most prices are listed in U.S. dollars, which, along with credit cards, are accepted almost everywhere. nevisisland.com…

Field Report PEOPLE, PLACES, PARTIES A RESOURCE FOR THE BEST EVENTS, EXCURSIONS, AND PROMOTIONS FOR MORE, VISIT GARDENANDGUN.COM / EVENTS…

EDITOR’S LETTER Saving the Small Places ZOOMING IN ON A TINY LOWCOUNTRY CREEK AND ITS UNCERTAIN FUTURE DAVID DIBENEDETTO Senior Vice President & Editor in Chief Jared Bramblett In the argot of Lowcountry watermen, a feeder creek is a sliver of salt water that cuts through the spartina grass, its wending course dictated by geological forces that came to bear some twelve thousand years ago. Take a jon boat into one on a rising tide and the grass will brush up against your gunwales as you motor along, until the creek eventually becomes too tight to navigate. Here the water still pushes forward beneath the boat, following that ancient path before spilling out into the flats and the intertidal zone. Feeder creeks are some of my favorite places to explore…

CONTRIBUTORS Gray Chapman WRITER On a camping trip to the North Georgia mountains, Gray Chapman’s mutt Jerry—the subject of Good Dog (p. 85)—took the family’s new rescue hound mix under his paw. “He’s teaching Juno how to sleep in a tent,” Chapman says, “and trying to pass some of his neuroses on to her.” The Atlanta journalist has contributed to the New York Times and Atlanta magazine, as well as to Garden & Gun’s forthcoming book on Southern women. Her tip for a good bar where she lives: Watchman’sat Krog Street Market. “I enjoy a pull from the Chartreuse shot machine.” Nigel Parry PHOTOGRAPHER To make it to North Carolina in time to photograph rising-star Cup Series driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. (p. 29), Nigel Parry clocked his own record…

YOUR GUIDE TO SOUTHERN CULTURE TALK OF THE SOUTH INTERVIEW Uncommon Drive DARRELL “BUBBA” WALLACE JR. STARTS HIS SECOND NASCAR CUP SERIES SEASON IN AN INFLUENTIAL SPOT By Justin Heckert PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL PARRY Styling by Erica Hanks; shirt from Taylor Richards & Conger; pants and boots from Tabor Last February, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. was a NASCAR Cup Series rookie when he finished second in the Daytona 500, behind the wheel of Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro, a number made iconic by “the King” himself. Wallace was not only just twenty-four years old; he was not only in just his fifth Cup race; but he was also the first African American stock car driver to ride through the checkered flag at the famous race since 1971—a…

Fresh Sounds Deep roots and a twist on the blues Mandolin Orange TIDES OF A TEARDROP Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz have quietly become one of roots music’s most engaging acts. Much of the North Carolina duo’s sixth album, Tides of a Teardrop, finds Marlin wrestling with his mother’s unexpected death when he was eighteen. But by the poetic closing track, “Time We Made Time,” he’s made his peace, letting the sunlight shine through. Adia Victoria SILENCES Adia Victoria delves into a spookier side of the blues on her second album, Silences. Though it’s not a traditional blues record, on songs such as “Bring Her Back,” the South Carolina native’s fairy-esque voice floats over a gurgling minor-key guitar, while “Devil Is a Lie” oozes with a thick tension that gives…

ANATOMY OF A CLASSIC A New Leaf COLLARD GREENS REPLACE CABBAGE IN A CHEF’S MISSISSIPPI-INFLUENCED SPIN ON KIMCHI By Kim Severson Food and prop styling by Charlotte Autry PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHNNY AUTRY Adrienne Cheatham didn’t fully understand the beauty of kimchi until she began cooking professionally. The flavorful interplay of fermented cabbage and heat did more than just teach her about Korean cooking. It shot her right back to her childhood, when a funky condiment she knew as cha-cha—a.k.a. chowchow, the spicy pickled relish built from green tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers—was on kitchen tables in her Mississippi relatives’ homes. “It shows you how much different cultures have in common,” Cheatham says. Cheatham’s mother was a white Midwesterner from Chicago who met her father, a black Southerner from Jackson, Mississippi, when…

TOP TO BOTTOM: PHILLIPS FORGED The iron on the surface of this nakiri was once the outer rim of a wagon wheel. In his Knoxville, Tennessee, workshop, John Phillips bonded it to a carbon steel core recycled from a sawmill blade. The chef Sean Brock is a fan of his work ($1,600; phillipsforged.com ). HORN AND HEEL Duncan Stephenson followed a path as straight as one of his blades: After studying metal design at East Carolina University, he built a forge at his Raleigh home and began making knives, such as this maple- and mesquite-handled carbon steel nakiri ($420; hornandheel.com ). TAKEDA HAMONO Third-generation Niimi, Japan, knife maker Shosui Takeda forged this whisper-thin nakiri with a core of Aogami Super (the highest grade of…

Smothered with Love JUST OUTSIDE NEW ORLEANS’ LOUIS ARMSTRONG AIRPORT, HURST RESTAURANT DISHES OUT EIGHTY YEARS OF FAMILY TRADITION—AND ONE DIVINE POT OF GREENS BY JOHN T. EDGE PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUSH JAGOE Two women, bundled in puffy jackets, stand in the cold on the first true winter day in November. Beneath a backlit white sign that advertises po’boys, red beans and rice, and seafood dinners, under the eaves of a celadon brick building, they stamp their feet and peer through plate-glass windows painted with blue crabs and pink shrimp, waiting for one of the family members who work at Hurst Restaurant and Seafood to unbolt the front door and welcome the first lunch customers. “I just found this place,” says one of the women, who works surveillance at nearby Louis…

2019 EVENTS Tequila & Taco Fest March 9 Garden & Gun is a proud partner of HarborWalk Village’s sixth annual Tequila & Taco Fest in Destin, Florida. Sip on creative tequila cocktails, sample tacos of all types, and tap your toes to the sounds of Humming House. Spirited Street Party September 21 G&G invites you to a Spirited Street Party celebrating local spirits and Southern fare in an idyllic setting along the Emerald Coast. For tickets and more information about these events, visit GardenandGun.com/events…

HOMEPLACE A Texas Original A YOUNG FAMILY BRINGS SERIOUS STYLE TO A WEEKEND RETREAT By Tom Foster PHOTOGRAPHS BY CASEY DUNN Styling by Katie Volk Something about the white stucco cottage, tucked into a forest of live oaks in the hills of West Austin, Texas, called to Guy and Meg Oliphint. The Houston couple first spotted it in 2012, when they began renting a house nearby for weekend getaways. “The owners showed us around, and we just fell in love with it,” Meg remembers. Living there became a dream—and then their destiny when, a few years later, the house came on the market. The Oliphints didn’t hesitate. “We bought it without seeing it again,” she says. “We didn’t even drive up.” Meg tells the story in the house’s soaring great…

Digging for Treasure AN UNTRAINABLE SWAMP DINGO PULLS OFF AN UNFORGETTABLE TRICK BY GRAY CHAPMAN ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN CUNEO When I finally worked up the nerve to talk to the handsome campus photographer at my college, he dropped this smooth-as-silk pickup line: “We should, uh, walk the dog together sometime.” I’m not sure what’s more telling: that this was his strategy, or that I fell for it without hesitation. A few weeks later, when Dane swung open the door of his apartment to greet me, my gaze immediately fell to the weird-looking mutt eyeing me from between Dane’s feet. The dog’s ears were one size too big, moved independently of one another, and appeared to be controlled from above by invisible puppet strings. His awkward build was simultaneously leggy and…

TURKEY CAMP EACH SPRING, CHEF CHRIS HASTINGS INVITES A HANDFUL OF FRIENDS AND THEIR CHILDREN TO HIS CAMP IN ALABAMA FOR A WEEK OF HUNTING, CAMARADERIE, GOOD FOOD... AND A FEW LIFE LESSONS by T. EDWARD NICKENS Photographs by WILLIAM HEREFORD It feels right. There’s no other way to describe it. It is the first morning of a three-day hunt, in the spring woods of central Alabama, and already five turkeys have gobbled and the sun hasn’t yet cracked the ridgeline. Sometimes, in the turkey woods, you are certain that they didn’t hear you coming in the dark and that your quiet little yelps from the slate call hit all the right notes. You know that you are hidden well and you haven’t moved a muscle, and you feel in…

HOTELS Holy City Grandeur CHARLESTON’S HOTEL BENNETT BLENDS OLD-WORLD ELEGANCE WITH LOWCOUNTRY SOUL By Caroline Sanders PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACQUELINE STOFSICK Despite the centuries of history woven into its wrought-iron garden gates and winding cobblestoned alleys, much of Charleston, South Carolina, has popped up in the last fifty years. “Back in the seventies, we used to say you could roll a bowling ball down King Street and not hit a person or a car,” says Michael Bennett, the owner of Bennett Hospitality, which, among other things, owns and operates chain hotels in the city and beyond. Now, in addition to bumping into packs of tourists and newcomers darting in and out of restaurants and shops, that bowling bowl would also roll past countless construction sites, many of them for new hotels—including,…

SIGNATURE EVENTS Mark your calendar for these upcoming Garden & Gun experiences. SEWE: Cocktails & Conservation February 16–17 Charleston, South Carolina G&G hosts two discussions on conservation and wildlife as part of the annual three-day Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) this February. Enjoy savory snacks and sip on Blade and Bow bourbon cocktails in Garden & Gun’s historic Charleston offices. A Southern Bourbon Supper March 29 Columbus, Ohio Celebrate Lexington, Kentucky’s rich food and drink culture at this quintessential Southern dinner party. Experience cuisine from Lexington chef Ouita Michel, enjoy live music, and get schooled on Woodford Reserve bourbon over a tasting with assistant master distiller Elizabeth McCall. Palmetto Bluff Artist in Residence Throughout 2019 Bluffton, South Carolina  Garden & Gun and Palmetto Bluff host the third year of the Artist…