If you created the longest-running live-action comedy series in American television history, you’d probably need to toast to your success. And what higher approach to do this than by creating your individual alcohol to fill your glass with, right?
This is what lies behind brain trust It’s at all times sunny in Philadelphia he did. Well, not exactly, but something like that.
Rob McElhenney, Charlie’s DayAND Glenn Howerton are the twisted minds behind the wildly entertaining series (which he also stars in Kaitlin Olson AND Danny Devito) and are also the founders Four Walls Whiskey. The 80 proof Irish American whiskey mix is smooth with a light rye finish, making it, in accordance with this foodie, dangerously delicious. It hit shelves last fall and is now available in over 40 states in the U.S., in addition to at the stadium bar Wrexham A.F.Cthe soccer club that McElhenney co-owns with Ryan Reynolds.
As St. Patrick’s Day attendees prepared to hit the parade routes and pubs, I spoke with Glenn and the CEO of Four Walls Casey McGrath about the birth of alcohol, how they turned the concept of “taking money from a celebrity brand” on its head, and the surprisingly emotional meaning of Four Walls’ name and mission.
What’s your expert advice for St. Patrick’s Day revelers?
Glenn Howerton: If you traditionally drink Jameson – a shot and a beer – I like to recommend trying Four Walls as an alternative. Because we are higher.
Shots fired! So how did all of it come together?
Casey McGrath: I worked in traditional spirits marketing for over a decade and during the pandemic, I started to see a huge opportunity to build brands from scratch. I saw there was a lot of love and white space in the Irish whiskey category, so I called Glenn. We have a lot of mutual friends and I’m a huge fan of this show. He told me they were already toying with the idea of tackling and subverting the idea of celebrity-owned brands with some sort of lager or pub beer, so we went from there.
Glenn Howerton: I had known Casey for a very long time, but I knew him as the creative director of Kings of Leon. I didn’t realize he had so much experience in the spirits market. If I had known that, possibly every little thing would have began a little earlier, but I actually think that every little thing happens when it’s imagined to occur. So when Casey and I began talking, I immediately knew that the marketing side of it made sense because he felt our sense of humor and understood what can be authentic for us. And I’m a huge whiskey lover, so I got really excited about the idea as an alternative of going for a beer. Once we realized that we could actually create something by creating an Irish-American mix and building on the Irish-American aspect of it, we just began firing on all cylinders.
How involved were you, Charlie and Rob in selecting the flavor?
Glenn: There was a lot – Very — tasting. That was the better part. We had a master blender that we worked with, so every little thing we tried was excellent. So it got here all the way down to personal preference and then testing our personal preferences with a few influential bartenders to make sure we were on the same page. Because we knew very early on that we desired to focus on bartenders. It all began as a celebration of sorts for a record-breaking fifteenth season It’s at all times sunny. And real bars and bartenders played such a key role in building our show that we desired to do something to have fun them.
How is creating a whiskey brand from scratch different than creating a TV show from scratch?
Glenn: It’s weird because I’m not a whiskey expert, but I know what I like. When we began, I wasn’t a comedy expert Always sunny by no means, but I knew what I liked. We knew what we liked. And this is the credo that we at all times follow: let’s make something we will watch, let’s make something we will drink. And every time we stayed authentic to our preferences, it was successful.
In terms of taste, what was your preference?
Glenn: We expected a lot from this whisky. We wanted it to be smooth like an Irish whiskey, but have the full body of a rye whiskey so it could mix in cocktails. And also, importantly, it had to achieve a price of $30.
Casey: This is a real Swiss army knife. It’s a bartender’s utility whiskey. Many Irish whiskeys are great as a shot, but many bartenders don’t use them in cocktails because they do not hold the flavor. So we wanted something that was the best of each worlds.
Have you ever wondered easy methods to bend the space-time continuum so that your real whiskey could find yourself on the shelf of the fictional Paddy’s pub where the show takes place?
Glenn: We’ll have to return up with something. We built on this whole celebrity spirits brand thing. We shot an episode with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul who create Two Mezcal Men, where we principally made fun of celebrity brands. We’ll see how exactly and if we incorporate Four Walls into the show. But of course, I mean, it’s a great platform to indicate it to the fans.
Casey: For the record, the title of this episode with Bryan and Aaron is “Celebrity alcohol: the best approach to get money“
How did you come up with the name Four Walls?
Casey: This is my favorite thing to speak about. It’s called Four Walls in reference to the 4 partitions of the bar. This physical space where we will all go to maintain our problems away and linger in the good times.
Glenn: Coming out of the pandemic, it was very essential for us to have fun physical spaces in a virtual world. It’s time for people to return back and see each other, look into each other’s eyes, shake hands and give each other a warm hug. I missed it so much and I do not even know if I noticed how much I missed it and how socially awkward I had turn into. It’s easy for me to get emotional about this because I spent most of my 20s and 30s in bars, drinking beers and shots and having some of the best times of my life. And it was this sense that we wanted to attach with in this fashion.
Casey: The funny thing is that Glenn and the guys are so passionate about this, but promoting any product may be exhausting. We work these guys to the core, sending them to varied events. And you may get an exhausted Glenn that you’re going to drag kicking and screaming to a different town, but once you get him to the bar, you may have to get him out! He never wants to depart.
Were there any names of runners-up in “Four Walls”?
Glenn: We thought of just calling him Brown. If you watch the series, you know that “brown” has a huge meaning for the characters. That’s what they call whiskey. It’s a very Philly thing. But when we got here up with the slogan “The Better Brown!” we realized that we had the perfect combination of each ideas.
That’s why Ryan Reynolds’ Four Walls and Aviation Gin are on offer at Wrexham Stadium. What sells higher?
Casey: Well, at the time of this interview, we have only been there for three days, so, um… we’re doing higher!
Glenn: That’s a good query. Fair query. We’ll get back to you with some numbers.