Garden & Gun April/May 2025

.01 SPECIAL FEATURE Introducing the Southern Bucket List Book a stay at a cocktail lover’s dream hotel in Savannah. Take a guided bike ride through the Arkansas Ozarks. Eat Michelin-starred barbecue in Texas, and grab a seat for the Grand Ole Opry’s hundredth birthday. A compendium for those with a sense of wanderlust, G&G’s Bucket List includes fifty inviting places, events, and adventures to soak up the South in 2025, with insider tips for making the most of your trip. ON THE LIST ■ Stay in the historic home of Kentucky bourbon royalty ■ Tag a bonefish in one of the Yucatán’s famed biosphere reserves ■ See the stunning new sculpture park in Montgomery, Alabama ONLINE BEGINNING MARCH 25 AT: gardenandgun.com/bucketlist .02 BRACKET Vote Now: The Great Steak House…

Let’s Party ONE CHEF’S PORKY SECRET TO BRINGING THE FUN As parlor tricks go, chef William Dissen’s country ham bourbon luge might just be untouchable. At a recent gathering of Garden & Gun Society members at North Carolina’s Cataloochee Ranch, Dissen unveiled his party pièce de résistance to the delight of the crowd. Inspired by the ice luge and jungle juice combo of his rowdy West Virginia University days, Dissen, the acclaimed chef at the Market Place restaurant in Asheville, carves a groove down the center of a Benton’s aged ham, grabs a good bourbon, and pours a shot down the chute into a short glass. He came up with the idea many years ago when he hosted a tribute dinner for his good friend—“and the nicest human being alive”—Allan…

Mac Stone PHOTOGRAPHER Mac Stone’s career as a conservation photographer has put him face-to-face with Florida panthers, thousand-year-old cypress trees, and snail kites. For “Red Wolves Rising” (p. 130), he spent six days in Eastern North Carolina following one of the South’s most endangered species. “You have this bare-bones crew working at fever pitch to save a species that most of the public doesn’t even know about,” he says. “I felt incredibly lucky to have seen red wolves in the wild.” The Florida native, who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina, is currently at work on a two-part PBS documentary celebrating Southeastern biodiversity, and a book born from a National Geographic assignment on the mystery of old-growth swamps. “I felt incredibly lucky to have seen red wolves in the wild”…

“That is the essence and magic of dogs—that God backward thing, and all” BIG EASY BUCKET LIST The February/March 2025 issue on New Orleans was beautiful and had perfect timing. Be a New Orleanian wherever you are! Heather HulingFairfax, Virginia I first heard about Dakar NOLA and its remarkable chef, Serigne Mbaye, in your April/May 2023 issue, and I put it on my travel list as a must-visit. I finally got to go last year, and the food was better than I imagined. I’ve lived and eaten in Los Angeles, Japan, Dallas, and Austin, among other places, but this experience and food were the best I have ever had—don’t tell my grandmother. Derrick WalkerAustin, Texas GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Thank you for publishing David Joy’s “Beyond the Grave” (Good Dog,…

WE ASKED... What’s your top hosting tip? In our Talk of the South newsletter, readers gave their best party-throwing advice. Buy premade mini desserts from the store and put them on pretty platters with some fruit as filler. Save the fussiness for a favorite family dish or something you make really well. Christa F. Ruth Fertel of Ruth’s Chris Steak House said it best: Greet them by name with a friendly, strong drink. David B. Put the clocks away. Kate M. Take a cocktail order at the porch. If a guest has to walk through twenty people to get a drink, they’ll never get there. Bruce M. Give your guests free rein in the kitchen. My friends do a rotating potluck, and we all just act like we’re at home…

YOUR GUIDE TO SOUTHERN CULTURE One evening when the fashion designer Christy Lynn Lee was a child, she grew tired of doodling on the printer paper her mother had given her and her little sister, Vickie, and took to the walls of her family’s small Chicago apartment instead. “I drew floor-to-ceiling flowers, rainbows, birds, you name it,” Lee recalls. “My parents were so upset that they immediately called the super to paint it back white. Apparently, they had to repaint several times because I kept drawing.” That vivid imagination has served her well: These days, Lee uses it to dream up pieces for her Texas-based clothing line, Christy Lynn. Her collection revels in juxtapositions, from undulating floral dresses paired with structured jackets to perfectly draped Italian crepe suiting in pastels…