grey goose x island oyster. 🍸

sooo... this weekend got off to a pretty bad start. long story short: my apartment building caught on fire and my place suffered some pretty significant damage. thankfully, i had the perfect distraction to get my mind off of it all—even if only for a little while. i hopped on the ferry and headed over to governor's island with my buddies from grey goose for the most amazing dinner-cocktail experience you could imagine.

so, i'll set the scene: a surprisingly perfect temperature, the nicest breeze, an amazing sunset situation right by the water, and a seriously sweet view of downtown manhattan from the tables at island oyster. add about six or seven courses of good food and even better drinks, and you have yourself an awesome evening.

our host, a seasoned grey goose ambassador, walked us through a bit of the history of vodka, broke down a few handy tips and tricks, and even taught us how to make the perfect martini—a first for me. the whole experience really gave me a new appreciation for the spirit, and i'm pumped to try and make a few specialty cocktails with the quentin monge limited edition bottle they gave me (which you can see above), specially designed for the summer season.

fyi: this isn't a sponsored blog post, so there's no call to action here, no specially tagged links to click on, i just wanted to share a really fun night with you guys. 😎

a day to sleep in.

yesterday was non-stop. i woke up at 8:00 (yeah, on a saturday, i know...). shot 2 campaigns (7 looks) in the pseudo-blizzard that randomly hit nyc. cleaned my entire apartment. trekked through the snow to drop off some samples in williamsburg. surfed the subway over to the LES for a birthday thing, then met with friends over meatballs and wine. i eventually arrived back in my bed around 130.

having done all that... i think i earned a morning to press the snooze button and catch up on some reading. i hope everyone's been having an awesome weekend. find some time to rest and recharge before that weekly hustle begins again. -j

high fashion nights with bombay sapphire.

last night, i spent the evening with bombay sapphire gin, gq, and ryan clark of high fashion living for a special cocktail event at 214 lafayette in soho. the brands treated us to some awesome dishes and a non-stop flow of drinks—all prepared by schuyler hunton, the 2016 winner of the most imaginative bartender competition.

to be honest, i'm not really a fan of gin, so i when i realized it was the spirit of the evening, i expected it to be a sober night. i was wrong. i don't know if bombay is just in another lane or if schuyler's secretly a mixology magician, but i started with this spicy pepper-infused potion of sorts and finished five signature drinks later. the experience actually changed my perspective on gin altogether.

friends, camera crews, and cool little cocktail glasses (i got the piggy—named him donald) were on deck throughout the night, and if you've ever been to 214 lafayette, you'll know it's an amazingly luxe location, making the experience feel totally next-level. check out some more photos from the event below. -j

good food + good drinks + good company = a great night.