The Drink Cart: Tartare Season

Our feeds were surging with tales of golden hash browns, soundtracks from the neutral zone and making tartare great again. Spoiler alert: It's the bread.

Dear Drink Carters

I want to start this week with a rant - that’s not uncharacteristic at all for me. Maybe this is more a manifesto. I think I had one of the most satisfying Steak Tartare in my career thus far. I’m not saying I put up triple doubles on tartare, but I know what’s up when it comes to sliced up beef.

It was just that random, pop in to have glass of wine, clear my head on the walk home type of things. The place, Archive in Toronto. I could go on - and on - about the steak and the fact that they dropped a perfect quails egg on top. But I won’t. it was the bread. Simple, but so well executed - warm, not too crunchy, not too soft and plentiful.

Honestly so many versions are like, “Hey, here’s some sad crisps that will implode upon a light breeze before you take one bite” or “we’re serving it with so few pieces of bread you’ll need to order more.” This tartare bread made my week. The bartender and I completely nerded out over the bread for five minutes as I was adamant, “No, it’s the best bread.” Like he somehow didn’t understand or believe me.

The other thing that was just as good as that tartare? After seeing a reference on X to when James T. Kirk steals the Enterprise in Star Trek II: The Search for Spock, I had to watch the whole thing again. I kid you not, I ended up downloading the movie from iTunes, watching it and then spent a lot of my morning walk thinking about how gross Kruge’s dog was?

Trust me, this is such a good Kirk scene and perfect for quoting to your coworkers all week long. It’s not just his incredible space leather jacket either. Or James Sikking playing the jerkiest of Star Fleet stooges ever - I did not know he passed away. And if you remember Sikking (when he was James B. Sikking) from Hill Street Blues, now that was a TV theme song. Iconic.

I’ve praised the Star Trek II soundtrack many times. The Battle in the Mutara Nebula track is an absolute banger. But the Star Trek III soundtrack is equally strong. Get into this 8 minute 39 second James Horner classic - it is your new theme for the week. No wonder there was a 2-CD version. These tracks are so good for when you’re writing too. I do not care if you think I’m a nerd for saying so. Warp speed, Scotty.

So pour yourself a drink from the cart, blast that James Horner to 11 and tuck into some advertising and marketing news:

• Hash brown content, commemorating big moments and adult crackers and fortune cookies

• Lie detectors, fried chicken sounds and AR popcorn buckets

• Modern mix tape art, late checkouts and even ET sneakers

• Plus your World Series hat reco and Argentina’s national cocktail

1. Hash brown ancestry

Mcdonald’s is so embedded into our culture right now. Yes, the iconic brand is batting lead off, again this week. No, I’m not a paid shill for the brand. Yes, my DM’s are open to that idea.

I’m not even talking about the incredible Trump McDonalds performance art last weekend - which was something else. But this new campaign by Leo Burnett is such a fun way to launch mini hash browns. Diving into the trendy ancestry and genealogy vibes to launch the Mini Hash Brown Ancestry Service gives you such a rich territory to play with. Mcdonald’s mini hash browns pretty much sell themselves, so why not just have fun with it. So they launched hash browns in 1977 and only in 2024 did they decide to make them mini?

2. Commemorative Cards

Okay, I’m going to geek out on some trading cards for a bit. Carry on to the next item if this isn’t your bag.

This Topps Now release from earlier this week to commemorate Lebron James playing in the same game with his son is really nice (and actually still available until October 26) - they look like cool mini-posters vs. the usual Topps Now way of doing things. That dual auto chase card is going to be mega bucks. Not Shohei Ohtani 50th mega bucks ($4.39 million is bonkers), but still. I like that former sports stars like Rollie Fingers still buy cards too. He just pulled a 1/1 of Dodgers’ rookie pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Speaking of commemorative cards, since we are so close to Halloween, this 1989 Batman card should definitely be on your list. This little bit of history from 35 years ago is still just a couple of bucks. Want more history? Topps is also letting you chase actual dinosaur fossil relics in packs of 2024 Allen & Ginter cards. Dr. Malcom was right.

Look at Uno! Since we’re still on the subject of cards, Topps is also dropping a collection of “Best in Show” dog trading cards. Come on! I mean, there better be a Jack Russell in that set. Such good boys.

3. Adult crackers & Misfortunes

I really like this temporary rebrand of Goldfish crackers for adults stunt. Changing Gold fish to uppity Chilean Sea Bass Crackers is funny. I kind of wich they made it more high-end looking. The website offering the daily has this great line, “They aren’t actual fish, they’re crackers… Just FYI.”

Of course it’s from Mischief, I just think they could have taken this even further. Just to keep up with this kind of stuff, Liquid Death had to launch something. That something is a collab with OpenFortune to create grim reading “Misfortune” cookies. They are stunning.

Love this sample: “You will live a long, happy life. No wait. Sorry. That was actually for the person across from you. Things are not looking good for you.”

4. Lie detectors in ads are genius

There’s not enough lie detectors in ads. I know they are used with great effect in Reality TV - thinking of Lisa Vanderpump’s test in Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 9, a classic. But this new Adidas campaign with Anthony Edwards is a perfect use to say you have the best shoes.

5. Frying Chicken Sleep Sounds

I do love this idea of frying chicken sleep sounds from sleep wellness brand Hatch and iconic purveyor of 11 herbs and spices, KFC. “We saw an Internet rumor that the recorded sound of ‘falling rain’ was actually the sound of frying chicken. Is there truth to this rumor? And can we fall asleep to it?” After 5 minutes I was not only craving fried chicken, but very sleep too. Mmmm….chicken.

6. AR Popcorn Buckets

We shared the Gladiator II mask popcorn bucket just a few weeks ago. But there is another popcorn bucket. This one gives you an insane AR gladiator battle. Are you not entertained? To me this feels like a really exciting use of AR for a change.

7. Back to mix tapes

The Mix tape is back. The Verge reports on how Spotify is adding a new cover art maker for your playlists. The official word from Spotify shares that users can, “create their own cover art with unique images, colors and text effects, graphic elements, and more, allowing them to make their music playlists more unique and personalized than ever before.”

8. Late Checkouts

I’m loving this short film for Ritz-Carlton to launch their new merch drop with Late Checkout. It’s no surprise that I’m partial to the hat. The film by director Rogelio González and starring Josh Hutcherson set in the Ritz-Carlton’s Hong Kong outpost and it chronicles “the adventures of a diligent employee (played by Hutcherson) and Mr. Wong, a frazzled father of two who retreats to The Ritz-Carlton when his house floods.” It’s got a great Wes Anderson-like quality.

Since we’re onto beautiful stays, worth sharing the Airbnb Beetlejuice rental. You can request until November 5th.

9. Brands Phone Home

People think movies went hard in the paint for collabs with brands now. But it was no different in the 1980s. I can’t even tell you this was AI. ET Shoes from Buster Brown had an insanely ear worming song. This will be in your head for days now. But do'n’t forget, you got ET trading cards, a sticker and gum with these bangers. That is “extra terrific!”

10. Hat of the week: Yankee Free Zone

I want to be 100% clear. We are rooting against the New York Yankees in the the upcoming World Series. My friend Rob sent this accurate Instagram video about people who simply wear Yankees hats for the “aesthetic.” That is no secret.

This Los Angeles Dodgers hat featuring a Dodger Stadium 60th Anniversary patch and in a fall-looking colourways seemed the right recommendation this week. Go Dodgers - especially after the news of the passing of Dodger legend Fernando Valenzuela.

Shhhh: Don’t tell anyone, but we are working on a reboot (that literally no one asked for) limited series of our 2020-2021 6ix Baggers content to cover the 2024 World Series. Stay tuned for a special issue № 72, coming Friday to your Drink Cart feeds.

Last call: The Drink Cart Coke & Fernet

I was looking for something super easy to share this week. Something that worked with this last gasp of great fall weather (at least here in Toronto). I found this recipe in David Lebovitz’s Drinking French and it seemed perfect.

The interesting thing here is that this cocktail isn’t really French at all - it’s actually popularized from Argentina - it’s the unofficial drink of the country. There’s even songs talking about it. And a rare case of a fascinating Wikipedia entry about all of this.

If you want to get fancy, you tell Marge from Accounts that it’s an exotic sounding Fernando or even a Fernandito, or just Fernet con Coca. Kind of like that SNL Domingo skit.

The dirty little secret about this cheeky easy drinking elixir? The if you know, you know fun fact? Well they say it is, “the quintessential hair-of-the-dog cocktail.” So that is absolutely perfect for that Thursdays are the new Fridays feeling on Friday mornings in your agency.

Here’s your Coke & Fernet

• 1.5 oz Fernet Branca

• 4.5 oz Coke

• Pour over ice in a tumblr and a little slice of lemon.

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Your Bonus Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics today are paired down to a reasonable five links. Today we are sharing 4 great podcast episodes, and an article.

• Listen to Alexa Chung talk music, it girls and influence. Or on Youttube. ( I stole one of her playlist recos for the video of the week below).

• Listen to the latest Vinepair as they talk the challenge of making Texas whiskey.

• Listen to Josh Lowman from The Gold Front on Dots talk creative.

• Listen to Zac Posen on creativity and the new Gap Inc.

• Read about the top 10 cocktail bars in the world.

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Drop me a comment below or tell me how your weekly drink turned out.

The Drink Cart is a weekly newsletter of advertising, pop culture, baseball and cocktails from Jackson Murphy.