Gen Z is Drinking Again, I Guess

Welcome to Open Tab, a weekly roundup of the news, gossip, and stories that have stayed open in my tabs all week. Last time we covered the cyclospora outbreak and other product recalls.Another Friday, another delicious edition of Open Tab. This week I found myself thinking about really good butter. I stopped in at the newly refurbished Capitaine and also at Penny here in New York—both of which offer a bread service with swoops of butter so buttercup yellow, so tangy, so deeply flavorful that I’ve been thinking of them longingly ever since.One recent tidbit that gave me a giggle: Bobby Flay is partly responsible for the opening of viral grocery store Meadow Lane. In a profile with the Times this week, founder Sammy Nussdorf revealed it was a pep talk from Flay—a neighbor to the store—that pushed him to keep going at one of his lowest points.Have any of you guys been haunted by the frankly upsetting scene in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey in which Circe cooks what can only be described as a very messed up stew? I got curious and polled food historians on what those guys might have actually been eating.This week several personal items of Colonel Sanders of KFC fame were auctioned. His little bowtie and suspenders went for a whopping $8,000, and a collection of his hand-typed recipes went for just under $4,000. The colonel’s datebook sold for $30K. I too am nosy, but I don’t know if I’d pay five figures to snoop through what Colonel Sanders was up to day after day.Also in this week’s Open Tab: at long last Gen Z is drinking alcohol, RFK Jr. is debuting a cooking show, France’s Bordeaux region is ablaze, and I take you all inside A24’s Tony afterparty for light light party reporting and reflection.The kids yearn to drink againA new study released by beverage insights company IWSR shows that alcohol consumption rates among legal-aged Gen Zers is growing. According to the study, it stands at 74%, up from 66% in 2023. This change is a big deal. Americans have been drinking less alcohol in recent years, and headlines have pegged Gen Z as leading the charge. We’re more concerned with wellness, some say. Others link it to the loneliness epidemic.This increase is good news for wine and spirits companies who have seen vast declines in sales and consumption over the past few years. They’ve adapted, launching non-alcoholic, wellness-focused products which you’ve likely seen on retail shelves. Still, Gen Z will need to get a whole lot thirstier these next few years if the industry is going to stay afloat.The government is producing a cooking showSecretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesRobert F Kennedy Jr. debuted a cooking show on his Youtube channel this week. The show is built around Kennedy’s redesigned dietary guidance, and focuses on meals that cost less than $5 per serving whenever possible.In the first episode, which features chef Andrew Gruel (who also appears to have political aspirations), and is shot in Gruel’s kitchen, the pair make crispy salmon cakes with apple white bean and green salad. According to their math, this works out to $4.91 per serving, though that tally also accounts just $8.99 for enough salmon fillets to feed four—realistic, perhaps, if you substitute canned salmon, as they suggest, but otherwise dubious. The pair discuss seed oil addictions, the microbiome, and ultra-processed foods as they mix together the ingredients for the salmon cakes. At time of publication, the video has twenty four thousand views.The fires raging in BordeauxWidespread wildfires are raging outside of Bordeaux, France’s largest winemaking region. The current area burned in the fires has already set a new record in France, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.The wildfires haven’t reached vineyards yet, and as of right now wine quality isn’t expected to be affected, but vineyard owners in the are already dealing with other challenges. A severe drought means water is a limited resource, and should the wildfires progress, the grapes may be victim to smoke taint, a condition where wildfire smoke degrades the qualities of the grapes. As we head in Bordeaux’s harvest season, the threat of spoilage is particularly worrisome.Inside A24’s Tony afterpartyThe world has been anticipating A24’s Anthony Bourdain biopic for months now, and on Tuesday, the film finally premiered in New York—it landed a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, incidentally. I found myself at the premiere’s afterparty sipping negronis and watching Dominic Sessa, who stars as Bourdain, schmooze the room. Naturally, I had to take you all inside the rather star-studded party. Read the (unpaywalled!) story here, and if you’re a hospitality worker, you can see the movie for free at one of the Industry Nights held in several cities across the country.