Photographs by Erin Norwood
“Here’s to you and here’s to me…”
So goes the start of the ever-popular toast my fellow imbibers and I have long recited while raising our glasses and celebrating… well, anything, really.
For me, the tradition of clinking glasses and bottles goes back to The Cherokee Drive-Inn, an iconic Jackson watering hole and restaurant, when it was on State Street and served up, among other things, cold beer and a sausage and cheese platter that still makes my mouth water at the thought. As anthems by Mississippi bands, such as Oxford’s Beanland, played from the jukebox, I would frequently raise my green bottle of Rolling Rock. The brew from Old Latrobe was the closest I could get to “craft” beer at the dawning of the new millennium. The toasts always centered on good friends and good times, and I never seemed to have a shortage of either at The Cherokee.
Now, beer-lovers in this state have even more reason to celebrate. Beer, brewed in Mississippi, abounds! This issue of The ‘Sip celebrates the eight companies that are hand-crafting beer right here at home. No need now for the “imports” from Pennsylvania and beyond. We have our own beer, and, like so many Mississippi-made goods, each one of them gives reason to “raise your pints.” And, while my old hangout is still hopping in a different Jackson location on Old Square Road, dozens of craft beer havens thrive all over the state.
As The ‘Sip grows to cover the whole state, my group of fellow glass clinkers continues to increase. Life has brought me many more reasons to celebrate and raise my glass, and my own personal toasting tradition continues, albeit with better and local beer.
So, here’s to celebrating our beer, our music, our food, our football and all of our toast-worthy times in the ‘sip!
Cheers, y’all,
Lauchlin
PHOTOGRAPHY Erin Norwood
