Author: ray@ilegalmezcal.com

Nighttime is a new talk show hosted by Stefan Marolachakis that takes place in the basement of Ray’s Bar in New York City. Stefan set out to create a show where old school New York artists could hang out with new ones, and create a meeting ground for the city’s past and present. The show’s first episode premiered on February 28, 2023, and we celebrated at Ray’s over Ilegal cocktails.

Episode 1, featuring Jesse Williams (a Nighttime executive producer) and Daniel Arnold, is on YouTube now.

Pictures from the launch party, by Cortnee Daley, below, along with the music video of the official Stefan’s Nighttime at Ray’s theme song by EQPT.

Beginning Earth Day, April 22, 2023, the Ilegal Mezcal Showroom at 38 Greenpoint Ave. in Brooklyn, will be drop-off location accepting used corks to be recycled. These corks will be ground down to create Recycled Cork, which is used to replace plastics and petroleum-based foams in consumer products, which can be collected and recycled again!

Ilegal Mezcal uses Portuguese cork to cap all of our bottles. This is both for the benefit of the product and the environment. Cork allows for the mezcal to breathe and better age inside the bottle, and cork trees naturally absorbs CO₂, a greenhouse gas that causes global climate change. And because corks come from the bark of the cork oak tree, harvested by hand without ever cutting down or killing the tree, cork products do not contribute to deforestation.

Cork trees can grow their bark back up to 15 times in their 200+ year lifespan. Harvesting cork boosts the cork trees carbon consumption by up to five times! This is because the tree must absorb more CO₂ to grow back its bark. For each ton of cork harvested, the cork forest absorbs an average of 55 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere. This means that a single cork represents 55 times its own weight in carbon sequestered. Cork oak trees in Portugal alone help offset 10 million tons of carbon every year.

Tampa Pro has been a staple event in the skateboarding world for so long that nearly every pro has skated it. It is famous for being the rare contest that even “non-contest skaters” are down for. Owned by one of the founders of Skatepark of Tampa, Brian Schaefer, The Bricks in Ybor City hosts skaters and partygoers from around the world or local with events to keep them entertained post-competition.

This year, Ilegal Mezcal’s Richard Mejia partnered with The Bricks to host the opening party for the neighborhood and visitors in town for the Tampa Pro. The night included drink specials like “La Tropical,” a mango, passion fruit, and banana cocktail made with Ilegal Reposado, free tattoos by the local artist Krystal Walf of Devils Workshop, live shirt printing by Takeo of Cowboy fashion line, and a rocking performance by local artist collective Bangarang – all photographed by Nick Hogan of Mover & Shaker. 

Ilegal Mezcal also had its first debut at the skate park this year, offering Joven and Reposado specials all weekend long.