In case you need another excuse to visit Aspen this summer, Maker’s Mark is launching a one-night-only pop-up cocktail bar atop Aspen Mountain on June 20 during the 2026 Food & Wine Classic. Guests will ascend by gondola to a bar perched 11,212 feet above sea level for an evening of live music and alpine-inspired cocktails. The activation is inspired by Maker’s Mark’s Perfectly Unreasonable campaign, in which the beloved Kentucky distillery will launch pop-up cocktail bars in luxury destinations across the nation.
“You Never Find Reasonable Men on the Tops of Mountains.” – Hunter S. Thompson
When news of Maker’s Mark mountain-top merrymaking crossed my desk, I thought of the late Hunter S. Thompson, my favorite author. Thompson was a proud son of Kentucky but lived outside Aspen in his later years. As you might expect from a man of letters from Louisville, he counted bourbon among life’s dearest delights. “I like sun on the grass, a good tavern, a beautiful woman, fine writing, and fine whiskey,” he once wrote to a New York editor in a letter published in The Proud Highway. I suspect the good doctor would have been the first citizen to reserve a seat at Perfectly Unreasonable.
If I had a private jet, I would fly out to Aspen just for this pop-up. I can’t think of a more sublime place in the summer—those deep blue Colorado skies, a cool breeze off the mountains, the rivers packed with trout. Pea-soup humidity has already settled over New York City, and I’d be damn content secluding myself in the Rockies until October. I can also attest firsthand that the Maker’s Mark team knows how to whip up some mighty tasty cocktails. I visited their distillery in Loretto last year, and I still fantasize about a libation made with Cellar Aged, Maker’s Mark’s premium bourbon, and a wild blackberry reduction.
But alas, Gulfstreams remain out of my budget until I attain the level of literary fame that Hunter S. Thompson enjoyed. Until then, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the upcoming Perfectly Unreasonable pop-ups. And if anyone from Maker’s Mark is reading this, New York City seems a perfectly unreasonable place for the next activation.
