Issuu

RIDGEFIELD-OWNED DANNICK CARPENTRY—FROM CUSTOM HOMES TO DEEP ENERGY RETROFITS

Let Us Move You

Exceptional New England Cape, beautifully sited on a coveted Ridgefield cul-de-sac. Meticulously maintained, the home reflects true pride of ownership with refined, inviting interiors & timeless appeal. A gracious Foyer introduces a thoughtfully designed floor plan featuring a desirable main-level Primary Suite, along with well-proportioned Living & Dining Rooms ideal for both entertaining & everyday living.

The Chef’s Kitchen w/custom cherry cabinetry opens seamlessly to a dramatic Family Room with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams & fireplace. A four-season Sunroom extends the living space with serene views of the landscaped grounds. Upstairs, 2 Bedrooms share a Jack-andJill Bath, complemented by a Media Room & flexible bonus space. Set on 1.57 acres with specimen plantings, elegant hardscaping & circular drive.

At Karla Murtaugh Homes, we are privileged to represent this extraordinary market and remain steadfast in delivering tailored guidance and exceptional results. Whether you are considering a purchase or preparing to sell, trust our award-winning team to provide a refined, seamless experience in 2026.

Consistently Ranked #1 in Ridgefield

Timeless New England Cape | 19 Hull Place, Ridgefield

The Men’s Issue

Have you ever stopped to think about the role a father truly plays in shaping a home? It’s something that often goes unspoken, yet its impact is profound. Fathers help create the rhythm of a household—they bring stability, perspective, and a sense of direction that quietly influences everything around them.

As a father myself, I’ve come to realize that it’s not always the big moments that define the relationship, but the small, consistent ones—the conversations in the car, the shared routines, the lessons that come from simply being present. Those moments add up over time and become the foundation our children stand on.

A father’s influence shows up in many ways:

• His strength can be a steady anchor in uncertain times

• His words can guide, encourage, and inspire

• His presence can bring comfort and confidence

• His time creates lasting memories and meaningful connection

• His guidance helps shape character and direction

What makes fatherhood so meaningful is that there’s no single way to do it “right”—but there is always an opportunity to be intentional. The impact a father has is built day by day, through effort, patience, and love.

This month, as we celebrate Father’s Day, it’s a great time to recognize the fathers and father figures who have shaped our lives. And for those of us who are dads, it’s a reminder of the role we have the privilege to play—not just within our families, but in the example we set for the next generation.

Wishing a Happy Father’s Day to all the incredible dads in our community.

Warm regards,

BRUCE BERNSTEIN, PUBLISHER

@RIDGEFIELDLIFESTYLEMAGAZINE

June 2026

PUBLISHER

Bruce Bernstein | bruce.bernstein@citylifestyle.com

EDITOR

Katie Parry | katie.parry@citylifestyle.com

PUBLICATION DIRECTOR

Katie Bode | katie.bode@citylifestyle.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jennifer Zarine Photography, Veronica Green Photography

Corporate Team

CEO Steven Schowengerdt

President Matthew Perry

COO David Stetler

CRO Jamie Pentz

CoS Janeane Thompson

AD DESIGNER Rachel Chrisman

LAYOUT DESIGNER Amanda Schilling

QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Marina Campbell

LET’S GET AHEAD OF THE MARKET.

The best outcomes don’t happen on listing day – they happen in the weeks before

From pricing strategy and home preparation to professional marketing and buyer outreach, every detail matters. And in a market this competitive, the homes that stand out are the ones that were planned with intention

I specialize in guiding sellers through every step of the process so you feel confident, informed, and ready to maximize your results.

Let’s start the conversation. Contact Jay Contessa for a private seller consultation.

the issue

Dannick Carpentry

Inside Dan Musolino’s Five Decades of Craftsmanship—From Custom Homes to Cutting-Edge Energy Retrofits

The Art of Hospitality

Ian Lewis’s Journey Is a Story of Purpose, People, and the Pursuit of Excellence Guys’ Getaway

Four Great Places for Grooves, Grub, and Gawking with Best Bros Featured

Ian Lewis, Chief Operating Partner, pictured at Ross Artisanal Bakery & Café. From The Savoy on The Strand to The Marketplace in Copps Hill, his approach to hospitality blends craft, care, and community in every detail.

Departments

city scene

WHERE NEIGHBORS CAN SEE AND BE SEEN

The Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce debuted its Restaurant Week Launch Party, presented by BMW of Ridgefield. The evening featured passed hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants and beer and wine from Nod Hill Brewery and Cellar XV. A portion of proceeds benefitted Meals on Wheels. 1: From left: Adaline Fusco, Jason and Carrie Varga, Kate Perry, and Stephany Sanderson 2: From left: Jessica Bowen, Jill Rae, Mary Joyce, and Deborah Backes 3: Ridgefield Lifestyle Publisher Bruce Bernstein with wife Mindy 4: From left: Ian and Carissa Lewis, Corrinne and Joseph DiVestea, and Anthony Messina 5: From left: Ashley Hutchings, Annie Fandl, Cynthia Long, and Amanda Gabbard 6: Board members from Ridgefield’s Chamber of Commerce celebrate a successful launch party for Restaurant Week 2026 7: Stephanie and Robb Heering

Photography by Natasha Fleming Photography

The RABC Gala was a glittering evening honoring RABC Scholars and community leader Megan Searfoss of Ridgefield Running Company. From moving remarks by alumnae Fulvia Vargas ’08 and Sylvana Soto ’19 to the palpable energy in the room, the night celebrated opportunity, access, and brighter futures. 8: Alumnae speakers, sisters Sylvana Soto (’19) and Fulvia Vargas (’08), with their mom 9. Le Chateau welcomed guests for another wonderful RABC Gala 10: Host family with RABC scholar

Let’s

Gilded Rose

Gilded Rose is Ridgefield’s newest destination for thoughtfully curated consignment. The boutique presents a refined selection of designer handbags, shoes, clothing, and accessories—each handpicked for exceptional quality, style, and authenticity. Alongside fashion, discover a distinctive collection of estate jewelry celebrating the beauty, craftsmanship, and history of bygone eras. Gilded Rose also offers estate sale services, executed with care, discretion, and professionalism. Visit the shop at 16 Bailey Avenue. Owner Judith Scala can be reached at Judith@gildedrose.net or (203) 216-7676. Follow on Instagram @gildedroseconsignment to see the latest arrivals.

Photography by Gilded Rose

Venezia Marble

Venezia Marble brings timeless elegance and precision craftsmanship to Fairfield County. This featured kitchen showcases the breathtaking beauty of Vermont Danby Marble, featuring a fullheight book-matched backsplash paired with a crisp, modern white quartz island. Specializing in custom fabrication, we transform high-end natural stone into bespoke works of art. At Venezia Marble, traditional artistry is combined with modern innovation to curate lasting impressions for homeowners and luxury builders throughout Ridgefield and Wilton. Visit veneziamarble.com to learn more and follow on Instagram @veneziamarble.

Photography by Venezia Marble

Scan to read more

Pop’s Classic Diner

Recently opened Pop’s Classic Diner is an authentic, family-run diner serving up a wide range of classic American dishes. With its classic black and white checkered floors and red banquettes, Pop’s Classic Diner offers an extensive menu for breakfast and lunch. Even homemade desserts! Everything is made with quality ingredients and served with a smile. Open Monday through Sunday, 7am to 3pm. 199 Ethan Allen Highway. Visit popsclassicdiner.com to see their full menu or order takeout. And be sure to follow @popsclassicdiner

Photography by Pop’s Classic Diner

RETROFITS

ARTICLE BY KATIE PARRY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY VERONICA GREEN PHOTOGRAPHY

CARPENTRY DANNICK

Dan Musolino and his dog Bella at an energy-efficient, custom-built farmhouse nearing completion

Dan Musolino has been swinging a hammer since 1977—and like many good builders, he’ll tell you he’s still learning.

After graduating from Ridgefield High School in the late 1970s, he headed west.

“I moved to California in 1979 and joined the Carpenters’ Union,” Dan tells us. “That’s where I learned framing and building. I worked with a lot of experienced builders and gained a tremendous amount of knowledge.”

He returned to the East Coast in the early 1980s and started his own framing company, building custom homes for builders across Fairfield County.

“As the building business changed, we evolved with it,” he says.

Over time, the work expanded to include commercial projects, gas station remodels, apartments, and jobs at the Danbury Fair mall.

Custom homes, commercial builds, full gut renovations, additions—over nearly five decades, Dan has worked across just about every type of construction project, building a depth of experience shaped by job sites of all sizes.

After a stretch with a larger company, friends encouraged him to strike out on his own again. He founded Dannick Carpentry LLC more than 20 years ago. Today, the company is licensed in both Connecticut and New York, with crews working throughout Fairfield County, Westchester County, and beyond.

Much of their day-to-day focus is remodeling—kitchens, bathrooms, additions, and full renovations. Increasingly, though, clients are coming to Dannick for something more specialized: deep energy retrofits (DERs), or energy-efficiency remodels. These projects are especially relevant in today’s volatile energy market.

“It’s not the same as traditional building,” Dan tells us. “There are a lot of nuances that go into it.”

We’re chatting with Dan in the Dannick Carpentry office on Bailey Avenue, a light-filled space with high ceilings on

the second floor, next door to Trillium Architects. While not formally affiliated, the two firms often work closely together. Recently, they both attended a conference in Boston hosted by the New England Sustainable Energy Association—part of an ongoing effort to advance green building standards in the region.

The deep energy retrofit, he explains, is a multilayered, wholehouse process that starts outside and moves inward, ultimately reducing a home’s energy consumption by 40 to 50 percent.

The siding is removed, the house is rewrapped with a vapor barrier, and exterior insulation is added to meet current energy codes. Windows are replaced with high-performance double- or triple-pane units, HVAC systems are upgraded to electric heat pumps, and an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) is installed.

Dan describes the ERV as “the lungs of the house”—it pulls out stale air and draws in fresh air continuously. This is something older homes did naturally through their gaps and cracks; a tightly sealed, super-insulated house has to do it intentionally.

The result is a home that not only looks better—but works better.

“It’s about balancing the house,” he says. “Making it greener— trying to create healthier environments, keep the moisture out, keep the mold out, keep the heat or air conditioning in.”

One thing Dan avoids is adding foam insulation under siding. Foam can off-gas, it’s difficult to dispose of responsibly, and it often ends up buried in the ground.

Instead, he opts for dense-packed cellulose—a high-performance insulation made from recycled paper—or rockwool, a durable material spun from basalt and steel slag.

“We try to make sure we’re building a healthy environment in the home,” he says. “Using cellulose or rockwool is a big part of that.”

He’s not anti-foam entirely—he’ll use it along foundations where other materials can't reach—but he pays close attention to evolving materials and adjusts as better options emerge.

“They’re constantly developing new processes,” he says. “Eventually I think they’ll hit a good spot.”

It’s a specialized kind of work, and one Dan has spent years getting right. That same straightforward thinking shows up beyond the jobsite.

When it came time to name the business, the answer was right in front of him: combine his name with his wife Nicole’s. Dan. Nick. Dannick.

“People remember it,” he says with a smile. Nicole is the other half of the operation in more ways than one. While Dan is running job sites—sometimes up to six at a time, with eight carpenters and a full roster of trusted subcontractors—Nicole handles the books, the spreadsheets, the paperwork, and, as he puts it, “taking care of Dan.”

That same foundation of trust carries into every client relationship.

“I like to keep everything transparent from the beginning,” he says. “From the first meeting, I explain how I do business. You want to see how I quoted the job? I’ll show you the breakdown. There are no hidden agendas.”

In a trade where corners can be cut quietly and clients don’t always know the right questions to ask, that kind of openness is rarer than it should be. Dan’s business runs almost entirely on referrals—no splashy marketing, no undercutting on price.

When something goes wrong mid-project—as it inevitably does in construction—he addresses it directly, with integrity. In this business, reputation is everything.

“If something isn’t done right, we fix it. My goal is to keep the customer satisfied with the progress of the project—and, more importantly, the final outcome.”

Dan has been doing this long enough to have seen every version of the industry: the boom years, the lean years, the COVID-era material shortages that sent lumber prices into the stratosphere. Through it all, he’s built and maintained a tight roster of local subcontractors—Mulvaney Plumbing, Bellagamba

Electric, Total Comfort for HVAC, Villalba Excavating, Risko Foundations, O’Brien Painting—many of whom he’s worked with for decades. It’s a network that allows Dannick to take on projects of virtually any scope, with people Dan trusts completely.

Ask Dan what kind of projects he favors, and he doesn’t hesitate. Old houses. Antiques. The ones with surprises behind the walls and history in the bones.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” he says. “And you’re not tearing it down—you’re taking it, reconditioning it, and bringing it back to life.”

That instinct—to restore rather than replace, to improve rather than demolish—runs through everything Dannick does, from the cellulose they pack into walls to the 1959 house in South Salem they recently transformed into a super-insulated, energy-efficient home without touching the original footprint.

New construction brings its own rewards too: different challenges, different constraints, and a front-row seat to how the industry keeps changing. An energy-efficient, custom-built farmhouse nearing completion in Lewisboro is a recent example—modern in every way, but built with the same care.

“My goal is to keep the customer satisfied with the progress of the project—and, more importantly, the final outcome.”—Dan Musolino

That balance—honoring what’s already there while staying open to what’s next—is, in a way, the story of Dan Musolino himself. A kid from Ridgefield who went west, learned from the best, came home—and never stopped building.

These days, Dan is typically juggling several projects at once, with more already lined up behind them. He’s not ready to retire—and he’s not sure he ever will be.

“It keeps your mind working,” he says. “Keeps you thinking about how to do things better.”

To get started, call 203-512-1211 or visit dannickcarpentry. com . Dannick Carpentry is located at 16 Bailey Avenue on the second floor. Follow on Instagram to see recent projects @dannick_carpentry_llc

ARTICLE BY KATIE PARRY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER ZARINE PHOTOGRAPHY

THE ART OF HOSPITALITY

FROM

THE SAVOY ON THE STRAND TO ROSS ARTISANAL BAKERY & CAFÉ IN THE MARKETPLACE, IAN LEWIS’S JOURNEY IS A STORY OF PURPOSE, PEOPLE, AND THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

As a kid growing up outside of Liverpool, England, Ian Lewis’s first job was on a milk float.

“It was a quiet, battery-powered vehicle filled with bottles of milk,” Ian says. “A needle on a crate outside each house told us how many pints to deliver the next morning—one, two, three, or four.”

It was simple. Personal. And, in its own way, an early lesson in service.

From there, Ian worked at a local pub. In England, beer bottles were stored below grade, rendering them cool—not cold. It was Ian’s job to bring the bottles up to the bar, put them on ice, and get them ready for serving to customers. Eventually, he moved into the kitchen.

When Ian was 15, his mother asked what he wanted to do with his life.

“I don’t know,” he told her. “Maybe I’ll be an accountant.” Her response?

“Oh love… there’s an opening at the catering college, why don’t you try that?”

Ian recounts this with a grin—and it’s easy to see why the story still delights him. We’re chatting on a weekday morning at Ross Artisanal Bakery & Café, and the place is humming—customers coming and going, staff baking in the kitchen, espresso beans being ground for a latte. The scents of freshly baked bread, of sugar, of caffeine fill the air, and there is Ian greeting each customer that walks in—many by name.

He did attend that catering college, and upon graduating at just 17, moved to London to take a position at the legendary Savoy Hotel on The Strand. There, Ian worked as the tourier—a role in the brigade kitchen system responsible for producing all raw dough. In the years that followed, he worked under British culinary luminaries Nico Ladenis and Gary Rhodes before crossing the Atlantic in 1995.

Ian’s first role stateside was at Lake Placid Lodge, a five-star resort in upstate New York, where he served as pastry chef. Then came a shift into the corporate world as Executive Pastry Chef for Travelers Group (which later merged with Citibank), Regional

Director at Aramark, and eventually a role at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (of Shake Shack and Gramercy Tavern fame).

Ian and his wife Carissa had been settled in White Plains for nearly two decades along with their two children. But with Carissa running a small independent school in Stamford, a move closer had long been on their minds.

Then, one Friday morning during the pandemic, their realtor called.

“She said, ‘I found your house.’ We said, ‘Where?’ She said, ‘Ridgefield.’” He smiles. “We always dreamed about coming here—we’d say, ‘Let’s go visit Ridgefield!’ But we never thought we’d actually live here. We came that weekend, made an offer Sunday—and that was it.”

Around the same time, Ian found himself drawn back to his roots. Ross Bread—which had opened in 2009 and become a beloved fixture in The Marketplace, known for its buttery croissants, Stumptown coffee, and fresh organic salads—had been taken over by co-investors Truitt Bell and Phil Murray.

“Pastry has always been my vocation—it’s what I love,” Ian tells us. “I was tired of corporate life, working remotely, being on my own. I’m a team person, and I was considering opening my own bakery.”

Ian mentioned this to a neighbor who connected him to the co-owners—and what began as a short-term consulting role soon became something more.

“I came in around October 2022 and planned to get them through Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a huge success—better than ever. So then they asked me to stay through Christmas.”

Ian returned to England after his father’s passing, but when he came back to Ridgefield, his path forward was clear.

“I had a small amount of inheritance from my father, and I decided to invest it in the business—almost in his name. I felt like he would be proud.”

In January 2024, Ian became Chief Operating Partner. Under his leadership, the business expanded into the neighboring storefront—previously home to Underground Co.—and was rebranded as Ross Artisanal Bakery & Café.

But the driving force behind the growth, Ian is quick to clarify, wasn’t ambition for ambition’s sake. It was about creating a better working life for his staff, who had long operated in two shifts because of limited kitchen space.

“The intention was to accommodate the team,” Ian explains. “There was a daytime shift handling everything savory and an overnight shift baking all the bread and pastries. It was important for me to have the crew enjoy their life at work, and to go home on Saturday evening and still enjoy their night.”

Regardless of intentions, growth followed. Over the last 36 months, Ross Artisanal Bakery & Café has grown by more than 40%—no small feat in the current economic climate.

In addition to the physical expansion, this growth can be attributed to the three pillars that shape Ian’s belief in how to run a good business: incredible hospitality, quality and consistency, and cleanliness.

“Everyone who works here understands that we work on hospitality and being one team. Helping the team be successful—whether monetarily or in building a sense of community— that’s the goal. Come here, be happy, go home happier. We wouldn’t open the door every day if it wasn’t for these guys.”

That thoughtfulness extends to every corner of the store. Bulky freezers with low turnover have been replaced by elegant shelving stocked with olive oils, fruit preserves, and other carefully curated pantry items. A longtime Stumptown retailer, the shop once sold five or six bags of coffee a week—easy to miss, tucked away as it was. Today, with intentional placement at the front of the store, Ross has become the largest Stumptown retailer in New England, moving hundreds of bags weekly.

The bakery has also embraced upcycling in earnest. Yesterday’s bagels become today’s bagel chips. Croissants become bread pudding. Bread becomes croutons and breadcrumbs. Even the sourdough starter—descended from the original culture, fed daily for nearly two decades— has been reimagined. Dried on sheet pans, crumbled, and packaged as sourdough starter kits now sold at the front of the store—right alongside Ian’s own handthrown pottery.

“I’ve got this quiet bucket list of things that I want to do, you know,” he tells us. “I want to tap dance. I want to play guitar. And I don’t think I’m ever going to tap dance or play guitar. But I’d always wanted to do some pottery and my wife said, ‘Thank God.’”

After a single session at the Hammond Museum in North Salem, Ian was hooked. He bought a wheel. Then another. Then a third. His basement has become a working studio, and he recently installed a kiln. Each season, he throws a new collection. Spring brought a series of planters; summer will bring two collections—the Foodie Collection and the Summer Solstice Collection—guided, he says, by warmth, mood, and color.

The connection to his day job isn’t as unlikely as it sounds. Both pastry and pottery demand deft hands and a clear vision of the finished product. Both reward patience and punish shortcuts.

And, of course, both require a turn in the oven.

For someone as busy as Ian Lewis—running a business, helming a consulting agency, throwing pottery, raising a family—he still finds ways to invest in the community that took him in. Not long after moving to Ridgefield, he was invited by Dan O’Brien to join the Chamber of Commerce. Today, he serves as Vice Chair.

This past April, he participated in the Ann’s Place Fashion Show for the second time, raising funds and awareness for the organization.

CONTINUED >

Ian—and the bakery—donate regularly to local fundraisers and causes around Ridgefield, be it food, funds, or time. He’s quick to point out, though, that many aren’t handouts—they’re collaborations. Recently, he’s been working with an entrepreneurial student group from Ridgefield High School’s class of 2028, who are raising funds for their graduation events. Rather than cutting a donation, Ian gave them 100 of the bakery’s wooden nickels—each redeemable for a free cup of coffee—and challenged them to build a business plan around it. They got to work right away.

Most days, though, you’ll find Ian exactly where this story began— on the floor, in the mix, greeting customers and supporting his team.

“I believe that we’re all hospitalitarians in our own right,” he reflects. “We serve everybody else. And I believe that if you give yourself up differently, you get something back. I’m not looking for anything—I

don’t want anything. I’ve got everything I ever dreamed of. I’ve been married 29 years to the most perfect person. I have two amazing kids. I’m privileged—not in the sense of money, but in what I have. And so I believe it’s my civic duty to give back to the place that supports me.”

The lunch rush is now in full swing. Ian catches the eye of someone just walking through the door and smiles—like he was expecting them.

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Ridgefield (203) 544-9017

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AN EXCERPT FROM EPISODE 6 OF SHARE THE LIFESTYLE, A CITY LIFESTYLE PODCAST

Photographer: Brittany Dawn Short

Creative Director: Jen Birn

Stylist: Stephanie Coultress O’Neill

Location: Hotel Saint Cecilia, Austin, TX

MIKE JOHNSON HAS BUILT HIS LIFE AROUND ONE QUIETLY RADICAL IDEA: THE STANDARD YOU SET PRIVATELY IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS.

After eight years in the Air Force, a celebrated run on national television, and a health crisis abroad that sent him deep into supply chains and ingredient certifications most founders never touch, the result is Oshun — a luxury ritual brand built on provenance you can trace and integrity you can verify. In an exclusive conversation for the Share the Lifestyle podcast, Mike shares what it actually takes to build something worth putting your name on. Read the highlights below, then scan the QR code for the full episode.

Q: YOU BECAME A FAN FAVORITE ON THE BACHELORETTE AND THEN LEFT THE SPOTLIGHT. YOU MOVED TO MEXICO, LEARNED SPANISH, THEN COSTA RICA, AND BUILT A COMPANY. WHAT DID THAT EXPERIENCE TEACH YOU ABOUT HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

A: “If you’re a good person going in, that shows. If you’re not, that shows too. I also learned that people form this parasocial relationship with you — they assume things about you. When all actuality, different circumstances bring out different parts of who you are. I was on TV trying to find love. The kindness people were showing after felt a bit fake, because they wanted to be a part of something that isn’t who I am individually, but a part of what they saw on TV. And so I had to get away from everybody and everything and the noise.”

THE QUIET STANDARD:

MIKE JOHNSON

“Too many people have prayed for me. So I’ve got to get up and do the walking.”

— Mike Johnson

Q: YOU JOINED THE AIR FORCE RIGHT OUT OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE. WHAT WERE YOU ACTUALLY RUNNING TOWARD?

A: “There was something in me that was saying: I’m not living up to my full potential. I was being a follower. My uncle said, ‘What’s going to make you become an adult the fastest?’ I said, obviously, the military. The Air Force broadened my thought process more than anything. We’re so caught up in our own perception — when you learn to understand different people’s perspectives, it adds to you in so many ways.”

Q: WITH OSHUN, YOU OWN YOUR MANUFACTURING, YOU EMPLOY A CHEMIST, EVERY PRODUCT HAS A BATCH NUMBER TRACEABLE TO ITS ORIGIN DATE. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO GO THAT DEEP WITH THE BRAND?

A: “The EU bans 1,100 ingredients in personal care products. The U.S. bans nine. That’s my starting point. Oftentimes, it might be the same ingredient, but it comes from a place where it doesn’t have the highest purity. And 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed. Every product Oshun makes carries a batch number that goes back to the exact day it was created — I can show you every single supplier, the date, the origin. I own more than one part of the supply chain because that’s the only way I can stand behind what’s in the bottle.”

This conversation is just the beginning. Mike goes deeper into why he’s buying land up north, the family in the Philippines who prayed over his factory floor, and what he’d tell every person ready to stop performing and start building. Scan the QR code for the full, exclusive City Lifestyle interview on the Share the Lifestyle podcast.

MIKE JOHNSON

ARTICLE BY KIM HILL

GUYS’ GUYS’

Has it been too long since your tribe gathered to rib and one-up each other as only guys can do? To help plan a getaway for just the guys, City Lifestyle gathered an eclectic list of locations offering tons of things to see, do and experience. Here’s hoping the only ribs one will get on this guys’ getaway are the kind to hold in hands while barbecue sauce drips onto shirts. Scottsdale/Phoenix

There’s no other tournament on the PGA Tour like the Waste Management Phoenix Open and no hole like the legendary 16th, where 20,000 boisterous fans boo the tee shots that miss the green. The other 51 weeks of the year, golfers can play TPC Scottsdale or try one of more than 200 courses in the Scottsdale area, a top golf destination. Another winter event is the BarrettJackson Collector Car Auction. Even if one’s only collector car was a Hot Wheels, it’s a blast to peruse the acres of autos for sale before heading inside to watch the unique or renowned cars crossing the auction block. When it’s time to get moving, the strenuous hike up Camelback Mountain in nearby Phoenix

is a bucket-list item. Need a more moderate trail? Experience the same magic of the majestic saguaro cactus in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

New Orleans

It’s always a party in New Orleans (NOLA), especially when it comes to festivals, many of them centered around music. Folk to funk, gospel to jazz, zydeco, blues, African and other musical styles are celebrated on the Jazz and Heritage Festival’s 12 stages. If free admission is more desired, don’t miss the French Quarter Festival featuring local musicians and food vendors representing dozens of New Orleans restaurants. Part of the fun of Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo is admiring revelers’ watercraft, some of them homemade just for this festival on the banks of Bayou Saint John. If one of the festivals can’t be attended, there’s still plenty of NOLA live music, particularly the jazz clubs on Frenchmen Street. And when a break from crowds is needed, take a guided swamp tour. Kitschy, yes, but it’s a hoot to cruise around on a swamp buggy while looking for alligators.

Bowling Green, Kentucky

“America’s Sports Car” is produced at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, where visitors can join guided tours to observe Corvettes being built and learn the fascinating history of these sexy autos. See examples of all Corvette generations at the National Corvette Museum. And if the need for speed is still felt, a few times a year Xtreme Experience offers driving or ride-along events in exotics like Ferraris or Lamborghinis at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park. After getting all revved up, cool down at Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest known cave system in the world and a World Heritage Site, where guided tours take participants through tunnels humans have used for thousands of years. And after all this touring, the Bowling Green area is the southernmost point in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail of distilleries.

Austin

Live music rules here, with iconic venues such as Antone’s, The Continental Club, the White Horse and hundreds of other locations, from dive bars to big stages. From rock and blues to country and urban, music is heard every night of the week (and many afternoons as well). When guys are hungry, there are tons of barbeque and Tex-Mex joints. Unique food trucks are truly a thing here, with nearly 2,000 food trailers in town. Burn some calories biking or running the Southern Walnut Creek Trail or one of many paved paths. Get out on the water in a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddleboard on Lake Travis or Lady Bird Lake. Take a dip in the historic Barton Springs Pool, where the underground springs keep the water around 68 degrees all year.