Hollywood friendship leads to unexpected place: Ready-to-drink cocktails
Wyatt Russell and Rich Peete launched Lake Hour drinks last year. The partnership has deep roots in the Finger Lakes.
I made time in my busy schedule recently to interview actor Wyatt Russell.
(I can’t type this with a straight face and am still smiling over the fact that one of my favorite actors took time out of his wildly busy schedule to chat with me.)
During a break in filming for the new Marvel showstopper, “Thunderbolts,” Russell and I chatted about an unexpected new chapter in his life.
Russell, the son of Hollywood royalty Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and the star of blockbusters like Apple TV+’s recent “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and Disney+’s “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” is the latest celebrity to back an alcoholic beverage brand. Along with his friend and movie producer Richard Peete, Russell launched Lake Hour, a line of botanically influenced, spirit-based ready-to-drink cocktails.
But unlike some of those other drinks, Russell and Peete are involved in every step of the process — flavor development, marketing, sales, and everything else associated with a start-up venture. It’s certainly not something that either expected when they first broached this partnership, but it makes each success, big or small, feel that much more satisfying.
Photo: Rich Peete (left) and Wyatt Russell toast with a Lake Hour canned cocktail inside their manufacturing partner’s warehouse.
“Very organically, for people who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing, it worked out,” Russell said. “It rolled out in a real way and got success for that reason. We didn't create it in a lab. It was all done by us. We run the company. We do everything day to day. All of the distributor meetings, all of the marketing, it’s all done by us.”
They’ve become experts in things like distribution management. Russell said they had to be slow and calculated in their growth, at first, so they didn’t stretch themselves too thin. Right now, they’re in five states and will soon launch in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“The benefit of doing everything is that you know everything that’s going on,” Russell said. “And you really learn the business, trial by fire. I think it is better if this is built on the back of a good branding story and not just me (as a celebrity). People are tired of that and see through that.”
Russell said they are just starting to put together a team now as they approach their second summer in business. This year is about “ramping it up and getting people to try it,” Russell added. “Across the board, people have really loved it and we’re all having a good time.”
Friends and family have guided and assisted Russell and Peete through this very foreign process.
Think of Lake Hour as a much less sweeter alternative to High Noon. (Like High Noon, it’s available in liquor stores.) The Conesus-based company embraces its identity as a Finger Lakes beverage. You’ll find allusions and references to the region in the drink’s packaging and marketing. Both of their lake houses are pictured on the can, as well nods to Russell’s grandfather who flew a float plane in Maine.
“We’ve made it personal in ways that it’s just more than the drink,” Russell said.
Peete, who has worked on some really cool projects like The Place Beyond the Pines and some fascinating documentaries, lives on Conesus Lake (at least part of the time) and his wife, Tracy, is best friends with Russell’s wife, Meredith Hagner, Russell said.
“Our wives were like, ‘You’ve gotta meet. You’ll be best friends,’” Russell said. “I was like, ‘I’m 37. I’ve got enough friends.’ And then we met and instantly hit it off. We were talking about growing up on lakes. I grew up in Canada, going to Lake Rousseau in Ontario. (Peete still has family on Conesus Lake.) Then we started thinking about the fun of lake life and that led to thinking about what was real to us and branding.”
All of these conversations happened over (multiple) cans of High Noon and Ranch Water. (Because many of life’s best ideas are hatched like this.)
“We were like, ‘This is pretty good.’ But there’s a version of this I would like better — something more subtle, with some real liquor in it, not as sweet, and without fake sugars and stuff like that.”
Peete called Russell in late 2022 and uttered those famous last words, “Alright, you wanna do this?”
“I’ve never promoted anything in my life,” Russell said. “I can’t do social media. But I can help you run the company and learn about it. So we went down that road.”
After a few months of recipe development and brand design, Lake Hour launched in the summer of 2023. “I told myself, ‘These things have gotta be good,” Russell said. “I can’t sell something I hate.”
Thankfully, Lake Hour’s core four flavors are awesome and as advertised — Watermelon Cucumber (tequila-based) and Rosemary Yuzu (vodka-based) are my favorites. Peach Ginger, and Honeysuckle Ginger, the other two vodka-based flavors, are also lovely. Each flavor is delicate and nuanced. Nothing overpowers.
Cass and I first enjoyed Lake Hour, unexpectedly, at last summer’s Flour City Brewers Fest at the Rochester Public Market. Lake Hour was set up as one of the first vendors as you entered from the north and I was immediately intrigued. I even snapped the photo above so I would remind myself to explore this product a bit later and hopefully share something through the newsletter. (Of course, it took multiple “friendly” reminders from Cass and a February article from Gino at City Newspaper to remind me to reach out.)
“Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, that’s really the home of the drink,” Russell said. Lake Hour sold about 5,000 cases last year, mostly in western New York. It’s produced by a co-packer in Pennsylvania.
He envisions participating in some Lake Hour events around the region this summer. “The best part about doing these things is when I go to sell these things, it’s centered around a lake party. It’s not like I’m going to a club and trying to sell a bottle of tequila. That sounds like hell.”
From Russell, there is a nervous laugh, followed by a huge sigh of relief as he thinks, “How the heck did I get myself involved in this?” But as he has found throughout his acting career and also through fatherhood, the biggest challenges and the biggest unknowns lead to the biggest rewards.
“We’re gonna survive the first year,” Russell offered. “Through all the ups and downs, I’ve had like 17 panic attacks. ‘Why the fuck did I do this?’ And then you have little wins here and there. Like we’ve gotten it through to a couple golf courses in Oklahoma. We had nothing to do with it. But the members loved it after they decided ours was their favorite RTD (ready-to-drink cocktail). It has been great that way. It has been a great creative outlet.”
Really, it’s just an excuse for friends to hang out. “That’s always the goal,” Russell chuckled.
Photo: Yes, I really interviewed Wyatt Russell this week. And yes, he was so lovely and charming.
Lake Hour drinks should be available at all your favorite liquor stores through western New York.
(Editorial aside: Exhale. Yes, I am serious. I talked to a really famous actor while he was on break filming a movie that will be a box office behemoth and millions of people are excited for. He was incredibly generous with his time. We bonded a bit over the shared experience of being an old dad with young son(s). I blathered on and on about how much the Pynchon nerd in me absolutely loved “Lodge 49. Wyatt said they call those fans “49ers” and marveled at the fact that he’s now working on a Marvel movie with Jake Schreier, who directed a bunch of the “Lodge 49” episodes. Schreier also directed the majority of the episodes of the wickedly funny Netflix series “Beef.” And then Wyatt — I feel like we’re on a first-name basis now — had to step away from the interview when he got called back into filming.
Just so wild. It’s even funnier that this experience came in the same week Adam Chodak and I talked to a group of awesome sixth-graders in Churchville-Chili about empathy and interviewing. One kid asked, “Who is the most famous person you’ve interviewed?” Adam coolly responded, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Hillary Clinton, and a host of world-class musicians. I, however, fumbled and said, “Some Buffalo Bills players, like, 12 or 13 years ago.” Of course, that led one student to ask, “Have you interviewed Josh Allen?” And since weird shit has a way of working itself out, maybe one day I will.)