Last month, headlines across the country announced the end of a longtime brew, Schlitz beer, and it took some of its last breaths in Baton Rouge at Pelican to Mars.
The last cases had already been distributed to Pelican to Mars, 2678 Government St., when co-owner Remi DeMatteo saw the headlines. He ran to the back, grabbed the last case and stashed it in his fridge at home for safekeeping.
“I found out they were stopping distributing after I’d already ordered what I could order,” DeMatteo said. “I told the barback, ‘Where’s the box?’ So, I went and grabbed the box, and I’m like, ‘That’s a relic.’”
On June 22, he cracked it open with figures in the local mixology scene as a final send-off: other Pelican to Mars co-owner Lance Paddock and James Beard award semifinalist in mixology and Bin Q bartender Alan Walter…