By Mike Schoby
Sportsmen need a mobile bar. Don’t believe me? Just read Ruark and Hemingway—a safari wasn’t complete without pulling the packable bar out of the lorry for a sundowner or three at the end of the day.
I think I first got afflicted by the idea of the perfect mobile bar when I saw the King Ranch 1949 Buick Roadmaster “El Kineno” featuring a whiskey bar incorporated into the seat backs. Since then I have been on the quest for the ideal solution for taking booze afield. I have tried British-style leather scotch carriers that secure a bottle or two—the problem is they only hold a limited size of bottle and not enough variety to satisfy every taste. Then on a safari in Africa, I found a canvas roll-type bar that hangs from the truck rack and holds about 50 mini bottles. It was a good idea, and I bought it. It has plenty of capacity and the ability to be stocked with a wide selection of alcohol, but I quickly realized you look like a secretive alcoholic PTA mother with a day-drinking problem every time you went to the liquor store to restock the mini bar. The quest continued.
Last year, I was sitting around our booth at Dallas Safari Club drinking with the guys from Condition 1 cases and we got to brainstorming the perfect traveling bar based around one of their super-tough, made-in-America rotomolded cases. They can custom-cut foam into any shape and they have actual engineers (big brain, low sense of humor guys) on staff that can do the precise CAD design/layout work to maximize the space. We downed a few drinks and then decided to create the Field Ethos x Condition 1 Collab travel bar.
After many iterations, we finally came up with the “perfect” traveling bar. We tried various case sizes, but ultimately selected the series 300 case. Why? It is the perfect carry-on travel case dimensions for all major airlines, which I have previously reviewed here. Not that you can carry on your mobile bar, but the thought was that tons of guys already own a 300 series case for travel (and if they don’t they should) and it is easy to insert the bar foam when you want the case to serve double duty as a travel bar. Conversely, guys that don’t own a series 300 case could buy the bar and remove the foam when they want to use it for a general carry on travel.
So, size determined, what needs to go into the bar?
We cut the foam to fit at least two one-liter bottles of booze (a third can be added but it is snug). Spaces for a couple of mugs—the FE copper mug was a natural choice. But enjoying a sundowner is not just about having a drink to celebrate the day; it is about socializing and relaxing with friends. A few cigars perhaps? A pack of smokes, a couple cans of Zyn? The case has cutouts for all of those—use as you see fit. The top of the case features the Condition 1 pouches. These work great for extra mini bottles of various booze, a small flask or two for field trips, some cans of mixers, stir sticks, and other bar accoutrements.
The final question we had to tackle; what bottle shape to cut into the foam? We initially did it for Chicken Cock bourbon bottles, because if I had my druthers, that’s all I would drink. But recently on safari, I encountered a bloke who didn’t fancy bourbon. After running him out of camp, we came to our senses and realized we had a flaw in our system. And with every bottle being a wide variety of shapes, no easy solution was evident. Then our Mexican outfitter/part-time cartel lawyer buddy Miguel Larregui rolled up to our impromptu gathering and pulled his preferred traveling flask out of his backpack—it is a HDPE food-grade plastic flask, one liter in size. Ingenious. Easy to fill, dispenses perfect one-ounce pours, is compact, lays flat, leakproof, super inexpensive, and can be filled with any hooch a drunk could desire.
The design is now done. You can purchase it here.
Cost: $280 (Buy here)
Pros: Safely take your booze, cigars, nicotine, and other desired sundowner items to any location.
Cons: You may be called an “alcoholic,” whatever that means…
