Our Fall 2025 Issue is Here!

My family and I moved from Boston to Nashville in 2012 and on the way down, we stopped in Knoxville, my husband’s hometown, and happened to hit it during an epic football weekend—the University of Tennessee Vols were playing the University of Florida at home. (Sadly, the Gators trounced us). Our first stop that day was the parking lot at Neyland Stadium, which was awash in UT orange. Surrounded by music and friends’ laughter and the aroma of meat on the grill, Dave and I toasted our Solo cups to our Southern future. I realized then and there that I was going to fit right in.

Football and tailgating can both be serious sport. To prep a memorable spread, you need time and original ideas—aside from certain traditional foods made to honor your chosen team (I’m pretty sure someone was barbecuing gator meat at that UT tailgate), you’ve got to make the thing that everyone will be talking about until the next one…and then do it all over again.

In this issue, our associate editor of creative content, Brittany Furbee (a die-hard West Virginia fan) shows you how to build an unforgettable menu that’s sure to one-up every other tailgate in the lot.

As the season turns, we’re cleaning out our gardens, and that means it’s time to do something with the abundance. Chef Steve McHugh of Cured in San Antonio, Texas, wrote a whole cookbook about pickling, curing, and fermenting, titled after his own restaurant—in this issue he shares a few recipes to help craft the perfect fall-focused charcuterie board, which you can recreate at home.

We also follow writer Caroline Hatchett into a Louisiana duck blind as she experiences her first hunt alongside chef Drake Leonards of Eunice in Houston—it will give you a peek into the fiercely held, long-standing traditions that unfold in one quiet corner of Louisiana this time each year.

There are also plenty of seasonal new recipes to try, too, like what to do with green tomatoes, carrots, and sorghum, plus a look inside Top Chef host Kristen Kish’s fridge. Enjoy the issue. And go Vols!

What I’m Drinking This Fall

I’ve loved getting to know the ever-expanding world of nonalcoholic drinks, and just in time for football season, I’m excited to get my hands on Athletic Brewing’s newest alcohol-free beer, Aftershift, a collaboration between Southern Smoke Foundation’s Chris Shepherd along with chefs Chris Cosentino, David Chang, Ashley Christensen, and Sarah Grueneberg. The real reason to raise a can? Athletic will be donating $50,000 of sales to SSF’s mental health initiatives. athleticbrewing.com