If New York City is truly the great melting pot, it should also have a safe haven for cowboys. I found that space this week when I visited Midtown Manhattan's Black Barn, an American restaurant that serves tomahawk steaks and furnishes its walls with horseshoes. If you told me that it was a Yellowstone pop-up steakhouse, I would've been easily fooled. But it nearly was. On Monday night, Cole Hauser—star of the hit Paramount western, where he plays rancher Rip Wheeler—hosted a dinner to launch his new coffee company, Free Rein.
Since my beat at Esquire involves keeping tabs on the Yellowstone crew 24/7, I RSVP'd without a second thought. I also needed a bit of a caffeine jolt before I spoke with Hauser—and he had just the remedy. Though Free Rein offers a surprisingly wide variety of coffee flavors and roasts, Hauser made sure that I tried his favorite: American Dirt. On the brand’s new website, the aptly-named dark roast is described, rather simply, as "the coffee that Cole Hauser drinks." After meeting the man in person, I can safely say that he does, in fact, drink American Dirt. “I am American Dirt,” the 48-year-old actor tells me over dinner. “So, I just wanted to do something that sounded original, patriotic, and filthy.”
By the time we clean the charcuterie board, it's clear that this man is Rip. Hauser admits that he lived a cowboy's life long before Yellowstone. “I rode a horse before I could walk,” he says, recalling his childhood pony, Cinnamon. “I used to ride him around until my mom came out and rang the bell. That son of a bitch would drop his head and I’d slide right down his back.”
Still, if you really want to question the legitimacy of Hauser’s wrangling and lassoing skills, Free Rein's branding really drives it home. The tagline: “Our coffee doesn’t take like bergamot or berries. It kicks and bites." Free Rein dubbed its light roasts Prospect, Homestead, and Heavy Spur. The promo images of Hauser, full-bearded and straddling a horse, are indistinguishable from Yellowstone stills. But I did have a few questions:
Why coffee? “I’m a coffee nut. There’s a lot of people doing a lot of different things, different businesses. But for me personally, I’m always a fan of doing something that you really know about. And I’m coffee crazy."
You take your coffee black, right? “Ohhh yeah.”
Are you a one cup in the morning kind of guy? “No, I’m drinking two to four cups. My wife is probably at seven.”
Will American Dirt kick me in the ass if I drink two to four cups? “If you drink American Dirt, yeah. You’ll be grinning up to your eyebrows.”
Luckily, American Dirt tastes better than it sounds. It’s coffee-flavored coffee, as Dennis Leary once joked, and it certainly packs a punch. Hauser says his favorite coffee is a red eye—for those of you keeping track at home, that's coffee with an espresso shot. Occasionally, he’ll even bust out the black eye. (Two espresso shots.) “I made American Dirt with the espresso already in it,” he boasts. It's around this point that I feel American Dirt warming up my face, and I'm hoping my smile isn’t actually up to my eyebrows. Hauser adds that he was involved “top to bottom” with Free Rein, from roasting to rollout. “Designing the bags, the message, all of it,” he says. “All of it is me.”
Hauser wants his fans to feel like they’re living the cowboy way, too. He has a genuinely rabid fanbase—even by the Yellowstone fandom's standards—who flood his social media with support after he does... just about everything. Whether it's Rip Wheeler's latest adventure or just dropping his son off at college, Hauser gets a virtual standing ovation. It's a little much, sure, but to Hauser, their support means the world. “I was worried that we might lose our audience before Season Five, but it was quite the opposite,” he says. “The fanbase truly loves not just my character, but everyone. It’s pretty special to know that people care that much. That’s certainly what you do it for. Now, going on this press tour, it really means a lot that they love this coffee, too. It’s an honor.”
After thanking Hauser for the night, I walked out of Black Barn with enough caffeine in my system to never sleep again. He also gifted me a branded Free Rein cowboy hat, which I put right top of my head. I looked ridiculous, but it was the perfect nightcap to my year of nonstop Yellowstone coverage. Maybe I’m finally a cowboy myself.
