Five years ago, Hero opened its doors in Nairobi Kenya as the first bar with a dedicated cocktail laboratory in east Africa. The idea was the be the sort of place superheroes (and supervillains) would chill in on their days off. What would they eat? What would they drink? How do they unwind?

Today, Hero has cracked into the World’s 50 Best Bars and is touring the globe, with pop-ups from Mexico City to Tokyo. Richie Barrow and Kelvin Thairu sit down with the band to talk about how their vision of fostering a Kenyan cocktail scene got started, how they source their ingredients, and the ingredients they bring with them when they’re on tour that highlight the amazing produce and flavors of east Africa.

Plus, congratulations (we suppose) to the super bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Greg, Sother and Damon wax poetic about some of their favorite bars in the city of brotherly love, and muse about the city’s peculiar habit of pole-greasing, to limited effect

Follow Hero on instagram at @hero_nairobi

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Erdoğan and the mending of MENA fences