It’s D.C. versus Hollywood in the digital battle of the Zukey Lake Tavern T-shirts.
First, actor Ryan Reynolds, best known as the title character in the “Deadpool” franchise, listed his well-worn Zukey Lake Tavern T-shirt as his very favorite in the New York Times’ “List of Five.” This is what he had to say:
“I have an old T-shirt that I’ve had for maybe 18 years. It was black, but is gray now. And on the front it says Zukey Lake Tavern. I don’t even know where that is, but it’s a real tavern somewhere in the United States. I’ve had a couple of people say, ‘No way! That’s from my hometown.’ I got it at a vintage store shortly after I moved to Los Angeles from Vancouver, way the hell long ago. Maybe this was in 1998 when everything in vintage stores was like four bucks.”
Since then, news of his love for his Zukey Lake Tavern T-shirt went viral. (The Livingston Post was the first Michigan-based media outlet to take note of that fact, and our story on it went viral, picking up more than 6,200 Facebook shares and, at last count, more than 15,000 views. Since then, the story was picked up by the Detroit Free Press and numerous other outlets.)
He’s even been invited to dinner at the famous Zukey Lake Tavern by Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
And now, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin has picked up her own Zukey Lake Tavern T-shirt — super cool in pink — during her recent tour of the Huron River Chain of Lakes in southeastern Livingston County, on which Zukey Lake Tavern is the only full-service restaurant.
All the star-power attention has helped sales of the T-shirts.
“We’re selling more since Ryan Reynolds, but we’ve always been known for the shirts,” said Tasha Zink, a long-time employee of the popular tavern. “We have hundreds of framed photos of people wearing their Zukey Lake T-shirts on their travels all over the world on display in the restaurant.”
In fact, the tavern encourages people to send in photos of them wearing the T-shirts. For info on how you can participate, or to check out some pics of the well-traveled tee, click here.
We’ve got proof of Slotkin’s Zukey Lake Tavern love. How cool would it be if Reynolds emailed a pic of him in his old Zukey Lake Tavern T-shirt to info@thelivingstonpost-staging.tepontv7-liquidwebsites.com?
If you want your own Zukey Lake T-shirt, you can pick up one of the originals for $12 at the tavern, located at 5011 Girard Drive in Pinckney. You can call them at (810) 231-1441.
