The Red Apple Universe: Why We Built a Bar Around Tarantino’s World

Laura Kuhn
May 28
3 min read

Let’s start with the obvious question: Why would anyone build an entire bar around a fake cigarette brand from a bunch of Quentin Tarantino movies?

Short answer: We’re those people.

Long answer: Because Red Apple Cigarettes isn’t just a fictional product—it’s the golden thread stitching together Tarantino’s bloody, brilliant, bizarre cinematic multiverse. And somewhere between Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, we thought: What if we turned this inside joke into an actual lounge? Turns out, it makes a damn good bar.

🎬 The Red Apple Origin Story (Sort Of)

Red Apple Cigarettes first appeared in Pulp Fiction, casually chilling in Butch’s apartment like the Marlboro of movie worlds. Then it popped up in Kill Bill. Then in From Dusk Till Dawn. And then in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—complete with a cheesy in-universe commercial starring Rick Dalton.

By that point, Red Apple wasn’t just a prop—it was Tarantino’s fictional Big Mac, with a side of film-nerd satisfaction.

We thought: If this brand can survive multiple timelines, fake commercials, samurai showdowns, and vampire shootouts... surely it can survive the Ocean Springs bar scene.

Spoiler alert: It can. And it does.

🍎 So, Why a Bar?

Because bars, like Tarantino films, are about vibe, storytelling, and unexpected twists. Also, we really wanted to serve a cocktail called the “5 Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.”

When we imagined Red Apple Lounge, we didn’t want it to feel like a theme park. We wanted it to feel like a place within the Tarantino universe—like you might see our neon sign flicker behind a dusty saloon window in Django, or find our matchbook in Mr. White’s pocket.

It’s not cosplay. It’s cinematic immersion. With booze.

🛋️ Building the Tarantino Moodboard

We asked ourselves the hard questions:

What would Mia Wallace order at 11 PM on a Thursday?
Would Jules Winnfield drink mezcal? (Yes, but only if it was smoked and biblical.)
Can we make our menu look like a cigarette ad from 1972?
Can we make a merch line that looks like it was sold from the trunk of the Pussy Wagon?

Yes. Yes. And oh, absolutely yes.

🍸 Red Apple, Reimagined

We took the fake cigarette brand and ran with it—right into a cocktail menu:

The Royale with Rum – tropical, a little dangerous, and metric-system approved.
The Bonnie Situation – creamy, sweet, and perfect for staying cool while disposing of evidence.
Once Upon a Time in Ocean Springs – the Hollywood-meets-Gulf-Coast crossover you didn’t know you needed.
Bayou Dogs – a bourbon-forward nod to Reservoir Dogs, minus the ear thing.

🧠 For the Deep Cut Nerds

You know who you are. You saw the pack of Red Apples in Four Rooms and gasped. You caught the ad in Grindhouse and whispered, “They’re still doing it.” You’ve got theories about all the Tarantino characters being in the same blood-soaked universe.

Welcome. We built this place for you. We stocked the back bar for you. We made enamel pins with fake 1970s warning labels just for you.

This isn’t a gimmick. It’s a love letter to the weirdest detail in the coolest filmography ever made.

🎞️ Red Apple Lounge: A Real Bar in a Fictional World

At the end of the day (and the start of every night), Red Apple Lounge is what happens when movie nerds, cocktail obsessives, and design freaks come together and say: “Let’s build something that feels like a scene.”

And then actually do it.

So come in. Order something killer. Toast to the characters that lived, the ones that didn’t, and the fake cigarette brand that became the soul of a real-life bar.

Red Apple Lounge

If you know, you know. If you don’t, come drink until you do.

📍 Ocean Springs, MS🕶️ One part cinema. One part speakeasy. All heart.