'Breaking Bad' Actors Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul Headed To Pleasanton

PLEASANTON, CA — “Breaking Bad” actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are coming to Pleasanton with a mind-altering substance on which they’ve collaborated.

But don’t worry: it isn’t blue, and it’s perfectly legal. On June 1, the actors will grace Gene’s Fine Foods to sign bottles of “Dos Hombres,” their new brand of mezcal, a distilled alcohol beverage made from agave.

“It’s super cool for a small town like Pleasanton to have recognition like that - especially here at Gene’s, we really appreciate that,” Conor Gomes, a shift supervisor at the gourmet food and liquor store that has been located on Hopyard Road since 1971, told Patch. Still, it’s not the first time the small store has dos celebrity hombres: in September 2021, actors Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, known for their roles as the Salvatore Brothers in “Vampire Diaries,” came to Gene’s to sign bottles of their bourbon brand, Brother’s Bond Bourbon.

On June 1 from 9-10 a.m., Paul and Cranston are bringing cases and cases of their new mezcal, which they will sign. The two actors, who attained worldwide fame and acclaim playing a chemistry teacher and his former student who establish a crystal meth empire, started an actual mezcal empire in 2019. Gene's was selected by the brand as one of the stops along their nationwide tour, Assistant Manager Meghan Puckett told Patch.

Paul, who played the good-hearted ne’er-do-well former student Jesse Pinkman, was a longtime fan of the relatively obscure drink, according to an Orlando Weekly profile. Cranston, who played mild-mannered teacher turned ruthless overlord Walter White, meanwhile, considered it “carpet cleaner,” and noted he used to actually clean carpets with it.

But together at a mezcal bar in New York City, Cranston found a brand he liked, and the two agreed to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico and sample more. They also wanted to get back in business together in some capacity. “We thought it was too soon for sharing the screen again, but I asked, what if we got into a different sort of business? What about booze? And he thought I was doing a bit,” Cranston told a small media group, as reported by Inside Hook.

In the small village of San Luis del Rio, they met a third generation Mezcal maker Gregorio Velasco, and formed a partnership. The rest is history.

The two are now on a promotional bottle signing trip around the country, and are soon headed to Pleasanton.