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Take it from someone who had to run down a bunch of stairs in the middle of a lovely socially-distant rooftop dinner with friends last weekend to fetch a corkscrew: Opening a bottle should not be a whole thing. A non-twist-off cap is an impediment, yes, but it shouldn’t be the type that derails a conversation or grinds a party to a halt. Before I learned my lesson, I was guilty of spending way too long digging through a drawer or hunting for my keys just to be able to grant someone (often myself!) access to the contents of their beer. I didn’t know then what I’ve since learned for certain—that the best bottle opener is the one you never have to look for because it’s always on display.
I bought our bottle opener, a rectangular piece of wood and metal from a company called DropCatch, a few years ago, and since then almost every new visitor to our apartment has asked about it. From its place on the fridge, it is visible as soon as you walk through the door, and because it appears to defy gravity, it inspires a lot of questions. The DropCatch bottle opener is magnetic, meaning that it both sticks easily to our refrigerator door and catches and collects the tops from every bottle we open in a levitating pile. Inevitably people start tugging at it to see what’s going on, and when they realize how it works, test how far they can stretch the magnet’s pull, picking caps from the top of the heap and adding them to the bottom like links in a chain. The house record, if you’re wondering, is 17 conjoined caps in a row, though the opener itself can hold up to 50 in an amorphous bunch.
Aside from being fun to play with, the DropCatch’s best feature is that it lives full-time in an accessible location. I never have to wonder how I’m going to open a bottle, or even use more than one hand to do so; in a fluid motion, I can pull an amaro soda from the fridge and wedge off the cap on the door. I love that the DropCatch takes up little space but is still centrally located and easy to spot, meaning that friends never have to ask for a bottle opener and I don’t feel like I have a random tool cluttering up my countertop. It’s also relatively good-looking, which is a key characteristic: To keep something out in the open, you have to like the way it looks, a realization that gave me newfound appreciation for functional pieces of home decor and super fancy household gadgets. The DropCatch is made from the same color wood as our cabinets so it feels like it belongs, but there are a wealth of other displayable bottle openers available that might better fit your kitchen’s vibe. Whether you go magnetic, wall-mounted, or objet d’art–style, a bottle opener upgrade will make every drinking (and hosting, when that can happen again) experience a little more seamless.
If we were still the type to play caps, I have thought on more than one occasion while looking at the DropCatch, this would be the best bottle opener ever—we’d always have a robust collection stuck to the bottom to use. But caps, like frat-themed key chain bottle openers and opening a beer by smashing it precisely against the edge of a table (being 21 years old was dumb, cannot recommend), is something I’ve happily left behind. Now I have a pretty bottle opener on display and never play games with my beer tops…unless you count sticking them together with a magnet.
More displayable bottle opener options
Unless you’re looking to up the saloon vibes in your kitchen, some rustic wall-mounted bottle openers are out of the question. But there are plenty of good-looking options that don’t feature horseshoe-branding or the words “Take Your Top Off” (just…why?). Go for something small with clean lines that could easily pass as an apron hook, or get a cast-iron number in one of 60 color options to blend in with your wall or add a pop of brightness. There’s even a sleek stainless-steel version of my beloved magnetic opener if you want it to look like part of your refrigerator.
I love a bottle opener that can spend its downtime doubling as a bookshelf or mantlepiece tchotchke while hiding in plain sight as a cool display object. Whether you go geometric or literal, these tools will get the job done and look good doing it. My favorites are the very real-looking oyster shell I’d like to keep on the counter at all times and the Divine Ratio rectangle you could lean up against your cookbook collection.
