Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock for Tennis Channel

Paul Wesley & Ian Somerhalder attend Tennis Channel and Brother’s Bond Bourbon Pre-US Open Kick Off Event

Five years may have passed sinceThe Vampire Diarieswrapped, but starsPaul WesleyandIan Somerhalderare happily keeping the spirit of the show alive.

Somerhalder and Wesley, who played The CW drama’s vampire siblings Damon and Stefan Salvatore, chatted with PEOPLE exclusively about keeping the legacy of the franchise going all these years later — not that there’s been much of a dip in fan enthusiasm since 2017.

In fact, theBrother’s Bond Bourbonco-founders shared that they visited a local liquor store in New York City on Tuesday as part of aUS Open tennis tournamentkick-off party in partnership with theTennis Channeland, according to Wesley, “the police came and had to shut it down because so many people showed up.”

Wesley, 40, said the scene was “chaos” but clarified, “I’m not saying that to show off. I’m saying that because I guess the show still lives on in so many ways, people are rediscovering it [every day].”

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Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder

“It’s creating another level of nostalgia and connection based around the story, the [intellectual property] and the brotherhood that we had on this show,” the actor, 43, tells PEOPLE. “This is the distillation of that story and that brotherhood and that experience.”

Wesley chimes in, “For me, Brother’s Bond Bourbon is what the brothers drank on the show.”

Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock for Tennis Channel

Paul Wesley & Ian Somerhalder attend Tennis Channel and Brother’s Bond Bourbon Pre-US Open Kick Off Event

While the former costars managed to carry their mega fanbase over from on screen to off, they also successfully relayed their “brotherly” bond over into real life.

Though the fictional brothers were known for their competitiveness throughout the show’s eight seasons, the actors stressed that sibling rivalry is non existent in reality. “We’re too tired to be competitive now,” jokes Wesley. “We’re too old.”

In fact,their relationshipis actually quite the opposite. “When you’re stuck together at the hip, you have no choice but to bond over f—ing everything,” Somerhalder says with a laugh.

source: people.com