A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - How Gen Z Saved Chilis ft. Trevor Evarts

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Today, Josh is joined by Trevor (Nicole was sick, but feeling better!) and the two try to figure out why Chilis – out of all the fast casual restaurants – was the one Gen Z chose to save. Is it the triple dippers? For more Trevor, check out @trevorevarts and @yaptimepod on Instagram. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is mythical. I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back. I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back. Chili, saved by Gen Z. This is a Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense.

A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host Josh Scherr, and today Nicole is out. She is out with load management. We're saving her ankles for the playoffs.

But we do have a very special guest joining us for the pod. You know him as the Cheeky Baker Boy from kitchen the chaos goblin at smosh and the co-host of yap time with his fiance Raven, but me well, I call him a close personal friend Trevor Everett's welcome to the show. Hi Josh. It's good to be here It's been so long. It really has you remember the last thing we talked about in this podcast Um, I feel like goldfish might have been involved It was it was in. In what way? I don't remember. I thought it was something about chocolate chip cookies. Goldfish versus Cheez-Its. Was that, was I on for that? Yeah, yeah. Okay, because I

remember that was, yeah, that was, I was passionate about that, but I couldn't remember if I was passionate as a, as a bystander or in the action. So you do listen to the podcast? I do. I listen, well I don't know the last time I listened to a full episode, but I also don't know the last time I watched a full episode of anything. That's a fair point. I'm usually like, get like 15 minutes in

and then I gotta do something and it's usually not like, you know. I do that with, not to be a hater, but I do that with last meals a lot. I'll watch like the first two thirds of a last meals and then something's going on and I'm really bad about finishing YouTube videos. The last one third is when we get really emotionally vulnerable though. Yeah.

You know, it's where Joe Jonas starts talking about, you know, love is never lost, you know, it's still, you know, stuff like that. So I'd recommend starting with the last third, then going back to the first two thirds. Okay. Well, Raven always finishes them. Raven's the video finisher. Usually it's like there's like 50 and I'm like, I need to go like do the dishes or I gotta go run an errand or maybe I'm going to work or something.

Sharing domestic labor. That's what this podcast is about today. Mm-hmm. No, well, we talked about Goldfish last time. Nostalgia is a big factor and that nostalgia is a big factor in the thing we're talking about today because we wanted to have you on specifically as our Gen Z correspondent. Yes. I'm here once again Because we're talking about how Gen Z saved chilies

So just a little bit of background here in the last couple years alone red lobster buka de bepo hooters and Fridays all American Institutions have all filed for bankruptcy and a majority of their customer base are Gen X and Boomers. Gen Z only represents 17% of the casual dining fan base. However, there's one chain that they have decided to patronize and completely revamp. Sales up 50% over the last three years and it's freaking Chili's. Trevor, can you explain why? Here's the thing about chilies. I think that nostalgia is probably a large part of it.

I think... I have nostalgia for Hooters. My dad used to take me there and then, looking back, probably said some inappropriate things to the people just trying to work. Yeah, well, you know, you should have... You and Kevin Love, who's the NBA player that really loves Hooters?

I can't remember. There's... Kevin Love, that seems the NBA player that really loves Hooters? I can't remember. There's Kevin Love that seems out of character for him. I don't know, there's some NBA player that's like, like was obsessed with Hooters. It was like a big thing when it was like going out of business, they were like, we need to save. It is Kevin Love. It's Kevin Love.

It's Kevin Love. He loves Hooters. No, I, well, I think one, I think that Gen Z has kind of pulled back from, because I was thinking about this, and I think that in like kind of the mid-2010s, you've got a lot of millennials, and there's kind of like this foodie revolution happening, where, you know, everybody has iPhones now, everybody wants to be snapping pictures, and, you know, I mean, for me, I was a big Red Robin guy, but you don't want to snap a picture of the Chili's Southwest Egg Rolls

or the Red Robin Five Alarm Burger. That's not going up on your Instagram. Yeah, I don't know. And I think Gen Z has come around almost full circle like, no, Chili's is an awesome restaurant. It's just fun in there. They've got incredible deals where it's like the, like, pick three stuff.

It's like three for 15 or whatever. You get to try three different dishes for a pretty reasonable price. And it always comes with crazy chips and sauce. I get Chili's to go fairly regularly. Not like super regularly, but... What do you get when you get Chili's to go? Because the idea of getting Chili's to go fairly regularly. Not like super regularly, but... What do you get when you get Chili's to go? Because the idea of getting Chili's to go, to me,

I would view that as insane, right? I would rather get food that is meant to be eaten in a to-go setting, but I guess now every restaurant is kind of just another app on your phone that you can order for delivery, so they're kind of on the same playing field. Yeah, and I think when the pandemic hit, it was like all the restaurants had to adapt. Like we got to figure out how to get people food without them being inside the restaurant. Cause we got to get people honey zinger Chipotle chicken crispers. Dude, the chicken crispers, man. They're so good. No, Chili's has, I can't remember exactly what

the deal is, but yeah, it's like a pick pick three or so. Oh, the triple dipper combo. The triple dipper combo. The triple dipper combo now accounts for 14% of all chili sales yeah, and that is the big item that was picked up by your people Yeah, which is crazy you get some sort of combination you can get their their big big bite sliders Mm-hmm you can get their southwestern egg rolls Yeah, you can get various types of bone-in and bone-out wings You can get the chicken crispers. Yeah, the chicken crispers. This is no joke, man. They're no joke. I went to

Before I even knew that Chili's was really having a resurgence like before I actually saw the hardcore numbers, which are like utterly insane Just q1. No, sorry q4 of last year. It's up 31% from just the year before Which at that scale is like tens of tens of hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, which is ridiculous, but me and Julia for Valentine's Day We were like the year before we went to Anna Jack tie Yeah, one of the best buzziest restaurants incredible in LA. They do really great work We went there like with another couple friend and we had a nice time, but this Valentine's Day we're like, we don't want to like brave the crowds. We don't want to do anything crazy. We don't want to do anything fancy.

We want to do something kind of dumb. And I think the irony is a little bit part of the Gen Z pull as well. Yeah. Because me and Julia, I got dressed up in like black tie up top, but then snakeskin loafers and bright pink trousers underneath. That's awesome. And then we just went on a bar crawl on our neighborhood towards the direction of Chili's. Then ended up at Chili's at 9.30pm drinking Cadillac margaritas, eating a triple dipper combo.

They got something called Nashville Hot Mozzarella. Wow. That's awesome. I haven't tried the Nashville Hot Mozzarella. They deep fry the cheese, Trevor, and then they submerge it in spicy grease. That sounds incredible. Especially on Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day. That's beautiful. No I mean I think that like Gen Z also I mean I was growing up in you know that like kind of early 2000s era back when the restaurants like Chili's and Red Robin they had just the everything on the walls like that was the design style they had just like the on the walls. Like that was the design style. They had just like the everything.

There was so much going on and it was such a happy place to be. And I think, yeah, now growing up and we're kind of like adults, and there's almost this like realization that I had at some point where I'm like, I'm an adult and I can really do whatever I want. Like I don't, I think that there was maybe

a little bit of like, oh, like is it weird for me to just order Chilies to go like should I be ashamed of that and then I'm like no I don't need to be ashamed of ordering chilies to go because it makes me happy and I like the way the food tastes sue me like I Totally like there's so much incredible food like an adag tie like they do amazing work And that is food on another level level and I appreciate that so much But I also appreciate the Chili's chicken crispers and I and I think that that's okay I think it's okay to appreciate food at all levels

you know what's really funny is I do have an intense amount of shame of patronizing Chili's and I think for like the time difference and when you and I grew up. Because like you said, I grew up like, Instagram came out when I was 20, 21 years old. And like, you know, not that every meal you eat is something you think about posting to the gram. But every meal I would eat, I kind of ran it through a filter of what does this communicate about me. And I grew up in that like very Anthony Bourdain era where it was like, I got to go patronize the local mom-and-pop Fuh shop or I have to like travel far away to try this dish that I've never had before And so for me chilies was purely like it was the restaurant chain of the generation before me

Yeah, so I rebelled against it. Right? I was like no man. It's owned by Corporations and that's bad I want to patronize real culture and then I think now Gen Z looks at millennials who thought we can save the world by eating at local Thai food restaurants and believing in the corporations that we work for that are mission oriented. And you look at our generation, you go like,

well, that didn't work, you dummy. Everything's still terrible. Mine as well relive the nostalgia out of Chili's. There's a marketing professor from the University of Denver named Anna Babich-Rosario, who coined this term emotional time travel, because these chains have stayed roughly the same for the last 20, 25 years. And so now Gen Z going back to these chains,

the Rainforest Cafe is a great example, where you go back there and you are immediately transported frankly to a simpler time. It's the same psychology of why you're wearing the baggy-ass jeans these days. Yeah. No, it is. And I mean, you're right. The food tastes exactly the same. If you're planning a trip this summer, imagine how much more meaningful your experience could be if you could speak the local language. Ordering a coffee, asking for directions, or just having a friendly chat. It all hits different when you can connect in someone else's native tongue. That's where Rosetta Stone comes in.

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That's unlimited access to 25 language courses for life. Visit rosettastone.com slash hotdog to get started and claim your 50% off today. Don't miss out, go to rosettastone.com slash hotdog and start learning today. I went to a Red Robin recently for the first time in a while and I remember eating the food and I was like, this hasn't changed.

They're like bottomless garlic steak fries. Just the same as when I was in high school going there with my friends after, you know, a theater production You know we'd have our show and then we'd roll up because there's always tables. There's always room You never had to wait for anything. You never had to have a reservation You just pull up and be like hey, there's 15 of us Can we get a table and they're like come on in have a giant milkshake with an extra entire cup of milkshake on the side

It's just like I don't know. There's something so amazing about it and I think like, yeah having that food now, I still love it and I also really love supporting like and going to like local mom-and-pop shops and I've had some of the best food I've ever had at Little Holes in the Wall, but I think that there's room for everyone at the table, you know? There's room for chilies at my table. The thing that I worry about with your generation, Trevor, is that you're gonna irony our way into just a complete corporate megalopoly. You know what I mean?

You're like, ah, chili, John, you were in a caterpillar shirt yesterday. Ah, caterpillar, big major brands, wear the modello hat, go to chilis, ironically. And then suddenly, we look 10-15 years in the future and like the only restaurants that are able to survive are the ones that can afford these massive like big budget advertising deals that also you know bring in the TikTok ass influencers. Yeah, I don't know that I think to blame that on us is a little bit unfair I think that I think that I think that I don't know feels mean I

Do think though? I mean like like in the pandemic like the restaurants that were able to like squeak by and survive were those mega Corporation restaurants because they had the infrastructure to be like, okay we're gonna figure out how to pump out chicken crispers and be like, okay, we're gonna figure out how to pump out chicken crispers and a dessert and an appetizer and a like bag of chips this big with two cups of salsa for 15 dollars. And they don't have to be profitable is the other thing. Like they were all taking massive losses that if you were a mom-and-pop restaurant, you just didn't get to eat if you weren't making a profit in your

restaurant. If you're a corporation, you can eat the loss and then continue trucking and frankly just outlast everybody else It's like having a big stack in poker. Yeah, right. Yeah, I know just outlast everybody losing money on the blinds Yeah, yeah, you can just keep folding keep folding keep folding until you know, you hit your pocket rockets I mean even talking to Raven my fiance like she was telling me that in the pandemic she was living with her mom and the two of them, like they would do that all the time. Like they would go pick up Chili's because it was like relatively affordable

and it was like a good amount of food for what it was. And it was just easy with something that you could do. And I don't know, I think that like that definitely helped kind of the resurgence of Chili's. This all explains why like these casual chain restaurants would be popular, but it doesn't quite explain why chilies over Applebee's, right? Chilies and Applebee's are, it's gonna be offensive to some, they're like the same restaurant.

One just like gives you salsa, you know what I mean? So like why chilies specifically, and like they did hire a new CEO named Kevin Hockman who has done like an incredible job And I've heard him talk about why but like I don't know Is there some specific thing about chilies one of my theories was always that? The office is kind of the chilies of restaurants in certain ways, right? Yeah, you know It's like a big network sitcom that had another big resurgence during the pandemic. Yeah. You know what I mean? That people go to for comfort because they know exactly what they're

getting and it's a great product. And I love The Office. I think it's like one of the greatest shows ever. Yeah. I feel, I felt God, what is it? I feel God in this Chili's tonight. I feel God in this Chili's tonight. How much did that play into it? I think probably quite a bit. I mean, I think that when I think about those, you know, that genre restaurant, like your Chili's, your Applebee's, your Red Robin, those kinds of places, I think that Chili's maybe just like like a stroke of good luck that like people started like things about Gen Z kids going back to Chili's just like those went viral.

Like I don't know. Like it could have been Applebee's in an alternate world. Yeah. For no reason other than you know one person decided hey wouldn't it be funny if. Yeah. And then the trickle down effect. Exactly yeah. Because I mean I know I've been to Applebee's ironically as well

Like I have been to these places where I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be hysterical? Like what if we went to Applebee's like we're looking for a restaurant. What do we want to Applebee's we went to Chili's? but yeah, I think maybe maybe Chili's just like managed to come out at the top of that and be the most Recognizable brand I think in my head Applebee's is maybe just a step below. I don't want to call it trashier than Chili's but it is like in my head like a step below maybe. I don't know there's some class to Chili's. I feel like that

wasn't the case though but when I went on Valentine's Day one hour and a half wait, joined an online waiting list, got drunk at the weird wine bar that has like the window that is just like directly on a major street so you can just sit at a window and drink wine while cars just buzz past you. Went and drank there, ended up at the Chili's. Every single employee there was like so hyped on Chili's.

Yeah. They were just so engaged. They were so like happy. They sat us initially at like a little booth and we're like, hey really cake we go to the bar I feel like that's where the action is yeah Hell yeah, it is brother come with us and then the bartender was super hyped I was trying to buy him shots, and he's like no I can't I'm at work for like I can duck under the table

You know and then I bought Mexican candy shots which like watermelon schnapps and like tahini Wow For the bar, and we just had a great time all the food came out It was like hot and fresh and like not just well seasoned hyper seasoned to the point where you really needed to drink more Mexican Candy shots. Yeah, and those had salt in them too. So then you needed to drink a Cadillac margarita You know what I mean? Yeah, but Chili's has taken so many Painstaking efforts to like revamp this corporate culture. Mm-hmm in ways that I don't know. Maybe just takes good leadership Yeah this corporate culture in ways that, I don't know, maybe just takes good leadership. Yeah.

You know? Because I feel like that's a rare thing where you walk into a chain restaurant and you get anybody that gives a shit. And this is like my old head coming out. Yeah. Where I'm like, the kids don't want to work these days. Why can't I find someone in CVS to help me get deodorant? You know?

But it felt weirdly good inside Chili's. No, it is. It's an awesome vibe. And again, it could just be that someone up top just did a better job at marketing and getting people back in the restaurants. The vibes inside Chili's, the last time I was inside of Chili's, it was great.

It was great. It is. And the food, you're right. It always comes out hot. Maybe it's the food version of TikTok and how our brains are so wired on need to be fast. I need to have very salty, super hyper-seasoned food and insane drinks that are coming out for no reason.

I've got my blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, lemonade twist, like nobody needs that many fruits and a lemonade, but it's awesome and it's got crazy colors in it and I love it. It's like just complete unfettered excess as we're like hurtling into an economic recession and we're just like, let's remember these times.

Yeah. You know? And it isn't, I mean, you know, everything obviously has gotten more expensive. But again, like compared to going to other, like fancier, nicer, like restaurants, I mean, it is like, you know, on the cheaper side. Well, not even fancier, nicer restaurants.

I think actually one of the biggest reasons why Chili's is succeeding, and even over Applebee's and Red Lobster all that, is because the rise in prices of fast food. And there's actually a video of CEO Kevin Hockman talking about this. McDonald's has risen its prices 100% over the last 10 years. Yeah. That's crazy.

And so Chili's launched a whole marketing campaign where they had people send them their fast food receipts and tweet it and Chili's sent them coupons. Oh my God. and then Chili's I think God they even like took over a fast food space They did these like big viral activations. Yeah, where they were like, hey, you can get this small crappy burger You know for what's now like $12 for like, you know a combo or you can come to Chili's and for $12 get the same thing That's a lot bigger. You can sit down. you're treated like a human, and that really worked. Yeah, refillable Diet Coke, bottomless Diet Coke, oh my God, that's one thing I miss.

Yeah, but just, because I don't honestly sit down and eat in a ton of restaurants, but there's something specifically about going to a Chili's, and that Chili's Diet Coke hits harder for some reason. It hits harder coming out of that glass. The syrup's kind of floating on the top. Yeah, it's in that like little plastic kind of,

or like a glass that's like got so much condensation that you're like, it doesn't seem like it's possible for this glass to have this much condensation. There's like a whole puddle on the table. Dude, that Chili's Diet Coke puddle that ends up on the table, you can kind of slide the glass down like an air pocky huck. Yeah, no, it's air pocky huck? Did you just say that?

I heard that come out of my mouth and I was like, maybe he'll just move on. I almost did, because I think in my brain, my brain just switched the sounds and I was like, yeah, an airpocky huck. Oh, you ever go to Ruddfuckers? Ruddfuckers? Dude, Fuddruckers? Oh my gosh, that's a classic. That's a restaurant that like... Surely they filed for bankruptcy, right? There's no way Fuddruckers is... I think they're gone. I think they're gone. But if that I was gonna say if there's a restaurant that I wish could come back, it would be Fuddruckers. That was a whole different experience.

Hold on. Yeah, I've got 2010 Magic Brands, their parent company, filed for chapter 11. Oh, but, check this out. Wait, wait, wait, wait, this is crazy. Okay, so in 2010, Fuddruckers, parent brand, Magic Brands LLC files for bankruptcy. Eventually they're acquired by Luby's, which is like another regional chain sit-down restaurant. Fuddruckers was acquired by Nicholas Perkins in 2020 who now owns all 92 locations. Okay. It's just like a guy. It's just like one guy that owns all of the Fuddruckers. Apparently. That's awesome. Is there one nearby? There's got to be one

in California. Oh no, I believe Nicholas Perkins. Is that a Company or is this of just a man? Was it like a maybe like a Nicholas Nicholas dash Perkins type deal? Yeah, yeah one person named Nicholas one person named Perkins either way. I feel like owning the world supply of flood rockers Nothing bad can happen to you. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's like owning like all of the like I don't know what's what's one of the early not the earliest stage in monopoly but like still on the first like side mark like Marvin no not Marvin guy I think one of them is a slur now it's like all the green ones it's like owning all the green ones I don't know where's green on the board it's a

great red it's like Baltic yeah Baltic is like I thought I think that's like the great There's a light blue on the first. Yeah, there's a light blue Connecticut is one of them one of them is a slur that we're not allowed to say anymore, okay? Okay, so the first one's brown and then light blue. Oh, yeah, no greens way up there See this like owning all the Fuddruckers is like owning all the light blue spaces on Monopoly You know? You're gonna think that it's not gonna win you the game, but then suddenly people keep landing on it.

Yeah. That's so funny. Oh my god, I wanna go to a Fuddruckers now. You wanna hear something crazy, and maybe, and honestly this is probably a perfect example of the Gen Z irony that gets us into these places, but the nearest Texas Roadhouse to the region in which we live, to Mekula is where the studio is located.

The nearest Texas Roadhouse is like a two-hour drive. And Raven and I one day were like... North in Bakersfield? No, it's out, it's east. Oh, east, yeah. It's east. Like Diamond Bar area or like... Yeah, I think so.

Just out that way. Like past West Covina, like way out there. Like on the way to Palm Springs. Hell yeah. And one time Raven and I were just like, what if we just went to Texas Roadhouse? Like those rolls are awesome. And we ended up driving there, ended up being trafficked,

and we had a three hour drive to a Texas Roadhouse. And then there was an hour and a half wait at this Texas Roadhouse. And so we just went and we waited what is essentially like five hours of time for Texas Roadhouse. And we get in there and we're like, this is awesome. It's like, this is great. We love it. And so I think like that level of irony of just like, yeah, let's like, let's go to Texas Roadhouse. Let's drive three hours to Texas Roadhouse why not like that's the kind of attitude that gets you back in a Chili's. It really is and then it's like

a shared experience since the story is something that everybody has like a reference point for. Yeah. I will say though I feel like my version of that was waiting in line three hours for a Corona right or for the most hype Nashville hot chicken spot in LA some new pop-up you'd wait in line for now I feel like if I told somebody that I waited three hours for like some new hype food They're making Cambodian smash burgers down in Long Beach somebody would just be like Why didn't she just go to Chili's you know I feel like that's the new attitude Yeah

And I honestly I couldn't tell you why because I think that it's not that there's not like an appreciation. Like all of my friends, like my age that I know, like we love good food and we love like new and experimental things like that. And I don't know, we just really love chilis also. There's this, I remember having this experience when I first started writing about food. I was maybe like 24, 25 25 and I was like in Hawaii I was actually there on like a press trip But I ran into this dude who weirdly recognized me just because he was such an LA like foodie hype beast

Mm-hmm, and I'm like sitting there trying to like enjoy my poke on the beach and this dude just keeps going like Yeah, have you been to this spot? And I'd be like, yeah, I think it's really good He's that place. Yeah, I play super over it. It sucks. Have you been to this spot? And I'd be like, yeah, I think it's really good. Yeah, that place is super overrated, it sucks. Have you been to this spot? And I'd be like, yeah, I thought of it. Also again, I had a nice time there. Yeah, no, that place is, it's only like, if you like don't know dumplings, like that's where you go.

But like, if you do know it, have you been to the, and you just kept doing this, and I was like, I hate you so much! And I hate even more the fact that I'm sure people look at me in the same light, despite the fact that I would never communicate like that at all. But I think there is this rejection against this foodie

chaserism. Yeah. No, I think so too. I think the Gen Z, I don't know, cooler, I'm cooler than you mindset is like, obviously that's gonna be targeted at the generation before us. And so, because the Gen Xers love the Hooters,

love the chilies, love the Applebee's, it's like then the millennials are like, well no, I don't want that. Like I want the foodie revolution. I want all these beautiful like pop-ups and things like I wanna have beautiful and delicious food inside my mouth. and now Gen Z's Like you're dorks for that like bring me back the chilies

We were dorks for that yeah like certain ways right and especially in the very earnest way of like we thought this was a good move For society right yeah like you look at something Millennials are responsible for the rise of stuff like sweet green and kava these chains Which are like, you know doing really well Yeah, but like there's a genuine genuine moralism to that cause it's like they're sourcing from good local farms and then all that and then Yeah, nothing actually got better. Yeah, you know, no, I think this is Chili's is reflective of Gen Z's nihilism and love for cheesy bricks. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think that's a really perfect way of putting it. I think that that's... I think we've... Yeah, we've arrived at the conclusion. I think that Chili's is a beautiful place, and I hope that we can find a happy medium of being able to appreciate really artistic and delicious food that is inspired from really like beautiful places and from people's souls, like people that have like food

inside their heart and they're sharing it with the world. Like I want there to be an appreciation for that. And also going to Chili's and having eight baskets of chips and then still somehow putting down an entire plate of chicken crispers and fries and getting that big skillet cookie afterward. Like, I want that to be the world that I live in where I can do both and feel good about both.

I think a great happy medium would be if these mom and pop shops all made drinks in the same manner of things like chilies in the Rainforest Cafe. Because I went to a Rainforest Cafe recently and I got their triple deluxe beer-garita. So I'm in Orlando, it's a hot day. Can I get that in my mug, Meggy? No, because I'll tell you what needs to happen for a beer-garita to even exist is that it's a giant margarita glass.

I mean, it's the size of a ramen bowl, right? Filled with frozen slushy margarita to the brim. But then they've taken a whole Corona and they've turned it upside down to where the beer is still in the Corona. Yeah. So as you drink through the alcoholic Slurpee, the Corona sort of gets naturally filtered in.

Yep. And it's blue. Oh, it was blue. It was blue. And they have the contraption for, they have the little plastic contraption that sticks to the Edge of the glass and holds the beer bottle in there. Yes. Yeah, it's beautiful. I love I I love that someone had to invent that Someone had to invent to be like God we want to put the beer bottles in the margarita glass upside down

But we need a way for him to stick For every problem the solution if If more places had drinks like that but like in an artesmo way like it was like a pandan flavored slushie and a nice you know craft IPA. Yeah. A nice craft IPA. But I mean honestly I think that's another reason at least living in Los Angeles for me is yeah you can go to Chili's and you can get that drink for $8 and and then you can go to a very nice restaurant and if you want a delicious cocktail it's gonna set you back 18 bones. It is true Chili's the CEO Kevin Hockman actually calls this the barbell effect which are they have all of their like $6 drinks but then for everybody that's ordering a bunch of those you get

schmucks like me who go I'm a ball out of this Chili's right now, and I'm going top shelf I'm right raspberry rasp and taz margarita because I did that last time. It's awesome Trevor I think we got some really astute points of view here But what I want you to do is I want you to build me your ideal Triple Dipper combo okay now Trevor as a Gen Z, what is your official triple dipper combo order? Okay, selection one. I am going... God bless you.

And so you can just do that into chilies and nobody will bat an eye. Nobody. Okay, I have got to do... I'm definitely gonna start with the Southwestern Egg Rolls. I'm a big fan of the Southwest Egg Rolls. So I'm gonna have those. I have to do the. I'm a big fan of the Southwest egg rolls, so I'm gonna have those. I have to do the chicken crispers, and I will say,

chilies, I think we need to work on the Nashville hot chicken crispers. I think of the three, they're my least favorite. The honey chipotle chicken, though, big fan of. So I'm dropping the honey chipotle chicken crispers as selection number two. Do they still use the phrase, like, crispy Asian zing? No, actually, I was talking about Asian zing recently. That was Buffalo Wild Wings. Ah, that's right.

Yeah, and I would go to Buffalo Wild Wings as a kid and I'd be like, I'll have the popcorn shrimp and the Asian zing sauce. And I was talking about how insane that is. And it's funny, because I don't think they changed it until a couple years ago. It was Asian zing for far too long. And then I, the big mouth bites are the sliders, right?

Yeah, yeah. Because here's the thing is I am, depending on the day, I am either going, oh, bone in sweet chili zing wings. Sweet chili zing. Sweet chili zing. But what continent is that sweet chili from Trevor? It's from It's from one of them. It could be any could be any continent actually has about 80% of the world's population in it though I think it's not it's like 68 for 68. I'm like if you were to guess I'm gonna go with Asia

Yeah, I think that's it. I think I'm gonna go. I'm gonna take an educated guess. Yeah, I'm either doing the Big Mouth Bites or the house barbecue wings, I think. But today, right now, I'm gonna go Big Mouth Bites. And then you know what I'm doing is I'm also getting a dessert with it. And I'm, because you gotta to get the dessert and so hold on Let me find it which where there's and there's so many sections on their menu. That's the best part

They actually did pare down their menu a fair amount So skill at chocolate chip cookie, that's smart. Yeah, the last thing I'll say about chilies is they've made a lot of really smart menu Subtractions so we we talked about this with Shayne Topp, but they did change their chicken crispers recipe about five years ago. They used to have a tempura chicken crisper and then their extra crispy crispy chicken crisper that was a dry dredge. Their tempura chicken crispers were accounting for less than 20% of their overall chicken crisper sales and they were slowing down

the line. So chicken crispers were coming to people's tables, less hot and less crispy, until they completely killed the tempura chicken crisper. And I remember those and those were good, but I understand, I get it. Sometimes you gotta, you know, if it's not working, it's not working. Call the herd.

Mm-hmm. ["Spring Day"] All right, Trevor, we've heard you and I have to say, now it's time to find out what other wacky opinions are rattling out there in the universe. Oh boy. Time for a little segment we call, opinions are like casserole. I want my opinions like casserole. I want my opinions like casseroles. I want my opinions like casserole. Opinions are just like casseroles.

Hi Josh and Nicole. This is Katie from Portland, Oregon. And my opinion casserole is that I think bacon is what people would taste like. Love the podcast. Bye. Mm. Bacon is what people would taste like. So if you, I can take this one. Yeah.

No, please, go ahead. I have my thoughts. Well, actually, I don't know if I have my thoughts other than I think I disagree, but please. Yeah, yeah. So having read some reports from people who have eaten people, they don't like the C word, but just people who eat people, they have said human flesh tastes most similar to pork.

But also if you think about, you know, a cow that only eats grass tastes different than a cow that only eats grain. You know, so humans are going to roughly taste like what their diet is, and we happen to eat very very high sodium diets, so our flesh would likely take on a fair amount of that. So different people would taste different, but I see why you would think bacon. I will say bacon is salted, cured, smoked, so

if you took human belly flesh salted, cured, smoked, it would probably taste almost exactly like bacon, yes. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. I was was gonna say cuz I feel like there is so much that goes into making bacon taste like bacon So yeah, if you did that with with human flesh, I'm sure you could get there Yeah, but it's already a pretty good starting point by nature of yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Well easy first one. Yeah. Hey Josh Hey Nicole My my opinion is that people don't season their pasta water enough. I know we all do salt and maybe some butter, but like, why aren't more people throwing in some bouillon and garlic and other flavors?

Oh, fascinating. It just seems nice. Anyway, that's my opinion. Thanks. Bye. Fascinating. People only salting their pasta water as opposed to actually fully seasoning their pasta water. Yeah. people only salting their pasta water as opposed to actually fully seasoning their pasta water. Yeah, I'm curious how much of, yeah, like what really translates into the pasta.

Because I remember when I was like, oh my god, I had to have been like in seventh grade or something. And I was like, I'm going to cook up some pasta. But all I have was like noodles. And I didn't really have any like sauce or anything. I had like noodles and butter. So I was like, how can I elevate this? And so I went into like Mike's the spice cabinet and I was like, what if I just throw like Italian seasoning and like other seasonings inside the pasta water and then cook the noodles inside that and I mean it tasted good, but I don't know how much it was actually doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the Italian seasoning like herbs and stuff I don't know how much that would do, but I would think like No, because I feel like it would.

I feel like it creates a kind of tea. Yeah. And gets inside of it. It's like a soup. It's like you're making like a soup and then you're cooking noodles in it. You know? Kind of reduce that down to the sauce.

I made a recipe for like Trinidadian macaroni pie. Okay. Which is just, it's just, it's mac and cheese, but it's just like that kind of like thick, dense, cheesy, bricky mac and cheese, which is fun. Yeah. And it's meant to be like sliced and kind of eaten by hand. At least that's the origin of it. It was like a factory worker kind of thing.

But part of the recipe said cut onions, bell peppers, and scotch bonnet and actually put that in the water with the macaroni, and then you drain all of that, and then you just dump everything that you drained into the cheese sauce and everything. And I swear to God, like all of that onion and bell pepper and scotch bonnet flavor got into the noodles. And that kind of changed how I view cooking pasta. Like you don't always just have to cook it separately. Really? So I'm thinking like if I'm making Cajun chicken fettuccine alfredo, something like that, something probably great with the chilies,

that they do well. Yeah, they do. Their Cajun shrimp pasta is good I'm boiling that in Tony Sachery's water. Okay, you know, I'm gonna try it I got I'm gonna throw some I'm gonna throw some spices some more spices some more stuff in the next pasta water that I boil Yeah, a genuine genuinely inspiring opinion. Thank you. Yeah I have two opinion casseroles for you today. One of them most people want to send me to jail for, and the other one most people road and we universally praise.

I stand by both of them. The first one I'll give you is that I think that there should be breakfast pasta like with sausage crumbles and red peppers and like a buttery sauce and then some little noodles. And then the one that people want to send me to prison for is that I think all fruit smoothies would taste much better if they were served hot. Yeah, hell yes. I thought for a second, the way he teed that up, I was thinking that the breakfast pasta was the one that people wanted him to go to jail for. I was like, I feel like that's a pretty reasonable thing.

It's with the wrong group of friends if that's what they wanted to send him to jail for. Yeah, the smoothie, the hot smoothies, however, I think that that becomes a different dish at that point, does it not? I mean, there's some like, smoothie implies cold, sure, sure, sure, but there's some like warm fruit soups out there that exist, you know? And I think this might be a climate issue. Okay.

Because anytime I'm getting a smoothie, you know, I grew up in Southern California and generally between like 74 and 100 degrees, I'm gonna want a cold fruit smoothie. This person's, you know, I don't know, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Mm-hmm. You know, shout out to all my Bemidji heads out there. You know, maybe he wants a hot fruit smoothie, and I think that should be his right as a Bemidjian.

Yeah, no, I think you're right as well. What happens to a smoothie actually? Because I don't know that I've ever let a smoothie, I drink my smoothies when they're cold. And, I, what happens to a smoothie actually? Cause I don't know that I've ever like let a smoothie, I drink my smoothies when they're cold and so I don't know what a smoothie actually would look like if it was hot. It stays thick. It stays thick? It stays thick. Really?

Yeah, cause all that blended fruit pulp stays real thick. I've, I've drank, I've drank like a Jamba juice that I've left in my car. Just came back and went, well, I'm not letting all these fruit nutrients go to waste. Interesting, because in my head I feel like it would separate. It's like pretty north. Oh yeah, no I might want a hot smoothie if I was there. Yeah, yeah. Wow, well hey maybe I'll try it out.

Maybe I'll leave a Jamba juice in the car sometime. I think you should. Okay. That'd be nice. I feel like there's some health food oriented, because there's two kinds of smoothies, right? There's like the Jamba Juice, where it's like I want ice cream with some fruit in it, blend it up.

And then there's like the Cold Press Juice store that sells a smoothie, but it's kind of just like a weird, slightly warm pallid liquid that has chunks of stuff blended in it, and I don't like those. Yeah, no, I don't like those either. I'm there for the ice cream.

Yeah, I've been making some smoothies at home. Yeah, that's nice. It's just like frozen fruit, a little bit bit of OJ a little bit of almond milk a little bit of a little bit of yogurt And boom well just a nice five grams creatine 50 grams protein. No don't have that in there yet Mostly just the fruit. Yeah Breakfast pasta I Would love to make like a baked ziti But with sausage gravy as the only sauce, you know what I mean? Top that with a poached egg

I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that'd be really delicious. We already put I mean most of you know breakfast food Is just different sauces on different carbs. And so it's like why not? You know, why not do it with pasta? I oh my god, I had a thought in my head and it fluttered away. It's about carbonara, because that already has eggs and bacon. Well, no, what I was going to say is, when we made the Oreo ramen, I would love, because I love sweet breakfast foods. I love little pancakes, a waffle with syrup. I would love more sweet pastas. I couldn't agree more? Yeah, I love some sweet, little waffle with syrup. I would love more sweet pastas.

I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I love some sweet dessert pastas. You get to that first. Yeah. Hot smoothies. Hey, Josh and Nicole. They keep misnaming you. I'm from the Cleveland area.

Grow up fairly poor with undiagnosed ADHD. Hey, sounds familiar. One of my best ways to self-medicate was always with M&M's because it was the only regularly available sugar that I could just sneak and get away with. Because of this, I will put M&M's on things that it probably don't belong on. The light version of this is I'll stick them in a string cheese. Oh, that's fine. Which I do like rather than string, and I know that's a problem too. Probably the worst thing is

that I will wrap M&M's in pepperoni because pepperoni was also my favorite like fixation food. Interesting. This does usually horrify people. I would recommend trying it though before you say that it's horrifying. Thanks. This is a great podcast for going to work in the morning. Hey, appreciate you. Thank you. This seems like a bit of a buddy the elf situation we have here. Yeah. Yeah, she's buddying. Yeah, I'm sorry. Look, I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. No.

But that sounds like something that I would not want to put in my mouth. No, absolutely not. Yeah. And I was going to go even a step further and say that you shouldn't do this around other people, right? Right? Yeah. I think so. You know, just kind of keep that like a private you thing. Yeah.

No, I agree. I think that it's reasonable for someone to scrutinize that. I think if you're seeing something that is like seeing that in public, I think it's reasonable for someone to be like, huh? Are you okay? Yeah. Yeah. You're fine? Like what's going on with the stress response? Yeah. It does sound like there is some trauma wrapped up in it. And I get it. Listen, I got my own, you know, weird, weird little food things.

When I was a kid, I would just eat spoonfuls of sugar. Yeah. Because that was the only, you know, available sugar we had. I'd just go in there and I'd just take a spoon, sugar. See, and if you, if you were in public and I saw you just take available sugar we had, I'd just go in there and I'd just take a spoon of sugar. See, and if you if you were in public and I saw you just take a spoonful of sugar, I would probably be like, hey, are you okay? I get it, yeah. Your child protective services showing up to my house, you know? So I would live, you'd probably say the same thing. Yeah, no, I mean, again, do what makes you happy, but if I, I don't want to eat pepperonis and M&Ms in the same bite. No, I think even from a culinary standpoint, I don't think it works.

If it's like white chocolate and pepperoni, I think that works. It's just sweet and creamy with the pepperoni, that's spicy and salty. But I think the actual chocolate with the candy coating is interesting. It's the candy coating that gets me. Because yeah, there are like, you know, cheeses and chocolates type things that work well together, like dessert type things, but it is the candy coating and that M&M flavor, it's such like not a chocolate flavor.

It's a whole different. Chocolate candy flavor. Yeah. So. I'm glad that you have something that you can enjoy by yourself. Hi, my name is Alyssa from St. Louis, Missouri, place of the world's greatest pizza.

But my hot take is actually not about pizza. Thank God, I can't get canceled by St. Louis. My husband and I have a disagreement about whether or not you should remove the stems from mushrooms before you slice them. I tend to always take off the stems when I'm washing them and then just cut the cap. And he says I should leave them on

and slice up the entire mushroom. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks, bye. I don't know, that's interesting. I feel like that's a pretty big personal preference thing. I think it's objectively easier to slice a mushroom if it doesn't have a stem on it. That's the only reason I'll ever destem a mushroom is if I'm lazy. Well, I've gotten pretty good at just laying it on its side and just, you know, with the

stem on. Yeah. But what you're doing if you're removing the stem is called wasting mushrooms. Yeah. No, I don't think you should throw away the stems. I think if you want to- What are you doing? You're just eating straight mushroom stems?

No, I think it's fine to chop the stems up a little bit. I guess it depends on what you're putting the mushrooms in. Because I think it's fair to chop a stem. I will say, one of my favorite ways to cook mushrooms is I like to steam them in tin foil in the oven. So, and what I'll do is I actually will remove the stems and then you place them upside down. Oh, steam them whole?

Yeah steam them whole. Oh that's fun. A little olive oil, salt, pepper, throw some garlic and butter in that tinfoil and then you just wrap it up and steam it. And then the mushrooms when they release all the water that's in them it pools up inside of the mushroom cap and that juice is delectable. Slurp it like an oyster? Literally, I take a little mushroom cap and I slurp the juice out and then eat the mushroom.

I'm not kidding when it is so good. It's so good. Don't yuck my yum. You know, I'm not going to yuck your yum. I think Socrates, right? Okay. He kind of came, no, sorry, well, Plato, but Plato was. Let's just take it back for a minute. Back to Socrates, right? Okay. He kinda came, no, sorry, well, Plato, but Plato was... Let's just take it back for a minute.

Back to Socrates. Back to Socrates. It talks about the forms, you know what I mean? The essential forms. To me, the essential form of a mushroom, it's got the little, if you were to draw a cartoon mushroom, most mushroom-looking mushroom, right? It's got the little stem and then the cap.

So when I'm slicing them, I want to see that essential form of the mushroom, you know, and so I keep the stems on. Yeah. Like when you go to the Pizat hut and you get a Pizat with mushrooms on it, like the slices of the mushrooms, they got the little stem on it. That's the cartoon-esque version of a mushroom and I think it's important and I want that. Yeah. I think when you're, I mean I will say I think it depends on your cooking, like the way you're cooking them, because if you saute mushrooms you can get away. Like they're gonna get, you know, they're gonna lose form. Yeah. Especially if you're, I mean I will say, I think it depends on your cooking, like the way you're cooking them. Because if you saute mushrooms, you can get away. Like they're gonna get, you know, they're gonna lose form.

Especially if you're doing like a hard, like a long saute, really gonna mushy, like a sauce or something, you know. I think you can get away with not having the stems on there or having just little cut up stems separate from the top. But yeah, I don't love mushroom waste. Me neither. I will say some people, especially more beginner cooks,

they tend to have this idea of, well I don't know if you can eat that part. And I'll tell you, the only way to figure it out, chuck it on down there, see what happens. Broccoli stem, you can eat so much more of it than you think, man. Oh yeah, no, I eat so much, you get a whole like little boom, boom on that guy.

All the way down, I'm going down to the nub on broccoli dude going down to the no and just straight Stem deep on that broccoli well Trevor on that note Thanks for being here man. This is fun. Hey. Thank you for having me. This was fun. I'm sad that Nicole couldn't be here, but It I hope that it was okay. I hope that I was okay. You were great. Okay. You were great. She's not doing great.

I think she got food poisoning. Oh no. It sounded really rough. She was, yeah, yeah. Oh God. You know what I mean? Wow. Well, I'm so sorry, Nicole.

I hope that you feel better by the time this episode is out. Yeah, but everyone wished Nicole well on her bathroom journeys. All right, on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We got new audio-only episodes every Wednesday and a video version here on YouTube every Sunday. John, where can the people find you? John, I can be found, I can be found on Instagram. It's my first and last name, ReverbEverts,

and then you should go check out my podcast with my fiance, Rayva, called Yeah, It's Fun. We have fun with it so if you want to check it out that's on my YouTube channel and on podcast platforms. I'm gonna listen to that on my drive home today. If you want to be featured on the opinions of the cast roles give us a ring leave a quick message at 833.bob1 for more mythical kitchen videos where we launch new episodes every week. See you all next time. Bye.