Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 176 - Anthony Giglio #3

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Two husky Italians sit down for a podcast.    Thanks to our sponsor Nuts.com! Right now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at Nuts.com/PAPA.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am Tom Papa. We've got a good one for you today. I was in New York recently and got to sit down with my good buddy, Anthony Gileo. Great sommelier, a great friend, a good wine and food critic, a journalist, all-round good guy. and we get deep about wine, food, the new season, and Italian fashion, which, as you know, I am quite the fashion plate. I want to be. I want to look like Carrie Grant, and I think I look like Luke Hostello.

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And right now, nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at nuts.com slash papa. You're going to buy this stuff so you really should buy it from there. So go check out all the delicious options at nuts.com slash papa. You'll receive a free gift and free shipping when you spend $29 or more. That's nuts.com slash Papa, P-A-P-A. So it was a nice little stop in New York City. I got to go in.

I was doing the live Come to Papa show that we do pretty much once a month at the Village Underground at the comedy seller. And we had a great time, a great show. Always nice to dip in right when the seasons are starting to change. Always good to get us a little Christmas in the air that you know that autumn is coming into New York. I have such a fondness for that season in that city. We actually did the Halloween show a little early to record it for Sirius XM because I don't think I'm going to get there in a lot.

October. So we kind of hustled up and did the pre-record. But since I left, I feel like I've got to get back because it's only going to get sweeter and nicer. I will be coming in on October 21st to do the NJ. Pack where we have a huge show in Newark at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in the big room. It's going to be a lot of fun. And I feel like if I can stretch that one out, I didn't have time to actually do the recording, like get into the comedy cellar. But if I could pad it a little bit and just get some fall weather in New York, New Jersey area. Mm, perfect. I am going to make it happen.

That's why I sat down with Anthony, because as the seasons are turning, all of a sudden, baking bread and baking anything is now in fashion again. I like to plow through the summer anyway. I don't care about a hot oven. and I'm happy to keep baking all the way through, but this is definitely the season. So I want to sit down with Anthony, see what wines we should be exploring. The good thing about Anthony is he's not going to come in

with a snobbish way of going after wines and going after different bakeries and stuff. We talk a good amount about what's going on in the Hoboken area, some of my favorite restaurants and stuff like that. And it's always within reach. It's always this is a good bargain. This is what you have to ask your wine person in your supermarket or in your wine shop. He gives you just the right amount of knowledge and terms that you should ask for

where it's not going to break your banking. You're also not going to be taken advantage of because you won't look like a moron when you go out exploring. So this is a perfectly timed episode. We're going to fill you up with all the knowledge and all of the enthusiasm to have a great fall with wine, cheese, food, and of course comedy. So enjoy this conversation with Anthony Gileo. Do I sound okay? You sound amazing.

And you look even better. I'm aging backwards, just briefly. Is this our third time? Yes. Wow. Yes. Impressive. And I'm Anthony the third.

So this is. And you're Anthony the third? Yes. Amazing. Are you a second? I'm a junior. You're June. That's my dad.

My 85 year old dad is Junie. He's June. He's Uncle June. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would have, uh, yeah, I don't really go by Junior all that often. You will be in my phone now. Exactly.

Well, good to see you. Thank you for being here. I was like, well, I'm coming to New York. We should be talking about food and where we're headed in the season, and this is a good excuse for us to hang out. Absolutely. The only bummer is that it's in the morning, and we can't be drinking. We're a lot more fun when we're drinking.

We're always fun, but I enjoy it more when we're drinking. Well, let's make it happen next time. Okay, we will, for sure. For those, I'll do the intro separate, but have you seen Jimmy? That's our connection. Cousin Jim Ciccaba. He's the one that got us hooked up. It's funny.

You call him Jimmy. It's Jim. It's Jim. That's funny because he calls me Tommy and I'm not. Yeah, whenever they talk about you, they say, have you seen Tommy? Yeah. And I'm like, Tompava? And I'm like Jimmy.

You're one word, Tompava. Right. It's like in my family, I was Anthony III, one word. One word. You just accordioned it together because there was so many Anthony to look it around. When kids meet me, they, they call me. me one word, Tom Papa. Dad, is Tom Papa coming over?

Can we hang with Tom Papa? It's a great day. It's all one word. Have you seen them recently? No, not at all. Not at all. I'm going to swing by maybe in the beginning of October. I have a gig down there, somewhere around there.

So I'm going to try and see them. You should say that for the cold months. You're like, that's... Well, you're from L.A., though. You're spoiled rotten anyway. I know. I forget this. I got to say, it was really nice.

We had a little crisp air this morning when I was heading out at 8 o'clock. of the morning. Yeah. It was like, oh, I remember this. The fall. I remember this. It's a beautiful week right now so far. It really is.

Are you going to go to the feast? I am not going to the feast because I'm jumping on a plane tomorrow to Nantucket. Ah. The big San Gennaro Festival is going on. Yeah. Where you walk up and down in giant crowds and eat lesser versions than what you enjoy the rest of the year. You also take a vapor bath of fried everything.

So when you get home, you have to shower. Right. And they still wake up smelling like fried calamari. Yeah. Zapolet. Ooh. Maybe I should go by just to, no. Why not?

Well, because of all the things you just said, I don't want to smell like azeppoli. This is the only sweater I've got. I got to fly back tomorrow. It's going to be difficult. You're all things wine, all things food, all things celebration. And I saw you on Instagram when every year you do. the tomatoes. Yeah.

And I have to say, we did it one year with my nephews and I, and we got together and we crushed the tomatoes and put them in jars. And it was great. And we're like, we're going to do this every year. And we haven't done it since. Oh, I thought it was an annual thing with your niece and nephews. Is it your sister's family? Mm-hmm.

They have a tomato farm? Yeah, they have a farm in New Jersey, City Green. And they provide food for all of the surrounding cities, fresh vegetables and all that kind of stuff. They have tons of tomatoes. They have the tomatoes, but literally our schedule, but we're not making it a priority. And then I saw your operation, which was like legit. You had... It's legit, but it's also way, way backwards. Like my, you know, we're respectfully adhering to the traditions of the oldest generation. And yet my wife's cousin Mario and I are itching to modernize, but we get we get blocked. So we know that, like, in a few more years, we'll be able to really take this thing outside where it belongs. Right. There's a lot of fear of flies and other things. Oh, really?

Yeah, everything's from outside anyway. Why aren't we boiling outside? Yeah. But, no, instead, we do it in my mother-in-law's basement, which was dug out in around 1860, very low ceilings with beams and fluorescent. It's the worst conditions ever. It's literally a sweatshop. When you started to describe it, I was like, oh, that sounds great. for a guy of my of my great stature it's not so it's a problem but any guy over five eight who walks in there bangs his head

but yeah we have it all down but you have the big grinder oh yeah we have a massive machine we bought from from Italy via some company in Brooklyn and it's probably the second one we've had in the last 25 years so they last they last long right and yeah we make a lot like we bought 19 bushels just for the two families to split there's only two families splitting this year. They usually three, but cousins went rogue. But yeah, and that's 45 pound bushels times 19.

It's a lot. I can't do math that fast, but it's a lot of tomatoes. It took about three days to get it all all mushed. All jarred and reboiled and cooled to then put down in the canteena. Jeez. So and you're holding. I'm holding

one right now. That's a mini. That's a mini. That's a little that's the weeknight. This is the little guy. Yeah, that's the points. I don't know if I can get it back in my luggage. Maybe I can just try and sneak it. No, they will take it, and then we'll really cry. I tried to smuggle maple syrup.

No, honey from the Pacific Northwest, up around Tacoma, Washington. Honey is a weapon. You can't be taking honey on the plane. The damage you could do. I'm like, I just got to try. Sometimes things sneak through, you know, and they got it. It took it from me. She's like, ooh, this looks good.

I was like, yeah, you might as well keep it. Yeah, it's bad. Bad, bad, bad. This is so good. So vintage 2023 in the books. I didn't post a lot this year, and I'm really remissive and running too hard. About your... Yeah, I usually post like a ton of photo.

I have such great footage and I didn't do it yet. Is it too late? I mean, isn't... No, it's not too late. Can I call it throwback or whatever? Yeah, just do it. No one knows. Create your own reality online.

You know what I mean? You're like, look what we did this weekend. No one knows. I would definitely do it. I've really because I saw only one clip That's all I did the one I never got back

I have so many I was so excited to go Live through it All right I got to do it I have this great one So we play like Satellite Radio from Italy Like on a

You know on a With Bluetooth speaker And like The family was bickering over Whether it should be Today's hits or classics Like summer classics From San Remo Festival 68 or whatever

And so like Femina comes on you know, and my mother-in-law is like pouring the sauce into the jars and she's got these like giant hands and line back her arms and like, you know, her brush strap is always hanging down to her elbow out of her, from underneath her, you know, her morning coat apron. And she's just like a machine. Lucia is a machine. Really?

So she's, but she's talking. Her voice is what I love capturing because it is eight octaves higher than most normal humans. So it could break glass. And so when she starts going, and you hear the pitch of her voice, it's just so funny. So funny. And she's just yapping away. And, like, you know, no one knows what she's saying because it's in Sicilian dialect.

And she's talking to my wife's cousin who speaks it. And I said to her like, what are you talking about? And she's like, oh, you know, I was talking about the Chechi beans I bought in from the fruit guy in Italy and brought them back. And, you know, it sounds like World War III, but nothing's really happening. That's amazing. So now, this will be the sauce that you use all year. We will run out by next June. You will.

Yeah. She makes my mother-in-law cooks for everyone. Yeah. We can count on once a week a beautiful, she'll turn that. So that's just plain pureed tomato. There's no anything in it. Right. So it has to be sauteed with onions, garlic, and olive oil for when she does it, probably

two hours. It's crazy how she simmers it. Oh, my God. But it turns into this rich ethereal, very olive oil heavy sauce. Yeah. And she sends over a Tupperware every week. Every week? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, my God. We have pasta, usually one week night. Yeah. Every week. It's amazing. It's so good. Yeah, life is good, man. That is good.

Now here, let me jump real quickly because you lost weight. Yes. And we, as Italians, you have to create an exercise regime, a diet that works around all of the carbs. Yeah, because everyone else quits that and they drop weight pretty quickly. Yeah. That's really not an option for us. No, I went through nutritious one. She's like, just imagine one cup, like a dry cup, like when you're making, you know, when you pick flour up, like, you know, when you measure flour.

Yeah. That's the pasta portion you're supposed to have. And I looked at it like, are you insane? You want me to forsake everybody I grew up with? You want me to not visit with anybody for the rest of the year? Yeah. It's impossible. And the bread.

And we're surrounded by such amazing bread here, at least here in this area. Like I have, Rick Easton has, you know, bread and salt is a few blocks from my house. Right. Dan at Rotson makes bread on top of ridiculously. good pizza, Dom's Bakery and Hoboken. Well, actually that closed, but antique bakery. So, like, we have good bread in the house at all times. And antique

bakery? You live? Oh, man, that place. I did that, I covered them on my baked show on the food network. Are you kidding? No. Yeah, yeah. So they moved from Hoboken to Jersey City. They did? Yeah, yeah. So they don't have that big giant oven anymore? They have a big giant oven oven in Jersey City. There's only, I'm obsessed with there's only three coal ovens left in Hoboken

and one got destroyed to build con. those. I'm really sad with that. But there's actually no more bakeries left in Hoboken. There's antique bakery restaurant uses the ovens to cook steaks and stuff now. They don't make bread anymore there. But they're still there? The restaurant is where the bakery used to be. Okay. So they're still at that same spot. Yes.

But the baker went to Jersey City and they found a coal oven that used to be called Pecoraro. And now it's antique and they have one of the because coal ovens are illegal. They'll have to be grandfathered in. What a monster. This thing was It's like 1,600 degrees all day. It's one, it's half of the building. Yeah, it's the back floor to ceiling.

Yeah, it's an apartment. Coal, yeah, gigantic coal oven. And you have to literally just shovel coal into it. Yeah. And then you put in a loaf of bread or a steak and it cooks in 10 seconds. You must have interviewed Paul Gerard, the chef back then. Yeah, wasn't he the owner? He was a chef partner.

He left. He's back in the city. But yeah, he was intense with that. I loved watching him man that insanity. Oh, because he was like Nicholas Cade in Moonstruck. A wolf without a paw. Right, exactly. I am a man.

And he, like, you look like a movie star. Yeah, yeah. And he's just shoveling coal in. He's making your stakes. Yeah, Paul was great. The best. He's not there anymore. No.

Wow. So that's why we, that's the confusion. Sorry about that. Antique Bakery was just a bakery until they moved to Jersey City. And the guys who took it over turned it in. a restaurant and figured out a way to use the insanely hot oven. Everything turns to ash in there.

Like, I literally, like, you just open the door and hold things outside of it and it cooks. Insane. Yeah. It's so hot. Yeah. They literally just, it's a little window about chest height. Yeah.

And you just throw shit in there, and it cooks immediately. Yeah. If not explodes. Paul told me that steaks were literally exploding because of the moisture, like, before they figured out how to tame it. Man. Oh, so he's not, so who runs it? now. I don't know. I'm not sure.

Where'd he go? Is he still in food? He was doing a lot of private chef stuff, and he's working on a TV pilot. He's trying to... Yeah. I know he was friends with Bourdain, and they sort of have the same energy. Totally. So he's trying to get something off the ground like, you know, travel, eat, pray, love. Oh, he was a cool guy, and he had

a cool kid. Frankie. Yeah. And his daughter to this. She's hit down in New Orleans now. And that place, when it was the bakery originally, was where Sinatra would get his sticks. Yes, exactly right. Have you been to Leo's Grandavu in Hoboken?

No. So Leo's is the corner of Grandin second, so they wink, wink, call it rendezvous, the Grand Street. But Leo was a childhood friend, and when Sinatra died, every, there was helicopters over Leo's base. Like, every news outlet was there. Oh, really? And talking to Leo, who could barely see over his pink formica bar. Because he was so short back then. But I asked him once years, this was back in the 90s about, about.

his childhood with his relationship with Sinatra and the Sinatra thing, he was, someone pelted him with a tomato out of Hoboken parade in the 1950s and he said, I'll never come back to this Turlet again. Like one of those, something like that. So he officially

renounced Hoboken entirely. Really? Yeah, yeah. And then the Kitty Kelly book didn't help talking about his mother, the abortionist, and all these kinds of things that was all just making a matter and matter about Hoboken. Right. Because people spoke to her. Wow. About his business. Uh-huh. So, but anyway, I said to Lee was like, so he never comes back and he's like, of course he comes back.

But he calls me and he says, Leo, empty to the joint. And I have to close the restaurant. At any hour he calls and empty the restaurant and then he would come in. Oh, my God. And apparently he still had relatives in like a retirement, like one of the senior citizen building, like his godparents or something. So

he was officially, unofficially, in and out a lot, but didn't tell anybody because he wouldn't give Hoboken any love after the tomato. Jeez, I never heard that story. I didn't know he forsake. Yeah. All of Hobo. Yes. Oh, my God.

Done with them. Yeah, because he was telling me that he would come in and get his sticks. His guy, like he was playing in Atlantic City, which was Italian bread. Yeah. Just a big baguettes and they go grab some sticks and they grab them, put them in a case and take him up on the trip with him. Well, Augustino's on Washington Street, the chef there, Buddy Yandoli, his father was Sinatra's private chef who used to, and it was all that's the whole bread connection. It's all a Hoboken network. So you need to go to.

to go to Gastinos. Yeah, that would be great. Oh, my God. It's, it's, it's, we, I mean, a lot of people would call it the Rayos of Jersey. It's impossible to get in. The tables are all taken. You need to know somebody who knows somebody to get in.

I know if you. So I know somebody. You know me, and I know somebody who knows somebody. Nice. What I really have to do is I'm always blowing in. I come in, I'm like, bang out a bunch of shows and get out of here. So anything I've got to do is got to fit in really quickly and with my shows.

I need to have two extra days just. for eating. Yeah. Because we're going to go to Raza, which is this legendary pizza, but Nicole goes there every two minutes. Yeah, we go there. Well, we actually haven't eaten there, but we pick it up all the time.

We have to sit down there. Come eat with us. My city green, my farmer, is giving him tomatoes or selling him tomatoes for the pizzas right now. Right. So that's when he pureized fresh tomato without cooking it and puts it right on the pies into the oven.

It's crazy. Those are the ones for my sisters. I didn't know that. Some of them are from City Green. So I was like, we got to go. And then I got to fly out tomorrow like 6 a.m. It's wrong with my life. If Sinatra, it's like George Washington slept here in the northeast, really just New Jersey and New York.

If Sinatra ever looked at a place, they're like, yeah, this was Sinatra's place. Right. Right. Everyone's connected. Everyone's connected. Patsy's up on 50, 6th. Yeah. I only go.

go there because he went there. Apparently, once. One of the shout-out, then, when we do our food tour of Hoboken, we'll stop in the Heights. On the way to Rata, we'll stop at Andrea, Salamaria, which is on the corner of my block up in the Heights.

Sherman Place in Central. And Pete and his sister run the place. Pete was a counterboy. His uncle was Andrea, who I think sold him the business probably 20 years ago. So when I moved into the neighborhood, my mother-in-law used to say, you have to go to Andrea.

Because the prosciutto, here's the shout of, not only do they make Montreal every two hours. And there's a line up the door all day of old ladies with rosaries and cops and firemen and all the locals are there, and the line goes up the door unless you know what to say, and I'll tell you right now. But when I was dating my wife and her mother would put out Saturday lunch or something, and the prosciutto was thicker than it's ever from most Italian delis.

Right. Because it's supposed to like a veil, like a tissue. But that's when you're eating it, Aliminute in front of the person cutting it. Right. I want to say it. It goes right on a plate. Great.

When they stack it between layers of paper, it just turns to glue. And you know what that's like when you get bad prosciutto. You open it up and it's all stuck together. So this comes out like silk, like handkerchiefs. Oh, my God. And I said, who cuts this? And she goes, you have to go meet Pete. So when I moved in, I went down there like, who's Pete?

And Pete goes, who wants to know? It's like, Lucia's son-in-law. And he goes, oh, the wine guy. And I was like, yes. So he's like, listen, you call ahead. That's the move. You call ahead. have it ready, you walk right up to the register and you leave.

You don't have to wait in the line. Which anyone could do. It's not a secret. Oh, really? Call ahead and you don't have the bag ready. People wait in line for sometimes an hour. I'm like, what do you do? Just call.

Yeah, you would never think to do that. That's amazing. I think that, yeah, all right, we're going to have to stay actually another week. And bring checked luggage so you can put all the stuff in the bag and get it through TSA. Yeah, I know. Right, exactly. Check my, yeah, I'm going to take it. I'll just check a bag.

Who gives a shit? The other confession I have from growing up in this area, which is a sin, which I'll just say because it's, I'll just say it. I've never been Arthur Avenue. What? What? So sorry. Nicole, I bet you go there every week. I actually don't even know where that is to be there.

Yes. It's up in the Bronx, legendary avenue. It's where Al Pacino shot the other mob boss and the cop. right right right supposed to be Arthur Evan yeah yeah I haven't been up there and I don't go up a lot

honestly but it is actually an authentic little Italy versus the Manhattan one it's kind of gotten swallowed yeah but yeah I mean the the seafood it's crazy the things you can get up there

the price is I wonder like where is this stuff is this really pursuit of the department because how could it be 1299 a pound when in Andrea it's 2299 a pound like you know but I'll say that to Pia's like

You get what you pay for. You get what you pay for. Like the plumber in Moonstra. There's copper and there's everything else. So you get what you pay for. Yeah, I got to go up there too. It's really, it's, I almost feel like I'm going to lose my Italian hood if I don't go. We'll go there first.

We have to work away south. And we work our way down to Rata. All roads lead to Rata. Yeah, then we'll end up at Rata. So back to the weight thing. Oh, yes. So you dropped all this weight. How are you doing it?

while eating and drinking like this. Running my ass off. Can I say, can I say ass on? You can say whatever you want. Just, I got back into running. What's crazy is last summer, I was training for a half marathon, the first ever. And I worked really hard, but I didn't lose a lot of weight. But I was really in good shape to run. And I ran the marathon, a half marathon, and felt amazing.

But I immediately fell off my horse. Like, that was it. Like, okay, I'm done with it. Let's eat. It's fall, and I got to get back to work. Yeah. And I started traveling for, work and all this. And I put a lot of weight on. I'm like a bear in the wind. As soon as my body senses

a chill, start hoarding, hoarding the honey and the fat and the butter. And so that's my normal. It's like my roller coaster every year. So it's always like, I look a picture. I'm like, oh, that must have been fall. But that's spring. I'm starting to shed the coat, shed my winter coat. I had that this morning. I came out of the hotel. It was a little hint of fall. I got a big chrissomped and I shoved it in my face. So two things I did. One was my buddy Anthony told me that he was intermittent fasting and I thought

oh you know I see I get served that on Instagram constantly. Yeah. And so I gave it a shot and I'm completely broken from breakfast. I know but that's kind of awful. I know that they say you know that's the way to get the day going. Yeah. Everything's working fine. All you know what I mean? Like

I just have black coffee. a lot of water, water with lemon when I wake up, and all systems would go. I don't even think about it. But come like 12-1, I'm like, I need to eat something. But I don't feel anything. No, I don't really need breakfast. But I eat later than you're recommended to eat anyway

because we're like Mediterranean. We eat minimum 8 o'clock at night. So dinner could end at 9.30 sometimes. And then I go right to bed at 10.30. Like it's bad. Yeah, that's great. Whatever I'm doing, for my, it's all personal. Yeah.

It's totally subjective. This works for my ridiculous, awful body. And so it works. But the running, it's the running. So I finally got, I found excuses. I went to my orthopedist who did my ACL 10 years ago. And I was like, these knees, they're really holding me back. I shouldn't run, right?

Just tell me I shouldn't. First of all, if you're here to talk knee replacement, I'll see you in 20 years. That's the first thing I'm going to tell you. Second, your knees are cranky, lose some weight. And I was like, how much weight? He was like, like 30 pounds. Can you lose 30 pounds? He's like, I don't believe in those charts, he said.

But he's like, but you know, like the FDA would have you in the 150s and you're in the 180s. Like, you could lose some weight. So I'm telling it all here. Yeah. At the worst of it in January, I tipped 193. I'm five, six and three quarters. I don't know how I hide it. People would never believe it.

No. I look husky. By the way, that's my autobiography that'll never write. Yeah. Husky for life. Husky. Do you remember the husky size? I didn't remember Husky. I was husky as a kid. I had to go to Sears for my school uniforms and go to the Husky section.

Back when shaming was allowed. Back when weight shaming was allowed. Come on, Fatso. My mother would say, excuse us, can you handle us where the husky section is? He's big bone. Hold on, aisle 7. We have a husky coming in. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It's so crazy.

Yeah, you're husky. Yeah, so Husky for Life will be the book if I ever write it. So you started running. So anyway, he got me motivated and I started running and it just clicked. It does, I know. And that high, I love it. I'm not doing any other exercise, which is bad. Like, I have a gym membership of them wasting.

And, you know, the guy in the gym is like, you should be lifting weights. I know. Everyone says you should be there. I know. And I know that I have to get into a routine. But right now this is working. I'm down to like 174. I feel awesome.

So what are you running normally? Like three miles? Five to six. Five to six. Sometimes seven. Whoa. It's a time thing. If I can get my butt out of the bed early enough, I can go out.

If I know I have a good 90 minutes ahead of me, I just go. So you do it before the day starts? I try. Yeah, and the worst. In the afternoon, it's never good. Yeah. That's when it's just three miles short. Yeah.

For me, anyway, that works. I just started running again, too. I never got to the point of a half marathon. I was always like a three-mile guy. Why don't we run our food tour when you come back? We could do that. Actually, you put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off. This is so boring.

I've talked about this before, but my struggle with running and being on the road all the time is packing enough shoes for your carry-on. Yeah. It's a puzzle. And the really only way to solve it is where you're running shoes as the commute. They're not pretty. It's not classy. Yeah. And that leads me to my next question.

you're wearing a suit I literally last night was looking at pictures of Fellini movies Right Because there No one looks better in suits And Marchella Master reality

Oh my God And our body is not his body No We do not have his Your annoying cousin Jim has his body He looks kind of like him Yes He has a little shade of him

Yes It's very annoying Yeah He really does and but Fellini is a little more like our shapes yeah

Bellini himself the director you mean round just round a little pudgy soft around the edge a little soft a little pudgy but always wearing a suit yes and looks great yes and that is why

it wasn't until you had your jacket off that I was like you just look the same as you did last time so you were 30 pounds heavier last time and I don't know notice because the suit really is what every man should wear. A good job. It's not often a suit, but I have an event tonight,

and I'm going straight through it today. I have a crazy day. Yeah. But I always have a, I always wear a sport coat. Like, I can't wait for fall to start putting a sport coat on again. I know. It just finishes everything. Even with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, a sport coat just finishes everything nice.

It's classy. And pocket squares. I'm big in pocket squares. I know I see that. I'm big into pocket squares. Is this new? No, I have a. a poochie collection. I've been collecting

for years. So this is how I described it as the before times when I had money, which is before marriage, mortgage, and babies. I started collecting pocket squares. Why, are they expensive? Pucci ones could be $3,400 bucks.

I mean, if they're vintage, especially. For one? I haven't bought them in 25 years because of that. Is Pucci the brand? You don't know Emilio Pucci? Wait, you just said you're Italian, right? Aren't you Italian? I told you, I've only, I haven't even been Arthur Avenue. Emilio Pucci. Google him.

It's all those... Do it right now. It's all those beautiful paisley squirrels from the 60s and 70s. That's the foundation. This isn't a poochie. I should have brought in today, but it doesn't work with this suit. But Emilio Pucci, you slumming it because you came to my podcast. Exactly.

I want a little more downtown. We're on Bleaker. I didn't want to be too fancy. Although I'm heading up to Park Avenue tonight for my wine tasting at the the Knights of Columbus Foundation. Really? The Association. They're having a...

So they hired us through Digisthas Cucing School to host a wine in caviar. Italian caviar, Calvacius caviar. Shout out to Calvius. My good friend, Kiara Carfie, is the marketing director. And so I will be having caviar tonight

by the teaspoonfuls. Oh, my God. Not a normal day, by the way. That is heaven. And we're pairing it with all... They wanted real champains. And I said, this is supposed to be... It's an Italian organization.

Yeah. We should have some good, you know, French Accorta. you know, Trento Dock, like the good Italian champagne method sparkling wines, not Prosecco. Not Prosecco. Are they better than Prosecco? I'm going to be diplomatic and say they're apples and oranges. They are. So real champagne, real sparkling wine is fermented twice the second time in the bottle. Prosecco is fermented twice, but the second time in big giant industrial tanks.

So the difference is how much work goes into making it bottle by bottle by bottle. So we call it traditional method or champagne method is bottle by bottle by bottle. And they do that in French Acorta, which is in Lombardi in Northern Italy and in Trento Dock, which is nearby. But those are where they do, you'll see it'll say traditional method. Any bottle, even in English, they'll say traditional method means made like champagne. Okay. And that's means. And what's the end result, taste-wise?

There's a big difference? There's a humongous difference because there's usually aging requirements attached to that. For Prosecco is fermented, double fermented, bottled, and sold instantly, like within weeks. And champagne, real champagne by law, is a minimum of two years of aging before it's allowed to be released, even if it's non-vintage. Got it's vintage. Got it's five to ten years. Wow. So when you open them, they actually, that's where all those secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors of like brioche and biscuit and mushrooms and all these crazy things from the development of flavor very slowly.

but people who often grew up with prosceco like we did are worse Astis Bumanti when we were kids right this sweet stuff when you taste champagne

you think oh it's champagne it's going to be great it's often off putting when you watch people's expressions they're not sure what to say because they think this shit tastes old

like what is where's all the fruit right it's like that's Proseco immediacy deliciousness freshness but real sparkling wine traditional method sparkling wine

has a lot more going on and they're not nearly as fresh and fruity as you're used to. So that's, you know, you're actually paying three times as much than you would for Prosecco. Right. And then when you get it, a lot of people are like, I'm not sure if this is what I expected. Right.

But if you have a mature palate like we do, then you enjoy it. If you became fancy like we did as we. I'm getting fancier. I have to go, I'm choosing one or two ways. I either go into, my kids are gone. There's a new chapter. I am now I can do whatever I want.

Okay. I'm either going comic books and video games and converse, or I'm going the world of Felini and your friend Pucci. Did you see Pucci? You got it there? Yeah, I didn't realize it was such a big deal.

Nicole, have you ever heard of Emilio Pucci? No, I haven't. I'm looking on the screen behind your head. There's a beautiful pat. Look at that beautiful pocket square there. Holy cow. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I have a lot of those patterns. Kind of matches yours right now. Yeah. I have almost that one. The one to the right of it, I have that one. Gee. Similar, similar. Yeah, I have a whole bunch of them.

My great friend, Alessandro Lennardi, who is the importer, the official importer for Ornalea, which is one of the big, massive, beautiful Super Tuscan producers in Tuscanese Wild West. he and his wife Elizabeth have a Pucci collection because she used to work in Florence at Pucci and she said that they used to let her have the remnants they were throwing away and so they have like framed Pucci

like you know beach towels on the wall like made of silk like like tapestries of Pucci so and it was always it was a primary did they do other fashions like suits and dresses and stuff or was it just pocket squares No, no, it probably started as like an urmease kind of like those big giant scarves and things like that. But they make everything.

You could buy shoes. But yeah. But for me, it's just about the pocket squares. Look at that one right behind you. It's a big one. You see that big one now? It's beautiful. Gorgeous.

Yeah. All right. Now we know what you want for your birthday. Thank you. And me. February 20th. When's yours? November 10th.

Oh, it's coming. I know. Oh, crap. Yeah. I was just in Italy. I could have looked. Son of a bitch. Is that where you have to get them?

No, of course. But it always feels better when you buy it there. It feels like you got something that's not available here. Yeah, you get something on your little trip. But I also believe they probably hold back like this is only for the local clientele. Like, this is what I tell myself. It's like, you know, I hate, by the way, I hate what globalization has done. I know.

To my shopping trips in Italy used to buy things like you couldn't get Brooklyn bubble gum. Remember Brooklyn is an Italian bubble gum brand called Brooklyn. I used to bring it back and it was a big deal to give it to my friends. Like, look what I brought back for my friends in Brooklyn. Now that you could buy it at any bodega here It sucks It does suck I know

You go We were in Paris this summer The spring And Yeah there wasn't no La Dure That you used to only be able to get those Fantastic The macaroons

Only at La Durea near the Medline And that was like it And that was like it And now my daughter gets them in Beverly Hills Yeah You get them everywhere Yeah By the way Calcedonia

I used to have a crazy collection Of Italian socks And I'm When I do put So like I'm still sock-free for another few weeks. But once you have to start putting the socks on, I'm the old man who puts them right up to the knee.

I like that, I don't like them falling. I like that, too. And I don't like when a guy sits down and you could see his leg hair peeking out. The worst. The sock and the pant leg. So I pull them way up high. And I have all these crazy patterns. It used to be an Italian chain called Calcedonia.

And their underwear sister store was Intimisimi, which they'll find on Fifth Avenue now. They're in the mall with short hills. They're everywhere. I used to bring people back. I gave Stanley Tucci a pair one year. You did? I had a meeting with him.

We were trying to do a wine show that never went off the ground. And then when he got the food show, we forgot that he knew me. So it's okay, Stanley. I forgive you. Come on, Stanley. He loved my socks during the meeting. He's like, look at those socks. And I'm like, Calcedonia.

And they weren't here yet. This was 15 years ago probably. And I gave him a pair of Calcedonia socks when that was special. Now it's over. He's very styly, too. I was at a wedding weekend thing, and he was there. and everyone's just kind of like casual. And he, every, every step of those weekends,

if it was like showing up at the pool, showing up at the cocktail, going to dinner, the morning breakfast, different outfit every, every single. The difference is that he has someone there holding the jacket up for him and buttoning his shirt. It's like he has a footman like downtown abbey. Like they button him right up to the neck. A ballet.

Dust him off. The valet. The valet. Right. By the way, Tucci's on the Today Show this morning talking about his new cookware line. Oh my God. He's got a cookware line now.

Jeez. And he's all in. It's beautiful. Like I was like, I wasn't even, it was in the background. And I was like, what do these stupid pots look like? And they're like, oh my God, they're beautiful. Like they've like copper handles. And he said they, when, oh God, this is me blowing the opportunity for a co-lab here.

The company is green something that makes the pans. And, but he said they have to be made in Italy. That's my, if they, if you want a partner, it has to be made in Italy. And then he said, and I have very specific thoughts on the shapes and sizes and handles and all of it. And they're gorgeous. He had a moment when the election went fascist in Italy. Yeah. Right?

And he was like, I guess I'm not doing my show from there anymore. I guess that stopped. Yeah, you know, so I've been Italy a ridiculous amount of time. I'm making up for the three years we lost. I've spent over 30 days there this year. Oh, my God. And so I'm watching and I try to watch Italian news. I speak Italian enough.

to get for me to be easily but the news is fast but I want to I just leave it on his background like I do the Today Show today it's in the background but so you know when Maloney comes on

I pay attention to her every word I want to see what she's up to and you know like I mean this is not what we came to talk about but like I had a lot of fear when she came into office and then you'll hear from every Italian that I spoke to when I was there

was like our government is so broken there are so many checks in places all by the way are doing after the war we set them up with like a a regime so stacked with pitfalls that, like, really nothing could happen. Like, meaning she can't get anything really done, anything horrendous, because of the checks that are in place from all the other thousand parties who have a hand in the government. Right. So it just doesn't work.

So, like, yeah, like, you might like what she has to say. And she certainly, you know, and she certainly has a very great speaking voice and authoritative. And the first woman, it's, you know, groundbreaking, all this kind of stuff. And her policies resonate with, you know, especially the South where they're all about. mad about immigration and things like that, but she really can't do a lot of damage, which I think, and the reverse of that is, you know,

if a great politician comes in, he really can't get a lot done either. Right. So it's sort of like it's stasis there. Yeah, it just stays in. Everyone just complains. Right. It doesn't matter who's in charge. Everyone just complains and nothing gets done. They just want you to pick up the garbage. Yeah. Pick up the garbage. Yeah. Pick up the garbage.

And yeah. And maybe help us with health care a little bit. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. But I'm working on my citizenship. You are? A nightmare. Oh, my God.

Do you have to take a language test? Our people invented bureaucracy. I know. They invented the rubber stamp, the triplicate. There's this phrase called apostille that you have to have to have everything apostille. It's not just like the, what is it, the notary. The notary? No, no, no.

It's like the notary with a masters. But you have to go to the notary first and then get it apostille and it has to be inspected and re-inspected and triplicate. So I'm, I'm, I'm. in for over two grand in paperwork. Oh my God. Getting stuff made. When did you start? Before COVID. And then paperwork got lost during COVID. So I was able, my wife's

a citizen. Okay. So Tony's, she got her citizenship. She was very smart. Her parents are from Sicily. So they came in the 60s in the 80s when it was still very easy before the Euro and all that. Yeah. She applied and was like nothing. She wrote a letter and there was no email back. Then they sent a letter back saying, congratulations.

You're a citizen. So when I went and started the paperwork, I said, I have my great-grandparents passport, my great-grandfathers. So I could prove direct lineage to my great-grandfather, Domenico. Or I'm married for 20 years to this Italian citizen. And so either way. So I started the paperwork, and I got my kids in because you have to tell the government step-by-step where Antony is. She's now married.

They didn't know that. She has two children. Now they didn't know that. So now they're in. They're in. And they're getting voting cards in the mail to vote on an election that doesn't matter anyway. Right. But I'm being hung out to dry until I do a lot more paperwork.

Just paperwork? We have to make sure that the local government in Patti in Sicily recognizes me as her husband. And then I have to start the test process. And now, yeah, so since COVID and since 2016, without getting political, the floodgates in Italy have opened with Americans trying to get citizenship as a backup plan when all goes to hell here. Right. So they've made it harder and harder and harder. I have nine years of Italian.

So I'm not worried about the, I think it's a fourth grade level. You do have to take a language test now. Damn it. I don't know, but it might be oral. Like the Italians are big on oral exam like that. I think that's probably how they do it, but I don't know. I haven't gotten that far yet because we still have to get the potty connection. In the South, things don't happen so quickly.

The language thing is, that's, I'm out. Well, start doing Duolingo. I have friends doing it. They love it. Yeah, I started doing it. I started doing a little bit of it. What was it? Mangaro.

Do you want something to eat? Mangare is the infinitive. Right. So manjo, I eat. I eat. Manji. Manji. Tom manja.

Keikosa. Keikosa? Keikosa. Keikosa. Keikosa is what is and then kekosa and what is it. Okay. Yeah. Que Cose.

Quezé manjare? You have to channel your inner grandmother. Like, what the after you doing? Go queza manjari. What are you eating? What are you eating? What do you eat? What do you're doing?

All right, I could take the test. You got it. You're done. You're done. Damn. Yeah, because when I first started looking into it 15 years ago, there was no language test. Yeah. There wasn't one until 2016.

Jeez. All hell broke loose. All the Americans looking for an escape route. Yes. Jeez, Louise. Yeah, so anybody out there listening who could help me? Please help me. Please help me.

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All right. I think I should go more grown-up. I want to be like you and Felini. Thank you for putting us in the same sentence. That has never happened and never will again, but thank you for that. Nicole, look up Felini. Fadrico Felini, you'll see. You'll see a little similarity. Look, there I am in a suit and tie. You're looking good there. Yeah. You got the collar open. So you know what GQ would say? What?

Leave it on or take it off. But never quartermasked the tie. I know, but I'm in comedy. You look good. You look good there. I'm in comedy. I can do it.

You look slick on stage always. Yeah, I do for the most part. But I think I want to bring it into my everyday life. Yeah, look at them. That's you. I had uncles who look that mean, but... Right? Yeah.

Yeah, he's a little annoyed there. But we want... We know what, Nicole, look up. Marcello, Mastroian. That's who we're talking about. M-A-S-T-R-O-I-A-N-N-I. There's no world where you're going to look like that. Your cousin does.

I know, but we can't. Like, I think I'm Spencer Tracy or Carrie Grant when I throw on a suit. That's what I'm talking about. I know. That's what we're talking about. Nicole, is there any world we could look like that? You just need the shades and then maybe a little SIG in the hand and you got it. You think so?

Yeah. Tommy, that could be you on stage. our body type? Yeah. Dark colors. We look taller. If I keep running. Dark colors, man. Dark colors.

And always ask the photographer to put the tall slim lens on. Just, I say that. All right. So now we're moving into fall. We got the tomatoes out. Tomatoes are done. Tomatoes are done. We're getting close to hibernating. You've got this event tonight, which is I would call not knowing anything about it.

But just from what you're serving, your last summer hurrah. Yeah. Because now the temperatures are going to dip. And what, give us, give me and the people listening and Nicole. Why don't you just tell me what is, what will you be uncorking on a weekday? Hmm. So certainly, yeah. I mean, we're going, we're going cold now.

going fall. You know, you know, we've talked many times about temperature in wine, like so red wines are chilled all, all the is. Let me interrupt you right now. What? Last time you were on. Did I promise you

something that I forgot? Two things. No, you didn't. You gave me two tips. One tip was good and one tip was revelatory. Oh, I think you're going to say terrible. The great one was when you're done with your wine and you only had a half bottle because your wife's not participating and you're trying to be

good and not have the whole bottle tonight, cork it and throw it in the refrigerator. Right. It's food. It's a very basic thing. It's food. It should be just out on the, and you said to me, Tommy boy, it'll be even better the next day. Yeah, Aaron the bottle opens it. It's crazy. So great. Crazy. So great. Yeah. And it takes like if you know, if you're just popping open a $20 bottle of wine, And you throw it in it. It comes out that next day, even better. Yeah. It's like a $50 bottle of wine.

The meatloaf principle. It gets better overnight in the fridge. It really does. It comes together. It really, really works. Great tip. I can't believe how simple. I will add that if you have a cool room, like a, you could leave it down there.

You don't have to put in the fridge. The fridge is a little drastic. It'll take a while to come back. Right. If it's red wine, you need a half hour for it to come back up. Okay. The kitchen fridge is. 38. It's way too, you know. A little too cold.

You'll have to come up, you know, a good 15 degrees before it's, uh, yeah. In the nice mid-50s where I like it. Mm-hmm. But, um, but again, that's all, you know, hold it like a goblet and it'll warm up in no time. Yeah, yeah. They'll hold a glass like, you know, like one of the housewives on a show, like cup it underneath like a brandy sniff there and walk around the

house with your three-carat ring. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't emphasize how, how great a little What was the other tip? Life hack that is. Thank you. The other tip wasn't so great. What, why? I was right, this is going to be cool. And I told my wife, and I was like, this is going to be, forget, you have a white wine or something or a Prosecco, and you want it chilled, but you don't want to add water to it. So you take frozen grapes.

Don't tell me that doesn't work. And you throw frozen grapes in there, and it'll cool it down. It'll be a nice little elegant thing. Maybe it was the wrong grapes, but what I ended up with was a fruit salad. A fruit salad. Yeah. It's just peeling and... Now, hold on.

I didn't say it will cool it down, like, meaning like you're starting with room temp. No, I meant like... No, it was more like ornamental. Yeah, yeah, like... A fun flare. You're gonna keep it cold. Like, because that's like... When I'm in like yard parties and stuff, like people, like, it's getting hot fast.

Yeah. So just throw a few grapes in there and it'll keep it cool. And now you've got a glass that's not that cool and also has fruit skin floating in it. All right, you really, you really, like, you are the only person who's ever complained about that, but it's okay. This is what makes the world go around. I live in L.A., and I've only tried it, I still stand by this. You do? I still stand by, like, when you want to keep something that's already cold, cold, add the grapes, and you don't need a lot of them.

Right. But they, yeah, and you don't need to add, like, a cupful. Like, you just, like, three or four will do it. Two or three. I'm not throwing in bushels. Yeah. I just threw in a couple. But if you have, like, warm white wine, like, it's up.

It's on the shelf and just pour it in. No, it's not going to get cold. Right. No. It really was just the, I didn't anticipate that the grape was going to start peeling. Peeling? I don't know what you're talking. What did you use?

What did you use? All right. We got to work on that too. Yeah. We got to work on that. But the other hack was amazing. How about this hack for chilling? So if you know, if you keep your ice bucket handy and nothing fancy, it could be literally

a basin in your sink. But if you whisk in like a good handful or a cup of kosher, your salt. Like just pour the box into there, like a good with your eye, a cup of salt, a little warm water and whisk it to dilute as much as you can of it. Then pile the ice in, cold water, and now you have an ice bath that

the water temperature goes down to 17 degrees because it's a thermonuclear reaction versus 36 degrees when you just make ice water. So you could actually bring it down to 17 or so with salt and water. Or if you live on the beach, you know, you're

from L.A. Just go out there on your surfboard and bring back a bucket of salt water and drop ice in there. Salt water chills much, much colder. So you could chill anything in minutes. And then just stick your wine bottle in that? Yeah, yeah. So fill it with ice, then cold water halfway up. Right.

And dunk that bottle in up to its shoulders. It will be cold in minutes versus like 10 minutes or so, 12 minutes. This is why I love you. Ice water. Really great. Salted ice water. Okay. What wines are you going to be into now? Okay, so moving into fall,

actually I was just talking to a publicist about this yesterday. She was pitching me Beaujolet for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is that like, you know, the insanity of what's on that table. There's no, like, one perfect pairing for all of the sweet and savory and then add the Italian layer, the Greek layer, whatever. Culture you're from, you're adding those things to the whole. The turkey is the afterthought, right, for most of us,

at least, you know, except for really boring TV, you know, like American families who, like just have, the turkey. Yeah. We can't, we start with pasti and pasta

and then sides and eat balls and the turkey's like at 7 p.m. and it's tomorrow sandwiches for the next three days. It's anything

that's going to be good to eat, you just throw it out there because this is good too. It doesn't make sense that it's all at once but I'll throw it all out. Bojolet is a good one

because not expensive right and satisfies everybody. Right. And the price problem with, as an amateur, when I was first starting to host Thanksgiving, I was like, I've got to really knock everyone's socks off with great wine. But it's a waste. It's a waste to put out a great bottle. At the end of the meal, when there's a couple stragglers of the diehards, then it's okay. But to throw out really good wine in the beginning of that Bacchanal feast is a mistake. Right. I was looking up the ones I was talking about with my friend of deal yesterday. So, um, The Bosolets, right? So everyone hears Borgia.

Tom or Tommy. It all depends on your age if you know what Baudelae Nouveau means. Remember Bajelénavo? It was in the 90s. Where of a certain age where that was a thing. Early 90s. Oh, my God. Because that's when I was first even, like, learning what a wine was.

Right. The worst marketing. I mean, sorry. Borgelé No, no, best marketing of a dumb idea, right? And it really took hold. And I want to say this again because it never gets old for people who still, because by the way, like, people like, you know, my aunt will still buy me a nice bottle of Bojale de Novo is a gift, thinking it's impressive,

but here's the rule. So Bozre Novo is the celebration of the harvest. Right. It's the third Thursday of November every year without fail in France. It's practically a national holiday, and somebody imported it and brought it here and turns it into a thing here where, like, the New York Times would have full page ads like, La Bojolet Est Arrivae and, like, turned it into this big hallmark holiday. And Americans all went Gaga for Bozley Nevo.

And here's the deal. It is literally pressed. without any thought. Like, it's just, it's literally a litmus test for whether it was a good year or bad year in one little tiny province of all of France, right? Southern Burgundy, Bojolet. So, but it was just, there it's just a harvest festival. Like, let's celebrate another great year.

And in Paris, like literally the next day, the third Friday of Paris, sorry, the third Friday of November in Paris, nobody goes to work until noon because they're all hungover from like New Year's Eve the night before. It's just a party, party, party. Right. But the rule in Bojolet and in France, is if you have Bojolet Nouveau that was released on the

3rd Thursday of November, if you still have bottles at New Year's Eve, make vinaigrette. Like there is nothing, nothing, nothing redeemable about that wine. It is a party wine, it's gulp, gulp, gulp, and down it goes and it's gone. Do not contemplate it. Don't pour it into good stem wear and wave it in the air and try

to impress your friends with legs. This is all ridiculous. But it is a fun, just drinkable Bojolet Nouveau is fun in the moment at a pizza party, but literally the next day, we are not talking about it anymore. Right. So, like, it's kind of silly.

It's been done with real Borgulet, we called the cruise. Right. They come out in spring of every year. And it doesn't matter. But that's when the cruise. There's 10 crews. Right.

And, like, the famous ones that you might, and so here's the worst part of Baudelae marketing is, the bottles never say Baudelae. They, unless Baudelae Nouveau. Or Borgelage, which is the general, like, from fall over. This, the, like, the umbrella term. But the 10 crews only use the crew names.

So Morgan, Brueyi, Julienas, Mulanavant. And that's the thing. So here's the advice. If there's one takeaway, go to a wine shop and say, do you have any good Baudelae? They know exactly what you mean. It doesn't mean Nouveau ever. Or if you could say crew, any of the good crews.

Right, okay. I've written this piece a million times when they've always put the headline, the cool crew. Right. And the press release, my friend sent me, it's in there too because everyone just used the cool crew. Like, and it's 10 villages. They're the really good Baudelae.

And here's what they are on the spectrum of taste. So in red wine, and this is a very general spectrum, but for most Americans who understand anything about wine or what they like or even know, everyone knows Pinot Noir, that I would call the lighter end of the spectrum, or almost the lightest. And the far end would be the big cabernets and the brawny prerots and porolos and tannic, tannic, heavy black wines.

And then in the middle is the juicy middle, which I call the juicy middle. That's the Rhone, the Gronash Saraz, the GSMs, the Grinash Saras, Marreis. They're in the middle of tan and tan. So they're both fruity and tanic, but not crazy tanic like Aberdey. And not as light as, you know, and garnet as Pinot Noir. Bojolet is one-click lighter. That lighter than Pinot Noir.

Than Pinot. So Gamet is the grape. Uh-huh. And it's grown all around the, you know, you can find California gamets too. They're beautiful. I'm thinking of Clodda Gilroy from Bonnie Dune. So you have beautiful gamet grapes from Bojolet, from the cruise. They are beautiful, chillable, gulpable.

and the prices are going up. I used to say, and they're under 20 now. Like the ones that my friend sent me yesterday are $50 to $60. So, yeah, of course, I help ruin the party by promoting this stuff. And then it gets expensive. But she sent me these two that I'm going to, she actually shipped them to me. Domain Mont Besse, B-E-S-S-A-Y. And there's two labels.

One is called Am-Besse, and it's from Julianas. So Julianas is one of the 10 village crews. And the other one is Domain Mont-Pessey, Le Vieux. Moulinavant. Moulan Avant. Moulanavant is hyphenated, and it means windmill. Moulinavant. And Moulinvant is the top crew. The, I'd say the fullest of all of the Baudelaide bodies. Bree down the other end is the lightest. And Moulin avant's are almost Pinoa.

You would think they're Pinauars if you're blind taste to them. They just taste like beautiful. And are they drinkable right away? Right away. Right. Yeah. You don't have to hold on to these. And you drink them.

And so that's always on my Thanksgiving table along with great research. in a few different levels of sweetness because reesling could be bone dry and super sweet. And most Americans hear the word reesling or they see that tall, thin bottle, and they see sweet. I know. I wanted to get a reesling the other night, because

I was, what was I making? I was making fish. And I wanted to have a reesling and I was just in my supermarket, so it was just kind of like, you know, get what you can. I had no frame of reference, so I just kind of grabbed something that was moderately priced.

And it was so sweet. It was too sweet. Yeah. Not good. Yeah, it wasn't good. Because I know Rieslings, like, people go nuts over them. Right. Like, well, the joke in my world is how do you spell Summlieu?

R-I-E-S-L-I-N-G? We're always, always trying to get you to buy it. Yeah. Here's what's... Why? Because it's so misunderstood, and it's one of the most, the most adaptable wines to pair with everything, because it's made in every single style from tooth-acheingly bone-dry, to tooth-eakingly sweet.

Oh, okay. And so we could pair it with everything. Right. Everything from oysters to blue cheese at the end, or foie gras, all those things in the middle. And in Germany, where they hyper-obsessed about Riesling, the greatest reasoning on the planet, yeah. They're in no way helping themselves with the language on the bottle. So it's always worth it to go to a store and say, I'd like a dry reesling, a bone-dry-dry-stling,

medium-dry, off-dry. And I'm going to probably off-dry real quick. Why? Off-dry is actually one of the most adaptable to drink, especially with spicy. spicy foods with every culture's takeout, right? So my daughter, by the way, so my daughter, Sophie, she's out in L.A. with you. She goes through LMU. Shout out to LMU.

And she and her roommates, I set them up in their apartment last year. They had a Whole Foods, they were in the Whole Foods. They were saying, okay, so they were like, can you buy some wine for the room? And I'm like, of course. And I find Kung Fu Girl Riesling. Do you know Kung Fu Girl? No. What?

No. Well, I've ruined it because now Whole Foods stop selling it because I think they wiped them out of the entire stock of what was available in California. else in Los Angeles. But Kung Fu Girl, Riesling, it used to be, I think,

12 or 1499 a bottle. It's a screw cap. Kung Fu Girl, it's, it's this beautiful, slightly off dry reesling. So it is perfect for Washington State. It's from,

what's his name, Smith, who makes Ksera. They're all cheeky named, cheekly named wines like K. That would make me nervous if I walked in and didn't know the recommendation

when the name is a little too cutesy. Right, and it's got like a very Asian, the Asian label with a woman in Pose, I think, or something like that, or some definitely Asian letters on it. But yeah, Kung Fu Girl, Reesling is spectacular. And it goes with all your spicy food. So here's a rule of thumb to take away from this recent conversation.

To pair with heat, meaning spice, not temperature. To pair with heat, slightly sweet. Okay. So that's when you need to say in a wine shop, do you have anything slightly sweet? whereas the geeks would say off dry. That's how we hide that we're drinking sweet. We say something off dry.

Yeah. You don't want to be a rub. You have to fix your cravat when you say that. If there's something a little off dry, please. Yeah, so off dry mean, in the terminology of wine, off dry it means just a little bit of residual sugar in there. And by the way, when you go to like a cocktail party in Italy or France, like a parativa, they'll call it, like a parativa, they always serve off dry sparkling wine.

And we are terrible. Americans are terrified of pouring anything sweet because we think it harkens back to our reunity on ice. Yeah, that's a nice thing. Well, they would, yeah, like, well, yeah. Kendall Jackson admittedly was slightly sweet. Yeah. And that's how they hooked Americans off of super sweet to slightly sweet. And then up the ladder.

Kenil Jackson now has like, it's one of the most big Jackson family venues, the most spectacular portfolios on the planet with like really expensive, beautiful Super Tuskins and Portos and they make wine all over the planet using different family names or different venue names or producer names, but it's not just, it's not Kendall Jackson anymore. But Kendall Jackson was big, oh, sweet chardoning. I'm like, by the about, sweet chardonnay birthed a entire nation of wine drinkers who moved up the ladder into something drier and better and better and better.

You've got to go. I do have to go, and I hate that I have to go. I know, because we could do this for hours. Well, that's why you keep coming back. When the weather starts getting a little cooler around my birthday, I always think a little heavier. I start to go away from the... Right. From our pinos, we move to the Rhone.

Yeah. So we're going to move into those GSMs, the sweet spot in the middle. So I'm going to say for fall, fall, like I'm going to, like, think about Casuale's season is coming. Yeah. Shut enough to Pop. Yeah. Right? Or Gigondeas or Vaccaras, like all the beautiful Rones, even Cote d'Aron.

Even simple Cote d'Aone are so hiding in plain sight. Right. They're under 20. They still are under 20. You can get a beautiful Gigal coat de Rone for under 20 bucks. And while you're at the supermarket getting that, look for the Cote d'Ane Blanc, which nobody buys. and now I hope I'm causing a stampede here. Cot d'Rone Blanc is a blend of all those juicy, delicious white grapes that once you taste, you're like, oh, my God, I love this.

It's Marsan, Rousan, Vionnier. Okay. And they are, like, if you can't quit Chardonnay, this is how you quit Chardonnay. It's medium to full body, beautiful, and you love them. So Cote d'Romba, Coteur Rouge. Or from California, by the way, the GSM's, Vernas, Aramavedre, from Central Coast. Anything that's GSM means Gronash Saram. That's the Rhone.

That's the Rhone in California or in the New World. Or Washington State for the greatest sarahs ever. Beautiful. I'm going to buy all these wines, some pocket squares. And your birthday's coming, so you're going to get some, too. And I'll book a time we can come here and eat. Yes. Yeah, for sure.

Please, please, please. You're the best. No, you are. So much. No, you are. I know. All right, we got it in a conference. So there's the show, everybody.

I hope you had a good time. Anthony is great. It makes me want to wear better suits with maybe a pocket square. Ah, man. It's really the thing about life. You just have to have a little bit of knowledge and plan it out and practice it. Just be a little more thoughtful in what you wear, what you drink, what you eat. You just enjoy life a little bit more.

Thank you to Anthony. Go to tompapa.com. We're all in this together. some room is available there. All my specials are available, and of course, my tour. And in just a few short weeks, we're going to Torrington, Connecticut, NJ. Peck in New Jersey. We have a bunch of shows coming up, Key West. We're going to Cedar Falls.

We're going to Indianapolis, a whole bunch of shows all over the place. Tompapa.com. You guys are the best. See you next time.