Doughboys - Arby's 3 with Larry Fong

Episode Date: June 10, 2021

Larry Fong (300, Lost, Kong: Skull Island, The Tomorrow War) joins the 'boys and talks music videos and his history with fast food before a review of Arby's. Plus, the gang drafts their favorite time travelers.Sources for this week's intro:https://www.foodandwine.com/news/arby-deep-fried-turkey-sandwichhttps://www.nav.com/blog/inspirational-story-brothers-behind-arbys-26195/https://www.qsrmagazine.com/reports/inside-inspires-new-brand-empirehttps://www.businessinsider.com/inspire-brands-builds-fast-food-empire-2018-9https://inspirebrands.com/about-us/https://www.arbys.com/about-us/Advertise on Doughboys via Gumball.fm.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The second largest restaurant company in the U.S. is, in all likelihood, a company you've never even heard of, Inspire Brands. Inspire's brands include such iconic chains as Baskin Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin Donuts, Jimmy John's, and Sonic. And in the matrioshka doll of modern capitalism, Inspire Brands itself is majority owned by Rourke Capital, a private equity firm grown inducingly named for an Ayn Rand protagonist, whose holdings include the Cheesecake Factory, Carl's Jr. Hardee's, and Focus Brands, another umbrella company that owns Anteans, Cinnabon, and Moe's, among others.

It speaks to the mind-boggling corporate consolidation in all sectors that one of the dominant forces in American eating is now a faceless, generic-sounding megalith that's only existed since 2018. But the inspiration for Inspire Brands was straightforward. The acquisition of the aforementioned Buffalo Wild Wings by the second largest sandwich chain in America, first opened in Boardman, Ohio in 1964, and named for the initials of its founders, the Raffle Brothers, R.B. The chain stood out among the burger slingers of its era by centering its concept on roast beef sandwiches.

It gained popularity nationwide in the 70s and 80s with the introduction of favorites like the Beef and Cheddar and Curly Fries. And then, after becoming a well-worn pop culture punchline in the 90s and aughts, reference on shows like The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and the John Stuart Daily Show, the company savagely leaned into its own gimmick, employing actor Ving Reims as the voice of its commercials, with self-aware campaigns centered on the slogan, We Have The Meats. And as the progenitor of the second largest restaurant company in the country, this frequently mocked horsey sauce purveyor is who had the last laugh.

This week on Doughboys, we return, once again, to Arby's. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, star of The Tamale War, the Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. The Tamale War. I get it. That's from Brian M. in Denver, who writes Love You Doughboys and Emma, roastspoonman.com. And the challenge has been answered, another tomorrow war-themed roast for Mr. Slice. Wow, I love it.

What an honor to be made fun of by the movie. That's not that bad, The Tamale War. The Tamale War isn't, I mean, but it seems like it's a war I started, basically. I feel like there's something. If you're thinking about the war, it's something that I, you know, it's a war that began with me, basically. Right? Or I'm fighting in the war.

I guess, like, I don't know what it is exactly, but. They prep for The Tamale War every time Mitch steps into El Torrito. They're just like, oh boy. Man your battle stations. Dear God. Why? How are you? I went to Wu Tang's restaurant last night.

I went to Majestic Dragon. Wow. Yeah. And Ipswich, Massachusetts. Did you dine in? We did. I did, yes. We dined in.

Only the second time. I think the third time of, I've, I got lunch at one place and I had dinner with my sister for the first time. I talked about it on the podcast, but. Yes. I dined in. Wu cooked up some amazing food for us. Hell yeah.

It was fantastic. Yeah. Some general gals, some, some, some, oh, you went. I forgot that I took you there. No, you didn't take, you, wait, did you take me to his restaurant? I don't, I think I've had his food. I don't think you took me to his restaurant. That's right.

You just had his food. I didn't take you there. I'd love to go though. But what I was going to say is, I, I, wait, wait a minute. The invite has been retracted. I'll see if Wu is down for, I don't know if he wants you there, honestly. I don't want to scare customers out the door. Wu and I were fast friends.

We text. Yeah. Do you really? I don't like that at all. Sometimes. Um, it was great. It was great. It was a good night out with Micas and Scoop and Caroline and, uh, and the rest of the

rest of the gang. It was a great night. Oh boy. What an insult to the rest of the gang. Getting the Gilligan's Island treatment. Ramon, he's just stewing. We had, we, we had some Mai Tai, Wu, Wu makes, he makes a good Mai Tai. It's a, it's a lethal look.

I'm feeling it a little bit today. I shouldn't have. Wow. That he, but he makes, he makes some, uh, he makes good Mai Ties. Isn't it his Mai Ties that he brought on stage in Boston? That's right. It certainly was. They, they, they'll knock, they'll knock your socks off.

So. Yeah. Potent concoction. There's, there's no shame, Mitch. We're, we're oddly recording on a Saturday. There's no shame in being hungover on a Saturday. All right. Um, uh, there's no shame.

Or any day really. It's fine. That's what I was, that's what I was going to say for you. It's most days. Um, I don't wear socks because they, because those Mai Ties will knock your socks off, Nick. That's what I was going to say. Oh, Jesus Christ. Look, we have a good guest today and I'm, I'm, I'm already just embarrassed to that I'm

even talking the way I'm talking in front of our guests. I got to play the drop and we're going to get to the guest who's way more fascinating than we are. I mean, let's look, all right. Here's the drop. Let's play the stupid drop first. When we were in Italy, a donkey bit shanked his wife, Angelica, the donkey bitter. I don't know who these people are, that sentence, not Angelica, yeah, yeah, yeah is right.

There it goes. There's a drop. Our guest has logged off. Speaking of people who are often hungover, do you think Chankton remembers the donkey biting his wife? Cause every time I've met Chankton, he's been, uh, having a little bit of the sauce. I think, I think Chankton bit the donkey back after a bit, after a bit in Angelica. Um, yeah, that's how you assert dominance of the animal kingdom.

By the way, this is the drop we accidentally played last week for people who were wondering. Here's Doughboys. Please enjoy a little chill wave ballad about when a donkey Kong question mark bit Chankton's wife in Italy. Much love Kim. PSI am very happy. No one died during the Dough-a-thon. It was a real hoot.

And I am so glad you raised that much money for restaurant workers. Oh, that's very nice. Oh, what a nice, what a nice little message there. A very nice message. Wags, forget all that bullshit. Let's introduce our guests. Already wasted too much of his time. It's insane.

Yeah, if you just want to put in the episode notes, Emma, that people can start listening at four minutes and 30 seconds. You got it. You got it. I'll probably say 420 just because it sounds better. Hell yeah. Wags, our guests coming up made me look good in Tomorrow War, which is a, which is an impossible task making me look good.

It's, and I look, and Wags, you've seen it, I look damn good. You look fantastic. The movie looks fantastic. And we're thrilled to have our guest, a cinematographer whose many credits include 300, Lost, Batman V Superman, Dawn of Justice, and Kong Skull Island, as well as the Tomorrow War streaming July 2nd on Amazon Prime. Larry Fong is here. Hi, Larry.

Wow. Hey. What's up? Hey. Thank you for being here. We're very excited to have you. Thanks so much. Yeah.

Happy to be here. Yeah. Look, the show is stupid. We talk about stupid stuff up top. I was going to text Weigher and say, maybe we should just introduce him and then record all this stuff beforehand. But I think it's like a part of the thing that like people who listen to the show like to hear me be tortured for five minutes when I'm thinking about our guests sitting there,

finding out how much of a dipshit this guy is, the guy who was just kind of mostly friendly on set saying like, hi, and then, and then you hear me talking for five continuous minutes and you're like, oh, he's an idiot. I'm sure you picked up on that on set too, most likely that I'm an idiot. But we're very happy to have you and you're a busy man as well. So go ahead, Nick. I was going to say, thank you so much for carving out time for us. You are currently in Atlanta, hot Atlanta, I call it, yes?

Yeah. I'm back again. That's where we shot Tomorrow War. That's right. I'm going to ask because more and more production going to Atlanta, are you spending a lot of time down there? Well, there's probably eight movies going on right now. It's just the way it is.

There's different cities at different points in time become the place to shoot. But this is one of the better ones that's happened in the last few decades. So I'm not really complaining. I like it here. Wow. Yeah. It's a good food city. Yes.

It's so good. I was so surprised when I got here. I had no idea. It was crazy. Yeah. Me and Mary Lynn and Sam Richardson and Samantha and who else? Genji, Angelo, we all would, it was great to go out. And the rest.

Well, I wasn't invited to any of those. We would have. Honestly, it's that sort of thing of I wish we did. We should have invited you. I feel like if I went up and was like, would you like to go get, oh, no. If I went up, there's, there's a fear. There is a fear in a guy like me. If I went up to you and was like, would you like to come get dinner with me?

And you'd be like, what the, what are you doing? Get out of my, like, like, like, who is this fool? I have things to do because you're always, yes, when, when actors are done, they, they just leave and they, they, it's easy and they walk away. And for you, you got to think about stuff. You're doing stuff the next day is your, you're always way more busy than, than, than we are. So what about actor prepares? You aren't all night, like doing your work, preparing your instrument.

You're just making and eating wings. Not at all in it, in it, in it shows in the movie. You'll see there's most days between, between scenes, you'll notice that Buffalo wing sauce just kind of appears and disappears between. Even in, even in a single take, it will happen. That's not true. You're, you're great and you have some of the best memorable scenes. Like even in the trailer, right?

There's a shot of one of the most intense moments. There, there is that, that, that one, that got, that trailer got taken out, but I think it's going to be in the next one, they told me. So, but that was that, I loved, I know, I don't know, I don't know how much we can talk about it, but I love that scene that you're talking about. That, that happens there. So, yeah, yeah, the movie turned out great. I really, I really enjoyed it.

I mean, like I've, I've seen it and yeah, it was given a very strict NDA. So I was like, I think I can just say that I liked it and I don't know if I can say anything beyond that. And I might not even be able to say I liked it. I don't know if I'm to get in trouble for that, but it, but it's great. It's so fun and it looks great. And I want, I want to ask is Mitch touched on something at the director photography for people who are maybe, you know, less aware of production is

like one of the busier people on set and has the longest days. Like, how do you find time to eat when you're, when you're there, like a, you know, a shooting, like a shooting, a huge movie on a 12 hour schedule. I mean, like before and after, or just in general, like we're like how during the day, when he, how do you grab snacks? Oh, on the shoot day. Um, well, yeah. Well, it's funny because in COVID, like they don't even take breaks now, right?

They deliver you. Oh yeah. Right. He made lent in the classic container, like to go container that's cold and variably and the salad that's three pack that you just picked up at Starbucks or whatever. I'm not complaining really about that because I'm not super picky, but, but the things that you don't, you don't have time, you don't have time to eat

because they say, uh, you know, we're going straight through. So when you get a chance, you eat and then you take your food on, they go, excuse me, you can't eat in the stage. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, okay. And can I go out? Ah, great.

Well, I guess I'm not eating for 13 hours or whatever. There are ways around that. I mean, it's not just me that other people have it worse. You know, like the, uh, the camera operator and the camera crew, they can't leave it all because, you know, other people can kind of sneak off during the take or something, right? They have much worse. The AD department way worse than me.

So I'm not going to complain. Well, no, you always busy. I mean, especially on this, on the tomorrow or specifically, there were just times where we were like, basically try to work through, we were eating lunch, like on a city, like, you know, a street in Atlanta, you just kind of like got your sandwich brought to you a couple of times during, like, uh, during the shoot. So it is crazy. Just like, uh, when, when, when you, when you have a location like that, where

you're like, where is even the, the, the bases, like two miles away or whatever. And sometimes you're just going to eat right there in the street. So, um, Larry, there's a lot of things we want to talk about. I think first Nick and I, we were going through your IMDB and. Oh yeah. You, you got some, you got, you got some amazing credits. I said, I said this to my friends last night. I said, it was like, you were, you were, you were on set for some 90s videos

that are legendary, some of the, some of the biggest videos from the 90s. Um, and, uh, Not just on set. Like you, you shot them, right? Like you shot Van Halen's right now and REM's losing my religion. Is that correct? Losing my religion. That's like, I was saying, I was saying to my friends last night.

This is a bad comparison, but I said it's like knowing someone who knew Ren and Stimpy is what I said. It's knowing someone who is on. That's a horrible comparison. It's like, no, if someone knew cartoon characters, that's what it's like. Someone who was on set for losing my religion. It's like, uh, that's, it's one of the biggest videos of all time. It's crazy to me.

It's, it's like being Homer's barber. It's like meeting Michael's type. Yeah. Do you have anything that that was the Haiti of music videos? That was the 90s, right? It was just when everyone was doing music videos. People actually watched MTV and, um, it was great because for young people trying to get a start that were had, you know, the appearance of some

rebel upcoming upstart filmmakers, you could get, you could fool people into giving you money to make these short films in a way, right? So you could be fresh out of film school, which we all were, and do these videos and the label and companies. They didn't know what they're even doing. So they, you guys just go crazy. We don't understand. Sure.

Whatever. Here's something. And was, was that, was it a thing where it was like, were, were those films that's like luxurious where there's a lot of food, like a lot of catering, or were they kind of like in the 90s way or was there nothing at all? You know, was it a sort of thing where it was like a very stripped down and you guys were just doing your own thing? Like, uh,

yeah, it's usually very, there's not a lot of, I mean, it's non-union and very like 24 hour days. And it's almost like student film. I expect to sometimes someone's mom to bring the stoffers, you know, frozen lasagna on the table with garlic bread. Sometimes it was like, sometimes like, it was like that. I mean, there were a big music video. I mean, there were Madonna music videos and stuff, which I never did,

which a little fancier. Um, but no, we had to make do with very little equipment, little time and, you know, make it up as we go. And so with Luz and my religion, was it a thing of like, uh, basically, do they play the, do they play the song along while you're shooting it? Or is it just kind of, is Michael Stepp just doing his thing in silence, or is he playing a song for you? Yeah. The actual track.

And then they, they play it. It goes, J-D-N-J-D, right? So they know when to start lip syncing. So, right, you will sound a thousand times in one day and then by the end, you're totally sick of it. But, uh, Okay, alright.

But it is lip syncing because I mean, the camp really do it. Yeah. Although there are, there are exceptions. Do you, so any of those, those, uh, music videos you worked on, are, do you have like a, like, what is your connection to those, to hearing those songs today? Not, you can be, I mean, it's surreal. I remember like being in Prague and I took a trip in the countryside and being

in a taxi cab all by myself and, you know, when you're in that situation, you just think about your life and if it's successful or not. What am I doing? And I was on that, and some of the reason my religion came in on the taxi, right, middle of nowhere. And then I had this whole weird, cathartic, freaky experience that, I can't remember if it was good or bad, but it was weird. I mean, I didn't write the song or anything, but

Right. It's just, you do get kind of a weird, I was in a meeting last night with the director and it came on the radio and he's singing it. I didn't know whether to act like a, you know, and I was like, you know, I just felt that. So of course I did. But the fun, the cool thing is, have you seen this sound exploder? Have you seen the show or the listen to the podcast?

I know the podcast. I haven't heard the episode for this one. Yeah, it's also on Netflix. They have the video versions and, and, and, and, oh, wow. You know, it's fascinating how these things come about. And they have one on losing my religion. And they talked about the shoot, how the song came to be. And it's true.

We shot, we started shooting that video and it wasn't going well. The director realized it wasn't working. So he, he left and went to the bathroom to throw up. Cause he knew he was going to have a big time and he come out. We have a big meeting and he goes, you know, this isn't working. Let's try something else. Hey, Larry, just, just so you know, if you see Nick and I leaving during this, that's what we're going to do too.

We're going to throw up because the pod is cause we're letting you down. So bad. I love, I love podcasts. I love comedy and I love you guys. Oh, wow. That's, that's, that's too kind. Also you, you did, you did, you shot Mr. Big to be with you and, and, uh, Van Halen right now.

You did a couple of legendary, uh, of music videos. So. Yeah. I'm more proud of like, uh, Iggy, Iggy Pop video I did, which was called Beside You. Oh yes. Oh, okay. Yes.

Mark Romantic directed and then also, uh, Soundgarden fell on Black Days. Oh yeah. That one's awesome. And I think it was actually live. I think that was a special track that just for that, that was made for that video or something like that. Wow. Who, who shot, who shot the Iggy Pop video?

Did you say? Mark Romantic directed it. Oh, an Ithaca alum, Wags. That's, I went to school at Ithaca College. Romantic is an Ithaca, famous Ithaca alum. Yeah. Um, and now me as well. Um, Larry, um, I got to talk about something else because you and I have

something in common here. What? Magic. You love magic. Wow. And I, and I watched, uh, Army of the Dead and there's a billboard with you on it that in Vegas, you're, you are like the featured magician at a casino in Vegas. And this apocalypse that I hope that you've, I hope whatever your character,

whatever happened to your character. I hope they got out alive. I hope they, they, they fooled the zombies and got out of there. But, uh, have you, have you been to them? Of course you've been to the magic castle, but let's hear about magic. I want to hear about your, your love of magic. And also I hear that you'll sometimes you'll do tricks on set. And I, and I got to tell you, I never saw one, which, which, which, uh, which

makes me so sad. I, I, I, I'm a big magic fan. Uh, our good friend, Eva Anderson, she's, Nick, she's brought you to the magic castle as well, right? Or did you pass? No, I've never been. She had given me many invites. I have many, many times she's asked me to accompany her very generously.

Jesus. People don't like magic. You know, a lot of people frustrates them and angers them. I think magic is cool. I'm, I'm less, uh, I'm just more, I'm more just have like anxiety about going out, which I'm trying to get past on the, on the other side of this. But, but I'm, yeah, tell us about magic. What is your fascination with magic?

And do you have any favorites in terms of, of magicians or, or, or tricks or acts or anything? Um, well, I think, you know, I was a nerdy kid. So I hung out in the library a lot and I learned a lot of things in the library. But one thing was when I discovered the magic book section, I was like, how is this possible? And that started off way back when you're a kid, where you're like, you, you know, you pull your thumb off or something.

Yes. Wow. I just did it on camera. And also like your uncle does. Or makes a cord. Yeah. He's all that stupid stuff. But then Larry, I gotta say that I was, honestly, that did look cool as hell.

It did look really cool. It looks, you do, you do, you do it very well. Wow. Larry is now bending his pinky. Oh my God. And when a possible arc and then just twisted it, like he broke it in half. That's, I, that's incredible. I truly, like a really harrowing illusion.

I hope he didn't actually break his, his finger to impress us. Where was I? Oh yes, magic. So every nerdy has a little magic set he gets and whatnot. And so the interest came and went. But I think, I think after I graduated from college, I had more free time. And when I started working, I had the, you know, the time to wear with all the, by some cool magic books.

And then there was a magic story in Hollywood called Hollywood magic. And then all the cool magicians hang out there. And that's where you get the cool books and stuff. And you learn things. So I became more friends with more and more magicians to the point where now I have more magic friends than any other friends. Wow. It's not saying a lot, I guess.

I don't get invited up by actors and directors. Oh no. Friends will ask me out to eat all the time. Larry, next time, anytime I see, and you know, I'll take, we'll take you out in LA, Nick and I, it will not be a fun night for you, but you should come and join us. I'd be happy. I also, I like, you're saying that you were a nerd and you spent a lot of time

in libraries and I was a nerd and I didn't, and I didn't spend time in libraries, which is like, I should have, I was a nerd. I should have just gone into the library and now I'm a dumb nerd. The worst combo of all, the dumb nerd. Well, you probably have friends you're eating with and I had none. So I would just hang out the library. This is in, this is in ATL. Oh my God, I didn't realize that.

So, so, so Larry, you've, you've, you've been to the magic castle, you bet. You've been to the magic castle. Of course. I mean, member, hard clearing number for 20 years. Wow. 20 year member. That's, that's, that's impressive. And I, every time I've been there, I love it.

Are you excited to get back in there once they're, they're, they're reopening? Are you, are you looking forward to getting, getting back in there? I am. I think it's a little too soon now as far as the proximity. It's always like sardines. So I think right now you're required to have a grocery bag over your head and tied shut. No, they're doing some kind of, it's opening now, but you know, I'm going to,

you know, error on the side of caution is me. So right, not right away, although I do, because that's where you hang out and see your magic friends and stuff. Yeah. Also, you know, people were funny about it. Cause like the first time I went, they were like, the food is just so, so, and I went, I had a great meal at the magic castle. I thought the food was, was, was pretty good.

In the last, for more, yeah, it's absolutely a higher level. No one believes me. And they also have bar food, which before there was none. So you would just starve if you weren't there for dinner. So it had all figured out. They, a lot of stuff, you know, since the Neil Patrick Harris was the president, you know, six, seven, eight, nine years ago, I think around that time things started to turn around and there's more tension and, uh, cause it was

kind of underground for a while. So they didn't have a lot of income and came close to going out of business a lot and was a little divey. So what's now, it's cool. It's written from the ashes, more crowded, but more respected and more, you know, people want to go. Not a creepy, creepy element is less than before. Yeah.

Which I do, you do like that creepy element because it does feel like a crazy old haunted castle in many ways. And it's, it's cool as hell. I was referring to the magicians in it. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Different sort of women listening here. If any women listening, I'm sure they've never been hit on by a drunk magician there.

Yes. And there is definitely, MPH has definitely has cleaned house a little bit. I feel like it is, it does feel like it feels like a, like a, like a tourist spot now, which when I first moved to LA, it wasn't even really like I knew of it, but it wasn't a thing of like, oh, I should go there. It took me a good five to six years to go there. So, yeah. And, and by the way, some context for people who aren't in LA and maybe

aren't familiar, the magic castle is like, it's, it's basically like kind of a private club in a, in a mansion like setting. Tell me if I'm characterizing this accurately and then you can just like, there will be like stage magicians, but there'll also be like more intimate things where you can just like sit down at a bar and someone will just do card tricks in front of you. And it's just like eight people watching one extraordinarily esteemed magician. Yes.

You're, the first half of your description sounded like nexium or whatever. It sounded like a very strange. It's very simple. You just commit yourself to this ideology. The weird thing is the dress code. No one believes this, right? But you tell your friends, you know, yeah, we're a student tie, women, you know, and no one ever believes you because you have your hipster friends go, no,

I'm going to go in there and my Bolo tie and my Kangol hat. I'll get in. I know everyone. I'm a promoter or something, right? I mean, every day, you know, the thing is it's cool because it's the only, you don't dress up in LA, right? So it makes you do that. And for that reason, it's kind of cool, although I do like that.

Yeah. I'm comfortable. Yeah. For sure. Cool. I also got to go. You do got to go. Wigs, no Kangol hat.

I can't wear your Kangol hat. Tom Hardy, none of it. Me, Tom Hardy, Tom Hardy, I'm going to turn this thing head hardy. Why? Marty's got a different clothing line. Totally. Yeah. Wait.

So as a magic fan, we were talking your credits. What we didn't mention is now you see me. You were director of photography on that. Must have been a dream. That must have been a dream, right? Yeah, kind of. I'll just say this. Like, sometimes you think, you know, you have the dream project.

You were meant to do it. Yeah. So let's say, let's say you liked something like golf or let's say just junk food. Let's say you liked fast food and then you got a script that was about fast food. Then you probably think I was born to be believed in the smoothing. Might not be true. Yeah, I think we've experienced that with this podcast. We've gotten the, we have this podcast is a bit of a monkey's paw where we're like,

oh, no, we eat fast food every week. I can like sometimes like just on a, like, you know, like a tip, whatever, right? Like on a, on a Wednesday, I'll be like, hey, my heart is like, I can feel my heart beating slow. Like, I like, there's things like that where we're like, we shouldn't, this is a bad, we made a mistake. We shouldn't have, we shouldn't have done this podcast. So I could see that, especially filming, you know, the same magic scenes over and over again. I guess could probably, it's like you were saying with the music videos. Or something. It takes the magic out of it in many ways.

But I have an idea for you. Like you, how long you've been doing this podcast? We've been doing it for about six years now. Well, why couldn't you say this is vegan week? You know what? It's funny you say that because my co-host down here, whoop, down here. That's right. He, all this is pointing to me on the grid.

This entire, this entire year, that's a big Brady, Brady Bunch grid. We have everyone here. You song is in one of the squares. Yeah. Drop King is here. They just don't talk the entire time. But Nick, you know, he's being filmed. Nick has chosen this entire year.

Yes. To go vegetarian. He does. He's not eating. No meat shall. That's right. No meat shall I eat. That's that's been kind of my the the late season twist for this this podcast. But that was partly an initiative just for my own health. And it's been interesting. We'll talk about that in a second.

But like, do you have, let me ask you generally, Larry, do you have any food preferences in terms of favorites or aversions, things you love and things you hate? Um, no, I pretty much like all cuisines. I'm not a picky eater, although no, as a child, I was hugely picky. I have a reputation still among relatives, you know, I'll see them at reunions and they say, do you still see white bread and hot dogs? OK, that's that might be it.

You still don't know the difference between beef and chicken. That's stop. Now I'm eating. I mean, I probably shouldn't even say the things I've eaten or tried, because it's I think it's with travel, though, right? When you see the world, yeah, that's what drives not just food, but people, philosophy, everything, and that makes you a more rounded person. But, um, but as an Asian person, we joke about like, there's no way I would ever be

a vegetarian or a vegan, but there's no reason why a meat eater can't be vegetarian or vegan friendly. I think that when you meet, you're also eating vegetables, right? Like, let's take potatoes. The potatoes are vegetable people. So maybe the next day you have a smaller pieces. Maybe one day you're just a potato. Is that crazy?

I was in Ireland recently, I was trying to explain this because they're making fun of all the vegans and vegetarians in the US or whatever. And I said, you eat meat and you eat vegetables, you eat vegetables. Sometimes think about just trying to do the same. You know, I don't eat vegetables. I go, yes, you do. Because next to the meat is a peas or carrots, potatoes, salad. He was, no, I don't.

That's what do you mean? You don't, I don't need that. I only the steak. Dear God, never even a vegetarian diet. OK, so much for my money. You win. That's insane. Well, but anyway, I did that pretty much when I was in Atlanta last year.

I got meat way down just as an experiment, because there's so many vegans on the set and my doctor freaked out because my numbers, the best they've been in decades. And I'm like, oh, wow, I can't really argue with that. And I still wasn't exercising a ton because I was too busy. I went to yoga on weekends, but I didn't jam it up or anything. And I lost 15 pounds. That's that's that's that's just the change of diet can do that.

But weiger slight change. I still eat meat. I just ate less of it. Yeah. Well, Weiger's Weiger's been vegetarian all year. And I got to say, why is he got your tank asses as big as ever? You're you're you're you're you're looking you're looking you're you're you're looking, I guess, the best way I could sum it up is a dumpy as hell.

So what's what's going on? What's going on over there? Why is what's the deal? Well, I'll just I'll take the compliment. Thank you much. What's a tank that I've never heard of before. Well, we'll have Weiger turn around for you, you'll understand it in just a second. We'll take a break.

We'll be back with more dough. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Doughboys. We're discussing Arby's this week with our guest, Larry Fong. Now, Larry, you've been on a lot of film sets, a lot of TV sets. You shot Lost, which changed the way pilots were made, basically. And the pilot for Lost, one of the greatest pilots of all time. One of the greatest pilots of all time.

And and and you've worked on Zack Snyder movies, Nick and I are big fans. We we we very much we love Batman versus Superman. I told you a specific scene I liked and you said you wanted to hug me at one point on the movie for remember that. And but but of all these of all these amazing movies that you've worked on, what has been the best food? What is the best food you ate? Was it Lost?

Was it Batman versus Superman? Was it the Tomorrow War? Was there any specific like place that you remember having just amazing food? And Lost, it was Lost shot in Hawaii? Yes, it was. OK. So there was an interesting there was some interesting Hawaii touches because maybe not catering, but crafty because on the crafty truck, they'd have very Hawaiian like things that you wouldn't get otherwise.

And only if you knew about it, would you go there instead of catering? It's kind of a secret. Yeah. That's a lot like as usual, production found out about it. What you're spending like five dollars more a day. How dare you? You're happy. So but, you know, the big movies, there are catering companies that are well known. And if you can get them, they're fantastic.

We had a great one on Tomorrow War, however, you know, it was. Right, we didn't really take a lunch break. Did we? On Tomorrow, it would, it would, it would, yeah, it would depend. Some days, some days we would 100 percent. And then like if we were on the stage, we would. And then sometimes if we were just in the street, it would be kind of like eat when you can sort of deal. Yeah. But that guy was is one of the better ones.

And sometimes there can be spreads for it's going to be. You know, feel bad for some people out there listening. Think like you guys get fed like we talked about it the other day. It's not weird that you have to eat like you're this organism. If you were just a machine, producers would be so much happier because of breakfast, these lazy asses. And then lunch and then have food all the time at catering. And the lunch has, you know, 10 courses.

It's so much money, right? And if they go over six hours after lunch, they have to give them more food, maybe pizza. Like all we're just like these eating all the time, right? It's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of gross and it wastes all this time. But but but you do get free food. And then so at lunch, it's off a truck, but it's like it's any high end restaurant food type of food, right? I mean, yeah, choice of salads,

choice of three main things, all the sides, special things, four desserts, you know, in the morning, omelette stations, smoothie stations. It's it's crazy. Yeah. The setups are crazy. I think people like they basically unpack a full restaurant. They are under a tent and you can get anything you really want. It's it's it's wild. It's all cooked for that little truck.

But but like you were saying, it's it's it's depends on the scope of the production because if you're on like a smaller indie thing, you know, you might be kind of you might even be fending for yourself at times or just, you know, you're making do with something. But but if on a big production, it's like it can be really opulent. And it's like, but that's good because they're spending all this money on this thing. Some of that should go to crew and cast comfort because they are the labor who are making this product, you know?

Yeah. Like that's that's a good place to spend money. Well, it's funny, too, because if the food is bad, people are mad. Like it is like a people get cracks morale. How dare it does? It affects morale. But also like in, you know, like I would say, yes, it's it's a it's a luxury. But also, I feel like you were captive when you're in that situation. Like you were saying, Larry, sometimes you're just working straight through breaks.

You certainly can't leave and go off site and get a meal. So you kind of are beholden to whatever they're going to provide for you. And I think it also just sort of like, you know, all jobs should be that way, if you have like an office job or a restaurant job, why? Yeah, you should get free food that should be part of your compensation. You're there working, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's it's I guess I'm getting on a broader labor rights rant. But like I because the film because film and TV is thankfully mostly unionized

still it people are able to organize for those sorts of benefits. Anyway, all that aside, let's talk Arby's. So so Arby's first open in 1964 in Boardman, Ohio, Arby's is so the name Arby's, the etymology is it's the initials are be for raffle brothers who are the founders. So Arby's are the raffle brothers. There are over 3400 locations worldwide. And it is considered America's second largest sandwich chain after Subway. If you want to call it a sandwich chain, although Arby's is kind of Arby's, it's its own thing.

Larry, I'm curious. Do you have any history with Arby's? Had you had Arby's prior to this episode? Well, first of all, you said it stood for Arby. I thought I was going to you're going to say roast beef. That's what a lot of people think. But it but it is raffle brothers. It should be roast beef.

But it stands for roast beef, too. Right. I mean, it's got to it has to stand for Arby's. I mean, that's like a fan theory. Canonically, it's it's a raffle fan theory. Yeah, that's a conspiracy. I there were Arby's. I grew up in the suburbs and there's Arby's everywhere. But we didn't go that often.

Always something else. McDonald's or Carl's Jr. Burger King or Arby's. Right. Larry, where did where did where did you grow up? You were in California. So I thought I knew you were a California guy. And you went to UCLA.

Is that correct? I did. And Art Center. All right, yeah. Nick went to UCLA as well. Also a lifelong Southern Californian really from the Long Beach area. And I also went to UCLA. Wow. There you go.

I almost went to Long Beach. We're in So Cali. I went to Rolling Hills High School. It's not there anymore. OK. But my stomping grouse was the Torrance in the city of the future. Oh, yeah.

All redonded to be the Lamomall. That's where I'm done trouble. Yes. And the redonded beach here. A lot of trouble. What so what what what what growing up? What was what was the type of food? What was your favorite food?

What were you eating all the time? What was let's see, not really healthy. But Jack in the box. That's right. The corner of PC and Hawthorne was a Jack in the box and a KFC and all these things. I ended up working at that KFC. No way I wanted to work at Jack in the box.

My friends all worked there. But I went through one night when a completely naked man went in there, went crazy in one night and then scared me and never went back. Wow, that sounds very much like a Jack in the box. Yeah, honestly, that's there's I've always I've always said, OK, please go, go. Well, I forgot.

Actually, I did. You know, the Jack in the box commercials. Very funny. Wow, right. I did that for 10 years. As a wow, way as a DP. The one box in the heyday. We're burying the lead. This is wild.

Did you have one of those? You seem like you should. I never I should. I have my head is the same size as Jack. But I sadly have never been in one. I've heard Nick. Have you did we knew someone who worked with the guy, Jack? And there's that's right.

I heard that there's a cut out of where his face is, basically, when he's like doing the walkthroughs. And did you did you work with the mascot, the Jack mascot? Yeah, of course. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've heard that he like he has the the center of his mask taken off and it's there's different versions. If if you're inside or the back, then so it doesn't be sealed up in a plastic sphere.

It was cut away as we breathe. But the actual head cost tens of thousands of dollars because it had radio communication two way. It had pinhole camera on the end of that nose. It had fans. And like Bayonet locked the the top of the yellow hat would come off so they could blow air into it. So we didn't die.

Almost did a couple times. You're sealed in. Do you imagine you're shooting like no car line in the summer and it's supposed to be dancing and I was right. You didn't just have to die. And yeah, it's in all this time. It's a it's a fucking jigsaw trap from Zod. Yeah, this.

Hey, sometimes you have to do things. That's in the guy was named Jack in it. Jack Tate. And he was just a physical comedian that studied, you know, committee de larte and all that. So he was just so, so good. You know, it wasn't just a guy. I mean, he probably knows the subtleties, you know,

as an actor that he did incredible, incredible stuff. That's wild. Hearing that there's a pinhole camera in the tip of his nose. That like that's horrifying that Jack sees through his long nose. Right. And it can't like, oh, yeah, binocular like cameras like VR before there's VR, they're just tiny screens. So we could see and can imagine you're like walking up the stairs and going.

That's the same. That would be hard. Yeah, that sounds so that sounds so scary to be inside. I would definitely have a panic attack. That that's amazing. I did those those ads are very. I mean, those ads were like like played very frequently in the area in the regions that that that Jack in the box exists.

Yeah, there are those are on there all the time. And the director was also, you know, the writer, the agency and the voiceover. And oh, wow. So it was all from his brilliant mind. There's there's there's an area outside the arc light right near Jack in the box, where I said, if I'm to be murdered in LA, it's probably right in that in that block there, the Jack in the box. Guess what? It's not there.

It's not there. The arc lights. I mean, the arc lights gone is the saddest thing of all. Is the. The Jack in the box is gone. Wait, what really? Yeah, they're in the pandemic. It was boarded up and then now it's gone.

I don't know what happened. You know what? That might be a good thing for Los Angeles. I think I think getting that that that Jack in the box should be gone. But also the arc light has gone and the amoeba is no longer there. That is just that is that's just a record store. It's the it's the alley of broken dreams. The amoeba reopened, though.

The amoeba reopened over in Titanium a few blocks away. Yeah. Oh, there you go. So sad. Well, hopefully the arc light will come back and maybe Jack in the box, too. But that's for real estate. That was a lot of parking right there in the corner that could be something else. But our status of all arc light is very sad. Yeah, what a bummer.

That goes away. That'll be horrible. I know somebody needs that. I mean, it's AMC buys it. I won't be thrilled, but I'll be happier than than it not being a theater than it being condos or whatever. So yeah, let's wait, wait, wait on this topic real quick. Because I do want to talk. We do we do need to talk about Arby's.

But I want to say. What we're talking about while we're talking about movies, what are your movie theater snacks? What do you like to munch on? What do you like to sip on, Larry? Great question. Well, I keep it to a minimum, you know, because I don't like trumping in my ear during a movie, so I don't do the same. But I'll have maybe a little bit of popcorn and I do.

I am partial to those goobers, I have to say. Wow. Oh, yeah. Good answers. I like it. Do you ever put the goobers in the popcorn? This is the thing that some people do. They like to put the the sweet in the salty. Are you a fan of that? No, but I do, you know, what was the other thing?

There's some other chocolatey dome like shape things, the mini. Wait, what are they? Chocolatey, there's no caps or something. Maybe it was that somebody turned me on to that. And it sounds like snow caps. Yeah, it's no cap. That's kind of a good idea. They're like the half chocolate dome with like like some white stuff sprinkled on top.

I think that's it. Yeah, Larry, did you did you enjoy working at KFC as well? We got to ask you that before before we get into the restaurant. The people were fun. It wasn't so fun when you had to incinerate your clothes after every shift. Oh, man. And and I didn't like finding out that the barbecue, they don't have barbecue chicken anymore, do they?

But I didn't like knowing that was just the leftover chicken and dunked in sauce and put on a tray and serve. Oh, yeah, and I didn't like mixing up the coleslaw and the big trash cans from the. Wow, not used for that. Sounds gross. But I mean, as a bin and I didn't like cleaning all the little secret parrot cage chicken container things, which is the secret way they fry them in the back.

And I mostly didn't like when my best friend there one day accidentally opened the boiling oil vat into his lap and his legs. Oh, my God, God, I thought maybe I need to move on. Oh, my God, a horrifying accident. Yeah, I wasn't interested, but thank God. Because you have to clean these giant oil vats, right? There's a little spigot. Right. And then you drain most of it and then you go in and like

clean every surface in there and it's been frying all day, right? So he kind of just had some money to open the spigot. You know, while he was next to it or didn't put the bucket under. Oh, God, dear Lord. Oh, all I can say is that I want to pull a now you see me type heist to one steal the jack in the box head and to steal a trash bin full of coleslaw. It's funny how much you love something. I love KFC, but after you work, there you go.

I don't ever want that again. Like you bring it home, Larry. It's great. Like we have a part of your friends. I don't know if that you since then fell in love with, you know, Popeyes, but that's a different story. Hell yeah. Well, right, right near, right down the street.

Well, close to the arc light is one of is a iconic Los Angeles sign just below the Hollywood signwags. It's Arby's. There's an Arby's giant. Right. They have a very is it on Sunset Boulevard? I believe it is. Yeah.

There's the West of Deepo. Yep. And it's got a giant, a giant Arby's sign. That's that's that's been up for, I feel like 50 years or something. It's been there for a while. I think I've told this story about this Arby's before, but there was like a like a fancy ass. I think it was like a BMW sports car, some some imported sports car

that was tailgating me as I was driving south towards Sunset Boulevard towards that Arby's and I got towards that intersection and he like went like went into the left turn lane, uses a passing lane and sped past me, then made a hard right turn into the Arby's drive through. That's awesome. So like Aaron Paul or whoever was like, I got to get the fucking Arby's. Let's get let's get in. Let's get into what we got.

Let's get into our Arby's orders. It's just me or the youth guys, too. Oh, we all we always get it. Actually, I never even thought about that. Why do we get it? Every we don't have to always get it. Also, but also what kind of what kind of insane assholes are we? If we're like, Larry, you get Arby's, we'll talk to us about it.

That's insane. That's what it was. Oh, no, we we we got it as well. We we we have much meter. Yeah, we we torture ourselves as well. It's not just you. But let's we should. But I thought we should like got together and get the same thing.

So we talked about the. Oh, no. Oh, we I got I got a list of stuff. Yes. That that that is a will horrify you when you hear everything I had. I got three things. Oh, that's great. That's perfect. That's you know, that's what we should do.

I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 items. I got 13 items from Arby's. Nice counting, Mitch. We're we are we are mostly a counting podcast. It's the highest we've ever gotten. Why is my my my Arby's was an Auburn, Massachusetts. It was it's about an hour away. Wow, it's a hall.

I took it's about an hour away. I took a little trip. A mummy and me trip. We drove down to the Arby's and Auburn together. My mom and I and it was a blast. We had a good time doing it, Nick. We we we we took we took a little drive. We got there around.

I think like we left the house at two. We got there around three. And I got to say, my impression is, is that. That Arby's in Hollywood. The sign is iconic. But I am like it doesn't look like the like it like it doesn't look the best like it like a sure, you know, you know, it's like, you know, it's it's it's deep in Hollywood.

So it's like a little grittier, I'd say, I guess you could say. It doesn't speak to the quality of the food inside or anything. But the one in Auburn is beautiful. It's like a big, beautiful building. And my mom and I walked inside and like, that's the thing we noticed first is just like, this is this is the nicest Arby's I've I've been and I know I've said that a couple of times since I've been to Massachusetts, but I don't go to Arby's often.

You know, it's not a place that I go to and this was this was one of the nicest Arby's I had been to and I can start getting into what I got. But Larry, what I just saw you taking a bite of one of their most famous sides, which is their curly fries. That's right. Are you a fan of Arby's curly fries? My mom, when I got there, I said, you know, they're famous for their curly fries. My mom said, I don't like curly fries, which I was

got mad. I almost walked home from Auburn. Michael, I think fries should be straight. Fries are all good, ma. They're good enough for FDR. So she was in luck because they're also now a special crinkle cut fries. That's right. Which we also, so we got an order of curly fries and an order of

crinkle cut fries, but Larry, have you, have you been able to take bites of what you've eaten? You've eaten some of it or have you not had any bites? I've had a couple of these. I couldn't help it on the way home. Yeah, some curly fries. They're good. They're kind of like jack-in-the-box curly fries.

Well, yeah, they are similar. So you've got your, you've got your order on standby. You're going to be chomping it on the pod. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

And then review it. I thought, yeah, I got the, um, I did. That's perfect. Well, I've been on, obviously, for a while, like I said, so I had to go on a couple of sites to say what to order. Like they're ranked, right? So I got, do you want me to tell you now? Or am I headed?

Yes, please. Yeah, please. The classic beef and cheddar. Yep. Hell yeah. A big one. I got one of those as well, Larry. I might doubt whether it's really cheddar or just cheddar.

Yeah. It could, it could, it could, it could just be a cheese sauce. Yeah. Yeah. Cheesy sauce. I got the brisket smoked, smoked brisket. Larry, you were two for two. I didn't know what it was.

Yeah. I said brisket. She was what? Brisket. That should be a response at all. If you work in the restaurant, you should never be shot. Right. She's read to like the meat, the smoke house.

Yes, the smoke house brisket. Like, I thought, oh, I didn't say smoke house. There was no other brisket. And oh, the buffalo chicken sandwich. Yep. Sandwich. Is it the sliders at the full size sandwich? That's a full sandwich.

Okay. Full size. And then a vanilla shake because it's amazing. Hell yeah. We're three for three. I got all of the items you got and then 10 more or whatever. Cause I, my mom was with me. We look, we're just complaining about the podcast and then I get the $70 worth of

Arby's. A lot of this is my own fault, but my mom was there. We're having a big smorgasbord with my mom. It was, it was a lot of fun. We wanted to, we wanted to try, we were doing bites, Nick. We were, and then we took, we took some home for later, which I did. I did eat one sandwich item later in the day. But, but Larry, if you want to take, if you want to, if you want to dig in and take bites and let us know what you think.

Yes, start chomping. And Larry, while you're having some nibbles of that, Mitch, talk us through your order. All right. I'll start off. I'm going to, I'll just list everything off. I'm going to just go from top to bottom to start off. I went with a pizza slider and we thought, we thought that was kind of like one of the fun looking ones.

And guess what, Nick? My mom and I enjoyed it. We thought it was a fun little, it was different. It's not a thing that like you usually get. And it does, it does give you kind of like a pizza vibe. You get close approximation of pizza. We did the Buffalo chicken sandwich, Larry, which I'm interested for you to have a bite. It's very messy, as you probably are seeing right now.

You might be having the beef and cheddar. Yeah, so the beef and the beef and cheddar, which is also what we got. You know, I gave this order, Nick, the staff was fantastic. They were like very thick Boston accent women from, from, from Auburn. And they, they, they ruled, but I thought that they forgot a beef and cheddar. Turns out I didn't order a beef and cheddar. So I had to, I had to go back and order the beef and cheddar, because I think that that is a necessity when you go to Arby's Luke Michaels.

My college friend told me, you got to get the beef and cheddar. And you know what? He's right. The beef and cheddar is well, my, my, my, my, the beef and cheddar is well done. My mom wanted to get a French dip, which we got. And she was let down by the French dip. She thought that the roll should have been a little bit crusty. And what she wanted from the French dip is what we got from the beef and cheddar. Because the beef and cheddar is just that's like their signature item.

It's, it's, it's great. And I ordered, I said, can I get one? She says, just one, there's two for six. And I wanted a bite on the two, but I, I only got, I only got the one. We got crinkle fries and curly fries. I liked both fries. I mean, Arby's are known for their curly fries. I liked the crinkle cut fries.

I thought they were really good. Nick, the jalapeno bites, which you and I got together when we went. And I think those are good. And they come with that. What is that? Are the, the red sauce, the, uh, one of the most bizarre condiments in chain restaurants, Bronco, berry sauce is the default accompaniment for the jalapeno bites.

I have my own thoughts on it, but it's, what did you think? The jalapeno bites are great. Our Arby's, Arby's is just such a weird in between chain where I'm like, Oh, like they do good sandwiches. Like if I wanted a buffalo chicken sandwich, I don't know where else on the road I could get one that's as good as Arby's is. I like, uh, in, in another one that I'll get into right now is this, I got the spicy Greek Euro.

So accidentally they gave us a regular Euro and a spicy Greek Euro. And I was happy that they did because I loved the euros. I think the euros and Arby's are great. I really, really liked them. The spicy one was fun. It was, you know, it was kicked up a little bit. That's the sandwich I had later that night. I had it for dinner.

But the regular Euro, I think you don't mess with the classic. That's the one that's on their menu. And it's really, really good. I think that, like, like, I think it's great. The, the, the pita is nice and soft and fluffy. And the Euro meat, I think is like, they, they put a good amount in there. And the, the, the tatsiki sauce, it's where else can you get a Euro like that? It's a fast food place.

It's great point. Uh, the French dip, which I've talked about, I got the smokehouse brisket, which we liked. We liked the smokehouse brisket more than the French dip. But so far nothing was really bad. I didn't, I didn't dislike anything. We got a couple of drinks, Nick. There was, I had a taste of mellow yellow.

And then I went because there was mellow yellow there. And I was like, I got to try mellow yellow. I haven't had it forever. I liked it. And then I got a diet Coke. And then for the road, I got a diet, Dr. Pepper from the machine. A diet, Dr. Pepper is great. Um, and then when I went back up again, I ordered a corned beef rubin.

And the corned beef rubin was really well done too. It's not as like crispy. The bread isn't as crispy and the, is like, you won't get as good of a bite as you would if you went to a Jewish deli and got a, a rubin, but it's, it's really, it's really, the, the, the filling is, was, was really there. Tasted really good. So really blown away. I got a dessert as well.

I, we, we got the, uh, we got the orange cream shake, which my mom said my dad would have been a big fan of. He, he, he loved, he liked like an orange cream shake. And I, and I thought it was good. My mom thought it was a little too artificial of flavor tasting, but I thought it, I thought it was really fantastic. Nothing was bad. I loved everything I had at our house.

It was good. I was, I was shocked because I've never, I like that they offer strange things like things you can't get at other places, but I'm never really blown away by Arby's, you know, like I never, I never even think to go there often, uh, in LA, but everything was really working for me. And, you know, if anything comes from this review, Carl Tart, our friend got sent a, uh, a roast, roast beef jumpsuit wags. Yeah.

I hope that the three of us, me, you and Larry and Emma, although all four of us get sent roast beef jumpsuits so we can wear together when we have our dinner in LA, whenever Larry's back. Where do you get that though? Uh, they, they just sent it to him and he, he wore, he wore it around. It was hilarious. But, uh, meat sweats. Yeah.

He was great. Mitch and I could never pull that off. By the way, fuck you Arby's. If you think that's why I'm saying it was good. I don't want your stupid beef sweat suit. I don't care about the beef sweat suit. I'm just saying I had a great time at Arby's. I was, I was, I was pleasantly surprised.

Yeah. It took an hour to get there. I was mad that I had to go an hour to get the food. But when I got there, we were, we were having, we were having a great time. Nick, it was, it was a blast. I'm glad. I'm glad you and, uh, you and mama Mitchell had a nice outing. Larry, it looks like you've gotten through the, the beef and cheddar.

You're moving on to a new item. What, what do you think of what you've had so far? You know, that beef and cheddar is not bad. It's good. It's great. Yeah. To say, and I ate half of that and I ate half of the brisket and that's also not bad.

I mean, also, I love authentic barbecue, but I mean, that's not, uh, it's not too shabby. And what I'm realizing is if I'm just feeling, you know, I'm late and I'm driving around LA and I'm feeling especially self-loathing, I will definitely go to McDonald's. Sure. Something trying to reclaim something from my youth or whatever. Right.

Hating and you hate yourself later. Right. Yeah. You're in the McDonald's. Do you're in the McDonald's drive through? Mr. Big comes on the radio. All these thoughts are coming through your head. Sir, you have to try to get to sit there crying.

Please move on. But I have to say these, now that I know this, if I'm feeling self-loathing, I'm near Home Depot on sunset, I would prefer one of these. I think I'd have less regret later and during, right? Cause I allowed to say that sometimes you're in McDonald's, you could, you just felt like you want to go, but during and after or do the, why do I do that? Oh yeah.

For sure. Oh yeah. Let's regret factor with these so far. No, that's, that's twice a week for me and Mitch. Yeah. Yeah. We, and also I'll say that Arby's, yeah, it does, like the buffalo chicken sandwich I'm eating that my mom was like, Oh, it's not too fried.

She liked that. It wasn't like a bit like she was like, this is actually nicely fried. It doesn't feel like a crazy fry where we're eating other fast food chains that she's done with me since I've been here. She's like, it feels like when I get something like McDonald's, like it's just such a heavy fry. You feel it. Yes.

And Arby's, and Arby's, Arby's does feel like a, like a, it has like a little feel of a deli. It feels like you're getting some sandwiches. It doesn't, some, I mean, a lot of, a lot of it, of course is heavy. We're not saying it's not heavy. It's heavy food, but it does, it does ring a little different. It feels a little different. Yes.

And that, the same thing with me that day, like, if I got URL for lunch, I don't think that I would be like dragon, whereas if I got, you know, a double quarter pounder for McDonald's, I'm dragon. So. Well, and also you can go even lighter at Arby's, as Larry is, is biting into the Buffalo chicken sandwich, holding it up to the camera. And then twisting his thumb around. The Buffalo chicken sandwich is gone.

The Popeye's are, I mean, most places, and I'm not complaining, but it has 50%, right? The breading. Right. Yeah. I'm not saying that's bad, but I see what your mom's saying. It's just less of it. Yep.

Yep. And it's, it's good. I mean, look, the Popeye's chicken sandwich, of course, is a game changer. It's, it's fantastic. And, but, and this is not trying to be that. This is a strictly a Buffalo chicken sandwich. And it's, it's, my mom's complaint was that it was sloppy. And I, and I understand what she was saying.

It is, it is a sloppy sandwich. There's sauce. Yeah. The lettuce is falling out the sides of it. There's, there's a ranch in, in Buffalo sauce, just like coming out of that thing. But it's tasty. It does, they do a good job with it. Yes.

And, and to your point, Mitch, that the Euro is like a lighter option. They do have a number of lighter options there. They have their market fresh salads and they have their market fresh sandwiches, which are just straight up sandwiches. You know, it's, it's just like a sandwich on, on, on regular bread. And like that's going to be a lot less heavy than like a fast food burger or some of Arby's other offerings. Uh, well, well, Larry is, is, uh, having the rest of his meal.

I'll talk through my experience real quick. So I went to the Inglewood location, which is a good Arby's. I've been doing a number of times. It's the closest Arby's to where we live now. There used to be a Santa Monica Arby's, but it got turned into a Wendy's, which is, you know, a, a, a small upgrade or neutral. I, I like both chains, but it was nice to have an Arby's that was, that was closer to us. Um, so as I mentioned, this is a good Arby's.

It's a, it's one that's been remodeled recently. I went kind of during the midday lunch rush and as a result experienced a couple of miscues that I'm not blaming them for. But I think that was just like the nature of the dry, the, I feel like, you know what, every time I feel like I've gone to this Arby's, it's felt like the lunch rush that the, the drive through is, is going into the street. So it might just be a particularly busy Arby's anyway. And also this one is just in the shadow of the, the famous Randy's doughnut, the

giant doughnut. Wow. Yeah. It's like, it's like one block away. The one that the Mars, Mars attacks aliens. Do they, do they knock that down? Did they do? I think so.

That sounds right. It's also, that's also a reference in the Simpsons. Oh, that's why they do a pop-up collab together. They should be in the doughnuts. Oh man. I mean, I bet that'd be great. Yeah. That's too good.

Larry, we should have, we, we need, we need to, we need to edit this and make it seem like we came up with that idea. So, um, that said, all that said, yes, there are some lighter options you can get from an Arby's, but there are not great vegetarian accommodations. Oh no. I recently had a vegan Reuben from Mendocino Farms, um, which used like a, you know, there is like a fake pastrami slash fake corned beef. That's pretty good at least texturally.

Uh, and so these, these products exist. It's probably too expensive to scale at, at a chain like Arby's, but you know, there is some of that stuff that they can get that it's not as, there aren't as many, not as prevalent as like the fake burgers or the fake chicken. Um, but there, there isn't really even an effort to have anything that's a vegetarian, like main item. The closest I came is I got the loaded curly fries, which are curly fries with cheddar sauce, bacon and ranch.

And I said no bacon. Uh, and I will say these were pretty damn good. I mean, I like their curly fries, ample amounts of cheddar sauce. I love their cheddar sauce. Their cheddar sauce is fantastic. And the, uh, and, and that, that ranch was, uh, was great. They have a good ranch there. I added some horsey sauce, which I'm a huge fan of.

And I thought this was a nice item and, and kind of worked as an entree, uh, as far as my, my sides, I got the mozzarella sticks and the jalapeno bites. Uh, they have good mozzarella sticks. You know, they're fine. They're like replacement level mozzarella sticks with fine marinara. I would never get them though over the jalapeno bites, which I think are delightful. I think they're, they're well fried. I think they've got a good amount of cheese.

I think they've got a good amount of heat. I am something of a heat seeker. The, the weird miscue for me is. All right. A heat seeker, but you didn't get, you didn't go with the heat that you didn't go with the ones that are spicy. What do you mean? I didn't go with the ones that are spicy.

I thought you just said the jalapeno bites, the mozzarella sticks and the jalapeno bites. Oh, you got both. All right. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing else you can get on the menu. Yeah. I got the jalapeno bites, which, and I really like them.

The only thing I'd say is I think the Bronco berry sauce is just, it's, it's a miscue. It's not for me. The, the, I get the idea of sweet and heat, um, but just give me some ranch. I'd much rather have a side of ranch. In fact, I took some ranch out of my fridge and dipped it in that and it was better. And I also got a side salad.

Sounds like a DQ to me. Your whole meal is DQ'd for this ranch. My score doesn't count because of outside ranch. That's right. Yeah. Outside ranch. Wow. Uh, the, uh, whoever's updating the Doughboys Wikipedia, make sure you

asterisk by fork rating. I also got a side salad and let me, let me say this to Arby's credit, the produce was a lot fresher in this side salad than it would be in if like a McDonald's equivalent, it was or a Burger King equivalent. This was like a Wendy's steer salad. You know, Wendy's has good fast food salads. I was like, this is good. And very simple.

It was just a, just a lettuce blend with diced tomatoes and cheddar cheese. Uh, but I thought it was, I thought it was nice, especially with the buttermilk ranch dressing. Here's the thing. I mentioned there were some miscues. The big one was that I got Natalie, uh, you know, I, I can't say enough about Natalie's enthusiasm for Arby's. I told her I was going to Arby's and she like gasped like she couldn't, she's

like, I can't, like, can't believe the delight she was about to experience. Thrilled, thrilled. You're leaving the house. Yeah. And then I think it was like a 20 minute drive. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Great. Um, feel free to eat yours in the car and then you can come home. Okay. Weird. So, and then she was like, if I must, she was going to take a nap. She's like, if I'm asleep when I get home, wake me up with my Arby's. So like, like that's how excited she was for it. Unfortunately they forgot, she got a beef and cheddar, which she loved, but

they forgot the two sides of cheddar cheese that I asked for, for her curly fries. And that's the way to have the curly fries, get the cheddar cheese on the side and dip it. Um, but unfortunately that was not included. They also forgot my Jamoka shake, which I love the Jamoka shake. I think it should have been in the tournament of chompians, pine new. And I think it's a great fast food shake. But, you know, again, it was a lunch rush.

It was, I wasn't going to make a big fuss about it. It was like one of those things where it was confirmed in the intercom. And then, like the, and then it wasn't on the receipt. So I didn't get charged for it. So I wasn't going to have them make another one on the fly. So, um, it's, it's fine, but I was a little disappointed by those emissions. All that said, it's a tough vegetarian meal, but I think their items, their menu items are, are delightful and unique.

Larry, I just rambled for far too long. Tell us about your buffalo chicken sandwich and your fries and your vanilla shake. I'm a huge vanilla fan of vanilla flavor. Yeah. Um, like you guys said, the, uh, the chicken thing was, um, less ready, less volume and very sloppy, but not too spicy because, uh, spicy is good, but not when you're like, I love to eat in the car. Yeah.

When you're sweating and it's all dripping all over the self, but I've done it. You know what's hardest? A Taco Bell taco while you're driving. Oh yeah. Taco Bell is, I either go home or I pull over. I'm not, I can't, I don't eat it on the road. It's not going to happen. Only me then.

That's great. But again, it's like a lot of these things. What am I done? It's a trend to reclaim your childhood. Cause I remember my dad used to take us and we're good, you know, to talk about, and we were allowed to eat in the car if we were very careful. But still you'd open up the, the, remember the orange piece of paper. And invariably the Taco Bell, can we talk about Taco Bell?

Of course. You know, what we call the hinge at the bottom is very often broken. Yep. Yes, that's, that is always, and that, that makes it impossible to eat in the car, but for me, Larry, there's a, the big component of Taco Bell is just Taco Bell, the sauce packets. I need this, I need the sauce on the taco. So for me, I mean, like, I'm going to be driving with my knees as I put the

sauce on the, I'm going to kill somebody, which I, I, you know, I probably would kill someone over Taco Bell, but not unintentionally. I don't want to, I don't want to run someone over. Well, why don't you do that when we're late? I'll show you the technique. I would love to see the tech. I want to see the technique. I would love to see the technique because Lord knows I want to eat more food in my

car. I want to try to. Now that I think about it, one technique is don't have a Tesla. First of all, just put it on it, put it on auto drive and eat away. Taco pilot. Yeah. Taco Bell is, is, but also I agree with you on like the, the, I don't want a five alarm burrito in my car when you're already in the car.

You don't want something where you're going to start sweating. So I agree that I think that buffalo chicken sandwich is at a nice heat level. It's not too spicy, but you get a little, a tiny kick. But did you enjoy it? Did you, did you think it was all right? Yeah, I would order, I would order all three of these again. Yeah. The smoke, smokehouse brisket is pretty is, is, is decent.

It's got a smoky flavor to it. It's got some onion strings on it. I think it's pretty, I think it's pretty good. I'm not sure what sauces to use though, because I don't know enough about it too. Maybe you guys can tell me the classic RB and the RB. Wow. As Larry is holding this up, a cat just wandered into frame.

Larry, I hope that is your cat. In magic terms, that is the prestige. Larry, you, you responded to that cat with, you responded to the cat with what the hell, which made me be like, does he know this cat? Is this a mystery cat? Well, it's constant. You know, anyway, I do remember these trials. This one's more barbecuey, right?

And red. Yes. And horsey sauce is always a source of amusement just because it's called that. Yeah. It's a very funny name. It's like there's a horse meat in it. Yes. Yes.

Four horse radish. So spicy. So I put some of this on the brisket, the horsey. And it seems like the bacon cheddar, cheddar wanted probably that. Is that the classic RB sauce? You know, I did, I put both on my, on my, I put both on my, I put both on my beef and cheddar and I put up both on the, on the brisket. It's fun.

It's, you know, I, but I was going back and I was doing it basically by bite. And sometimes I'll combine them. They also have like a three pepper sauce, I believe it is. That's, that's really good. I had not had the three pepper sauce maybe ever. It's a spicy, spicy three pepper sauce and that's got a kick to it. It's really good on the, on the beef and cheddar. And I use some ketchup on my french fries, but Nick, yeah, I also got the Bronco

berry sauce and I think it's strange, but it doesn't bother me as much as you. I, I think it's, I think it's fine. But Nick might want the other one. Nick might want the triple. Yeah. You, you, you would maybe like that three, that three, there are three pepper sauce. But yeah, the horsey sauce is famous. It's, it's, it's a, it's a good, it's a good sauce.

It's fun. Arby's is a lot of fun. There's a lot of fun stuff over there. The fact that it is called horsey sauce. That's fun, Nick. You're having fun. I agree. I agree.

They're good. We were talking about Taco Bell sauces. Arby's has good sauces and their essential components to consuming most of the items there and Larry, your, what do you think of the fries and what do you think of that shake? The fries are good. I mean, I had some in the car on the way home and they were, when they're crispy and hot, they were better, but I liked them.

It's said to get the, the article is said to get the shake. Cause it said it was cut above for some reason. I can't remember why. It's really made with ice cream or something, but it is good. It is good. Yeah. I like Arby's shakes a lot. Yeah.

The shake, I thought the shake was good too. And Nick, we've talked about this before. Carl's Jr. has a good shake. There's, there's places where you can get, you know what? I'll say it in and out burger has like a very like process shake, but it's good. I like the in and out shake, but, uh, but especially you get a black and white shake from, from, uh, from in and out and you're, you're doing pretty good. You're sitting pretty.

Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, Arby's, I think Arby's is up there as far as the, as shake contenders go. Um, well, let's see, let's see where exactly Arby's ranks in terms of shakes and in terms of all things. Let's do it. It's time for our final thoughts. We are going to rate this restaurant.

So what we're going to do, Larry, is we're each are going to go around and give a closing argument, if you will, a summation of our thoughts on this week's chain Arby's and end that by giving it a rating from zero to five forks. You can do partial forks or tines. Uh, so Larry, you are a guest, uh, what, uh, to give us your review and give us your fork score of everything or just overall. Yeah. Yeah.

Overall. Overall, let's say three and a half, three and a half. Oh, wow. Wow. Jumping straight to the score. I mean, do you have any thoughts you would like to add on, uh, beyond that? Oh, thank you. Any thoughts?

Sorry. No, you give him plenty. It's a long time as I had these, but the big in the cheddar, when I was soft pictures, didn't seem impressive. Seemed like kind of soft and bland. It is soft, but it has a good texture and it's, it has good flavor, especially with the sauces, the, the, the smokehouse brisket, a lot more flavor and texture than I thought it would have, especially for fast food.

Cause brisket, you know, it was like the process to do properly. That's also a good one with the sauces and I would get that again. And the chicken one, I would get that again too. I mean, I'm still, I think Popeyes is my favorite. Yeah. This is different. It's a different animal. It's also good.

Um, fries are great and the shake was, was really good too. Wow. Three and a three and a half forks. A good score, a great score. Very good score. Um, Nick, I, I, I had a blast. I had, I had a good time at Arby's. I was, I was surprised.

You know, like I said, the, the restaurant itself was, was, uh, just looked fantastic. The service was, was, was the best. The, the, the, the woman, the, the, these, the woman who lived in Auburn there and working at Arby's, I tip my hat to you. You, you were, you were awesome. You helped me out. They offered to bring the food over to the table.

They were great. And I, Nick, I just had a, I had a great day and I think that if anything, like the thing that will hurt the score a little bit is that I'm just like, I like all this food. I just don't know how often I would go there. I don't think it is like the best. Like I'm not going to have the, like if I want to, if I want a spicy chicken sandwich, I'm going to go with the spicy chicken sandwich over the

buffalo chicken sandwich. But just to get that kind of sloppy buffalo sandwich, you don't get that at a lot of fast food places. And Arby, Arby's offers that. And I think that's cool as hell. I like that they have weird other things. And Nick, I love their euros. There goes my Euro.

Watch it as it goes. That's what I think. Arby, that should be Arby's new slogan. I, I, I, I, I love, I love their sauces. I, and you know what? I just liked that the fact that they had Mellow Yellow in their, uh, I should have really committed to their goes my Euro, huh? How about we don't need another Euro?

We, yeah, we don't need another. Wait, no, but I do need, I do need another Euro. Uh, there's an, I need a hero song, right? I need a Euro. Yeah. Does Arby, does Arby's like do these? I feel like there goes, there goes my Euro. They've probably done that a million times.

And we're just gigantic hacks. Uh, uh, anyway, in general, and also now we're just stealing free commercials, but I, I, uh, I, I liked my Arby's experience in the, I can't go lower than four forks. For me, it's a four, four restaurant. Uh, I don't know how often I go back to Arby's, but you know what? If I'm, if I'm rolling down Sunset Boulevard or whatever at some point and I, and, and the mood gets, hits me right.

I'm, I'm pulling into that giant Arby's hat and I'm, I'm ordering up some food. It's four, four forks, four forks, four forks from the spoon down. By the way, that, that giant signage, that big old oversized hat, which has been discontinued or just is not erected at the new locations. I wish that was all of them. It's so iconic. It's so great. There used to be one of the Santa Monica Arby's and, and that sign has gone.

It should have been a historical structure. Should have, should have stayed there forever. Nick, can I tell you something embarrassing? I went to that one in Hollywood and I tried on the hat and it fit. Um, Arby's is, I, I, I like, I have a fondness for Arby's, uh, you know, Natalie does as well. It's one of our favorite chains and I feel like we've been harsh on it in the podcast in the past because we've been disappointed by seasonal items.

But I think the core Arby's menu is unique and delicious. And I will say it was a challenge to eat here as a vegetarian and I would not advise it if, if anyone is just being very strict about their meat consumption. Cause there's really nothing you can have, uh, but as a vegetarian, this was a very, very strong craving I had when I got there to be like, oh man, I wish I could have a beef and cheddar right now. It's such a good sandwich. It's such a solid classic sandwich.

And I think Arby's does what they do very, very well. And you can't get it anywhere else. Why? Yeah. Arby's, we got the meats. They don't get the veggies. They don't talk about the veggies. You're out of luck.

I know. I, I know. I understand that conceptually. I'm just saying that like it's, it is a challenge to eat there, but I have such a fondness for this chain that I'm in the handholding club with my podcast co-hosts. I'm going for four forks. Wow.

Four forks. Wow. Wow. Good ranking. There you go. Yeah. I think all around a good summation of, of Arby's knock. It's never been in the golden play club, Nick.

Correct. And I don't believe it has, but I think it should be, I think it'll get there. I think we'll, I think we'll, a few more outings. I think we'll, by the time we do RB seven in 2026, we'll finally get in the golden, the hallowed halls of the golden play club. I think, I think that's more like 2023. Yeah. We're in on fumes here.

Larry Fong, thank you so much for joining us. An absolute delight and a thrill and honor to speak with you about your esteemed career. The film is the tomorrow war. It is on Amazon prime on July 2nd. Feel free to tell us about the movie or anything else you would like to plug. Oh, um, I guess that's the only thing coming out soon.

Um, That's the tricky thing is you probably have something ready to go in like two years. That's coming out that we got a movie after that. Coming out is rescue rangers. Wow. Wow. The live action of high animation hybrid directed by Akiva Schaefer.

Wow. That's awesome. So more than meets the eye, you'll be surprised. I'm looking forward to that rule. There you go. Check that look for that and check out the tomorrow war. Uh, Larry, Larry, thank you so much. Yeah.

Thank you, Larry. You rule. Thank you. That's fun. We'll be right back with more dough boys. Welcome back to dough boys. Mitch, a lot of fun to talk with, uh, with Larry Fong. It was great.

Uh, he told me after this, though, that he's going to cut me out of the movie, which I didn't even know he had though. Yeah, I thought it was, I thought it was done. I thought it was locked. I didn't even know he had the power to do that, but I'm, I'm getting cut out. Which, oh, you know, it was worth it, Nick. It was worth it to talk Arby's. Hey, we're joined now by our producer, Emma or Brink.

Hi, Emma. Hi, Emma, we are going to, you're going to help us out with a segment. I'm going to try. This is a segment we do sometimes on the show that we formalized. We've got a category and we're each going to draft a roster of our selections. It's time for a la mode draft house. Make them draft, make them draft.

Don't you know, everyone wants to draft. My dad said, be a podcaster son, but be a vaguely comical one. They'll sing podcast apps for each week's hacky, hack, catchphrase, crap. Now you could NPR hush and be liberal elite, or you could riff on murders and seem like a creep. Just draft and I bet Ian Carmel won't say a peep. Make them draft, make them draft, make them draft. Okay.

Hey, in honor of the tomorrow war this week's category, I wish, I wish, I wish that the, I wish the music just played throughout the rest of the draft. It's a great song. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Why, I know that you just also watched singing in the rain. So this must have been inspired by that. You weirdo, like Joseph Gordon Levitt on SNL to do my own version.

That was really good. Oh boy. So, um, everyone remembers Joseph Gordon Levitt's, Joseph Gordon Levitt's SNL. Make them laugh, which maybe just is the same thing. Oh, Kenan slaps him a bunch, right? Isn't that what it is, Kenan? Yeah. One of the, I think it might be, it might be Bobby Moynihan.

I think Bobby Moynihan slaps him a bunch. Yeah. He punches him a bunch. So we're going to draft time travelers this week. Wow. Time travelers. And how many, how many were we getting? Five or four?

Um, let's do four in the interest of time. Yeah. Emma just, Emma just put up a figure for four. We have another, we have another record after this. So Emma, we'll, we'll do the snake style, but we will, we always let our guests go pick first and you are in the guest slot. So that falls to you. Okay.

I, I might play fast and loose with the term time traveler because, you know, I'd like time benders or time warpers or like long sleepers. Are they considered time travelers? I think so. I think you have some leeway. Because I really want to draft link from Zelda because he sleeps for like a hundred years. Wow.

This is so fucked up. I'm so mad. I want to pick. I'm so mad. I have alternates. No, no, no, no, no. Don't get me mad. It's just because this is part of it.

Yeah. This is a part of it. You got to get me mad. Fine. I take link. Wow. Link, that, that is a huge pick right off the, right off the board, Nick. Wow.

Well, I guess for me, like, who am I going to draft? Am I going to, I mean, am I drafting them for my war? Like, what are we drafting them for? You're just drafting them just like the best time travelers, I guess. Okay, cool. Yeah, just, it's like your rat pack. You're just going to hang out with them. Now, Nick, do you go second or do you want to go last?

I mean, we didn't really discuss this. We didn't, we didn't discuss order here. I've never been in the three spot before. Maybe it's, maybe it's your time for that. All right, put me in the fucking three spot. You get the pressure of having on the turnaround. Well, give me the, put me in the three spot. All right, I'll put you in the three spot and on my roster.

Doc, you got to help me. I'm drafting a team of time travelers. I don't know how to pick. It's Marty McFly. Holy shit. Wow. Weigar, I'm happy I put you there because I just pulled a Celtics with Jason Tatum with you on the third pick and I'm picking fucking doc Marty.

I'll help you with the time travel. Me and you are friends. Me and you are friends, an old man and a young boy. This is a normal relationship. We're on separate teams. And also I get Einstein too. It comes with the deal. And I'm not going to draft him, but he just gets Einstein.

He gets Einstein. Oh, the dog, Doc, Doc gets Einstein. I was going to say, do you think I'm the man? Yeah, do you think Einstein, the man invented time travel? I had a, he had theories about it. Did he not? Actually, that happens in command and conquer, red alert, I think. Then he is, then guess what?

He counts, he counts that. I guess he counts, but you get Einstein, the dog, not the man. I mean, someone can draft Einstein. So I won't, I won't, I won't take him if someone wants him. OK, I'll be mad if someone does. Because if not, at the end, I get Einstein. That's the rule. Anyways, my second draft wigs.

I'll be draft. I'll be, I'll be drafted. That's right, Nick Arnold Schwarzenegger, specifically from T2. Wow. Arnold, the good, the good Arnold from T2, he's, he's drafted. He is a part of my team. This is, this is like late night comedy in 1991, me doing this voice. But he's on my team wigs.

I got myself Schwarzenegger. Look, Doc and Schwarzenegger. I mean, come on, this thing's over, but go ahead and make your next pick. I could just pick Kyle Reese from the Terminator franchise if I wanted to be an asshole like you were. But I'm going to go a different direction and go back to video game dumb. Like Emma did, I'm picking a character from a game based around time travel for the Super Nintendo Chrono Trigger,

one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. I am picking one of my personal favorite characters, Robo, the robot. Wow. Robo from Chrono Trigger. Do you personally identify with him? Yeah, I kind of see myself in Robo. You know, I mean, a lot of people would glom onto a different character. There's a lot of great characters in the Chrono Trigger.

I was going to say franchise, but really just that game. Chrono Cross is all right. But Robo, like he has a task that he just stays and does. And the way he time travels is one way he time travels is he just stays and does a task for like like 100 years for like this extraordinary amount of time. And he's just a robot and he's just happy to do it. And I'm just like, that's great.

And I can relate to that. Emma, who's your next pick? Um, I think I'm going to go with Adam Sandler and click. Wow. We love this man. That's a great I want to hang out with Adam Sandler. So if this is fun, that would be a great person to have. Yeah. You do. You do. You do get like a weird, like kind of upset dad version of Adam Sandler.

He is his character from click, but he also is very funny. Yeah, he freezes time and he punches somebody in the head a bunch. It's very funny. Yeah, between him and Link will be all set. Yeah. Yeah. You're that that is that's a great team. So far the apocalypse with a smile on her face. Well, Emma, you get to put you get you draft again immediately.

Anyway, I do. Yeah, you get you. It starts with you again. Oh, wait, is that true? Yes, it is. Yeah. It's snake style. You go to you have to in a row now. OK. Um, all right. What about Robin Williams and Jumanji? Wow. Wow. I like it.

I just recently watched the original Jumanji again and it scared the fuck out of me when I was a kid and I loved it this time. I was glued to it. I couldn't stop watching. That's having a great time. You got three funny men. Yeah, I want to have a good time.

Hey, Robin Williams, Adam Sandler and Link. I'm going to be going to be in stitches the whole time. What if Link is the funniest one of that crew? Yeah, maybe he is. Never actually speaking, but this great pantomime. Yeah. I have. OK, I have my next pick and I feel like this is going to make Mitch go, this is bullshit.

But I think of them as one entity. Oh, this is bullshit. Bill and Ted, we're going on an adventure. I had that on my list, but I wasn't sure if I had to choose Bill or Ted. I'll I'll I'll give it to you. You get them both. But I. But hey, you know what? Yeah, I get Einstein. The man and the dog.

You know, I get Einstein, the man and the dog. How's that? Why? Wow. Do you agree to these terms? I agree to those terms. OK, fair enough. Emma, do you agree? Yeah, I agree. All right. Nick, that's a great draft. Bill and Ted, you're so Cal buddies, you're having fun. But for me.

I'm going to be having even more fun. That's right, baby. Yeah, baby. I'm having the most fun of all because I'm going back in time with Austin powers to the 60s. Why, God, damn it. And guess what? Back in the 60s, I'm going to swing by Mr.

and Mrs. Weiger's house and make sure you never get born, baby. Wait a minute. Austin powers going to cock block my dad. That's right. Imagine how fun if you were an Austin son, how fun this podcast. I mean, Austin powers is going to try to be your dad. Oh, boy, it's a totally different life. If you had Austin blood in you, Austin powers blood.

He's too horny. The spicy chicken sandwich is groovy, baby. Yeah. How fun would that be? What a pod. No, I don't know. Austin powers. Now, look, I got one last spot. Mm hmm. And I kind of want to draft Cowan from the Tomorrow War, which is me.

Your character. My character, but also I'm on my team and aren't I just me? I guess. Aren't I, Cowan? Aren't I officially on my team? Where does the character end and the person begin? Well, I say that because I want to draft someone else who's fun. And I don't know if. OK. So it just can I get what are you going to make your pick?

Make your pick. Are you going to pick Cowan after me? I'll kill you. No, I'm not going to pick Cowan. You're going to pick Cowan. I'm not going to pick Cowan. All right, Scrooge. I choose Scrooge. Yeah, it's fun to have Scrooge on your team.

A fun pick, a very fun man. Yeah. Scrooge. It is a cool guy to hang out with. Wow. Scrooge. One of the one of the first time travelers. I know there's HG Wells, the fucking time traveler or whatever. But Scrooge is going to be my pick. So get a pivot from HG Wells as the time traveler now.

Dear God. All right, actually, that's not true. Here was going to be my pick because what's going on is that I got a crew of bros. Yeah, I'm going to mix it up a little bit. I'm bringing along the time traveler's wife. Wow. Wow, you're going to cook the time traveler. I'm going to do the time traveler

what Austin Powers did to my dad. The time traveler's wife. Wow. What a pick. That's right. Yeah. I mean, she'll probably end up with Marty McFly. So yeah, I mean, how can you resist? No, Marty's going to end up with his mom. You know, we. Sleeves, someone who likes the show on Twitter, he likes the show.

Sleeves, I think he likes the show. A funny Twitter guy. He was tweeting about how Marty should have just fucked his mom, which is something that we talked about on the pod before. Did we? I mean, like Marty's mom is. I mean, she's she's very horny, very fetching. She's very fetching, very horny, very fetching.

Marty, just go for it, my man. You got to go for it. Sebastian appears to sing Kiss the Girl. That's what we want to see. All right, Emma, your final pick for your time traveler quartet. The thing with Marty is if he if he did it, he'd fuck himself right out of existence. Why do you realize that?

That's that's the paradox. Yeah, dear God, what a way to go. Sleeping with your mom. No, I mean, I mean, I meant fucking yourself out of existence. Not going to the mom. Emma, go ahead, make your pick, please. You just nut and collapse into a black hole. Not into nothing.

You turn into you, you not. And then you are not. All right, Emma, go. So, OK, if Mitch is Cowan and Cowan is Mitch, if I draft Cowan, do I get Mitch's team, too? Wow, what the fuck? What a mind fuck. This sounds like time travel bullshit right now.

This is insane. Yeah, that's what makes it fun. Wow. Well, OK, I was thinking I was going to draft Cowan first just to be fun, but then I figured I'd give Mitch a chance to draft himself. But then he didn't. Wow. So now I don't know if I should do it or not. But then I think I might just take Bruce Willis from Looper. Wow, that's a good one.

Because that feels like a good addition to the crew. Yeah, he'll mellow your crew out a little bit. Yeah. Wow. And by our rules, I do get Cowan now. Cowan is on my team. And so I have extra players because I'm a machine. Are you just like a, like you're like a two-faced person.

Sometimes you're Mitch, sometimes you're Cowan. Depends on the day. It's kind of like a Jim Carrey liar, liar. I'm not a liar, liar. Me, myself and Irene situation. But I act exactly the same both ways. James Lipton's like, let me speak to, let me speak to Cowan right now. OK, I think I could try.

Talk to Cowan. Let's see here, James. Let's see if I can do it. Hello, James, how are you? I'm Cowan now. Wow. Wow, you sound so similar. It's crazy.

Let's let's recap each of our rosters. Emma, go first. I got Link. I got Bruce Willis, Adam Sandler and Robin Williams. Great, great crew. Great crew. Mitch. I got, who did I draft?

I got Doc. I got, I got, I got Doc and I got. Yeah, baby. Austin Powers and I got Arnold, I got all funny voice guys and then I got I got Cowan myself and then who is my Oh, Scrooge, old Scrooge. It's not Nick to McDuck, but he could be McDuck.

It doesn't matter. They both time traveled. Scrooge and Scrooge McDuck. Do I have to, do I have to make it clear who it is? No, I mean, it's fine. Just Scrooge is a catch all. All right, that's Scrooge then. All right, great.

Man, no one drafted Frye. You could be hanging out with Frye. You could be hanging out with fucking Bender. Yeah, that would be one. And I had Marty McFly, a robo from Chrono Trigger, Bill and Ted as one entity and the Time Traveler's wife. Let us know who you thought won in our social media. My team is hashtag Jack in Time.

Like you're jacking off. That's pretty good. Mine is hashtag hack in time, like being a hack. Mine's just gonna be hashtag back in time, you know, like back in time. Wow. Super original, right? I'm gonna kind of cleaned our clocks, I think, all around.

Yeah. Let us know who won, Wags. Hey, and just like a restaurant, I value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. And today we have an email from Rachel. Rachel writes, I was shocked that in your Auntie Anne's episode, the best pretzels in the world were not discussed.

They can be found at Harpoon Brewery in the one and only Boston. This leads me to ask what is your favorite food from a brewery or what is your favorite food to consume along with a beer? I almost said brew dog. P.S. Nick Flawless, use of the Yiddish language, never changed.

PPS, come back to Nashville. We hope to in the future. Wow. Any favorite food to have alongside a brew dog or a great bite from a brewery? You know, I have an answer. It's a great question. Fish and chips.

That is real. And I've had some great fish and chips at a brewery. I think this is a chain, but honestly, the fish and chips I had at Rock Bottom Brewery were some of my favorite fish and chips. I was like, these are fucking great. And it was great alongside one of their house brews. Rock Bottom makes good nachos too.

Oh, that's a good tip. That's a good one with beer. Nachos, something salty. I love a good just like a burger, just a burger with a beer. Yeah, that's classic. That might be impossible at the top. A big cheeseburger, some fries and a beer. I mean, a pretzel is great.

Yeah. Get one of those big pub pretzels is a great. That's a great brewery. You know, I haven't spent like a ton of times in brewery. In LA, there's like a few, but I don't go to breweries a ton. I feel like maybe it's more of a, if I was in Boston, maybe I would do more breweries. Or like a good brat, like a good sausage or something.

Ooh, yeah, yeah, those are great. A dog, a good hot dog. I'll just say, Mitch, there are a ton of brew pubs and breweries and micro breweries in Southern California these days. I just don't go. I was making excuses. I just don't go.

I don't go. I mean, it's tough in LA. You know, you got to Uber and a lot of these places are far away. It's going to cost $80. It's just, yes, they have the real estate. It's, they have to be on the exerbs of the city. They have to be on the, the outskirts. And so yeah, it's usually going way out there.

I think though, Angel City is downtown, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's one. There's one in modern times, I think is two. Oh yeah. And Glendale has one too, right? There's Santa Monica Brew Works. They're fun.

They usually just have a food truck outside. Yeah, there's golden road is like a chain there's a, but there's a, there's a few of them. Oh, it is a chain. You know what I like to have in my brewery? You know, I like to drink with my beer, Nick. Another beer. Hell yeah.

That's right. Oh yeah. Beer. Chug it. Wow, Emma. Emma's, we shouldn't record on a Saturday and Emma's on our mind. I did drink last night for the first time in like two months. So I feel insane today.

Oh yeah. But that's, that's it. I mean, I think, I think like you're saying, Emma, like a, you got to go beef, you know, you want some sort of beef or, or, or you want like, you know, the pretzel or nacho, something like that. Like a salty savory food is what you want. Yeah.

Something fried baby. Yeah. A big pub burger. How are you supposed to beat that? That's impossible. Yeah. It makes you a little thirsty. It complements the beer.

Yeah. I'll say also you just get a, and Mitch, I'm curious as your take, but as a bar pizza enthusiast, sometimes a big slice of pizza. I can't believe that I, I want to, the question first happened, but I was thinking of brewery specifically. So I was like, I guess you can't really get, but at a bar, I'm always getting bar pizza and buff chicken wings. Those, those, those are like two big ones for me.

The, the bar pizzas and, and buffalo chicken wings. But I also was thinking back to like when I used to go to Sonny McLean's Wags, a bar that you went to and I used to get like, That's right. I used to, I used to do a, what should I call it? The, the mashed, the beef with mashed potatoes on top of it. Um, shepherd's pie. Yes.

Um, stuff like that. Is that shepherd's pie? It is, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That English pub food is great. Yeah.

Or Irish pub food. I mean, it's all the same fucking shit. All pub food. Irish, thank you. But, but, uh, but that doesn't count as brewery really, right? Like, uh, I don't know. I, I think, I mean, it depends because if you go to a lot of brew pubs, they have full menus.

Like if you go to the, the stone, the stone brewery in San Diego, they have like, they have like a, a full menu. They have a, they have a bunch of different stuff. They even have some like more like fine dining esk fare. So I think the, I think the, I think it's a much broader spectrum of, of options available, uh, but let us know your favorites. Get as specific as you like. Hashtag brewchew.

And if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at duboispodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 Godot. That's 830-463-6844 to get the no boys double or weekly bonus episode. You can join the golden or platinum play club at patreon.com slash dough boys. Larry Fong. What a great guy. What a great guy, a great guest.

Great dude. Very excited to have him on here. Yeah. And Emma, do you have anything you'd like to plug? The tomorrow or out July 2nd. Oh my God. No, I do. I need to stop.

It was awesome. Emma, you rule. All right. Emma does rule. That'll do it for this episode of dough boys until next time. For the spoon man, Mike Mitchell. I'm Nick Weigar. Happy eating.

See ya. Want more dough boys? Check out the dough scored or discord server. You get dough scored access plus the dough boys double when you join the platinum play club at patreon.com slash dough boys. That's patreon.com slash dough boys. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description.

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