Doughboys - California Pizza Kitchen with Eva Anderson

Episode Date: January 22, 2016

The Doughboys' first ever guest Eva Anderson (You're the Worst, Comedy Bang! Bang!) returns to talk CPK, the west coast pizzeria chain where she used to work. Plus, Eva, Mitch, and Wiger indulge in a sweet tooth edition of Snack or Wack.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beverly Hills, the Southern California enclave known for the outrageous opulence of its idle rich. In 1985, retired federal prosecutors Rick Rosenfeld and Larry Flax chose the world's most glamorous zip code as the location for their upscale pizza concept. To hit up their kitchen, they poached chef Ed LaDue, the star pizza chef from another Beverly Hills institution, Wolfgang Puck's Spago. LaDue's flair for innovation included using then unheard of toppings, like jerk chicken and barbecue sauce, and cooking his creations in a wood-burning oven.

The distinctively left-coast personal pies were a hit, and Rosenfeld and Flax Pizzeria expanded to two dozen locations by 1992, leading to a series of acquisitions by Pepsi and multi-hyphenated private equity firms, which took the concept nationwide. Chef LaDue died in 2007, but his California-style pizza will live on, and the 200-plus standalone restaurants at Airport and Ballpark kiosks spread across North America. This week on Doe Boys, CPK, California Pizza Kitchen. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host.

Back in studio for 2016, Mike Mitchell, the Spoon Man. Hi, Mitch. That's right. I just want to say... Howdy-ho! ...to Spoon Nation. Also... What?

Okay! And isn't that special to the Monster Squad? And also, Nick, I just wanted to say to you, oh, god damn it. I'm really excited for whatever this is. I also just want to say one last thing to you, too. Back in studio, I am. So not worth it. Jesus.

Stewie! I like how you've got... There was a point when you were using audio clips for, isn't that special? And Mr. Hankey's signature Howdy-ho. And today you did impressions of those, but you still use audio clips for some of the other drops? I'm just... I'm confused at what you're doing right now.

Well, Weiger, if you listened, there's a new one today. And I thought you'd be all excited. You like new things to happen on the show, so I had a new drop. But instead, you said, so not worth it. Well, it was a direct slide at me, so... Now, if you want to get an inside scoop, or what the hell did I call them? Email me all those audio clips mashed into one. I'll give you a little shout-out.

Now, do you want people to take you saying Howdy-ho, or do you want them to use the original Mr. Hankey clip for some part? Oh, I do pretty well. It's up to them. They can do whatever they want. Use artistic license. Do whatever creation you want to do. I didn't know about Sheffla due.

It's already been a tough week. A lot of people have passed away in the last couple weeks. Well, this was 2007, so some time has passed. Still, it's news to me. His family has processed it by this point, but, of course, it's tragedy. He was very young, too. I didn't throw that in because I thought it was going to be too much of a downer up top. I mean, we were already talking about a man's death, but he was only 52, which is pretty young.

Well, you're right. That is a downer. I mean, he outlived you. By your estimates? Yeah, yeah. You're not going to make it there, but it's still very young. So, Mitch, you were in Quincy, Massachusetts for about a month and a half, two months. That's right.

You just got back by way of San Francisco sketch fest where you did some shows with the birthday boys. Oh, that's right. We killed it up there. Hey, all right. Congratulations. Glad to hear it. Did you have any good food in San Fran? Oh, baby.

Yeah, I did. Great. I went to Hog Island Oyster Company. That sounds fun. And it was really great. The guy working there, maybe I shouldn't say anything about it because he healed us up with a free sandwich. He was really cool. Whoa, boy.

I loved him. He was a great guy. From the Boston area. Gotcha. I mean, that's even saying too much, but great guy. We had an oyster po-boy. Ooh, yummy. Oysters and waffles.

What is that? Is that like a fried oyster and a waffle? Kind of like a chicken waffles? Yeah, kind of like chicken waffles. They do. So growing up, I had oysters and I didn't eat them much. My mom and sister loved oysters. My dad, too, I think.

And they would eat them at dinner and get really horny, but I would not. But I wouldn't eat any of them. And so I got older and then I was like, oh, I get it. I get oysters now. I actually don't think my dad ate them too much, but my mom and sister, too, this day, love them. And I started, I got it. Like, you know, it's all about putting the, what's it called, the Minionette sauce? Yeah, yeah.

And you're not supposed to chew them. You know, when you're a kid and you eat oysters, you think you're supposed to chew them up. Sure. But Hog Island does this thing. And I tried it in New Orleans for the first time at, Swan is in San Francisco, too, right? Oh, Neptune in New Orleans. Gotcha. They do the grilled oysters where they grill them and they put some sauce on it and some

cheese and stuff. And Hog Island did that. And man, grilled oysters are so good. I hadn't had grilled them. I hadn't had grilled oysters till a wedding we went to last year. You and I went to the same wedding in Mississippi. And them grilled oysters are yummy. Oh, boy, that's real good.

I'd always only had them raw or deep fried, but man, grilled. Like, if I could find a place that does them right around here, I'd be into that. Oh, yeah. I know. And I'm surprised I don't see it more often. Yeah. It's like, why don't a lot more places do? I mean, I think seafood options in LA, weirdly, there's not a, like, there are obviously,

there's obviously should be some, but like, I feel like you have to go to Malibu to get like a bunch of great seafood options. There's a lot of great sushi, which I think, you know, it's a different category of seafood, but there is a lot of great sushi, a lot of great Japanese restaurants in LA, but you're right, like kind of that, I think what you're talking about, that kind of East Coast place that's got a lighthouse on the logo, you know, that's that fish house. There really isn't that as much out here in LA. Yeah, I guess so.

I guess we don't have as many fish houses as you call it. I don't know. What do you call it? What do you call it there in Quincy? Definitely not a fish house. Whatever you call it, there's a sign outside that says, white's only. Oh my God. Dear God.

Jesus. You know what? I'm gonna throw rocks at my city when your favorite celebrity, Lights Camera Jackson, is saying that a woman can't do what she wants with her body and telling Amy Schumer that she sleeps around too much. Since the name Lights Camera Jackson was invoked, and I am a fan of Lights Camera Jackson. I follow him on Twitter. He follows me on Twitter.

We invited him to come on the podcast. The schedule didn't work out while he was in LA for the television critics awards. You could have stopped him. The course of history might have been changed just inadvertently if he had appeared on this podcast. Lights, if you're listening out there, we love you. But we have to talk about it. It's a topic.

Let's introduce our guest. Oh, by the way, Lights, is it weird that one of your biggest fans is a 40-year-old man? All right. Okay, I'm 35. Close enough. You're right. It is functionally 40. In the eyes of a teenager, I am basically the same as a 40-year-old man.

All right, let's introduce our guest. You heard her voice just a second ago. A writer for You're the Worst and Comedy Bang Bang, as well as a former employee of this week's restaurant, The Great, The Hilarious, and our very first guest returning on the podcast, Eva Anderson. Hi, Eva. Hi, guys. Thanks so much for coming back.

We're so thrilled to have you. Oh, I'm so excited to be back. Our first guest coming back for our last episode. I mean, I went back and listened to our first episode, and it was so different, guys. There was no Spoon Nation. That's true. Oh, man. That came about, I think, around episode 10 or 11.

Yeah. I don't remember a time before Spoon. No, there's no Spoon Man. And most importantly, you guys were like friends. Yeah, I was a little less combative. You were very friendly. Mitch, you were very deferential. You didn't want to, like, step it on your toes.

And you guys were just pals. And it was like it took, I think it was Jack showed up and just it all just went to shit. Yeah. One episode later. Which was episode two with Jack Allison, your roommate. You're now ex-rubemate. He did. He moved out.

He moved out. But yeah, he came in here and stirred things up. But yeah, I think also, I think we were always ready to rumble. I think we were a little uneasy in that first episode. I think you were there to guide us through it. But yeah, I think it was our pilot. We were like, oh, we'll see if there's going to be a podcast or not. You know, and that kind of unease.

I feel like it was kind of around us. And then some time passed. And frankly, we just spent some more time together. And things got a little, turned into a little bit more of a battle. I'd say that the show has arguably gotten worse since the first episode. Yeah, I think it's less listenable. I think that's definitely the case. I think you begin and you're alienated initially because you don't know what's going on.

Oh, I do want to give a shout out to the, you reminded me, Spoon Nation, who were up in San Francisco this weekend. Oh, you got some Spoon Nation fans. Some Doughboyz fans came out to the Birthday Boyz show. Yeah, I mean, they might have just been Birthday Boyz fans. Well, I thought about it. I think Dave Ferguson actually said, hey, Spoon Nation is here and maybe no one said anything.

If any of you were up there, good for you. Yeah, that's good. Eva, real quick. Yes. So the Lights Camera Jackson social media controversy, Lights Camera Jackson, the kid critic, 17 years old, made an off-color joke directed at the very famous, very relevant comedian, Abie Schumer. She tweeted back at him and he apologized.

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, I feel like it's settled law at this point. It's like he apologized, she accepted his apology, I feel like it's fine. But what was your take on the whole brouhaha? If you're willing to comment. Oh, I mean, I thought it was probably a joke he shouldn't have made. Sure. He didn't know. Well, yeah, you're not supposed to tell a woman she's a slut even if she jokes about it.

Sure. But he doesn't know that because he's a 17-year-old kid. But then he maybe shouldn't be making dirty little jokes. Yeah, maybe that's a larger lesson. Yeah, it was a bad joke. I thought she was a little hard on him because I think he sees her making those jokes and he thinks he can do it too. But she also must get that so much, you know what I mean?

Yeah, for sure. And that probably leads to that kind of reaction. I don't know. I mean, has he died? Was he scared to death as well? No, he's back. He's tweeting up a storm. And are you still his ghostwriter or did he fire you?

I would be honored to write material for Lights Cabaret Jackson. I haven't had the privilege yet. As far as I'm concerned, the batter's settled. It seems like everyone's happy. I'm just glad we can put this chapter behind us. But let's talk a little bit more about food, which is why we're here. And also, we had, I think we began the podcast last week by talking with Jeff Dutton from The Birthday Boys about the Force Awakens for about 40 minutes.

So since this isn't, we are blatant nerds, but this isn't a nerd podcast. Let's get to the food a little bit. So you were on the first episode of Doe Boys, the pilot way back when it must have been like May of 2015, whenever we recorded that. Our first restaurant, which we reviewed, was Chili's. Have you returned to Chili's, Eva? I have. And it was an event.

It was interesting. I didn't go to that Chili's, but I went to Cuba a few months after we recorded. And on the way back from Cuba, all my flights got canceled. And my friend Amy Nicholson, who's a fan of the podcast, both got stuck in the, sorry, the Mexico City Airport for like six or seven hours. And the best restaurant there is the Chili's. So you went to a Chili's too in Mexico City? Yeah, but it's not even a Chili's too.

Oh, it's a straight up Chili's. It's a straight up Chili's and we have like a full menu and it's like a very good Chili's. It's better than the one in Tarzana. And it's in the terminal? Yeah, it's in the terminal. And so the menu is the menu in the Mexican Chili's, the Mexico City Airport Chili's, Mexican full Chili's, I guess. Is it any different than the U.S. menu?

No, it was all the same stuff. Yeah, but it was like just very good and not crazy expensive. And we sat there for, I think, four hours because we just didn't know where else to go. So we just kept ordering random Chili's things or like weird drinks and we loved it. Any standouts? I think I got one of the weird mixed drinks. Sure. I can't remember everything we got because it was a while ago.

But yeah, I was really happy to be back. It was just kind of a nice beacon. Also, Cuba, amazing country, wonderful to visit, but the food is very bad there. Oh, interesting. Oh, really? Yeah, very bad. Did you have a Cubano? No, they don't have those.

A lot of the things that we think are Cuban food are actually Cuban American food. Oh, gosh. In Cuba, they don't have enough any stuff to make food with. They don't have any ingredients. So they just kind of, there's like a very limited number of things that you can get. Because that Cuban sandwich is like the, I guess, that's a Cubano. Cubano I also know is a cigar. Yeah, there's a sandwich.

It's like, I think that was, that's more of a Miami Cuban. Gotcha. You know. That was the expats who crafted that. Yeah. But in Cuba, they have the embargo. They can't get all the necessary food stuff. So they're limited in terms of their menu options.

Yeah. That's an interesting thing that I would not expect. I would be going to Cuba thinking like, oh, this is going to be like a Caribbean wonderland of great cuisine. And to hear that it's not is really interesting. Yeah, it's actually really, it's interesting when you do get good food. Oh, there's these places called Palladars, which are restaurants that are like privately run. And they're just really, really hard to get into because there's very few of them.

And it's, they're always full. But when you do get good food, a lot of times it's like locked in time from when the, when there was like good, there were good chefs. Gotcha. So basically like we got, one place we went, we got lobster cooked in like coffee and cream. And it was like a very weird Julia child sort of dish. And you'll occasionally encounter that kind of food that is like very 40s, 50s kind of food. Yeah.

But other than that, it's just like rice and beans and, and mostly it's just like the rum is really good. So you just drink rum all the time. Gotcha. My buddy, Micas, a Quincy friend went to, went to Cuba as well. And he said it was, he said, I want to go. And he, like you, he went before, you know, things are about to change, I feel like over there. And he said that he went to a casino and it was just like empty and there was dust on everything. And there was still just like a man behind the bar, like still working at the bar because,

you know, you have to, he had to do his job. Yeah. And he came back with a, he snuck back a bottle of rum. Oh, Havana Club. Yeah. So good. We went to the aquarium, which was looked like it had been built the same year as Disneyland. It looked just like Disneyland, but like there was just sort of no one working there.

And it was parts of it were falling down. And there was a guy who just reached into the turtle tank and just grabbed one of the turtles and started messing with it. And like, nobody was like, hey, stop it. Cause there's nobody was like a patron. Yeah. Just like a dude was like, haha. And then there was a dolphin show and you could go into this. There was like a little dolphin restaurant where you could be,

you could see the dolphins swim by underwater, but they only had like two things you could get off the menu. That's sort of like they, everybody's at a menu, but they didn't really have anything on it. Oh man. Ice cream was good though. We got a lot of ice cream. I went as a kid. I had this similar experience to your aquarium visit. And I guess this isn't, this isn't that macabre when you contrast like the food they serve at like SeaWorld.

But for me, it was like very stunning is that we went to the Cayman Islands for some reason. We took a vacation, a family vacation there. And they, we went to like a turtle preserve and I love turtles so much. I thought it was so cool. There were like little turtles and terrapins and tortoises as far as the eye could see. And but you go and you visit, you see all these turtles and then you go to the food stand at the, near the entrance and they're serving like turtle dishes. Like turtle soup. Like turtle soup.

And it was just like, oh man, that was such a weird, for like an eight year old kid to see that and directly connect. Like, and then it was just like, are they harvesting these turtles? They probably were, right? These probably just were these turtles that were, they were allegedly going to preserve and then they had to put one down and then they're just like, all right, throw it on the menu. But it's just so weird. Oh man. How much turtle meat did you suck at? I've never eaten turtle.

I would eat turtle now, but as a kid, I don't think I could stomach it. That doesn't seem like the best. It's like, that's not the best scenario to eat turtle for the first time is when you just saw a cute turtle. Yeah, yeah. Especially, I mean, the idea too. I'm more upset about this. Them serving the old turtle. Old turtle.

I mean, like, that's the saddest way for a turtle who is a performer to go out. Yeah. It's not a fucking turtle circus. They're not doing tricks. What if it's not the old turtle? What if they don't want to serve the old turtle? So they serve the like, the youngest, strongest, like best turtle. They have a turtle contest to see which is the best turtle and then that turtle wins.

And then that becomes the soup. It's like, they don't, they are not doing what you think. Yeah. And Wiger's cheers helped them decide which turtle to kill. Yeah. It was the one you loved the most. Eva, your mind is twisted. Little Wiger's a tortoise boy.

I did. I love turtles. I love them as a kid. Oh, I never knew this about you. You know what it was? I think it was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Association. They get abstracted to all turtles. We had a pet turtle named Chip because she had a little chip in her shell.

Oh. Yeah. What was like, it was a little cute little chip. It was like, it wasn't like a substantial chip. It wasn't like her carapace had this big gash in it. It was just like a little, a little chip. Yeah. It was a little chip in the end.

The more interesting facts were your serial killer page in 20 years from now. He loves turtles. He chipped. He chipped, chipped. Did you, do you like Master of Disguise? Oh, the Dana Carvey vehicle. Yeah. Where he plays the turtle, it goes to the turtle club.

I've never seen that film all the way through. That was the most famous line I remember from the trailer. The turtle, turtle. Am I not turtle enough for the turtle club? That's it. And he also dresses up as George W. Bush, I believe. That entire turtle scene is available on YouTube and I watched it like a month ago. There's a, there's a fact, and I might mangle this a little bit, but there's a fact about

the film Master of Disguise on its IMDB page, which is that photography was occurring on September 11th, 2001. Oh my God. And when they learned of the attacks on set, they observed a moment of silence. Oh my God. And then just went back to work. Yeah. So just have that in mind as you're doing this film.

It's ironic the site that you read these facts on is going to be your future serial killer site too. I don't think they're going to put that on IMDB. Do you know that, um, I think that's one of those movies that's like 84 minutes long. Oh yeah. Like with slow credits. It's super short. And then it's like, and then it's got like, like long credits.

And then at the end of credit, the credits, there's like an end credit scene where it's like Dana Carvey like, like, what are you still doing here? And again, I've never seen this entire movie. I've just seen like little chunks of it. I won't have any of this. Dana Carvey was a guest on the birthday boy show. Oh, he's so funny on birthday boys. Dana Carvey is great.

He's a great performer. He's great. He came out of the car and he started doing George, uh, George, uh, HW Bush as soon as he got out of his car. It was great. I had the privilege, yeah, go on. Oh, he just mentioned, he mentioned Master of Disguise and he said, he was like, not the best movie, but there was, uh, there was great makeup, uh, in that movie.

He was talking about the, the, the makeup department and he was being really nice about it. He's a nice guy. He's like a lovely man. I'm sorry. I had the privilege of meeting him once. He was extremely funny. He had a whole conference room in an uproar for like a full half hour. It was a, it was a delight.

I'm not disparaging Dana Carvey, one of the premier comedic talents of his generation, but it's a weird movie. Hey, I feel like I'm, it's not good. I'm skewing this podcast negative. No way. No, this is great. This is, we're getting at the truth. Truth in comedy.

That's our goal. Okay. No, this podcast is already, it's already in the negative. It's nothing you can do. So, let's talk about the California pizza kitchen through the prism of you worked there and you mentioned this and I didn't know this about you when you were on our first episode, the Chili's episode. Right.

That you used to be a California pizza kitchen. Was it server? Yeah. First a host and then a server. Host and then a server. How did you get your foot in the door there and which California pizza kitchen were you working at? I, okay, it was a summer job.

One of my friends had gone to work at one of the other ones. Basically, I just really wanted to work in a restaurant because it just seemed like fun and you got food and ... Yeah, there's a nice camaraderie, I feel like, between people who work as the staff in a restaurant. Yeah. If Dane Cook's waiting has taught us anything except everyone gets along well there and yeah, it seems like, I never worked in one, so it seems like a fun place to work.

Well, I think I just submitted it. I think I just submitted online, did I submit an application or did I go in? But it was the Wells Fargo Center, which is on Hope Street in downtown LA. I believe it's one of the original restaurants. It's actually inside an office building. Okay. Basically, at the time, it was 2001. It was kind of the revitalization of downtown.

What that area was, they actually had even built Disney Hall yet. Oh, wow. During the day, it would be an insane rush of just the people who worked in the office building going to lunch. Then dinner would be pretty slow unless it was people who were going to see a play at the Mark Taper Forum. Gotcha. Or an opera, but for the most part because they didn't have all these other ... Now there's

the Getty, and I'm not the Getty, I'm the Brode, and there's the Red Cat, and there's a bunch more spaces there that people can go to. Plus, there's just more stuff going on downtown. Anyway, so I applied, and I think I went in for some group interviews. I got hired as a host. Then I had to do, I think, two weeks of training. Training was very extensive to work at California Pizza Kitchen at the time. To give us an idea, was this at ... When did it start again, did you say the first CPK?

It was 1985 when it was founded, and then it really started to get going in like 92. But there were a few dozen locations scattered across California in the 80s and 90s. This was like I feel like peak California Pizza Kitchen. Okay, sure. Because it was still ... The idea of carboloading was still happening. Yeah, and this is a thing I think, maybe if you're younger out there, you may not remember where we're such a carb-conscious culture in terms of health food now. But there was a time when it was like pasta was healthy, and it was just like the idea

was that you want to eat a low-fat diet, but load up on grains. Wait a minute, that was proven not to be true? I'm still living my life that way. I do remember, carboloading was a weird thing. You were doing that before, like you do that before like a fun run, or before like a ... We used to ride bike races with my dad, and we'd carboload up the night before. It was really weird. Isn't that still ... Can't you still ... If you're like ... Don't athletes still eat?

I don't know. Are there no more pasta nights? I feel ... I thought that athletes still do kind of ... Maybe like elite athletes, but not ... I don't think it's recommended for most sort of ... Fat, terrible football players in high school. Yeah. When I was working there, there was like the night before the LA Marathon, there would just be like these running groups would buy out the entire restaurant and just carboload.

Oh, wow. Yeah. But ... Oh, yeah. So I do two weeks of training, and it included watching all these videos, and I remember one of them was like defining the concept of what they thought California meant. And for them, California meant as a concept like androgyny and a smooth sort of like attitude. Like they would give us fetuses sort of. Oh, and in one of them, one of the founders, the former prosecutors said, we are the pied

pipers of pizza. What does that mean? I don't know. Oh my God. That's so cryptic and alarming. Yeah. So we watched all these videos, and then I was a host, and I mentioned this last time I was here that while I was a host, I pulled out a chair out from under a woman who was

holding a baby and she fell on the ground. Yes. That's right. And I also didn't wash my shirt or iron it, and my boss Tom covered for me for all of these things and that when Tom got fired for showing up with a cigarette behind his ear, kind of a little drunk, he ... I quit because I knew that there was no way I would survive without Tom like constantly protecting me. You stood with Tom.

I stood with Tom, yeah. From all accounts, this alcoholic man. He wasn't ... He was not his shift. He just stopped by the restaurant to say hi, and he had a cigarette behind his ear and he was a little tipsy. It was the story. But I guess corporate had had it with Tom at that point. He'd been around, he'd been in the system for a long time, and so they fired him.

They were looking for a reason. Yeah, yeah. Do you know where Tom is now? Well, actually, I emailed Tom. Oh my God. Tom's my Facebook friend. Oh, wow. And I asked him if he had any memories, and he gave me some.

So I have them. That sounds like I set you up, but I truly did not know that you emailed Tom. Yeah, neither of us knew that. Yeah, so I have some stuff ... Yeah, should I read these now? Yeah, I think so. Let's get into them. Okay. Some of Tom's thoughts.

Some of Tom's thoughts. Tom's very funny. So one thing is, one thing I didn't mention was that when I was a host, there was a girl that I would host with. I'm not going to say her name, and I'll explain why in a second. And she was very kind of sullen, and she was, I think, in her early 20s. And all she did was she would save her money, and then she would take a bus to Laughlin of Nevada, and gamble, and lose all of her money, and just have enough money to take

the bus back. And then she'd come back, and that was her favorite thing to do, and she would tell me about that. Oh, God. And I was like, oh, boy, that's really ... Yeah, you have her email for me. A future Mrs. Mitchell. So she'd been there for a long time, and I was hosting with her, and we'd stand next

to each other all day long. And then one day, she quit or moved to somewhere else and vanished. And so it was her last day, she left, and then one of the waiters was like, oh, my God, she's gone. I'm so glad I don't have to have conversations with her about how she is giving blowjobs and jerking people off at the restaurant all the time. Oh, no. And I was like, what?

And they're like, yeah, her whole thing is that she's just always jerking off the bus boys, and her purse is just full of tiny lubes, and she'll offer to jerk you off, and then if you say no, she'll show you the tiny lubes. And that was the thing, and apparently she talked to every single person at the restaurant about it all day long except me. She never said a word to me about it, even though I was standing next to her. And you kept asking, why are all the bus boys smiling so much? She was so happy.

Yeah, and it was a point where people were sick of hearing about it, but I didn't know. So wait, did she do this for money, or she just did ... No. She wanted to jerk everybody off? Yeah. And she'd go into the parking garage and do it. Was it just bus boys? Yeah, bus boys and kitchen staff.

Wow. So she had some sort of ... It seems like some sort of compulsion is going on. Yeah. She has to take these depressing trips to Laughlin, and then she has to jerk off every kitchen worker at CBK. There's something going on there psychologically, right? Oh, no, I think she was fine. Oh, she was, yeah, she was fine, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So one of ... How come she didn't tell you about it? I know. I was like, what's wrong with me? I got really hurt. I was like, why didn't she tell me that? Why is she telling everyone else but me? And they were like, well, they probably thought ... Somebody said, she thought you were too

innocent and she didn't want to corrupt you, and I was like, fuck you. I've had sex before. I wanted to have any conversation with this woman. She wouldn't talk to me all day, anyway. She probably thought she had a real scam going, and she didn't want to let you in on it. That was going to get in on her hand job bracket that I just started giving free hand jobs? Yeah, I don't know how much of a scam that is. So here's a couple of things that Tom remembered.

He said the hand job hostess was also known to do a two-on-one and with two cooks in one car, so they'd sit next to each other and she'd sit in between them and ... Oh, boy. What the fuck? Where have I been working all these years? I fired a male employee who snuck into the ladies room, hid in the stall, and peeked through the crack as a female employee was getting dressed for work. Oh, Jesus Christ.

He's like, I fired a male employee who dropped his comb so we could peek up the skirt of a woman on a pay phone. He fired a hostess who was passing counterfeit $100 bills to the waiters during lunch. Look, at some point, Tom, these are the right fires to make, but at some point you have to think through your hiring decisions. I know. You've just got this roster of perverts and thieves who are consistently on the payroll. You just got to have stricter standards in your interviews.

What the hell was going on at this place? I know. It was so crazy. Here's one. Oh, Ben Falcone worked there. It was married to ... Oh, wow. There you go. Oh, wow.

After many weeks of being sequestered, Judge Edo allowed the OJ jurors to go to dinner. They came to our CPK. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, these are good things, guys. That would have been, so he'd worked there a while, because that would have been, what, 1994? Yeah, he'd been there a long time. Earlier than that even, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it's around there, yeah. That's cool. The told jury came. Yeah. That's awesome. He got to see the jury. He said that what he used to say about my uniform shirt was, I think Eva actually crumples

up her shirt at night and uses it as a pillow. He said, I remember you telling me about having bedbugs and throwing your mattress away. You were the first person I knew who had bedbugs. To this day, bedbugs makes me think of you. Wow. Yeah, so Tom shared a bunch of things. It was nice. What's Tom up to now?

Tom is, I think he's an interior designer, and he lives in upstate New York. Oh. And he's a successful business. Got out of the restaurant industry. He left the industry and he's a happy dude. Good for you, Tom. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Tom.

Tom, thanks so much for sharing. If by any chance you're listening to the Doughboys podcast, we appreciate your insights being shared through your conduit, Eva. So what is the, here's my question for you. All these dark and disturbing things are coming through Tom. Was there anything else, anything that you observed personally? Oh, like the darkness of the restaurant? I don't think that anything is that much darker than any restaurant.

Gotcha. I feel like every restaurant's probably full of weird stuff. I did tell you about there's the guy who was always had eyedrops in his apron so he could poison people. Oh, that's right. That was creepy. This was in our first episode. Yeah.

But other than that, I liked working there. I had fun. I mean, other than the only real bad thing that happened was what I did when I made that woman fall down. Oh, yeah. And her baby as well. But it was a sunny, it was a nice place to work. I liked it.

There was a reason I worked there as long as I did because it was a fun environment. Plus, at the time, I was doing this guy who didn't have a job and I would bring home my shift meal and he would eat half of it. And so I was kind of like feeding both of us. He was the one that dragged the bed with the bed bugs in from the alley. Oh, man. A true winner. If you're listening, Travis, your life's going great now and I'm not making fun of

you. Travis Barker. Yeah, Travis Barker from Blink 182. Anyway, so I really liked working there and... 182 being the number of bed bugs he has in all times. Yeah. So, yeah, it was actually a really fun place to work and that specific location, you know, it's still kicking around.

Still going strong. That area is revitalized now. Downtown is thriving. It is thriving. Like when, yeah, it was, oh, the one other thing Tom said was that back then it was scary to walk from your car to work and that one server found a dead body. Oh, my God. Man, LA was definitely, that was a different time.

That's for sure. Yeah. Downtown LA was a crazy, was definitely crazy when I worked there. And you, this was a, because USC, your alma mater was there and so I assumed that's what had to do with the proximity to that location personally. Yeah. Because I was, yeah, I was close to work. Gotcha.

I was close to where I lived, which was by campus. Gotcha. So, let's talk about the food of California Pizza Kitchen. For sure. Certainly pizza is right there in the name. I imagine you consumed your share of shift meals while you were working there. What do you think of CPK, like as a, evaluating it not as an employee, but as like a patron as someone who was just consuming their food?

I think their food's pretty good. It's funny. I went back there this week. I went to the OG. I went to my location and ate. And I think that their pizza is still very good. They do a good pizza crust and they, they're good at desserts. They have good, yeah, it was like, I think it's like as chain restaurants go, even though

I ate so much of it in 2001 and two, I think it's, it's still up there for me. I think it's pretty tasty. And they're very good of like, they've kind of evolved with the times in a good way. Now they have like a lot of small plates and like proteins and you're not just stuck to like pasta and pizza anymore. They've kind of noticed trends and adapted them in a way that feels like, like they're, they're very clever. And I feel like that's why they're still kicking around.

Yeah. They've certainly gotten to, I feel like they've kind of broadened their market a bit because I remember when I would go, and this would probably, this would have been the 1990 around the time of the OJ trial, but it's completely unrelated, the, the 94 to 96 range somewhere in there. My brother was in college at UC San Diego. We would go down there to visit him and like a nice upscale place we would go to was the California pizza kitchen.

There were probably about 12 of them total around then and maybe a few more, but it was like, it was like, it was a little bit nicer of a concept than it is now, unless I'm misremembering it. And then I remember they didn't have the, right nowadays you can go in there and you can get like a more conventional option like a, you know, pepperoni or a sausage or a Hawaiian. For a time they just had their weird pizzas. You could only get like their, you know, their duck pate pizza or their, you know, tricolor salad pizza.

They only had their weird ones and they just like weren't willing to really make a bunch of substitutions to accommodate some of the more conventional chase as they've expanded. They've kind of broadened their menu, I think, to be more accepting to people or maybe a little bit choosier or have a different expectation for what they're going to get in terms of pizza. But yeah, it is, it certainly has evolved with the times. You're right about that, Mitch, what is your experience and what is your background with the California pizza?

Oh, you want the East Coast perspective. Yeah. Well, I remember California Pizza Kitchen coming, it moved into my dad's office building and he worked in the transportation building in Boston. That's right, I remember this now. Yeah, he worked in the MBTA, for the MBTA there for years. And I remember when it first came and I was like, oh, California Pizza Kitchen's coming and I was young, but I don't feel like I was like really young.

I was probably like 13 or something, maybe like around there, 13, maybe 14. But at that point, and I do think the world has changed, like California, I mean it was like, to me at that point, it was like going to Ireland or it was going to like another world at that point in time. And I know that that sounds crazy. Have you ever been? What's that? Had you been to California?

I'd never been to California. I came to California for the first time when I moved here. That was my first trip. So yeah, I'd never been, I'd never been, I'd been to Vegas when I was younger, when I was in middle school. But I never, I never went to California. I thought California was all like Florida, I didn't know too much about it. I just didn't, I didn't know anything about it.

Geographically, you mean you thought that's where California was? What the, you sick fuck. So no, I mean, you know, I thought it was like, I went and visited Universal Studios in Florida. I thought the temperature was the same, I just thought it was like over on another, like and if I had like the same conditions, like it felt the same as Florida. But it's quite a bit different. Oh, it's very, very different.

It's not tropical. It's like, it's quite a bit different. It's kind of, yeah. And it's a desert and kind of shitty, you can be shitty, but I do like it. But so California Pizza Kitchen was this big thing. And I remember my dad being like, I don't think you'll like it because there's like kind of different pizzas. And to me, that was like, oh, it's this California thing.

It's like, oh, wow, like this California thing, it's different and, but I loved pizza. I was such a pizza kid, I just wanted to try it. And I remember being underwhelmed when I first had it because it's the smaller pizza, you know, it's like individual pizzas. And that was, that was like a new thing for the time, like that you used to not get like an individual pizza. I feel like they really, they maybe not weren't the place that invented that, but they really took that mainstream.

Yeah. And I feel like at the time it was like, you couldn't get a cheese pizza like you were saying, it was like a margarita or something like that was the thing I ordered that was close to it. Or like, you know, like the tricolory or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just kind of like, oh, weird, California is weird and it's kind of like a, what's the

right word for it? Kind of like foofy, does that make sense? Yeah, Mitch, that's the right word for it. How dare you. Is foofy? Is foofy, is foofy a derogatory term or no? I don't think so. It's just weird.

It's just, it was just like, like you said, like duck pâté and shit, like just these weird, these, this weird stuff that I never would have put on pizza. But then they had frozen variety too. I remember that happened even before I come out here and I'd get a couple of those and I never loved the frozen pizzas either because it would be like chunks of tomato. Yeah. And it just wasn't what pizza was. It's its own thing.

And I imagine too, like as a Boston guy, you know, not the, it's not the premier pizza town, but you got a pizza in Boston, but you've got like good, like more authentic, more conventional pizza compared to something that's like, this is like this Beverly Hills. It's a mainstream attempt at like a kind of a, I don't know how to say the word, is it hot cuisine, hot cuisine, H-A-U-T, that's the word I'm trying to say. Whatever that word, however you pronounce that word, it's an attempt at that kind of like upscale cuisine to bring that to the masses. So I could totally see how that would be alienating.

And so I moved out, I moved out here and I, you know, I would have it occasionally, but I didn't love it. And then when I moved out here and I started working at the Simpsons is when I started going to California Pizza Kitchen a bunch for just to get them lunches and it was like a place I would choose just because it was like easier and they actually do have healthy options. So the thing with them is like some of their healthy options are still terrible for you, but then also they have some tasty stuff that's not bad for you. And I was trying to eat well at the time and that kind of gave me an appreciation for it.

It wasn't so much of the pizza, but like some of their salads that I got that I loved and their split pea soup wasn't too bad and that was really great. And then I tried the Buffalo Chicken Pizza again out here and I loved, I thought the Buffalo Chicken Pizza was really great. And I feel like it was like not too many people did a Buffalo Chicken Pizza like that. At the first time I tried it where they like drizzled the ranch across it. I feel like Buffalo Chicken Pizza is now such a normal thing and everywhere has it. Yeah, it was Jeff Dutton, our previous guest, our last episode, we did the last meal segment

with him. He said Buffalo Chicken Pizza is what he'd want to eat if he was about to be executed. Yeah. Which to me is an insane choice, but it's kind of gotten that mainstream now, I guess. Yeah. And I feel like they were one of the first places for me that I remembered like, oh, Buffalo Chicken Pizza, like where it felt, it was like not really, even still when I eat there, it doesn't really feel like pizza, if that makes sense.

Sure. Yeah, I got it. Like it is pizza, but it's not pizza. It's its own thing. Just like how there's a place called Pizzeria Mozza out here. It's similar to that in some ways. So I grew to appreciate California Pizza Kitchen. I know that they do have tasty dishes, though their pizza isn't a thing that I just don't

love their pizza. Like it's not going to be my first choice, but I don't think it's bad by any means. Yeah. But it's just not pizza to me. But I agree with you. You made a side point a few minutes ago that I strongly agree with good salads, good soups. And I think like, I think, yeah, if I am looking to eat healthy and I want to go out and get a bite to eat with my wife, we'll go to like a California Pizza Kitchen sometimes because

we know we can each get a good substantial entree salad that'll fill you up and that is, you know, not going to be overwhelming. You can, they don't have, they're not necessarily salads that are loaded with sugar and carbs. They do have some of those, but not all of them. And you know, you can get a little glass of wine and a salad and have a pretty healthy night out on the town. And I do appreciate that about California Pizza Kitchen. Eva, let's get to your bill a little bit and we'll get to all of our bills.

So you went recently and remind me again, which location you went to. I went to the Wells Frog, the one I worked at. Oh, you went to that same location. Great. So, did you see the OJ jury? Yeah. But here, I saw, well, I saw a bus boy that I worked with. Oh, he's still there.

Yeah. But he was one, he was an old bus boy. Gotcha. He didn't get hand jobs. He was like a sweet, one time he told me that before, he was like, every night before you go to sleep, drink one beer, one Corona. That's interesting advice. Yeah, he gave me that advice.

Anyway, he was there working when I walked in. I didn't say hi to him because it's been like 10 years. Yeah, sure. I wonder what, I wonder why that is. Maybe it helps you sleep better having one beer. I don't know. I feel like, I was like, this is advice from a grown up. I should, maybe I should do this at the time and I was like, no.

Were you underage? Yeah. I would assume that his thinking is because I have a lot of sleep problems and I find that alcohol, yeah, it can knock you out if you drink in excess, but drinking a little bit will just kind of turn your brain off. Yeah. So maybe that's his thing. Maybe it's just kind of like a little sleep aid.

I wasn't having trouble sleeping. Well, then I don't know. I don't know why. I don't, he just offered me this just out of nowhere. Oh, maybe it works for Corona. Maybe it was really for Corona. Oh yeah. So I went there on Monday and I ordered, okay, so I ordered, I wanted to order some stuff

I hadn't ever seen before. Sure. So I ordered, they have a scampi zucchini fettuccine, that's a light, it's mostly zucchini noodles. Gotcha. And then some fettuccine, the shrimp. And I ordered a Siciliano thin crust pizza and to drink, I had a Moscow mule. What did you have that Siciliano thin crust pizza, was that the name of the variety?

Were there any particular toppings on that? Yeah, that was like, it was like a spicy tomato sauce and mozzarella and I think it's like a spicy salami. Gotcha. Like a thin, like a mortadella, there was a couple like thin sliced meats. And that thin crust is fairly new. They used to only have their conventional crust. When I worked there, they had a couple thin crusts.

Okay, then I'm completely right. The margarita. But this was one I hadn't seen before and it was, it's great, actually the thin crust is really good there because they get a real char on it and it's good. It's like, it's not the sort of puffy sort of crust that the normal pizza has. Yeah, the nice thing about dining in at the California Pizza Kitchen is that getting that pizza out of that, that, I don't know if they're all wood burning oven still, but getting whatever that pizza oven they have, they have a good pizza oven there and you

get it nice and hot and then that crust is at a good temperature and I think that's a good experience. So I definitely think like of just having that oven there is something in its favor, you know? For sure. What did you think of the, so take a side and buy them in terms of what you thought? The Moscow Mule came in a nice copper cup and it was good. It was like a little spicier than I would expect from a chain of ginger beer, it had a little

kick to it. Yeah, coincidentally, I also got the Moscow Mule just because it's just purely coincidentally. It came with gray goose vodka, fresh ginger, ginger beer and agave sour that was the ingredient list on the menu. And yeah, it is new. It has a little new check mark. Comes in that copper mug, which I like, which you mentioned. For me, not as boozy as I like.

I feel like it was like a little bit, you know, a little bit more ginger, a little bit less vodka and I feel like we're kind of in a, I don't know if this is everywhere, but we're kind of in like a Moscow Mule time, right? And like in the same way the old fashioned a few years ago, everyone was doing an old fashion. Now I feel like that Moscow Mule is coming about. So, but it was a pretty good execution by chain restaurant standards. I think you're right.

I don't think any cocktail at a chain restaurant ever lives up to as much alcohol as I would like. Sure. They're programmed to not do that unless you order like a Long Island iced tea or something. I'm content if it's just not overly sweet, you know, because some of these places you just get the sugar loaded cocktail that's just too much for me, you know, I'd rather just drink a beer at that point. This was not overly sweet.

And like you were saying, it had that nice ginger burn, that nice little kick to it. But yeah, maybe a little bit more booze would have been nice. And then, yeah, and then the pasta, the scampi, zucchini, lungvini or fettuccine, it was, that was pretty good. Definitely very light and the had very beautiful little shrimp on it. I wasn't crazy about the seasoning. I felt like it was maybe a little under seasoned, but it was a lighter pasta dish. I think it was like a perfectly fine pick.

And then the pizza was fantastic and I took the rest of it home to my roommates and they loved it too. Hey, that's awesome. You should have shipped it to Travis. Oh, poor Travis. Do you think this, this girl who gave hand jobs and would take trips to Laughlin, do you think she is still alive? Oh my God.

Tom says she's on Facebook. Wow. There she goes. Oh boy. Okay. All right. All right. Good to know.

Good for her. I looked like I could find her. So, yeah. You know, did you guys read talking, you mentioned the shrimp scampi, did you guys see that article like a little, a little while ago, it might have been The Guardian, but was just talking about how the horrific conditions of people, the shrimp slaves, the shrimp slaves in Thailand, I believe. I totally forgot about shrimp slaves when I ordered shrimp.

Yeah. It's a lot of like, I think it's a lot of immigrants and refugees from Myanmar and they get basically corralled into working, processing shrimp or working on shrimp boats for no pay and with a threat of death if they try to leave. It's like crazy and that's just like most of the world shrimp comes through this horrific process. I find myself thinking about that every time that there's shrimp on the menu. Not that it stops me, but I do think about it for a second.

A slave peeled this. Yeah. Yeah. It's really crazy. Yeah. I should have thought about that when I ordered shrimp. Well, I'm not trying to shame you. No, it's true.

But then there was another article from two years ago about how like that's what all of our vegetables are like that too in Mexico. Sure. Like tomatoes and stuff. I feel that way on Doughboys. You feel like a slave? That can't leave because I'll be killed by Wyger. That's awful.

We've talked about this a lot on the show and that's tough. That's a tough thing to hear. I mean, what do you do at that point? I don't know. I mean, I give up personally, but what are we going to say? Jesus Christ. He's a give up. He's eating all the shrimp.

I don't know. I know. I truly don't know what to do. I mean, let's fix it somebody. I hope someone fixes it. Hey, Mitch, fix it. Oh, God. You're the one that has to fix it.

Now I'm going to make a documentary, which I'll be killed. They'll recover the documentary and make a movie out of that. I mean, I didn't know that because, you know, I come from Massachusetts and I felt like so much of the shrimp was caught up in that area, and I didn't realize. I think if you go to like a place that has good fresh fish, a fish house, if you will, and you're getting like local caught, then you're fine. It's the places that have like, it's the chains, and it's like the grocery stores that sell like the 500 count frozen shrimps by bulk, you know?

I think it's that's the shrimp that they're getting super duper cheap, and they're using that in terms of exploiting labor so horrifically. Oh, man. Yeah. That's awful. Let's talk about more about the meals we ate. Yeah, what'd you guys have? Mitch, what did you get at the California Pizza Kitchen?

Well, I got for a drink, a fresh strawberry mango cooler, which is a non-alcoholic drink. And I remember that they kind of like did like a bunch of different lemonade at CPK for a while. That's when I was working over the Simpsons, and I think I actually went and ate there one time with someone to like grab a lunch and I got one of those lemonade and they're tasty. And I've always found the service to be good at CPK even. So hats off to you and Tom, is it, because when I worked over the Simpsons, even if they would mess stuff up, they'd be there helping you out, and that's for like 40 writers or

whatever. But I got a fresh strawberry mango cooler. It was good. The guy offered to refill it with fresco, which kind of gave away some of its secrets, I feel like. Yeah. And then I feel like it was just fresco with strawberry and I think there wasn't even any mango I saw.

In fact, much like Star Wars, The Force Awakens in Constable Zuvio, the mango was missing on my book. Jesus. Who's Constable Zuvio? Well, exactly. Exactly. Who the hell is he? I haven't been talking about him a lot.

Constable Zuvio, there was a toy made and there was a novella written about him, and then he was available, he was in the press materials, there's stills of Constable Zuvio. So apparently, Constable Zuvio's scene was shot on Jakku and was cut from the final film. There's not a frame of Zuvio. There's no Zuvio. What's his deal? We'll never know, but he was one of the things going into the movie that people knew about. It was one of the few things we knew about.

If you go, they're Constable Zuvio unsold action figures on shelves because no one who knows who he is. He has no connection to the franchise. I heard someone tried to say, a few people tried to say like, hey, Constable Zuvio is in the movie, in the forceback sequence where the Knights of Wren- Did you just call it the forceback sequence? Yes, it's the forceback because it's the force invokes that you can't quite tell if it's a flashback or a flash forward.

I think it's a fine terminology if you look on the Star Wars Reddit. I'm going to go forceback to how shitty that movie is. People say the term forceback. Anyway, in that sequence, whatever you want to call it, where you see Kylo Ren in the Knights of Wren and Agent Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, there is a guy with a hat similar to Constable Zuvio, but has been confirmed that is not Constable Zuvio. It is not Constable Zuvio. He is not in the movie.

Yep. Who plays him? And that guy's like, he was like, I got an action figure. How devastating, right? I think it was JJ himself. Everyone's so excited. They're talking about me online. I'm me, Constable Zuvio.

I'll be the next C-3PO. I'll bring my kids to the premiere. That'd be depressing. I actually would have liked if Constable Zuvio did appear in the movie because it would have been a new alien creature instead of the guy that gives out portions. I like the portion guy. I think he's great. Oh, my God.

He's a lot of fun. I like the portion guy. The shrimp industry's fine. Wait a minute. It's Nick Liger. Imagine, I think, is it Unkar Platt? What's his name? Unkar Platt, yes.

This is a terrible name. Imagine if that guy was at Disneyland and you could go up there and he had a little stand and kids could dig around for artifacts and present them to him and he'd be like, what you brought me gives me, I can give you one quarter portion. I feel like that'd be a lot of fun. I wonder what would have a real hoot. Oh, my God. You've already zoomed forward to the unpopular Disneyland attraction where it's like, the

lines are too long for everything else, so it's like, okay, I guess we go to the portion guy. First of all, you got so excited describing this that you must have thought of this before. Well, maybe I want to be an Imagineer. Maybe that's a dream of mine. I've never seen you happier. And second of all, no, that sounds like, like Eva was saying, the shittiest part of the world, quarter portion and then he gives them a little bag of sand.

Is that what it is? They know it's going to be like a little piece of bread that they can make into like a big bread. It's like a quick bread. A quick bread. Oh, dear God. Joe Saunders liked the movie. My friend Joe Saunders, who was on the podcast, he liked Force Awakens.

Joe Saunders? Oh, God. Joe Saunders is the most of a man. He's afraid of everything. There are lots of good people with good taste who like the Force Awakens. I think you're the minority here, bitch. We've talked about this too much already. Okay.

Let's get back to what you were talking about. So I also got the Tortilla Spring Rolls and it came with a couple of options, Mediterranean Veggie and Baja Chicken were the two options I went with. You could also get Thai Chicken. The Baja Chicken, much like Constable Zubio in Star Wars of Force Awakens, was missing from the... There's no chicken? I just couldn't taste any.

They weren't bad. They weren't bad. The Mediterranean Veggie, it was wild mushrooms, eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onion, mozzarella, and parmesan served with marinara. So it was kind of like a veggie mozzarella stick in a lot of ways is what it felt like. It was okay. It wasn't great. It was kind of whatever.

And the Baja Chicken, Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar, corn, black beans, poblanos, red onions, and cilantro served with a house-made guac. And that one was a little bit better, but like I said, I couldn't really taste too much chicken in it. And at the same time, I also got the... Real quick, what was the texture like on those? Did they have a good Christmas to them, a good bite to them? They were a little mush, but there was a little bit mush going on.

But I will say the avocado club egg rolls, which I also got as an appetizer, were crispy. So you were describing spring rolls. I must have misheard you. Yeah, I was... Oh, so spring rolls should be a little bit mushy. That's my fault. I was into the tortilla spring rolls, but they were actually maybe... It could have used a little bit of a crisper outside for the tortilla.

The avocado club egg rolls, they're good. I feel like these are one of the stars, right, Eva? They're kind of like one of their appetizer stars. And they're pretty... You seem to be visibly shrugging. We didn't have them when I left there, so they're news to me. Okay. I thought that they were kind of one of the...

They might be. They might be now. So they're hand-wrapped, crispy wonton rolls filled with avocado chicken, tomato, Monterey Jack, and Applewood smoked bacon, served with house-made ranchito sauce and herb ranch. And... For anyone listening out there, Mitch had that memorized. God fucking dammit. It was like pressing his temples and scrunching his eyes real tight while he said it, too.

What the fuck, Eva? You two? Yeah. Those were better. And now you said that California Pizza Kitchen considers themselves the pied piper of pizza, right? Yeah. The men, the two prosecutors, federal prosecutors who started it, consider themselves the pied

piper of pizza. Well, I think I'm the pied piper of fat guys because friend of the podcast, Evan Susser, showed up and he wasn't going to show up and he showed up at the last minute to come and have a nice meal with me. And then out of the blue, Maddie Smith, another friend of the podcast, showed up and we were all sitting there, three fatso's, chomping away. And you know, we were enjoying ourselves. I love those guys and they're great people.

So I ordered the two appetizers and I just ordered one pizza and I was going to get the chipotle, the spicy chipotle chicken pizza. And then when Maddie showed up, I said, you know what, let's get the, let's toss on one of those garlic chicken pizzas for me, too. So we got the spicy chipotle pizza and the garlic chicken. The spicy chipotle was my attempt at trying to get the buffalo chicken pizza because that was my favorite at CBK. It's not as good.

It has like, you know, corn. Is that not on the menu anymore? I did not see it on the menu at the place I was at. So here's the description of it. Some like it hot. We like it hotter. Chipotle, adobo, sauce, shaved poblanos, Monterey Jack with house-made grosacorn and black bean salsa, cilantro and lime crema.

Did I say that correctly? Open your eyes again. Oh man. At two, Eva. I looked that up. The grosacorn and black bean salsa, I just don't, don't put, I don't know, don't put corn on a pizza. I mean, we are famously in a sketch where corn goes on a pizza, but corn's giving.

Famously. We were famously in that sketch. A staged sketch that was seen by probably a total of 400 people over the course of six performances. But we did it every year. Yeah, that's true. But in real life, you don't put, I don't think you put corn on a pizza. You do it in Japan.

It's big in Japan. You're right. Yeah. Man, I gotta tell you, the Japanese, they're wrong on this one. I don't like corn on the pizza and the black beans too. I mean, I get it. That's the thing with, like I said, it's not really pizza. They're trying to do something different.

They're trying to do something different. Yes, but it just doesn't work for me and I kind of was like, I was just okay on the garlic chicken pizza was a little bit better. Just a lot of garlic. Sure. They really loaded that thing up with garlic. It was split. I think Maddie liked the chipotle chicken better and Evan liked the garlic chicken better.

But we had a good time. They had a couple of diet pepsis and we talked and hung out and it was good to see those guys. I do like that, you know, pizza being pizza, if you are with a dining buddy or a few dining buddies, you can get a couple of pizzas and you can split them up and you can have a little bit of each. That's a nice thing. Even though they're personal portions, they're very shareable.

They're very shareable. Yes. If you want to say, say, if you just for yourself want to have one quarter portion. Oh my fucking god. You can do that. And then give the rest to your friend. That is fucking disgusting. My, you know, the pizza I used to really like there is the BLT pizza, which I think is really

good and you know, it's like bacon and tomato. It's got like a mayo sauce, which sounds weird, but it works really well. And then they put some fresh, some fresh iceberg lettuce, shredded iceberg lettuce on top of it. And it's just as like, it's like a really yummy, simple kind of pizza that you just can't get elsewhere. And that was one that was my go-to for a while. He used to also get the barbecue chicken pizza, which I think is like that was one of their

original signatures. That's a big one. Yeah. That's I think that I think that was the first thing I maybe ever tried from California Pizza Kitchen. I'm not a big barbecue. I love barbecue chicken when you're, when I'm going to eat barbecue, if that makes sense. But I don't like like the tang, like the, but I don't like barbecue wings.

I'll always get buffalo wings over barbecue wings and, and, and, and barbecue chicken on a pizza. It's like too much of that like sweet, like almost ketchupy sauce and I don't love it on a pizza either. What you're getting is you're getting grilled, like chicken breast meat with barbecue sauce. It's not barbecue chicken. Exactly. It's its own thing, you know.

Um, uh, if that takes you through your meal, bitch, I'll go through, but I discussed the Boscobe Yule, I gave my opinion on that, but that was my libation. I went on a Sunday afternoon by myself, sat at the counter at the Santa Monica, a CPK, the NFL games, the NFL playoff game was on the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks. I don't follow the NFL, but it was clearly some compelling action. And it did, it was nice to have it on the TV. You mentioned the service. I thought the service, every time I've been there, I feel like the service is good.

There are a few times I've been waiting a little while for someone to come by, but overall as a regular patron of the California pizza kitchen, I feel like they're always friendly and courteous. They help you out. One time at the Santa Monica location, our server told us this story, this, or this harrowing story of, they used to have curbside drop off at that location and, um, they discontinued it because, uh, someone was mad that their food took so long. So they took all the coax that they were, that they had been ordered and they dumped

them on the person who brought their food out to curbside. What? It's just like, that's so cool and so horrific. And I can't believe someone would mistreat an employee like that. Do you say so cool or so cruel? No, I said cruel. I didn't say cool. I don't think that's cool.

I think that's fucked up. I don't know why someone would do that. That's like a salt. It's so, yeah. It's so horrific. And then, uh, you know, like, but, but just like, you know, viewed through my experience with California Pizza Kitchen, mine's been so the opposite of everyone's just been so friendly that I don't see how someone could behave that way.

Um, uh, this was no exception. Guy was very friendly. He, he saw that I wanted to be, was by myself, was a sad man eating alone, want a little bit of space. He gave me that. Um, offer me some... Hey, y'all, did you, uh, let him know how high and mighty you are about not watching the NFL?

I don't watch NFL. I don't watch NFL. Okay, sir. There's a movie starring Will Smith called Concussion that talks about the, uh, consequences of this sport. This is the guy who just submitted to get L.A. Ram's season tickets. Oh, I'm back. I'm on the bandwagon now.

Now that L.A. Rams are back in town as a SoCal boy, I'm back and gonna watch the NFL. Starting next year. Are you gonna get season tickets? I'm on the waiting list. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Um, uh... W-E-I-G-H-D.

Yeah. Yeah. But that, as Maz Kanata said, is a story for another time. Oh, my God. Fucking dammit. Right now we're talking McAlvary Pizza Kitchen. I got some complimentary bread and olive oil. They used to have bread and butter.

I imagine they had that when you were there, right, Eva? Oh, yeah. We used to eat it, uh, all the time. Good bread and butter. I actually really liked it. Yeah. During our, um, if we were gonna split... If you worked a split shift, you would just eat, like, a giant pile of bread and butter,

and drink all, like, a ton of coffee and get really hype between your two chefs. It was... It was really good bread. The bread continues to be good, um, but now it's got olive oil for dipping, which is kind of... I mean, it's just a little different. I like that spreadable butter, but I get that it's more of an Italian bistro concept. Do you know what I like about the bread?

What? As Han Solo would say in Force Awakens. Chewy? It's chewy. Yeah. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, it is chewy. Yeah, he would say just that first word from that famous line.

Um, I also got the two-in-a-bowl soup. Uh, now you mentioned a little bit about how the wizardry involved in the two-in-a-bowl soup. Oh, yeah. I think last time here, but I'd like a refresher on how this works for our listeners. The two soups I got was I got the baked potato soup, which is a newer soup, basically like a... Kind of like similar to a potato leek soup, um, a little bit more of a savory umami character to it, some bacon bits on top that I found superfluous.

And the other half I got was the Sedona tortilla soup, which is a staple there. They've had that for years. I think that's just like a really good, uh, not an authentic Mexican tortilla soup, obviously, but like a good chain restaurant interpretation of that, um, a very filling, very satisfying. But, uh, real quick, how do they accomplish that two-in-a-bowl soup? They have two ladles, and you just pour them simultaneously on opposite sides from the inside out, and you kind of like roll the ladles out. So they just, they both go in, they're both thick soups.

Yeah. So if you hit, if they hit the same time, they don't cross over. It's much like Evan Susser thought there was a divider in the milkshakes at Shakespeare. Oh, yes. I think they probably do the same thing there. Yeah, it's the same principle. There's no divider. It's just, they just go right in.

Yeah. That's really interesting, but that, that's how that works. Um, it is a magic trick, and I like seeing that split bowl soup. I will order that even though I only want a cup worth of, of soup, I will go for that full, uh, that full soup just because I like to see that split. It's a real, real nice thing. And then for my entree, I got the, I didn't go pizza because I'm very familiar with their pizzas. I got a p, a pasta entree that I've gotten years past, the chicken tequila fettuccine,

which is a, one of their signature ones. We got chicken, creamy jalapeno lime sauce with spinach fettuccine, red onions, bell pepper, and cilantro. Um, so it's like a very creamy sauce, but not an overpoweringly creamy. It's not like an Alfredo, uh, and it's got this nice lime zing to it. I don't know, I find it a very satisfying dish. It's got like a really nice kind of, uh, Latin character to it. It feels very Californian, and I think like that's what they're trying to capture in the

concept. I feel like it, it comes across in some menu items stronger than others, but this is one where I feel like really is like, oh, this seems like a California pasta. This, this, I, I get that this was the kind of thing they were eating at a Beverly Hills bistro in, you know, the 1980s and the 1990s. And I think that really comes across. Um, yeah, overall a very satisfying meal, uh, kind of top to bottom. You're right that they seem to be experimenting with what's on their menu because they have

a bunch of do like, they have, you know, different salmon dishes and they have a bunch of like large plates, which are a little bit different. Um, and you know, like actually just like a, like a composed dish with kind of a protein and a side is a little divergent from, it feels like what they've had in years past, which has been a little more pizza pasta and salad focused. However, I think that they are all cooked in the wood burning oven, which is the thing that gives them some sort of unity with the concept of the restaurant. That makes sense.

Yeah. I do like the wood burning oven. I think that's, I think that's great. I love a place, a pizza place that has an actual wood burning stuff. I think so too. I like it too. So props to that. Yeah.

I agree with, I agree with your guys thoughts. And I think at this point we should give our summation of our assessment of the California pizza kitchen. So Eva, you were on the show before, you know how this works. We'll go around, we'll say, give our closing argument, if you will, much as they did in the OJ Simpson trial. Um, and then give your verdict on the order of one to five forks. So Eva, we'll start with you.

Um, I, uh, I have a lot of allegiance to California pizza kitchen. They hired me when I was just a scrappy, scrappy kid. The shaved head. Oh, wow. Shaved head. Yeah. Wow. That's part of that.

I think it. Bed bug reasons? No. But bed bug covered in bell, bed bug welts, an unwashed, an iron button up shirt, um, pulling chairs out. You also come from a great family. Just let the listeners know out there. Um, I had a good times there.

Um, and I, I think, I think the restaurant holds up at some place that I, I don't get excited to go there now, but, um, I'm glad it's still around. Um, it, and it rarely disappoints. Um, yes, California pizza kitchen. I give you three and a half forks, three and a half forks. Very respectable score. Uh, Mitch, the spoon man, your thoughts. Thank you.

The likes. Um, so like Eva said about Cuba, how it feels like it's stuck in the 40s or 50s. To me, California pizza kitchen feels like it's stuck in the 90s. I, it very much feels like they, they changed things up. There was a new look to the one I was at that they kind of redid the insides and, and from the last time I think I went there, but the basis of what it's what the, you know, like the, the restaurant basics are still kind of have that nineties vibe to me and things have changed.

Some of these toppings on pizza aren't that crazy anymore. And I just don't know where this restaurant stands in a world where there's pitfire pizza and other places like that. I grew to like California pizza kitchen much more than I enjoyed it when I was young. I still enjoyed it when I was younger, but it was one of those things like I like pizza, so I like this. So, but that, you know, it took me a while and there's a lot of great things you can get there.

Today, my meal was not that great. And for the most part, unless I'm eating healthy like that and like getting a salad and a soup, I probably don't want to go to California pizza kitchen and that along with the price. It just, it doesn't do it for me anymore. I would like to see where they would go with it. I think it's time for them to switch up their pizzas in a big way. I think that I think they have to do something. I think they have to do something differently.

And as you heard me ramble on earlier about the first time I tried it in my time in Boston and everything with it. If your pizza place, you need good pizza. It needs to be really good. California pizza kitchen pizza is just okay. I mean like, right? That's how it feels to me. So, in the words of my friend Unkar Platt, I give California pizza kitchen two and two quarter

functions. 2.25. No, no, two and a half, two and a half stars. Oh, two and two quarters. I reduced the fraction wrong. That's my fault. Here's the thing. I'm a California loyalist, border raises Southern California pizza kitchen.

I've witnessed its evolution over the years. Some might say a devolution as it's gone from a class year establishment to one that's a little bit more mainstream. I have enjoyed California pizza kitchen at its kiosk locations. In fact, I went to a Clippers game with Maddie Smith who you mentioned earlier is your dining compassion, Mitch. Compassion? Yeah, companion rather. I don't know why I threw compassion in there. You wish Wager.

And I had the California pizza kitchen at the Staples Center here in Los Angeles and it was a very good, fine, kiosk style pizza. The kind of thing you might expect better than stadium food quality. So there's something to be said for that. In their dining and restaurants, I like the dining experience. I like the service. I really do like the salads. I didn't get a salad on this trip. It's probably my most frequently ordered item there as an adult.

I think they have a range of good, tasty salads. Pizzas, I think, are good. I think they're unique. I think they're distinct. I think you might be right, Mitch, that they are in for a shake up. And, you know, I think for the pasta dishes, I think they're fine. I think, you know, the chicken tequila fettuccine is a standout. I don't know how to attack California pizza kitchen in terms of a visit there. I want to say try the pizzas because that's what it's all about.

But I think they've got a bunch of different stuff. I would say just kind of go with your gut. Don't get too crazy with the apps. I'd stick to safer stuff because I think they're experimenting a lot right now in terms of mixing up their menu and it's probably pretty hit and miss. But their soups are very solid. I would recommend a soup. Boy, in terms of ratings here, I mean, in the words of Kylo Ren,

I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Oh, Jesus. I think I have to go a little lower here than I was planning. Three and a half forks for California pizza kitchen. I wanted to go four, but I don't think I can put this up with the Golden Plate Club qualifiers. No way. I think it just needs a little bit of work to get there, although I do have a good experience there. All right.

That's California pizza kitchen. It's time for a regular segment. We're going to taste test the food stuff and determine if it's worth putting in your mouth. It's time for snack or whack. So this week, we have Mitch tell us, tell our listeners what we've got to eat. Dear God, these are called Cheetos Sweetos. And with most snacks, you know, if it's a rhyming name, it's got to be good. Cinnamon Sugar Puff Cheetos.

Chester Cheetah has a snow cap on and he's on a sled flying down a hill. So it looks like this is kind of like a Christmas or, you know, winter themed snack going on. Yeah. It's a sweet version of Cheetos, I assume, with a cheese puff quality. I actually haven't had these before. Let's go ahead and open that bag up. There's also winter white cheddar, it says, on the back for a little bit of time. Oh, okay.

So that's another winter flavor, but this is the Sweetos version. Let's go ahead and give these a, what do you smell in there? I will say, when I opened it up, I got like a whiff of like a churro. Okay. So. I imagine that's what they're going for. Yeah. These things, also to the, they're very tight little coils.

I'll give you some of these, Eva. They look very much like small onion rings. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. They look like those little BK onion rings and or they remind me almost of calamari. It's kind of like a little. Oh, that's awful to think of. Yeah.

It's a weird, it's a weird shape and size for a dessert. Let's go ahead and crunch on these. Boy, they're less sweet than I expected. Yeah. These are really, really weird. These are very light. Undeniably the texture of a Cheeto puff. It tastes like, you know, when you bite into a Cheeto and you get that orange dust flavor.

Yes. There's a similar thing with these, but it's like a butter flavor. You're right. It's a lot of butters coming through. It's kind of like, have you ever eaten cinnamon toast crunch out of the bag? Mm-hmm. Like that cereal, it kind of tastes like that to me. The closest thing I've had to just eating cinnamon toast crunch without the milk.

It's like, you're getting, you're getting a cinnamon. But yeah, you're getting a lot of that like weird like butter baked in. It's like an artificial butter flavor. They also remind me of cinnamon twists from Taco Bell. Oh yeah, yeah. Which aren't to me a great fast food dessert. I feel like that's a low tier fast food dessert. I can't imagine any scenario where anyone would want to eat these.

I mean, they're very weird. Like chowing down on a bag of these. I'm just not getting enough of the cinnamon. This is my issue with it as I have more of them. They're, it's so weird. It's such a weird sensation. I mean, you get the Cheetos logo, even though it says sweetos, you get Chester Cheeto, famously associated with, you know, it's not easy being cheesy.

That's his fucking catchphrase. Yeah, but now he's on a sled. Now he's on a sled. He's also, they've changed it about so nice, a British accent for some reason. Oh yeah. But it's so off-putting to see this thing and then to taste the texture of a Cheetos puff and for it to not taste savory, for it to taste sweet. But I don't know, it's kind of working for me.

It's working for you? It's like kind of like, I find myself, I like that they're very light and they kind of melt in your mouth. I like that it's a dessert that's not overpoweringly sweet. I don't know. I gotta say, it's kind of working for me too. Oh no. Want some more?

Have some more, Eva. Yeah, yeah, I like them. Oh guys, this is weird. It's really weird. I feel like I keep tasting cheese, even though I don't. Yeah. It's really strange. Yeah.

This is one of the snacks that I think people should go try because it's so strange. It's a bizarre experience. They are for a limited time only. So, you know, this isn't a branded Cheetos-Sweetos segment. But I mean, if you want to experience what we're experiencing, I don't know. I'd maybe get your hands on these. You know what? They're very strange.

They're getting under my skin. That's the thing. Like, I find myself, I keep putting my hand in to have more, partly because it's just so weird what I'm tasting. They feel like they'd be good stone or food. I think you're right about that. I'm voting snack. Snack for me.

Wow, hard out of the gate. It's a snack. I'm with you, Mitch. There's so many failures when we do this segment. Yeah. This is a rare one that I could see myself. If someone had a bag of these and were like, hey, you want some, I'd be like, man, fuck it, awesome, fucking Sweetos.

I might not buy them for myself, but you know what? They're pretty good. I vote snack. It's okay. Ava, what does your heart tell you? Yeah, go with your heart. Oh, man. Ah.

Fuck it. I'm saying snack. Oh, wow. I'm telling you guys. Wow. Hand-holding club. Do we give out the hand-holding club for snack or snack? Yeah, sure.

Why not? It's officially a snack. Officially a snack. This thing we've ever declared a snack. Snack. This is a fucking upset. Because I saw these, I showed these to you guys and you were like, before we started taping and you guys were like, oh boy.

And you were like, what the fuck is this? Yeah, they look like shit. They look fucking terrible. Chester Cheetah is being extra annoying on the bag. Like, everything about is off-putting and they somehow are just tasty. Yeah. They're really weird. And I still want more of them.

It's very strange. I feel like I taste cheese when I'm eating them. Yeah, and you've got like the cinnamon churro sort of residue on your fingertips. This whole thing is fucking me up. I feel like I'm in a dream. Anyways, that was Snacker Whack. Brought to you by Sweetos Cheetos. Um, yeah.

Boy, what a weird one. That's a weird one. That's a weird one. I can't get over that butter taste. I mean, I love butter. Also, let me clarify. We were doing a bit there. This is not a branded segment.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Doughboys can't be bought. Oh, Jesus Christ. If anyone wants to buy me out of Doughboys, please. I'll start a GoFundMe page to get me out of Doughboys. Hey Nick, I have a question. Yeah. Just real quick.

Yeah. If you really want to be an Imagineer, I want to know two other Star Wars, The Force Awakens, things that you would build at Disneyland. Okay, here's the thing. I'm not going to stick with the Star Wars limitation, though I think it is a good one, because I have one in my head. Do they let guys like you become Imagineers? Yeah.

They let 35-year-old men with no experience enter their internship. Part of it is that you have to have done... It helps if you've done some other interesting thing. Yeah. Well, I've done this and made a bunch of bad comedy videos. So, yeah, I'm qualified. I'm still eating the sweetos, by the way. Sorry.

They're fucking yummy. I might have some more after we wrap. Here's the thing. I'll pitch you one. So, in the interest of time, and I'm not going to look at myself to Star Wars, although I think it is a good exercise that you proposed. Disney should get their hands on the Lord of the Rings license. Build a Lord of the Rings land.

This is an unexploited property, and the most compelling cinematic sequence I've seen in the 2010s is the Dwarven Barrel Chase in the second Hobbit movie. I like that a lot, too. That's a great sequence. You propose a water ride that is the Dwarven Barrel Chase, where you get to go in and go to go on the adventure that Bambur and the gang get to go on when they're being chased by the villainous orcs or whatever it was. I don't fucking remember.

But it's really awesome. They're in barrels, and they're jaunty, and how cool would it be to be an individual barrel? You're going over Niagara Falls. It's not like a group water ride. It's like an individual barrel, and you get to bounce around, and maybe you're choosing your own adventure as you go, and there's some peril. Perhaps a lego loss, a little animatronic lego loss a la the jack sparrow from the Pirates

of the Caribbean appears, and whizzes an arrow over your head to nail in a warg on the other side of you. It's just, I mean, that's not to be a great adventure, and I feel like it would be a lot of fun, and I feel like there's nothing else like it. So I don't know. I feel like the Dwarven Barrel Chase from Hobbit 2 is the ride that I'd like to see. And maybe it's not Disney. I don't know.

Maybe it started somewhere else. Maybe it started Six Flags and it worked my way up. Or maybe that's a better fit for Nott's Berry Farm. I don't know who has the license, but Peter Jackson, if you're out there, make this ride happen. I can say I've never felt more sad for Natalie in my entire life. Is this the saddest? You sketching.

And then the legoist can shoot an arrow and save you from an orc. I want to go on it. That's fun. That was great. Thanks for doing my challenge, Nick. All right. Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback.

Today's email comes to us from Jeremy Chastine. Jeremy writes, Dear Doughboys, my brother and I just finished listening to the Five Guys episode. We were both very sad to hear you guys give Five Guys 3.5 forks. I'd like to lay out my argument as a formal complaint in three parts. First, you both said Five Guys has one of the best burgers, and the top five, I believe, one of you said. One Mitch, the fearless leader of Spoon Nation, admitted that their fries were better than

in and out. From that alone, it seems that it should have earned four forks or more. Second, you guys gave Fudruckers a very high rating, two fork reviews, and one five fork review from Weigher. Now, I think any sane person would have to admit that everything from the burger, the fries to the staff is better at Five Guys. Let's be honest, Fudruckers really isn't that good. And you all admitted that the high fork rating was partly due to nostalgia.

So nostalgia outweighs empirical evidence now. Also you all gave Steak and Shake a higher rating, other than the shakes, what is better at Steak and Shake? The fries? I think not. The burger? Undeadly no. But I digress.

Third, we are eating at Five Guys right now, and you guys are just wrong. The place is great. Their burgers are amazing, and their fries are pretty damn good too. Also, they are a well-ran company, consistently sticking to their guns, even telling the pentagon at one point to stick it because they don't deliver. In conclusion, from the above three points, I think it's worth considering your scores and perhaps amending them. This would be nothing new, see the Rocktoberfest episodes where restaurant scores were constantly

amended by Mitch. One final note, Five Guys has won many different top burger prizes. The one I'd like to mention is the Market Force Information Survey from 2012, where it came in at number one, beating you all as much beloved and much overrated in and out. Thanks, Jeremy. Wow. Spittin' fire there, Jeremy.

Is he and his brother two of the five guys? I appreciate the passion, even though we disagree. I appreciate the essay-length email. I don't know. I'm going to amend my score. Wow. Right now. Four forks.

I've thought about it anyways, and I swear to God I was thinking about this for... I told you, Nick, that I... Yeah, you told me you were thinking that you underrated it compared to Burger King, which you rated higher than Five Guys. Yes. Oh, no, I think I maybe rated Burger King. Or the same. The same.

I'm giving Five Guys four forks. Wow. But I'll say take it easy, buddy, because Fudruckers has a couple things going for it. It has burgers laid out for you. You don't have to make your burger yourself, which to me is an attraction. And I don't know, how was it price-wise? I feel like Five Guys is expensive, but Fudruckers is kind of expensive, too. I think they're about...

Honestly, in terms of price point, I think they're about it parity. I think they're... I don't think you're spending that much more at Fudruckers than you would be at Five Guys. But you know what? I stand by my rating of Fudruckers, too. I enjoyed Fudruckers, but I'm amending my score of Five Guys to four forks. I want a little harsh on it, but the thing is, is that the fries are better. I just wish they had consistent potatoes or whatever they were doing with the fries.

I just... It's going to change so much that they can change the score, and that kind of makes it go up in the air. But I'm going to change it before the burger is one of the best burgers. It's up there. It's definitely the top 10 burgers. It's a good burger. It's a good burger.

I didn't try a shake. It's a four-forker for me. I changed. I'm sticking by my three and a half. I think you make a good point there, Jeremy. I do think you're giving them a pass on the weird peanut thing, which is fine, but it's just like, what are you doing, Five Guys? But you know, here's the thing.

We're going to diverge in terms of opinions. That's the point of this thing. As far as your point about Fudruckers and in and out, it's okay if we like these different amounts, and certainly my having grown up on in and out burger and Fudruckers is going to color my opinion, and I think acknowledging that and being conscious of that, I don't know, that's part of our evaluation, because I'm going to have more of an attachment to going to one of these places, and I'm going to score it a little bit higher, because frankly, I have more fun in and out burger.

I like the burger more. I think the fries, I'll fucking take in and out fries over Five Guys fries. He's crying. I like them more. This is the thing. I just want, I like, this is, it's fine. We can, we can disagree. It's fine.

But Eva, I'm curious about your thoughts. You weren't, perhaps, did you listen to the Jefferson Dutton episode of Five Guys? So you have listened, you have heard that, you have heard our arguments in favor. What did Jeff score it by the way? Jeff also scored it three and a half. This wasn't a hand holding club. You pushed it out of the hand holding club with your four fork score, which I think is fine.

But Eva, have you been to Five Guys and do you have any thoughts on this chain? And honestly, I'll give you, I'll let you do it. If you have a fork rating, what would you give it? I've only gone once. I went up to one up in Valencia and I found it kind of basic. I was like, why is everybody talking, talking all this stuff about this Five Guys? Just a burger. I ate it.

Wow. I was like, pretty basic. Three forks. Whoa. Whoa. Lower than any of us. I know. I didn't, you didn't want this.

Jeremy, you got a new target in your crosshairs. What's up Jeremy? What's up? Three full portions. Can a man explain me, Jeremy? Oh boy. I sense another lights camera Jackson Amy Schumer showdown over this Five Guys review. Jeremy sounds like a gamer gator.

Oh boy. Hey, lay off the gamer gators. Lay off the gamer gators? They're my tribe. Oh no Mitch. Mitch, no. No. Spoon Nation and GamerGate have overlapped.

That's right. If you support Spoon Nation, you're also a gamer gator. Jesus. I don't know if I've told anyone that. If you want to tweet something at Mitch, use the hashtag GamerGate. No. Do not do that. Don't do that unless you want your week ruined.

Sorry, Jeremy. I don't really think you're a gamer gator. Jeremy, I admire that. I like the email. I like the spirit in you. I say it by everything I've said. He's in passion and he's invested in the podcast which I like. I care about food to an unreasonable degree, which is why all of us are here.

And just remember, old Spoon Man came around. All right. Eva Anderson, before we wrap up, I just want to thank you for being a part of this podcast from its creation, from its inception, from its infancy. If you weren't there to steward us through this struggle that was that first episode, we would have no episode. What are we up to now? 35, 34, whatever this is.

Yeah, a number that doesn't really matter to have our first guest back. Yeah. This arbitrary milestone we've reached. But thank you so much for being a part of this podcast for the beginning. Thank you for volunteering your time and your insight into the California Pizza Kitchen and returning to us tonight. Do you have anything that you would like to plug or promote? Watch You're the Worst on Hulu, on FX Now, and New Season will be in the fall.

Awesome. So you can catch up on Season 1 and 2. Season 1 and 2 now, and Season 3 will be out in the fall. Is there going to be some good molasses boy in the next season of the show? Molasses boy is Alan McLeod. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I forgot. Alan McLeod from You're the Worst, because he ran so slow when he was on the football

team that they nicknamed him Molasses Boy. I believe so, yes. Yes, I think that's the origin of his nickname. Yes. Okay, great. Alan will continue to be on the show. We got to get him on here at some point, too. We love Alan.

We'd love to have Alan on. If you out there have a question or comment about the World of Chain Restaurants, you can email us at doboyspodcasts at gmail.com. Check out our Facebook page, Do Boys. Follow us on Twitter, at Do Boys Pod. And that'll do it for this episode of Do Boys. Until next time, for Mike Mitchell, the Spoon Man, I'm Nick Weiger. Happy eating.

See ya.