Doughboys - Fazoli's with Mitra Jouhari

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

Mitra Jouhari (Big Mouth, Three Busy Debras) joins the 'boys to discuss her love for Dominos and the quality of Wendy's fries before a review of Fazoli's. Plus, a special Italian edition of A Single Item Must Be Banished. Sources for this week's intro: https://www.lexingtoncorporatehousing.com/a-quick-history-of-lexington-kentucky/ https://www.nps.gov/subjects/americanrevolution/timeline.htm#:~:text=Timeline%20of%20the%20Revolution%201%20Leadin%20To%20War%3A,Aftermath%3A%201782%20to%201787%20Loyalists%20Leave%20America%20 https://www.foodwellsaid.com/fazolis-menuprices/#:~:text=History%20OF%20Fazoli%E2%80%99s.%20The%20first%20restaurant%20opened%20in,Inc.%2C%20which%20is%20also%20based%20in%20Lexington%2C%20Kentucky https://fazolis.com/our-company https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/fat-brands-completes-130m-purchasefazolis#:~:text=The%20deal%2C%20first%20announced%20early,Pizza%20parent%20Global%20Franchise%20Group.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up, everybody? It's your boy, The Spoon Man, and I want to talk to you about today's sponsor, UberEats. At UberEats, we've helped more than 400,000 restaurants across the U.S. reach new, hungry customers and deliver growth quickly through new orders. Uber's global platform can help you grow, reach new people, get valuable sales data, and unlock ways to expand with flexible delivery options. Put your business on UberEats. Get access to the UberEats platform, including valuable sales data to grow your business.

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Coming up today, that link that you want to click on is down there in the episode description. Right down there. Check it out. There it is. Move your cursor. Go ahead and click, or if you're on your phone, use your finger and click that link. Click that link in the episode description. The horse capital of the world.

That's the slogan for Lexington, Kentucky. A city that dates back to the 18th century when it was part of the Virginia Territory and originally named for the battle that incited the Revolutionary War that would birth these United States. This thoroughly American city has a thoroughly American quality. It's the home territory of two chain restaurants, A&W, a burgers and root beer joint that's been one-opt by its independent Canadian counterpart, and an Italian-American fast casual concept that emphasizes the fast casual.

Though Italian food may seem an unlikely fit for the Commonwealth of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Fried Chicken, the chain certainly found its fans among value-conscious bluegrass staters. Contra's sit-down chain approximations of white tablecloth trattorias like Olive Gardener Magianos, the Lexington Ravioli store focuses on counter service and speed, and even sports a drive-through window for grab-and-go spaghetti and slices. In December 2021, restaurant businesses Heather Lally reported that the pizza pasta outlet would be acquired by Fat Brands, which manages oversized LA burger and sandwich outlets Fat

Burger and Fat Sal's, respectively. And today, with 200-plus locations, while Italian's custom to the real thing may consider its offerings fugazi, given its popularity with yanks familiar with the Italian-American approximation of Italian dishes, Lexington might consider renaming the horse capital of the world, the sauce capital of the world. This week on Doe Boys, Fazzoles. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, live-action Winnie-the-Pooh with no need for a cock sock.

The Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. Well, Winnie-the-Pooh doesn't have a reason for a cock sock, right? There you go. You'd be perfect casting. That was from Jake, roastspoonman at gmail.com. Thanks a lot, Jake. Wags, how you doing? What is a bear's situation down there, because I don't know if I've ever seen a bear's hog.

Oh, the huge. Who's this new character? The guy who likes Bear Dick, I guess. Oh, the huge, the huge down there, the huge. What about Grizzlies? What's going on with the Grizzly Bear? Oh, let me tell you, the huge. Kind of a little bit like Cajun guy.

You've been up to the North of the Arctic Circle, seen a polar bear? What's going on there? Yeah, well, you know, up in the Arctic Circle, you know, it's really cold up there, but guess what? Right, yeah. Polar bears, they're huge. Put this on your reel. This is great.

Wags, a lot of failures, you know, tech failures, body failures for me. Body failures. I mean, like my, I'm just hurting. I went and saw Dave Matthews last night with Jordan, with everyone there had never seen them live before and many didn't care. Right. Like not DMB, you didn't go with your hardcore DMB fan buddies. These were, these were noobs.

These were noobs. Yeah. Yep. Um, but, uh, but a fun time was had, was had, but we had a good time. Came back here. I ordered Domino's for everybody. What do you think of that? It was fun.

It was great. Guess is pumping her fist. That's great. That's a crowd polizer. Like a, like a being at a Domino's rave is basically what our guest was doing. I got Mitch, we got Natalie and I got McDonald's for dinner last night. It was fucking terrific. Wow.

It was like, this is fucking, we're just having, we're like, this is so fucking good. We're just so happy. That rules. Sometimes it just hits just, just perfectly. Um, yeah, no. It's one of the, I mean, I've said this before when we talked about Taco Bell being one of the best restaurants. McDonald's is up there too.

Right? Yeah. I mean, come on. McDonald's is great. They've been doing a good job lately. Past a smog check. Whikes. Brought my car and got a smog check.

Past it. Nice. Pretty exciting. Right? Yeah. I mean, you know, you could probably, well, I feel like your, your decent Ultima is getting up there in the years. I mean, I guess it's good.

You're getting a lot of, I got a lot of use out of it. Yeah. I've only had two cars ever in my entire life. Amazing. Only two. Two, two Ultimas really. Um, that's it. That's it.

Two Ultimas. Uh, past the smog check. When you were younger, did anyone ever give you an oil change? Did that ever happen to you? Or check your oil, I should say. You mean this is not, not in terms of, you don't mean like for an auto, an auto mechanic doing it at like the Jiffy loom. You mean like the, the boys locker room prank of someone like.

My sister's, my sister's friends always did it to me. Wait, really? Yeah. You're like teen girls, like poking your butthole. Yeah. They'd be like, Mike, how's your oil? And they'd like put their finger in my butt. This is some twisted Quincy shit.

This is a regionalism. This didn't happen to you. No, they don't do that out West. We don't do that in New Hampshire either. I don't know what you're talking about. This is, this is localized on Mitch's sister's friends. They'd be like, Mikey, how's your oil? And they'd put their finger in their butt and that didn't happen to you?

How old were you? I was probably like a teenager, so they were, and my sister's like four years old than me. So I was probably like 16 or 17. Your sister now a principal, by the way. So, I wasn't saying that. My sister didn't do it to me to be clear. Sister would never do it to me.

But her friends, the herd, we call them the herd. My sister's friends, my group of friends, they were loud and made a lot of noise wherever they went. So we called them the herd, but she, and there was a couple that did it to, you know, were pretty cute and it was, I was, I was fine with it. Your upbringing is fascinating. Walk away with a little boner. Yeah.

I mean, I'm shocked that you didn't, I'm shocked that this is just me. No, I've heard of this. I've heard of this. I, you know, if it would have happened to me, it would have happened to me in Boy Scouts, but it never happened. I just, I think it was more of like a thing of, oh yeah, that's a thing that's done, but I just never actually observed it. Yeah.

Well, guess what? Maybe I'll check your oil next time I see you. Oh boy. New Patreon tier. You're just going to have a big smile and say, keep it in. Okay. Here we go. I got a little drop.

Here we go. Embarrassed that I shared my oil changing store over my checking your oil store. I thought it was more of a widespread thing, but. No, it's, I think it is a thing. I think I like, I've heard the term. I understood the context. I just like, I've never, I didn't personally experienced it. I always heard of like, it was like a thing.

It was like ookey cookie. It was like that level of like, oh, a thing that's talked about, but people don't know it. They don't actually do it. By the way, it'll be over pants, by the way. Yeah, I got you. But you know what I mean? Sometimes it would like, you know, it would make you jump or whatever.

Anyway, all right. I should stop talking about it. Here we go. Wax. Here is a little drop. Here we go. I thought it was tasty. It was, it was strange, but it was, I liked it.

It was strange, and I liked it. It was strange, and I like it. Wow. It was, it was strange. It was strange. It's pretty good. It was, it was, it was strange. I agree.

I liked it. Weird, wild stuff. Strange, but I like it. Kind of sums up the, check your oil story. Uh. Hey, I have a question before we introduce ourselves. For a, for Bear Hog guy, you ever check a bear's oil? Yeah.

You know what? Guess what? Guess what? When you check a bear's oil, you know you put your finger in there and guess what? What? They're huge. I guess bears have big buttholes, I guess. Yeah, I guess so.

Big animals. Hey, everyone, much like Cobb's watermelon shake, Mitch was referencing. Doughboys is sometimes strange, but I like it. Chris Finke. We like Finke. He does a good job. Thanks, Finke. Good job.

He's kind of, well, you gotta give Finke, he's kind of like the, like a, look, can never, the drop king won his crown, but I don't know what we can call Finke. He's a guy who, uh, he's a drop master. Yeah. He's in, he's in line for the throne. He's part of succession. Okay. He's like, when, when, you know, in Queen Elizabeth died and they were doing all the family trees

and showing that like, you know, this, this cousin of, of, uh, Sarah Ferguson is like 11th in line. That's like where Finke is. So does that make Prince, uh, who's it now? Prince Willie? Is it Prince Willie? It's who's, who's, what's his name? King Charles.

King Charles. Charles. Charles Charles. I like the old shit who's king now. Yeah. King Charles. Uh, so drop king is unfortunately is King Charles basically. I guess so.

It's rough. Sorry. Sorry DK. Well, yeah, he's in line for succession. Does a great job. Let's get introduced. Our guest. No more oil checking talkwags.

None of this bear bullshit. Let's put that behind us. Let's introduce our guest. Very, very, very, very thrilled to have her. An actor, writer, comedian from Big Mouth and three busy Debra's. Mitra Johari is here. Hi Mitra. Hello.

Hi. Hey. Thank you for being here and for not leaving in the first five or so minutes here where it was a pleasure. When you ran through all of my favorite restaurants and a matter of sentences. Wow. I'm a Domino's queen. I love your Domino's queen.

I love Domino's. I love Domino's. I love Domino's. It is really, it's a huge part of my life. Domino's is great. I love Domino's. Well, I mean, I was just going to say, why is that? We say this on the podcast, but Domino's is, you know, like, I love pizza, but sometimes

you want Domino's. You know, like, 100%. It's not pizza. It's Domino's. Yes. Yes. It's perfect. It's perfect.

Because sometimes I want to go to like a fancy pizza place or whatever and have like a nice culinary experience. And sometimes I want to lay in my bed with a big, big Domino's pizza all for myself. I'm very possessive of Domino's too. Like when my boyfriend, I will order it, we have to each get our own pizza. I don't want to share. I don't want to like see him taking the pieces that I want. And I don't really feel that way about food normally, but Domino's is like a really emotional

experience. I agree with that. I, not surprisingly, I do feel that way about food. And Nick, I'm sure you do too, where I, it's just that sort of thing of like, come on, we're all adults here. Let's order, we can order two pizzas. We can, you know, we can, if you need something or look, or we're going to get, we can get a larger size pizza.

A thing that drives me nuts is people who are always like, we should maybe go smaller. It's like, no, I don't need, don't do that to me. Yes. Or get your own fries. We'll split fries. No, that drives me crazy. I'll take a taste of your thing. No.

Let's happily get another thing. Because then I'm going to watch you take the best fries. And you're, and I'm going to be mad. Yes. Let's just get our own. And then we don't have to be mad at each other. 100%. Specifically with pizza though.

Like, like you have a little bit too much pizza. That's no problem at all. Cause you know what? Like it makes the best leftovers. Fucking pizza. It's no problem. It's no problem at all. So yeah, go big with your order.

But I'm curious, Mitra, as a Domino's regular, so you're getting a pie for yourself. That's all for you. What are you getting on that pie? I usually will go cheese and onions on my Domino's thin crust pizza. It's a little sweet. I love it. And I get a large cheese and onion, extra cheese pizza, thin crust with a, with a diet poke, and then sometimes I'll get some wings depending on how hungry I am, but I keep it

pretty simple. I love it. Yeah. That thin crust, that's the, that's the grid cut. Yes. And sometimes I get like the, the regular two, like I, I, I will just get like the regular hand toss, but the, I've really been digging the thin crust lately. I don't know why.

I think it's just like that crunch is so nice. They've really done an amazing job. It's so satisfying. 100%. Thin crust does a thing to her. It's, it's like, it makes you feel a little less of a guilty pleasure. I mean, it's still pizza, but you're like, you're getting, you're, you know, like the thin crust is comparatively, Nick, just like calories wise, it is, it is, it is less.

So it does make you feel a little bit better. Look, I'm not, people online are going to be like, Mitch thinks Domino's is healthy. And I'm like, that's not the truth. It is. I think it's very good for me. It is. It's, it's, it's, if you need it, it is very good for you. I, I, I'm with you.

I will, and I have my order and it's close to yours. I'll do a thin crust with a, I'll do half pepperoni and then half sausage and onion. I think the onion is, is really great on that thing crust. And sometimes I just go onion, onion all over that thing. And then Nick, you know, I do, I do the, the, the pan as well. I like the, the Domino's pan has become kind of like, it's, it's basically like, it reminds me a little bit of what pizza huts used to be. I mean, sure.

The way pizza hut was with their pan pizza, when you went in back in the day into the restaurant, it was, it was the tops, but. I don't love the pan. You don't love the pan. No, I don't love the pan. I think just because I love the thin crust and the hand toss so much that the pan doesn't scratch the itch in the same way. Like to me, the pan is like, it's trying to be another restaurant's pizza.

And the hand and the thin crust are like quintessential Domino. Yeah. No, I, you're a hundred percent right. And I think that that thin crust is weirdly is so quintessential Domino. It's like, I am like, oh yeah, this is like. Love the thin crust. Yeah. This papery, like crackery.

Thin crust is great. And when the piece of pie reward hits, nothing better. Nothing better in the world. I think I'm really close. I think I'm at like 50 right now. So I, I'm about to make my way through another cycle. I'm going to, I'm going to look right now myself to see where my points are. Cause I ordered last night, which is also kind of good.

You know, you order up a bunch of pizza for people. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the thing. It's just like, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the thing. It's just like, you'll, most people, unless it's unless you're a total snob, people aren't going to object to Domino's.

I will always do two pies and not that there's necessarily one designated for each of us, but it just lets us get two different types. And thin crust is always one of those, but I'll throw a curveball at you. This is one of the things they added to the menu as a special, like 10 years ago, and then it just became a regular part of the menu. Try out that Brooklyn style crust, which is like, it's like a, a midpoint between the thin crust and the, uh, uh, their standard crust. And it's just, it's like, it's like big and thin.

The Brooklyn crust. Yeah. The Brooklyn crust. Yeah. Try that Brooklyn style. I got it last night. I got the pepperoni Brooklyn last night. I went, I kind of went rogue last night.

All right. I'm going to just tell you my order last night because I, I, uh, look, I had guests coming over. I was like, I don't know what to get here. I knew they all ate meat. How many guests did you have? Uh, me, Max mayor, Jack Allison, Jordan Morris, Mookie. Suss.

That was fucking suicide squad. I did what it was. We could close down a restaurant. That's what I used to call my sister. I called her the closer at the end of meals. She come in and collect like a baseball picture. She'll hate that. I told that story, but it's the truth.

Uh, and now I close out basically every meal. Um, but, uh, I, I, I did, uh, so I just kind of was like, we were walking out of the Hollywood bowl, the beautiful Hollywood bowl. Um, so wave goodbye to Dave Matthews. And, uh, I was on my, I was on the app ordering, ordering, ordering that pizzas up. And I was like, I don't really know what anyone wants. So I got wise.

I got a Brooklyn style pepperoni, like the, the, the, like, yeah, the, whatever the, the, the, the, the God, like the pepper, like the, it's the pepper extra, extra Gansa or something like that. I don't know what that is. I'm just trying to think what the fuck it was their current special. It's just like one of like the, like the prepared pizza specials with maybe, maybe with all the pies, but it was the Brooklyn style pepperoni. And then I got a pan, um, sausage, onion, and, uh, what are the spicy

banana peppers? So that was, those were the two pizzas. And then I just went on a whim and I hadn't done these before. I got the, uh, the bread and the, and like the garlic bread and the cheese dip. You know how they have cheese dip now? Yes. How was it?

It was a huge hit. Like we loved it. People were like, this is like phenomenal. Everyone loved the cheese. It was so, it was so, it's like disgusting. It's like a bowl of melted cheese. Great. And, and you just, and you know, you just dip the knots into it.

Yeah. But man, it, it, it, it was a huge success. It was a huge winner. I also got 16 wings. Yeah. Um, and it's all gone. We, we, we, we, we ate it all last night. Um, and Max mayor, Max mayor wasn't, he wasn't, he wasn't, he didn't

have any of the dominoes and, but the rest of us, we, we, we took it down. It was, it was, it was great. Wow. It was great. A great capper to the night. Oof. Now I want dominoes again. I know.

I mean, I think I'm going to get it tonight. So good. It's, it's real fucking good. Oh. Meature, you mentioned wings. Like what, what do you, what spice level do you go with, with, with a wing? What's your favorite wing sauce? Uh, like medium.

I'll go with like classic buffalo. Uh, I really wasn't a wing girl. Uh, until like moving to LA and then I started eating a lot more wings. Cause my boyfriend really likes to go to Hooters. Which we've, we're in discussions already to, to, we're going to make a Hooters episode happen. And I saw you, I didn't see him, but I was, I was with a group of people and they, they told me that he was at E rustic just before I got in there or maybe while I was

there and great, great LA, great LA wings. Really good wings and Hooters too. Really good wings. I don't love the domino wings, but like they'll sort of get the job done. I feel. Yeah. The domino's wings aren't, aren't great. And also last night they were like a little wet.

Like I wish that they, uh, like I was like this, the order came so incredibly fast, which sometimes it does happen with dominoes where I, we got out of the bowl and I got home and we got out of the bowl like very fast, weirdly. And I got home and, and, uh, they, they, like the food came like within a minute of me being home. So I was like, they didn't bake the wings long enough. It was like, the wings were like, the wings were a little wet. They were like a little, you know, they were just a little wet.

They can be a little soggy with it. Sometimes soggy. Definitely run into that. How's this comparison? Let me, I'm just, this is just off the dome. So I don't know if this is going anywhere. I think that domino's wings are kind of like Wendy's fries in the sense of, you know, wings, a company pizza in the way that fries a company burgers.

Like there's just kind of that expectation where it's like, it's not always great, but you kind of got to get it. And so, and I feel the same sort of way about domino's wings, which sometimes can hit, but so they're, they're, you know, they're a little inconsistent. And, you know, Wendy's fries, certainly we're talking about with our buddy, Dano, this morning, Mitch, about how, how Wendy's is kind of fallen off a cliff recently, but certainly they're, they're, they're fries are a weak spot. I always want Wendy's to be better than it is.

I always think it's going to be better than it is. Yeah. Yeah. I love, I, Wendy's is like Wags nose. This is, I mean, it also holds. I love Wendy's too. I love Wendy's. It had fallen off a bit, which is the sad thing, but I'll get it still sometime.

I mean, obviously I still get it. Also, what losers we are that before our podcast recorded, we were chatting about Wendy's on texting. What else are you going to talk about? Enjoy. Thank you. I mean, we're just, we're fucking losers, but Wendy's has fallen off a cliff.

They changed their fries up. A part of me is just like, Wags, I've said it before, but like the old Wendy's fries, I thought were great. But I found out that in different parts of the country, Wendy's, like in Massachusetts, Wendy's was like one that was just usually very, it was like the quality was usually really good. And then I, you know, like some people that we talked to who like live in the south and stuff is like Wendy's is like the one that could be like really bad. And that was, I didn't know, I didn't, I didn't have that experience.

So, so, you know, growing up, it was like, if you want to go to like the good one, you want to Wendy's. And that was like always like felt fresh and clean. And maybe it was just a well-managed Wendy's. Who knows. I do think it was like branded for a while as kind of being like the fresh alternative too though. I feel like I remember growing up and being like Wendy's is clean or whatever. Like Wendy's is healthy.

Like Wendy's fries aren't as gross as the McDonald's fries, but like also not as good, I feel. But I think they had lemonade, which was a huge selling point and like the good lemonade. Yeah, it felt, it felt very much like almost like a, like Knott's Berry farm in a way or whatever. You can get a baked potato and like a, there's lettuce and tomato. Like we have fresh lettuce and tomato at this restaurant. Yeah. And we have a salad bar and then obviously a big part. Yeah.

And the chili too. I mean, like there was a lot of things we were like, and I still think, but like, like everyone else, they decided, especially with the pandemic that this is like a drive through place and a delivery place. So they changed their fries. And I think they changed their fries again. And I think that the Wendy's fries are, are not great. And they probably moved away from the, the vibe of, of what they used to be used to be is just kind of, of gone. It just feels like, it feels like a McDonald's and Burger King now, I guess is, is the thing.

Which look, I love McDonald's too. It's almost an insult to McDonald's of what they've become because McDonald's has always been that and has been great. So McDonald's is never trying to be something else. I mean, sometimes like with its like coffee and stuff, but like it's always at its core. The thing that it is. And like it's never, Wendy's, I feel like was, was a completely different thing for so long. And now it's being like, actually we're trashy too. And it's like, well, you don't even know.

Oh, you don't even know the half of it, bitch. Nice try, sweetie. McDonald's doesn't decay. So it's delicious. But you know, whatever those, whatever the anti-decaying chemicals they spray on McDonald's, they're great. And you know what? Spray me down with those things too. I could use a fucking layer or two of that shit. They sprayed me down.

I just look great next episode, Wags. Get that shit. Get it injected in between my eyebrows and stuff. Bitch, if you get sprayed down with those chemicals, you just look like a white grimace. Would you disturb me? Oh my God. When they put flesh textures on a cartoon character, it's like, this is what Homer would really look like. Jesus Christ.

That's perverted. I look down and be like, they're huge. Grimace is packing? Wow. I want to be the face of McDonald's skincare. I had a quick anecdote on the, you were talking about the regional variation between Wendy's locations. This is the thing we've heard from other, past guest on the Doughboys, double Charles Ingram has talked about how like Wendy's in the south is kind of like, you know, not, he's from Tennessee and Wendy's from the south doesn't have a great reputation. I've heard this a bunch and, you know, I'm from the west coast and I'm a lifelong SoCal surfer dude and like Wendy's was always like a little bit nicer out here, a little bit of a higher price point.

But another past guest, Jim Woods, from back in the day, Mitch, he went to a Wendy's in the south and he's not, you know, yeah, but he went to Wendy's in like the deep south, like in Alabama. Yeah. And he went down, he went there and he ordered, he was like, yeah, can I get a, you know, whatever, can I get a Dave's double combo, a Biggie fries, Biggie drink. And it had been like years since Biggie had premiered, but Biggie had still not made its way to this particular Wendy's. So they're like, what? Like they had no, they had no context for Biggie sizes. And so they just thought he was like a fucking, like just saying some weird shit, like what are you talking about? That's great.

Yeah. It hadn't gotten down. The Biggie had gone down there. Hadn't migrated yet. Jesus. Yeah. Bring back Biggie. I liked Biggie.

I like the Biggie size. I like Biggie too. I like Biggie. It's fun to say. Biggie size was fun. Yeah. And what, because McDonald's was super sized, right? Super sized.

What was, it was Burger King? That's a good quiz question. Burger King was a lot like King size or some shit. I don't remember. I don't know, but that sounds right. It would be good for their branding if it was. Yeah. King size sounds seems, seems right.

Biggie size was Wendy's. King size, whatever fast food places. I guess that's it as far as like the big ones for. Mitch, you are correct. They retired King size in 2009 and went back to large. So yeah, you are correct. Also, that was a great time when you could, I mean, super sized fries were great. Come on.

Yeah. They were gigantic. It was great. A lot of fun. It's what I want. When I go, when I go, I get two large fries. I want super fry. I want super size.

It's what I actually want to eat. That fucking asshole. What's his name? Spurlock. Super size. Fucking spurlock. Yeah. It's all spurlocked.

They got spurlocked. You know what else is speaking of? Everyone runs to that little fucker in Hollywood. He's going to kick his ass wags. Oh shit. It's the dough boys. Spurlocked. He just beats the shit out of both of us.

You could get him on the pot and confront him. That would be fun. Check our oils while we're on the ground with a bloody heat. Were you going to say something else got spurlocked? No, I was going to say, you know, talking about super size. You know, it also has a super size reputation. Brown bear below the waist. Oh, let me tell you, they're huge.

Such a shame they've already done all the casting for SNL this season. I'd love to see that guy next to Colin Joe's. If you saw my SNL tape from back in the day, probably pretty similar to that. I can't wait till we like do a live show in like Columbus, Ohio. And then afterwards, some like dough boys fan is like, hey, Mitch, can you do the bear guy for my voicemail? I hope it's someone that I grew up with. That guy's wife is asking me to do it.

Yes. His wife who's six feet tall and a supermodel. Meanwhile, he looks like the body of Crang, the outside body of the body that holds Crang. A lot of the dough boys listeners have beautiful wives' wives that I found out on the road. Good for them. Happy for everybody.

Oh, yeah, we're thrilled. Anyways. Wives, were you a super size guy back in the day? Of course. I've mentioned this before. And this sounds like a... I'm not saying this to brag because I think I've done one time in my life and I was 22, I could certainly not do it today.

But I ran a marathon once in my life. And I ran the LA Marathon. I was 22. I was in the best shape of my life. And the meal I went afterwards, my feet were just like fucking... My feet were so bloody and bruised that I could barely drive. Operating the gas and brakes was painful. But I went to a McDonald's drive-thru and I got a Big Mac meal

super size and an Eminem McFlurry. And it was the most satisfying meal of my life. It was so fucking good. And a Coke heavy as my drink. And just having all those calories after that much exertion of just like raw garbage. It was just so, so good. It hit so fucking hard.

Yeah, I love the super size. You've been doing me any time. I love... I love soup. You bring it back. They just got to bring it back. Bring it back. I know that's maybe not too much of a different size wise

as far as what their large is now. But I feel like it was... There's still at least a significant... Not insignificant difference, I guess you could say. But just bring it back. Bring it back. It's more about the mental experience of knowing that you're getting as much as you possibly can.

It's abundance. That's true. I love it. I want it. I chased that. Well, look, we got a lot to discuss about fast food chain restaurants and this week's chain specifically, which we will get to right after this break.

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Free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com slash doughboys. That's wildgrain.com slash doughboys. Or you can use promo code doughboys at checkout. Do it. Welcome back to doughboys. We are here with our guest, Mitra Johari,

discussing this week's chain, Fazzoles, which was founded in Lexington, Kentucky in 1988. Currently has 220 locations in 28 states, and it was purchased by Fat Brands in 2021, which by pure coincidence, Mitch, owns last week's chain, Fat Sal's, as well as Fat Burger. So Fat Sal's, Fat Burger, and Fazzoles,

the FAs are all under one roof, Fat Brands. So, Mitra, this is a chain that, you know, and hey, Mitch and I spent a lot of time talking about chain restaurants, going to different chain restaurants across the country, but we had both never heard of Fazzoles. And it was a restaurant that you pitched, that you wanted to talk about.

And as we, you know, as we disclosed what we were doing to people we know and to some of our fans, people were like, oh, Fazzoles, like we're surprised. There's like a groundswell of Fazzoles support. But why Fazzoles? Why do you have such a, just a connection to this chain? Well, I did look through and I saw that you had not, I didn't think that you had done it before.

So that was part of it. But I think I have this experience a lot. I'm from like just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and I often will think that, think that places are like national chains that like everybody grew up with and find out and be devastated to uncover that they are not. And that happened to me with Fazzoles.

I really thought Fazzoles was sort of like McDonald's level fame. It's really not. And as I've gotten older and described it to people, people are always like sort of like obsessed and disgusted by the concept of getting Italian food through a drive-thru window. But it is so nostalgic for me. And it's so funny to have gone back to it as an adult.

But for me, it was like really close to the park where I would have soccer practice. And so I'd always, always beg to go to Fazzoles. And occasionally one of my parents would bend and allow us to go, but they hated it. And I can see why. Right, no. But yeah, it's again like another sort of emotional

fast food experience for me. I think fast food is very emotional. So this one is no exception. 100%. By the way, Wally almost jumped out the computer. That was if you heard me saying damn it or whatever there that. That was Amitra laughing at it. That was Wally trying.

He just wanted to get on my lap walks and he was about to jump on the computer. So now I'm laying back and he's on my lap here. But the idea of the idea of fast food Italian is, I love that idea. And I think on the, on Doe Boys multiple times when they're like, what chain restaurant would you start? And I'm like fast food Italian.

Like I say that, like that's, that's, that's the one that I want. You know, like to, to, to get like a chicken parm sub and a drive-through window seems great to me. And I, and I don't, Fazzoles wasn't in my life. I don't know Fazzoles, but I like, I like the idea behind it. Yeah, it's comforting knowing that it's there. Sure. Yes.

It, here's, here's one issue is that it's not, it's not really here. It is. It's in Chino Hills is the closest. That is the closest. Two and a half hours yesterday. No. It sucks.

It sucks. I have to say also, before I forget, I was listening. I couldn't do it on the way back, but the whole way there, I was listening to the audio book of the body keeps the score. It's like, if you, if people don't know, it's like a really serious book about like releasing trauma in the body. Like the whole, I like started it. Like I got in the car and I started chapter one on the way to

Fazzoles and it's like this, like psychologist, like talking about his experience. Oh my God. Emma has, Emma's holding up a paperback copy. I literally just bought this and I was going to start it when I left. Oh my God. We are suffering ladies. We're processing our trauma.

And it's well, spoiler for you, Emma. It, the whole first chapter is a like truly grim discussion of Vietnam war veterans. I just like was on the highway and that I just like started laughing that I was listening to this on the way to Fazzoles. On the way back, I was like, I can't, this is so dumb. The drive through window person is like, oh, like they over here, the sadness coming from your car and get bummed out.

That is, that's a very funny thing to listen to on the way to Fazzoles. The fun, the fun little Italian fast food restaurant. You had a similar thing. I just, no, not with this particular drive, but like I used to, you know, I, I hate driving and I tried to, to, to take the bus to the trade as much as possible, but sometimes it's inevitable living in this country.

And for a time I was writing on the living in Santa Monica, California and writing on the County Bang Bang TV show, which the studio offices were in Glendale, which is a, was routinely over an hour drive each way. It was just like a, like a miserable drive. And so I would do the same thing. I would listen to audio books just to, you know, pass the time. And I, for, for like a, a, a good stretch there, I was listening

to a book about the Columbine shooting that was just like, like every morning I would get in my car and I drive like 70 minutes from Santa Monica to Glendale, listening to this book about like detailing like, like it's like a, it's like a minute by minute of what happened at Columbine and like, you know, like a tick tock of, of, of just this, this, this horrific atrocity that forever scarred a town and a school in a nation. And then like I'd park by car and like walk into the writer's

room and it'd be like, all right, how about an episode where Scott gets a, Scott wears a pancake as a hat. Like it's just like immediately the kill, the silliest shit we had to pitch. It was very, very jarring. You grimacing wearing a trench coat in the room. But yeah, it's, it's, it's a haul and, and speaking of how far we had to go, this was another situation where it was,

it was a, a very long drive that I had to make. There was no other option. And Mitch, I, this is the, this is like the latest I've ever been for anything. This was a fucking nightmare. I got held up. I didn't even bring this up. I wasn't going to bring it up.

Look, I was so upset. I was so embarrassed. You were, you were about an hour, total about an hour late. It was fucking awful. It took me, it took me like almost two hours just to get out there. And so it was, it was a, it was a fucking nightmare. Look, if you get trapped in doubt, if you're, I remember

you were like, you texted me, I was at Fizzoli's and you're like, I'm in downtown L, I haven't gotten through downtown LA. Yes. Which look, it just happened sometimes when you live in the city, you just get stuck. And I was like, it's going to be a long one. I went and tried to get a couple, I was trying to find the

Mountain Dew voodoo flavor or whatever. Cause we were, we, cause embarrassingly, Mitra, at the restaurant, we recorded a video at the restaurant and extremely embarrassing. We did, we shot a little video. I brought my ring light to the, to the fucking restaurant. And we, and like, we were also like, is this okay? And they're like, yeah, there was no one in there.

We recorded a, we recorded a snack or whack. That's nice. Wags. And we also announced the snack pack on spotify live. It's a live audio only chat show where we'll talk with freaks. IEU. So join on spotify live and also the episodes will be

later archived for your listening at your leisure. Congrats. Spotify's back. Thank you. Spotify's bad tweeting from your iPhone. I don't like, I think the dough boys should not be doing a Spotify show. And also I think that Mitch's bear character is a very

similar to a Chris Katan character from the 90s. Katan wishes. So yeah, so we got that. We had to record a little video, we had to shoot a little video for that. It was, it was very embarrassing. And then our server, Frida, who we should mention, this is counter service.

And I'll meet you again. This is, this is a chain Mitch and I was, we're not familiar with. We see Fazzoli's. We see it's Italian. We're, we're looking at the menu in advance. I'm just like, okay, this is the Olive Garden. This is, this is Maggiano's.

We're going to have a sit down, you know, experience. Not that at all. You order at the counter. It's like a Baja Fresh. And, and, but, but our server Frida was, was terrific. And also Mitch roasting us mercilessly. We just basically, we, but like we busted the camera out. And then she was like, Oh, you guys going to do a photo

shoot in the park later? Like we were just like, Oh God. Yeah. That's fair. Fucking humiliating. That was great. We're going to Fazzoli's. You got to get roasted.

Yeah. Yeah. We deserved it. Well, she was making fun of us even for just taking pictures of our food, which was, which was. Every aspect. Embarrassing. Yeah.

Every aspect. And then I mean the ring light was next level. Yeah. Like us heightening, you know, us looking. We just like, we wanted to be roasted more. But like, I have like this cross body bag I'm wearing these days. And so she gave us like, like Parmesan and red pepper

shakers. And then afterwards I brought them up and I was like, Hey, Hey, do you want these back? And she was like, Oh no, you can keep those. And then, and I was like, Huh? She was like, Yeah, put them in your little bag. I was like, Oh God. Get the fuck out of here.

She was, she was fucking, she ruled. I liked her. Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't been in a fizzoli is in a very long time, but I did go in and I took, I took a lot of photos also because I couldn't believe that there was one in California. It was so shocking and even more shocking that you guys

agreed to go. I couldn't believe it when I sent the list of like my initial ideas and it was like, there's one 40 minutes away. We're down if you are. And I was like, I guess. Yeah. I couldn't believe it.

I loved, I loved it. It was, I mean, outside of being just completely embarrassing with us doing a fucking video in the store. And I never felt more wise. I never felt more like review guys. Like I just was like, like if you overheard us at the restaurant being like, What's up everybody? We got a snack or whack and guess what?

No, a new show's coming. Like we sound like fucking idiots. Like we found, I mean, maybe we just are, but I never. We are. We're that. We're 100% that. I never thought of us as like review guys. There's no daylight between us and like, you know, review

bra or whoever. Who's that? Who's that guy? We're like review bra. Who's that? That guy, the Joey's last resort or whatever the fuck. That's what we are. That's exactly what we are.

We're the guys who go through the drive through, peep this out and all those guys that. We're exact. Peep this out. We're 100% peep this out. Man, that sucks. There's no daylight between us and them. It's the same thing.

It's fine. Don't need to run away from it. Whatever. I'm just disappointed. I was like, as we were doing that video, I just felt like a real fool. You're sitting on a very nice all form couch that you got as a result of a sponsorship associated with this podcast.

So it's fine. It's all worth it. Whatever. Look, I love my all form couch. We all do. We know that Helix is known for its mattresses, but they're now moving into the living room with all four, their own sofa brand.

You can get your own promo code DOBOYS. Check it out. It's just 10 minutes. Anyway, besides that, no... What the fuck is that guy? Now I can't think of the name of that guy that we're talking about. It is Joey. It's Joey something.

Those guys always make fun of those guys. I mean, we've now become... Yeah, Stefan and your Kickstarter sucks, guys. They all make fun of these guys, right? Yes. Whatever. We've become them. But besides this, besides the true embarrassment, I had never

had a single experience within a Fizzoli's. I had never stepped foot inside a Fizzoli's. So this was all new to me. It was all new. I expected more of an Olive Garden. When we walked in, I was like, oh, I didn't realize that there was a front counter, because I didn't know anything about it. I didn't even realize that there was a drive through.

Yes. Oh, that's interesting. To me, it is so quintessential. That is the drive through. That is the... We would go in every now and then, but it was way more about the drive through, which I think actually would affect... It affects expectations, for sure.

Sure. Or it's like, if you go in expecting drive through, then maybe it's really good. And I'm curious if you liked anything that you had. You know what? I'm going to just say this. We had a pretty good time. Amazing.

We were worried, as though I created Fizzoli's. We weren't sure what to expect. And once it becomes counter service, like, okay, yeah, it's obviously your standards maybe lower a little bit in terms of what... Like, okay, this is maybe a little bit cheaper than I expected. And yeah, a waiter's not bringing it to me. But I will say, at a certain point, one of us said to the other, is Fizzoli's good?

Yeah. Like, we just like... I think we both kind of got on board with Fizzoli's. But I'm curious before we get to our food, you talked about it being a drive through experience and how that's most of your Fizzoli's conception. So would this be like, the family goes to Fizzoli's, you each get your own thing, or you get a few family style things you take

it home and you're having it for dinner? Is that usually the setup? For us, it was like, right after soccer practice, we would get picked up from the park and then we would go, like, on the way home, there was a Fizzoli's. We would all get our slices of pizza and lemon ices and eat them in the car on the way home. Usually we would be done with our food by the time we got home.

Sometimes we would be like, our parents would be like, we'll eat it at the table, but mostly it is a car-bound experience for me, historically. Wow. So as such, you were sticking with the pizza because obviously the pasta's a little bit less manageable in the car. Yes. For me, it's always pizza.

I don't think I ever had anything other than the pizza there. Fascinating. Because for us, the pizza was kind of an afterthought. In fact, even to the point where we almost didn't get our pizza and it was Frida, I believe, who remembered it. And he came by, I was like, oh, I forgot your pizzas and gave us the slices. No, sadly it was me who remembered it, but still.

Oh, right. Yeah. I wish it was someone else, but I was like, we got two slices of pizza, too. She, I got to say this, look, we got to, we got to break down what we got here, Wags. Yes, please. I'll say this about the pizza.

It came last. Let's throw it out there first, though. Extremely cheesy. Like super cheesy. Problem child's two level of cheese. I don't know if you've ever seen problem child two, but there's a scene where they have a pizza fight and it's just very cheesy pizza.

It's kind of gross. It's, you know what the problem, I think we've talked about this before. Problem child movies are like disgusting. They're like us. They're like really good. Like there's like the kids old barf in one scene in problem child two and like the dog takes like a huge,

it's like the dog is constipated and then takes like a giant shit at the end of the movie. Did you ever watch this? Did you ever watch this growing up? I saw problem child one. I never saw problem child two. Meet her. You see any problem child's?

No, I don't think I've even heard of it. Wow. Oh shit. I dropped my mic. Wow. But I like, I'm not a good barometer. I really don't know about it. I'm like culturally missing a lot of parts.

I think. Sure. Well, it could also have been like a dude's movie. Like it's like a boys movie because boys love that like nasty shit. Like boys think like boogers and farts and poop are like the funniest. And I love like lipstick and bras. Exactly.

Yes. All right. Hold on. I'm going to share. I'm going to share my screen. I'm going to show you the end of problem child two. The dog has, this is, this is a, at the end of the movie, the dog has been like constipated.

I fucking hate this. I hate looking at this. Fucking hate this. It's like a little like Jack Russell Terrier with a bow tie. He looks like Uggie from. It's a very cute dog. Very cute dog standing next to a pile of shit. That's literally the same size as him.

It's like kind of like malformed. Like it's got like the texture to it is really. And I don't know if it's like kind of steaming maybe. Bubbly and steaming. Yeah. It's got some heat to it. That's, that's disgusting. I hate looking at that.

It must have been so fun to make that prop. And also. Yes. It is much neater than I expected. When you said someone with like a dog somewhat, a dog was constipated for a whole movie. I expected a much more like liquefied thing. So this actually was less of a jump scare than I was expecting.

It's a very like tidy shit. Well, all that to say that the pizza was very cheesy like problem child two. Jesus Christ. It was. I, that, that to me, I, I, I didn't actually expect anything to be good. And the pizza was the worst, but.

Actually, actually Pete, the pizza was, the pizza was kind of ranked low for me too. Why? Cause I like, I, I, I remember wise you saying like, this is a pretty good slice. And I was like, yeah, I was like, what the fuck is he talking about? But, uh, I, I, uh, I didn't think it was bad.

I think that if it was like a to go situation, I got a couple of slices and it'd be good. I couldn't taste really any sauce on it. It like did just taste like cheese bread. Yeah. I guess I should say that I did like everything, but the pizza was the worst. There was nothing that was bad for me.

To me, this was like a really good, like 7-Eleven slice of pizza, which I like, you know, with, with a lot more cheese than you get on a 7-Eleven slice. I like a 7-Eleven. I think you're wrong. But this is the thing. I was like, I'm talking about, I'm describing something I like.

Like I, like if you get a good 7-Eleven slice of pizza, like I'm like into that. And like this is, this is that same sort of like, I know this is like not like good pizza quote unquote, you know, but I, I don't know. I thought it, I thought it was very satisfying. I really liked how cheesy it was. Well, Mitra, what kind of,

what kind of pizza do you generally get from here? I just got cheese. I really kept it simple because it, I know that's what I always got when I was a kid because I was a vegetarian. So I was like, I kind of just want to recreate and recreate the experience as much as possible and see what still hits.

Wait a minute. What era of your life were you a vegetarian? Like childhood until like early 20s. What made you make the switch? I visited family in Iran for a month and everyone was like cooking for me. And it just felt so like boring and bad to be like, I'll have rice and yogurt, please.

Like they're making all these great like intricate stews and like spending all this time making these amazing meals. And I just within like 24 hours of getting there, I was like, I think I'm not a vegetarian anymore. And then it just stuck. Was there a, was there a favorite dish from that era from, from visiting Iran? Yeah.

I mean, everything was awesome. Like just the, the like level of intricacy of, of stews there is insane. Gourmus absi is kind of classic. But man, I don't know. I really think just like the fresh breads and like everything is just so like the produce is so good. Like everything was just, and like,

like when you go to like a roadside like, like a stand or whatever, they would still, you would still like, you'd think you'd be getting like, you know, like a coffee to go in the States or something. And there it would be like, like full tea service on like a Persian rug with like honey and cheese and bread and like butter and I don't know,

like cream and like, you just have like everything is so, every meal is important and like thoughtful and there's like, nothing is rushed. And like that was what was, I feel like it wasn't just one, there was one meal where every single one of my aunts that really came to the meal brought a full meal and had me eat a full serving of the thing that they came and they brought.

I was like so sick by the end and I turned to my, one of them put like another helping of, and I was like, I was being so good. I was trying to be like so dutiful and like respectful and I ate a full serving of everything that everyone brought and then one of them tried to give me seconds and I immediately burst into tears. So full.

And I turned to my dad and I was like, help. And this was me at like 25. Like this is like a full adult. Really overwhelming. Sounds like a meal with a Mitchell's as well. That's rad. Wait, so when you, okay, so you're reintroducing, apologies for the tangent,

but you're reintroducing meat to your diet. Like how much do you mitigate your meat consumption now or are you just like full bore, like have meat whenever you want? I still don't really like crave it very often. I eat fish, but like, yeah, like I'll eat it, but I feel like it's never like, I still haven't really eaten. I've had steak like once ever. Like I don't really ever like crave it,

but if it, if it like looks good and like something on them, like if it, you know, if I'm at a seafood restaurant, I'm going to eat seafood. If people are getting burgers, I'll get a burger or whatever, but it's usually not the thing that I'm like, craving. Yeah. That seems like a, like a, a, a balanced approach.

Cause I will find that like, you know, for, for, and this was, I've done this a couple of times in my life, but you know, most recently in 2021, like I didn't eat any meat or fish for, for the entire year. And as I've, I've come back from that, like, I just find myself not having the same cravings that I once did. And yeah, obviously they're the same as your entire childhood, but it's just that sort of thing of,

that's how bad you want the podcast to end in the back of your mind. Chose to go. But it does feel like net, like, yes, if I see something and I'm just kind of want it, then, then like, okay, fine. I'll fucking, yeah, that's, that's fine. You know, like I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll have the, right now I'm, I'm, I'm still eating poultry and fish for the most part, but red meat, I'm like really not having much of it all.

But like if I, if I run into a situation like at Fizzoli's, where Mitch, we had, there were a few dishes that just came with meat sauce, they didn't come with marinara and you got them and I was like, fuck it, I'll taste it. It's got, it's meat sauce. It's, it's, it's fine. The lightest, the lightest meat sauce maybe ever. Like it was hard to tell.

Not for a meaty, no. If there was meat in there, that, that was the lasagna. Should we, should we do a breakdown of what we got, Nick? Please. So we each got combos, which, which comes with a house side salad, which I noticed you didn't have a lot of Mitch, but I ate my, I ate my house side salad. The fuck is this shit?

I thought it was pretty decent. That was some mum bullshit you just pulled on me right there. I'm just saying you could have, you could have started with the salad. Anyway, I had, I did take this entire salad with a dome. It was a salad like covered in cheese and with ranch on it. Yes. It's a mozzarella and cheddar. A mound of cheese.

Yes. Mozzarella, cheddar and ranch. And ranch. Sorry I didn't touch much of my fucking ranch soup with fucking lettuce in it. Here's an interesting thing. Different ranches come with a side salad and the wings. They have different brands of ranch.

I was like, what's going on there? I feel like we should have gotten Italian, but we were like, she was like, what do you want for dressing? And then they had a Fazzoli's ranch dressing. And we were like, all right. And she kind of threw that out there to us. Yes. But they must have an Italian, there's got to be a

Fazzoli's Italian dressing, right? I would assume so. It's an Italian restaurant, but who fucking knows? But also like, This is kind of an Italian. Yeah. I need that creamy Italian. I love that creamy Italian.

Mitra, you got a salad dressing of choice? In life. Yeah. I just love, I love like an olive oil with this, lemon squeeze and a little balsamic vinegar. Like a very, It's a nice choice.

Very boring. I don't love a creamy dressing or if I do, I can handle very little of it. Did you ever get that? A what? I said a regular Popeye. You'd love olive oil. So I'm saying,

I mean, we could have. So relieved to have circled back. If you, if you hadn't questioned it, I would have told Emma to edit out of the episode. No, no, no, no. Real Popeye. No, that's great. Mitch is always thinking of his rival Popeye

and his love olive oil. He wants to kidnap. In a way, as Pluto, I love olive oil more than Popeye does. You should play Pluto in a live action Popeye. Anyway, I was going to say the, they probably knew what they were doing. That would happen.

Anyway, I was going to say the, the different, what different ranches with the wings and the house side salad. I like the ranch with the side salad better. The wings one, I guess was more of a dip and ranch because it kind of came in a cup. So maybe that explains a different brand. But the boolings, I thought were fine.

You know, they're very nuggety. We went, we went with a barbecue, which, that was my choice. And I thought the barbecue sauce was pretty good. It wasn't, it wasn't overly sweet or chemically. Mm hmm. Decent BBQ. Yeah.

I thought, I thought that, I thought the, you went boneless, which I was surprised by. I think that you were making that gesture for me. But I think you actually also maybe made the right choice at Frasoli's. I feel like the bonus were pretty good. And I thought that that, I thought the, and I'm not usually a barbecue guy,

but I thought the dressing, the sauce you got was, was, was good. I did enjoy that barbecue. It was a nice, had a nice little taste to me. Also by the way, Paul would knew what they were doing. Hollywood knows what they're doing, baby. They get it.

Yeah. They'll get Gad is live action Bluto. It'll be fine. We're gonna love it. We love Gad. We love Gad. He fucked Q Burton pixels. Gad hive over here.

We liked when he cried during pandemic. Anyway, before we get into our pastas, because we talked pizza, we talked salad and wings. Did you get any non, non pastas, non pizza items?

Um, I got, uh, well breadsticks, which I loved. Oh yeah. I loved the breadsticks. We're gonna talk about the breadsticks.

I wanted more breadsticks. I, I loved them. I was, I was so happy about them. Um, to me, perfect breadstick. I couldn't believe it.

I was like, I was so happy. Light, buttery, garlicky, everything I wanted. And I thought that I was like, I was ready for them to be sort of rock hard.

I don't know why, or like, you just never know what the place that has like, a lot of breadsticks. Like sometimes at Olive Garden, you'll get like a perfect thing. And sometimes you'll get a very sort of like, crunchy,

horrible experience because they're just, they're mass producing the breadsticks every day. Right. And it was all these really delivered on the breadsticks. I was like, I felt pride. Um, and I got a lemon ice.

Um, that those are the only non pasta pizza things I got. I got a big lemon ice. We'll talk the lemon ice at the end, because I have lots of thoughts on the Italian, Italian ices. Well, hold on.

I was going to say we got, we got the breadsticks too. We got, we got a, we got a little, well, here's the thing. I get,

I think you got, I think we got breadsticks with each of our pastas. So as such, we, we ended up getting like a half dozen breadsticks total. So we got a lot of them. And yeah, they were,

they were delightful doughy long boys. I mean, they were, they were, they were every, every, the, the descriptor descriptor that Mitra gave was,

was spot on and, and a little bit of marinara dip and sauce. Well, here's the thing. I think that we, was it you who uttered better than Olive Garden? Or was it me? I don't know which one said it,

but I, we both said it in unison with, with eyes locked while videotaping it from a ring light. And Frida screamed kiss from the cast register. And we did. I think that the, I think that they,

the, the breadsticks are, are great. I went up and asked for marinara sauce and that she said, I'm bringing out your mozzarella, your fried mozzarella skewers. And that has, has marinara dipping sauce.

So that was, so we used that. Oh, that's what it was. That's the sauce we used. Got it. That's the sauce we used. And we,

and we got those marinara. What did you think of those marinara skewers, marinara, those mozzarella skewers? Why? Those were, those were my, to borrow your phrase,

those were my bite of the night. I mean, I thought they were, I thought those were really good. I thought they were really tasty. I'm so disappointed. I almost got them and I, and I didn't,

I really regret it now. They were pretty good. Great fried to them. I guess I'll have to spend three hours fucking going to Fizzoli's again. Just in the drive-through this time, you drive three hours, get the skewers in the drive-through and drive home.

Look, not much else to do in Chino Hills. I was driving around Chino Hills for a second and there was, there was not too much else. Didn't have that, that voodoo mountain dew flavor. And then I just was like,

I'm going to just sit in the Fizzoli's parking lot. There's nothing else really to do here. I will say, love to the picnic tables, love to set up they had at the Chino Hills Fizzoli. I was there sort of golden hour. I had a great time. This,

this, this played into our videotape. The, the outdoor tables there, the picnic tables, we were, our plan was to shoot our video outside, but then there was a speaker playing music outside.

It was actually louder outside than it was indoors. So we were indoors to shoot it, which is, I mean, there was no one really there because it was about three o'clock when we shot it, but still, I was so bummed out to have to go to carry a ring light inside.

Anyways, it was also a scorcher. It was, it was hot, hot out there. Oh yeah, it was, it was very hot. And look, we, we,

we did, we got some heavy food, the mozzarella skewers, the, the chicken thing, the, the chicken tenders. And then I guess now we should get into the pasta's wags.

We got a few different things. I went with the, the chicken parm was my, I think my, Oh no, I got the baked spaghetti and meatballs. That was my, that was my main.

And then I wanted to try the lasagna and I wanted to try the chicken parm, which you are on board for, you were thinking of the chicken parm as well. Why? So we got the chicken parm and I got the lasagna. And what did you get? Your,

your main meal was it, was it chicken fettuccine? I got the, it was, yes, I got the chicken fettuccine Alfredo, which on the receipt said small fett, which maybe think of,

of Boba from episode two. Wow. Small fett, from, he is a small fett. He's a small fett. An attack of the clones. He,

you know what? They did do a, they did do what Disney does all the time now is where they made the baby version of Boba Fett. The original baby, baby Boba. Baby Boba. Give me a baby hut.

What? I want to see the little baby hut. That would be cute. That'd be really cute. I want to see that. Be all good. We got baby Leia. We got baby Yoda.

We got all the, we got all the babies. Disney, they gave us all the Star Wars babies. Baby hut would just look like that shit pile from problem child two. Well, and I love the shit piles,

so I can't wait to check it out. Yeah, the shit pile is kind of, shit pile is kind of cute. Well, well, let's break down these. I thought my spaghetti, I thought they had,

the meatballs were surprisingly good. So the baked spaghetti and meatballs, which was like one of their specialties. That's what it was on the menu. It's like spaghetti and meatballs, and then just covered in cheese and baked. Um, and you know what?

I kind of loved it. I mean, wise we were talking about it and it's like, there is a feeling of this place that's like, it feels like school cafeteria or yes, airplane food, but like bet,

like if I had this in my school cafeteria, I feel like I would be a happy little boy. Like I feel like I would have, I would have really loved this. And the meatballs were, the meatballs were pretty damn good. I ate all three of those bad boys. I enjoyed the meatballs.

And there was a lot of cheese on that thing. The cheese was piled high, melted on that spaghetti. And that maybe was my bite of the night. I enjoyed it. I think, I think where it felt a little bit more school cafeteria was

the chicken parm, which I still liked. But like it was, it was, it did feel like a chicken patty. You know, it felt very much like a chicken patty with cheese baked on top of it, but not bad by any, by any stretch. Kind of low quality product

for the chicken all around. I didn't try the meatballs, but the, but the, you know, the bonus wings that we talked about, they were, they were decent, but they, you know, kind of nuggety. That was,

that was probably the best quality of any of the chicken. The best chicken. And I might have just been the deep fry I got on them. Yeah. I agree that the, the chicken parm was, was kind of my, my low point.

The chicken patty, I thought was, was quite good. And, you know, I don't mean to damn this with faint praise. I mean this in the same way you did bitch. And I mean the same way when I was complimenting it as a good version of a 7-Eleven pizza.

Like it's like, if I got this at an airport restaurant, I would be like, I'd be like, this is fucking great. This is hitting. Like this is like a really good version of like a quick service pasta meal.

I thought it was nice and cheesy. Yes. The chicken itself was low, was low quality. I could probably do without the protein, but I thought it was a, it was a decent dish. But I will say, I will say that none of it was,

none of that chicken in the, in the chicken fettuccine Alfredo was like gnarly. There wasn't like a piece where I was like, No, it wasn't gross. No. It wasn't gross. And it wasn't like, I like would want to spit any of it out into a napkin.

It was just, which I mean obviously that's a pretty low bar, but still like it wasn't, it wasn't awful. And the, and it was like nice and that fettuccine Alfredo was nice and creamy and, and cheesy and pretty good.

Like that was, it was, it was surprisingly good. The lasagna wasn't bad either. I think that there was, the lasagna was kind of what maybe middle of the road, but, but the meat sauce wasn't very meaty,

but the cheese in there was pretty good. It was just, it just, you know, I think it was a good lasagna is, is probably hard to do at a fast food place, but I didn't think it was bad. I thought it was, was, was decent. That was my swing was the lasagna.

Yeah. I wanted to re, I wanted everything that I had had before and I'd never gotten lasagna and I went for the lasagna. And I didn't love the lasagna. I just, but I don't, I didn't go into it thinking that I would. So it was fine.

It just like, like to me I'm like, why would I think that this, that I would love this? I was hoping to love it, but I was like, why would I love it? And I,

once I released expectation, it was totally fine. It was like better than it, every time I started to be like, I don't know about this. I was like, I reminded myself that it comes through the window. And I was like,

actually it's great. If you can eat it in the car, it's, I mean, for a lasagna that comes through a window, I think that's a great way to, I think there's a great way to judge it. We're telling you that's coming through a window. It's great.

Which, you know, like, I don't know, I'm sure that happens in the north end or whatever, you know, they're like, in Boston or, it feels like back in the day, Italians were eating thrones, you know, like,

like sharing meals through windows. When you see the Godfather too, they're, I don't know, they're always going in and out of windows. I don't want to generalize Italians, but, Fazzoli's,

Fazzoli's does feel, for a lasagna that came through a window, for it to be a decent, decent enough lasagna, that's, that's a win. I was putting myself in the mindset, as we were just talking of,

because I love, lasagna was like my favorite food as a kid. That was like a birthday treat. We go get like Marie calendar's lasagna, which is like, obviously a very inauthentic, you know, Americanized version of lasagna,

but I loved it. And so putting myself in the mindset of, you know, I'm a kid, this is post, post soccer practice, Weiger, like Mitra,

going to Fazzoli's, I think if I got that fucking, I mean, in my case, it would be post clarinet lesson, Weiger, but we'd be going to Fazzoli's, and if I got that lasagna at the drive-through,

I would fucking love it. And I thought it would be, this would be like, this is, this is great. Like, you know, just again, that tier lasagna,

I thought that it was nice. I really liked how layered it was. Like it's just like it's, you know, it's, it felt like it had that sort of dense layered quality that you get with a good, with a good lasagna.

And, uh, and decently cheesy. I don't know. I thought it was, this was just, this is very, very satisfying.

You know, it's not shooting for the moon, but what it's aspiring to be, is it's succeeding. Well, it's, it, even if you miss, you land among the stars. And the lasagna,

There you go. is among the stars. It was only lasagnas among the stars. That's a great point. I think I would rather be stuck on the moon. Moon's fucking boring as hell. Which version of the moon are we talking? I mean,

what do you think it is? Like a trip to the moon, like the moon face guy, or, like a, It's the movie moonfall. It's the movie. Oh my God.

Get me off that thing. Did you guys ever see the, the billboard? I mean, I'm guessing the moon falls and moonfall, right? That would, that was my guess. I never saw it.

It better. I'm asking for my money back. The poor guy behind the cash register at AMC. The moon didn't fall in this movie. I just promised a moonfall. I don't know if anyone else saw this billboard, but I remember seeing one when moonfall was being promoted.

And it was like one of those, you know those billboards where it's like they, it's like a promo for the movie, but then it's, it's like meant to be like someone has to face it, but that's part of the art. It was that. And then someone had had the,

the, the fake graffiti that they written over, it was screw the moon. Yes. Yes. Screw the moon. Slay the marketing team. I'm kind of with them.

Love it. I'm kind of, I'm, you know what, I screw the moon. Screw the moon is right. The moon. I go up and see fucking, fucking footprints. You know, it's a fucking boring ass place.

A golf ball. The golf balls still up there. An American flag. The American flag is still up there. All right. All right. God bless America. You got me there.

I could pledge allegiance a few times up there. It would be pretty good. Besides that, we hit a lot of pastas, right? Yeah. We hit a lot of pastas. We should wait, be sure what else did you get?

Did you get anything else? Pasta wise? No, no, I couldn't. No, but I, I'm trying to think. No, that was it. That was everything. So, so we've covered everything on the savory side.

Everything on the savory side. And then, yeah, just the ice and the, and then I got a big, a big old diet. You talk about it. Talk about a super size. I got the large diet Pepsi and that was like a massive cup. I was so happy to see that cup. It felt vintage cause it's also styrofoam,

which was, you gotta give it up for committing to styrofoam. We got the, the one size smaller, but I'm sad we missed out on some, I'm sad we missed out on these gigantic styrofoam cups, but yes. They went hard on the styrofoam and the plastics draw and you gotta give it up. I got a diet Pepsi as well.

Why? Cause that's what I, that's what I got myself a diet Pepsi. And there was due there. I should have done a due, but come on. I can't. You made that up. You're having so many calories.

I went with an unsweetened iced tea. They have a house iced tea there. They have like a Vasoli's iced tea and it was pretty decent. It was fine. But let's talk sweet treats. So one thing we should note and this is, this is odd because I don't think they're under the same corporate ownership.

I mean, they're clearly not in the same corporate ownership now, but they serve cheesecake factory cheesecake, which we did not get because we're like, that's just like a repackaged version of the, you know, what they got the cheesecake factory. Why bother? We are instead opted Mitch for the, for the Italian ice.

They have a lemon ice, a strawberry and a blue raspberry. I went with blue raspberry, Mitch. I think you went with strawberry. I went with strawberry. Yeah. And meet you. It sounds like you went with lemon. Yeah.

So we got them all covered. We got them all covered. Look, here's the, this is, this is, this is what I'll say about mine. I had some of it and I was like, Oh, this is good. And it was a hot day. So it was like hitting like that, that, that, that,

that, you know, that, that freezy was fucking hitting. That sort of, of, of slurpy, simile ice. And I was like, oh, this is good. And it was a hot day. And I was like, that, you know, that, that freezy was fucking hitting. Um, that sort of, of, of slurpy, simile acrum, uh, was, was like what I wanted.

And I had like a little bit of us like, okay, I'm just going to put this in my drink holder. Or maybe I'll have some more in the drive home. And I took that whole thing to the dome. I fucking finished it. And I loved it. I thought it was a delight. Oh, yes.

Yeah. Me too. I got one of the worst brain freezes of my life, sucking down that lemon Italian ice. I was so happy to be drinking it that I was like immobilized for minutes. It was crazy. Um, and then I did it again.

I, I was like a baby. It was so good. Oh, it was so perfect. I wish I, I really left that experience wishing fizzoli was, was closer. I would, I would, cause I would, I would pull off the highway to pick up a lemon ice. Like I was really satisfied by that.

And I would make, cause I'll make a, you know, it's like, I'll make a trip for a McFlurry. I'll make a trip for a milkshake. Like a shake. Like I love like the Shake Shack milkshake. I'll make a trip for that. But I, I couldn't of course do a three hour trip for a lemon ice, but I would, I would add 20 minutes to my journey for a lemon ice.

It was so good. Wow. Um, I, I, I loved it. It was really good. Mine, I had the strawberries in mind and mine tasted almost like, you know, when you get like, like there's like a, you'll have a fruit and it's sour and it's like borderline being bad. Like it's like a nearly fermented.

It had like almost a taste of that, but in a good way, I guess you could say, uh, I was, I was like, enjoy, like, and it might've been the strawberries honestly, but I, and, and mixed with that, with, you know, cause it's just, it puts strawberries in the lemon ice basically. Um, but I, even though it was close to ferment, fermentation taste, I liked it.

I was, I was, I was, I was enjoying it. And like we were saying, it was a hot day. It went down nice and smooth on the ride home. And I was like, this is like a, it's a well done. Look, a slurpee ain't easy. Why? Cause like you're saying, and this is like a, like a well down, well done frozen treat.

And, uh, and that was, there was a highlight. It was a highlight of the, of the, of the whole, of the whole trip. Perfect texture. Perfect texture. It was great in the straw and it was great. Like knocking it back at the very end. I was, well, I was so happy.

It held up. Me too. It was, it was great. It was a good, it was a good, it was a good way to end the meal and have, and it was good for the, uh, hour and a half ride home. Um, Sorry boys.

No, we loved it. We saw wigs in person. What a, what a treat. It was great. Um, I really could not stop thinking about it. We had fun. In the day.

We did. I was like, we're really going 40 minutes minimum each way. It was great. And you know what? Like we said, it's like, it is like better,

it is like better hospital food or lunch room food. Right. Like you'd be happy. Yeah. Uh, you, you, if you, if you were in a hospital and you got this, you'd be happy. You'd be a, you'd be a happy camper.

You know, that's something was seriously wrong. You'd be happy. You'd be so happy. And, and, uh, same, same, same with, we walked away as fans of Fizzoli's, which I did not think. First of all,

I thought I was going to a sit-down restaurant. It was not that at all. And, and then when I got there, I was like, Oh no, it's not a sit-down restaurant. When I realized what it was, and there was no way I thought I was going to walk away having good thoughts about this place.

But guess what? We kind of did YG's. I think that, and I think it's time to wrap this damn place up. Uh, you're right, Mitch. You are correct. Uh, we should get to our final thoughts on Fizzoli's. So Mitra, here's how this will work.

We each go around, give a closing argument if you will, and end that by giving it a score from zero to five forks. You are our guest. This is a childhood favorite of yours that you're revisiting as an adult. Your thoughts on Fizzoli's, your fork score.

Okay. Um, I think it's so rare for something that you loved as a child to truly hold up in a way that is satisfying and enough elements of this held up for me, um, and actually exceeded my expectations. Um, so for it to be about good food as well as nostalgia for me makes, uh, let's see, I'm going to give it. Um, also I learned about unpacking trauma on the way.

So it was an amazing state of mind. I was brutalized by the body keeps the score on the way. Um, so I'll give it four. Four forks. Very good score. I was really happy. I was happy the whole time except for the entire drive. The drive there.

The drive after I was happy because I had my Italian eyes. Oh my God. Such a great accompaniment for that commute home. Yeah. I fucking love that Italian eyes. Uh, Mitch, I'm going to go and I'm going to let you back clean up because I don't know where you're going to land, but I know where I'm going to land.

And so you may be the deciding factor here because I too think that Fizzoli's exceeded by expectations does exactly what it's trying to do, which is, you know, hey, the thesis of this podcast is this, does this chain achieve what it is attempting to do? Uh, is it, is it, is it, you know, uh, hitting on its concept? Is it delivering on the promise of the, of the premise so to speak? I think it absolutely is doing that quick service, counter service,

uh, drive through service, Italian, American favorites. Uh, I think all these were, everything was, was of varying degrees of quality, but the stuff that hit really hit. Uh, and, uh, you know, hey, that Italian eyes is alone. I think gave it the extra, the extra juice it needed, uh, to get into where the, the forks region that I'm going to put it at, which is also for forks. Oh my God.

I say, I say, yeah, Zoli's. I'm a fan Zoli. I'm loving it. Oh my God. Fans Zoli. I want that on a shirt. Bad. No, Mitch, don't, by the way, I'm, I'm noticing on my camera

just how bad I'm pitting here. It's very hot in my room. I'm sorry. I don't want a darker t-shirt, um, but, um, very sweaty. Uh, anyway, the, the, the, what I was going to say is the, the, you're going to be the determining factor, uh, as to whether or not this gets into the hallowed halls, the golden play club. And I don't want you to feel any pressure one way or the other.

Your pits are excited to get me to be the fucking bad guy. That's what's going on here. No, you're not going to be the bad guy necessarily. You're going to be, you're going to be the guy you want to be. Sounds like you're going to be a bad guy. I have to play the giant turd next to the dog and problem child too. Right now you're going to make me be the big turd from problem child. Two wigs.

It's time to go full blue dough. Let's see it. Oh my God. No one's going to be mad at you. It's, you should say what's in your heart. It's, it's better if you're honest than if you try to pander to us or to the audience. I really had a great time.

If it's always look, I feel like I'm broken up with. I really had a great time. Really, really. You're an amazing girl. I had, I had, I had such look. I just need to work on myself a little bit. And

Fizzoli's is, is, is a lot of fun. Why? It's, it is, it is a lot of fun. I had a blast home with you. The ride definitely could take some points away, but you can't put that into consideration when you're giving the fork score. I mean, look for what it does, a fast food Italian concept in my heart. I was thinking 3.5 for us.

Hold on a second. Okay. Don't, I was just thinking like, can I with good conscience give this place four forks? I mean, this is the golden play club. Are we getting easier in our judgments now that Fizzoli's, I mean, but like also like seven, you know, it's also a podcast where seven 11 could hypothetically get four forks because it does what it's supposed to do. Well, I mean, it doesn't get four forks, but you get what I'm saying.

The food quality, like yours. It's just, it's a better school lunch for forks. I'm just going to give it. Wow. Wow. Welcome to the golden play club Fizzoli's. Congratulations. What a shock.

A guy who planned on breaking up with a girlfriend and then it's just like, let's just keep it going. Let's just get engaged. We're getting married. Wow. Wow. What a development for Zoli's and the golden play club. We will take a break.

We'll be back with more dough boys. Wow. You know, Mitch, you're about to take a little trip abroad. You're going to Costa Rica. That's right. Why? I'm going to Costa Rica with the family. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Going to maybe see a monkey. Oh, that's fun. Going to maybe see a bird. Just that. Just a one monkey, one bird. That's it. Hey, that sounds like a heck of a vacay. And you know what?

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Welcome back to Doe Boys. We're here with our guest, Mitra Johari, discussing fizzoles. But right now, it's time for a segment. Mitch, it's our spin on the defunct meme, One Gotta Go. This is our segment, A Single Item Must Be Banished. The topic, as compiled by our associate producer, Emilia Marino, is Italian cuisine. So I will give you different topics. Different topic of Italian cuisine.

And you can decide which of these four items must be banished. All right, first up, pizza toppings. Before we get into this, Mitra, we should note that you know Emilia. You'd work with Emilia. Yes, and I love Emilia. Emilia is a delight. Hi, Emilia. I'm very excited to hear what she has in store for us.

First up, pizza toppings. Here are your options. Pepperoni, olives, mushroom, sausage. A single item must be banished. For me, the call is, and this is easy for me to say, is someone who hasn't been eating meat. But if I've got to pick among those beefy proteins, I would go pepperoni over sausage. So I'd say sausage must be banished. Ooh, I can't get rid of sausage.

This one is, I think that people will be mad at me for this one. But it's also, Wu Tang always gets himself like mushrooms on pizza. I just don't need mushrooms on pizza. I just don't need them on there. I know that's like, you know, when you draw, like when you're a kid and you draw like a picture of a pizza, people like draw mushrooms on it. I just, I don't need them. And I think olives that are kind of like, when you get a veggie pizza, I like that olive taste.

So I'm going mushrooms. Mushrooms are gone. I'm banishing mushrooms. I know that that's controversial, but that's what I'm doing. Olives out for me. Wow. And I like olives. I just like, I don't care about them being on a pizza.

It's just, I don't care. When they're there, I never want them on there. I don't care. I'm never like excited that they're there. I'll eat them, but I don't care. They can fucking burn in hell for all I do. I'm guessing if you did this exercise with a public at large, olives would be the popular choice. I feel like it's, it's a polarizing pizza topping, but mushrooms, yeah, Mitch might be a little bit more controversial.

And certainly, I think, I think, you know, Americans would like pepperoni and sausage first. All right. Next up, pasta shape. Your options are penne, farfalle, fettuccine, and tortellini. Not gonna have to Google to make sure I know what they all look like. I know. Tortellini is a, is a filled, is the filled ring shape one. A farfalli, I'm not familiar with.

Farfalle is the bow ties. Oh, the bow ties. Get one, get the one the fuck out of here. I don't need that shit. Farfalle's got to stay. They're cute as hell. No, I don't like it. Farfalle's out of there.

Wait, so wait, same, same again. Fettuccine is the. Penne, farfalle, fettuccine, and tortellini. Yeah, fettuccine is the long, flat, fat noodle. Penne gone for me. This is fucking hard. Penne is gone for me because I, like, I think that's the most embarrassing one to get on a fork.

Man, I think I got to get rid of the bow tie guys. I'm with you. They're really cute. Farfalle. Farfalle, you know, I could hold one up to under Wally and they'll make him look like his little bow tie on. It's cute. Adorable.

Then eat it down afterwards, but I got to eliminate them here. That was a hard one. This is not easy, but I'm like, in my, no way can I get rid of tortellini, right? I mean, there's just no way you could get rid of tortellini. Stuff with cheese. Yeah. I do like a tortellini. It's just so satisfying.

Yeah. Yeah. The only argument I think for fettuccine is that, you know, you can get like 60% of the way there with a linguine, which is just a thinner flat noodle. But yeah, I do like a fettuccine. Which brings us to maybe- They're rid of the bow ties. Farfalle's out of there.

Pieces of shit. Yeah, they're out of here. For the two of us. Mithra chooses Penne. They are cute. Next up for sauces. We got Pesto, Alfredo, Bolognese, and Marinara. Whoa.

Fuck. Nauseating. Penne for me. No, no. Sorry, Pesto. Pesto for me. I like a Pesto. I think I'll keep the Pesto.

The one I'll honestly get rid of is just because like I feel like I always get diarrhea is Alfredo. It's just way too cheesy. Yeah. Oh my God. When I last went to Olive Garden, I went to the Times Square Olive Garden and I got diarrhea before I even left the restaurant. It was so crazy.

Yeah. Wow. I've never had an experience like that. It was just like, I mean, and everyone I was with, we all got different things. And it was like crazy. Jesus. This makes me want to get rid of Alfredo sauce. But actually, yeah, it's not the one I want to get rid of because it's so good going down.

Like Pesto I prefer on a sandwich. Like I just feel like I get like a little overloaded with it when it's on a pasta, even though I do really, really like Pesto. Like I think like bite for bite. I like the flavor of Pesto better, but I can enjoy. I like less of it. Yeah. Pasta's too much for me.

I get to go. So it's Pesto marinara Alfredo. What was the last one? Bolognese. Oh, come on. Bolognese, safe, of course. I'm going to go. I'm going to get rid of, I got to get rid of Pesto too.

I'm with Mitra. I love Pesto. I really enjoy Pesto, but like you were saying, like on a sandwich or something like that, like a Pesto's sauce or something, like I just straight up on like noodles Pesto, I could, I, that will be the one, unfortunately. Also get things flown with me. Give me that Alfredo sauce. I want to get things done.

Jesus Christ. It's helpful. I can be backed up sometimes. Yeah. Also someone should Photoshop you wags next to the, that pile of shit instead of the dog. Me? Mm-hmm. Is that the, is the idea that you're the pile of shit?

That's the dough boys. What the fuck? All right. Next one. Coffee. Your coffee varietals here. Cappuccino, macchiato, espresso or americano. Macchiato.

Yes. What is a macchiato? Um, not totally sure, but I, I just feel like I, I, it felt easy to me to say that. No, I'm, I'm with you. I'll probably eliminate that one just cause the same sort of thing. I was like, what? I like, I don't know what the exactly this is. It looks like it's.

Is it like a chocolatey element? Ooh, I'm keeping it. I think it's, I don't know if it necessarily, what I'm reading right now on, this is coffeeofthenorth.org is saying that, that it's an espresso shot with a splash of milk. I don't always have chocolate, but sometimes I can. I think I'm Starbucks piled. Like I don't know what anything actually is. Yeah.

Okay. And then what's a cappuccino? I think cappuccino has, has like foamed milk. So it's, it's, it's like not just a splash of milk. It's like a foamed milk. Cappuccino, macchiato. What were the other two? Espresso and americano.

I'll get rid of the espresso. I'm going to get macchiato out of there. Get rid of the straight up espresso. I like an espresso shot sometimes. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. But that's like to me is like to get like the caffeine, or I guess you can sip on an espresso after an Italian dinner, which is nice, but.

I like that feeling. Like that ritual of that is so nice and like feels so fancy to me that. Yeah. I, yeah, either cappuccino or macchiato. I'm just going to stick with macchiato cause I don't really want to learn. I'm with you. What's the americano? Americano is an espresso with hot water.

Fuck that. Get that out of there. I don't, I don't want that. Yeah. Out of the americano. The americano's out. I like an americano. All right.

Last one, going from caffeine to alcohol, alcoholic beverages. Wow. Your options are Negroni, Aperol Spritz, Prosecco. So easy for me. Or vermouth. This is already, oh my God, vermouth. Vermouth is out for me. It's either vermouth or Aperol Spritz.

That's Aperol. Aperol is fucking nice. I like an Aperol Spritz. I think it's fine. But vermouth, just straight up vermouth. You could never make a Manhattan again. That's the thing. Yeah.

You need vermouth for a Manhattan. You need vermouth for a martini. All right. Aperol Spritz. Bye. Former bartender. Maybe, maybe I'll get rid of Prosecco then. I would also going to choose Prosecco cause I feel like champagne is just always better

than Prosecco. It's just strictly better. Prosecco's good. I mean, I feel like Prosecco's always kind of whack. But I like being a girl who drinks a martini. So Prosecco's got to go for me. Aperol Spritz is like the slutty drink of the summer forever and Negroni just feels easy to say.

So Prosecco down the drain. Next time I go to a bar and I want an Aperol Spritz, I'm going to say, hi, can I have the slutty drink of the summer? I'm going to be like, I want Aperol Spritz right up. Thanks. The slut at the high top. Can't wait to see you get cuffed after that. Just throw it down the floor.

Hey, that was a single item must be banished Italian cuisine. Just like a restaurant value feedback. Let's open up the feedback. And today we have an email from Andrew who writes, long time first time, my question is regarding any rituals you might have when sharing a snack slash meal with a significant other to ensure that the distribution is fair. For instance, my girlfriend and I play a game where there's only a few bites left of something where we try to leave the other person half of what is left until the portion is so small

that one of us gives up and loses. Are there any fun things you do when sharing food? Hashtag Spoon Nation, hashtag YouSong did nothing wrong. But you did something wrong, Andrew. You misspelled YouSong's name. You fucking Spoon Nation dip shit. But anyway, let's talk about this because I made sure this came up earlier. You were talking about you and your SO will just get a completely different pie.

You'll get your own pizzas. Yeah. I don't want to play any of those little games. I get so irritated with that. I'm like, let's just slice it in half right away. And then if you don't want to finish your half, you can give me your half or the other way around. But we're getting half. I'm getting what's mine.

I don't like that. You two each their own, but if anyone tried to play all those fucking little games with me, don't waste your breath. Yes. Wait, what is the exact question here? Are there any fun things you do when sharing food? No. Any fun like little games or activities or anything?

No. To me, there's nothing fun about it. We're splitting up. Do you? Fun while sharing food? No, no. I mean, no, I'm not fun. I mean, like this is the thing is that Natalie and I will usually, yeah,

we'll either have our designated meals or we'll figure out ahead of time. Like, hey, this is mine. This is yours. Hey, which slices do you want if we're talking pizza? Which nuggets do you want? We're splitting nugs last night. See, for me, I just eye those slices that I want. I just fucking take them when I can.

You know what I mean? And if you choose a slice you want and then you go back and another slice you wanted is gone, you just shit out of luck. That's the way it goes. That's how the... You go with the slice that looks desirable to you first. And you know what? I will offer the person I'm with, if I'm sharing a pizza or something to be like,

go ahead, grab a slice. And then a lot of times they'll grab that good slice because they know what they're doing too. You know what I mean? They'll grab a good slice of pizza. You can't trust anyone. You can't trust anyone. And then you grab the next best slice.

Even if that means that you have to choose the slice that's not next to them, that's always a rough thing. If they're like, choose a slice and then they choose like this like golden slice. And you look to the right and the left of it and there's fucking little two dink slices and you're like, I'm not going to do a dink slice. I'm going to get myself a good slice. So that is... And especially when you're going for the first round, you usually take a couple slices.

So it's not usually an issue. But just eyeing it. Look, sometimes our answer is just no for some questions. The answer here is just no. The answer is just no. And we're eyeing it. We're in the game. Meet your eye at least.

We just know what we want as far as the food goes. And we're just playing the game. Those are the good little games. It's just a game in my head of what slices I want. That's it. Yeah. It's just... I have...

If I'm thinking about this, we're thinking tactically. We're not thinking of like, oh, this is a playful couples activity. It's like, okay. That's war. Yeah. That's war. That's it. The answer is no.

The answer is no. Your email. That's it. You can find joy in a lot of other places. I mean, it's not... Yeah. Not in the fucking food sharing. If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email

us at dowboyspodcasts at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 Godot. That's 830-4636-844. And you can get the Dowboys Double L weekly bonus episode by joining the Golden or Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash Dowboys. Also, check out the Dowboys Snack Pack Thursdays at 8.30 p.m. Eastern on Spotify Live. Our guest today, Mitra Johari. Thank you so much for being here, Mitra. An absolute delight.

Please come back on the show anytime you'd like. We'll jive out 40 minutes wherever you want to go. Anything that's like a plug-in time. Yeah. I guess Fozoli's, first of all, Shino Hills. Check it out. Make sure... Wherever you are, you want to be going a really long way to get there.

And through Busy Debra's on HBO Max, please. Hell yeah. Check it all out. I can't wait for the next time you're back and there's some chain restaurant in Alaska that Waggar and I fly out to. We can take a cruise to a chain in Alaska. Well, hey, that'll look forward to that. And that'll do it for this episode of Dowboys.

Until next time, friends, Spoonman, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Waggar. Happy eating. See ya. What's up, everybody? It's your boy, the Spoonman. And anyone who's looking for a little more Dowboys, I got some exciting news for you. It's the Dowboys Snack Pack on Spotify Live. That's right.

The Dowboys Snack Pack on Spotify Live. Every Thursday night, 8.30 p.m. Eastern time, the Dowboys will be eating snacks live on Spotify Live. You can check it out. We'll chat with you. We'll talk about snacks. We'll answer some questions. It's going to be a blast. Check it out.

8.30 p.m. Eastern, 5.30 p.m. Pacific, only on Spotify Live. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description.