Doughboys - Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken with Ben Gruber

Episode Date: June 7, 2018

Writer/comedian Ben Gruber (Monk, Teen Titans Go!, Little Big Awesome) joins to discuss one of his favorite foods, fried chicken, as provided by beloved Memphis original Gus’s. Gus and the ‘boys discuss the deleterious digestive effects of spicy cuisine, and partake in another edition of Snack or Wack.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On February 27, 1994, the NBA's Board of Governors approved a second Canadian expansion franchise to accompany previously announced Toronto and the Vancouver team that we known as the Grizzlies was born. While Commissioner David Stern was eager to extend pro basketball's reach into the great White North, ominous signs were present from the beginning as the team failed to sell its required season ticket quota before its inaugural year, being bailed out by Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Market, who bought up the remaining surplus. And in its early years, the team's apathetic reception by Vancouverite locals was only

exacerbated by its roster miscues, as it drafted busts like the sluggish Bryant Big Country Reeves and the talented but often injured Sharif Abdu'ra Rahim. In 2001, amid underperformance in the standings and, more importantly, in fan attendance, new owner Michael Hysley abandoned Saltwater City and moved the franchise to the home of the Blues, Memphis, Tennessee. And so began the residency of the Memphis Grizzlies, another relocated team with a geographical non-sequitur of a name, like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz. But also like the Lakers and Jazz, the Grizzlies would find success in their adopted home,

developing its trademark grit and grind identity with the acquisition of players like Zach Randolph, Marcus All, Mike Conley Jr., and Tony Allen. The team's bruising physical defense and throwback low post offense, colloquially referred to as Old Man Game, would propel them to a seven-year playoff run, accompanied by raucous sell-out crowds that hit its peak in a Western Conference finals appearance in 2013. But long before it was known for its hoops fanaticism, Memphis was a hub of southern cuisine. In 1973, in nearby Vernon, Tennessee, Ms. Maggie Vanderbilt and her husband Nah opened a restaurant, Maggie's Short Order, that became famed for its fried chicken.

In 1984, their son Gus used his parents' beloved recipe to open a breaded bird-centric concept of his own. The younger Vanderbilt's restaurant was a local hit, and after years of success, it launched its own expansion franchises. Now, with 25 locations slinging its signature spicy fried chicken insides, the chain is drawn praise from food celebs like Rachel Ray and Adam Richmond, and also from sportswriter Lang Whitaker, who now works for the Memphis Grizzlies organization, and who, in GQ Magazine, declared it, quote, the best fried chicken in the world.

This week on Doe Boys, Gus' world-famous fried chicken. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weigher, alongside my co-host, Postmates Malone, Mitchie Two Spoons, Mike Mitchell. I like that one. That was courtesy of Ryan Wells. If you have an insult you'd like to use on Mitch at the top of the show, roastspoonmanatgmail.com is the address. I use it too much.

I don't care about using it too much for a show, fuck all of it. You use it too much in general beyond that in your personal life. I got to get some food shopping done, I'm going to try to do it tomorrow. Like actually physically go to the grocery store, get some groceries. I went yesterday, I got yogurts, and I got a bunch of... You're on a yogurt kick. Yogurt helps my belly. You were telling that we were having lunch with our guest, just, wait, was that yesterday?

Sunday. Sunday, we were recording on a Tuesday. We were having, those two days ago, if my math is correct. So we were having lunch with our guest, and you were talking about how yogurt was helping your tum-tum. That's right. It is. It's helping my tum-tum.

Is easing the, you know, your off-to-present rumblies, we're subsiding. What's ever going on down there, or whatever, the acidic... I feel like it's like a... You cut me open, and it's like cutting open an alien, like from aliens. You know what I'm saying? Do they cut open the aliens from aliens though, or is that a guy has an alien inside him? They don't cut open... No, when they shoot the alien, the alien blood is basically acidic.

That's what I'm saying, I'm saying that if you open me up, I would be just as acidic as they... I would probably burn through the floor. Because when I think... When you're talking about some sort of stomach trouble in alien, I think what people think of is the chest buster scene. Yeah, well, I'm sorry I didn't go the fucking hacky route if I have an alien in my stomach. I didn't think that was a hacky route, I just wanted to clarify.

I wasn't saying, I wasn't critiquing your choice. Sharif Abdu-Rahim, I remember the days when the Celtics longed to trade for him, like trade scenarios that would get us Sharif Abdu-Rahim. Dark days. I know, I think Danny Angel was hot on him. Hey, he was a decent player. He was a decent player, but yeah, you're Celtics, the Antoine Walker era, where the team was not nearly...

I liked them. They were a fun team. They were all kind of fun. And when they beat the Nets, that comeback game against the Nets. Right. I don't know if you remember that. Wait, what era was this? The 2002 Eastern Conference finals, I believe, and it was one of the greatest comebacks of...

It was such a... I mean, I was already a fan at that point, but it really cemented being a huge Celtic, and really pushed the Celtics up to where through college they were one of my favorites. And who ended up winning that series? The Nets. And who ended up winning the championship that year? The fucking Lakers. And you know what?

It was one of those times that it was hard to root for either team because I hated the Nets and I hated the Lakers. But I don't know... You know, I would actually root for the Lakers in some scenarios. I don't know if the Celtics will get to the finals. They lost two in a row to the Cavs at home. The outcome will have been decided by the time this episode is released. We'll be in the finals.

I might be sad. But you know what? You were fucking wrong. You were really wrong. You said that Philadelphia was going to win in five games. You were way off. Yeah, I picked against them. I was kind of...

I was with the consensus. You know, I was picked Philadelphia in five games. Zach Lowe. Who knows more about hoops than Zach Lowe? Guess what? I know more about basketball than you. That's not true. I said the Celtics would win in seven.

You didn't make any predictions. I said the Celtics would win in seven with Philadelphia. I think you're right on that. That's true. I said it to you after you tweeted your thing. I said Celtics in seven. Wait, how many games did the Celtics win in though? They won it in five, I think.

So you were also wrong. But you were the reverse wrong. I don't know. I think you were the reverse wrong. And I said Celtics in seven for Cleveland. Which I think that they can pull off. It might happen. It might, but it might not.

Yeah, I'll come up and decide it. Ben decided by then. LeBron is really good, so who knows. But I mean, he's good. What can I say? Because that team sucks. Right. Anyway, I have a drop to play.

I know that we're taking too much time. We're going to introduce our guest. Yes. Here's a shitty drop. Yeah. Just going somewhere. I don't know. I don't think so.

I'm fine with it actually. I can get old. I took a shit. I took a shit. I took a shit. I took a shit. That was good. That was longer than normal drop, but it was great.

If you called up like Comcast, and that was like the hold music, hold your reaction B. You just sort of be pleasantly listening to like, you know, 16 bars of it, and then suddenly your voice cuts in. I'd be irked. You don't think that would be fun.

I think that would be so much better than normal weight music. Oh, so that was from Nick. I don't know if you noticed. Did you notice the song at all? Did you recognize the song? Yeah. It's a, I mean, that's the, the Zelda 64 main menu.

Which is often confused with the variations on the theme by Eric Satie, which is used at the end of my dinner with Andre. Yep. The relaxing Zelda drop. Yeah. Beautiful. Shampooedler. Thanks Shampooedler.

Nice work Shampooedler. Hey Mitch, let's introduce our guest. Yeah, it's been too long. A writer for Monk and Teen Titans Go, his new animated series, Little Big Awesome, is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Ben Gruber is here. Hi Ben.

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks. I already don't like the way I sounded in that. Oh well. Hi guys. And also his, his latest show has a little someone special on it. Who are you referring to? Maybe just a little old spoon man himself.

Oh, I think maybe I'm losing your viewers. It has you, you, he performed so well. I figured it was just going to be a guest spot, but he lit up the room in his guest spot. He's become a regular. The truth is I cried and said, please have me back. He now canonically in the show lives in the main character as played by Jess McKenna lives in Jess McKenna's hat.

Oh, that's cute. Yeah. Which will probably be some sort of real life scenario for me some day. Oh boy. Let's start the go fund me for spinal surgery. McKenna needs a new hip. I didn't mean while it's on her head. Okay.

I've been like a thrown away hat. She does wear great hats. Yeah. She's got some good hats. Our writer's assistant always was like Jonesen for all her clothes. Like Jessica would come in just like wearing a matching outfit of like pineapples. Yeah. And the ladies loved it.

Yeah. I feel like like Jess is a cool UCB person with a style and we're like the gross old men that should leave the theater, which we did. Oh God. You're for yourself. I'm wearing a bird shirt. You started looking at your shirt. I got a cool bird shirt on right now.

You're like Winnie from the new girl. Yeah. You think you're the type of the hip, cool people that there you think you're one of them. Bird shirts are cool. Honestly. I think this bird shirt is cut and edge. I could have said a hip clothing outlet.

I hope a fucking duck hunter shoots you one day. Ben, you're thank you so much for joining us. You're from outside Philly. I am. I'm from the Villanova area. You might know them as what are they? NCAA champs? Is that a thing?

I think so. Yeah. Didn't they just win this year? I don't follow college sports. Well, I don't either. I don't follow sports, but I know that the Eagles won and that then Villanova won. Hey, there you go. My grandpa went to Villanova, applied to get in, didn't get in, went to Ithica where you

are also an alumni. I am. That's true. You and I. But then he transferred. Is that what happened? What? My grandpa?

Yeah. No, he went to Villanova. You said he didn't get in. No, I didn't get in. Oh, you? Okay. I was confused. Yeah.

No. My grandpa went there. I applied. I thought you were talking about your grandpa not getting into Villanova. No. Which was very. No, he got in. Okay.

Probably had a blast. Yeah. That main line living is good. Yeah. 1930s Villanova. I'm not sure how it was then, but. They wore those fur coats and those boater hats. I just were waving pennants all the time.

That seems fun. Right. That's a thing. More fun than maybe I had it. I think we was and we were both Ithica alone. We were we were bonding over some food up there. The Arby's. The Arby.

That's right. The Taco Bell and you said Ben and Jerry's, which I think it was close. I think it wasn't there when I was there, but I could just be mistaken. It was definitely open while I was there. I know for a fact. Yeah. I wanted to watch this shows how cool I was in college. I wore now.

My friends wanted to watch all three Star Wars movies on VHS while eating the Vermonster, which is, I don't know how many scoops, 50 scoops of ice cream or something like that. So crazy. It comes in. Imagine someone was going to make the world's largest salad and then instead they made a Sunday. That's the kind of bowl that it came in. Right.

It was gigantic and you had to return the bowl. Oh, really? Yeah. So you could take the bowl up, but then you had to return it. Yeah. So we took it to my friend's apartment. How did that transport? Like how far were you driving?

Because I would think that would just be like a, that thing would be a melted mess by the time it got there. It was like five minutes. It was cold out. Right. But it was like, it did have to sit in someone's lap. Right. I was going to say it was cold out because, because it is always just cold in Ithaca.

Got it. But that, that, that was, that, that, that, I think that's probably the reason why I was never seeking out ice cream up there too much is because it was one degree outside. I've heard that action, that like this is a weird ice cream fact is that it sells better in colder territories. In colder territories. Yeah. Like Alaska and Minnesota have very high ice cream sales.

Is it because people are like being hard headed and they'll be like, fuck you, weather. I'll show you. I'm going to get ice cream. It might be. That, that could be part of the attitude. It could also be. You wanting to eat the snow in some way. Yeah.

Right. I wonder, I wonder if there is like kind of an instinct though it's like it's, it's just like, you know, whatever the weather is outside. It's kind of your, you want to match whatever that intensity is, you know. Yeah. Because you also look like, like, and this is partly just because of where the, where the, the, the, the, those crops grow. But like, you know, tropical climates are where all the spicy food is for the most part.

Yeah. Right. In Vietnam they're eating like spicy soups out in the street. Right. And it's super hot. And it's super hot there. Yeah. So.

I do crush a lot of soups here in this hot hell hole hole of LA. Hot hell hole is a little much. It's a. It's a hot hell hole. It's a hot hell hole. It's a hot hell hole. It's a hot hell hole. What are you talking about?

Yeah. It's not that hot. I mean, right now we got some, we got some May gray going on and some June gloom is coming, which I like, but it's still, it's hot. What are you talking about? There are times it gets hot, but I think, I feel like the LA is like more temperate than this. Like cause it gets super hot and like, it gets super hot in like DC and New York city.

It's swampy there. Yeah. That part's true. But look, look, I like, I've been here and it's been 118 degrees. Yeah, that's true. It's a desert for fuck's sake. I would say it's, if you go, if you go to the actual desert, like if you go to like Phoenix, Arizona or Las Vegas, Nevada, that's a lot hotter there and that gets a lot less

comfortable. I think LA is comparably temperate. And certainly if you go, if you go to like San Diego, it's delightful. It's also very hot. It's also very hot. But it's delightful. Well, have you noticed here, this is what I've noticed. I'm a somewhat recent transplant to LA.

Yeah. The native cuisine seems to be turkey dinners and, and the creamy kind of clam chowder. What do you call that? Boston clam chowder or something like that. Where are you? New England clam chowder. I did a lot of diners. Okay.

So like Patties, the tally rand. Right. Oh yes. I think some of these diners are like, I think these are people from maybe from who moved out here in like the fifties or something. Maybe that's it because everybody's offering that creamy clam chowder and like you don't want to, you don't want it to be 98 degrees and you're just chugging down clam chowder. Right.

Right. It's just not the first thing I think of when I think of LA food is a clam chowder. I was going to say, I was going to say this though. Yeah. In like at the ice cream power, which is the former, which used to be Brigham's. Yeah. Um, I feel like in the summertime, the ice cream sells way better. So I don't, I don't, I mean, like, look, there's holiday cream.

When are you creaming? When are you creaming? That's a good hashtag question. Careful with that hashtag. When are you creaming? Click with caution. Um, cause, cause I feel like look around the holidays, the ice cream goes way up. Right.

You're having some dessert. Sure. For you, you get ice cream every day, like a little boy, not every day. You had ice cream with us. I'm sorry. I don't want to spoil the meal, but no, we can. I mean, that's a teaser. Yeah.

You did have some ice cream. Yeah. No, I, we had, I got some, some pie a la mode. I do. I don't know. That's what you asked. It's true. Fine.

Yes. That's true. But I feel like around the holidays, it goes way up. But then also I feel like, well, you know what, maybe you're right though. Maybe in the, in the wintertime people are eating it. And then just in the one, like the break of summer, they, they go little ice cream nuts or something. Yeah.

I don't know. This is, I've, I haven't lived anywhere outside of Southern California in my life, but I've just, I've read that, that actually ice cream sales are higher in colder climates. Well, if you get a hot fudge Sunday, you at least get that warming fudge. That's true. That's sweet, sweet fudge. We should pour, we should pour fudge on the snow. What good would that do?

Just wasting fudge. For the last couple of years before moving to LA, my, my good lady wife owns a farm at the end of Long Island. Well, that's cool. It's super cool. It's right by the ocean. It's fantastic. We grow potatoes and corn if anyone needs any.

But there are no chain restaurants out there. Oh, wow. Just cause it's like the little weird towns or whatever, and they don't want them. What are you going to say, Mitch? I was going to say, can I, can I take Nick out behind the barn? Oh, and shoot him. You're going to hold me? Do you know, you can, that's just murder.

The, the guy, Petey, who farms our farm does people pay him in the winter to go to the back of the farm and shoot birds. Oh man. So you'll, I was sleeping in the house. Yeah. Nobody told me this at first. I was sleeping in the house, and all of a sudden I'm hearing like multiple gunshots and just seeing like birds raining down.

Oh my God. Canadian geese raining down from the sky. So they just sit in the blind in the back. Is it because they go after the crops? Is that what it is? No, no, no. They just want to eat them. Oh.

They pay the, they're like local people who want to go hunting and they hunt on the farm. They just shoot birds out of the sky. But this is your wife's farm? Yes. Weird. I'm just, I'm, this whole arrangement is crazy to me. Well, you know, his, his, he pays us some of that. Got it.

We use that money to pay like property taxes and stuff like that. I got a question for you. Yeah. We visited it for a second earlier when I, when I said the duck hunt thing. Do we ever see the protagonist of duck hunt? You are the protagonist. I know that you are. It's a prototypical first person shooter.

You see yourself. It's just you? Yes. And that dog who's laughing at you like a little fucker. Yeah. You'll see that dog. You'll see, you'll see the protagonist when you turn off your TV screen. You see the reflection in that CRT.

No, I don't like that. I like to. It's you. I think that you're like controlling your, your, your controlling some sort of animated character too. I don't know. Does it, does it irk you when you're like in a, you know, you're, you're playing like Wolfenstein and it's just like, you're just seeing the, the, the.

Yeah, but that also is some sort of character, right? Or no. I mean, yeah, it's a character. Some of these games, you don't really ever see them like, like half life. You basically never see Gordon Freeman. Yeah. Why don't you just imagine your favorite game character is holding that gun. It's definitely Kubrick.

Yeah. Josh Gad's. Josh Gad's wife. Kubrick is now is they, they only made a super duck hunt. I'm sorry that I'm going on this duck hunt page. It just popped in my head. They only made super duck hunt afterwards. Right.

They never went further than that. There was a sequel. I only remember the first one. Was there not a super Nintendo one? Hold on. Oh, maybe I'm wrong. I remember a, well, you know what it might have been because they had the super scope. That was not as good of a referral or engineer.

Our engineer, by the way, our engineer, Rob, here is with us today. Emma is out of town. So Rob's going to be helping us out for this episode. But our engineer was, was nodding along. Did you have the, the duck hunt? Did you have the super Nintendo version? Okay. He had the super scope as well, I think.

And they did not do much. It was like a bazooka. It was not as cool as the original one, which was more of a handgun. But hold on. I'm going to look up the duck hunt series. I guess just guns became problematic. Right. For chill.

Maybe is that why Nintendo started to go away from it? Don't know why, why they did that. I think, I think part of their calculation was, cause this was, this was, that would have been like 1992, 1994, somewhere in that range. That was before like there was like all the, Yeah, we loved guns back then. There was less gun panic then. Yeah.

There was a specific dongle just for duck hunt or like a, not dongle. You were saying dongle earlier. He was talking about his wang. The dangle of his dongle, the whole thing. That was weird. It was, it was very unpleasant. There's a specific controller just for duck hunt. Yeah.

The NES zapper, which was like a little handgun. And then you could put something else on it. You could play other things on the zapper. You could, there was a, there was duck hunt. There was what else? I mean a wild gunman, Hogan's alley, gumshoe. I remember I had gumshoe, which was a very, I spent way too much time playing a very bad platformer that you controlled with a light gun.

It was bizarre. There was Mario ends it. Right. He takes his own life. Yeah. My friends from one of my birthdays, I don't remember what it was. Got me the power glove. Oh yeah.

Was that what the name of it was? Yeah. Yeah. The Nintendo power glove. Like in hindsight, I think then it was, was seen as cool, but a terrible. Oh yeah. It didn't work that well, but I did enjoy just wearing it. Yeah.

And pretending I was from the future. Yeah. There was also like some sort of shoes. Again, very cool. They really, the, what are they called peripherals? Yeah. They really, they really tried some terrible ones with Nintendo. There was a bunch of stuff that didn't really work.

Although I think that the power glove was not, I think that was a Mattel thing. I don't think that was an official. Okay. The power pad was. The power pad was Nintendo. So I'm not having any luck. I've been kind of buried in my laptop here. I have, I'm not having any luck tracking down a super duck hunt.

The closest I can see is that there was the, there was versus duck hunt, which was releases in arcade game. Maybe I'm just thinking of the super scope. Yeah. The super scope had some, might have had a duck hunt similar game, but the only other duck hunt thing I could come across was that the dog was in super smash brothers. That's right. Yeah.

The dog is, he fights in super. That's insane. The one who last hit you fights in a game. Yeah. Oh, I'd love to kick that dog. That would be great. You can fight the dog. I would love to hit the dog.

Yeah. You can beat the shit out of the dog if, if, if you want. Do they keep him around or did he die off even as a character? And so you, what you're actually doing in, in the smash brother series, the duck, let me see, let me see if we can find an image here is that you're playing, you're not playing as the dog. You're playing as duck hunt in the abstract. So we see that you get a dog and duck combo spirit of duck hunt.

Yeah. Right. You get a dog dot combo and they've got some like crazy moves. And then they're like the zapper is like an element of it to actually don't really remember how this character plays. It's, he's not even, he's looking. This is a page for Ashley Madison up on his computer. I don't know what he keeps talking about this duck hunt.

Yeah. They rejected my application. Oh no. But so, okay. So you guys, we were talking about farms. We're talking about Ithaca. We've, we're on this duck hunt. Yeah.

I was talking about, there was no chain restaurants out at the end of Long Island except for a Carvel. Ooh. And as freezing as it would get out there, we would go to Carvel like a weird amount. I would get that hot fudge Sunday and the hot fudge would like was enough. It was enough to warm me up. Right. But when we moved to here, I moved up in the, like the hills above like Burbank, like

where Warner Brothers is, there's a Chipotle. We moved, when we moved here, we were like, we're two minutes away from a Chipotle. It was like the greatest thing. So for maybe the first year we were here, we were just constantly, constantly going down the hill to get Chipotle, shove that into our face. And it was like the greatest, the greatest delicacy of all time. It's a, that's, that's dangerous territory when there's a chain you like that's like super close by Chipotle.

You can't, if you're good there, you can do okay. You can get the salad or a bowl. It's just hard to exert that level of control. We were just talking about this today. Who, who was it? The, uh, uh, Braun Strowman, the wrestler. Oh yes. He, he, he likes it because it's cheap and you can eat, you can, I think you can get

some healthy meal. I mean, you can do a bowl or protein or whatever. There's a weirdo who goes to this particular Chipotle who just is crushing containers of guacamole, like multiple containers of guacamole. Wow. That's all he eats. Like he'll get like five or six guacamole containers, sit at a table, eat that guacamole and hit the, hit the bricks.

That's insane. What a mad man. Yeah. Yeah. Super gross. A guac nut. That, this seems like a future murderer, the guac nut. Does he, he doesn't get anything else.

He just gets the guac. Does he have it with chips? He's just eating guac. What on earth? Like, I guess it's, it's good fat. It'll make his coat shiny. I don't really, I don't know. I'm assuming it's a weird diet.

I just, I just don't know. I remember Chipotle being like such a, it was a West coast treat when I first came out here. Right. Cause I didn't, it hadn't moved to the, the East coast. There's now one in Quincy even, they even came to Quincy. They're everywhere now. And I think that is a place that really like went from, like there was a, there was a point

where it seemed like Chipotle was set, had so much, such a novelty to it. And everyone, everyone was like, oh, wow, Chipotle, this is awesome. Oh, a new Chipotle. Let's go try out this new Chipotle. And now I think that they've kind of gotten, I don't know where the expansion problem. They got knocked on their ass because even this Chipotle is not as good as when I first moved here. Right.

The quality kind of went down. What was after all those food scares? Oh, that's what it was. It's like, it's like, they're like, we're not making as much money. Let's not put as much money back into it. So it's like, it's that cyclical thing where it just gets worse and worse. Speaking of, on one of your first podcasts, you guys went to a Hawaiian barbecue place in Glendale, which, which I then went to thinking like, oh, this sounds good.

And it was for a long time, my favorite restaurant. Wow. Wow. I thought you're going to be like, it sucks. I know. It was amazing. I loved it. Um, but recently that has fallen off, which has been super sad, the quality of the meats

that they're cooking with, because it hasn't been very crowded, so maybe they're just not making money anymore. It was, it was, it was like the top choice. Speaking of, also speaking of, I'm staring at the Dave Thomas cup, which is glorious. Yes. Um, next to my monster jar, our trophy for our chain restaurant tournament. We had in March. I did want to say that bar none, the greatest, uh, chain restaurant dish is the spicy chicken

sandwich from Wendy's. Wow. All things. Wow. You're speaking our language. Yeah. It's, it's the greatest. Yeah.

A lot. I thought about this a lot. Paul Scheer, Jessica McKenna, Jordan Morris, I've been bothering these people for years about being on the show, how great it would be, how great it is for them when they're on the show. Uh, I did it guys. I'm here. I'm sitting at the sitting glass table staring at the Dave Thomas cup.

They probably so baffled when you said something like that. Why? No voice. Jess was really into it. She loves the show. We gotta have her back. So, uh, but, but okay, but this is, I'm interested about this because one thing we were, we were talking about at lunch is that, and I know the spicy chicken sandwich is not particularly

spicy, but you are someone who, as you have gotten older, and this is a, this is a, an ailment that is befell our, our friend Mitch as well, um, you, you can't handle spicy foods as much like from a stomach standpoint and that evening, the night of Sunday evening, because not only did I eat the spicy chicken, uh, with you guys, I went to a friend's house who made spicy enchiladas. I slept maybe one to two hours that night and, uh, by, I had no acids in the house, which was a huge mistake. Oh, that's brutal.

Uh, so just burning, like I, to the point where I was choking and I was like, kind of couldn't breathe a heartburn. I sound really hot. Don't I? Ladies, it sounds pretty good. My wife and I are having problems, but this, that, I had the, the rumblies as you liked to call it. Oh yeah.

Right. As a bit of a heat seeker. Hmm. Yeah. Uh, I used to love, I love, I loved spicy food. I love, I, I still do, but, but I, I, I am this. I was, I had stomach problems until last night until like, uh, like I, well, I did a similar thing.

Wait. You mean from our meal we had on Sunday. You had stomach problems until last night. I did the similar thing though where I got a, I got a chicken burrito for dinner, which wasn't, I didn't think it was that spicy. I didn't, I like tried to make it not spicy. I tried to have like just kind of a plain chicken burrito. But I did use some salsa.

So maybe that's what it was, but, but, but I, but I like was like hurting until I went and did the UCB show last night and it was almost, I had to run back to the house. I felt sick. I was almost, I was, I got there right in time for the show. I was, I, I, like, uh, it, it, the, the spiciness of the food we ate on Sunday killed me until, till last night. I heard about that show. Like you kept trying to steer every scene, uh, towards your character leaving the stage

and going to the bathroom. What a nightmare. Yeah, that's brutal. Which we can all, we all, we all can know about the nightmare of having to use the restroom when about to do a live show. Oh yeah. A night, a nightmare. Have you, have you had the thing where you're like in a business meeting and it

happens? I've had that where I'm trying to pay attention and I'm just like, I get the flop sweats from having to go to the bathroom and I can, I can just can barely think and I'm trying to like be present and it's, it's, it's near impossible. I told you, I told you this yesterday. Yeah. I went, I had an audition yesterday and I said that if, if I shit my pants in the audition, that this place gets zero forks, you actually told me if you shit, like

cause it was an auto correct issue. You said, if I shit my pages at this audition, this place gets zero forks and then you later corrected it to pants like an hour later, but I was like shit my pages. I haven't heard that before. Which means that I, that's a very intentional thing to do to shit your pages. I was, I was once, um, I, cause so not only do I have a bad stomach, but I'm also a bashful pooper.

So I don't like, I don't like public restrooms or like even a, like here, I wouldn't poop here. I would have to go home. Yeah. Um, so I was in midtown Manhattan. Uh, all of a sudden something hit me. I was like, Oh no, I was in an office with the worst bathroom in the world. I was like, you can't do it here.

I got on the subway, which took about 45 minutes to get home and the whole time again, just like white knuckling it. Oh boy. Yeah. I got problems. I should probably have just gone like I didn't do myself any favors. I'm probably doing damage to my body by like doing that as well. Yeah.

That's tough though. I know the feeling. I like you, you have that sort of a hundred percent the same way. You have those intestinal emergencies and you're sort of like, what am I going to do? I had a similar thing on the LA subway actually texted on the Choo Choo. I was on the Choo Choo. I was like, Oh boy, I'm, this is going to be a bathroom emergency.

And I, uh, uh, but I texted, I admit you were on this group text. I texted a bunch of friends like, Hey, anyone know a bathroom, a good public restroom near LA live, where I was going, which is like kind of this downtown shopping center and our good friend Evan Susser suggested the, uh, the lobby of the Ritz Carlton and I tell you what, I went in there, I walked in. No one gave me any trouble because I just looked like I was supposed to be there. And I'm a, I'm a, that's white male privilege and I, I, I walked right in it. It was a glorious, private, executive, sweet style restroom.

It worked out great. Were you wearing like one of these fancy bird shirts? Yeah. One of my many bird shirts. Well, no wonder they were like, look at this billionaire walking in here. Oh, there's birds on his shirt. I'm the protagonist of duck hunt. I talked to Natalie and she said that you texted her.

Oh no, I might poo poo on the Choo Choo. Is that true? Why is she telling you what we're texting? We talk a lot. Wait a minute. Uh, I was going to say, to go back to something before, I can't let it die. And this, uh, this is, this could be a good hashtag. I'll let you think of the name of this, but how are you making your Sunday?

What, what are you doing on your ice cream Sunday? We've, I don't think we've ever talked about this before, have we? Yeah, I don't know if we have. Yeah. Hashtag plans for Sunday. S-D-A-E. They get it. Yeah.

Put that one together on your own. Um, you know, I like a Sunday with a, with a, I do like a banana split. This is something Natalie likes. Classic banana split. I'm going to say, I'm going to say my point in a second. But I would, but I, but for me, that's like more of a special occasions thing. I think in general, I like pretty standard ice cream. Like if we're talking about things like like vanilla, maybe a strawberry, nothing

too fancy, because I want those flavors to be pretty basic. So the toppings can shine. I like some hot fudge on there. Or I think, you know what? I like a hot topping either hot fudge or a hot butterscotch. Um, you got to have some crunchies. I would usually go with like almonds or, or not, or, you know, peanuts, standard peanuts, whipped topping, got to have, and I love a maraschino cherry.

Got to throw one of those on top. You know, this is funny because I, people are not going to like my answer. But how about you, Ben? What, what, what's usually your, what's your Sunday? Normally you can't get a chocolate ice cream. Well, I always go hot fudge, right? So you can't get chocolate ice cream with that. It's too much chocolate.

It's, I'll go for like, like a cookie dough sort of thing. Ooh, that's so, so you got that in there and just a hot fudge. I want those nuts. I'm also talking about testicles. I want those too. So yeah, hashtag, I want those nuts. And then just whipped cream. I want that cherry.

Yeah. Um, you want a man to dip his testicles into the Sunday for a moment. Yes, exactly. So I go back in time to that state sketch where they dip his balls. Go back forward in time. Then eat the Sunday, but I don't want, take that fucking garbage. I don't want gummy bears on it. Don't put any candy on it.

I don't want that shit. Keeping the bug away. Oh yeah. No, no, no, no gummies, but also gummy as its place, but not on a Sunday. Here's, here's a gummy definitely has its place. Um, here's, here's what I was going to say. Uh-huh. No gummies, nothing like that, but I don't like fruit.

I don't, I don't, I'm not putting any like strawberry or, I'm not even doing strawberry ice cream. Here's my ideal Sunday. One scoop of vanilla, one scoop of chocolate, hot fudge, maybe some caramel or something. I don't know, but probably not. Or butter sauces, relax, whipped cream and a cherry on a very basic Sunday. I like them basic.

There's a reason it's a classic. Yeah. There's a reason conventions are conventions. I'm trying to think of them as like maybe a little marshmallow. Like it depends. Like the other dipping sauce, if you're going to put more, it's too saucy now. Too. All right.

That's fair. I think, you know, I maybe had some success with some, like a little salted crumble, like a little crumble on there. Maybe had some success with some Oreo pieces, Oreo pieces are different from the like gummies or something like that because that comes in native to some ice creams. Sure. So I think it's fine.

Yeah. But I'm not even going nuts. I'm not even, I'm not even neither, neither nuts are going on my ice cream. I'm, I'm, I'm going to do a hot fudge and basically hot fudge and whipped cream and a cherry. I will say this. I am almost always a fudge guy.

If you happen to be in Brooklyn in Dumbo, down under the Manhattan bridge overpass, maybe eating one of the pizzas there that are very famous. At the end of the little dock they built, there's a little lighthouse, which is an ice cream place. They make everything in house, get their chocolate chip, vanilla chocolate chip ice cream with their homemade strawberry topping. Man, so damn good. This is not a strawberry topping guy.

Right. This sounds like a magical play of the, it's, it's in a lighthouse. It's in a little baby lighthouse at the end of a little dock down in Dumbo. Oh man. Um, and there are two super famous pizza places like 500 feet from it. Oh man. So you can eat all that good dairy and then get real farty while you walk around the park.

It's really, really good. It sounds like the kind of place you have to like answer a riddle to get inside. It's paradise. Uh, yeah, that's, that sounds awesome. Hey Nick, maybe we can go there someday. It's very romantic to, a lot of people do their weddings around there. So, yeah, you guys could hold hands.

It'll be cute. Mitch, we could renew our vows. The Doughboys vows. The ones we took before episode one. Um, but wait, I want to return to another topic we talked about a few minutes ago, just because like, okay, you can't handle spicy food. But yet you like the Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich. Are you just like, I'm just going to take this hit because I like the

sandwich enough or what is it? That sandwich is not spicy enough to hurt my stomach. Got it. Yeah. And I don't think the chicken we ate was what hurt my stomach. I think it was the enchiladas, plus me being just prone to heartburn. And then I think the whole day and the day before I had tried, I had, I was on deadline, uh, professional writer, uh, whatever.

Um, so you're saying like professional nerves are involved. Well, no, no. Well, I was, I, I tend to just stuff my face when I have a deadline. So I was eating an incredible amount of candy to just keep going. And then I went to McDonald's because I keep seeing those commercials for that freaking, uh, that new quarter pounder. Oh yeah. We had that pretty recently with our friend, Jenny Pearson.

So I had, I had that a large fry. I had a little side of six and it McNuggets, but it was not a good few days for me. By the way, did, did you, did the, did the, uh, well, that episode have aired where you talk about? Yeah, I've been out by now. Well, I don't understand what's different about it. It's, it's, I loved it. It wasn't bad.

I just don't understand what was different. I've, it's juicier. It's a little bit more flavorful. I don't know. I thought it was very funny saying that he doesn't, he didn't like the change. He doesn't like the frozen one better like the frozen fatty. He doesn't want any beef at McDonald's to be potentially pink, right?

Which, uh, I guess I get, uh, uh, it's also weird that he like went on a long Twitter rant, calling out McDonald's about Jack, calm down. He was like personally naming the CEO of McDonald's saying he was responsible. Wow. Yeah. It's very weird. Uh, I might have gotten a bad one. I think I got a bad one that just seemed like the old one because maybe it was

just like so overcooked that, uh, it seemed like the old one. I think this is a thing because it's a fresh ingredient. I have after, after my stomach problems, I had one last. Did it, but did it hold up? Was it good? It was great. Yeah. I thought they were, I thought it was fantastic.

I will say it is weird and different in some way. It's definitely a little bit different, but you know that that's what I was going to say. I think because it's a fresh ingredient, they have less control of it over at the industrial level. So there's more variants in terms of which individual McDonald's is preparing it because McDonald's, I think famously has a wide range of how good McDonald's could be.

I mean, I, you, there's some shitty McDonald's. Yeah. Um, and there's some that are just fantastic. We're fortunate to live, Natalie and I are fortunate to live right by one of the best McDonald's I've ever been. Of course the Santa Monica has a great McDonald's, but even within McDonald's, even though it's Santa Monica, there's three McDonald's and, uh, there's one that's not that great.

There's another one that's fine, but then there's one that's fantastic. Well, then I'm calling out the one on Olive and Burbank. Oh boy. Fuck you. Wow. You made a shitty new quarter. Wow. I was so excited and you ruined it.

Fuckers. But anyhow, we keep digressing to different things. I will not stop eating spice ever and I will actually organize my calendar. If there's like, so there's a place that makes really spicy Indian food. I wanted some lamb vindaloo. If I eat that, I'm probably done for two days. Wow. I will just like not schedule anything for two days so I can eat the lamb

vindaloo. I like that. Yeah, because I obsess about food. I think about we had fried chicken. I think about fried chicken all the goddamn time. I think about that Nashville hot chicken here in Koreatown. I always forget the name. Helen Reyes.

Yeah. Yes. I've never been there. I think about it all the time. Like, should I go there? Should I wait in line? Should I? I think you got to do it.

Just to schedule it. Nick and I have said that of all the vices, food is probably the one that we like the most. Yeah, I think so. And it is the thing that I think of. I do think about it far too much. I'm similar in the same way, but I do think that what we ate, which is gusses, yeah, I think that it did.

I think it did hurt my stomach. I think I think it was spicy enough and Helen Reyes, I ate some of the howling level, which is insanely, it's insane. And I was down for, I was down for a couple of days. Like, if you want to eat that level of it, you got to give yourself two days for that, at least. You just feel it right in your lower intestine, possibly your upper intestine. I said, some part of your intestine and it just burns and you keep thinking you

have to go to the bathroom, but you don't have to go to the bathroom. Wait, so I'm curious. Do I think I'm obsessed with food because I have five older brothers. And so it was like, you better eat that food or it's going to be gone. Oh, interesting. And so I had to constantly be wary of like getting to the food. Do you guys have big families? It's like, no.

No, I only have one older brother and he's a he's a lot more of a cooler. Yeah, he's cooler. He's more athletic. He's more successful because he's got a family owns a house. Yeah, people like him. He's got friends. My parents respect him. Like cold salad.

He's doing well, but my, but that was like, what I was going to say is that he was like a little bit more like he was a guy who's always doing sports and stuff. He was a little bit more athletic where I was more of the guy who was, you know, didn't want to do any of that. I would, I would lean on my asthma to try to get out of PE. I like fitness now, but a loser. Yes. Yeah, you were a chubby as a younger.

Yeah, I was, I was a chubby, chunky kid. And then also like in my house, just my parents never got bless them, but never, never for a second thought about eating healthy. It was just sort of like whatever we want is like available. And not that we were like spoiled in terms of like, hey, you're going to, we're going to take you out for whatever you want at any time. But it was just sort of like, there was never, maybe you shouldn't eat that. It was just like, oh, you want cookie crisp cereal?

Like, all right, sure. We'll get you cookie crisp cereal. And that was like what I eat before school. So, I mean, and I, and I, like you mentioned earlier, Mitch, you were trying to roast me by saying I have ice cream every day. I don't as an adult, although I do have a weekly ice cream appointment. But, but I, yes, it's a regularly scheduled ice cream in your mouth. It's not like going to the dentist, but we do regularly on Sundays.

We're like, oh, we'll go get a little ice cream treat. And it is a man in a dentist's coat. So, but, but as a kid, we had ice cream for dessert every night. I had ice cream every night as a child, like until I left the house. You had a much better life than me. Yeah. So that's crazy to have it every night. Yeah.

So that's what food was just sort of accessible for me. I would, what about for you, Mitch? I know you've described your family situation before, but go ahead. I feel like they wouldn't, they would buy some stuff. You know, they, they, they bought soda, which I think is the downfall for a lot of weight gain in kids. Yeah, we were a Pepsi family, but we had a lot of it. And I would just, I would just, I would, yeah, I know that's so insane

that you're a Pepsi family. I don't even want to get into it again. My father wouldn't allow it in the house because he used to work for Coke. Oh, wow. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, wouldn't allow Pepsi or Pepsi in the house. Oh, he was Coke, Coke family all the way.

Yeah. We were, we were, we were a Coke family, except I think we did have like, we'd have Pepsi every so often. But there was no siblings fighting over food. There was no, no, not really. I mean, like my sister, like I will get like, like with my sister or something, I get defensive over like the last slice or something. So my sister to this day thinks that I'm like a terrible share with food,

which I am, I'm not good with sharing with food. And this is why, because I'm always like, the thing that bugs me with food is when you ask someone if they want something and they say, no. Yes. And then you get it. And then they eat from it. That drives me more insane. Never date, never date anyone.

Yeah. As you can see, that's what happened with me. Basically, that's true. There's no danger of that. No, it was having seen your apartment. My sister, my sister says that, but I always thought that, but like, I don't think that we were fighting over stuff. I feel like we would, it would always be a cleaner plate.

Like it was like, finish your dinner, eat your food that you had. And they weren't like very strict about specific stuff, but I think a lot of my damage I did on my own, you know, which was like, you know, like eating terrible food when I was out with my friends and just, and, and honestly, like the sodas in my house. And then also like I would have football practice and I would sometimes sleep through dinner and then I go downstairs and like make myself a box of macaroni and cheese.

That's just growing up though. Yeah. Yeah. My, um, both my parents worked. So we would eat, they would bring us like a lot of fast food and stuff like that. Um, and it's not like we didn't have food. We had it. I was just insecure about it because my brothers would eat a lot of it or all of it.

Um, but even like, it took me like, I remember being, I don't know, I was 13 or 14, uh, I had already eaten dinner. My, one of my brothers, my brother, Jared had some sort of after school activity. He went to it. My mom brought him home late, had stopped at Roy Rogers, which was a fast food chain. I don't know if you guys know about it. I've, I've heard of it.

I remember they, they were, they did fried chicken and roast beef sandwiches were their things. And I was obsessed with their roast beef sandwiches. Um, and they brought it home and I was like, ooh, great. Mom brought me some Roy Rogers, but it was just for Jared. And again, I was maybe 14 years old and way too old for this. I started crying and she was like, it's all he has to eat. And I remember screaming.

It's all I have to eat. Like pathetic little fatty. Um, and even still, like if I go to like a wedding and it's a buffet or something like that, I'm like, I get so angry at the people ahead of me, thinking they're going to take everything. Oh wow. Yeah. I'm like a sheepdog I used to have.

If you got anywhere near his food, he would, uh, just, just to clear things out for listeners, your, your brother, Jared, did he grow up to be Subway's Jared or not? Um, close. He is definitely a sex offender. Oh, but no, he's not. Jesus Christ. He grew up to be, he's a one hit wonder.

Oh, no way. Yes. He, well, I guess actually this is his song has both to do with being a sex offender and food. It's a sex and candy. That's your brother, brother, your brother's the sex and candy guy. Really? Yes.

That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, that's, and also a one hit wonder is, is nothing. That's, that's a thing to be proud of. That's one more hit than I have. Yeah. Look, yeah, his life is great. He, uh, complains about it a lot and then, uh, he's driving a Porsche.

He lives in the most expensive neighborhood in Philadelphia. He has never worked a day in his life. Uh, life's okay for him. He used to live in F Scott Fitzgerald's old house on an island. He's done all right. He's, Marcy Playground was the band. Yes. Jared Kotler.

Jared. Yeah. He's right in here. His name is that, is his name spelled correctly in his Wikipedia? Uh, K-O-T-L-E-R. We have different fathers. Okay. Someone's got to fix that in the sex and candy.

Oh, no, it's, it's a fucked up. Yeah. Someone's got to, so there's a little typo there. So it was him and this guy, other guy that we went to high school with. And he was, you were saying your brother, was he, was he like a sport, a sport old guy when, when you were younger? No, my other, all my other brothers were sportos. Except for my, that brother and myself.

Okay. I was a fat little nerd and, uh, he was a good looking kid who was, uh, very musically gifted. Wow. Mitch, sex and candy, a song you and I can relate to half of. We'll take a break. We'll be back with more dough boys. Welcome back to dough boys here with Ben Gruber.

Hello, we're talking about Gus's fried chicken. So we're there at the Burbank location. I'd never been there before. I'd heard of it and I'd say, I'm a love, I like you, Ben. I'm someone who loves fried chicken. It might be my current favorite food. It's a great food. It's, it's great.

Fried chicken is great. And, um, you know, I know this place is reputed to be a great place. But it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, I know this place's reputation. It is a place, I think in terms of its, its trajectory, it was just kind of this local haunt for a while. And like a lot of these, like, like some of these places, you know, has been established for years before they decided to start franchising

and expanded fairly rapidly, though it hasn't quite like, it's not quite like Halal Glai's territory where it's just spread everywhere super quickly. Um, but, uh, but there are, there are a few locations now and I am interested in if any, any Memphis locals want to tell us how the original Gus's is and if you've compared it to any of the chain locations, how, how it compares. Um, but you'd been there before, right, Ben? I was there, I had read about it opening and again, started thinking about it all the time.

Right. I went maybe like in the first two weeks and was less than impressed. Okay. In the first two weeks. This was at the Burbank location. This was at the Burbank location. Um, and so I was preparing myself before we went on Sunday. Um, to be like, yeah, it's still bullshit.

But, uh, and, and thinking about the different styles of fried chicken and stuff like that. And I was like, yeah, they do the bad kind. Like the coding is different than the other kind of coding that I like. Sure. Like it's not craggy coding. Like Kentucky fried chicken is more of a craggy, uh, breading, I guess you would say this is a smoother breading.

Yeah, it's a little tighter. Um, it's really, I think it's really tight. Yeah, it is. Well, I'll say this. There was a huge difference in what we ate on Sunday and what I ate in that second week. Interesting. Yeah.

Quality levels, like they dialed it in. Yeah. I noticed that actually happened with, and, you know, shake shacks are a little inconsistent out here, but I do say we did go to this, one of the earliest shake shacks or one of the first West coast shakes, the act, uh, and it's very, boy, I can't talk right now. And it's, uh, and it's first couple of weeks of operation. And it was a little like it was not great.

And then they got, it got a little better as it progressed. Shake shacks, uh, chicken sandwich, by the way, fucking bullshit. Wow. Fucking bullshit. I love shake shacks. Yeah. I like the burgers and I like the little fries. I like their.

Concrete's or whatever they call the rice creams. Wow. That chicken sandwich is fucking bullshit. I, I, I like it in the way that I like the McChicken sandwich. Sure. It's just such, it's, it, to me, it's just like you, you better not have that be your, like that's going to be a side sandwich. And I know that that's, you know, a fat guy speak when I'm saying, I'm so with

you on my wife makes fun of me all the time for being a side sandwich guy. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's the, the, the, the, the, that one at Shake Shack is, is definitely a side sandwich. It's not, it's not your main, it's not your, it's not your Mc, and you know what? The McChicken is a side sandwich too.

Yeah. They're quite, and I don't want to even say the McDonald's cheeseburger is a side sandwich unless you get a couple of them. I would say that, you know, another side sandwich for me, actually this will be, you know what, we can use this hashtag, hashtag side piece. Let us know what, let us know what side sandwiches you like my go to for a while was the, um, the jalapeno cheeseburger, Carl's Jr. Hardee's, and that, that's like, it's a, it's, it's not quite as substantial as

like that Western bacon burger, but it's like, it's like a good value. It was on their value menu for a while and talking about the rumblies, that sandwich, yeah, those jalapenos. It's got some jalapenos on it. I got, I got some kick to it. Yeah. But wait, how many Wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches will you eat? That's not a side sandwich.

No, that's not a side sandwich. No, that was substantial enough. Or do you, or do you get it like a side cheeseburger with that? I get a side junior cheeseburger. Smart. I usually just get that and then some, you know, I'll get like, uh, I'll get fries or a chili or a, a baked potatoes aside. But yeah, usually that's, that spicy chicken sandwich is substantial enough for me.

It depends though. It's a gray area. I get, there's nothing wrong with getting a second sandwich when you're getting that one. The one, the one, the, the Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, like we said before, is the perfect level of spicy and it doesn't hurt my, which is crazy. Right. It doesn't hurt your stomach.

Like, no, I never, never, as a matter of fact, if I'm going on a road trip or if I'm at the airport here, there's a Wendy's or is there a Wendy's in Philadelphia? One or the other, the point is I'm afraid to eat anything before getting on a plane, but I will eat a Wendy's chicken sandwich. Interesting. And never, never had a trouble. I'm not going to shit my pants on the next plane I get on. Well, you bet.

Ben, you and I were there and we were waiting for Mitch for a bit. So we ordered a, I was so happy about this. I showed up. I see Nick sitting outside on a bench and I look at my watch and I see that somebody is late. I was so happy. I was seeing it happen in real life. So we got a, so I got myself a sick fuck.

I'm just saying what happened. I got myself a sweet tea, which I thought was quite good. I met you. Now it's going to be like, if I get there at like 12, oh one or something, are you going to start? Look, I'm not saying that's the time I got there. I was about nine minutes late. You were 11 minutes late.

According to what? Well, you fucking, do you have a stopwatch? I took a stream cap of my phone when you arrived. Hold on. Guess what? Your phone's off. You fucking, this makes me shit. You arrived at 111.

Not bad. Pretty good time. You asked me. I had to, I told you, I texted you on my way that I had to stop for gas. I ran out of gas. It's fine. Fuck you. Anyway, I mean, it's awkward.

Nick and I don't know each other and we were said to be and sit there together. Oh, oh, we had met before, but we don't know each other. Sure. I thought, I thought we did grow very close though over. You can, you can never really know Nick. I'm learning that. Mitch, you're so averse to just starting on time that our engineer Rob, who's here today, showed up a little early and you shoot him away.

He was welcome to come in the house. I was in my underwear. Okay. I was, I wasn't trying to kick him out of here. Yeah, but the thing is you had pants on and you took them off. I did say to you, which I said to Nick that I probably shouldn't have said, I'll turn the mic towards you. But I said that I don't have my pants because I opened up the peephole to look

at you and then I said to Nick, he's talking about the people in his underwear. It was very demure. As soon as I yelled at like, I don't have pants on. I was like, why was I, why did I tell him that? But I was, I was around here cleaning. I didn't have my, I was just running around in my boxers, cleaning up the house a little bit. Picture that ladies.

Honestly, a lot of people will like that. I, you know, look, did you have like a light sheen of sweat all over while you were doing? I think that she never goes away. Nick, you're feeding the trolls. They're going to get mad at me. It was fine. No, we had, we had a very pleasant experience.

Wait a minute. Anyway, what I was going to say to that sweet tea, I thought was quite nice. And you got yourself a lemonade, right, Ben? I did garbage. Oh, what a bummer. Well, you had asked if they, uh, yeah, I came in and I said, is your lemonade made in house? I saw that you had one.

Yeah. She said, no, I abandoned it. I got, I got a sweet tea. What a bummer. But it's like, I can accept that, but it's like whatever brand they're buying is just garbage. Right. Like you buy a good brand. Yeah.

Don't hit me with that country time. No, no, I should have gotten, I should have gotten sweet tea. Yeah. The sweet tea I thought was nice. Did you like that, Mitch? I did. Yeah. I thought it was good. It was a good execution of it. Not like overly, overly sweet.

Right. It was sweet, but it wasn't super sweet. And not syrupy at all, which sometimes those things will get. How many could you drink though, before going like hypoglycemic? That I could, I tapped out at one is it was a decent size. I had about one and a half. Yeah. I don't think I could even do a full refill of that. Yeah.

Yeah. I could probably do one and a half. It was pretty sweet. Yeah. She took my cup away when I bought it was like half full, which was free refills, which was nice. Yeah. That was nice. The house made the drink. Oh, and you get a free plastic cup, which I forgot to take home. Oh, I didn't bring it either.

I forget to get it. We should have got it. Oh, we also. Damn it. Um, so, but I, and I thought also too, while we're talking about the service, I thought it was quite nice. I thought she was very friendly. I thought she was very accommodating. Busy. It was busy in there.

It was busy and it was a little slow. It's especially waiting for our entrees. I think took quite a, took a bit of time, but beyond that, the actual, the actual interpersonal service was quite nice. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't abusively long. I did notice it took like a little, it took a second, but it, it wasn't the worst I've ever experienced. Yeah. Not by a long shot.

She was very smiley. Very, very, very sweet. Especially for a place that it was, it was, it was, it was, it was crowded in there. Not crowded, but like every, almost every table had someone at it. Right. Yeah. And then so we got the, for our starters, we got the fried green tomatoes, which was a server's recommendation. And we also got ourselves some fried okra.

And that comes with a dip, with a ranch dip and sauce. We also got a honey mustard dip and sauce just to try it. Oh, I didn't even try that honey mustard. It was fine. It was, yeah, it was nothing. So it was honey, I thought both dip and sauces, honestly, were just fine. The ranch seemed almost like out of a hidden valley. That's what I thought.

Yeah. Or was it, do you think it was as good as Hidden Valley, though? That's a great question. You know what? Every time I buy Hidden Valley ranch, though, I never love it on a salad. Like it might be better for dipping or something. It is a better dip. Yeah, that's what I was going to be addressing. It's a little too thick.

So the, so, but I thought the, I liked both of those. I thought they had, they had a good fry to them. I like the fried green tomatoes in particular. I thought those were quite good. The fried green tomatoes I thought were great. Yeah. I liked them a lot. And I regret giving you the last one. Did you have three or two?

I had two. You both had two. Oh, we both had two. Your guests had one. Oh, you had one? You deferred to us, though. You said we could, we said we could have the last one. Wait a minute. So I just, I'm just so goddamn grateful to be here.

You know, I feel like you guys deserve that extra tomato. I would have given it to you if I knew you wanted it. I jumped out the gate and ate two. I didn't even realize. Sorry, everyone. I liked it as well. Yeah. I liked it more than the fried okra. Both were deliciously crunchy.

I'll say that. And I actually don't, I did not enjoy the taste of the okra, but it was so crunchy in a delightful way that I just kept eating them. The okra I kept eating it was that weird thing too, where I'm with you, where I wasn't like blown away by it, but I just was continually eating it. It kind of was like the issue with it is that it was almost like a ranch

delivery system, right? And then the ranch wasn't the best. And then you got like that swampy taste of the okra. Yeah. But it was, I don't know, great texture. I thought it does have a really good texture. You're right about okra, but okra's stupid. I don't know. I kind of like okra, but it's it's weird.

People will get mad at me, but okra is it's dumb. It's it's a nothing flavor almost. So you're going to make me, I'm going to have to do my Cajun Tim character. He's going to get so upset by my very famous Cajun Tim character. He's going to talk all about that and he too, Faye, you're going to be sorry. It's a it's a little, I mean, it's always a little slimy, especially if you haven't prepared another there, you know, like like in a stew or something.

It was and it was slimy out of the fry. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, that's just the nature of okra. It tastes a little weird. It tastes like something just like that pulled out of a swan. It's like a weird, distinct flavor. Do you think if you were to bite the swamp thing, it would taste like that? I think so, and I'm not surprised that you like it. Nick, because it is he wants to buy something.

It's a because one. He wants to buy the swamp thing and two. It is kind of like just a hot vegetable. You're making a hot salad. I mean, truly, don't you don't you feel that way? It is. Yeah, it's both. Is your Cajun Tim? Is he is he similar to the water boy in any way? It's exactly he is. Bobby, I still have a lawsuit going with Sandler. Oh, boy. How long has that been in court?

Why? Oh, I got a real bad lawyer. Yeah, he keeps telling me any day and I got the pace. So then we got. So from the starters, we moved on to the mains and we got. I got myself the two piece dark, which is the thion leg. I think you guys both got the the white combo, the three piece. Why three piece? Why and the two breasts and a wing?

Yes. Yes. And then the the the combo comes with a with baked beans, slaw and white bread. And then beyond that, we got the remaining sides, which are offered. So they have a potato salad, greens, seasoned fries and mac and cheese. Let's start with the chicken. What did you guys think of that that Gus's fried chicken? I mean, because that's that's the reason this place exists. That's the reason this place is something of a sensation.

I liked it. It was it was good. It's it's funny to me with I don't know what to deal with on any of these Nashville hot places are, but like Howell and raise is boneless and this is obviously this is this is bone in chicken. We're talking about the chicken right? Yeah. Okay, right? I got scared because then if I got this wrong, I'm blowing away the big the main thing. Should we not talk about the chicken yet?

I don't know. I got scared. Well, why did you? Why did you want to jump right to the the the let's go? Let's back it up and we'll go to sides then. I'm sorry. God, it's nothing to stress out about. I'm stressed. Okay, um, we're on down the sides baked beans.

I like them a lot. Yeah, I would have liked them maybe a little warmer. Mm-hmm. Mine what mine were kind of room temp when they came out, but I thought that they had a great flavor to them. They did. They were good. Yeah, not not too molassesy sweet and you're right. They were they were just a little bit cold.

Yeah, the slaw. I didn't notice that. I mean, I didn't notice the temperature. I think I think there was like sort of a vinegary kick to them or something. That was delicious. Yeah, it's kind of cut a lot of times. It's like it can be like too fatty or too rich, but right, right? I thought it was delicious.

Yeah, I love I love this. What I'll say is that the funny thing about the beans is that and look at it because I this is probably the area of food. Like I've said this before on double is but like barbecue and southern barbecue and things like that. I don't know the most about, but sure it just it seemed as far as like the the the cohesion of the meal, the potatoes. I mean, I'm sorry.

The worded a calendar. You should the with piece of shit, but the coleslaw and the baked beans just it felt weird with fried chicken or something. I don't know. I really liked it. Pretty classic. Yeah. Maybe think of like a backyard cookout or maybe think of like I'm thinking

more like mashed potatoes or something with it. I don't know or mac and cheese. I know that those are both heavy. Were you embarrassed when Nick asked the waitress to heat up the slaw? He said, sweetie, can you throw this in the microwave for a couple minutes? Excuse me. My slaw isn't boiling. Let's take it easy.

The slaw was good. It just I don't know. The I not like I felt like it just didn't come together as like a yeah. If that was like the main meal you got, you didn't get any sides or something. I would feel like it would be. Oh, it's just a kind of a strange crew. Well, I'll say this. I think that that's that's perhaps a fair point.

And there may be some people who agree with you. I will just say that you can substitute one of the other sides for an additional 50 cents. So if you're not craving the baked beans and the slaw, you want some some some fries and mac and cheese or whatever, you can just bake those. Those those for changes for a small upcharge. Yeah, I thought the slaw was fine. I mean, like how what what slaw I feel like has such a low ceiling. Yeah, it's like you get like the best possible coal slaw is not going to care about this.

I mean, it was fine. I was fine. I have only recently actually had a fantastic slaw that I think that I want to eat a lot. Oh, wow. And it's at another chain restaurant in Burbank, which I'm now is it the smoke, not the smokehouse. What's it called smoke? I mean, there is a smokehouse, but that's no, no, that's a primary place. Yes. No, this is across from Island Burger. And oh, wait, wait, wait, you're not.

This isn't a chain we've reviewed before. Is it is this the you might have been there? Hold on, hold on, hold on. They do like a vinaigrette slaw with peanuts and it's yes. I know what you're talking about. Where is this? This is this is a place. Wood Ranch, it's wood ranch, wood ranch. They do have a good slot wood ranch.

It's really, really good. I mean, this is more vinaigrette than mayo-y. Yeah. The slaw we ate was just mayo-y. It was fine. It's fine. You know what I should have done? I always put some pepper on the slaw and I didn't do it. I think that always helps a little bit. It would have helped to season it up a bit.

Also, that slice of white bread, which is I think more just like a garnish than anything. I mean, it's it doesn't really. But I will say I liked I and we'll get to the chicken a minute, but I liked taking off pieces of chicken, wrapping in the white bread and eating it. Yeah. I enjoyed that. I made you a little chicky sandwiches.

I made a little chicky sandwiches. It's terrible. It's good for mop-up duty, too. If you got some of the some leftover bean juice, whatever you can get. Just get that sweet bean juice, leftover bean juice. All right. So the sides, potato salad, greens, seasoned fries, mac and cheese.

I'll do my rundown that I want to hear you guys' take. Potato salad, I thought was was well-seasoned, very, very mustardy in a good way, but it's it's aggressively mustardy. You know what I'll say about it? It was a solid to quote the Ross sisters. This is a something that no one will know. It was a solid potato salad.

Hmm. What? What? What? What? Look up Ross, this is a solid potato salad and take a look at it. Is this like a sister? It's just like an old vaudeville song or something. Yeah, it is. You're exactly right. Oh my God, it is.

This is a 1944 song. Nick, get educated, you dumb bitch. Hey, do you know that Andy Segunda who you had on? His grandfather is a one hit wonder from back in that time. Whoa. Yeah. What was what song did his grandfather sing? But Mirbis Dushane, which was a huge thing. I think the Andrews sisters sang it.

Wow. It was a big number one hit, but Mirbis Dushane. That's crazy. Yeah, everyone having one hit wonders. Yeah, it's weird that you guys don't have any one hit wonders in your family. Yeah, I don't. I don't think God, I don't know if there's any Mitchell

that was did anything of well. I mean, they were all great. My dad is a great man, but I don't know if any of them had there was any entertainment or show business, Mitchell's. Yeah, certainly not in my family. I think they're ashamed of what I do. I mean, with good reason. Wait, can I bring up?

Yes. This is off the food subject, but this is talking about both your levels of fame. Yeah. Now, I have now worked with both of you a little bit. With Mitch, Mitch came to the rap party for a little big awesome, the Amazon cartoon. And the head of Amazon animation was there

and saw Mitch and started to like stutter. She was like, what's he doing here? So it turns out your love character is like a big favorite of hers. Oh, yeah. And so she wanted to meet you and stuff like that. I was like, it's okay. We could go over and talk to him.

Cause that sentence also could have had to the complete opposite meaning. What's, he's a monster. And then with Nick, Nick was coming into to write and then something and an executive was supposed to be there from Warner Brothers. The executive had to bow out. And then he was like, hey, how'd that meeting go?

Who'd you meet with again? And I said to Nick Weigar, he goes, wait a second. The guy who wrote the monster fuck? God damn it. Why didn't you tell me? I wish I was there. So that's you both very famous. God, cool.

Yeah. So technically you're a one hit wonder. Hey, okay. All right. I guess we kind of maybe are both one hit one. My half-assed parody of a far more successful comedy song that I do on a podcast once a year. Is a hit, I guess.

These poor people who had any sort of, I mean that Amazon woman should be put to a mental hospital. She really connects with your character. So Ben, did you give your thoughts on the potato salad? I apologize if I did not. I thought it was good. Would I order it by myself?

No, I wouldn't. It was good. It didn't offend me. If I was like sitting in someone's backyard and they gave it to me, I'd be happy enough to eat it. It was truly just to quote the song again. It was just solid, but it wasn't like I was like, I'm not like, I didn't want to,

you'll like that video is crazy, by the way, if you ever watch it. They're like contortionists. Whoa, that's cool. You sick, fuck. But yeah, it was just, it was good. But like it was also one of those things that I'm like, I'm not like blown away.

Right. And that was my issue with I think a lot of the sides. Like none of them really blew me away. We haven't talked about my favorite one yet. Yes, we'll keep lying through these. I will just say I would get the potato salad. I would sub out the slough. I think it was gonna get the comfort again.

Oh, for sure. The greens, okay, so I'm not an authority on greens. I'm not gonna claim this as an area of my expertise. I will say that like, sometimes when I've had greens in the past, they were like a little too soggy and wet and these were not that. I thought they had a good texture to them.

My only critique is I thought they were a little under seasoned. I felt like I shouldn't hindsight, I should have put a little hot sauce, maybe a little salt on those just to weigh them up a bit. Which is maybe our own fault. Maybe we were in charge of that. No, no, they should be better seasoned by themselves. I am an expert on greens.

Oh, wow. He's right. I eat a lot of barbecue. Oh, okay. Especially in New York and there was, weird barbecue renaissance and there was great greens there. Yeah, wow. This was not that.

These were under seasoned. Yeah, as a bum. But the texture was fine. Yeah, I like that. And there was meat in it, there was some kind of meat. Yeah, there was like a little bacon pieces or something. It was, yeah, it just, I don't know if I've ever had any good greens, honestly.

I don't know if I've. Go to Red Hook, Brooklyn. Go to the barbecue place out there, which name I'm also forgetting. But it's going to be right across from the fairway at the end of Red Hook. Someone will know this. Yeah, you'll be by a bunch of docks.

You hop in a kayak. Hop in a kayak. Go to that barbecue place that's right there. Their greens are like enough to go there by themselves. I like how all your New York recommendations like involve some sort of side quest. Well, that's everything's hidden in these like, these like waterfront areas.

Right. They're all down by the docks. You don't really have access to get to. All down by the docks, everything's down by the docks. I spent a lot of time down by the docks, guys. I think, you know what I'm saying? Writing was very hard in New York. There wasn't a lot of work.

I had to do what a guy had to do. So the other sides that I thought were my favorites of though, that bunch beyond the beans, the seasoned fries and the mac and cheese. The mac and cheese I thought was great. I thought the mac and cheese was the one great side. And the fries, I thought had a nice season to them. A good spice blend, not too spicy.

The fries were good, but then like, yeah, they were good. But don't waste the start, eat the mac and cheese. Did you throw any hot sauce on the mac and cheese? I didn't. I should have made more use of that Louisiana hot sauce. Yeah, because like one or two splashes of that in there. And you really, you got some hot sauce. And now I feel dumb.

What was the hot sauce at the table? Is it Rooster or? It's not. It's that Louisiana hot sauce. It might just be called Louisiana hot sauce. It is. Yeah. OK.

It's good. It's a good hot sauce. It's the one for the fridge here. I didn't touch it. I'm a crystal man, but that Louisiana hot sauce is fine. Yeah, I mean, it's similar to crystal. I agree with you. Crystal's better.

But I thought overall the sides were, yeah, they were, I think you got, were all in the same page. They were all kind of in that fine range. The mac and cheese was a stand, and the beans were a stand out. So really, you should have beans and mac and cheese. Yeah, I guess so. But the mac and cheese is so heavy. And I kind of like the, the potato salad is kind of like

accomplishes the same thing that the slaw does, is that it's kind of, it cools it down a little bit. I don't mean to, we don't need to plan out my future combo meals. So the chicken, let's get back to the chicken, Rich. And also, if you put some pepper on that, on the potato salad, it would be better too. I didn't do anything. Yeah, let's get, let's get into the chicken.

All right, you were leading off with your thoughts. Let's, let's pick up where we left off. I thought that it was really good. You know, like we were saying that it's like really just like, like it's, it's so different from that KFC of like bready and crumbly, where it's just like, almost like a shell. It's, it's like, it's really, it's really fried. Yes.

But then at the same, like almost seems like over fried, but then also at the same time, isn't over fried though, and it keeps the heat in the, in that skin really well. And the, and the chicken is like insanely hot. Yeah. And juicy and good. They, they, they, they do a good job with it. I don't know if I like 100% love how, how fried it is.

I like, I like, I almost wish, like I love fried chicken, but you know what I'm saying? Like the shell, the, the, like the, the skin is just like, it's just, it's really fried. Right. Yeah. And it absolutely is like super, like as cooked as it can be without getting burnt. And I thought that I, I mean, I really liked it.

I liked the crispness of the skin and like what you were talking about, the, I thought the meat actually was like, at least with a dark meat, which I got was nice and moist and, and had a lot of flavor to it, which, you know, the, the, the, the worst case scenario for the fried chicken is you get something that's like maybe a little over fried and the only moisture you're getting is the grease from the chicken and the actual meat is a little dry.

You know, the, the, the white meat too was, and, and a lot of the time you can get dry white meat if it's overcooked. Like, but it, but it, and I think that is just the style of it. Like I don't want to say it was overcooked. I think that is just how it, it comes. Right. Um, I will just say that like I expected something spicier as a neophyte, someone who hadn't had it. I thought that like, oh, this is going to be, this is that,

that hot chicken that every, that is the trend right now. I thought it was going to be a little spicier. I don't think that's maybe not, that's maybe not their style. And maybe they're using hot chicken in a more traditional sense. I mean, it is. There's a spice to it, but it's not like super spicy. No, no, it's not going to, it's not like eating the hottest level of buffalo wings.

For sure. Yeah. I also don't know if I would want it to be more spicy. I would like, I wouldn't mind, you know, and whatever this, this is a place that's existed for a long time and they kind of have their own thing figured out. But I would say like as I would not mind if there was Popeye style eight, two different levels of heat and I could get a little hotter if I wanted it.

But Ben, you are a huge fried chicken fan. You had you had one experience here that did not go so great. What did you think of the chicken this time? Well, like I said, I was ready to go in and not like it again. Right. That that kind of hard shell around the chicken is not my favorite kind of fried chicken coating. I do like the breadier, cragier kind.

But I thought it was great. It's like just spicy enough to give it some flavor. Right. The chicken itself, so moist, so delicious, very moist, flavorful, not like rubbery or anything. Just great. Yeah. And I thought I don't know, the shell had a good crunch to it. Yes. I was thrilled, just thrilled.

Yeah, I mean, it is the it is kind of that you do get that textural sensation of you bite into that crisp exterior and then you've got that meaty sort of juicy interior. And when you get those perfect bites of that chicken, it's delightful. I was going to say that I was saying that that style of the shell and the fried levelness of it isn't like my favorite style like Ben. But I also agreed that it was I wanted to say it was great. It was it was really good.

It's a very good version. I was enjoying it. I was pulling up pieces, making my little chicky sandwiches. Nick, I even offered you one of the nicest things I've ever done that I'm now bringing up was I offered you because I thought that you had ordered two chicken breasts when you would actually order the the what was it thighs and you know, I actually got I wrote down. I got the two piece, but I'm realizing now I got the three pieces

because I got two thighs and a leg. You thought one of my thighs was a small breast. Yeah. And so you were you were you were offering to change your breast out for one of my thighs, which was very nice because it's much more food. But I said, I prefer the dark meat. I know you prefer the light meat. So yeah, I mean, I like I like dark meat. I just don't want it to be I want I kind of like if I would want to mix.

I yes, I wish I could do that, actually, is get a piece of white meat, a piece of dark meat. I would think you can you might be able to order by the piece. Yeah, yeah, I think you can do that if you want. I think I messed up get them individually or get a half chicken if you if you want a little bit more. And then so we we so we had the chicken, which I I think we we all agree was the highlight.

And then we had a couple of pies for dessert, both got them all a mode, as you mentioned earlier, a pecan pie, which is a server's recommendation. And then also the chocolate chest pie. And you brought a slice home for your for your good lady wife. I did. I brought home a chocolate chest pie for Natalie. I don't know if she's had it yet, actually. I got to ask her about that. Well, it's too bad that she couldn't have it warm.

And I'm going to say this, I was pleasantly surprised by the desserts. I thought they were they're good. They were good. Very good. The pecan pie was very hot, pipe and hot. But it had but it had that nice cooling ice cream on top. That's true. A big a big was just vanilla ice cream, right? Big old scoop of vanilla. It was good quality ice cream. Yeah, it was.

Yeah, it seemed it seemed like it seemed it didn't seem like a it seemed at least like a high either made there or like a higher level of ice cream that they got from somewhere. I wish I wish we'd inquired if it was made in house. I suspect that they have them made just from a place that does good desserts, but they were they're both very good quality. Yeah, and they have a number of pies on the menu. I mean, we tried most things on the menu, but they have like six pies.

So we were I think they must make the pie or yeah, you're right. Maybe they order it from I think they make the pies. Yeah, I think they make the pies. I I can't believe they make the ice cream, but they definitely I think make the pies. Yeah, the chocolate chest pie I was my favorite of the two. I was the I mean, pecan pie is one of my favorite pies. So I would that I like that one better. But I like the chocolate chest as well.

They're both quite good. I with you the pecan pie was my favorite the chocolate chest pie. I was surprised that I like because I had they also have a chest pie. Yes, which I tried when I was first there and I thought it was pretty garbage. So maybe just being chocolate makes it that much better. Or again, maybe they dialed it in. What is it? What is a chest pie? Is it a molassesy southern no bake pie or something like that?

Yeah, I might be getting too specific about this. I'll say this, I also got I were two pieces of pie from there the first time I went. They have like a coconut cream pie that was really good when I was first there. So I would also recommend the coconut cream pie. All right, I got the I got the chest pie Wikipedia open. It's a basic chest pie is a filling composed of flour, butter, sugar and eggs and Bobby Fisher. Yeah, you got to throw a chess player.

Weird and any Semitic chess play. I saw you like like when you like cock a gun to shoot it off. I saw your head go back to say Bobby Fisher in your weirded out look. It's a Dennis Miller tick. All right, you have the same politics. Let's get to our final thoughts on Gus's world famous fried chicken. So Ben, you've learned this in the podcast. You know, this work will each go around.

We'll sort of give our closing argument and then ascribe it a fork rating from zero to five forks. We will begin with you. I didn't love I don't love every single thing that they have there, but I can put together a really delicious meal. I go three piece white, go beans, go mac and cheese, call it a day, get a piece of pecan pie or the coconut cream pie, go forth with the sweet tea. And that's a goddamn good meal.

Yeah, that's a delicious, delicious, delicious meal. They're very nice there. I don't want to be crazy here. I feel like four stars is maybe too high. Oh, crap. It could be sorry forks. I said stars. God damn idiot.

You listen to the show. You know this. It's fine. So dumb. You were thinking stars because you have an Amazon Prime show that's your system. By the way, guys, watch that show and rated five stars. All right, I'm going to go with four forks.

Four forks. Great score. Go ahead, Mitch. And I'll tell you why I think it's a great score in a second. The hot chicken craze, I haven't, you know, I haven't, it's big here in LA. Right. And I've only, and I've had gusses before. I went with the commissioner, Evan Susser, I believe, and Jack Allyson

back in the day, when I think when it first opened and I liked it. I feel like, I feel like I didn't have as bad of an experience as Ben, but I liked it. Okay. This time when I was there, I was like, you know, the chicken is just good. That's the star of the show. Right. And if you get the right sides, you're going to be happy.

But like everyone is there for the chicken. And I think that like having good mac and cheese and decent beans and a solid potato salad is just a bonus for the chicken there. And the desserts being good, that was great. That's great too. And honestly, I feel like the desserts maybe even inched out the sides because the desserts were just like a nice pleasant surprise. So get them if you go.

And then the sweet tea I really enjoyed. And I just, I just, the chicken is really good. It's a different style. It's not the style I usually like, but it was, it was great. And you know that I, like at how long race, it's like a boneless thing. But I do like bone in chicken. I like to pull out all the pieces and eat all the fried crispy neffs off the back. And I took a breast home specifically and ate it about two or so hours later.

I had it cold and held up great. But it was, it still held up great a couple hours later after it had cooled down. It was kind of a cold, fried cold chicken. And I, it's, Gus does a good job. It's a great example of it, of the specific style. I need to eat more of the, I'm just saying that I need to try more. And I've had howling rice, which I think is great. But I haven't had a ton of hot chicken.

So I'm going to go four forks as well. Four forks. That's why it's a good score. We're holding hands. We're holding hands. Oh my God. There's a possibility of the hand. It's a.

It makes it into the club. Oh, geez. Yeah. Here's, here's, here's what I'm going to say. Oh no. Son of a bitch. This place is great. It's really good.

And it's one of the rare experiences on this podcast, whereas we're talking through the meal, I was getting hungry for it again. And as we're hitting all these, these things and we're talking about the chicken, I was like, oh yeah, man, it was really good. And I really, I wanted it again. And I, you know, a lot of the sides, you know, we talked about that the, they don't have a perfect hit rate on the sides or the apps, but you know, the ones that stand out really do stand out.

And I think whatever your favorite is, you'll find something that you like there. And they do have a nice dessert. They do have a nice sweet tea. It's a great little, we didn't dig in much in the atmosphere, but it's a nice little sort of like, you know, country restaurant style atmosphere, very beyond the service. It's kind of got like a very homey sort of, you know, the way that the tables and the way the decor is. And then, you know, everything served on paper plates and plastic with plastic utensils,

which is a little wasteful, but it kind of works for this sort of backyard atmosphere that you got there. I really liked every element of it. And you know, it delivers on good fried chicken. Is it the best fried chicken in the world? I would say maybe no, but it's very, very good. And I would say, is it leagues better than Popeyes, which is maybe, you know, my favorite chain chicken?

Again, maybe no, but it's good. It's very, very good. The quality of its chicken is better than the quality of Popeyes chicken. Absolutely. Yes. The quality of chicken, the quality of the ingredient is definitely better. So that's a thing to factor in. So, you know, why am I fucking around here?

Five forks. Oh, it's not on the hand holding club, but it's in the golden plate club. Five forks. Yeah, I really liked it. I like the park buds on this one because we're in the same proximity, but this is great. This place is great. Five forks. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I'm surprised. Where did you think I was going? I thought you would be, I thought you'd be four or four and a half. No, not five. Five. This is great.

It was great fried chicken. I loved it. I had a great time. I feel great about that. I had fun. I'm so happy that he's happy. Golden plate club. It's in the golden plate club.

Hey, that was Gus's fried chicken. We've got a food stuff. We're going to decide if it's worth putting in your mouth. It's snack or whack. And then we've got these Reese's snack mix, which I picked up over at 7-Eleven, and there's actually two variants here. So we've got the snack mix, which is a, you know, I've only got two of these. I should have picked up three, but we can pour out a little bit and share.

And Rob, if you want any of these, feel free. I don't know. Hopefully you don't have any allergies to what we're having here. We have two packs of one of them. Yeah. We've got two packs of the snack mix, and then the bites are more just individual discrete bites. So I think it'll be easier to share from one pack.

But so the bites are like little ... Should I not open up this one? Oh, go ahead and open up. I think it'll be fine. The bites are like little Hershey's kiss-sized nuggets that have milk chocolate peanuts, peanut butter, and caramel. And then the other one is more of a, and you guys have the wrapper, Mitch, maybe you can read the description for us, or Ben, if you want to do so, sweet and salty mix with Reese's

peanut butter cup minis and Reese's PCs candy, pretzels, and peanuts. So it's more of just a traditional trail mix, a snack mix with some Reese's peanut butter cups thrown in there. I would say this, right off the bat, kind of hard to get open. Yeah. We're fumbling with these. All three of us are having issues. It was ...

All right. I've got one of the snack bites. I'm going to send this over to you, Ben. It looks like, wait, are these Reese's pieces or cups, or is it both? I didn't get a cup. Oh, so there are three different variants. I stumbled into a third variant that I didn't realize. There's a cup's one and there's a ...

No, no. I just didn't get a cup. Oh, okay. Here, wait. I'm going to find a cup. It's all the same, I think. Okay. I know what I feel about that.

Well, the snack bites, I will say, very peanut buttery. It reminds me of an ... Honestly, it reminds me of an individual Snickers or a payday with the chocolate coating. The chocolate's pretty dominant, but yeah, it reminds me of like a fun-sized Snickers. Or you know those ... What do they call those Snickers bites? Not the fun-sized. They call them something else. Gang size.

No, gang size of minis. What are you talking about? Minis? Snickers minis? Yeah, the little ones, the square ones. Is that what they're called? Oh, Snickers peanut butter? No, not the peanut butter ones.

Then the Snickers minis. Is that what they're called? The ones that you get on Halloween? Yeah, they're like little ones. Yeah, the Snickers ... But not like the fun-sized bars, like the ones that are like bites. Bites. Oh.

Maybe they call them bites. They might call them bite. Bites. Oh, yeah. I think they call them bites. Yeah, maybe they're bite ... I don't know. Those are also like the ones that are in like candy dishes or ... Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Um, pass me some of that snack mix. What do you think of that snack mix, Ben? I think that snack mix is trash. Oh, God. It's got Reese's Pieces in it. Yeah. But if you'd eat where to have that, he'd go home.

Wow. Yeah. Gross. Oh, my God. Super gross. Don't like it. Those other ones, what are the other ones called? The snack bites.

The bites? Delicious. Um ... I'm with you on the snack mix. It's very weird. You don't need that. Those pretzels, it's not good pretzels. There's these little pretzel balls in there that are garbage.

It's kind of half ass. The pretzels and peanuts are not adding much to it. No. And even the Reese's, little baby Reese's cup that's in it, just eat a regular Reese's. It'll be much more delicious. Yeah. Guys. The bite, I think, is quite nice.

Go ahead, Mitch. I have the exact opposite opinion. Whoa. Mindblower. Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't dislike the snack bites, but I really like the snack mix. It is crazy that there's a little mini peanut butter cup in there, and it does overtake a lot of it, but it does a nice job of salty and sweet.

It's a good ... I like it, and I like Reese's peanut butter and chocolate. I enjoy it. I think E.T. would eat this, and he'd say, I am home. I'm staying here. Wow. And then he turned gray and dry out. Oh, no. Rob, what'd you think?

Any thumbs-up, thumbs-down, any of those? I'm with Mitch. I think ... Wow. What are they, the bites? Yeah. Bites are pointless. Wow.

I think that Snickers fills that category, but I'm a big fan of a junk food trail mix. That's up there. Wow. Mitch is holding a gun to his side right now. Oh, wait a second. That's not a gun. Oh, God. Oh, boy.

So it seems like we're split here. It's Ben and I ... Ben, you and I are snack on the bites and whack on the mix, and it seems like the opposite with Mitch and Rob over there. Mm-hmm. Boy. All right. I thought this ... No, I'll say snack for both of them, but the snack bites are just barely a snack.

Yeah. All right. What even is the deal with the snack? There's just peanuts in it now? They're getting a little cluster in there. Yeah. It's a little bit more crunch, a little bit more texture than a standard Reese's Cup. But seriously, just go eat a Reese's Cup.

Yeah, Reese's ... I mean, that's what it comes down to. That's the thing I lean on sometimes. Yeah, the standard is better than these variants, so yeah, Reese's Cup is going to be better. Well, that was snack or whack. Just like a restaurant. I'll provide your feedback. Let's upload the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Lacey Smith.

Lacey writes, I know where you stand on Mayo. Any opinions on Miracle Whip? I like to switch it up now and then from the standard Mayo and mustard, but I feel pretty alone in my sentiments. Thanks for the question, Lacey. Ben Gruber, any thoughts on Miracle Whip? Miracle Whip. Vile.

Wow. Disgusting. I love that commercial campaign they had for it, where like hip kids were like Miracle whipping it up on rooftops in the city. I don't know if you guys saw that or not. I do remember that. It was actually super fun. Man, I love that a lot, but I don't like Miracle Whip even a little bit.

It was such a miscalculated attempt to like try to make something edgy. Yeah, it was like, mayonnaise is for your grandma. Right, yeah. What is the difference with Miracle Whip and Mayo? Okay, hold on. I'm going to look up. Is it like margarine and butter, where one is oil or no, they're both oil? Yeah.

No, it's a less expensive alternative to Mayo is the way it was presented. What? Oh, God. You know, Mayo for all those rich folk. We're spending all our money on Mayo. Probably happened to the Waggar House. I think it's got a cheaper, it looks like it's got a cheaper oil, am I wrong about that?

Okay. Is there eggs too? There are actually does have eggs in it. Does Mayo stay good? It doesn't Mayo stay good if it's refrigerated for a long time, right? I think, yeah, I think it has a pretty long shelf life. I will say that, yeah, it's got, and I'm reading the ingredients here now, soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, modified corn starch, eggs, salt, natural flavor, mustard

flour, potassium, sorbet, paprika, spice, and dried garlic. That's what I'm remembering about is it has a little seasoning to it, which mayonnaise does not, mayonnaise is a little bit more neutral. But I don't think mayonnaise has all that artificial shit in it. It doesn't, but there's a little bit more zing from Miracle Whip, a little bit more zest. I don't eat Miracle Whip enough that I can't really, we're going to have to do some sort of Miracle Whip taste test and hear your favorite day of the podcast.

In the commercial, they're just dipping like celery stalks straight into the Miracle Whip. It's got a little bit of a runnier texture if I remember too. It's not quite as thick and viscous as Mayo. Fuck Miracle Whip then. I'm a Hellman's man with Mayo. Right? Yeah, bro. Hellman's.

I don't know. I prefer Best Foods. Isn't that a New England place? Is that a New England company? Maybe it is a New England, because Weiger likes Best Foods, of course. Yeah. Anyway, that's how we do it on the West Coast. Yeah, that was confusing when I moved here.

That's like, there's the Hardee's Carl's Jr. line, and there's the... I'm going to say that Hellman's is the original. Best Food East Coast line. Because it's an East Coast line. Hellman's line. Yeah, I don't like Best Foods. I actually, I've never had Hellman's, and I never will. We got to get you to the East Coast.

Never going to have that shit. Yeah, but I think Miracle Whip has its... I'll just open up a can of it, put it on the table. I'm sure you'll fucking eat it in the room. I dig right in. I think Miracle Whip, I guess, has its place, although I imagine that place is kind of shrinking as people want things that are a little bit less artificial in process, and that it is one that is so aggressively processed, even more so than Best Foods or Hellman's mayonnaise.

I think people are more likely to lean towards a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods mayo these days, or even a Home Spun varietal. So yeah, I don't know. Here's the tough thing with mayo, is that when I'm back in Quincy, my mum will sometimes make me a turkey sandwich, very nice, I know that I'm 35 years old, but she'll make me a turkey sandwich with cheese on it, and she'll put mayo on there, and I always feel like with mayo, that you're supposed to just be getting kind of the hint, just a little taste of it.

It's not supposed to be too, well then again, that spicy chicken sandwich, it is a little bit more mayo. They club on a little bit. But it's almost like, if it's doing its job, it's not overpowering, so would I even notice the difference between the two of them, I wonder, I don't know, this is a big question for me. I don't eat mayo a lot in general. I think you would notice it because it's distinct enough, and I haven't had Miracle Whip

in 20 years, but I had it as a kid, and it's definitely taste different than mayo, you definitely can place it more. So I think you would notice it, and the same way that you would notice the difference between like a ranch and a blue cheese, there's enough of a difference, so you're like, okay. But I'm going mayo, is my guess, but we gotta test it out. 100% go mayo, but I have no hatred towards Miracle Whip, it's fine. The mayo app of Doe Boys, coming soon. All mayo, all mayo.

Wonderful 90 minutes on mayo. And our guest is Armin, oh boy. If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at doeboyspodcast at gmail.com, or leave us a voicemail at 830-GO-DOE, that's 830-463-6844, and to get the Doe Boys double our weekly bonus episode, join the Golden Play Club at patreon.com slash doeboys. Ben Gruber, thank you so much for joining us, the show is a little big awesome, it's on Amazon Prime right now.

But it's true, it is starring many, I think, friends of the podcast, certainly, Jess McKenna stars in it, Weird Al is in it, Amy Mann's in it, Mike Mitchell's in it, Dave Franco, Paul Shear, June Diane Rayfield, Nicole Byer, Lenin Parham, Kate McCoochie, other people I can't remember. Murderer's Row and Mitch, Mitch is actually a regular, there is multiple episodes that feature Mitch, you can hear Mitch sing in the final episode, a man with a surprisingly delightful singing voice, much like Gomer Pyle, it catches you off guard. You can hear Mitch play a bed besides his signature character Lyle, which is, if I get

reincarnated, I'll become a bed hopefully. So go to Amazon. You could finally have a wolf on top of you. Dammit. Some of the comments, yeah, people are talking about your voices in the comments. Oh, no way, is this on a Reddit or a... No, it's just like right there in Amazon. Oh man.

They said would not buy again. They. Oh, these are the one star reviews we're talking about. These are the one star reviews we're getting. I recognize that voice for me working at the Taco Bell drive-through. This guy yelled at me because I forgot his cheesy cornita crunch. Hey, this is what happened. The only time I ever...

I wasn't even mean. They were probably meaner. They were meaner to me, I think. No, I know you. You wouldn't be mean to a service worker. Yeah. Hey, you know what? That'll do it for this episode of Doe Boys.

Check out a little big awesome band. Thank you so much. And we'll see you next time for the Spoonman, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigar. Happy eating. See ya. Bye. Hey guys, you want more Doe Boys? To get the Doe Boys double or weekly bonus episode, join the Golden Plate Club.

Sign up at patreon.com slash Doe Boys. Do it. That was a hate gun podcast.