Doughboys - Hillstone with David Phillips

Episode Date: April 28, 2016

Houston's, Gulfstream, Bandera, R+D, it goes by many names, but in the end, it's Hillstone. Writer David Phillips (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rick and Morty) joins to share his passion for this fine dining chain. Plus, a Cheez-It edition of Flavor of the Week.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shortly after the founding of the independent Republic of Texas in 1836 came the incorporation of its most populous city, named after the new nation's war hero president, Sam Houston. A century and a half later, long after Texas was annexed as a U.S. state, restra toured George Beale and two business partners founded an upscale eatery in Nashville, Tennessee, naming it after Texas' oil industry, Megalopolis. Beale's creation brought fine dining to the masses, making it a standout in the chain restaurant industry which generally stresses cost-cutting and efficiency to maximize market share.

That atypical corporate philosophy carried through to its branding, as the chain grew and expanded beyond Houston's to include over a dozen different names dotted across the country, with heavily overlapping but not 100% uniform menus. Its stunningly consistent upscale food and services earned the admiration of both civilians and hospitality industry elite. A recent Bon Appetit profile by Andrew Nolten proclaimed it, quote, America's favorite restaurant, and noted its popularity with food celebs Danny Meyer and David Chang as well as regular celebs Shaquille O'Neal.

It's a brand that, under the stewardship of Beale's son Brian now encompasses nearly 50 restaurants nationwide. Houston's Bandera, Grill, Gulfstream, R&D Kitchen, and as of 2009, one with the same name as the restaurant group itself. This week on Doughboys, Hillstone. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger alongside my co-host, the Spoonman Mike Mitchell. How are you doing, Mitch?

Wow, regular celebrities like Shaq? He's just a regular celebrity? I consider, yeah, he's a non-food celeb. I would say he's larger than life. He is larger than life. He is one of a kind. He certainly is. He's one of the greatest NBA players of all time, one of the greatest Los Angeles Lakers

of all time. And a great Celtic. He was not a great Celtic. He was a very good Celtic, and we like him now. Well, okay, that's fine if you want to like Shaq. I love Shaq. I'm glad you like Shaq. I don't like Lakers Shaq.

Lakers Shaq was peak Shaq. That was MVP Shaq. He's good as Magic Shaq, bad as Lakers Shaq, good as Celtic Shaq, and then that's it. So his career trajectory, you've kind of flipped just because of your hatred of the Los Angeles Lakers. I feel like you've been heat Shaq, but now I hate the heat so much. Anyways, I just want to say, uh, to Spoon Nation, here we go, a little drop, new drop. I just want to say, uh, what's up to Spoon Nation?

I don't give a shit about Spoon Nation. Uh, if you send me a drop, I'll play it. And they add so much to the show. I did have sexual relations with that woman. When she brings that coffee back, if I were you, I wouldn't drink it. Yeah, well, mom doesn't know that. You can milk this thing. He never even sent me a damn car to hell with him!

I don't give a shit about Spoon Nation. It's a dead spot. What the hell? Amidst a lot of the, uh, the signature parts of your drops, I don't know what normal catchphrases we've heard in there. That was from, uh, E-Lord, at very, at very polite ghost. Great. Yeah.

Uh, thanks, thanks, E-Lord. I like that I was in there a couple times. Yeah, actually, maybe I didn't like this one. I talked about how Spoon Nation sucked about it. Well, bitch, I think there's maybe a lesson to be learned in that you could scream these by listening them ahead of time instead of as you did saying, oh shit, allowed to be in our guest just as we started recording and then fumbling through your phone to find what drops had been emailed in.

Oh, wow, actually, hold on a second. I'm reading this, and the first, the first one is, this message says, Suster's voice turning to Hitler. Hold on, do you mind if I play two drops from this guy? I do mind, yeah, don't do it. Don't do it? Yeah. Here we go.

Am I, am I on the air? You're on the air, yes. Okay, I've written a prepared statement that I will read after which I'll take a few questions. The actions taken by Mike... Oh, my God. Okay, so this is kind of like a remix. Yikes. Oh, man, Jesus.

E-Lord really took it to Susser. He made the right call by playing that one, I think, Mitch. That's great, I'm sure, I'm sure Evan Susser will appreciate having his voice mixed up with the architect of the holocaust. Hey, I just play these. Yeah, you have no way to tell what their content is going to be ahead of time. I just saw that in the message that he said the first one had his voice turned to Hitler and I was intrigued, I gotta admit. And sure, maybe it was a little bit anti-Semitic, it was maybe not a great choice to play it. Yeah, well, I think our guests may want to weigh in on this.

He's been very patient through all this madness. He's a writer for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Rick and Morty, our good friend, David Phillips. Hi, David. Hey, guys. Thanks for being here. Oh, my God. See? I'm already the resident Jew to weigh in on this.

Well, honestly, like the chances of something anti-Semitic happening on this podcast with Mitch here is about 60-40 every episode. What the fuck? I mean, to read something that says Hitler and then just play it. Yeah, yeah. Without, you have to assume what it's going to sound like. I feel like members of Spoo Nation, they got good heads on their shoulders and I know what they're doing. All right. You know what?

I gotta say. Oh, man. I've gotten so much trouble for saying that Harry Potter is bad. A lot of people got mad at me. Yeah. But what's going on here? You know, I'm very confused by this. I mean, here's the deal with Spoon Man.

I marched the beat of my own drum. You know what I mean? It's not even a drum. It's a set of spoons. Oh. What's wrong? You looked at me very angrily. No, it's good.

I think that's introducing New Lord of Spoon Man. You play spoons as a musical instrument. Why not? All right. I'll pretend that I do that. I marched the beat of my own drum. If people hear something that's embarrassing to admit, I enjoy Dave Matthews' band. If people yell at me and say, they're a shitty band.

I hate them. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I get what you mean. But people got so mad when I made fun of... Wait, so you relate entirely to people's reaction. Are you saying that something that they like sucks? I don't care if they say that Dave Matthews or whatever.

I mean, if someone's like, the Simpsons sucks, I'm like, yeah, you're wrong, but I don't care. I don't get angry about it. But come on. I mean, Harry Potter sucks. I can't believe you're doubling down on this. You've seen the consequences of just everyone got mad at your unhinged rant when you decried something from Harry Potter to Bill Dye the Science Guy. Well, hold on.

We'll get into that in a second. Okay. Because I watched a couple of movies in this last week. Gremlins 2. The New Batch. And Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And listen, out there to the people who hate Spoon Nation or hate the Spoon Man, I strive for creativity.

I strive for something better. That's all I want out of it. And what is so different about Harry Potter? There's werewolf men, and he rides a fucking dumb broomstick around. Have you seen it? There's nothing original. Yes, I've seen all the dumb, shitty Harry Potter movies. Oh, wow.

I haven't even seen them. They're boring. They're like legit bad. They're studio movies that don't have as much heart and creativity in them as much as like even Gremlins 2 has. Well, I think a lot of... Look at Daffy the Mogwai from Gremlins 2. And his zany eyes.

You drop water on them and they multiply. Bubbles shoot out their back of other Gremlins. That's creative. That's something cool. It is? Yeah. They came up with a whole war. Harry Potter is just dumb, mixing all this witch shit together.

What was that Gremlins name you just cited? His name's Daffy. Daffy. Yeah, Daffy has definitely had a bigger imprint on pop culture than Hermione or Sirius Black who also, I can't think of any other characters. Dumbledore. Dumbledore. I just attended a Seder where my uncle provided us a Harry Potter parody.

That's adorable. So it's really in the lore. I bring it back to Jewish themes. Wait, what does that have to do with... Is that a part of Seder? There's parts where people are just doing material? Definitely not. But it is a story that I'm not very familiar with.

I shouldn't have brought it up. It is a very long, horrible, boring process and I think he was trying to make people engaged. Gotcha. But all it was is listening to kids struggle to read Harry Potter dialogue that was kind of supposed to be jokey, but also weirdly anti-Semitic at times. Also, like... Anyways. What's the food situation like at Seder?

Is it Seder or Seder? It's Seder. Seder. Yeah, it's Jewish food boring. I know like a... Oh boy. I feel like a lot of Jewish... You love Jewish food probably.

I love Jewish food, but I feel like there is like some like matzah and stuff like that. Yeah, that's a problem. I feel like if you're like a... What's it called? What's the Jewish guys that have the hat and so on? I just... Oh no. No.

I like scare. You know what I'm talking about. Orthodox Jews? Orthodox Jews. Thank you. The name just escaped me. Sure. You know, the rapper...

Dustin's hovering over a button just to unplug the whole app. It's all covered in tape. Yadis Mahu, whatever his name is. Matis Yahu. Matis Yahu is one of them. Oh man. It seems like the more religious you get being Jewish, the less fun your food is. Sure.

I think the more religious you get in... I mean, maybe this is... Yeah, probably. ...in anything is not great. Yeah, certainly you've got like the... You know, it's not a thing in Catholicism, but the fundamentalist Christians, evangelicals in the US, I feel like, are often tea toddlers. They're not having any alcohol.

But in some evangelical weddings, they're not particularly fun because they're dry. So, I think, yeah, I think if you're a zealot, you're less likely to have a broad array of foodstuffs from which you can draw. Yeah, there's also the like peasant food aspect of it of like, oh, these were people that were like, treated horribly and didn't have good means at a point and just made food out of essentially garbage. Sure. So, their food kind of can be garbage-y.

So, they decided to continue to eat like, grey mush. I mean, it becomes kind of tradition a little bit, which is a problem. I agree. But then you also get like, I mean, you love deli food, right? I love deli food. That's true. I love the Jews. I love them very much.

It's so hard to put a the in front of that. It really is. I love Jews. Oh, I'm sorry. I love Jews. I guess both are bad. Jewish. I love Jewish.

I love Jewish. I'm a big fan of the Jewish culture. I feel like, honestly, I feel like me being a mental Irish Catholic, it kind of aligns with neurotic Jewish men that I know. I feel like I've always kind of been in the same mind frame of the Jewish guys I know who are kind of neurotic and unsure of themselves. So, I've always related to Jewish people. And I love the deli food.

What can I say? Thanks for that. We thank the Jewish people. Thank you. Of all the dynamics I saw here today, the Celtics versus Lakers, all these things now, it's like two non-Jews and a Jew is our dynamic now. And I'm just so scared about what's going to be talked about. I'm not trying to lean into it.

I'm trying to get us away from it. No, it's great. DP is a friend. We had a couple of meals just recently. Yeah, that's true. Very recently. You guys had lunch and dinner together yesterday, correct? Yeah.

I think Jews are the chosen people. We were so safely away. No, I think Jews are the chosen people. That's great. Yeah. I like Jewish people. More than that, I love a good Reuben. Oh, yeah.

A Reuben sandwich is one of my favorite sandwiches. I don't get them as much as I used to. I don't get a Jewish deli as much as I want to, but a Jewish deli is a great meal. They're too busy. They are. The good delis here are just too busy for that experience. What is your favorite deli? In LA?

Yeah. Well, I guess it would be anyways. Probably between Langers and Nate and Al's. Langers is really good choices. I grew up right next to Nate and Al's and Langers, I discovered later in life. That's like the jury duty food for me. The jury like Langers is in, what's the neighborhood it's in? It's like downtown-ish.

East downtown. There's like a park it's right by. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know what you're talking about. Anyway, Joe and I went to eat at Lang, Joe Saunders, and I went to eat at Langers once and were assaulted by a man that would buy that park because it's such a scary park. Yeah.

And we were like waiting to get, I don't know why we walked around. Is it a highland park? It was such a bad idea. Sounds like it could be right. I don't know. Something like that. Oh, whatever. That is it.

I think it's MacArthur Park. I think it is MacArthur Park, which we should have gotten. I'm glad you and Joe are okay. We were not tough enough to handle that. Yeah. Did Joe piss himself immediately? Essentially, we both turned on each other really quickly and were willing to sacrifice the other to that man.

It was so easy. It was, yeah, I mean. Oh, man. Well, anyways, to get back to creativity. Sure. Watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit this last week. Great movie. It's a great movie.

I mean, come on. Harry Potter is just a big budget, you know, special effects kind of shitty movie. I'm sorry. Don't get mad at me for not liking it. Well, okay, but I just want to say, because I'm someone who's a, I think all of us were like the three least qualified people to be commenting on Harry Potter, because none of us have read any of the books. Oh my God.

I've seen one of the movies and that's, I saw the first movie that Chris Columbus directed that everyone says is like the worst movie in the whole series. And I think a lot of even Harry Potter devotees will say that the books are superior to the films and that their love for the franchise comes from the books, which were realized to some degree, but not too full effect within the movies. I don't think a Harry Potter fan feels the way about the Harry Potter films, the way say a Lord of the Rings fan feels about the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was so well rendered in terms of what the books actually contain.

You know what? I'm sad here long enough. I'm willing to take Mitch's side. Harry Potter sucks. You haven't seen, I've maybe seen one of the movies, haven't read any of the books. It didn't do it for me. If you're out there listening, I'm sorry. Anyone out there who happens to be an anti-Semitic Harry Potter fan, you now have your mortal

enemy. Hold on. Okay. That's true. Okay. I thought you were saying I was anti-Semitic. I got confused. I am saying that too.

Oh, well, fuck you. Why is there a Roger Rabbit world instead? There's a Venn diagram for us. We can converge on hating Harry Potter. I hate yous too. I'm with you. I think the thing about the Roger Rabbit franchise is that it's just the one film. There are no spin-offs.

There are no prequels. That's beautiful. Yeah, I know. I agree. It's really well done. It's really well realized. It's an amazing film. It's an amazing achievement.

Artistically and technologically, it's one of the things that the technology that was used at the time. I don't know. I don't even know how high tech it was to realize that, but it was a painstaking amount of effort. It's something that hasn't really, it has not aged poorly. I said that the very awkward way, but it's aged very well. It still looks awesome in the way that it looked awesome when you saw it in the theaters

when you were a little kid, if you happen to be that old. Yeah. If you watch it again, it looks better than all the shitty Harry Potter movies for sure. It looks fucking great. The opening of it, it all looks great. So I strive for things to be good. I like when things are good. I'm not a hater.

I wish Jurassic World was as good as Jurassic Park. There's a lot of things that I wish are good and I want to be good. I want the Force Awakens to be good. I was excited to see it. And you were lucky that it was. It was. It was great. It was so good.

Oh, God. Force Awakens. There's two people who like Force Awakens here. There's a two of them. It's me, David Phillips, and the third man who's mentioned, Joe Saunders. We all saw the Force Awakens together in IMAX, and we had a great time. It was a memorable. We had Johnny Rockets.

The Pussy Posse. Oh, I don't think so. No, I mean, you guys are all pussy. I was going to say we're the Resistance Wolf Pack, but I'll take Pussy Posse. For sure. Wait a minute. No, you can't use this as a good thing. Look, I like Force Awakens, and I will just say that you are holding up as a paragon of

artistic achievement alongside Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which I agree with you is great. It's much better than the Force Awakens. Gremlins the New Batch. That's not a great movie. Gremlins 2. It's also a sequel to talk about creativity. One of the things you hate is just staying in the same property and doing more of it. Yeah, but they made such an interesting choice where they turned it into way more like a

comedy, and these Gremlins drink funny potions, and they turn it into funny stuff. It's great. I get it, but it's not like as far as sequels go, it's not like an aliens to alien. It's not like this is like, whoa, this is a change in direction, and it's so amazing. It's still kind of a shitty comedy sequel. But hey, you're talking about around the same time, alien to aliens, you know what I mean? Another great movie that had a great sequel, and they were very different. The sequels were different.

It's good. The movie, we need to get better at making movies. We have to have some direction, and we have to care about these films. People don't care anymore, and I care. That's what I'm trying to say. It's beautiful. I'm serious. I know.

People call me a hater. I wish people could see you right now. I've never seen you. You have a tuxedo on all the time. It's crazy. And also, people ask why I hate Bill Nye. He lied. He lied about the ideal gas law.

He lied about it, openly he lied, and he was a professor at Cornell who cares. He sucks. And part of your rage this week is, recording this on a Tuesday, this episode will be out on this Thursday. That's right. But the big news of this week is, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the NFL reinstating the quarterback for your beloved New England Patriots, Tom Brady, his four-game suspension over the deflate gate scandal.

And you're saying you're, again, going and you're doubling down and saying that Bill Nye is extra wrong, even though an NFL court has affirmed the NFL's position. Okay, here, Weigert. Let me correct you. Let me correct you here. There were three judges. One of the judges, one of the judges was in favor of Brady. So that would mean, even if you broke it all down, it was two judges, two judges versus

two judges who have two different opinions. But this whole case isn't about whether Brady was telling lies or not. It was whether Roger Goodell could punish him. And guess what? Yes, he can be a dictator because that's fine. They gave him too much power. The Players Union gave him too much power. He can be a dictator if he wants to and he can find Brady.

I mean, it's so silly and I won't spend much time on it because it warrants our listeners. You already quoted the ideal gas law as if you were familiar with it, which is fine. I've read a lot. I've read up on this for sure. I know a lot about the ideal gas law. The most science research you've done in your life to protect your beloved football team. Dick Weigar, I've won the science fair twice when I was in middle school. I did not, but I did have a good experiment that my dad did.

Dumbass. But with Roger Goodell, he's a dictator. He pushed back on it. People are mad because they want more parody in the league. The Patriots are good. They're always good. Tom Brady, I just want to say this, Peyton Manning, before the Super Bowl even happened, there were news of him getting PED sent to his house.

The story of him sexually assaulting training staff member in college came back up. ESPN didn't comment on those at all. Not to mention his close friendship with Papa John, one of the hugest pieces of shit. One of the biggest pieces of shit there is. All of that is fucking swept under the rug. ESPN doesn't fucking post stories about it, but with the Flake Gate, they go on and on about it because they have some weird anti-New England bias that aligns with the NFL because they worship the NFL.

To be fair, Tom Brady takes PEDs too, and that wasn't it. Tom Brady does not take PEDs. I like it. So did Kobe. Absolutely. Kobe may have. Kobe had a great final game. You guys both love Kobe Bryant.

We watched it together. It's a broodog, so we enjoyed watching Kobe's 60-point performance. That sounds fucking awful. It was great. We had a great time. They didn't bring up Kobe's history, and we all know that there's at least a history, and they didn't bring it up. Whether you think that's right or wrong, I won't even comment on it.

But when Tom Brady is finishing his career, I guarantee you that they bring up like, oh, the whole deflate gate thing, I guarantee you that they mention it. And it drives me nuts because, one, the ideal gas law has already proven that what he did was not cheating. The Colts' balls were also underinflated. The Colts' balls were underinflated, and it's because when you take a ball that's filled with air pressure and you take it outside to a different environment where the temperature is different, the gas either expands or leaves the football, and that's what happened. The problem is that you're arguing this at all.

The reality is that it's so boring, and whether he did it or not shouldn't matter ultimately, right? It shouldn't matter when the NFL already has so many problems with people physically abusing their spouses and girlfriends, and with PEDs, and with guys getting concussions and fucking not being able to talk. Yeah, there's so many years after retiring. So many bigger issues it feels like on the NFL's plate, and this is the one they've just kind of gone all in on and enforcing. Even if he did cheat, which I don't even fucking care. I don't care either, honestly. I'm now at the point in my life where I'm in favor of sports cheating. I feel like if you cheat and get away with it, more power to you.

I think cheating is part of the game, and you just have to cheat and conceal it effectively. And it's so crazy that it's become the thing that it's become. It's truly insane. The guys from Sports Illustrated wrote a great article on it, even though ESPN won't touch it because they're fucking little powers. They're all fucking dorks. They're like the golf club. I was gonna say the golf club, but my dad loved golf. I'm saying they're like the bad guys in Caddyshack. They're like all these little assholes up in Bristol, Connecticut.

They fucking suck. I think you're a little wrong, though, about them talking about deflate gate when you retire. I do think he'll be lauded. There are still weird articles about Kobe while all this happened. I'll tell you that he didn't even do anything about it. That's true. The Peyton Manning sexual harassment situation, that came up in the news around the time of his retirement, around the time of his Super Bowl win.

So I think that... Yeah, and it was not a news story at all. Yeah, the dare did get caught on that pretty quickly. I think there probably will be a little bit of a tangent, because just anytime they do a review of an athlete's career, they always talk about the good and the bad, the struggles and the successes. So I think they'll... She didn't talk about it with Peyton at all.

You know what I mean? They didn't talk about it at all in his Super Bowl. Yeah, but they will. They will because they're so full of shit. You know what I mean? Peyton has better PR people, I guess. I don't know. People don't like Brady. And I get it.

There's a lot of things not to like about him. He's a very handsome man. I met the man. You have a little video you shot with him, right? I caught a pass from Tom Brady. Yeah. And I did. You could see it a funnier die.

It's me as a super fan where I meet Tom Brady. You know what's weird is that when you catch that pass, you're quoted and it's on camera. You say, like, hmm, this seems... This ball seems pretty deflated. And Tom responds, yeah, that's just how I like him. And then he winks. So I don't know. Maybe you can claim something from that.

He's like, fuck, people, you know what? That's what fucking Aaron... What's his name? Aaron Rogers said before all this happened, he's like, I like to overinflate my balls and like try to get away with it. And they didn't... It didn't matter at all. Yeah.

He talked openly about how he tried to, after they checked the balls, that he tried to overinflate them because he likes his balls more inflated than is allowed. And it didn't even matter. It's all insane. And everybody hates Boston. But you know what? I get it. I hate myself right now too.

You should hate us. What's up? All right. Well, we've spent about a full third of the podcast talking about the Flategate, which is better than I expected. Yeah, I'm done now. Well... And fuck you, Bill Nye.

You know what you did. You know what? I challenged Bill Nye to come on this podcast and let's debate science. A scientific debate, Bill Nye. Fucking... The problem has been thrown down. The person you potentially learned about the ideal gas law from is Bill Nye and your... No.

Bill Nye fucking ignored the ideal gas law. Okay. I was confused as to how you learned about the word ideal gas law. He wanted him and his fucking stupid bow tie. He wanted to look cool. Fuck you, Bill Nye. We're a fucking regular tie, you fucking nerd. Everyone got so mad too because I went after fucking Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Jesus. I loved Cosmos. It was a fun show. This is becoming a very controversial podcast for all the weirdest reasons. God. Nothing to do with your food opinions. Just your opinions on the world of large. Everyone just go back and watch Roger Rabbit.

It will be all right. Roger Rabbit is great. Definitely holds up. All right. I want to talk and make sure that we have some time for this week's chain because I know this is one that holds a special place in the heart of our guest who is a good friend. Yes. So, David, talk to us about Hillstone.

Oh, man. When did your love affair with Hillstone begin? First of all, I can't believe I'm allowed to introduce this chain to the podcast. Very excited, honored. It's a big one. Be here in general, but... Well, don't be too honored because I don't really give a shit. Well, you better change that opinion by the end of this once we really get into it.

Well, I actually discovered Hillstone later in life. Sure. Like around 2007, 2008-ish, going to Houston's and I grew up right next to one. I went to it a few times, did not realize it was a chain until like eight years ago and then I just... That's not like someone like being like, well, I actually listened to the Rolling Stones later in life until I was like 25. You know what?

It's exactly like that. Hillstone is like the Rolling Stones except I guess more like the Beatles. Sure. That's the difference. They're like the Rolling Stones but more like the Beatles. Well, I think you could make an argument that the Rolling Stones, that their catalog, their quality level is dipped over time whereas the Beatles are kind of locked in a moment of excellence and I think that's kind of what Hillstone projects.

It's just been excellent kind of the whole way. Wait, what? I would say, look at the Beatles career. There's not like a period where they're tailed off for 20 years and they're putting out a bunch of forgettable albums and singles. They just have that one decade where they were great and that's what everyone thinks about. I don't think there's a point where Hillstone, you know, opinions may differ but I don't

think Hillstone is tailed off yet. It's still just been at the same level of quality throughout. And I think even more specifically this metaphor could go to Paul McCartney as Bandera. George Harrison is Houston. Sure. And John Lennon is Hillstone. Gotcha. And then maybe you got Ringo's...

Ringo's R&D. Oh, I was gonna say... Why not? Ringo could be Gulfstream. Gulfstream, sure. Because he's in the... Who's the producer? George something?

Oh, George Martin? Yeah, he's R&D. George Martin's R&D. Ringo Starr. George R. Martin. George R. Martin is R&D kidding. What do you think about Game of Thrones, bitch? Talking about fantasy.

I like Game of Thrones. You like Game of Thrones? I do like Game of Thrones. So you're saying Game of Thrones better than Harry Potter? Of course. Okay. I'm not a monster. I like Game of Thrones.

There was one season where people hated and I liked it. And then there was a season where everyone loved it and I didn't like it as much. But you know what? I'm not trying to go and get to the grain. I sometimes just like different opinions. You're tracking, though, like how much nudity there is throughout this season.

It was this time when nobody was naked when I didn't like it. I liked Melisandre when she took the necklace off. That was for sure. Oh, yeah. Spoilers? Do you think part of your fandom for Game of Thrones, bitch, is because you can really relate to the character of Sam, the coward?

Fuck you! Oh, man. I thought you were going to say Kodor, so fuck you. Yeah, I was totally. That was too nice. That was a different direction. Kodor's got a big old dick. I know that's not true about me.

All right. That's pretty cool. I'm more like the mountain. I'm going to fucking squash your head. Yeah, I can see that. All right. So Hillstone, do you have a favorite of the different restaurants? Because this is a thing.

And what your observation about not really feeling like a chain. My wife, Natalie, said the same thing. A friend of the podcast, Evan Susser, had the same observation of, like, it doesn't feel like a chain. And you almost aren't aware that it's a chain until you learn from it from outside means. Because when you're inside there, it's so nice. It just feels like fine dining.

Do you have a particular favorite in the Hillstone family? Well, HBO's declining in quality. Okay, interesting. All right, go ahead. Yes, but it has transitioned just because it's the one I go to the most. I went from Houston's being my favorite to now South Everly Grill because it's the most convenient. Gotcha.

But it's the ones that have the standard meals that I like. But I always like to branch out. I've given the opportunity. It just, you end up going to the one that's closest to you that feels like your neighborhood one. Yeah, they all kind of like, because my initial experience with the Hillstone family was Bandera, which is kind of, there's one of those in Brentwood, California, and it's kind of like a high end.

It feels like it's more of a state concept. It's a little nicer. They have live jazz. But it has a lot of the same menu items as that you could get at a Hillstone at a Hillstone proper. And I feel like that's the same sort of experience with any of these you go to. And I think that's kind of the fun of it is you get to see these slight variations. It's like regional variations in a chain, but within the same family of restaurants.

You can go to, within the city of Los Angeles, you can go to South Beverly Grill. You can go to Hillstone, which is out in Santa Monica. You can go to Bandera. You can go to Gulfstream and you'll get a lot of shared experiences. But also a lot of differences, little subtle differences between them. Yeah, and I'll mix and match them. Like the South Beverly Grill started taking on some of the Houston's dishes once the Houston's and Century City closed.

So they brought over like the ribs and the burger that you had there. So it's like now kind of just what you were missing in that part of town. Yeah. It's perfect. It's the greatest restaurant ever made. There shouldn't be any other restaurants. There should only be one restaurant and should be Hillstone. I am always a little staggered when I go to one of these of how elegant the experience is.

And there's definitely a premium here. Like it's an expensive restaurant. I don't think there's any amount of money. Maybe you're a millionaire, a billionaire. It might seem like a pittance, but for almost everybody, it's an expensive night out. I will say, I think it's got in some ways the way that our society is going. It's kind of less expensive than it used to be. In a weird way.

Like I was like, if I went to Cheesecake Factory, I might spend similar amounts of money. And that's not even close to the same in quality. I agree with you. I like something of that ilk of a chain. And then all the standard regular restaurants that you have now in bigger cities, that it's like, oh, you got to try all these great restaurants. They're all just as expensive and not necessarily, even though it sounds so shitty to like a chain, like not as good some most of the time.

I would say that probably for where its price point is, it has a unique level of high quality and elegance to the presentation and service that I think if you want to go to an equivalent fine dining standalone restaurant, you're going to be spending a lot more. And I think if you, I think like your point, I'll reiterate your point. I think you can go to a red lobster and spend close to the same amount of money you could at a Hillstone restaurant and not get nearly as nice of an experience. I think you guys are pretty accurate on that.

By the way, here's the thing that I find confusing about this place. It's all under this Hillstone group. I don't even remember the name of the one we went to. South Beverly Grill. South Beverly Grill. I was going to say this for my rant when I was done, but... You had a prepared rant. I just, a part of me feels like this is the future of,

this is the future of kind of casual dining. Like this is the future of a cheesecake factory. It's that sort of thing of... I hope so. Me too. I mean, truly, because it is good, and I'll save my thoughts for later, but it's that sort of thing of, you're right. If you're going to be dropping that amount of money,

you want a pleasurable experience. And it doesn't even bother you that it is the chain. The chain aspect of it doesn't bother you. It's nice. The food is good. And that's all that matters. And I feel like a lot of chains, I went to, you know, I went to a chain just recently for the show, which I can't speak of yet.

And I was like, this sucks. And I spent fucking $60, and it sucked. And with these Hillstone restaurants, I'm like, this is good quality food. You get treated well. It's a day or night out. It feels nice. I feel like that's where places have to push themselves to go.

Yeah, it is really like... I've talked to David about this before, but I've had one bad experience at any Hillstone restaurant, and it was completely unrelated to anything about the restaurant. It was just that I went into the bathroom, I went into the men's room. And you got kind of jerking off. I got jerking off.

And then... That was the best part. I'm into that shit. No, uh... To what? Someone had thrown up in the men's room sink, and it was like, oh, that's fucking gross. I don't want to see that, and I lost my appetite.

Someone saw you walk in. But I mean, that's the thing that's just like, okay, that's a side from... maybe that was a lapse in janitorial services, but that is a side from the quality of the restaurant. And that is more of an endorsement of that person wanted to eat so much more Hillstone that they went into the bathroom to put up

whatever they had in their stomach so they could go back and eat more. Oh, my God. That's my thought. Makes you fomitorium. Yeah. I'm with you. Why not?

But it is like... The consistency is very impressive, and I think when you see food writers and critics talk about the Hillstone family, they talk about how the ones in Atlanta, the ones in San Jose, the ones in Dallas, the ones in New York City are all just so consistent.

And that's the mark of a good chain. I mean, more than anything. It's also nice that it seems to be getting like some sort of publicity now or something, that Bon Appetit article or something, because there was a while where you were kind of... I don't know. I always told people that I loved it,

but there was something inherently like gross about liking a fancy chain or something that comes with like a stigma. So everyone's like, what? You like some sort of corporate fancy dining hall? It seems a little snobby or something, that you're like, oh, I don't like these regular chains. I like the fancy chain.

But in reality, it's just better. It is, yeah. It is just a notch above. It's just so much better. They do everything so well. And I mean, not saying that chilies are doomed or whatever, but I'm like, why wouldn't I want to go to a South Beverly Grill over...

I've never been to Red Lobster, but Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Applebee's, why wouldn't I want to go to a South Beverly Grill over any of those restaurants? The only reasons are budget, price, which is pretty close, and then also just proximity. I mean, there aren't as many.

I think there's 50-something hillstones nationwide, and there are just a lot more. And getting in it is busy all the time. It is very busy. I mean, they will take care of you very quickly. I feel like if you're in there and there's a wait, they'll serve you at the bar right away if you want to drink while you wait,

and I feel like they'll get you seated in a remarkably quick amount of time, considering how bustling they are. But yeah, it is a very busy restaurant. You could say it's like... It's like Roger Rabbit. It's the Roger Rabbit of... We already have the perfect Beatles metaphor.

No. The world is... We're all settling for these Applebee... for these Harry Potter-type chain restaurants. Go, boy. When we could easily be, you know, going to these... Roger Rabbit-level restaurants.

Every restaurant should inflate their balls or deflate their balls. Jesus. If it's better, if you can play better. That's true. If you can serve better food to inflate your balls? Your food. I will say this.

That these other restaurants... Because this is... It's that sort of thing of mass quantities. They're these restaurants in different parts of the country, and the food is consistently good. What's going on with these other places? How come we hear about some of these places sucking in other places being...

You know what I mean? Yeah. Why is one chili's terrible and another chili's is great? Why is that happening if Hillstone can pull it off? I think there's something to... My understanding is that every Hillstone is company-owned versus being franchised. And when you franchise,

then there's just going to be more deviation because individual franchise owners are maybe giving theirs a little less TLC. And I think also, too, there's just the scope of it. When you start to get something that's got hundreds, a thousand locations, how do you maintain that level of consistency throughout? And also, too...

I feel like all these things are intertwined and by keeping things at a manageable level. Also, too... I don't want to go out of 100 different directions in this theorizing, but there's something to their menu is large, but it's one sheet. And I feel like if you go to an IHOP,

you've got a six-page menu, an eight-page menu that's also got an insert with a bunch of different seasonal items. They've got so many different things they've got to prepare versus just having a little bit of focus and doing one set of items really well. And also, they do... We're just getting into talking about the restaurant. They do so many different items.

It's crazy that they're able to... That's such a big hit for me on diners or anything where it's like, do one thing well as opposed to a bunch of things horribly, or how Hillstone does a bunch of things great. I don't know. But herein lies my complaint about Hillstone. Herein lies.

Good work. Is the ideal gas law. I'm sorry, I don't know why I... Yeah, what the fuck? I'm not beating up on Kobe Bryant, your guy's hero, the monster Kobe Bryant. The focus of it is...

I love that it's a fancy restaurant. It feels like one of those Hollywood restaurants with booths that have pictures, drawings of people that are up on the wall. Basically, every table is a booth, which is an impressive feature. It's great, and it's nice and spacious, and it's great.

That is kind of a thing of what exactly is their thing. You know what I mean? I'm not saying necessarily this is a terrible thing because all the food is done well, but there is sushi. There are... There's sushi and steaks,

and a lot of different things that you can get. And they're delicious. But it's not necessarily... It's not a steakhouse, for sure. There's chicken, and I'm not even doing it justice of how all over the map... It's not a huge menu,

but there's a lot of... It's got a bunch of different specific things. I think if you said to someone, if you just sort of cold-pitched to someone, they've got sushi, they've got corn chowder, they've got barbecue ribs, and they've got a flay of soul.

If you just sort of said that to someone, they'd be like, oh, I'm sure that's horrible. But they do each of these elements well. But you're right. I don't know if it's a feature or a bug, the fact that there isn't one specific thing that this place is known for. It's more just a general high level

of quality in the food and service. It's at least something impressive to accomplish. Yeah. I mean, yes. I mean, 100%. It really is. I think they could introduce any kind of... I'm like, oh, I would like them to make pizza

or something else. They could do everything well, so I'm kind of curious why... I mean, I would like them to do it. Hillstone, make some pizza! Truly, I would be interested in trying it. Yeah. Let's talk about...

we did all dine together. The three of us went along with our friend Armin and our good friend of the podcast, Evan Susser. Oh, I was like, Armin didn't get friend of the podcast? Armin's also friend of the podcast, Armin Weitzman from our In and Out Burger episode. Two great friends of the podcast.

And we all went together to the South Beverly Grill, which is in Beverly Hills in the middle of the day. We kind of went in the power-lunching hour of Hollywood. I think we fit in well. Absolutely. It felt like there were a lot of agents and managers there talking about their clients.

And then they all turned their head when we watched them. Every table had at least one man in a flannel rushing in apologizing for being late. Every table had that. Well, I did have one of my worst outings as far as timing goes. I think, though, this is something to its credit,

which is that you and Armin who came together, I'm purely blaming you, were 30 minutes late to our reservation, which David placed for five. That's true. There was no problem. They still seated us when me and David and Evan Susser were there. We still were seated.

And we were served very ably and capably while we were waiting for you. We weren't rushed at all. Being sat when your party isn't all there. Your party isn't all there. No one does that. Yeah, it's very, very nice for a restaurant that could fill that table very easily if they just made us wait.

Why can't we do that? Why can't everyone just sit you down? We were going to do them well. Yeah, but also, that is their thing. If you're there, even if your party's not there, and their table's ready, they'll seat you. Which is like, it's become such a fad of every restaurant where you're like, oh, well, we won't seat you

until your whole party's here. Three of the four people are there. They could be elitist if they wanted to. Yes. That would probably actually be an attraction for part of their clientele, but they know by being inviting the whole business of the overall.

We have giant booths, so it's that sort of thing. If you have a table for one, then you're still, I think, going to take up a booth. Yeah, sure. Possibly, I mean, right? That's true. You're kind of stuck, so... Let's talk about our food a little bit. So we got the spicy tuna Osaka style, which is sashimi tuna

stacked with avocado, cucumber, and sushi rice. And we also got the Chicago style spinach and artichoke dip with warm corn tortilla chips to start. And we also got the deviled eggs SPG, which is described as with Grandma Ding's relish, mint celery, and fine herbs.

I like the name Grandma Ding. Ding is an element of that menu a lot. It's like Chef Ding's chicken sandwich or whatever. I don't know who Ding is, but it is a little weird. But yeah, what did you guys think of these apps? I enjoyed all of them. The spinach artichoke dip was really tasty.

Potentially invented by Hillstone? Are we allowed to... Sounded like that in one of the articles. I think we're allowed to say that. I think we're going to face legal action. You guys are such fucking fanboys. Hillstone doesn't say. I think you might get more than you like

anything else in your lives. I'll allow that. I'm not married, so I can say that. Lovely wife Natalie first and then Hillstone? I of course love my wife the most, but Hillstone is among my many great loves in this world. Fantastic. I'll save my evaluation for later, but I will say

about the spinach artichoke dip. I love that you're making yourself out to be a loving man. Trust me, folks. He sucks. There is a... The spinach artichoke dip I have an aversion to. Natalie and I went to a TGI

Fridays years ago, and we got the spinach artichoke dip there and we both got really bad food poisoning. I just generally can't even look at it or taste it, but Hillstone is the one place where spinach artichoke dip is so good that I can still stomach it and have a good experience.

Man, also... I think there's something to that. And another note as to being seated without your whole party there, they will bring you more chips. That's true, yeah. Another thing that they did that other places don't do where it's like you're not fighting over the last chip at the dish or like awkwardness

like, oh, who's going to get this last chip? They'll bring you more. I was wondering if... I thought maybe there should have been... Did they bring us bread to begin with? You order bread, if you want. They might be in the menu. I think the spinach artichoke dip

might have been pretty good with some bread there, too. But they made the choice for it to be corn tortilla chips and they're good. They're very good. But that's just one... God, I'm afraid to even fucking criticize it. No, bring it, man. Maybe bread would be

a nice option, too, but I did like it. Also, by the time we were eating this, your stress level from being... I've never seen you as stressed out from being like late. You were just like, there was some bad traffic, it was really bad. You were sandwiched between the whole end of the meal. What about this meeting?

I had a meeting. Let's talk about it. Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, no. You had a morning meeting and you had something in the afternoon so you were sandwiched between events. And once you landed, once you sat down, you were having a great time.

I did. I got myself a dark and stormy. It was a nice dark and stormy. And then the appetizers were good. And what was it? It was the tuna... Yeah, the spicy tuna Osaka style. Osaka style was... Everything was good.

It was all good. Also, weirdly, we had the right amount of portions. I think maybe the sushi was the only thing that someone had to split. They brought everyone their own. Everyone got one. They might do the thing where they will provide the amount for the table, but I'm not sure.

Yeah. I was very impressed with the appetizers. I enjoyed all of them. They were all good in their own different way. Weird things that don't normally go together. I will say that. But all very, very well-made, tasty, came out pretty quickly.

Everything was good. There's something to be said for... I feel the same way, but... The Hillstone restaurants are the only places, the only non-Japanese restaurants I've ever had good sushi. As opposed to acceptable, like, okay sushi, like, actually stuff where it's like, oh man,

this is really good. And for an American restaurant to pull off such a uniquely Japanese dish, and my understanding is such a challenging dish to execute, it's really impressive to me. Their sushi, I think, is really, really good. Yeah. It was good.

Just great. It was really good. Let's deviate to drinks real quick. So I got a Tito's screwdriver, which is a screwdriver with their fresh-squeezed orange juice and some Tito's vodka. I think they're... Now, David, you mentioned,

and this was something that was the Bon Appetit article, you got just a glass of orange juice as well. In the Bon Appetit article, they mentioned how the fresh-squeezed orange juice is some of the best orange juice around. And I think it really does live up to it. It was a great screwdriver. It was off-menu.

It was just something they called from the bar. But it came out really well, and it was really tasty. What did you think of that juice, buddy? Yeah, well, I love the juice, bud. Jesus Christ. I also got a... No, no, I mean... I tried your juice.

It was nice, fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was really tasty. The thing about that article that really resonated with me was that I have a group of friends all the time, and we talk about, like, they can do everything well. And then when they said that in the article, it's like, you wouldn't believe, of course, the orange juice. Like, those random things. I was like, I'm gonna try it.

I would never order that again for, like, a lunch or a dinner. It's, like, weird to me to have orange juice. Oh, no, I was weirded out for sure. Very strange. Very strange. Did it for the podcast, but did like it. Are you a pulp guy or a non-pulp guy? Went from no pulp as a kid, now I'm all pulp. I only like pulp, no juice.

A spoonful of pulp. I'm happy. Yeah, you didn't notice that I was just spitting out the pulp and spitting out the juice. Dry pulp. That's a good tweet at us. If you like pulp, hashtag pulp fiction.

Wait, wait, wait. If you don't like pulp, tweet at us, hashtag pulp fiction. If you like the pulp, hashtag pulp non-fiction. Yeah, great. I'm not a fucking child.

I got it immediately, assholes. All the Doughboyz fans think I'm dumb. That's another thing. Hashtag pulp, hashtag Jackie Brown pulp. What is that for? Oh, if you like extra,

if you like extra pulp. If you like pulp to the max, then hashtag Jackie Brown pulp. I didn't actually mean to make any statement other than what you're trying to parody. If you like pulp, you hate it. Hashtag, I hate juice pulp.

If you like pulp, you hate juice, that's the one you use. Maybe don't use that one. Unless you mean it. I don't know, we'll see. I forgot to talk about this. Someone pointed out that Doughboyz fans think I'm dumb.

Oh, man. You get silent immediately and look down. God damn it. In all fairness, your hand is currently stuck with peanut butter. The images you can create for the listeners is always very fun. Honestly, being here was

kind of a weird moment where I've imagined what this place looked like in a creepy way, I guess. I know the way you guys look, so I feel like when you have radio hosts, you're always surprised by how they look. But since I know what you guys look like, my brain is

imagining what you're doing while this is happening, it's very disappointing. You are a creepy orange juice drinking man. That's fair. I'll allow it. It's not fair that I get painted as dumb because I don't get your fucking croc from Sonic references.

It's fucking bullshit. Spectre the Crocodile. Croc is a different franchise. You're railing on science and great movies like Pro Wars. Damn it. My man, DP.

Maybe my hillstone rating is dropping. Oh no! You're right, Mitch. Orswick is as bad. You're right, Mitch is smart. I also got a round of average. I got a Margarita, which is one of the things they have

on their drink menu is a specialty item and they do a really good Margarita. It's just like, again, just something you would normally expect, I'll get this at a Mexican restaurant, they just execute it really well. It's really well made. It's very delicious. What number Margarita was that for you for the day? I do not have a drinking problem.

I did have two rounds. I had kind of a boozy lunch. Let's talk about our... You mentioned the dark and stormy, Mitch. That was good. I had a dark and stormy. It was delicious. It was really, really good dark and stormy. It was great. A great job with it. Little classic. I loved the cup it was in.

They had some nice ice in there. Truly. I'm not even joking around. Fresh ice cubes. It was a good dark and stormy. They did a great, great, great job with it. I'm not usually a day drinker. It's pretty much rum and

ginger beer and a couple other things. It was really tasty. I don't day drink too, too much. Only when you have work to do later. Only when I go to... It was one of my busier days. I have to get to a meeting.

Let's drink up. But... No, I enjoyed it a lot. I think I went on and had a Coke or Diet Coke afterwards and they had one of those... I forget what it was. I think it was Diet Coke. They served in those little glass bottles which is always a nice touch.

That's a nice touch when they didn't have a fountain. Let's talk about our mains a little bit. I got one of their signature mains which is the Campfire BBQ Ribs. Described as fall off the bone tender BBQ sauce, coleslaw and haystack fries.

DP, you've had those ribs before. They are really, really good. I say this as not a rib skeptic, but not someone who I'm like oh my god, ribs are my favorite. Ribs are pretty good, but I could generally take them or leave them unless I'm at a BBQ restaurant.

Ribs, ribs, skeptic? I said I'm not a ribs skeptic. I know, but it's just the idea of a ribs skeptic. It's funny to me. The quality of ribs even existing. I think that it's just so good.

I feel like I'm just being once effusive in my praise but also redundant, but I feel like for a lot of this stuff I have nothing to say besides it's just so good. It's just so tasty. The meat really does fall off the bone. You don't really need your hands too much to eat it, though you might want to

dig in for those last few bites. The coleslaw comes with is great. It's coleslaw. I feel like coleslaw has a ceiling, but this goes right up to the ceiling, the natural ceiling that is a limitation of coleslaw inherently.

The fries are very good. They've had some comparisons to in and out fries and they're the same sort of very fresh potato, very sort of you're getting kind of a little oil heavy, but they're just so tasty and I feel like they're very crisp and delicious. They just have a nice texture.

They have that nice shoestring quality, which I personally like. Also, I didn't know that the word rib skeptic, but I think I was. I used to be a rib skeptic. Wow, okay. I do think I used to have bad ribs all the time.

I think growing up in L.A. there was no good place to get ribs. Tony Romo's was the only place I knew ribs from, so it's like a standard chain's work. I didn't know that it could be tender or tasty. Having ribs at Hillstone was like, oh yeah, first of all, I don't have to get dirty. I can use a fork and knife. I'm really coming off

like a huge snuff. And I don't have to even use the fork and knife. My friend will feed it to me. Rodolfo will come and feed me my little ribs. I have a good

no, but I, yeah, they created like the idea of ribs to me. Now, Barbecue was taken off, but their ribs were the first great ribs I ever had. Now Barbecue's huge. All these great places here, too. And I've had it in Texas also. I do get that ribs are great.

But growing up, I didn't think they were good. This is just chewy meat and it makes you dirty. I was like, give me something better than this. And they did. It's like a boring X-Files YouTube. Boring version of Mulder.

Or Scully, whatever, who gives a shit. Hey, you know what? You like X-Files. That's cool. Yeah, X-Files. You can come positive on X-Files. I don't have an issue with ribs. I'm a man of the people. They're not my favorite. I will say that. Evan Susser

was, he got ribs as well. He also got the ribs, yeah. He was really ripping into him. He didn't have your guys problem of being messy. Also his cloth napkin by the end of it was so covered in sauce. It looked like someone had used his napkin to clean up a pool of

sauce that was on the floor. I'd never seen a table of people react to a napkin in the way that... He left that to go to the bathroom and we were all like, who is that? No, it was a fucking nasty. It looks like they dipped his napkin in the jar of sauce. It was fucking nasty.

And even the thought that we could have confused it with Nick's napkin was like offensive dimmys. Does Susser not like sauce because I wouldn't have been surprised if he was taking the rib under the table and taking the sauce... Dapping the sauce off with the napkin

because it was so fucking sauce covered. I mean, what can we say? He's a messy eater. Somehow still most of the sauce ended up on his shirt as well. He gave me one of the ribs. I'm a man of the people, I don't mind ribs. I'm not gonna have a strange man feed them to me like Phillips.

But they are... As far as ribs go, they do a great job with the ribs. I didn't like this straight off because Susser then also got to try my sandwich, which was the French dip sandwich. And he took two hearty Susser bites into them and

the sandwich almost disappeared. The French dip sandwich was amazing. Their famous French dip is what it's called. Roasted prime ribs served piled on a freshly baked French roll. Comes with a side of au jus. A lot of jus tuck. And then...

You did not have to do that. You didn't have to make that connection at all. I just feel like we've been talking about jus so much. Au jus, and it sounded like I was saying jus again. Yeah, we didn't even mention when we said orange juice. Oh my god. I was right there.

I was like, I love it. Orange juice. The au jus is... Listen, here's another thing. I don't love... The ribs aren't my favorite. And French dips aren't my favorite. And I loved that

French dip. It was so, so good. And let me just... And they came with a side of horseradish sauce. I wouldn't say cream or whatever. I guess that's still horseradish sauce. Yeah, yeah.

It was very kind of fluffy and it was delicious. The horseradish... And I don't love horseradish. I don't hate it, but it's also like I've grown to like horseradish sauce more as time has gone on. And it was so fucking good. The combination of all of it was so good.

I... I loved it. There was no cheese on it. I usually get cheese on my French dip. There was no cheese on it. It was just so classically good. And the bread was so good. In fact, the thing I enjoyed about the restaurant the least

was Phillips and Nick Weiger asking me, what do you think? And I'm going, oh, it's so good. And then I see the two of them look at each other and smile and nod. And that to me was the worst part of my entire experience at the restaurant

at South Beverly Grill. They were really, really into me enjoying this restaurant. But the sandwich was incredibly good. I would get it again. I want it again. Just talking about it right now makes me want to go get it again. We just had a French dip yesterday.

Well, you guys went to Philippe's which is one of the self-proclaimed inventors of the French dip sandwich here in Los Angeles. How does Philippe stack up to the... In your opinion, Mitch, how does Philippe stack up to the one that you can get at the South Beverly Grill or any of the Hillstone restaurants?

I'll say that I like the South Beverly Grill's French dip better. Wow. I liked Philippe's. I didn't dislike Philippe's. And I also like... What's the other one? Coles. Coles is good, too. We had a big discussion about this because Philippe's out here is...

It's pre-dipped. Coles, you dip your own. And how do you feel about that, Weigar? Dip versus pre-dip? I feel like there's room for both. I feel like, you know... That's all I felt, too. Yeah, there's pre-dipped. There's dip. There's room for both.

I may have mentioned this to you guys in a text message. There is a unique joy in dipping the French dip sandwich because you don't normally get to dip a sandwich. It's like a rare thing. There's, like, what? I guess the Monte Cristo, if you get a little jam with that, you can dip that sandwich. And the French dip, you get to dip in the adjou.

And then what else is there? Are there any other dipping sandwiches? There aren't a lot. So, I kind of like that that makes it stand out a little bit. But I think it'll always be better portioned if someone else pre-dips it versus you trying to divvy it up yourself. Yeah, I mean... I have a passionate...

a little bit of a passionate stance on the pre-dipped. I feel like we got into it a little bit. Yeah, you really liked the pre-dip. I mean, you didn't get into it with me, but with other people. It was yelling in the restaurant. If you can create the perfect sandwich without me having to do anything,

I would prefer it. I don't disagree with a dip and I get that some people want the option to have it. Literally make it the exact way it should be eaten. That's exactly how I want it. I kind of get behind that. So, it's like pre-dip it,

package it exactly how I want, have somebody feed it to me. I don't want to touch it. I realize all these things are sounding like I am a huge snob. But I do think that the idea of dipping, I guess, I get that that became a fun

cache to the sandwich. But I don't think it is necessary for it to be great. Sure. Here's what I'll say. When you dip it into the au jus, the au jus will be hot and so sometimes it can be like, oh, it heats up the sandwich. So, the pre-dip can sometimes

get a little cold faster, which takes a little bit of points off. But we've talked about this before and it's a criticism I had of five guys and people were like, oh, you just order the bold lettering or whatever when you go all the way or whatever at five guys.

And I'm very... I kind of have the same mind of as you, Phillips, where I'm like, oh, give it to me just the way you want. And we talked about this too. Yeah, this is a larger thing that it represents. It's a big conversation. There are some places that give you

buffalo wings with ranch drizzled on them. And do you like that or you like to dip your wings into the ranch or blue cheese? That may be a particularly rare example, the drizzled blue cheese wings. But I get your general point. I would say I'm with you on this, Mitch.

I generally am a fan of... I'm generally opposed to too much customizability on the consumer's side. The chef should make those decisions for me. I want you to say what's best. I don't want you to have me look through an array of menu items and try to decipher

what the best configuration is. I feel like that has its place, but... I don't even think it has its place. Wow, okay. I agree with that dipping. Open up a place, make the food for me if you're going to do that. I don't know how to make food.

I'm not a chef. I want to go to a pizza place and then have to make the whole thing. I know that sauce and cheese should be on it, but I don't know what else... I kind of agree with that. I mean, how you can make your things the right way. I'd rather it be more extreme that way

than the other way. For me, it would be like these pizza include a pepperoni pizza. Sometimes I like simple, too. But if we're going to go the full version of I'd rather it be so extreme than have the other version. I'm like, great, if you don't make something

I like, then I won't go to your restaurant. Then that's fair. That's the fair version of that, and I'll go to the restaurant where I like the things or be specific about it. Sometimes even Buffalo Wild Wings is that sort of thing where I'm like, and there's so many options,

but as far as the question of dipping goes... We really took this. No, but I mean, the customizable stuff, I'm 100%, I'm on board with you. Don't give me an option. I don't want to make it myself. Tell me what you got. We have enough shit to stress about in life.

Yeah, just give me what you think is great. Give me what you think is a great, perfect meal and I'm going to eat that. As far as dipping goes, if you like dipping, tweet at us, big dipper. If you don't like it, little dipper. So both dipping, but just if you like... Yeah, little dipper means you can not like dipping at all.

You dip a little. But I think as far as Buffalo Wings go, yeah, I kind of want to dip into the rancher blue cheese. Uh-huh. And I think that there was room for the French dip to have it both ways. I enjoyed Philippe's

and then I enjoyed and I really enjoyed the French dip at South Carolina. And only to deconstruct that wings thing a little bit more, it's imagining like having to dip a fully naked wing into the wing sauce would be crazy. That's true.

That's true, that's true. All right, David, talk about your main a little bit. Okay, I got the burger because nobody else got the burger. We need to have at least a version of all the classics on the table. I think that they do potentially the best hamburger in the city.

The most classic version of what a hamburger should be at. And LA is a big burger town. LA is a big burger town. There's a couple that are up there for me, but it's one of my favorites for sure. And it doesn't make me feel sick after. There's some burgers that are great,

but you feel like you just had way too much and want to die. And it feels very fresh and clean. Every component really cuts into the next one really nicely. And it reminds you of what a burger should taste like. An LA native you are. You grew up in LA

a great burger town with many perhaps somewhat credited with popularizing the sandwich nationwide. All right. It comes from the east coast. But I'm saying the expansion of burger culture nationwide I think is partly credited to Los Angeles and its many

fast food and burger chains that it started out here. Okay. We're reopening the term of champion. Mitch just put a gun in his mouth. Oh no. There. But you're saying Hillstone, which has many different things than a burger,

that their burger as a little small portion of their menu itself is so outstanding it's maybe better than all these burger specialists. Yeah, all the places that are specializing and getting really fancy with their burgers are overdoing it when you have a Hillstone burger like,

oh, you can still make it like this. You're looking at me like embarrassed for me. I was just saying that Nick Weiger's setup of that was like the most wrestling announcer, Jim Ross. You're telling me you, a guy from California who loves Hillstone,

loves the Hillstone burger, of course he loves the fucking Hillstone burger. You had it. You had a bite. It was great. It was a good burger. I don't know if it's my favorite burger. It's really good. Like two dealers trying to get you hooked on your first taste.

We afford so much food on you that day. It was a big, big meal, but I'll tell you I left satisfied. Well, let's talk about the capper of that meal. So we got dessert, which we don't typically do. I'm actually definitely not at lunch. No, never. You shouldn't be dessert at lunch. It's too much.

It's bad. You're in a bad spot. I've done it a lot. Just drink a ton and go to work. Go back to work. Don't have desserts. We got two desserts we shared with the table. We got the South Beverly Brownie and we got the Key Line Pie. What did you guys think of those desserts? Each one of us got an espresso, a little espresso.

Yes, we all had an espresso and the espresso was very nice. Very good espresso. That was weird for me, too. I don't usually do that. It was great. It got my energy going. It cut through Nick's alcoholic haze so he drove home safely. You know, last time I had, because me and David Phillips, we went to Gulfstream

a few weeks ago, not as a part of this podcast, but just to go. I had an alcoholic drink for lunch and then followed it up with an espresso as it's part of the dessert. And I always, anytime I do that, I find myself getting alcohol followed by espresso.

I just feel insane. And I don't know why I do it to myself, but just like the alcoholic buzz plus the caffeine high just makes me feel like I'm going to die. Like, I feel so crazy. And it was the same sensation there. I'm just like, oh my God, and I don't know why I do that same thing over and over again.

I was going to say, I can picture Weiger giving this spiel in a straightjacket of Silence of the Lamb mask over his face. He went to the back of the open kitchen there and just put his bare hands on the stove for a full minute.

I'm open to the possibility that this podcast does not actually exist and it's just something that's an imagined reality within my head as I'm inside the interior of a mental institution. I think we said this before, but I'm your drop dead friend. Weiger's a little drop dead friend.

It was good. The cappuccinos were great, right? Espresso's. Oh, sorry. Espresso's, whatever. Same difference. Espresso's were great. I enjoyed the same difference between 0.12 of air pressure and 0.1. Oh, are you sorry?

Phillips, I was enjoying you on this podcast. I liked the key lime pie was great. The thing with the brownie was it was served hot, which I liked and that's why we got it. It came with some vanilla ice cream, I believe. The ice cream was really great and the brownie

was really great. It had nuts in it. Which I think everyone didn't love but it was still really well done for a brownie that was kind of filled with nuts. When it comes to brownies, I don't love them to be filled with nuts. I'm sorry. It's not my thing. How do you feel on that?

Brownies with nuts? I generally say no nuts but I would say out there if you're a nuts fan, nuts and brownie use the hashtag brownie with nuts and if you're not

a brownie with nuts fan use the hashtag in glorious brownie. I like where we're going. You clearly had a nuts for nuts version of a thing. I like it. I will say since I should say something

negative to give me some sort of resemblance of fairness on this podcast I didn't come here just to talk highly of this place. I completely agree that nuts do not belong in desserts and even Hillstone shouldn't have done it.

I think they made the best version of that but I hate nuts and I hate fruits in desserts. I think that both of them especially in chocolate like black forest cake get cherries out of there. Really caramel and chocolate then if you're not having any fruits.

Or a bunch of sugar. Everything has so much sugar in it but putting fruit on chocolate ruins it as well as nuts to me. Wow. Interesting. I don't know if you watch the British baking show but they make all these fabulous desserts but I'm like

you put all these horrible things inside of it and ruin the chocolate cake. I'm okay with a fruity jam sometimes on a chocolate cake but I get where you're saying I think it's hashtag no nuts or hashtag go nuts. Oh that's good. Wait but we're talking about fruit

and chocolate I think has to be I'm saying all around for nuts all around. Hashtag go nuts or hashtag no nuts. Alright now with the fruit one you go for it buddy. Fruit and chocolate? Let's have it either you can use the hashtag

black plus red or hashtag um wait I got it. If you like your chocolate alone use hashtag chocolate solo

If you like your chocolate with fruit use hashtag chocolate Cone Chocolate Kylo Chocolate Kylo You had a whole thing prepared No I like yours

Chocolate Kylo we'll stick with that. What did you say? Chocolate Cone? Chocolate Kylo Kylo Ren Kylo Ren versus his father's I mean it's a classic rivalry I like it Fruit killed the man

and it's unfair Oh DP big spoilers At this point you should have seen the movie which is very good You should have seen it I'll just say about their desserts The ones we had were very conventional I think they do a good job of their desserts

but they are all very conventional They do a banana cream pie at Bandera which I think is the best banana cream pie in the world but it's a banana cream pie, it's a conventional dessert and I think that's just something to take into consideration I think that they should look into making a hot fudge sundae just like a classic dessert like that I bet they would nail it

They may offer one at one of their restaurants Take them nuts out of that brownie That's all they're gonna do Alright let's get to our final thoughts on this chain but give your closing argument and cap it off with a rating from one to five forks We will start with you I mean a closing argument seems awkward

when we all know where it's going But just to say this I think there's something perfect about this chain that is why chain restaurants even exist is for Hillstone to exist in a weird way We have

like essentially decided that all of our food we want as perfect as possible and this is the ultimate end goal of what a chain restaurant should be and it has, it offers all the things that a chain restaurant should it can do everything and make all these different types of food

at its possible best quality that a chain can and because of that I would like to extend all five of my tongs of my fork and all five

of those forks to Hillstone Wait so you got a five tonged fork you're working with? Five tongs? That's 25 tongs Also is it a tong no tong? Tongs They're each extended little

claspy tongs on the fork Tine or prong I'm thinking tine and prongs anyways I called them tongs I fumbled Are the prongs from the District 9? We haven't seen it

Oh prongs? I thought You're right it's prongs Yeah All that dramatic build up to me just saying obviously five forks No doubt obviously Jesus Christ

Speaking of District 9 I have not seen the film but in the spirit of Mitch making a strong uninformed opinion I'm gonna say that District 9 is bullshit That movie is fucking terrible District 9 is actually not that bad District 9 sucks It's fucking garbage

The people that are gonna go You know what at the same time I'm like who gives a shit Yeah it's fine hate District 9 I challenged the director Neil Blancamp to come on this podcast Oh boy See what you got I can't wait for him to beat this shit

Alright Hillstone is fantastic It's expensive you're gonna be spending some money If you're value conscious I went to Bandera as a college student for a friend's birthday party and you know I gasped the bill it is a lot of money

if you're someone with means or someone who just likes to save up for a nice night out every so often treat yourself go to a hillstone understand you're gonna be spending some money but I think it is money that is well worth it and also I think Mitch's point from earlier is salient and smart which is that

you can spend a comparable amount of money at a much inferior restaurant there's just something that if you you know oh I'm sorry David's point I attributed to Mitch for some reason but I will say there's something of like oh I'm in Scottsdale, Arizona I'm in

Tucson I'm in Phoenix I can only think of Arizona cities right now but I'm in some place that I'm not familiar with there's a Houston's there's a Bandera there's a Gulfstream nearby I know this is going to be a fantastic meal and I think again that's the main goal of a chain restaurant is to

provide consistency of experience throughout its many locations hillstone does that the food is outstanding if it was one restaurant it would still be one of the best restaurants five forks very easy five forks of my life wow easiest five forks of your life okay I'm Mitch I'm letting you finish off

and the reason why is because me and DPs ratings were not in doubt and it all hinges on you whether this will be admitted to the hallowed halls of the golden plate club or fingers crossed the platinum plate club but I will I will let you say your opinion you can also do more than five

forks I know you were broken up about that so yes you can do more than five I will say for the state of Arizona to check all those cities that Nick listed for any of your missing person there might be some sort of connection

I loved it it was a great great restaurant I said I think that it's kind of the future of a kind of fast casual or dining or a chain restaurant food I guess is the best way to put a chain restaurant it's kind of the future of a chain restaurants

we have to evolve in some way this feels like the next kind of this feels like the next next step it's expensive it is very expensive the majority of everything I had was good the fries were a little bit like in and out but I did like them better than in and out fries

they were maybe just a little bit more salted or seasoned but yeah it's an expensive place should I give this oh god under four forks for revenge for all the shit you put me through with much madness where the true winner Wendy should have

taken the crown or am I going to be a good guy you got toppled over trying to sit so high in your seat like that I've never seen you do that before everything they do is they do well the food is really good I like the booths I really do

I enjoy sitting in those big booths I enjoy all the food, I enjoy the desserts I enjoy the drinks the fries were maybe the weakest thing of all and they weren't terrible so that being said I'm going to let you guys smile and nod at each other

five prawns five prawns five prawns from District 9 that's equivalent to fours though five forks congratulations hillstone family you're in the platinum plate club where you belong

your face someday I think will be chiseled onto mount chain more as one of the essential chains in American dining what plans do you have I have a vision of an untouched an untouched stretch of rock

that we will someday carve the four best chains in American dining I think it has a ways to go I think hillstone definitely goes up there I think that hillstone I'm surprised it hasn't really taken the world by storm I guess it kind of has this one of Shaq's favorite restaurants yeah that counts for something

but I do think that the price thing it is a point and for a lot of listeners that's tough and it was borderline me taking off half a fork but as I said on this I'm not going to be talking about this disgusting and that's why I should have given up

four and a half but I have to be true to myself yeah it shows how strong you are and you're a man of the people you wouldn't want to rob something so important just out of a spite that's true I mean their famous french dip was $22 yeah that's a lot of money

but I'm usually you usually are hitting 14 to 15 bucks with meal and drink anyways and for how good it was I don't know I would spend that 22 bucks it's tough I'm not going to be going there super regularly

like you said just because maybe the price point but it's it's so so good and if it was nearby I probably would go there regularly and just lose a lot of money also I mean if you're not going in and out all the time you're getting burgers it's kind of the same price of a burger

I think the burger is like 16 or 17 bucks which comes with fries and all that other stuff and like I think most burger places are that expensive it's pretty close to what you could spend a regular time it's pretty much what you'll end up spending at umami which is so bad umami is nasty compared to

and any other burger place pretty much I think shake shack will be close to that price point when you get the fries with the burger Carl jr you're leaving there and you're spending probably 10 to 12 bucks so you know you're right but it is kind of a fancy expensive price point

but is it worth it I'd say yes awesome got that Mitch I applaud you I applaud because nothing could have upset me more than you giving it less than five forks I know nothing gives you pleasure quite like uh causing me harm so I applaud your neutrality well thank you I'm a better man than you

alright it's time to chain more too that's pretty exciting announcement wow we'll see um it's time for a regular segment we've got four varietals of the same snack and we're going to rank them one through four it's flavor of the week alright so this week we've got

one of your favorites I believe Mitch we've got some cheez-its cheez-its are are some of my favorites you prefer cheese nips you're dumbass you're the only idiot who prefers we talked about this we said nips or or it's right yeah hashtag we probably did I forgot what the hashtag was look up the hashtag

or just make up a new one yeah make up a new one whatever nips or it's um alright so we've got some different cheez-its and they cheez-its been going a little flavor crazy like a lot of snacks but I'm gonna hand these to you one at a time Mitch and you can let our listeners know what we're going to be tasting so there's the first one alright we got Italian four cheese

cheez-its alright DP feel free to grab those if you want to start munching on these here we go toss them over to DP here's the next one next we got pepper jack cheez-its which I think these are have kind of been around maybe right like a or maybe both of them but these aren't all necessarily

brand new um these are just ones that wear out the grocery store shelf okay pepper jack I'm tossing the next one to DP he's taking his cheez-its alright there you go there's a DP caught that one handed it was pretty cool the next one is cheddar jack cheez-its um

which I feel like I've seen before too I feel like I've seen all those oh DP was just blown away look at look look at the box no someone that I handed to Nick oh the one that you handed to was Italian four cheese okay and the last one is one of my favorites I have tried these ones cheez-it extra toasty

so here you go DP they're both coming at you all right all right I already tasted the Italian four cheese Italian four cheese I'm trying the pepper jack right now I'm dipping into my first crew which is the the Italian four cheese what was the second one like a pretzely thing no these were the pepper jack the

ones that you had second okay all right forgive me for chewing really loudly this is my favorite part of the podcast so I'm really gonna just go for it making weird your favorite part is listening to us too on the microphone it makes me laugh some people hate it people like it yeah it's very funny um I don't

like I'm not in I'm not enjoying it but it makes me laugh because it feels very like yeah sorry well that's our podcast I think we need one word to describe our podcast and Mitch and I as individuals it would be unprofessional I'm sure it's hosty

okay the pepper jack has a little bit a little bit of heat to it it's not super hot but there's definitely some spice I'm trying the Italian four cheese again I feel like I didn't get a good good sampling earlier whoa cheddar jack cheddar jack and the first one the four cheese

taste I mean definitely a strong in that Italian ones yeah that Italian four cheese has a lot of like butter and parmesan flavors to it and I'm trying the trying the extra toasty now hmm

okay that comes down to if you like those slightly those slightly sinister cheez-its which you'll get sometimes you'll sometimes get those dark brown ones if you like those that the extra toasty is for you obviously yeah there's a little wheel of cheese on the back of the box sunbathing

trying the cheddar jack now now it's the part where I just watch you guys eat you have all four of them and finish all the boxes I moved on to my last one I like it they're definitely all cheez-its that's for sure very little

I mean there's tiny differences I feel like between half of them like the cheddar jack and the four cheese are one of the same thing and the pepper jack and the extra toasty tastes the same to me mm-hmm kind of but maybe

I love cheez-its yeah maybe not a loser in this bunch I enjoyed all of them but let's let's figure out what our favorite is so first up and David I'm not sure if you can quite survey it from over there but it's okay but you just say it if we can't tell what your finger is pointing at but first off let's all point

we've got again we got the pepper jack we got the Italian four cheese we got the cheddar jack and the extra toasty let's all point at our fourth favorite our least favorite from this batch okay okay David where are you pointing

I'm pointing to the one you're pointing at we're both pointing at the Italian four cheese Mitch you are pointing at the cheddar jack what's your thinking on the cheddar jack the cheddar jack was just kind of like the strongest kind of artificially cheese tasting one sure

yeah what do you think David why why'd four cheese go I actually maybe it's because of the first one I had but I thought it was sorry I thought it was too also too strong cheese wise it is like I feel like that's the one that's got the strongest most distinct flavor I feel like it came in fourth for me because I could see

myself eating the fewest handfuls of this if I was snack benching all right let's go for number three now we're just swapping we're swapping orders so David you and I are pointing at the cheddar jack Mitch you're pointing at the four cheese I'm leading these by the way as we go somehow all of your hands on every

box I don't know how you're pulling that off cheddar jack is fine I don't know why I'd take it over a regular cheese it I guess if it was the cheese it's that were there I'd be like I'm fine with this but I don't know it just did I don't know what it brings to the table mm-hmm there's wrong cheese tastes they're close

but the two of them are close I mean they're kind of similar and they're the Italian three what is it four cheese four cheese it just beat this one out this one just the cheddar the cheddar jack to me just had a little bit more of an artificial kind of like

Dorito like Doritos sure I love Doritos but like a dusty element to it that I didn't like as much the non-cheddar element is really pronounced I feel like this is just branding testing or something like which box works the best because they taste so similar to me that they're just

like whichever one sells more will leave they're both kind of the same thing yeah and one's white and one is an orange so if they're just trying to see if people respond to it yeah that's an interesting theory alright let's point to our second place what the fuck you guys suck

at the peper jack time club on this one because we both pointed extra toasty and Mitch you pointed at the pepper jack why is the pepper jack of your runner up the pepper jack it took me a little while like as I was eating them I started to enjoy them more but they're closer to these other two than the extra toasty the extra toasty

or just classic fucking cheese it's just toasted up a little bit and I love them the extra toasties are very good it just comes down to I'd rather have the variants in a normal box of cheese it where you've got some extra toasty

and you got some regular toasty I feel like just eating those extra toasty for me it starts to taste a little bit they're kind of cardboardy they're like they've got a little less flavor than I feel like the conventional cheese it and the pepper jack I mean that's my number one because I just like that heat and I feel like

this is the one where I see like okay if you're a niche fan of the toasted cheese it's maybe you want the extra toasty I get that I get the appeal of that one the pepper jack the most because it's like if you're someone who likes spicy this is definitely a spicy cheese it it's going to deliver on that heat and I do like a little bit of spice

I guess I didn't notice that the pepper jack was that spicy but I just felt like the toasty was so bland or something maybe because I had so many strong flavors before it but the extra toasty almost tasted more bland than a regular cheese it I love the extra toasty they're a little bit drier I guess is your issue but

I love the fact that it's like oh these are toasted they actually they're cooked in some way right they have to be I think like for them to be charred yeah you're right I think they have to be cooked either way right yeah but you're saying that they're like at least promoting I mean yeah it's kind of like oh cool

I like them because I always like the toasty ones probably all around just regular cheeses are my favorite and they sometimes get a burnt one I agree I think that's an issue we run into often with these with this challenge is that the conventional one the standard issue one is usually just the king there's the reason it's the established favorite

because not this time no but I mean like we don't have a regular I'm just saying like compare all these versus cheese it default cheese it I think we still pick default cheese it what about you David I don't have a cheese it I don't love cheese it okay so this is interesting yeah West Coast

I don't even like cheese nips I don't know the difference alright so I'm not like trying to pick aside I just you know I think that a prepared meal over a snack any day as I put my napkin my collar give me a plate of

$38 ribs over that's what I say controversial statement alright that was flavor of the week just like a restaurant we buy your feedback let's open up the feedback today's email comes to us from Eddie Avril Eddie writes hey y'all so in the fast few then the last few months fast food chains have been

competing with each other competing with each other to have the best value combo I remember when every one of these chains had a legitimate dollar menu where items cost $1 no more and those days seem long gone due to inflation but which of these new deals do you prefer? Carl's Jr $4 for a double cheeseburger spicy chicken small fries small drinks

Wendy's $4 for junior bacon cheeseburger or chicken BLT for nugget small fries small drink McDonald's pick two for $5 Big Mac 10 McNuggets quarter pounder with cheese or fish fillet he wrote McNuggets I didn't misread McNuggets I know this seems arbitrary as a question most of these combos are the same

Burger King has a similar deal but I think that you are overlooking the budget of a lot of your listeners in the podcast the corporate value slash dollar value category and the championship was half of a great category college students like me have about $50 to spend every week and so the cheap stuff is really where I'm looking the tournament made me want to try

Shake Shack until I realize it's over $10 thanks for the email Eddie sorry Eddie you're right and after this big run fucking episode this is a gourmet high high roller episode and and this is what you're getting on the back end I should have given it four and a half forks but I'll stick by the fire I feel a little bad now and after

all the things I said get some more money hey drop out of college fuck you're losing money in college is way more expensive than food come out here do boys and do anything get into the writing job like David it's easy right yeah I didn't go to a good

college alright so uh yeah I mean what do you guys think of these four for $5 deals or these four for something deals cause this is like a big thing get creative with it yeah I like the creativity I like that they're saving people some money

I think it's getting people to go and I like variety so I do I especially like it sure um of all of those I felt like the McDonald's deal felt the best because you can get you can get a Big Mac and what was it it was Big Mac 10 McNuggets quarter pounder with cheese fish fillet

two of those for $5 that's a fucking deal right anything with the burger and nuggets for me at McDonald's McDonald's takes every deal for me I don't know why I do think that these deal like I haven't had any of these deals and we might need to weigh whether or not we want to devote an episode a later episode to these deals because it is a big thing right now Mitch

we can talk about that off podcast but um no I'll do it here no okay um sure yeah we can do one I'll die probably by the end of it but yeah Wendy Wendy's you get the burger and nuggets and fries and a drink Carl's you get two sandwiches one double cheeseburger one spicy

chicken small fries and small drink I mean in terms of I think Wendy's is the least filling of these but it's also like yeah Wendy's is just so good I feel like I go with Wendy's Wendy's is so good so that does make me want to go with it the funny thing is is that man you're locked

into those nuggets yeah and sometimes I just don't want nuggets and here's the thing I kind of I kind of like the idea of the Carl's one the best sure because it's that thing that we were talking about it just fucking gives it to you you're getting a double cheeseburger you're getting

spicy chicken sandwich you're getting fries and a drink and I'm like wow I like all those things and you're telling me what to get and I like all those things that you're telling that I'm getting I do like nuggets but then like if you're getting a smaller sandwich from some of these fast food places I sometimes like to get two of the same shares and so

Wendy and so what is when Wendy's the junior bacon cheeseburger junior bacon cheeseburger or chicken BLT for nuggets small fries small drink hmm that's a good one too it's really good I just I feel like I'm not going to do that though if I go to Wendy's like if I'm at Wendy's

I love Wendy's I'm going to get my own thing and I'm going to do my own thing where I guess if I'm just thinking about price point I'd probably do the and Wendy's is my favorite fast food restaurant it's in the platinum play cub I wanted it to win the tournament of

champions I feel like I'm kind of torn between I wouldn't be crazy but go on I feel like I'm torn between Carl's and McDonald's and I might go with Carl's because I just kind of like I'm like at McDonald's you could get a Big Mac a fish filet

what was it and nuggets but one of them so you choose two of them you choose between two I like the options that Carl's Junior's given me I know that's kind of crazy I also think it's worth saying it depends on what your appetite is because

either you're getting that deal and splitting it with somebody maybe it's smart or but if you're eating it all yourself nuggets need to be a part of it for me personally because that feels like more of like a side or something you can have as an appetizer and you can't like I can't have like two sandwiches or something as a full meal man the

Big Mac nuggets fries and a drink combo from McDonald's for five bucks is a fucking great deal also it's two of those you don't get all four for five wait y'all all right pick two of those five wait but oh wait so you can't get fries no you get Big Mac

nuggets quarter pounder with cheese fish fillet two of those five items two of those four items for five dollars two oh all right so no this changes everything yeah this change everything I'm going Carl's okay yeah I do think that their point they should be getting getting acknowledged for the price

point aspect of those because when I was listening to those I do think that should be compared I know it sounds knobby of like oh yes the best food is the best and expensive or not but that like in and out is not the same as Shake Shack yeah yeah and those burgers are not competing on the same platform well let's

not refight this battle if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants you can email us at doboyspodguest at gmail.com check out our facebook page doboy's follow us on twitter at doboyspod if you have a free second you like the podcast hold on what are you guys choosing where did you end up going with I went I'm going with Wendy's

you went you went McDonald's right I went McDonald's so you don't get a drink in the McDonald's when you just get two sandwiches no yeah you don't get a drink do we have time for me to give you this gift you do real quick if you have a free second rate a review us on iTunes helps out the podcast David Phillips thank you for joining us

a great guy very funny man great guy a great dude great friend thank you for coming with us and sharing your passion for Ailstone do you have anything you'd like to plug and then you can also present us with this gift you have this mystery gift in a plastic bag this weird mystery gift

well first of all thank you guys for having me you're the best this is a true dream come true I would like to present you with this gift that at the time did not seem like an important special thing but it turned out to be a very seminal moment in this podcast history

and about four months ago about four months ago three brave men went to Universal City Walk to watch an amazing movie we had a picture taken of us wow a chain restaurant Johnny Rockets

and ever since that moment things have changed for the better for all three of us in this photo and I wanted I thought that this was a very special moment for the podcast this is the last recorded picture of Nick Weiger before he became a part of the resistance

and I just I did a little bit of research this is your 50th episode oh there you go so congratulations on 50 great episodes here's to 50 more to memorialize it we have this picture a picture of not with Mitch in it but I do require that

this sucks I was like I don't remember this I do require I know that this isn't just your podcast studio so Mitch obviously has to take this home with him or something and then bring it to every recording so I have to have the picture yeah absolutely

this is great thank you David this is very thoughtful this will go right behind my toilet wait this is our 50th episode I guess so yeah oh and you've got another Johnny Rockets one very rewarding oh wonderful Hillstone deserved it yeah

fantastic we'll hold on to these oh I'd also like to cede my plug time to Mitch's campaign for UCB our district director oh my goodness getting a real insular at the end oh my god hey maybe it will happen and also I can't believe this is our 50th episode

we should have gone crazy or something we did go crazy we reviewed Hillstone the apex of chain restaurants and we brought out our great friend David Phillips one third of the resistance wolf pack I'm not satisfied with either that'll do it for this episode of Doe Boys until next time for Mike Mitchell the Spoon Man

I'm Nick Weiger happy eating see ya