Doughboys - Johnny Rockets with Esther Povitsky

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

Actor and comedian Esther Povitsky (Alone Together, Glowing Up) joins the 'boys to discuss Johnny Rockets, a franchise famous for its 1950s diner aesthetic. Esther talks about her experience working at the chain and reveals her "two restaurant" theory before diving in to our recent visit. Plus, a cola edition of Drank or Stank.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pain was unbelievable. It snapped like a breadstick. It sounded like two muzzled gunshots off my left shoulder. Pow! Pow! This was former NFL quarterback Joe Thysman in a 2005 interview with The New York Times describing the infamous compound fracture that had ended his football career 20 years prior. In 1985, Thysman, playing behind Center for Washington, was sacked by Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who leveled him with an impact that broke both his tibia and fibula, jutting the jagged bone through his flesh, a bloody disgusting spectacle that horrified a national television audience. Thysman would never play another down. But

the journeyman QB would go on to great success in retirement, becoming a TV commentator, pitchman, and entrepreneur, and a beloved alumni of Washington's franchise. Thysman's former team had cultivated a winning culture and a dedicated fan base in the 20th century, winning Super Bowls in 1982, 1987, and 1991, though all that would change in 1999, when the team was purchased by billionaire media mogul Daniel Snyder. Snyder, known for his shamelessness and hot temper, shifted the franchise's mission to exploiting its players and staff while ringing every last dime out of its fan base, garnering him a reputation as the worst owner in the NFL. Under his regime, Washington's ticket, parking, and concession

prices skyrocketed while its on-field exploits sputtered. And beyond the price gouging and ineptitude, there had been downright scandals. As reported by the New York Times, at a franchise retreat in Costa Rica, team cheerleaders had their passports confiscated and were forced to participate in a topless photo shoot in front of high-roller corporate sponsors. Later that night, they were also ordered to work as escorts for team VIPs. They received no pay for the weekend. And regarding the team's most controversial public-facing liability, its racially insensitive nickname, Snyder's tone-deaf stubbornness came across in comments made to USA Today.

We'll never change the name. It's that simple. Never. You can use caps. In 2007, Snyder expanded from NFL ownership to another uniquely American industry, acquiring a throwback diner chain opened by businessman Ron Tidalbaum in Los Angeles in 1986. Seeking to recapture the feel of the beloved burger joints of his youth, in particular the still operational West LA icon, the Apple Pan, Tidalbaum's idealized pastiche of 1950s American diners served up a simple array of burgers, fries and shakes, and expanded across the US in quick order, clustered near shopping centers and tourist attractions. In recent years, the chain has become oddly popular overseas. Its largest restaurant is in the Dominican

Republic and it's become one of the biggest fast casual franchises in the Middle East, with 15 restaurants in the United Arab Emirates alone. And in 2008, the company's corporate board was joined by another famous figure from Washington football, Joe Thysman. In comments to Fox Business, Thysman enthused about his position, saying, quote, it's the all-American place with the all-American meal. Snyder sold his steak in 2013, but his once owned restaurant is indeed all-American, an idealized version of a troubled past, when diners were as much about excluding patrons as serving them, frozen in a time that never existed. And his still-owned football team, too, is all-American. A craven exercise in

capitalism, with an epithet for a name that exhibits continuity between the nation's past struggles and its present ones. This week on Doe Boys, Johnny Rockets. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host Frito Baggins, the Spoonman Mike Mitchell. Frito Baggins. That was courtesy of Jesse Ferrar, our friend at Miron's Hammer. He's funny. Who adds, got him. I like that, too. That's a fun, fun detail. And, hey, if you'd like a roast, you have a roast you'd like to use on Mitch at the dot the show, roastspoonman at gmail.com is the address. And speaking of which, Mitch, we got a roast email from a listener named Ryan that I'll read right now. I'd

rather you not. There's some roasts that my kids have been begging me to send for a while now. They are big fans of the show, but I have to carefully curate what they hear for obvious reasons. I don't know what he means. So here, here are the roasts. Yeah, it's you. Mitchell, the hut from Owen, who's 10 and Jabba, the Mitchell from Parker, who's nine. They both have a similar theme there. Ryan continues. Also, they once talked about dressing like the two of you for Halloween. There was an argument about who would be Nick. I don't. I don't want to be Spoonman. They don't want to be Spoonman. I might get it may very well. I think he phrased it in a way where it was ambiguous because this is insulting to one of us. I think there's a chance

he also listened about how it was Spoonman, the hut or whatever. Yeah, but I think there was a chance where they were like, they were like, I want to be, you know, I want to be Mitch. You be Nick. No, I want to be Mitch. You be Nick. And then they were both like, I don't want to get my ass kicked. Well, if I ever see you two because of your roast, I'm going to stuff you in a freaking trash bag. Your that's that's too specific. You're threatening fourth and fifth graders. Yeah, I just want to want to be clear on what you're doing about for the fifth graders. Very easy to beat up. Once I hit middle school all over for me, I can't really beat them up anymore. I think this might

be a part of the podcast that Ryan curates for his kids. Well, good job guys. Those are great. I like the good job roasting me. Oh, and partner. Good lesson to learn early on. Stand up to bullies. Don't let them give you no guff. That's insane. Crap insults and lob them far. No, be a bully like Spoonman. Don't go into comedy, you two. Yeah. Well, I mean, not because they're not funny, but because it's a bad industry. Those are good jokes. Yeah, no, of course. Don't go into comedy because of the dying industry. I'm saying, don't be like a brother, like a duo, like a brother. Like the sclars? All right. We like the sclars. We like the sclars. I'm just saying, don't go. They shouldn't go into comedy. Yeah. Be astronauts, boys. Yeah, be astronauts.

Anyways, how to how to Spoon Nation. I got a drop, Nick. And you know what? I listened to it and it's a good one. Oh, boy. Exciting. You know what? I can relate to Shrek in a lot of ways. He's right about a lot of stuff anyway. Some body once told me the world is going to roll me. I ate the sharpest spoon in the shed. She was looking kind of dumb with her fingers and her thumb up blue dog's ass. I don't like that story. I know. You love it. No, no, I don't. That's that. Good God. I mean, good God. No, it's well done. I just like it. It's one of the, a lot of these taken abrupt left turn at the end and they go real blue. It's like, oh, that's good fun. We're having, we're hearing that Smash Mouth song we all love. It's edited together from fragments of things you

said and then it gets real dirty. Hey, Mitch, or more likely you song, what the fuck? I hope you enjoy this because you are all, all stars in my heart. This is from at SGH Bro on Twitter. That's nice. On Twitter if you're nasty. Love you guys. Grace. A lot of fun. I think that's a lady. Grace. Okay. Grace, right. Typically a lady's name. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. Thank you, Grace. But Mitch, hey, you know, speaking of typically ladies names, the film The Meg is in theaters, a big shark, a shark film. You're a shark freak. I'm a shark freak. And you were great. You were like, all weekend you were texting us wanting to try to get people to see The Meg with you. Did you end up seeing The Meg? I saw The Meg today with Joe Saunders.

Oh, that's fun. Which I knew you were going to get jealous of as soon as I said it, that I went and saw The Meg with Joe Saunders and you would become jealous of that. I'm sure you wish you were there with, I think a guy you consider be your best friend. And on his list, you're about like 200th. Joe and I know, Joe and I know that we can share wardrobes and at one point of one of our organs failure fail, we can just take some from the other. Wait, what? We're the same man. Are you the same blood type? Yeah, I mean, I assume so. You don't have blood, most likely. Oh, we're one of us. One of us is from the island. From the

Michael Bay movie. Yeah, I think I'm the island version of Saunders. That was a, that's a deep pull. I feel like now, isn't it? It's one that never, it didn't really, there's no cult behind the island. Yeah, I guess so. Even usually a lot of times those high concept sci-fi movies have some acolytes, but that film doesn't really have anyone who's like a super fan. It might just be the Michael Bay stigma because there is some interesting action that, look, I don't want to get off in an island tangent. I want to talk about The Meg. Look, The Meg, huge shark. This thing is huge. It's bigger than any, it's twice the size of Jaws, which means it's twice as good of a movie.

The formula is that simple, huh? It's very, it was fun. It was, the Meg is very big. It eats people here and there. They're out to Etsy for a long time, and then none of this sounds different than my expectations. The Meg goes around, it eats a few people, the movie ends. That's pretty much it. It's a good time. It made me more scared of sharks, and it made me, it made me pray to the Lord above that we don't live in prehistoric times. Mitch, now I know why they call you our generation's Gene Siskel. Nick, you should get up to the movie. You should go. You should see them. I sorry. I love to see that. I saw The Meg in IMAX. Oh, that's fun. You know what? Here's what I got to say. Yeah,

there was a preview for The Nun, which is the newest movie in the, in the Conjuring, Conjuring verse. Oh boy, that movie looks scary, and did you put the Conjuring? No, the Nun. I saw the Nun trailer. It's scary. You did see it. Yeah, I saw it for a different movie in front of a different movie. In an IMAX, it was so loud. There's a big jump scare in the trailer. I swear to God, I think I could kill you. It could kill you in IMAX. I swear. I think the Nun could kill, I think a scary movie like that. It was so fucking loud in IMAX. It scared the hell out of me. It was the biggest jump I had the entire movie. Crazy. Did you and Saunders jump into each other's arms? We were already there. We were scared before we got in the movie. It's

dork. The poster scared us. It was a good time, and we both felt sick from today's restaurant, but let's introduce our guest. Absolutely. She's from the podcast Glowing Up and the show Alone Together. All episodes of season two are on Hulu and on Freeform. Esther Bovitsky is back. Hi, Esther. Hi, you guys. Thank you so much for returning. Thanks for having me. And you know, we've got a great chain to discuss today, a great topic, but we had a great chain to discuss the last time you were on here, Wood Ranch. Yeah. Have you been back to Wood Ranch since our previous episode? Because I have a few times. I have. I also feel like people are very mad at me about that episode. I got a lot of hate that I didn't order an entree. But you knew the

place. I did, but I still, I understand the mad people, but I also, it's fine. I ate a full meal at this restaurant, so I hope I do good. Back off, trolls. No way, man. Those are my trolls. I understand where you're coming from. I do, but I'm sorry, also. I went to Wood Ranch before seeing the latest Purge movie with a few of our buddies, everybody, Jordan Morris, everybody, Mattie Smith, who else was in that posse. I'm emitting somebody. I apologize to everyone I'm emitting. It was a group of four. We had a lot of fun. What the hell would you do if the Purge was real? I don't even want to think about it. I'd be one of those people with a high powered security system. That's the whole point of those movies. It's just about how society is

stratified and like, you know, the white people with money can afford to have a security system that keeps them inside their safe house. I'd be inside a McMansion and it'd be impenetrable for 12 hours. With one small window so you could watch while you jag off. Not illegal now. But yeah, Wood Ranch is great. I really like Wood Ranch. It's very solid. I have not been back since then. You got to go back. I pitched this to you, Mitch. I feel like we got to do some sort of Doe Boy's Redemption limited series where you and I each have like a couple of chains that we get to make the other revisit to get a better score, because I think Wood Ranch deserves a re-review. Can I give you a counterpoint?

Yes. In the podcast. All right. Strong case. Strong case. I think I'm over Wood Ranch since we did it. The podcast, because I'm like, I like to go hard on something and overdo it, burn out and then be done. And so right now I'm in like a done phase with Wood Ranch. Right. You know what? I would get lunch with Armin a lot. And he's a guy who does that too. And I like to switch it up more. Are you a switcher, Nick, or are you a burner router? A burner router. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. That's hashtags. Hashtag it up. I guess if it's like a song, I like to just like listen to it over and over again until like I'm just like, okay, I'm going to listen to this. Excuse me. You're saying if it's a song? Yeah. I'm saying

because there, because it's a similar principle. There's a song like, oh, I like this song. I'm like, okay, I'm just going to kind of like listen to this a bunch to get it out of my system. If it's, if people don't hear a good song and then say, I want to get this over with, I'm going to burn this thing out so I don't have to listen to it anymore. That's insane. I think this is a common, I think this is a somewhat common sentiment. Our friend Arianna Lenarski, who is on our double where she, she read Tarot for you, how to take along these lines. We're talking about it some way. I think it's, I think it's a real thing. I think some people do this, but, but as far as food is concerned, I don't really get, I like, I don't really get sick

of things. Like it was a thing I like. I just want to get it forever. Right. Like I, yeah, if I had a fun experience at a restaurant, I just want to keep repeating it over and over again until I can't anymore. Right. But what, what's the other option? Just like switching it up, having a healthy attitude towards it, not needing to go right away over and over. All right. A new thing. I need to switch it up. I get, I do eat a lot of the same food. I will eat it over and over again. Our dinner tonight, Nick, we're going to have sidewalk grill. Oh man. I'm so excited and it's good. You've had it before and I get, I'll get that. I'll eat that every day for a bunch if I have to. So you are over and over when it comes,

when it comes to like the thing that I like him, like this is my lunch. It's easy. It's the thing I get all the time. I don't care. Right. But if I'm like going out to eat or something, I try to, I'll try to switch it up more. Like Armin likes to have, he'll eat, he'll have like Asian food every, he'll do it like every, he'll want like foe or foe or something every day. Right. I can't, and then I'm just like, I don't want soup every, you know what I mean? Like, like I'll get burnt out on, on a place. Yeah. Buddy, Bug Main is like a soup freak. He'll like, Bug Main is a soup freak? The dude gets, but he gets soup at like every meal, every opportunity he gets soup. Like he goes out to lunch, he gets soup. Well, I, we've heard that opinion before too. I was like careful.

The Bug Main trolls are the worst of all. Okay. Sorry. I think soup is, is good. No harm. Soup is fantastic. Yeah. But it's not my preference. That's the safe way to say it. What, what is it about it? Is it just like the, it's just like not, I don't know, like I really like to feel like I'm chewing and like getting down and dirty with a meal. And like, it's really hitting my insides and like stretching everything out. Right. Texture wise, there isn't necessarily a lot to work with. That's what you're looking to get out of food. But yeah, if you out there like to burn out an option real quick, hashtag feel the burn, be you are in conventional spelling. And if, if you don't, if you like to switch it up hashtag, I'm with her

also with a you. Was that Hillary's hashtag? I think so. Yeah. That was like her campaign slogan. Okay. Yeah. So, so Esther, one thing about you is you have a, you have a, your podcast glowing up is about a makeup cosmetology. I apologize if I'm getting the term wrong. But the, this is a thing I've always wondered as someone who doesn't wear makeup, does it affect your food and drink choices at all? No, no, never. No, never. Why do you think it would? Well, because I'm like, I sometimes see like, like, oh, there's some lipstick left on a glass or something, or there's maybe like, you know, I would think if you're eating like a barbecue

ribs and you got, you're all glowed up, you're like, you've, you could disrupt your foundation or whatever. Right. No, you don't ever want makeup. I mean, for me, I just don't, makeup shouldn't dictate how I'm living my life. It's just like a fun thing that adds to my life. It should never take away or make it worse. I got you. Yeah. You can't relate to that with like acne creams or something like that. I did have, well, you know what? I, I never had, I used to wear acne. Yeah. No, I was, I was, I'm trying to think of like the, like when I had bad acne and it was never like, I feel like it never got around my mouth area. Like I was more like, I was more like,

pimples on your lip, right by your lip. Yeah. But that was not a thing I had. Like I had, that was not where commonly where I got bad acne. I was like, I got the T zone and then, and then, and then the cheeks and then the back. What's the T zone? T zone. It's a, it's like up your nose and on your forehead. Oh, it makes a little T. Yeah. All right. I don't know about like tests, like, I didn't know if there was like testosterone zone or something. Oh, I don't have one of those. So that's it. And there was another thing I wanted to ask you about Esther. And this is something that we, a subject we broached when we were eating at our chain last night. You have, I'll let you explain what it is, but you have

what you, what was described to me as the two restaurant theory. Oh, okay. So I have a theory that the best tier of restaurant is a restaurant that has exactly two locations because it means it's good enough that they had to expand, but it hasn't gone too big and expanded too far and why that things like suck now. Right? Interesting. Now the only problem with my theory is I only have one example. It's which is home state, which is like a you. They have two locations and it's a breakfast taco place in Los Angeles, but I'm sure people can think of other ones. I think the two restaurant theory is good. I, but I also at the same time, I go by the one, even the one restaurant theory, right? But there is two. Two is, I think I think the one restaurant theory is for like

fantastically good restaurants. Like some of the like amazing, like like Nick, what's your favorite place there? Rustic Canyon. Rustic Canyon. Although they do have like a little family of restaurants. They're not all the same concept, but they have a few different restaurants in that, in that group. But yes, yes, that that's like a, but you know what, maybe another one that kind of speaks to your theory and it's not exactly the same broken Spanish BS, Takaria, two restaurants, one's a slightly more upscale version of it, but those are those places. So I haven't been to broken Spanish ever, just to BS Takaria. I like them both. You're, you're, you're gonna spend a little bit more broken Spanish,

but you know, Ali and I once got, we got a, we got a whole snapper there and it was, it was lights out. It was, it was delightful. It was just a fantastic meal. And, but the, it's, it's a little, I think BS Takaria is a little bit more approachable and actually have more fun when I go to BS Takaria, just cause it's like, you know, excuse me Nick, are you bleeding? I did. I somehow busted my hand open while we were recording. I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. I think I accidentally hit my finger on the wall. Is there blood on my wall? I don't see any blood on the wall, just on my finger. For those of you, you can't see this, but Nick is, he's pretty much bleeding out.

I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding from my knuckle. What the hell happened? Hey, you know what is human blood for all you jokesters, you trolls who say I leak oil or whatever. I couldn't see it. It looked kind of, it wasn't red. It was like, kind of blue. Brackish. Yeah. Like a crustacean. Kind of. It looked oily. Okay. What the hell happened? I think I just hit my, I like, I'm very tucked in in this corner here and I think I was adjusting my chair and I hit my finger on your wall. I like knocked it against it and you cut open. Yeah. Kind of. It's still just it's very bloody. I'm going to power through it on my flat wall. Do you guys have a like a nurse or a first aid effort? No boys. We do.

We have someone on call. I mean, mostly with a defibrillator. They have it coming about once every other episode. I was trying to think of an evil nurse and I couldn't. I thought I could think of was nurse Jackie and there's nurse Betty. There's nurse ratchet nurse ratchet with the most one of the most one of cinema's most indelible villains. You know what that role that role said that actress and I'm forgetting the actress's name she won best actress for that film and then she never really worked again. It was similar to like she she because she had gotten the stigma for the type of character she'd been super typecast and then it was just hard for her to find work because those sorts of roles are like are

I guess just not as available for women but it's certainly not in that age. But I mean she was like she's fantastic. It's such a great performance. I just looked at the what competing on nurse ratchet. Yeah. And it was funny. Her name is Louise Fletcher. Yes. That sounds great to win an award and then just then go away. Yeah. Like that's the are we all working towards that to go away. I mean I definitely want to go away. This is very funny on the Wikipedia. It's like a Wikipedia for her character. Yeah. And it says Elias is big nurse which I didn't know but I haven't seen the movie in a long time or and I haven't. I think I think that's also in the book too. I think in the book they say that. Oh fuck you nerd. I ran it species human which I

think is weird. Are you looking at a Wikipedia? Oh this is Wikipedia affiliates boss Nass birthplace Salem Oregon. No they have a they do have a lot of information on there. Someday I'll for sure someday I'll chief you Nick put a pillow over your head and then break out through my window and run off into the hills. I think when you try to pick up your own sink that's when you're going to have a coronary. And we'll be laying dead next to each other. Yeah. That's a fitting end. So let's get into this restaurant because there's a lot to discuss and part of what I want to discuss is that Esther one reason you want to talk about this chain is that you worked there. You're a former employee of Johnny Rockets. That's true. How did you get

into the Johnny Rockets game and what was your motivation. So there was a mall across the street from my high school old orchard mall. Shout out to the nation's first outdoor mall. It's Gokie Illinois is where it is. Trendsetter. Yeah. That's all the new malls now are all outdoors. And they had a Johnny Rockets and I've always been really obsessed with the 50s. I think it's like back to the future is my favorite movie growing up. So I think I just like liked that nostalgic feeling. And so I applied for a job there. Got it. And I worked there for the summer after senior year of high school. And I loved it. I was so happy there. It was a great job. I had great managers. It just yeah. I loved I was really up into the into the vibe and the theme

like themed restaurants are big for me. I also worked at Hard Rock Cafe when I first moved out here. Although I got fired before I made it to the floor but I trained to work there. Wait. You worked at Hard Rock Cafe. Hollywood Boulevard. But wait. But how do you get fired while you're getting trained? So we basically I got in on the ground floor before it had opened. They trained like a bunch of people and then we had to do this big test where we had to like people were getting together doing flashcards like working really hard to memorize all the menu items and all the drinks. And I was ultimately just like look I'm going to get by on my performance. I am like I am passionate about this but I'm not going to know all the details. I also have never

drank alcohol. So for me learning every ingredient in an alcoholic beverage is just that's like learning a new language. It's not happening. Right. And so the day of my the test I just like filled in a few things that I knew when I handed in. She's like there's this you have to review this test. I'm like I can't I have to I have shows in La Jolla this weekend. I have to leave. She's like if you leave you're going to be whatever she said promoted to guest or some shit. And I was like okay I have to do stand up. I'm not going to stay. Promoted to guest. Yeah they had some kind of like nasty passive aggressive flingo. Oh if you're fired you're promoted to be a guest in a restaurant. Yeah that's shitty. Yeah so but anyways the star of

the show here is Johnny Rockets. That's where I worked and I was very happy. And then well except I got my boyfriend a job there and then he broke up with me so then I quit. But that's shit. That's also shit. Did he work there for a while? Do you know what happened? He stayed there until he went off to college after summer. Yeah so he stayed there like a month after me. But yeah I guess I just wasn't cut out for the restaurant business. Did he break up with you by saying you've been promoted to ex? No. He should have though. So what was your position when you were working there? I was a server. And then I know that like so much of the Johnny Rockets back in the day at least was like you were talking about how it's like this 50s throw

back. And they really embraced that for a time. Like they were really like like you had the you showed me a picture of you and your uniform last night. But like you had the you know you had the old school hat. The old school like you know sort of 50s get up. Were there any like a 50 specific job? I mean see I know you loved it but what were the 50 specific job responsibilities like? I think just that I felt like a responsibility to be overly friendly and attentive because that's supposedly what things were like back then. And obviously making milkshakes you feel just burgers, fries and milkshakes. Sure. Represent the 50s. And of course the jukebox and the music. Right. The music they played like was just made it like a happy place for me. Yeah.

Weigar I'm just nervous with this open wound on your hand that you're going to attract the Meg. The amount of blood I'm gushing will attract the Meg to leave the Pacific Ocean and which ocean is it in the movie? It lives under the Mariana Trench. Oh okay. And it does. Well I mean then she's it's a she right I'm assuming. Yeah it's a she. The Meg's not going to fucking come into like what 20 miles inland in California just because I'm bleeding inside your apartment. You're bleeding so much. I think there's more blood going on elsewhere. Your blood fucking stinks. Have you seen what I eat? So like you're making milkshakes, you're slinging burgers, you're making ketchup happy faces I assume. Yes of course. I'm drinking a lot of Oreo shakes

because I do believe Johnny Rockets makes the best Oreo milkshakes in the business. Yeah that's another thing I was passionate about there was the Oreo milkshakes. Yeah what was your when you when you dine there back in the day maybe if you'd get like the work meal like what was your go to? Burger fries in a milkshake and to this day that's still like my happy meal or like my celebration meal. If ever I like or even if I need to pick me up like that's what I go get. I stopped eating meat last year in dairy but like before that of burger fries in a shake is just like to me that's the gold standard. There's nothing better like that's as good as it gets. Wait let's start let's talk eating stopping meat and dairy real quick. What motivated that change?

Okay I watched the documentary that turned everyone vegan last year and I can't even remember the name. Yeah this sounds scarier than the ring. No not food Inc. I can't remember the name of the meat industry. It's just about yeah it just made me go vegan. Me and my parents watched it on July 4th of 2017. The three of us went vegan. On July 4th on one of the biggest meat holidays of the year. Yeah hell it's I can't remember the name of it now. Let's use it on there. What the hell. And I've since then I felt like I was getting really tired so I started to eat red meat like once a week so that's kind of where I'm at and I eat fish as well now. Got it. So I don't do dairy. But you cut out like you cut out a you know

beef chicken and all that. Yeah for a year yeah. And then and you still and now you have red meat once a week. Do you have any poultry? No I'm not I never like chicken so when I watched this documentary and it talked so it said so many negative things about chicken. Yeah I was like I fucking don't even like chicken anyway. Why am I eating chicken? And then I like had this chicken fit and now I'm so now I'm done with chicken forever. Yeah I do. I mean we've talked about this on the podcast right. The quality of chicken can be really like you can get. Yeah just the other night I got I got a this other this another pita place not pita maybe it was pita hut. No it wasn't pita hut it was it was it was different pita it was a different pita place

and I got chicken in it and it was all like shoot like it feel like tendony chicken like it was bad yeah it was fucking awful. Yeah you sometimes get that really just janky shitty factory farm chicken and then you know the animal just like throwing animal this is an awful situation. I mean that's the thing I would say like maybe from a you know it's I certainly I'm not I'm not vegetarian by a long stretch but like and like from a harm reduction standpoint I I think there's like a strong case to be made like for eliminating poultry before beef or like cutting down on poultry because like the amount of chick the number of chickens who are just slaughtered is just like insane because there's just there's just less meat per animal and then also the conditions

they're raising are fucking awful. Any factory farming is really bad for me like pigs it's that's the most heartbreaking thing. I don't I don't want to come on this podcast and be a downer because I told I love eating and I don't judge anyone for eating what they eat but yeah I started out because that movie scared me and for the health reasons but then it became about the animals but now I'm like I'm really tired and I think maybe eating like a burger once a week will help me so I'm just that's my experiment right now. What is the wait so you're tired from not eating meat and dairy? I think so well my iron is really low and iron supplements aren't the best so I'm trying. I misunderstood I thought you were getting tired from eating so much meat and dairy

and then the veganism helped you. No no no. And I misstated as a veganism because you are you are still eating fish but like. I gotta tell you. Yes. The character from Popeye who ate the burgers what's his name? Wimpy? Wimpy he was one of the most tired guys on earth. Really? He was. He was sleeping under a tree and meanwhile Popeye's on his spinach diet ball energy. Oh yeah too much energy from Popeye. See you just don't know what to believe out there everybody's got a different story. Right what did Bluto eat? I don't know that's a good that's a good question uh I don't know I was gonna say oil. Is there a character named olive oil? Oh god no I didn't mean it like that pervert what were you gonna say? I was just gonna say your hope in Popeye comes back so you can

play Bluto in the reboot. Do you guys ever eliminate certain things from your diet or you just it's kind of always a free-for-all? I did I did I was vegetarian for a stretch and I just got fat it's just like it's hard to it's just hard to eat because you know when I when I slimmed down quite a bit it was by restricting um uh uh you know it's by by having really only high fiber carbs and by cutting out sugar and then you know when you're when you're not eating meat it's just like oh like I have to have a lot of a lot more potatoes and rice and tofu yeah exactly yeah and so I just and it's also easy to I've heard this this this stated on uh someone other people have phrased like this but like the college vegetarian which is like you know you're eating

you're you're vegetarian but eating grilled cheese sandwiches and and cheese fries and ice cream exactly you're eating a bunch of unhealthy shit and and I kind of went through this uh similar sort of thing so I partly stopped it for health reasons but like you know I don't want I don't want bloviate too much on this but uh although I have a tendency to do so but like I stopped waving your hands around here to shoot blood oh my god I just started my eye oh my god oh Esther if I were you I would be nervous if you catch my drips just get the hazmat so um but the uh but where was I going oh yeah like like it's ultimately not a not an issue where you know factory farming is not about individual choice

it's about the system it's like a lot of things in America like it's fucked up not because individual people aren't recycling it's fucked up because you know corporations but yeah because these the basically the 100 the the big largest corporations are responsible for 60 of emissions all right all right it's a similar sort of thing in the food system that's all I know I know I know you're right and I don't like them I don't like emissions and all that you're just getting you were going too ranty that's what I said I don't want to bloviate too much I just want to be well you bloviated you bloviated all over the place you sick freak just relax I think at the top of my wish list would be if like a trend would move away from factory farming I think

eating you know sustainable grass-fed all that stuff would be great but anyways I think it's all good no matter what your diet is that seems like a good compromise or or see or a good you know sort of if it middle ground if you can kind of like you know try to eat meat that's from places that are where it's sustainably sourced so then try to eat a vegetarian otherwise I got an issue with something that just came up on Alexa and Alexa think oh she heard me Mitch has an Alexa on his uh on his dining room table on my table and we don't bring it out that we don't get paid to bring to even talk about this is not an integration this is not an integration the boys can't be bought it just said it said a word her name I don't want to say her name okay

they said how old is Yoda which is such a trash you can't figure out how old the Yoda is in US what does that mean what does that question mean I don't understand what you just said how old is Yoda yeah a word what a word is someone's name it said it said ask Alexa how old is Yoda okay now what's gonna answer the question you you you fucked up oh I see you don't get you didn't get what I was no I didn't I didn't I thought you were trying to to protect someone's identity I didn't realize you're trying to not get I get Alexa to not she said I'd rather not answer that anyways oh my god a deeply held secret there was a joey chestnut update about him eating a bunch of curds which is breaking chews in some way so this is like a record breaking feet you

must have eaten a lot of curds and then also there was how old is Yoda which you can't measure how old he is it's a galaxy far far away right hold on how old is he was he had his death is that the question yeah you know I'm I'm looking for right now okay I got nurse ratchets a wikipedia page open uh it says it says Yoda said this is actually this is canon is Yoda is Yoda listed under her relationships this is a ratchet nurse ratchet and Yoda they hooked up I mean at some point it's the expanded universe is a wild animal um the uh okay this is a line from return of the Jedi so this is canon when 900 years you reach look this good you will not so maybe he's approximating it but Yoda is somewhere is is is you know in the nine the nine centuries of age wow that's such

bull that's a bullshit answer why because when it doesn't even give an exact age that's true he could also be like it could be hyperbole like you know like you can see your grandma saying like I'm 900 years old and you know it's just like a way to have fun with the grandkids it says here in the wikipedia entry that uh in what Yoda's wikipedia that the way he died is that the chief suffocated him yeah broke out of his tree it was a deleted scene it was weird they just kept looking at us not enjoying this time I wish I had more to contribute I liked Queen Amidala's lips oh that's yes yes very iconic I should have jumped on that right away yes yes her lips relax sorry we know Amidala had some looks yeah did you see uh did you see all the prequels um I don't

know if I saw all of them I just I saw that one I think episode one has the fiercest makeup uh the yeah like Amidala look I mean that was just like I really like the the care I really liked her character design yeah me too like it just it was just like really cool like her wardrobe and and how elaborate her makeup got I just wish they played the pet that the pet maybe was so telegraphed yeah like it was so obvious what was going on it would have been nice if that was a reveal like oh Padme is Amidala that would have been like a cool story beat later on but well you knew that you knew it was her before it was yeah because it was it was tough because she's such a big actress it's like tough to get the prequels are good it was tough yeah pretty cool yeah we know the

the prequels are good that's anything we don't anyways I'm sorry I got us off track back let's get back on it you know what you know what I was thinking here's what I have to say I got to say something here uh there's a lot of food news coming up on this thing by the way I don't I don't know why it's spying on us because we're talking for us it has said that Brooklyn is running out of oats or something oat milk oh oat milk yeah boy I tell you I am on the oat milk train same are you drinking Oatly I don't the hell is happening right now what are you guys talking about oat milk is a new phenomenon it's so good it's crazy it tastes better than real milk yeah it's really it's thick it's naturally sweet without added sugars it's so good but

you have to have Oatly the original flavor like what the hell really yeah I was I was like surprised when oak milk like I was just oat milk just appeared in our work fridge and I was like what is this and I just had some I was like this is great and now I have it on my cereal you drank the whole carton it's really good for coffee it's yeah you know what I I taste like milk it actually it's not exactly but I think it's better than like almond milk or soy yeah oh for sure it's like a thick sweet creamy milk that's made from oats it's really good but it this here's the thing is it has oil in it and that's what makes it so good I think right oil so it's kind of shady yeah but well nick oil oh okay all right no wonder why you chugged the whole fucking carton when you got it

uh I didn't know it stains me because I'm some sort of a tomaton exactly I didn't I didn't even know about oat milk till this very moment I know it was it's like a new it's like a this year thing I would say there might be parts of the country or in and certainly parts of the world and then you know we have we have listeners all over the place maybe oat milk isn't a thing yet yeah it's just hitting the major cities right oh wow but man I am I am I am I have converted to oat milk if it's there in the that work fridge I will get myself a bowl of cereal just so I could have some oh what's happening to this country next thing you know the meg is gonna go vegan dude um all right I got something to say yes please well should I should I don't know if I'm saving

this for the right part of the conversation no I want to hear it I think I think this I think we want to hear what you're gonna say we were in San Francisco this weekend yes you and I Nick yeah I went up to the hate Ashbury district and what I noticed when I was there is that like hippie culture is has always been dying but even in the 10 years that I went there 11 years I was there 11 years ago with the birthday boys with our first sketch fest or whatever even right maybe even longer um and when you went to hate Ashbury I felt way more and then when I was up there this time I don't know maybe it was just maybe it was just the time of the year or something or something like that it felt way less hippie it felt like that hippie vibe was dying then also

when I went to Ithaca there were like so many hippies in the in like the commons and stuff right and now I'm like oh is it because you song can probably speak to this too but but you song the ultimate hippie but is it like oh it's like it feels like that hippie culture is kind of dying off well yeah I think it's more so but but it's great that even like oh you I noticed a difference even within like 10 15 years it feels like it's like going away even more so right I think definitely you'll see that on the west side like a of LA you know Venice used to be like a like they have a little bit more of a hippie vibe and now it's just become like I think part of it is it's the same thing as the Bay Area just housing has gotten so expensive because the tech industry has moved in

and then that's just like a thing of major cities in general is just like housing has gotten so expensive that you know hippies who maybe aren't always gainfully employed or maybe like you know more uh more free spirits than people who are looking to make a lot of money uh maybe can't afford to live there also probably just a generational thing sure yeah and I do think a part of it is like oh that that thing is maybe going away more than right instead of it being like you know when I was like a teenager or whatever having it be 30 years old as opposed to now getting close to like 50 years right or whatever anyway uh you're 50 years old I'm 50 years old uh which makes nick how old a thousand hey look this good you might put 900 years you are um so like my thing is

is johnny rocket's gonna eventually get is it gonna get it I feels like 50 the 50s vibe especially yes what's going on in this country especially I mean like there is a 50s vibe is coming back in a bad way in the country right now it's such a weird thing to be obsessed with the I like the good things of the of the of like the fun 50s kitschy whatever right like this sort of I the idealized sanitized version you see in happy days and and in you know American graffiti back to the future yeah when it's you know kind of like all the uh the intolerant aspects of it particularly like like you know restaurants and then in the 50s were a flashpoint for for the civil rights movement in the 60s um but like all that stuff is kind of an X size it's just sort of like this fun

sort of doo-woppy vibe do you think do you think it's because we saw it so much because it was like that was like the day the dawn of the diner and some I mean I know diners existed before that but I'm saying like yeah I think so right I think and I think like it was you know it's it's also too it's like a really anything Esther was was touching and this is like a really approachable aesthetic like it's like really like like all the neon all the you know the uh uh uh the the count the the counters with the soda fountains like it's like a very specific style and and it like looks cool and it's fun and it's vibrant you know probably was cheap and fast sure yeah why do we love the 50s so much though like why is that the it seems like that's the one that people glommed on to

well let's look at the sir the the the surrounding decades you've got the uh the the aughts what was going on there no one knows uh titty roosevelt was waving his dick around it's about it that's true yeah what that's okay that speaks softly and carry a big stick thing was all about oh god um the tens was world war one the 20s was the uh was the was uh you know uh the gilded age flappers yeah exactly and like like things were the there was the wealth and equality was like as as bad as it is now the 30s were the depression uh the 40s world war two the 50s was like the first like oh the things are things are starting to come up in america the post-war boom you know the the economy was roaring um the space program was about to start up uh you know you were born that

uh and then the 60s it was more turmoil the 50s were kind of like this this this brief idyllic time i think at least in people's minds and you know and then that's not anything novel i'm saying but uh well but now now now well we can get into it now but we all went to the same johnny rocket yes the theme is dead there they killed the theme there the theme is dead there and i don't know if you want to get into the restaurant right now but we don't have to but i'm just saying like it's gone man well we should we should talk about this a little bit because the there are a few different uh la area locations and they're their number of actually one of them the first johnny rockets ever recently closed the one on um on melrose melrose yeah uh they're actually and and and

and uh uh dav who was there with us at dinner last night uh brought brought this up that there's this it's going to become this pop-up apparently called ronnie jackets that's like a take on johnny rockets oh um but uh strange yeah it's very it's bizarre i read an article on it and i cannot figure out what the motivation is there what the branding is all about um but the uh but yeah the the some of the the original johnny rockets they had just like they felt like you were stepping back in time and people if you've been to johnny rockets that's probably you know that your experience there the one we went to the one at universal city walk on on two separate uh recon missions and it was it's like been so the 50s connection has been completely muted yeah the signage outside

they haven't redone that it still looks like okay there's going to be a 50s malt shop inside and you walk it in and it's like flat screen tv yeah exactly it feels like a sports bar the uh the i took a picture of the the um the wallpaper is the one in universal uh the city walk one is that old or is it it's uh it's been there for a while i think they refurbished it but we i bet i went to that one in fact i went there with uh with david phillips and joe saunders after we saw the force awakens together at universal city what i was told this same story today by saunders by saunders it almost put me to sleep when he told me that interior how was it then was it the uh it was it was the 50s theme then they had not they had not changed the interior yet um so they redid this at some point

in the past the past a couple years but yeah there there's like a there's like a wallpaper now and it just looks like jargon uh chef chef inspired burgers handspun shakes real cheddar cheese creamy delicious ice cream it's like what and it's just in like a very basic sans serif font it's like what what is this about i don't know what's going on um but uh it's it it looks like nothing yeah like it's just so it's like a it's like a boring sports bar with with uh a fluorescent lighting it's just so strange i want to know why i'm just so curious like why are they dumbing it down and taking away it's aesthetic that made it what it is today right it's really it's really it's really strange there was a johnny rockets rockets in the south shore plaza in a in brain

tree mass near here quincy and that got put in when they did like a new food food court and that was by far like the place that felt like didn't just feel like a place in the food court that was just like a like a counter right it felt like they actually did like they actually you know we're trying it had some theming there was like booths that were like i don't think i ever went there because it was always packed there was always a line to go in yeah uh the the booths were like cars you know like right there was like there was so much stuff like i think the outside was shaped like car like just like the retaining the wall before you get in or whatever was just like car shaped and stuff and it was it was it was so over the top branded right and and maybe i went once

but but like that was the thing is people had that the little hats on the johnny rockets hats on that's all out the window that's i don't even know what the i don't know what the state of the one in brain tree is now but but uh my my biggest question would be are they all being redone to be stripped of the theme or is that just exclusive to universal city right is this an experiment but my my my thought would be if the if this is just like a a one-off why would they do it at such a high profile highly trafficked high visibility location because like that's the whole charm of it and why would they want why would they not want to retain that is like oh this is going to be one of our iconic johnny rockets but maybe the rest we're kind of gonna kind of

change up it was so bizarre because if you walk 10 feet there's that like jimmy buffett themed restaurant and there's hard rock like all the themes are alive elsewhere but johnny rockets is just nothing yeah it's so bland i think it's really i think it's a strange time to be uh like a theme restaurant really i i mean like we heard that that the margaritaville up at city walk is not doing well oh boy yeah that was really upsetting yeah just opened up we got we heard a rumor that that margaritaville is uh is fading yeah which is a bummer because we i feel like we went there when it opened like a year and a half ago and i was like this place is great they had a jimmy buffett cover band playing that was better than jimmy buffett it's just like excuse

me better than buffett it's blasphemous do you think it's because young people are just not into the themed restaurants like are we the dot the last generation that wants that i think that i think it's just the the price point of 20 dollars yeah sandwich or something is like people want really good food which i i think i i thought that margaritaville and it's no what's weird is that bubblegum shrimp and maybe it's just the location of bubblegum shrimp yeah i went up there today that damn shrimp was waving at me as i walked by oh my god and the place was packed yeah yeah i don't know it seems like that place it seems like doesn't seem like that places has has survived for whatever reason i mean i know i don't know about the like all bubblegum

shrimps but the the enduring popularity of bubblegum shrimp company baffles i have no idea how that place that has such a like what the the waving shrimp mascot like what is that what connection does that have to the film it's so bizarre and and and that that place like look that was honestly look like one of the busier places on at universal city walk and it consistently exists in all these these tourists these tourist areas across the across the world yeah i don't understand how that place is still so popular but yeah that looked like it was doing well um it's hard to gauge because also too we were there on a monday night so i don't really know but yeah it definitely feels like they're trying something new with johnny rockets and i don't know why they're doing it

it's a bummer yeah yeah it's gotten there was no 50s music playing no rap music they were playing top 40 it was really stripped yeah and then the uh the um uh the servers were just wearing like like black polos they weren't wearing the the the funky hats or anything yeah it was a real bummer yeah yeah yep that was my experience today as well nick they took that they had there used to be a a portrait of uh elvis on the wall they took it down put up a portrait of mega man they put up a portrait of mega man yeah they're trying to make it like cool for today's kids oh today's kids we'll take a break we'll be back with war dough boys welcome back to dough boys our guest is ester bovisky we were talking about the place she

used to work at johnny rockets niggie said you were gonna get rid of your bloody rat yes i saw you go into the kitchen you opened up the door to the trash and then i saw you put the rag in your mouth you ate it yeah you also asked me if i had a tampon jesus christ do you need to go to the hospital and you guys are implying i'm some sort of disgusting dracula it's a fucking grotesque all right so uh oh man starving draca like eats out of those little boxes at the hospital you know i'm talking about the yeah the blood boxes they kind of touched on that in a interview with a vampire like he's like he there they're they're so hungry they're like like sucking blood from rats at some point oh man yeah does it turn into a rat vampire i haven't seen the

movie yeah mitch the tom cruise turns into a rat vampire i didn't say he turns into what i'm saying to the rats turn it did they get life oh no they don't like because it's like that it's like i don't quite understand vampire lore all that well but if you like it's just like having an apple the yeah you like suck their blood it doesn't necessarily mean they become a vampire sometimes you're just eating somebody i pray to god they don't touch pizza rat in the damn movie tell me nick tell me they leave him alone if you could be bit by a vampire would you want to be here's a thing i think does not want to live forever yeah i mean i guess you could just go outside and then die which makes it easy right that'd be a baller move get bit by a dracula then walk straight into the

sun but maybe you change your attitude about not wanting to live forever if you like had vampire life yeah i just like my understanding of and you know again the the lore differs depending on who it is but my understanding is that vampires like don't eat or they can't like eat or drink and i just that's such a big part of my life i would want to not eat or drink it wouldn't really change you're like you're sleeping arrangements because you already do sleep in a coffin question yes do they they don't touch pizza rat in the movie right you look like you were going to answer oh you want to return to the pizza it looked like you had some sort of something you were going to say oh yeah mitch i got a slam dunk waiting for that aliyupia tossed me let me jam this

home mitch pizza rat comes out unscathed you'll be happy to know um but you know why they do eat some of the pepperoni's off his pizza oh yeah i was going to say maybe there was garlic on his pizza to save his life that's better uh so that uh johnny rockets right now has a and you mentioned the mag earlier mitch they have a mag promotion they're running but no mag specific menu items that's right now what a bait and switch i know i love a limited edition item or anything and they just didn't i would have been so good and they do it at johnny rockets they had a kong skull island banana shake oh my god when kong was in theaters right we had it we had it with our buddy eugene cordero and uh but the um the now they they don't have they have this make promotion they don't have

any make a burger or anything you know the promotion worked on me though because i did go and see the mag that was your motivation i i guess so i mean like i don't know why i can't and and then we i think we decided on the meg yeah right we you looked at the menu and let me let me guess uh you said uh hey zoners you want to see the bag and you said hmm yeah that sounds good yesterday you said that you were gonna text mitch yeah that there was a mag promotional burger i did ask three times yeah did that work what happened mitch was too smart for this this ploy you i mean you did a bad job with it first of all there was i was subtle about a burger off menu i was like okay and i was like but there already is a thing on the menu where they say make it a

meg burger so already it's confusing because you can make it a meg burger and they just double the pack it's just add just any which they already have on the menu which they already have on the burger it's just like they're it's like a it's a bad promotion yeah like it doesn't really do too much right they don't really do too much no i tried to i tried to pull a fast one on you and say there was a secret menu i there's a secret meg burger that you had to order off menu and then you didn't fall for it what do you know who did fall for it what were you gonna say no go ahead go ahead um susser did oh you went with that you're right you went with uh you went with evan susser i was evan susser joe saunders and and evan susser's wife jamie yeah yeah so we want to get

go work no i was gonna say what would be your ideal the meg promotional menu item oh that's a great question i feel like if anytime they're gonna add fish to a johnny rocket so they're gonna do their take on like a filet of fish i think that's the time to do it and just like a loaded up fish sandwich what about like a red colored vanilla milkshake oh my god a like a gruesome bloody meg shake i like that yeah that's that i like and when you put a little fondant shark fin at the top that'd be a treat yeah you know much more appetizing than uh loaded up fish sandwich terrible idea look i don't work in the industry i just comment on it it's a reason for that um so we went on two separate missions uh ester you and and and uh

your boyfriend dave king and um you song we went last night as a group mitch you went today separately um and uh i received a recon that you were uh i received until that you were on time mitch so uh yeah i know joe saunders actually already ratted you out to me that you texted and asked was he on time wow and you apparently were so good for you um like we mentioned they've read on the interior to mute the 50s connection quite a bit uh so getting into our food we were seated i you know it's funny yes you know people i want to go and meet up with them on time for and with you a guy who i don't really want to see that much whereas i'm always early because i'm like oh we can get this thing done as quickly as possible

so so uh davin i split decided to split burger halves and we went with the i ordered the rocket double which is a cheddar cheese lettuce tomato uh sliced onion and special sauce i guess it was meg style because it had two patties and you can get any of the burgers with your choice of protein you can get them with beef chicken chicken as a chicken breast turkey burger patty or a veggie patty which is nice that they have that option now that's a relatively recent innovation certainly not a 50s style option at all but but but you know i think that's a nice little concession of modern times um and uh dav got the root 66 with chicken um this was uh this is has swiss cheese grilled mushrooms caramelized onions and mayonnaise on a brioche bun versus the rocket double is on a more

conventional burger bun a sponge dough i like both of these i thought they were both quite nice um i think the the you know the rocket the the rocket double and the classic is the other uh the other burger or i'm sorry the original which i which i think you got ester which are just like they're very basic burgers and i think they're both well done both very much inspired cheese on the original there is no there is not there is it yeah you can add it but they are but they are like i think they're both like kind of takes on uh the the steak burger and the hickory burger the apple pan which are just very basic classic burger what the fuck are you talking about that's exactly what they are that that's the whole the whole thing is that the guy who created uh fucking johnny rockets

was trying to be apple he went he liked apple pan and he was trying to recreate a mass market version of it but the rocket burger is like more like big mackey it's like a lettuce tomato onion and then like a special sauce and two cheese yeah it's kind of but the special sauce is not it's not like a like a straight thousand island it's a little bit more ketchupy i gotta i gotta i think it's thousand island mixed with ketchup yeah i think it's got a little bit of that i got a comment on it yeah it's not very powerful you can't really taste any of it right it's very that one i got was a lot i got a lot of patty especially as the double it like the prominent taste was ground beef and their ground beef and regular is like like pretty meat loafy like it wasn't like a like a like you

know it was a very well super well done burger um in terms of how of cooked tamp it yeah i i i didn't think that was i thought that was a pretty decent execution of it um but you know nothing mind blowing um i've had better burgers from johnny rockets in the past the root 66 i thought was quite nice i don't really love mushrooms like grilled mushrooms on a burger uh but you know it worked me and sus were saying the same thing yeah i don't i for whatever reason it just kind of like it i it's just like a flavor a profile i don't really like in a texture i don't really like but it worked well with the chicken and i think this was a this is a good version of that kind of burger um uh you know kind of had a lot of that and wami character uh in there especially also with the caramelized

onions um and the brioche bun was fine sometimes brioche is overwhelming but this one wasn't too bunny uh and uh ester you got the original i believe yes and this one the many description i have is that it's uh shredded lettuce tomato chopped onions relish crinkle cut pickles mustard and mayonnaise and did you get it with a veggie patty no i got a burger so this is this was your this was your weekly meat meat allotment yes i love that they do chopped onions on this burger i feel like that's so cool right it spreads it out was really good um i liked it i'm not the best burger expert and in this moment i've only had three burgers in the last year wow one was in and out one was belcampo one was this and this to me was this was good yeah i liked it i thought it was

really good the bun the first thing i noticed the bun was cold which really pissed me off and i was like i'm not gonna waste i'm not wasting room in my stomach when there's fries and onions on the table on this cold button so i took a bite of the bun and then decided to ditch it and just ate it kind of protein style and i thought it was really good i didn't notice the meatloafy thing that you guys were talking about but i liked it a lot i uh mitt you're looking at your seat yeah i was i was gonna see what everybody else got i know what i got what did you get i got the same thing you got whoa you got the rocket double i got the rocket double there that that was the original they said right yeah i said i told her i said i want the rocket burger make it make style i

did say this to her she got visibly mad walked off um but do you want me we got apps should i talk about the apps we can get it we can get into the apps for sure yours come first because ours came ours came after we got everything at once that's why i started with the burgers actually i think they put our burgers down first and then they brought the apps out then i'll talk about my burger i got i got the i got the same thing of the rocket double i i asked for it make style ours looked our burgers looked like it almost looked like a weep on the bun was like dark and i don't know if they had like cooked or char brawled up the bun but it was like very brown looking it did not look as good as it did in the picture but then when we when i ate it it was good

i thought it was i thought the burger the quality of the burger was good the cheese was good the bun out the all the all the all the condiment the condiment and i thought the condiment was too weak whatever yeah and then i thought the the the fixings were were fine they were fresh or whatever my my issue with it was just that it was just kind of like a little bit it was good but it was boring didn't you think it was just kind of like a little bit boring i think that's a fair assessment i mean like i said it's like you get you're getting again just a lot of beef from it it's like it's like a very and so it's like it's like a pretty basic where hey you know it's a kind of burger that would make wimpy happy just a classic standard of a beef between a bun yeah so that's as simple

as the the burgers he was eating back in the day that's very true yeah he would he would he would love that he'd been out on his friends i should say i'm gonna pay him tuesday i was i was dipping mine i got a side of barbecue sauce which i thought was really good and i was dipping my burger and ketchup and barbecue sauce i don't know if that says that it wasn't like wet or flavorful enough it probably could have used a little bit more condiments yeah and i think and yet you also got a little honey mustard i think both there's i think their sauces are quite nice yeah i i didn't love the honey mustard but i thought the barbecue was awesome good barbecue um and uh you know i think they're i got some thousand island dressing with my salad which i'll get into which is which is

fine i think they're ranch is fine i think they think they do like those those sort of classic dipping sauce as well um also speaking of of food uh or of mains uh we got a you song got himself a blt uh bacon lettuce tomatoes and mayo on sourdough bread very basic baseline blt you song was very nice and gave me a bite of his blt which was very he didn't have to do that the poor guy just gets a blt you're gonna take a bite of it for god's sake he did say he wasn't that hungry but he was crying when he said it you song you ate half a blt is that possibly why you're 85 pounds one thing that's coming back to me is that when we worked there it was very strict that you had to bring the fries and the shake out first like i don't remember the specifics but there was like a

little clock that showed like at what minute you interesting so the the burger is like the last thing that comes on the table which that was not our experience yeah they did not abide by that policy at all anymore all that's out the window yeah they threw that clock out when they threw out that for mic a countertop yeah no it ours our burgers came out first as well yeah um that's i mean that's like just like a misfire yeah um by the way um susser got the smokehouse burger and then i've had that one before and then joe got the houston burger and then uh jamie got the bean burger the the vegetarian burger uh which she said hers hers did look the most appealing of any of them actually and i think she did like it i think that's a i mean like if a burger place i

think this day in this day and age a burger place should do a good veggie patty and if they if they have one i think that's a big big check mark in their favor because accommodating vegetarians is is really nice she added american cheese on there which i think made it a little bit more tasty too right um should i should i tell you what we got for apps yeah real real quick hey you song what did you think of that blt because i the bite i got like it seemed like it had basically no bacon i thought it was okay but i don't want to spoil anything but i was much more excited to eat the appetizers by the end of the meal oh boy all right well let's get into these apps well we got um we got the mini chili cheese dogs uh which were like basically like sliders but they're like a

little like a little uh like three little hot dogs with in a bunny it looked like they just cut a bigger i think that's what they do into three pieces yeah but nick take a look right here at the top of the of the of the receipt here and see what it says i can't read it because i don't have supervision it says mini chili god emma does it not say mini chili god it says mini chili i thought that was hilarious mitch you and i are christians but i think it might be time to convert to the mini chili god uh you could have instead of uh the holy water there's chili why wait why did i replace that without they should replace the the communion wafers with chili right the communion wine also chili instead of bibles chili

priest big bullet chili do you eat the priest yeah strange um i uh i thought the mini chili dogs were like fun yeah they were they were they were fine yeah they weren't anything special we also got some plain tots which we liked yes the plain the plain tots are really good that the tots were good yeah we got the meg fries as well and the meg fries what what came on those the meg fries were they were basically bacon cheese fries yeah so they're just bacon cheese they weren't even it wasn't even new menu item they just renamed an existing menu they renamed it to to make right and in fact they just call them bacon cheese french fries on the receipt to no yeah no meg fry um but that's how they were saying that it was that it was they were beg fries um here's

the thing i could tell the fries were good yeah but the cheese was not hot enough the cheese was kind of cold right and and and and it just kind of fucking put a damper on the whole the whole thing they they were they were not it was kind of the bummer of the entire meal actually mitch i actually i figured out the problem because i went to the johnny rocket's website uh they it's not it's not a meg promotion for the movie it's a meg griffin promotion oh my god yeah the famously dumped on character on the show and this are they were probably like trying to give you some unsatisfying fries i'd rather hang around with the meg than our meg oh jesus christ oh peter griffin's doing branded content that's right

check out megan theaters now if set the begarling actually did that he'd get like a hundred thousand dollars we got the so speaking of fries variants we got the chili cheese fries uh which were uh and you know i i think i think these were mainly for me because the rest of our party didn't have too many of them chili cheese fries i love chili cheese fries nally my lovely wife loves chili cheese fries uh i think they do a really good chili cheese fry at johnny rockets these were about as good as i'd remember them i read you know this is a thing i've gotten in the past um you know it's a it's a very nice fry it's a very good just like classic fry and um in terms of in terms of of of christmas

in terms of of thickness of the cut uh and then i think you know it's a it's a good amount of chili on it's a good proportion of cheddar cheese and um and it's all melted on there and glommed on there nice and again comes out hot it was hot yeah i thought i might i actually was pretty happy with the chili cheese fries but i what did you what did you think ester did you nibble on those i didn't try them i but when i worked there i loved the chili cheese fries i thought they were awesome but the thing is is that we also got the tater tots yes and the tater tots were so not hot yeah when i when i saw the chili cheese fries i was like i don't even want to try those right if they're cold it's going to just freak me out the that i i can't account for the different

temperature of the apps all i can think of is that they they maybe took the tots out of the fryer first let them let them sit there took the fries out and then maybe putting hot chili and hot cheese on top of them kept them warm um but the onion rings i the tots were a disappointment and they were also a little uh they were they were they were cold and also a little overcooked that's crazy when you're dining in right the food should be hot i i fully agree like i guess takeout you can whatever yeah we had the opposite experience because our tots were were hot and and good and and the the bacon cheese fries weren't were the the cheese itself was cold man these chains being wildly inconsistent it really irks me because that's that's the thing

you really all ideally want to dial in but the onion rings were a highlight of the meal they were so good and they sat on the menu they're like made with sourdough breadcrumbs they were so hot crunchy thick they were just really really good yeah great size and not too much size variance they're all kind of like in that sort of sweet spot of of you know rings that you could eat in a couple of bites um and uh and just yeah yeah like the the breadcrumbs just like really stayed on there like the another rings seem to fall apart you know as as sometimes they do um sometimes the coating just sort of falls off the onion yes they were so firm yeah and really well fried and hot and warm and delicious yeah those were those are delicious i could eat in those all day and

that was that was like clearly the crown jewel of those sides wow you didn't get them we fucked up man oh they're so good was that a thing that you that that uh jrs was known for back in the day when you work there the onion rings yeah um i don't know if they were known for but we had them i don't remember them being that good right but i also remember we had the half and half was a big deal was getting half fries half onion rings um now i'm like mad that we i should have sent the tater tots back and asked because they were so cold that's like not acceptable yeah i guess i'm almost said something about our fries there was they were cold we should have said something we should have spoken up we shouldn't have been dine in cowards but we were um i also got this was

this was just like a very you know a fine but disappointing item i got a garden salad uh which was oh god it's just it was just bag meslin greens with with uh what seemed like they were the factory chopped tomatoes and shredded cheese and i had with thousand island dressing a gigantic salad that was really big side huge salad bowl maybe it was mech maybe it was a mech promotion i got the mig sized salad um but the uh it was just like it was so basic and it was eight dollars i was just like that was the thing where i was like oh man i know you're getting gouged at this kind of restaurant because it's got some light theming but that was where i really felt like man this is this is just a fucking rip off um and uh and you know despite its size didn't make up for its high

price point at all um uh it was that was a were those all the savory dishes do we do we miss anything do we cover everything i don't know i wasn't there yet nothing that's it that's it for us but i meant for you mitch oh yeah we got everything you never turn confrontation always talking about us in general i wasn't talking asking you to do an inventory of our meal yeah well i wasn't at your meal yeah i know you weren't at our meal calm down i got a diet coke with a flavor shot of cherry in it by the way that's what we missed our bevs we didn't hit up our bevs um i got well there's bevs and then there's shakes so we're gonna talk about shakes let's talk let's let's close with shakes because we got a shake as a dessert course okay i got the i got all i want to talk about my

diet coke with a cherry flavor shot i want to hear you talk about it diet coke zero calories cherry flavor shot 60 calories so you shoot it in there right brings it up to close about half of what a regular coke is right it was good the diet the diet cherry i mean like look it's never good you should you shouldn't drink soda ever i know this but uh it was it was a nice little alternative to the to a to a regular cherry coke right having the cherry shot in the diet coke was good yeah i got the i'm exhausted the same thing and uh and uh dave and you song got the got coax with a cherry shot in them i did not i don't like ordering beverages at restaurants i feel like it's a waste of money right too cheap for it but i did have a few sips of dave's

coke with cherry and it was so good it was so ice cold and refreshing and so it was like just one of the best tastes out there right yeah i mean it it looked terrific and i've gotten john i've gotten that at johnny rockets before it's different than a fountain cherry coke it's like it's got a cherry and if you get that if you get in the good proportion it's delicious um i've gotten the vanilla coke there before too which also works the chocolate coke i always feel like it's just like weird it's like more of a novelty for kids it's like chocolate chip pancakes it just doesn't really work you don't think chocolate you're like yeah chocolate chip pancakes no it's like it's too desserty pancakes are desserty in general they're yeah but i don't need them that

sweet just don't do maple syrup then but you gotta do maple so you don't i mean i have some dry pancakes so i can eat like an oversized chocolate what about a chocolate chip if they're good pancakes they shouldn't be dry now what about a chocolate chip muffin that's okay it's also a little too desserty for me i used to get that and i thought i thought it was just like a little over the top but uh yeah no i don't i don't want chocolate coke is too much look whatever get the chocolate pancake comparison out of your mind the the the it's chocolate and coke is too much that's the point i was trying to make pick make some other over the top food is a point now i'm the one who's flipping out shut up mitch oh my god he's bleeding again when he gets angry he bleeds

that's your power like the hulk you get angry pathetic pathetic destructive superpower um i also got uh the cocktail i got was the blue hawaiian and i'm trying to find it on the menu here no surprise um yeah why you got a car all right i guess it was nighttime i was thinking i went for lunch oh you're yeah you're trying to say i'm applying you're an alcohol yeah you didn't say i have some sort of uh uh like some sort of functional alcoholism which is not true um i got the uh and it's it's it's like a it's got a malibu rum uh blue curacao and pineapple juice subpoenaeconomics it's very very sweet like super syrupy sweet the the blue color is a delight like it's got it's this vibrant blue it comes with

a with a cherry maraschino cherry and pineapple garnish that's a lot of fun yeah but it doesn't have a place at johnny rocket i agree it felt out of place 100 percent um and you did not certainly not a fifties thing at all i think they're maybe trying to shoehorn it in by like blue hawaiian was like a like an elvis thing but also like they had other cocktails that were just contemporary cocktails so there was no reason to really have them yeah i understand that they're trying to get into the craft cocktail thing and they're trying to get in the beer and wine thing because there's just that's just a profit center but you got to put a little bit more effort into the theming um it it's it's just it's just so weird but the the drink itself super duper sweet

like a pre-sun sweet like a melted otter pop just so so punishingly sweet alcohol i barely felt i like it was just like a mild buzz but you know it was it was it was a pretty disappointing cocktail overall uh despite the other than the hue of it um and then uh getting into our shakes mitch what direction did you go with for shakes there was there were other four people there were three that got the same shake wow and orio we all got orio shakes and jayme got a uh the was it strawberry orio shake yeah i think she got the strawberry orio you guys got four shakes yeah we got four shakes wow what the hell what the fuck does that mean no i'm just saying like it was the polar opposite of what we got one shake for four people why what because those shakes are substantial

they're they're they're big and they're super duper i guess we all did feel sick right after we finished our shakes yeah i did not have a good night after that it was i felt very full but i was super uncomfortable when the when i couldn't sleep when the shake when the shake came out this was another major disappointment because when i worked there whatever it was 10 years ago you would bring out the shake and the like famous thing was the little the silver glass with extra shaking it how fun was that yeah in a second what the hell i was just string wildly and hit my elbow oh his elbow is bleeding everywhere you're gonna retract the meg and of those vampires we were talking about which you know did i move the table away from the wall that's what i i said we need

to get a new table we don't need to get a new table i can move it a little bit away from the wall i'm jammed back here in like this closet sized space that wouldn't even fit walley and or ermah that's bullshitting having to broadcast a full episode and i'm banging my limbs all over the wally and i'm not the meg of cats they can fit in that little spot it's such a small space it's tiny i like to wedge back there so i know you're not going to do anything shifty you're doing it to punish me i want your side of the table you come back here i can't even fit it's my point i'm not that much smaller than you we're yeah i'm sitting guess what you fucking get off on that oh do i have to go in the corner oh no but i'm sorry you were talking about how they they bring you the shake

in the the the glass with the the whipped cream on top the little silver cup on the side with oh you also lift the straw thing so the person can take their own straw a lot of fun yeah and a long silver spoon so you can oh i guess did we get a spoon we got the silver spoon but we got we got a plastic shake cup it was so it was so we got a black but you can take those cups to go if they're yours oh great you're the fucking i brought mine home it's just what i need when they're clearing my body out of here it's gonna be an extra houston houston uh an extra hollywood johnny ronnie hollywood jolly rockets i i said houston because joe updating me that he got the it's the spicy houston oh okay

you text in saunders during the episode you tell so who cares you text him to see if i was late yeah i did that before we started recording i'm not buried in my phone the whole time as i wasn't buried in my phone it just popped up i asked them what they got and then susser said one thing so i know that joe got the other and i said houston and then he said i got the spicy houston you guys have an active text convo about the meg i bet we're still scared of it hey you know i had so i had a birthday boys meeting last night so i couldn't this is your sketch i couldn't go to dinner and you guys are doing a reunion show very shortly uh we're doing a reunion show this center it will have it will have happened by the time this episode's out i wrote a sketch

it was an idea that saunders and susser and phillips and i came up with together okay uh you took soul credit for it where ethan hunt instead of putting on a mask he puts on the mask uh that's funny and chaos ensues i just snorted at my own joke it's good i like it uh didn't make the show uh oh come on i didn't make it in there i mean it wasn't good there there was they were right everyone was right you're right to dead silence so i couldn't go but i felt bad for you guys yeah there is more food stuff coming up avocado crime rising in new zealand i'm so sorry to interrupt you but that's alarming yeah it makes that is strange sorry the are people because avocados aren't they like tough to get or something maybe get the lex out of here why it's

interesting it's a distraction basically sorry i'm really sorry no you have nothing to apologize for and this kid if this thing could say what it's coming up on the screen it would be i would replace you i was uh i was gonna feel so thank god you song went with you guys to the restaurant i was gonna feel so bad if it was just you davin uh and nick we had a lovely time it was fine but we missed you thank you for saying why you weren't there i wish i wish i could have but i had a great time too yeah i did have a good time with this restaurant yeah i i had a good time i had a nice time but you know why yes and i'll tell you what i keep touching the mic this up i gotta relax lay off i got jitters from the bag um the shakes brought the meal up the shakes were great

or in our case shake was great we got the deluxe shake the Oreo cookies and cream a favorite of yours i i had to limit the number of sips i had i would have sucked that whole thing back um but it's and oh by the way a little too thick for a straw as i learned uh embarrassingly i was trying to suck that up and i could not get it get any in there um usually pretty good okay um but i had to i had to start spooning it and uh it was uh but delicious you know i'm not good at that that's my thing a delicious delicious Oreo shake just a great great version of it i think it's one of the best desserts out there and i actually one of the episodes on the second season of our show the Oreo shakes at a 50s themed diner is a major plot point wow how much i love them i i i loved

the Oreo shake i think i mean every part you know all four of us got a shake right one was a strawberry Oreo shake and then the other 30 were just the the Oreo cookies and cream deluxe shake or whatever you're saying there and all of us basically finished i mean we came close to finishing every single one of them right they're they're so good did you try the strawberry i didn't know i should be curious about that yeah i was i was curious about that one too i was persuaded to order the Oreo i cookies and cream and i am i am glad i did so susser susser his so jamie evans wife ordered the she ordered the straw the you know the strawberry Oreo shake and then susser goes oh chocolate and strawberry together and i was like yeah that's one of the most basic

dessert things ever what are you talking about you thought it was a weird thing no that's not a weird thing it's a very normal thing it's super conventional yeah yeah chocolate drips strawberries it's like a classic dessert agreed yeah cool yeah um but yeah let's get into our our final thoughts on johnny rocket so i saw you've done the show before but just a refresher uh we will go around we will each sort of give our closing argument on this chain and then give it a rating from one to five forks or zero to five forks yeah zero to five forks i don't always say one it can be as low as zero uh if you if you want to go utensilist uh as to your guest we'll begin with you okay i thought the food was good some of it was cold which just indicates like bad service bad quality control

which is a bit of a bummer but i like the burger i loved love the onion rings um obviously i think if you want a milkshake they have the best milkshakes out there i still haven't found any that are better yeah um but that all that said nothing is that over like the entree the burger is not overwhelmingly good enough that i would not choose to go there without a theme right for me this is an experience and i'm gonna go there if i can listen to fifties music and have a really nice waitress or waiter and just like have that little experience you know for whatever reason the nostalgia the novelty of it like that's what i'm going there for and if that is stripped away i have absolutely no reason to go to this restaurant yeah i ultimately will just get a burger somewhere

that's a little better where you know i mean that's i don't know where i'd get onion rings like that but i'm sure i can find them at like a high quality spot somewhere else so i think all that said i would give it um god the onion rings are because of the onion rings and the quality of the milkshakes i would say three forks three forks as i mean it's it's a solid score but yeah who you wanted higher nick no i know it's a solid score but i i think just just you know as she said it would have been higher with the theming um johnny rock is just another funny play like it's just a funny chain yeah like sure the the fifties diner is is is it can be a fun time the fifties music is great that's now gone what is the future of this place is just like a is it a burger place are they just

trying to be like a five guys or something that's just straight up burgers and shakes there's always room for that if you have really great shakes you got really good burgers you can you can survive you know what i mean yeah are the burgers that good the answer is no are they i'm saying are are they good enough like we were hard on five guys do i think five guys is better than johnny rockets burger burger wise yeah i think five guys burgers are we're hard on five guys i mean in the tournament of chompians we were i mean like there's a lot of guys got pretty far they did well whatever shut up uh didn't we give it the heart we give it the heart of the chompian award we weren't hard at it at all sorry shut up for god's sake Cinderella story of the first tournament

just let me say my fake shit all right um my fake juice um uh anyways people were mad at us for how we treated uh for how we how we treated five guys yeah i think maybe our original review episode we were not as charitable but when we were visited we were like you know what five five guys deserves more credit is johnny rockets burger better than five guys burger no no way the answer is no no fucking way is a decent yes is the shake at johnny rockets something right home about hell yeah right to your mama tell her it's great it's a good shake she should go and get one too right to your mama in general she misses you yes get a piece of paper and a pen and right to your mother how touch would a mother be to receive a handwritten

letter from her child she probably lives through this johnny rockets error herself so she can talk to her about it um uh i i really i really really like that orio shake it's it was it was really good the burger like i said is decent not like doesn't blow you away yes the sides were a mixed bag and and and the and the drink the drinks were the drinks were fun i like that you could have a shot of stuff to it but the theme is just a zero it's a nothing it's a nothing theme it's it like and now it's even funny that there's like a car and like a burger outside like on the sign and it doesn't it doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything you know i mean it's it's it's it's just such a nothing it's a nothing theme now when it was such a strong theme right so i was just

gonna say i feel like if you're gonna change your theme so much you have to like put out a press release or like let everyone know it's it's really weird it's bizarre going in i was i was like oh is it just this one but is it all is it all of them are they all dead or is it i it's been a while since i've been to a johnny rockets the last time i was near the san amonica location it still look like it looked like the interior was the same but maybe they're on the path to refurbishing it i don't know um this is my first time in one of these new fangled johnny rockets as i mentioned previously when i was in this very johnny rockets you know winded force awakens come out 2015 2016 you know when it came out i honestly don't remember because like i think it's

2015 2015 force awakens 2016 rogue one 2017 last jedi right 2018 solo oh the best one the the four worst years of my life i mean that's unrelated my alma mater johnny rockets is still looks has the theme okay oh okay so maybe for now maybe it's just this one but i mean that's the experience we we can we can analyze it seems like it's gonna go that way with a lot of them i guess but yeah the the theme is another it if if this place didn't have good shakes and the the burger was a little less quality i would be going much slower i feel like i'm almost going too high i you know what i'll give it three four i'll give it three and a half forks and i feel like that's almost too high yeah that's how i feel but it feels fair um and you know i've got my thoughts but

before we get to that our dining companion last night dave king our guest on our back on our baskin robbins episode also chimed in with his review let me go ahead and play that for us now what's up doe boys it's dave king i'll try to go quickly on my johnny rockets thoughts the chicken swiss mushroom thing pretty good at least at first got a little tired of that the more i ate weiger's double cheeseburger situation weird taste to it like the meat as weiger said tasted like meatloaf that was a huge strike for me like that's not what i want when i'm craving a burger the tater tots were cold that was a problem the onion rings were pretty good chili fries kind of a mess if we're being honest with ourselves the meg burger i thought was the best thing they had

but that's a limited item god i don't know how much credit we can get for that cherry coke was nice and the shake at the end was fantastic but they didn't present it right they've got a real problem there man like aesthetically they're supposed to be a 50s diner they should go for it and now they're shying away from it i'm sure you've talked about this but it's a huge problem i'm hard pressed to go higher than two and a half forks and honestly i think it should be lower than that wow wow i'll i'll say two and a half forks that's all i got um by vacation land by john hodgeman available in paperback now you know what dave's dave's review just made me inspired me i'm moving it down to three four wow yeah i mean cabelli arguments and i agree with

them i think it should be just the fact that that orio shake was so damn good right listen hey if you're listening johnny's meal fucking johnny rocket you grease or piece of shit you're lucky that fucking orio shake saved your ass or you and the rest of the rockets would have been cut good i'm feeling people could just not listen to this episode and only listen to dave's one minute review right well i mean that's the secret of this podcast it's it's 90 seconds of information stretch out into two hours we'll have to edit out what you just said people don't know that that's our whole hustle you see um i'll i'll also try to go quickly uh everyone's made great points about the the aesthetic the the removal of the 50s theme just indefensible and it removed

its identity that alone accounts for a full fork deduction because that was like that was a big part of the the johnny rocket's experience i'm gonna go there i'm gonna feel like i'm i'm in another time and it's just not there anymore at some point in the past decade they removed pie from the menu oh which for me is a big strike because that was their standout dessert they you could get an apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on it if you like that that crazy variant which i did or you could get it ala mode they had some good pies there they don't have them anymore they still have the shakes though the shakes are outstanding desserts i understand the instinct to simplify their menu but i don't think they simplified in the right direction you know what yeah

fuck that piece of cheese on an apple pie you fucking freak i like it you're a weirdo it's not it's some people like it's a regional variant that some people appreciate i will say when i work there a lot of people came in for that and would often talk about how you can't get this other places right i think they they removed a little bit of a thing that they had that was specific to them and again you know something that informed their identity i think that was a miscue that said i never tried it while i was working there because it looked gross it is gross you're a freak look if you like pie cheese on a pie hashtag cheesy pie guy and if you don't like or gal or gal yeah and if you don't like a cheese of cheese on a pie a hashtag wiger is a freak um

but let me say that hashtag is already used too much let me say this i also forgot my leftovers that's on me not on them but it did dampen my enthusiasm for the place a little bit i won't factor that into my score but i just have to acknowledge that we had some left we had a bunch of leftover onion rings and tots and chili cheese right take those home no i put them in i boxed them up and i left it on the table it's a mistake i make all the time god felt like unforgivable it was really dumb i do that all the time i i need to start bringing my own bag so i remember to do it um but anyway uh burgers meh be a uh front sides pretty good overall onion rings were a standout garden salad yeah you need to bring your own shit great yeah

so funny your own like to go if i brought my own to go bag i would remember jesus the little plastic bag they give you i didn't i wouldn't necessarily remember um shake was a home run shake was outstanding that elevates it a little bit that said no fifties theme she's not excited i just like what why would i go here what's the point i think everyone's being too charitable this is a two fork chain wow we're messing around with stop in and grab a shake to go that's the only value it has you son was just clapping thank you you song i i i i feel dumb now for giving the three you shouldn't feel dumb you should not feel dumb i feel fine you guys i also want to say that uh you you guys got a picture at the table which is nice

yeah we did actually that was a lot of fun they took it they go around they take a photo of you yeah they have a photographer there they take a photo of you they have a you get a complimentary postcard uh we have one capturing this magical night where dave dave and you and you song and nick it's on my table nick uh what are you gonna do with that because uh it's definitely not staying here it's staying there forever it's gonna be maybe a lot right alongside the dave thomas cup and you're alexa i uh no no no no you you woke her up for god's sakes um i have i have one for you it's a picture of me and joe sander's together i saw that was really nice did you guys get the photo treatment too we did we got we got the we got the group the four of us a four person shot

and then they did evan and jamie and then they thought joe and i were a couple and they did joe and i and and and we and we bought the joe and i wanted we did bought the big group picture that's lovely however how much more fun would that be if instead of in this nondescript sort of black box theater looking space it was a vibrant fifties diner and it's not that that's that's that that is spot on for what it's become it's become this kind of dark gold the dark and gold nothing here it looks like a generic gastropub it's just it's just a it's just a real bummer anyways you gotta take that arm throwing the trash also the photo thing to note is i've never seen that before to johnny's johnny rockets um right yeah i think i think they started doing it at the more touristy places in

recent years because i have encountered that before oh you have yeah i have yeah i went i went before when it was fifties themed and got the same thing um uh hey you know that was a review of johnny rockets so we've got a beverage and we're going to decide if it's worth pouring down your throat it's our regular segment drink or stink and uh this is one that you song picked up for us this was recommended to us by denis uh tabby doe savett on twitter uh he said this was a thing we should give a oh by the way jamie and evan they they gave me a gift of a watermelon sour patch kids which are great oh that's fun they're so god they're so good they're so so i'm saying god now instead of good uh oh it was dog instead of god right uh got god on the rain hmm is that chili god

nick i don't want to give a but that's a nice hint for something that's coming to doe boy soon oh boy yeah that's a little that's a real teaser hey you song are these is you got a bottle opener by chance oh oh my god oh he's got one on his keychain wow you song is a fucking party animal where are those from more like bruson a target wow um so these are what what do we have here mitch these are you song got us california raspberry coca colas oh that's a lot of fun we're talking about we're talking about flavor shots and um and and you song got us uh he got us these coaks that have a california raspberry flavors in there you know one thing that i like about this already is it comes in the classic coke bottle

the glass bottle and that that's that's really nice for a limited edition you song you want some is there a cup or something are you gonna try it we're nuts you got it what did you say are these for sure limited edition i don't know i mean may i i assume so maybe this will come maybe if this is a sensation this will be this will come stay stick around so california raspberry they're they're in the glass bottles they look really nice they're nice and cold they feel good let's give them a drink nick let's see if it's a drink or stay let me get a little swig i tell you it's got that it's got that coke uh that coke fizz which i like interesting this is made with cane sugar so they're they're going out of their way to present

to you know not to use the the the corn syrup i have a i have a surprising verdict on this one i think it might be fucking stank nick i don't taste the raspberry you don't taste it i do taste it it's very subtle i i taste like it like it's sort of like a general sort of berry pastiche i don't taste like a specific any sort of specific raspberry i don't like it if i'm drinking coke i would much rather have a straight up coke i i i love coca-cola it's yeah coca-cola is the best drink it's almost has like a sour addition to it yeah i think i think that you know what it is is like this is coming across is a little bit like a carbonated medicine-y drink yeah um emma what do you think you're having a

swing over there i thought it was really subtle too i don't really taste the raspberry yeah when you get a flavored coke you expect it to be like a flavored coke right you want you want to be a little bit more forward and it's like as opposed to the cherry coke we got at the uh or a couple of us got over at the johnny rockets i mean this is just it's just not forward enough this uh it's weird maybe instead of california raspberry if it was a quince beat quincy raspberry okay come on what yeah if it was a quincy raspberry you would love it you would think this that's this was a fucking perfect drink i'd be fair i live in california now you have an east coast bias you're wearing it on your head you're a better coast you're wearing a patriots hat as we speak it's a

better coast it's not a better coast west coast is best coast are you guys okay because it rhymes yes are you guys okay drinking caffeine that's close to bedtime no i'm gonna be up all night i'm fucking wired already this is i mean i know what we're gonna do i don't have caffeine after three p.m. generally and i i've drank a third of this bottle and i'm fucking done um i yeah i this is what is what are we kidding this is a stank this is just fucking a bummer of a variant and yeah like you said i the the the measuring these things always comes down to would you rather have the original 100 i'd rather have a glass bottle coke with cane sugar over this california raspberry i mean is it terrible i don't think it's terrible it's not that good

yeah i do it's it's it's very disappointing right this is the is the issue i always appreciate the novelty of like a new flavor though yeah that's fun yeah i like them taking a shot why not take a shot take more shots and i like that they're doing it in kind of a you know they're like okay we'll go we'll try to have like this be more like an artisan soda like a jam soda almost i like that that coca-cola given that a shot but i think this version just doesn't quite work uh it stinks all around emma we agree agreement yeah no no no one's on board with this one uh sorry denny's tabby's to a sabbitt uh you had a bad recommendation um hey just oh i'm sorry i didn't realize it was from i'm sorry it's just not my preference no it's fine oh yeah oh no that's sad sorry i like you on

twitter sorry it was fine it was a thing worth trying so it was a fun experience it was a fun experience but yeah a bad drink um hey just like a restaurant value feedback let's open the feedback this week's email is from victor valenzuela victor writes i recently had to get a very minor surgery in my throat before learning about the whole procedure i just assumed i wouldn't be able to eat normally for at least a few days thankfully that wasn't the case but it got me thinking if you couldn't eat solid foods for three days what would you plan to eat i assume soup and smoothies are high up there well soup not for ester uh but where do you think you'd go also any wildcard choices maybe mashed potatoes uh ps he added a ps the big drawback of the surgery

wasn't an eating restriction but i wasn't allowed to talk for three days that's crazy it was brutal and this also included things like coughing and laughing listen to your podcast was kind of risky i came close to laughing out loud a few times i like it typical listener experience i guess listen to the entire dope boys catalog and come close to laughing a couple of times he was he was fine yeah you can't laugh so he chose to listen to our podcast right right all right good yeah your choices are this or uh uh that book about ted bundy um so uh ester have you ever been in a state where you couldn't eat solid food for a stretch yeah i think when i had my wisdom teeth out oh wow yeah same here wisdom teeth yeah what did you guys end up doing because i don't think i had

my wisdom teeth out but my recovery was not that is pretty pretty quick mac and cheese i had some mashed potatoes mac and cheese is not a liquid i know but it was it was still it was still like soft enough that it just it right the mac and cheese was like the like the one that i like could like chew a couple times and then and swallow it down okay uh and i would do some fraps like uh like uh like uh from the place that was once brigham so it's very specific to where i was right no other time have i have i not have been able to have solids yeah um let me clearly esters what was your experience like i don't remember at all what i ate uh i do just remember when i had my wisdom teeth out my parents jolted me awake and i was really out of it and they're

like we're going to the cemetery today and i just remember them like dragging me to the cemetery while i was half aware of my surroundings i was really confusing wow why i don't know because they just kind of are they just do their own thing and i was just like a kid that had to go along with it but i when you say what what liquids or non solids would you eat i would love to just go like have a pudding i think chocolate pudding would be really good choice that's an excellent choice yellow is fun uh yeah you know yeah jello pudding right anything like that i'm i'm wondering if he means like specific i think like a smoothie a smoothie place or something like that smoothies are good because they're they do so many he he mentioned smoothies in his email

and yeah you can do so many like they're i feel like there's there's so many variants that put like vegetables and stuff and smoothies now i feel like you can get a bunch a bunch of mileage out of just trying different smoothies with different combos of of produce and yogurt um a soup of course but yeah i don't know i don't like any specific i i just wonder because i feel like if i had like i think i went to boston market actually a couple times and oh that's fun um yeah uh uh yeah i mean i i think there's i think yeah if you could do something like mashed potatoes i think that's good because you can have a little bit substantial i i worry with soups because like if you especially if i get a cream based soup and that's like all i'm eating i feel like that's

like i'm just gonna be in a bad state rumblies wise um i do remember this i went to an irish bar with my kiss three days after i had my wisdom teeth taken out and i was drinking bud lights and i remember that my uh my where my wisdom teeth where i started bleeding again into my mouth jesus christ i shouldn't have been drinking you're getting on me for bleeding you have a similar incident i kept it to my fucking mouth right around the fucking living room but yeah if you have any uh any wrecks for someone who's recovering from any sort of oral surgery and is limited from what they can eat uh hashtag uh liquid foods yeah oh what a perfect hashtag well on the nose i don't know what yeah get that fucking even though

hey sometimes you gotta use that spoon a little bit spoon man uh but uh the orio the orio cookie oh my god of course treat yourself orio cookie shake from johnny rockets have them double blend it though yeah yeah get those chunks really blended i mean if you're prepared to use a spoon if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants you can email us at dolboyspodcast at gmail.com or leave us leave us a voicemail at 830 godo that's 830 463 6844 and hey to get the dolboys double our weekly bonus episode you can join the golden plate club at patreon.com slash dolboys and mitch speaking of golden clubs we have a our our our our golden paw club is about to get up and running that's right and we're working we're working on it right

now this was something we promised a few months ago it's taken some time to get we didn't just like drag our feet on it it's taken some time it was there was an issue we were trying to get to a place to do and then it was just hard to get them to to communicate with other animal rescues because they hear about us and then they learn more about us and they're like you guys just looking for animals to eat huh sick fucks we find it's it's coming it's coming soon yeah it wasn't it wasn't an empty promise yeah but yeah that would look for that on the horizon this will be this is our our animal rescue affiliated animal rest you that still makes it so you're gonna eat them that was part of the problem we kept saying animal rest you on these conference calls

we're gonna stop doing that uh ester bovetsky thank you so much for joining us what would you like to plug at this time thank you for having me uh yes season two of my show alone together is out on hulu and freeform and you don't have to watch season one you can just jump right into season two that's it there you go uh i went down to that shelter you know who was in the kennel looking to be adopted pizza rat i'll do for this episode of doe boys and next time for the spoon man mic michael i'm nick weigher happy eating see ya hey guys you want more doe boys to get the doe boys double our weekly bonus episode join the golden plate club sign up at patreon.com slash doe boys that was a hit gum podcast