Doughboys - Original Tommy's with Jim Woods

Episode Date: August 13, 2015

The 'boys review a Los Angeles icon: Original Tommy's, a chili burger and dog chain, with the help of actor and improviser Jim Woods (Reno 911!, The Office, Boom Chicago). Plus, a special boozy edition of Drank or Stank.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For much of the 19th century, immigration to the young nation of America was dominated by Germans and the Irish. But by 1880, a new wave of Greek immigrants began settling on the other side of the Atlantic, a trend that continued into the early 20th century. Across the country, many of these new Greek Americans took to operating diners, a tradition carried on by the second generation Tommy Coolox in 1946, when he opened his food stand near downtown Los Angeles. Coolox's stand specialized in burgers and hot dogs ladled with his signature sauce-like

chili that was, and is, closer to a condiment than a stew. Locals took some convincing, but after a few years, Coolox's chili slathered fast-food chain caught on like a California wildfire, and his chain expanded throughout the southline in the 60s and 70s. But with success came intellectual property theft, and the brand continues to battle a rash of imitators who copy its name and menu. Still as it approaches its 70th anniversary, and now with 34 locations in California and Nevada, this chain proves you just can't beat the original.

This week on Doe Boys, original Tommy's. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weigher, alongside the newly clean shaven Mike Mitchell. How you doing? I'm doing alright, I'm not the happiest to be shaven, but you know. You're a famously bearded man, for the entire time I've known you you've been bearded, you're bearded in our cover art by Chris Van Art Stalen. That's true.

Yeah, you look like a new man, I think you're very self-conscious about it, but I think you look very handsome. I feel like Tony Robbins took the shallow Hal curse off of me, and I now see myself as a big feck. I mean, I always did, but the beard, when people are like girls, I almost blamed old girls, when people are like, oh, that fat guy has a beard, like, because he's a fat guy or whatever, it's like, yeah, of course, that's why I grew a beard, I'm hiding my big fat face from the world, and now it's shaved off, I don't feel right, yeah, I just feel

like it's like a goblin sitting on my shoulders, it's a big fucking fat head, and I'm pissed off about it. I never want to shave, and then it just, sometimes you get a shave for, sometimes you get a shave, that's all. You'll reveal yourself to all of Spoon Nation this week when we take our photo with our guests. No fucking way. They can Spoon Nation go in.

No, we'll Photoshop a head of, from an old picture on there. There's no way I'm doing it. Also, you toss in wildfires in the opening to Tommy's. Was that too dark? I thought it was a little too dark for the opening for Tommy's. Yeah. I was trying to look for some sort of flowery language that was also regionally specific to the California chain.

Oh, it was a great, I shouldn't have picked, it was a great opening. Okay, thanks for saying that. I wanted to mention something real quick. So a couple episodes ago, this episode is coming on the heels of our Denny's episode. Two episodes back, we did Chick-fil-A, and we had a couple of listeners chime in. Lee Ingram and Melanie Johnson separately both said, hey, what about the frozen lemonade? The Chick-fil-A frozen lemonade. And yeah, that was a thing that we didn't evaluate, that we perhaps should have evaluated.

Both of these listeners are from the South, and so they have a little bit of credibility with their Chick-fil-A knowledge, I think. So we'd like to say, for future episodes, and we haven't quite figured out, we haven't quite codified. Is it codified or codified? What's the word? You're asking the wrong guy. Codified.

Codified, all right. Give it a thumbs up. We got a thumbs up from our English major, Yisan, who's helping out with the podcast out in the studio. Codified, this language yet, but some sort of like, hey, you guys fucked up, or hey, you guys forgot, maybe like hashtag, hey, you forgot, or hey, what about? Some sort of way to chime in and let us know if there's anything from a chain that we've covered on the podcast that we didn't try that we should have.

Feel free to let us know, and we'll note it in the next episode of the show. So that's one thing, talking about the Chick-fil-A episode. We're recording this at the Denny's episode has just come out, so we haven't gotten any specific feedback on that one yet, but do try the frozen lemonade from Chick-fil-A. Yes. Yeah, that seemed like the biggest one yet. I thought we got some, we talked about it, people were upset that we gave you mommy a hard time, but, or you mami, am I now saying you mommy wrong?

You got mad at me. I think it's umami. I didn't get mad at you. Umami. At no point did I get mad at you. No. You're always getting mad. I don't get hot under the collar.

I'm a very even guy. Yeah, you know what? You're really straight-laced, and today's guest is a little bit, he's kind of like a little chaos, you know, and you're kind of more uptight. Yeah, sure. I think I'm very excited to have today's guest. He introduces certainly a different element, a little bit of spice to our food-centric podcast. Comedian and actor, for my money, one of the funniest improvisers in the world.

Jim Woods. Hi, Jim. Thanks for being here. Of course, of course. So, Jim, you are in town in Los Angeles, and like one of our previous guests, Heather and Campbell, you've spent a lot of time in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, in fact, that's where you've been living up until recently. Um, so give us a little bit of a rundown about the food situation out there.

Um, the, well, the food kind of sucks. Yeah. There's a reason why you've never been to a Dutch restaurant outside of Holland. Like their cuisine is either mashed potatoes with, like, vegetables just smashed in it, or fried gravy, like these, like, sticks called croquettes, and, um, and, uh, like, there's a place called FABO where you just put money in a wall and just open up a little door and take one of these things out. Yeah, Heather told us about this a little bit, yeah.

It's like a giant wall-sized vending machine, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Outside of that, it's basically tons of other countries' restaurants. Gotcha. Like, it's rare to just, like, go and it's like, here's a Dutch place. It's usually, there's tons of Argentinian steakhouses, for some reason, you know, and like just like tons of, like, Italian restaurants and just stuff like that.

So it's usually, like, yeah, more like that kind of stuff. What bizarre, like, combination of colonialism and cross-cultural cross-pollination resulted in a bunch of Argentinian steakhouses in the Netherlands. That seems weirdly specific. I mean, isn't, is Argentina where a bunch of, like, Nazis all went to hide? Oh. Maybe that's what it was. I mean, I know Nazis weren't, you know, Dutch, and I know that, but, I mean, they were close.

Yeah, so Nazis used to occupy Holland, fled to Argentina after World War II, and then returned to their native occupied land in the aftermath and opened a bunch of steakhouses and tracks for me. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy how many there are for such a specific thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Hands down, there's way more than, like, McDonald's. There's more Argentinian steakhouses than McDonald's.

Yeah, absolutely. In Amsterdam. Really? Yeah, they'll be like, they'll be like three on the same block. What is it? Man, this place sounds great, actually. What is the experience when you go into one, have you been to one of these? I went to one.

It was on a date with a stripper, and she had broken up with my girlfriend, and I asked two of the other guys. I was like, can you mind if we just go to a strip club? Not that I just want to be around a bunch of girls who have to act like they like me. Oh. So we did, and this one stripper at the end asked me out, and, like, a couple days later, I was waiting to meet her, and I was actually like, I don't know if I'm going to recognize her in the daylight, but she recognized me, and then we went to the Argentinian steakhouse.

So I really can't give too much of, you know, because I was too in my head about thinking about this date with a stripper that I don't really remember the restaurant too well. I did my hat to you because I feel like you're one of 100 men, maybe, in the history of the world who've been asked out by a stripper at a strip club. I feel like that's, like, very rare, right? Like a... Yeah, I think it might have been because I so didn't want a lap dance. I kept being like, I just want to talk to my friends, and then she would like ask me

my name, and I told her, and she goes, my name's Luna, and then she was like, I'll tell you my real name later. I'm not allowed to say my real name while I'm working. Oh, man. Jesus. Yeah. So, yeah, I know. How did things go with her?

Was there a second date? Kind of, but it's lewd. Okay. But she did have a tattoo of a Chinese dragon where her pubic hair should have been. So... All right. I've known Jim for a while. This is about where I expected this podcast to go.

It's already there on a podcast about food chains. I love it. Why you're sweating. This tight collar is wet. I'm a real square. It's nice to have this element here. So, Jim, you've been back to the States sporadically over. How long have you been living there, pretty much, because it was like, was it 2010, 2011

you went over there from LA? End of 2010. End of 2010. And you were there, you were there earlier, you were living in LA for a while, and then you went back. And so, how many times have you been back to the States in that time span? Well, I originally moved from there to LA in 2005 and then went back for five months in 2007 to Amsterdam.

Came back to LA for two and a half years and then went back in 2010. I think I've only been back two other times. Okay. Yeah, I think only two other times. So when you come back here and you've kind of been living in the, you know, you've all you've got is Dutch food and the associated, you know, foreign chains that are over there and foreign restaurants, you come back to the US, what is it that you're craving or what is like the first thing you go for in America?

I think really it was Taco Bell. Wow. They don't have Taco Bell there and their Mexican food is kind of shitty. It's either like not very flavorful or it's more that it's like Spanish food. Gotcha. But not that I'm, I mean, it sounds like I'm really crediting Taco Bell with Mexican food, but that's like the quick kind of bam, you know, but then like, you know, to go to like El Coyote or something like that, just to actually have like real Mexican food.

But probably that, yeah. I agree with that Taco Bell, because you can get, you get McDonald's and everything over there, right? Yeah. That seems, Taco Bell seems like one of the most American, I know that that's strange to say, but it feels like, because it's a Mexican fast food restaurant, but it feels like one of the most American chains there is for whatever reason. Well, I think probably localized to North America.

I don't think, you know, I don't think there's much knowledge or popularity of Mexican food in Asia and China where Asia and China, what am I saying? China is part of Asia. Asia and Europe is what I was trying to say. I don't think there's as much, you know, just general knowledge of Mexican food to begin with over there. So yeah, I think, I get what you're saying that specific to the US as an American chain Taco Bell is pretty, pretty good one to go for.

So let's talk about McDonald's or some other American chains that are over there, Jim. Any Dutch specific food you noticed at like a Domino's Pizza or a Burger King? They, Burger King is pretty set. Do they have the spicy tinder crisp sandwich here on the regular? I think it might be in there now. I think, I'm not 100% sure on that though. Because I think that thing is fucking good. And I mean, like everybody talks about all the McRib is back when that spicy tinder crisp

is back. Oh, I mean, like we would go multiple times a day. Oh, wow. It's so good. And because I feel like usually when a chain says this is spicy, it's not fucking spicy, but this actually got some kick to it. But that's like one that like we would always be sitting around praying for. McDonald's has like the McCroquette, which is just a croquette on a bun.

But they also, McDonald's would like, you'd be walking by and you'd be like a winner of you know, Burger Contest, I'm like, when was this fucking contest? I've never heard of this contest. You know, it's like, I feel like they're just lying to make you go, oh, this is a winner. And it would just be like a burger with different sauce, you know. So it would be like a special burger that McDonald's had that like a weird and Burger King didn't really do it. Burger King kind of stuck to their guns, but McDonald's is always coming up with some

new sandwich. Yeah. I know one time I went to McDonald's because I always loved looking at McDonald's menus when I'm in different countries to see what their version of stuff is. And I'm a winner, I was in Barcelona, and a winner in McDonald's came out with flip-flops. They're weird too. One's blue and one's yellow, and it's got half of a face on one heel and the other half of the face on the other heel.

Of Ronald himself? No, it's just these two big eyes and a smile. They were selling them behind the register? Yeah. They just have food at like the Spanish McDonald's, or they just have an addition to food? They have clothing at the Spanish McDonald's? No, they just had like, it was, I don't really, because that was a whirlwind weekend, I don't really remember how I ended up getting them.

I just remember I had them on a tray when I came out, and my friend Joe goes, what the fuck happened? Because that's what he went, you went in for food and came out with flip-flops. How does that happen? I was like, I don't know. There may just be a shoeless person overseas looking for their flip-flops. They're blue and yellow individual flip-flops, I guess so. I was going to ask you, as far as living in Amsterdam, it just feels like living in like

Burning Man or something to me. Is it a crazy lifestyle over there? Is it kind of always a people party a lot, right? Obviously, it's kind of like a party city. It really depends on what part of the town you're in. On the weekends, because they're really rowdy once they get going. If you are in the Leidseplein, which is kind of like the main area, and it's like four in the morning, clubs are all letting out around there, it can be pretty nuts on a Saturday.

But then Rembrandtplein, which is the other main square, that place is just fucking trashy. If it's after three in the morning on a Friday or Saturday, I hate going through there. There's a good chance people just throw something at you or just do it like you'll be riding your bike and kind of go at you just to scare you or something. Stuff like that, it's like filled with bullies or something. Oh yeah, sounds like Escape from New York or something. Yeah, Escape from LA, where I just shoot the basketball. Have you guys watched either of those movies recently?

I watched Escape from New York like two years ago. First of all, it holds up, it's really good. It's like a fun, I mean it's a little dated, it's a fun John Carpenter movie. Yeah, but the thing that's so interesting about Escape from New York for me is you watch movies now and I feel like, I don't know, since the 90s, and certainly the biggest example is Air Force One, but there's a lot of movies where if the president's in it, the president is like an action hero. The president is like, you know, certainly those two movies White House Down and Olympus

has fallen last year, that were like directly that was the premise, but like the president is so heroic. This was a movie that was made in the 70s sort of post-watergate and the president is such like a sniveling little like pussy, he like gets kidnapped and like Kurt Russell is going to rescue him and he's like this fat, like disgusting looking guy who just is like, he's just like a shitty leader and a coward. And then at the very end of the movie, like they're exposing that this president is corrupt and they're like Kurt Russell is being a hero by leading his downfall.

It's just so interesting the psychology of like post-nix and kind of bled into pop culture for a time. I like that. I want like a, that's fun to have a bad president in a movie. I don't want to watch an action movie where the president saves the day. Yeah. That's fucking boring. ID.4.

Yeah, I guess it's good. It's true. ID.4, yeah. Shit, all right. It's like all of them though, but even something like Absolute Power or Murder at 1600 where it's like the White House is like a crime scene, those are still ones where we're not, the president is, I don't think is unheroic. The president is like has a corrupt crony or something.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess after Reagan when we had like an actual movie star as president from that point forward, it was kind of like, oh, now the president is a good guy in these movies. Well, so few presidents, it's like hard to believe that like George H.W. Bush would be like an action hero or even be able to like lift himself off of a bed easily or something. Jesus. I don't mean now, I'm saying back then even.

I didn't mean old decrepit. Oh my God. Throw in decrepit. Oh God. I don't, I'm apologies to the Bush family. Actually, no, fuck the Bush family. I don't care. I don't know about, I don't care.

Just lost a listener. George. Babs. I mean, the other, I mean, the other asshole president movie though is the first 15 minutes of Dave. Oh yeah. That's true. That's true.

Until he has that stroke. That was kind of a, I think that must have been a Clinton thing, right? Kind of like, when did that, when did Dave come out? 94 maybe? Yeah. It must have been a Clinton thing, like the kind of the people's president. All right. Jim, one thing I know about you, aside from living in Amsterdam, is I feel like you have

like a diet where you eat a lot of junk food. Like I've seen you just have like two hot pockets and like that's your lunch. Thank you. Yeah, we're going to out them on the podcast. No, well no, I'm not trying to, I mean like, I'm not trying to say anything negative, but I feel like you have like a kind of diet where you eat a lot of stuff that maybe a lot of people's stomachs couldn't handle. What would you say?

This word even worse. Did Dave really make that worse? It does sound like I eat garbage. Are you not going to finish that? Who was man? People are picturing just a goat on the other side of us right now. I'm sorry if I said anything that sounded at all offensive. But like, what would you say is like your typical meal or what are the things you'd normally

eat in a regular day? Are those outliers that I've witnessed? It really depends. I mean like right now that like, you know, since I'm just in town for like six weeks and before I go to Europe, my life is in flux and I'm just like couch surfing on friends couch. So it's hard to have a set pattern. Yeah. But I would say I go through like waves.

Like when I was, you know, just recently living in Amsterdam, like I'll like, I kind of eat the same thing over and over until I get tired of it. And then I move on to something else because I, I'd say within the last four years actually started cooking. Oh wow. So like, but so like, I'll go through like a phase where like I'm just like for a week and I'm really just eating fish. It's a lot of fish.

And the next week is just frozen pizzas, you know, but then the next week will be like, you know, I'll make like stir fry. And I'll keep like, oh, that tastes good. And I'll go back to the grocery store the next day. And because I was in like walking distance to my grocery store in Amsterdam, I kind of would shop for the day each day. Like I'd go buy what I was going to eat that day and I'd eat it that day. And then the next week became like a routine.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what I've from what I've heard. I don't know this firsthand, but a lot of healthy people. That's like if they do a daily grocery run and that's kind of like how they do it. That's what I hate going to the grocery store and I always stock up and I do a terrible job. But I guess suppose, you know, you're supposed to do it like kind of like once every couple

of days are kind of like what you're doing. But like a Dutch grocery store is so different from the American grocery store. They have like four cereals, you know, but there are stores that have like that are have specifically American products. Yeah. And so, but like a box of cabin crunch is like seven euros or something like that. Oh my God. Yeah.

So that's like $10. What's the exchange rate these days? Now it's the dollar is stronger. Okay. It's like one euro to, I mean it's like $1 to 92 Euro cents. All right. USA. But that's still an expensive box of cereal.

Yeah, absolutely. But like now I'll go into Ralph's and I'll walk out with nothing because I'm so overwhelmed. I'm like looking around and I'm like, there's so many options. I'm like, I don't know what to choose. So lately, since I've been living near Gelsen's, I'll go and teach in the afternoon. And then I'll go to the Gelsen's salad bar and just make a salad and the salad bar have that. And then I feel like that ends up freeing me to, you know, destroy myself at nine or something.

Like last week I ordered two medium pizzas from Domino's just so I could taste two different types of crust. I mean from Pizza Hut. Yeah. So I could taste two different types of crust before I leave. They don't have Pizza Hut. It's very... Which crust did you get?

I got thin crust and just pan. I wasn't going to like try to fuck around with any like experimental. I wouldn't be able to kick back to what I used to know. The hot dog? There's a hot dog. That sounds so awful. It really does look bad, but we... I feel like we need to try it in the interest of...

Yeah, I think we do got to do it at a job point. Well speaking of kind of destroying and punishing your body, this week's restaurant is Tommy's. Now Tommy's is a SoCal chain. There's a few locations in Nevada now. And as I mentioned in my setup, it's very much known for its chili. And less so that like you'd get like a bowl of chili there, but more that you'd get chili on your burger, on your fries, on your hot dog, whatever you order. So Jim, we talked to you about doing the podcast.

Tommy's was one of the... It was the place we ultimately settled on. What's your relationship with Tommy's? Well, I think, because I went this afternoon just to fresh up on it. I hadn't been there in years because I've not been in the country. And this might have been the only sober time I've been there. Because it's open 24 hours and I would be out drinking, have someone else give me a ride home and go on the way, on the way, stop at Tommy's.

Just what that friend wants is to like fill their car up with the smell of like a chili burger before they drop you off. And I would sit there and every time, I mean, like obviously, you know, when you're drunk, like, you know, you think you can handle anything, but I'd get the mega combo, which is a triple cheeseburger. Oh, God. And triple cheeseburger with chili, obviously cheese, onions, pickles, mustard and buttons. Oh, and lettuce and tomato. Yeah.

I mean, it's fucking huge. And it comes with a little tub of fries with chili and cheese as well. And like a fucking huge, like a 44-ounce drink. Yeah, when I went today, she pulled up what is the normal cup. She went, do you want this size? And I was like, no, no, no, I'll take the normal. This is the normal. Then I guess I'll take that.

It's one of those size cups that I'm like, I thought that they like, like, I didn't think those were illegal anymore because they are so, they like don't fit in most like a couple of cars. It's gigantically huge. Well, their medium or their regular is like big. It's like the regular is like a McDonald's, like extra large. And then they have a small, which is about the size of like McDonald's medium. And then their, yeah, their mega combo, the drink that comes with the mega combo is like a little bigger than a big gulp. Not quite the double gulp, which is a 64-ounce drink from 7-eleven.

Yeah, they're substantial cups. I don't, as far as the legality, I don't think there's any law in California about that. I think that's just a New York state. Oh, okay. Yeah, so, yeah, the mega combo is just like this crazy, huge, daunting meal. So, let's talk about your most recent visit. So, what did you get this last time? So, I got just the single chili cheeseburger, single patty combo.

It's the number two. And with fries with chili and cheese and that giant-ass drink. And I could not come close to finishing it. Wow, really? I could not come close. Like, it was just also, I mean, also, I'm getting re-acclimated to American portions. Sure. And, but it was just, it was nuts.

Like, I finished most of the fries. I maybe ate a fourth of that burger. Wow, and that's the smallest burger they have on their menu, I think. Yeah, but I mean, it was fucking delicious. Like, I was sitting there and I was with Will McLaughlin and I was like, I just taste so good, but I can't. Like, I can't finish it. I don't like what the Netherlands are doing to you. America deserves Jim back.

We need to get you back out of there. We're going to extract you from that. We're going to send Obama to extract you from that fucking place. But, I mean, it was delicious. Oh, and I got a shake, because I was sitting there and I was like, I'm going to get a shake. I don't want a shake, but I feel like, let me just get something else just to taste. Yeah. I'm going to come in here.

I was like, I'll taste this. And I took like two or three sips of it and was like, just to send to Will. I was like, do you want this? I don't want this. And I was like, I just got it to taste it. And he goes, did you not like the shake? I was like, it just tasted like processed. And he was like, do you think Tommy's had homemade ice cream?

And I was like, but there's something about Tommy's that you wouldn't be shocked if they took pride in their shakes. Sure, yeah. You know what I mean? It seems like that kind of place. Like, it's almost like, you know, like, what's that burger joined over by the Grove? Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets. Like, Johnny Rockets to me seems like this type of place that, you know, you go and you're like,

you got to get a shake when you're Johnny Rockets. And Tommy's, I guess, kind of seems like Johnny Rockets took a dump. You know? Well, also too, in a way, I feel like Johnny Rockets is kind of an homage to an old, a legitimately old school place like Tommy's that was like, you know, opened back in the 40s and has existed for so long and, you know, has kind of expanded. And if you go inside, it doesn't have an old school diner feel, but it has kind of that old school like fast food restaurant feel that for sure.

Old construction, that place that's been around for a while, you know. Yeah, it seems like it's being back to the future. Yeah, sure. Totally, totally. And you're right. And I think, you know, this was Mitch and I, we went, we went just last night, actually. And I think we had the same sort of reaction. You know, I've been to Tommy's a few times.

I think Mitch, this might have been your first trip. Am I correct in that? This, this was my, Jack, Allison, my roommate has brought Tommy's home before, but this was like kind of my first real Tommy meal ever. Yeah, so this is kind of like my, it was definitely my first visit to go into that place. I'm trying to think of where in back to the future you would place it. Would you put it in 1985 or the past? You would put it in the past?

Okay, I know it was like Biff alternate future. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's Biff alternate future and it's kind of like a sign that like the neighborhood is decaying. I mean, like, but also like even like in the shake thing again, there's this old black and white picture up, you know, of whom I assume is Tommy and some other dude. And it says like on the, on the like wooden sign, you know, like, you know, Tommy's and it's like burgers, dogs, shakes, shakes is one of the things. Yeah, weird. So I was like, I was like, I had already purchased my shake when I saw it.

Yeah. And, but it made me go like, see, I was right with what I was hoping. Yeah, yeah. You know, but I also noticed too, like, because I was looking at other things on the menu and I was like, I know what I'm already in store for, but I wanted to get more. But I was like, they have tamales. Why do they have tamales? You know, they actually, we actually ordered a tamale and it was the same sort of thinking of like, well,

we should evaluate this for the podcast. We've been airing on the side, I feel like of getting just eating a normal meal and I feel like perhaps moving forward, we're going to get a few extra items to try and sample more of the menu. I don't know, we'll see. Yeah. We'll try to eat as much as we can. Yeah. Tommy's, I don't know if it was the place to do it because it was another item that was drenched in chili.

Yeah. Yeah. Was it tamale? Did the tamale have chili? Yeah. So this is the thing. It is a tamale that's got, I think, a shredded beef inside of it. It's a corn tamale and then on top of it is just slathered with chili and topped with a tomato slice and cheese.

It's basically, Mitch had the observation as I was taking pictures of our food, which I always put up on our Twitter and Facebook for Doughboys, that all the pictures look the same because everything you get there is just like some food stuff that just got chili poured on top of it. So we've got like a burger and like fries and like a hot dog and a tamale all sitting next to each other and they all just look like the same like four inch by three inch tray. If you, Jack, Allison and I said it all looks like if you opened up a dirty diaper. The way that it is shaped in the paper. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a big messy glob.

It looks like a dirty, every yellow, like it's like this yellow paper that's wrapped around everything and it all just looks like a bunch of dirty diapers. This is the best way to describe it. I know that doesn't sound appetizing. That's the thing. And I think that's kind of the paradox we're dealing with with Tommy's is that it doesn't look or sound necessarily appetizing, but it is, I think, really good. Yeah. I thought it's delicious. I really enjoy it.

Like even that tamale, which was maybe, yeah, I think tamale might have been the least favorite item I had in our most recent visit. Even that was like tasty. It was like, oh, this is good. It's like a well made tamale. And then the chili on top of it is just coats it nicely. So yeah, it's really a really flavorful food that also like you were saying about the shakes, it kind of has the feel of like, okay, I know you mentioned the shakes were processed, but you kind of had the assumption that like, oh, this might be a, maybe this is the place where they have a really good shake. I'm making this point a very rambly way, but it kind of has a quality of like, oh, this is a thing they take pride in their chili and their chili burgers and everything comes out like sort of well made. And hot and well cooked and well prepared and presented as well as something could be that's just basically coated with a huge amount of globby brown sauce.

I'll give credit also to the location itself because we went to the one on Hollywood Boulevard. In Bronson. Yeah, in Bronson. In Bronson. And that's like kind of like sitting above the 101. And I just always is like, it's like Tommy's this chili place. I'm sure it's kind of like, it feels like there's like cockroaches around there or something. And then you go in the place and it's really nice looking.

Like, I mean, it had those. It's clean. It's very clean, but like it's not nice looking. It has those the school light lamps, you know, the fluorescent light bulbs, which made me look even worse with my no beard. But it was really clean and not like in and out, but it looks like they had a fresh lettuce and tomatoes behind the counter and stuff and they were wrapping them up. And I was like, oh, this is like, it looks really nice in here. And it was kind of like, there's paper towel dispensers on the wall. So you just grab as many paper towels as you need.

So it's like, it doesn't feel as messy as a big burger chili place would feel. I feel like so. Yeah. And you know, everything's made to order. It feels like and it also comes out quickly. It's well made. It's prepared with care and it comes out quickly, even though it is something of a mess. In terms of what me and Mitch had on our visit.

So in addition to the tamale, I also ordered a chili cheese dog, which we tried. And then for myself, I got a caliente burger, which is their chili cheese burger, their single burger that has added peppers on it. It seems like a banana pepper slash jalapenos. Oh, is that good? That sounds good. It was actually really good. Chili cheese fries and I got a small orange Fanta to drink. And yeah, that that caliente burger was was very tasty.

I think if you're looking for a spicy, I mean, there's a very specific craving of a spicy chili burger at very much delivered on that. You have that specific craving. I also, I also wanted to order just because I wanted to know what the fuck it was was the chili boat. Yes. I've gotten the chili boat before and what the chili boat basically is is their equivalent of a chili bowl. It just comes in one of their, you know, paper containers that's kind of boat shaped. Yeah. It was basically just a big chili bowl and then they put onions and cheese and tomato on top of it.

So you're just eating it straight. It's just straight chili for the most part. And so they just took out whatever like a hot dog or a burger. They just they just put everything else on in there pretty much. Yeah. I mean, all the condiments. It's just the stuff you would normally get on one of their other menu items. Yeah.

I mean, I think the chili boat is, I mean, maybe if you're carb conscious, you don't want to eat a bun, although I imagine there's still some added flour for thickening that chili. And to paint a picture for everyone out there who doesn't know Tommy's, the Tommy's chili is just a very beefy meat based chili. There's no beans in it. And it's it's got a very thin sort of textured. I mean, like to me, it like kind of has the texture of like a marinara, I'd say, right? Yeah, I'd say that's pretty close to it. It also stains everything orange.

Everything that it turns like a bright neon orange. And it's it's thick. Like it's a dense paste. Yes. Yes. I mean, I also, I don't know if I've done this in the past. It sounds like something I would have done, but you can buy like the chili to go. Yes.

Just it looks like Ben and Jerry's containers, but it's just chili. And why isn't that caught on more? Why aren't there more? Why are there ice cream shops all over the place, but not a lot of chili shops, you know? Not parlors where you can get a chili parlors. A scoop of a scoop of chili con carne and a waffle cone. Probably because there's more kids than firemen. Yeah.

I don't know if I believe those numbers, but. I also too. Like I was just kind of looking around at the people and one weird thing is because like, like my Dutch is okay now, but it's not awesome. But I've over the years been able to turn it into white noise as I'm walking, you know, around in Amsterdam. But here, you know, it's English everywhere. So I feel like I'm Professor Rex getting my powers for the first time. It's because I can understand everyone.

I feel like I'm reading their minds. And so so there was like, you know, these three dudes were like you looking at them and they all clearly work at the same place, but I couldn't figure out where they worked. And then there were like three families and I was like, I would never bring my kids to Tommy's. Like as good as it tastes. Yeah. It's just like saying like, here, I hope you get diabetes. See, but now this is why Tommy's is kind of perplexing to me.

Like, I thought of Tommy's as a place of like, if I walked in there, there's probably some sad souls sitting at the count, like sitting around and eating these chili burgers. But then when I eat it, I agreed with you, it's pretty good. And I don't, I don't know where to place it anymore. Like then in my head, I'm almost like, well, why is this so famous? And so why is in and out so famous? And this isn't as famous. I mean, of course, it's because it's a chili burger or whatever.

And in and out is a really, really great burger. But like, I'm like, it's still kind of really pretty good quality. Yeah. It's really kind of confusing to me. I don't know why. Is Tommy's even popular? I don't, I don't even know. It is popular.

And I think it's, it's fairly beloved, you know, like I mentioned 34 locations, which is a decent number for the region. But I feel like to me, and this is weird to say because they're at similar price points, but I kind of feel like Tommy's in talking about LA, California burger chains, rather, I kind of feel like Tommy's is kind of a working class in and out. Like I feel like that's kind of, you sit kind of working class clientele there. And it kind of has that feel of like, like, oh, this is like a heartier meal. That's like, you're getting a little bit more food for your money,

something that's really going to fill you up. And also too, if you had a hard day working and it's just sort of like, just biting into that chili cheese burger or you went out to the bar after a hard day working, like just like the thing you might want to stave off of a hangover. I don't know. I mean, I think that kind of has that quality to it. It's winning me over. I like it even more.

It also too. And I think this is a thing because so much of LA is known, has a reputation food-wise for being health conscious and like, oh, this is the place where, you know, everyone's eating kale and quinoa and, you know, avocado and, but LA is the place where, and LA County, Southern California at large, is where so many of these chains that are big across the country, especially ones that are notably unhealthy originated, you know,

outside of local ones like that, that have remained local. But, you know, McDonald's is from Southern California. Denny's, which we recently did is from Southern California. Carl's Jr. now merged with Hardy's originated in Southern California. You know, a lot of these come from the car culture here. And so I think that's part of the thing of like local working class, you know, third or fourth generation Angelenos who are just sort of, it's just part of the civic identity.

And I think that's part of why people are attracted to it and still eating there. Interesting. Yeah. I know, I mean, like, I've also, like, drunkenly purchased Tommy's a number of times and woke up in the morning and it's all sitting there in the bag. I think would come in, set it down on the coffee table and fall asleep. And I wake up in the morning and I eat that shit. The fries don't hold up. Fries do not hold up overnight, but that burger,

and now it's easier to eat, it's congealed and like less sloppy and cut it in half. I was about to say, I would be so afraid to open up a day old Tommy bag. It seems like the scariest thing to crawl back into that bag. It's so, I mean, like, it's so sloppy. To me, it's kind of like, this sounds gross, but like puss, like, I find when I have puss, I find it fascinating, but yours would gross me the fuck out. Like, so I would never want to open up someone else's Tommy bag. But if it's my Tommy bag, I'm like, yes.

I was so confused when he said puss, so I was like, puss? Oh, like human, human puss. Yes, I've equated that to Tommy's. That's like a pull quote in Tommy's advertising campaign. Guys, we gotta, I don't know who highlighted this. Tommy's, it's like puss, but it's your puss. The idea of a guy like buying, having a chili cheeseburger that's sitting in a bag overnight at room temperature while he sleeps off a hangover,

waking up and then biting into it, like, that's like a scene you would see in the movie about how Owen Wilson needs to grow up and like, or move out of his parents' house. Or it's like, you know, the beginning of the latest Die Hard, where John McClain wakes up from a hangover. It's like the beginning of Die Hard with a Vengeance, which I talked about earlier today. But like that kind of like cop who's, you know, on his last, you know, hurrah,

waking up and just, ugh. I've done that before. I've fallen asleep with fast food in my hand before. Like, oh, wait a minute. In your hand. I thought that I was just, I thought we were gonna relate for a second. I thought we were gonna have some sort of common connection. If Jim Woods is concerned about your life choices.

Jesus Christ. You're in a bad place. I woke up with a jack in the box burger in my hand at one point. This was about eight years ago. And I had fallen asleep with it in my hand and I woke up. And I didn't eat it. I threw it away. But I figured you and I, or guys like that,

kind of got sold out on that. Did you see the commercials for the new Carl's Jr. Healthy Burger or whatever? 100% beef or whatever. And they're like, no hormones. No steroids. So that's also saying like, I mean, the fucking rest of the menu. Yeah. We met, we talked, we actually talked about that.

I kind of like it though. You know, like a, I still like the other burgers too. You know what I mean? Like, but that's probably everywhere, right? Isn't it? Every burger is probably terrible. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

It's just so weird. It's like, it's like, you know how like defense lawyers are told to like, not talk about the crime scene and not, you know, like don't keep reminding the jury, you know, like how mutilated the body was. And I feel like they're just sitting there going, they might as well just have the rest of their menu up there going, steroids, hormones, like, they're failing on that.

I wonder if like part of their site, the part, like I wonder if it kind of works on two levels of both. We're going to track the health conscious customers who care about this sort of, whether this is organic and GMO free, but then also like the customers don't give a fuck. We're kind of reinforcing of like, that's a healthy one, but you want the real stuff, right? Yeah.

Have the fucking guacamole bacon thick burger. I feel like that's a weird, like a weird thing in America now where, we talked about this a little bit with Domino's too, but like it's a weird thing where they're like, we fucked up really bad, but here's the right version of it. You're like, what? All right. Like that's not fair.

I ate this for years. And you're like admitting it's like terrible. It's like, do you remember when Captain Crunch came out with oops all berries? Yes. And which is already like, I don't want food with oops in the name. Yeah. There was an error at the factory and we just packaged this and decided to market this. And then I found out while I was in Amsterdam that they came out with oops all mini chocolate donuts.

Yeah. I was just, that's not even in the franchise. I get oops all crunch berries, but oops all mini chocolate donuts. That sounds like a real oops. Like someone was like, guys, I fucked up. I ordered mini chocolate donuts. And also the soggies must be like, the time to attack is now. They are weak.

Why are there so many accidents happening in the Captain Crunch factory? Yeah. It's days since last too. What is the, the lore is so complicated too because Captain Crunch is established as a ship captain. He's like sailing and then battling the soggies who are his mortal enemies. But then wait, he also makes the cereal also is associated with the plant. That's why there's so many accidents. Like a scientist hit a lever the wrong way and then they made a bunch of crunch berry cereal and they decided to sell that.

That's my issue with the show, the Americans. Do you see, do you watch the Americans? No. Well, do you know what it is? Yeah. So you know how like not only is it this, you know, Russian family like or whatever, they're doing all this spy shit. But they also to keep their cover, have to run a travel agency. Like there's never any scenes of like, hey, I got to go kill Yuri, but I got to stop off and make keys because Cheryl fucking lost her keys.

Or like we got to, you know, slash these prices to Thailand. I mean, we're not, we're not selling, there's no scenes about that. And also, why don't they go to like their boss and say like, hey, look, I mean, I'm doing a lot of shit already. Do I really got to run a travel agency as well? Yeah. Captain Crunch should focus on beating the Soggies, I feel like. Get that out of the way. Yeah.

How do they do that? Yeah. Like the, the like, did he like have to come out of retirement? Maybe that's what it is. Maybe he had started this factory and then like all of a sudden, you know, winter is coming, you know. And so like, he has to come out of retirement and go back to the seas to fight the Soggies. Where's the fan fiction on Captain Crunch? Oh, I'm sure that there is so much of it.

And I'm sure you can find Captain Crunch naked online if you search hard enough. It's a trivial. Nick, can you answer that for us? It'd be trivial to find that. Yeah, I agree with you that I just like the premise. I got into, I got into it on Twitter with Mike Carlson, a friend of ours about this. Like, anytime the premise of a food stuff is that there was a mistake and they're selling it anyway. Like that just like, I like, I can't, I just don't believe it.

I just like the FDA, the, you know, OSHA would get involved and investigate this. Like this would be like, there isn't like a spill. There isn't like the BP oil spill. And then they're just like, well, we're going to sell this gas. We're just going to sell this duck. Oops, ocean gas. The new oily duck. You know what else is funny too about the healthy one is that in that commercial,

it's the only Carl's Jr. that doesn't have just like titties all over the place. Oh yeah. They're so sexual in their commercials except for the healthy one. Yeah. We respect this bird. These healthy guys are squares, man. Just like Weigher. Yeah, no, I just always confused with Captain Crunch because does he want us to have the berries or not?

Like, is this a mistake that was let out or like, does he, does he want us to eat all berries? Or is he like, no, that's not my recipe. Is that what he's trying to say? Yeah. I think, I think that someone like, you know, in the Captain Crunch world was like, guys, we got to spin this. We got to spin it. We got to make it seem like it's fun.

Like, you know, like, oops, berries. You know, like it could be anything. Oops, all meat. Oops, all gone. It is fun to think about if Captain Crunch is like upset that people are buying this. Like, no, it's a mistake. What are you doing? We put a warning on the box.

Someone get the old man out of here. Let's return to Tommy's a little bit. Oh, no more Captain Crunch talk? Guys, if it goes back there, we can talk more about Captain Crunch. So Mitch, we shared that chili cheese dog. We shared that. What did you think of the chili cheese dog? The chili cheese dog is by far, well, here's another thing with Tommy's and the reason

they give you tons of paper towels is it is so messy. Yes. And the chili cheese dog is so crazy messy that it, I would say it's close to inedible unless you use it. You need a knife and fork. I think. You can't pick it up and eat it. I agree.

I think knife and fork required for that chili cheese dog. Have you had that before? I haven't had the chili cheese dog. I don't really, for some reason, trust hot dogs at a fast food place. Sure. If it was a place that it's known, it is a hot dog place, you know, then it'd be one thing. But yeah, like I would be, for some reason, I find those weird.

Yeah, the hot dog itself was actually, it wasn't bad. It just, the bun is so stretched out, like it's so far stretched out that you can't put it on the sides. You're on the sides. On the sides. Yeah. It's so close to splitting in two. It's almost impossible to pick up.

Does it come in like one of those little, like what the fries come in? It comes, it came wrapped in the yellow paper. It wasn't in one of those, those boat shaped cardboard packages. Eat it like a burrito. Yeah, I mean, I think basically you just have to cut it. I ended up cutting into it with a knife and fork and just eating it bite for bite. Yeah, you can't even, it doesn't even give you one of those little boats to kind of keep its form.

There's nothing, there's really nothing you can do except for cutting it up. We tried. There's chili going down my sleeve. It sounds like such like a gross, since you were sharing it like lady in the tramp scene. Just chili, just falling down your sleeve, but you're both at either ends eating it. We didn't get, we shared a sweet kiss after we finished it. I disagree with you on the hot dog itself a little bit because I think, you know, I think the chili and cheese on top of it made it a nice flavorful chili cheese dog, but

I feel like the actual dog itself to me was lacking any sort of texture. It was kind of that sort of limp, almost soggy, you know, boiled or steamed frank. I like a boiled or steamed frank. I like a crisper, like something that's got a little bit of crunch on it, something that's been grilled or, you know. So you like the ones that are like the street vendors. Yeah. Those things are fucking good.

I like those a lot. I definitely like a crisper exterior to a hot dog. Okay, fair enough. And the tamale we touched on, let's talk about Tommy's fries a little bit. Can I ask you real quick about the tamale? Are you supposed to eat the husk or whatever, or are you supposed to open it up and eat what's in it? I think you're supposed to just open up the husk.

I don't think you're ever supposed to eat it. Although the one you get from Tommy's, I don't think even has a husk on it. They removed it from the husk. They've put the little corn tamale on it and then just poured chili over that. I've always been too insecure to buy one because I didn't want to be someone looking at me and I'm eating the tamale wrong. You know, I'm just sitting there eating a banana whole or something. Yeah.

Well, we can ask it. We can ask our listeners, tweet at us, husk or no husk. I'm actually, I'm sure you're not supposed to eat the husk. I don't think you need to answer that. Hey, Jim brings up a good thing. No. And it's also, we're also playing into his goat lore of eating anything. If he eats these husks.

I bet you some people, maybe some people eat the husks. I've definitely been in situations where I've been confused by what I was supposed to do at a restaurant. A lot of times that, well, for me, I'm thinking of getting shrimp at a sushi restaurant and then they asked me like, oh, do you want the heads tempura fried or in a soup? And I was like, I don't know. And then they brought out these fried tempura fried shrimp heads. Your response was, I don't know. I just, I asked them what was better and they picked for me.

And they brought out these shrimp and they just didn't know how to eat. I didn't even know what it was supposed to do with them. I guess you're supposed to like sort of suck on them, kind of like you're eating a croffish or whatever. Yeah, but I didn't really know. And I feel like I've now, in the point in those situations where I just ask the waiter of like, I'm sorry, what do I do with this? That's like when you go to like a Korean barbecue. There's like this one like, one that was recommended to me that's on Melrose, kind of east on Melrose. I can't remember what it's called.

It's Korean. But like, they came in just like, you know, me and Wenger are sitting there and they drop off the food and they put a bunch of things in bowls around us. But they don't tell us what anything is. I mean, I know what the meat is, but is this other shit, a salad? Is it a condiment? Like I have no idea. And it's always, it feels like they just drop it off and it's like, I gotta, and they're gone. They're supposed to, and I think for the most part, those are just kind of like little salad appetizers, right?

Korean barbecue, the things that you get beforehand in the little dishes. I think they're supposed to be, that's what I've always just eaten them as like a little pre salad. But I think there's some kimchi and stuff that you can put on the meat or whatever you want to do. But I always take them as like little small apps. I just don't know what they are. I never know what they are. Because if I take them as a small app, are they looking at me like, it'd be like you at Tommy's eating ketchup. Just put in the little paper, little things and just...

Free refills. Nick actually yelled at me about that yesterday when we were at Tommy's. I kept eating ketchup at the table. No, that's, no, no, no, I was kidding. I felt the same exact way before I didn't know. And then someone, I think Armin Weitzman assured me that that's what you were supposed to do. So I think we're doing it right, but I don't know. Well, there's any authority on Korean barbecue.

It's our friend Armin Weitzman. Oh, wow. All right. What were you going to say about the fries? Oh, yeah. Let's talk about the fries at Tommy's. So I like their fries. I mean, I usually get their chili cheese fries, but Mitch brought something up, which I think is worth noting,

which is those chili cheese fries, they have a lot of chili on them. It makes them very dense. And you are getting a lot of chili runoff from your burger or your hot dog. Whatever your main is. So, I mean, I think an option to consider is just getting those regular fries, because I think those regular fries are crisp. They're well seasoned. They got like a good potato texture to them.

And, you know, if you do want a little bit of chili, but you don't want the overwhelming chili cheese toppings on the chili cheese fries, you can just sort of dip it in some ketchup or whatever chili runoff you get from your burger. Yeah. I think the fries are really good. They're really crisp and tasty. And I was going to get just the plain fries and then you kind of psyched me. So my order, I got the number one, which is the double cheeseburger with pretty much everything has the chili on it and the tomato and pickles and onions and mustard and chili and everything and cheese.

And I got the, I was going to get the regular fries, but you ordered chili cheese fries. And I was like, I should get the chili cheese fries because we're at Tommy. And then, yeah, the fries I enjoyed the most were the ones under all the kind of the clop. They were really good. If I had them on my own, I feel like they would be like some of the best fries in L.A. Sure. It's like, I need to go back and kind of try them on their own, but they were really good. That'd be interesting to also just get like, get chili cheese and say, just throw it in a separate thing.

Yeah, and just dip the fries. Yeah. Now I've got an option. That's what wider was saying is that a lot of people, they just dip the fries in their runoff from the burger, which there is a lot of. So maybe that's kind of what I should have done instead. Definitely a thing to consider if you're going to Tommy's. Yeah, deciding against, I don't know, I might consider just getting those regular fries for my first experience and instead of the one with the huge glob of chili, unless you're a chili super fan.

Because I was actually sitting there thinking today, I was like, I saw the ketchup dispenser and while I was waiting for my food, I almost went to get some and then I thought, what the fuck am I doing? I got chili and cheese. I think would be gross to dip my chili cheese soaked fry in ketchup. It's not bad. I did it too. I don't know. But yeah, so I mean, now this still gives me the option of having.

There's too much chili going. There's too much chili. You have to eat it fast because it makes the fries pretty soggy, yes, by the end. Yeah. I would say that the fries are one of the winners and I also really enjoyed my double cheese. I think the quality of the meat and the burger is actually really good. I agree. They have a very nice patty there. Yeah, I really enjoyed it and I got myself a cherry Coke.

I treated myself to a little cherry Coke as well. But yeah, pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. Closer to an In-N-Out burger than I thought. I thought it was going to be kind of like a, I don't even know what to compare it to, like some shitty burger stand. Give me something. Well, you know, there are a lot of imitators like a, there are a lot of places that call themselves Tommy's but aren't actually Tommy's. There's like a, you know, you'll still see like a big Tommy's or, you know, Tommy's spelt with one M. There's one on the west side that's called, it's supposed to be Thomas's but because they put the apostrophe between the A and the S, it looks like Thoma's.

So there's a lot of places that took the Tommy's name and if you go to those places, they're usually decidedly trashier than the real Tommy's. I was going to compare it to a fat burger but then I thought I was being too mean to fat burger but I've been to like a shitty fat burger before that's not a good spot. Fat burger is a local L.A. chain for anyone outside the south line. So actually that comparison doesn't help anyone. Yeah. But you do, it is referenced and today is a good day by Ice Cube. That is right. So when I first moved to L.A., it was right there by the one that's like Gardner and Santa Monica.

Yeah. And I was like, because in the song, he goes two in the morning, got the fat burger. So I was like, fucking, I'm going to get a fat burger and I'm going to do it at two in the morning. It was closed. You liar, Ice Cube. No one goes see Straight Outta Compton. No, I mean, that's how good his day was. They opened up for him.

Shit was still open. You got a triple double in a pickup game and then went to a 2 AM fat burger run. And he was only messing around. Imagine if he applied him some. Also, I went and got a fat burger and I did go at two. It was the one by Universal Studios kind of. Oh, no, I was thinking of that little small one that's in the parking lot by the Vermont. And that one across the street from the giant Bank of America.

Yeah, it's like in a little, yeah, it's kind of, that one's really strange. But I went and I got a fat burger at 2 AM and I was like, cool. And I was like, I'm nothing like Ice Cube. My day was like so pathetic. His day was great. And all I did was imitate him on the fat burger run. I was in fat burger one time with Susie Barrett and I was the only one eating. She wasn't eating anything.

And so we're just sitting there and this dude, just like this kind of like, I don't know, a 40-some-year-old dude comes up and he goes, hi, excuse me. I just wanted to say that I did not eat all of my burger. I only ate half of it. And I cut it in half with a knife. So I haven't even touched the other half with either of you like it. And we were like, no thanks. And then he goes, he's like, okay, well, I'm just leaving it on this tray, on this table over here.

If you change your mind. And I'm just like, the fuck is good to go and eat the rest of that burger. And so he leaves and we're sitting and talking for a little bit. And Susie goes, I think I'm going to go eat some of that burger. And she ate the whole thing. And I was like, no one else in this fat burger heard this conversation. So from their point of view, you ate garbage. You just went to a leftover table.

He took it and ate it. I was like, Susie, what are you doing? So gross. That guy is like someone who has lived four decades in the world and has not figured out how society works. That's such a weird thing to say to a stranger, even as like a nice gesture. How do you not know that that's like bizarre and intrusive? Yeah.

Trying to give a stranger food is hard. Like we did this, we shot this video in Amsterdam and this video is kind of the idea that eventually bled into the concept behind the drug cage match at UCB. Okay. It was, we call it the amazing waste. And it was two, three teams of two. One team was drunk. One team was high.

One team was on shrooms. And we had to do a scavenger hunt. And one of our things was we had to give, successfully give a stranger food. And, and Susie and I were on mushrooms. And we, we went in and we, we went to this little store and we bought like this little piece of ginger root and we're sitting there and the guy buys or sells it to us. It's like 40 cents. And he puts it in a bag and Susie goes, thank you.

And then hands it back to him in the bag. And he goes, thank you. And then we just turn it left. Like, what is that guy thinking right now? We just bought him some of his own ginger. He immediately said thank you. Yes. I love that.

He nodded his head. I got a question for you. A quick little sidetrack. If you're, if you're, if someone offers you a bite of their sandwich or their burger, are you just personally, are you grossed out if, do you not want to take a bite where they've taken a bite? I do not want to. Yeah.

I don't want to. I want to go the other side. In fact, usually what my move would be, and this is outside of my immediate family or my wife, I would probably even want like a little cut, cut off section that I could eat. Okay. Your wife though, a different story. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, of course.

Okay. Good. I was going to say that would seem like a terrible matter. I don't, it doesn't bother me that much. It actually doesn't bother me. I know tons of people who it doesn't bother. Like it, honestly, the thing that bothers me the most when I'm looking at it is seeing the condiments in the layers.

Like for some reason, that to me seems like it, I don't know why, but it seems like somehow their lips just really got into the condiments. Oh, sure. Or something like, and so like that to me is what, you know, I don't really. I'm gross. I might never do this again, actually. That's what I keep picturing or whatever. But I'm also not a big fan of immediately drinking after someone.

I don't mind if like, say like you guys had a sip of my water. Yeah. I mean, like fine. That won't bother me. I don't feel the need to wipe it off or whatever. But like, I don't mind if like, say we were roommates and we had like a two liter of Coke in the fridge and we all, and we both just drank from it. Like, you know, not like at the same time, but like, I know you do it.

You know, that doesn't bother me. Yeah. I guess not watching it is I think what bothers me. Gotcha. I get that. Yeah. I feel like I would actually drinks kind of maybe even bother me more just like a drink that you, like you were saying, like a two liter bottle where someone would be drinking

out of it. How often are you guys directly drinking out of two liter bottles? Oh, I do that shit all the time. Wow. The only, the only, I mean, but like I've been living alone for a long time. But that didn't stop me when I wasn't. But the one thing that I feel is gross to do that with is milk. Yeah.

Yeah. I agree. You know. I drink too often, but sharing a big jug of milk sounds terrible. Pass me that milk, son. Yeah. It doesn't bother me. I also don't mind if someone offered up a meal.

I thought that man was nice, but maybe it was a weird fetish thing that he liked. Wanted her to eat the burger or something. Who knows? Yeah. I'm suspicious of the motive of a guy like that. Yeah. Me too. That's a sad statement on the world though.

Maybe that's a great guy and there should be more of those guys like him in the world, you know? Well, maybe not. Are you the type of person that even when you're full, like say you order a pizza and you don't eat maybe like three slices of the pizza and you're full, but the pizza's just sitting there. Yeah. It's hard for me to go fridge for you.

Yes. It's really hard for me and you know, I think some of this may attribute to my weight issue, but my dad was always such a kind of like, finish it. You know what I mean? Like, oh, go ahead. Finish it. Finish it. Finish it.

And that was kind of always where my head is. And it's that funny thing of, you know, like back in the day when he was a boy, it was finish it because like you needed to eat that and there wasn't a big plate of food. It was like a huge portion and my dad would be like, you finish it or whatever you want. Yeah. I had to sit at the table until I finished. Oh, man. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, but it was usually like the lima beans, you know, like something I didn't want to eat anyways, but yeah, I had to sit at the table until I finished. I had a, my first year in college, my dorm mate was Vietnamese and his mom would tell him every grain of rice you leave on your plate is a thousand daggers in your heart in hell. Which I thought was the most intense version. So you just stopped eating rice?

Yeah. Yeah. No, no. He was like, he just had gotten the habit of like, oh, I don't waste it. So I'm going to eat every single grain of rice that's on my plate. I'm not going to leave any food there. So this mom's idea is if you miss one grain of rice, you go to hell. Yeah.

You're definitely going to hell. You're going to hell. And while you're there. Yeah. So you might as well be like, or maybe that just makes them like a really good person. All right. I'm just, I'm going to follow the rules because I've let a lot of grains of rice around. Rice is one of those things I have never been able to figure out how to cook.

Yeah. I just use a rice cooker. I feel like you just buy one of those rice cookers and let that take care of it. I'm still, I'm impressed to hear that you're, I think when I last left you or you last left us, you weren't a guy who cooked his own, made his own meals. I'm still on that. I'm still on that train. So I, I don't usually make my own thing.

I think it really started when I was in walking distance to the grocery store. Yeah. Not, I have to get in a car and then drive to the grocery store pilot. Like I would never do a daily thing if I was driving to the grocery store. Yeah. But like, you know, a 10 minute walk, you know, is nothing. I think that's, there's something to that. Like when it's the equivalent amount of effort of, you know, like, well, I got to eat anyway

and like walking to a grocery store, I live within walking distance of a grocery store coincidentally now and I do that usually. But yeah, when it's like, when it's like, oh, this is the same as going to a Wendy's and getting a combo is just going to this grocery store and buying some ingredients for tonight's meal. I mean, yeah, I'm sure psychologically that has an effect. I definitely dread like the big supermarket trip. That was always a thing in my family of like my dad going and we would literally get two

carts that he would go and just like fill with, with fucking two weeks worth of food. And it was this long hour long trip where we were just going through every aisle of the store and getting all our food stuffs. And yeah, that to me is just like a nightmare. Yeah, no, I still spend too much. That's why I don't go too often because I'm like, I'm going to spend too much time in there. I'd rather just do a Tommy's. Yeah.

I'd rather do a little Tommy's run. The thing for me too about like doing it one day at a time is that if I stock up, I eat it immediately. Like I said there, like, you know, if I bought like, you know, a pack of like, you know, nature bars or whatever, they're gone. Yeah. I'm, you know, like it's better if I just went ahead and threw them in the toilet, you know, go ahead and flush it like this.

I always shop with two good intentions. I'm like, I'm going to buy this yogurt and this skim milk and it's going to be a healthy little week. And then it's like brown in my fridge two weeks later. I'm like, shit, I didn't do any of that. I ate a Tommy's every day. Let's get to our final thoughts on Tommy's. So here's what we'll do, Jim.

We're going to go around. Each of us will sort of give our summation, our closing argument, if you will, all of our thoughts on Tommy's and then give it a rating from one to five forks, five being the highest. So Jim, we'll start with you. Can you give me like a, I mean, I get the concept of one to five, but like, what are things, what have things been kind of coming in on? I would say we've had few five fork.

We've had no one forks and few five forks. I would say just take a three forks is like a middle of the road safe sort of place for four forks is a place you'd go out of the way to and five forks is a place you love. Two forks is a place you'd tolerate one fork as a place you would never want to go again unless you had to. Does that, is that enough clarity? Yeah. All right, great.

Five forks. No. You know, I would say that, hmm, this is kind of, I guess, I guess is three and a half of them. Is that cheating? That's not at all. No. The reason why I say that is because it's never a place that it's not just like you pass

it and go, let's go to Tommy's, but when you want it, it's, it's the only option. The grade. You know, so it's like, so I, so that's where I kind of go like, it's not a four in the sense that I want that I like, I'm constantly going out of my way to it, to do it, but it's not a three as in like, eh, I can take it or leave it because when I want it, I really want it, you know, like, you know, Burger King and McDonald's, those are just threes to me, you know, but if I had to compare the two of those, Burger King's the four. But, but, but you know, does that make sense of three and a half?

Absolutely makes sense. Like, so that's, that's, that's kind of what the way, the way I kind of look at, once you, once you have Tommy's on the mind, you got to get Tommy's. I fully agree with you, Jim, and I'll go now because I actually have very similar thoughts, which is that Tommy's is a, the quality of the food is good. It's such a specific food place where you have to be craving chili, cheese, whatever, you have to be craving chili and cheese on something. But if you are craving that Tommy satisfies in a way that really no other place does,

it kind of scratches that itch. So for me, it's right in that range of above a three, but not quite at that four fork threshold where it's a thing I can eat with any sort of frequency. It's like a periodic meal that happens to just be exactly what satisfies me. I have a little bit of history with Tommy's, I've been in a number of times at my high school, Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California. There was a Tommy's steps away from campus that I actually never once went to, even though it was always there because I had heard a rumor from other kids that it was a place

where you would get stabbed. So it was just like, oh, there's a dangerous Tommy's that's next door, eventually shut down. It doesn't have the Tommy's branding anymore. It's now, it's now called Polly Burger. It's an independent restaurant. But it always was there is like, oh, I want to go to that place, that place looks good. And when I finally tried it in adulthood, again, never going to that location.

Yeah, it sort of sets in, sort of establishes that craving for chili cheese fries, chili cheese burgers that again, like you were saying, Jim, only Tommy's can satisfy. So for that reason, I am going to agree with your rating 100%, three and a half forks from Nick Weiger. Wow, okay. Do you, as soon as school ended, do you just run home as fast as you could? No, I was there and I did some extracurricular activities. So cool stuff, like the marching band and the wind orchestra, where I played bassoon.

It's funny that you said that the rumors, you know, it's a place where, and so like my brain is already trying to finish this sentence, you know, like where kids were like abducted or like, some like really get stabbed. Okay, it's like that old Del Taco from, that was on Santa Monica in Highland. It's just like that. Also, you should have just looked at the news to see if those reports were true. This was pre-internet. This was a super local news.

I mean, the Long Beach Press Telegram wasn't running anything like crime blotter. Yeah, it wasn't. I didn't go to high school in the 80s. I'm not 48 years old. Okay, so I wanted to, you know, like, finish school and went straight to see Escape from New York. First day it was out. This is funny.

This is, this might be the first time this has happened. I'm going three and a half forks as well. Wow. This has to be some sort of like an award for it or something. You don't need an award for every specific thing that happens. I think if you get, if it gets the same rating, it should get like a silver spatula or something like that. It's good.

No, I didn't. Okay, I'm on board with the Golden Plate Club, on board with the Platinum Plate Club. I'm on board with the Spoonman Stamp of Approval, which will give her an outstanding food stuff and snack or whack, more upcoming segment, Drake or Snake. But I don't agree with this silver, because you're saying what, a silver one because we have consensus? Yeah. Like if we all say it's got one fork and still gets the silver medal, I don't know.

I don't agree with it. I kind of like it. Anyway. I think some sort of thing to denote consensus I'd be fine with. The handholding club? Yeah. All right. You know, I like, yeah, I like the handholding club.

We'll go with that. Okay, if anything ever reaches total consensus in terms of fork count from Mitch and I and our guest or guest, then it will get the handholding club, which it will join the handholding. The symbol for the handholding club will be a silver spatula. Okay. No, I think it's the, what's that, is it the United Negro fund with the two hands like this? The two hands class logo?

Yeah, what is that? Is that what it's for? Well, there's the United Negro College Fund. I'm not sure if that's what it's the symbol for. Oh. It could, it might be. I don't know. I know what I'm talking about.

I know the logo. Yeah. It's an iconic iconography. Well, after being so rudely interrupted by Nick, I'll finish my review. The fries were really fantastic when I didn't have the chili and cheese on them. Like I said, the burger quality was really good. It was just a nice bite. I liked the burger a lot.

My only issue with Tommy's is really the chili. I don't love that. That chili, like the chili is, and I like it a lot on the burger and I liked it on the burger the most, but you know, like on the hot dog and the French fry, like it was just too much. The burger was really great, and it was just kind of the right amount. It was sloppy for sure, but yeah, a quality place way better than I thought it was going to be clean and kind of like a working man's in and out.

I liked that description of it, and it is kind of like a little classic California restaurant. Sure. So yeah, three and a half forks. I enjoyed it. I liked that the founder, Tommy, looked like big Tom Callahan from Tommy Boy. It looked like he had a big fun personality, and yeah, I thought it was a good time. I enjoyed my Tommy experience more than I thought I was going to. All right, so three and a half forks all around.

Go ahead, John. I said too, because I was eating this afternoon and I was saying to Will, I was like, this is so good. It's so good. I said, I mean, I wouldn't bring a date here, and Will was like, I totally would. And I was like, what? And he was like, oh yeah, this would be like my glass slipper test. Like if she's in the Tommy's, then the glass slipper fits.

I was like, all right. All right, Will. Okay. I hope Will finds love over at Tommy's. All right, that's it for our review of Tommy's, original Tommy's rather. If we missed anything, like I said, go ahead and let us know. We'll chime in on next week's podcast. It's time for us to taste test a beverage and determine if you should pour it down your

throat. It's time for our regular segment, Dranker Stank. So guys, I'm going to go retrieve our test beverage for this week from the office fridge. While we're doing that, if you guys could vamp for one moment. Sure. Sure thing. I, a friend of mine, she was, she's from Kenosha, Wisconsin. And super, super cool girl.

We met her in Chicago. She, we worked at Starbucks together and, and she's, and she's really, really pretty. So it kind of adds to this, but she was back home in Kenosha and she went to Taco Bell. And afterwards she got really sick and really sick and everything. And then the next night on the local news, the security guard was caught on the security cam, crapping in the beef and she's telling me this story. And she's, she's such a sweetheart and she's, and she's really pretty. And she's, I'm like, Julie, you ate that guy's poop.

And she's like, I knew, I know it was in the, in beef, like in the, the, like, the like minced beef. How awful. Yeah. All right. That is fucking terrible. Yeah. I was able to hear that out in the studio.

That is fucking disgusting. That is so awful. Jesus Christ. What a nightmare. All right. Cool. So on the heels of that eating shit story, I've got what we're going to taste this week. This is our first ever alcoholic, a drank or stank.

I figured it would be appropriate with Jim Woods in the house. So what I've got here is Pinnacle Cinnabon branded cinnamon roll flavored vodka. We've each got a 50 milliliter mini bottle. This says it's imported vodka from France and yes, it's got the, it's got the Cinnabon logo right on it. I'll get a picture of this. And so let's, let's go ahead and, and crack this open and, and have a taste and, and let us know what you're smelling, you're seeing and, and, and you're tasting here.

I like this little nicks trying to get us drunk so we die on the way home. You're, you're, you're driving Jim. So this is just for me. Oh, this is just so to make us all want to go through the drive-through of Tommy's. It smells so much like a Cinnabon. Yeah. Now here's the other thing. This will not be the first time I've had this.

Really? No, I had it. It was a dare, dare shots on 4th of July at Drew Defonso Marx's place. Wow. Yeah, this really does have a strong cinnamon cinnamon roll smell to it. Dare shots on fun. I, I, uh, it's not when your mom is like, get me that vanilla extract from the shell for something.

That's kind of what it, that's what it, uh, it smells like to me. It's, um, yeah, it's got a very strong vanilla, kind of vanilla frosting flavor to it. I guess that's what's for a little bit of that vodka kick, but it's, it's for a taste test. I'm like, I was keeping this in my mouth and swishing it around. I don't want to do that. It really brings the vodka taste down. Ooh.

Yeah, I don't know. Sorry. You all right buddy? Yeah, yeah. Yup. That was just a, it went down the wrong, uh, the little wrong hole there, I'm good. I was at a diner once and my friend sitting across from me, I said something that made him laugh, of course.

Um, but he was drinking chocolate milk and he laughed and it came out through his nose, but all over my face. Oh, Jesus. So, it was, it was so just, oh, sunny, sunny America because I didn't want to open my mouth. It shot across the table. Across the table, all of my face, it was so gross. That's actually how I like my chocolate milk. Nose strained.

Oh, strange. Shot onto me. Yeah. Yeah, as I'm tasting more of this, it definitely has, I think you were, you were right earlier, Mitch. It kind of does taste like vanilla extract, just sort of like straight, even with that kind of alcoholic character to it. Um.

I think that, see, this is going to be tough and now I feel like I'm just going to take the rest of it back. I drank about half of this nip. Now, uh, now I should just do the whole thing, right? Like a shot. Oh, I mean, there's no way I could do it as a whole shot. No. Is that what this is?

It's a shot? I think a mini, a mini bottle is more than a shot. I think, uh, yeah, I think a mini bottle is like a shot and a half. Half, basically. Um. Cheers. Cheers. For me, cheers.

Cheers, Meneer. All right. We can, we can knock this one back. All right. There we go. Um. Yeah. That definitely has a little bit of the, a little bit of that vodka burn to it still.

I don't know. I don't know about the sweetness. The sweetness tastes so artificial. I guess that's all these flavored vodkas and I've never had pinnacle vodka periods. I don't know what quality vodka is, but all these flavored vodkas, I feel like. They have such an artificial quality to, to them, um, that to me is just always a little bit of a turn off. Yeah.

I don't understand if, if you want like citrus, you know, flavored vodka, just put regular vodka with lemon and ice, you know, or whatever, like, why, why have the, you know, processed version of it? Yeah. Why have the coffee flavored vodka when you can have, you know, whatever a, a white Russian that's got coffee and, and Kahlua and it, you know. I thought you were going to say, why don't you just pour some vodka in your coffee? Another John McLean breakfast.

Um, for me, if I'm evaluating this pinnacle, uh, cinnamon roll, Cinnabon branded vodka, uh, and it specifically says on the bottle, imitation cinnamon roll flavor. Uh, they, they, they, scientists like, hey guys, AIDS is still out there, right? It's just a facsimile, right? Man, got other shit to do. The imitation Cinnabon flavor, the, the, the color of that text is like, it blends into the bottle. It really does.

Yeah. It's basically. Oh, I don't seem to be going, where are you guys seeing it? It's so small. It's right in the Cinnabon. Um, yeah. I mean, I do wonder how much the Cinnabon branding moves bottles of these. And I have to feel like part of it is people like us who are getting these, this out of

grim curiosity, or like what you're saying, making it like a dare, like a dare shot. Like I feel like that's probably part of their sales is like Cinnabon vodka. That's ridiculous. Let's try this shit. Yeah. I mean, cause it's like, uh, my buddy Lolu in, uh, Amsterdam, he has, we were saying that, uh, the, uh, that the tagline in Jagermeister commercials should be like, Jagermeister, if it tasted good, you didn't have Jagermeister.

Cause I mean, oh, this is. This could be the same tagline for this thing. Yeah. I, I would have no reason to ever have this again. For me, Pinnacle cinnamon roll, Cinnabon flavored vodka, uh, is stank. Hmm. That's a funny, like just saying it though. Yeah.

Pinnacle cinnamon roll, Cinnabon. Um, so what are my options? Yeah. Your options are drank or stank. It's a yes or no thumbs up, thumbs down. I got, I got to go with stank. Yeah. See, you know what?

I'm on board with you for stank for this, for this product, uh, but I think it could get like a holiday drink because if you put this as, uh, if, if, if this was around the holidays and you were, say you went to see a football game or something, it was snowy and cold. Someone made some sort of hot drink and put the vodka and it might be, it might be pretty good. It's hard to judge this, but if judging almost any vodka, just alone, I mean, I'm sure this vodka enthusiasts will be bad at me, but like judging straight vodka on its own, I would

probably always say stank. There, I don't think there's like a, there'd be few exceptions where I'd be like, oh, drank and it would be good, really good vodka, I guess. But, but for this, I feel like there, there could be some situations where, where I would say drank, but overall, I'm just going to give it a stank. Yeah. I think it goes back to what Jim is saying of like, if you do, for whatever reason, you do want this holiday themed cinnamon roll drink or whatever, why not just use just normal

vodka and have that cinnamon flavor component come from something else other than the artificial imitation cinnamon roll flavor that's being added to this. Yeah. Cause I feel like too, like when you were describing, you know, the scenario, you know, I'm like, oh wait, you know, it's snowing outside, you know, watching a football game, whatever, it's around the holidays. Like I feel like you could kind of be like, you know, fucking let's throw on some dog turds.

Like the setting sounds so fun and awesome already that like, like, like it's like, yes, I want to be there. Ah, yeah. Those doctorates sound great. Like I don't need, I don't need pinnacle doctors. I guess you're right. You could choose any other booze in that situation. It would be still pretty nice.

Yeah, you'd be like, you would friends, you know, like a regular hot chocolate and don't add the pinnacle vodka into it. Yeah, that's a good point. All right. That was Drank or Stank. Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Ryan Inman.

Ryan writes, I'm writing to you today from the comfort of a local Arby's pondering the curly fry. I believe that the shape of the fries prioritized over its flavor and that this is a mistake. Have you ever eaten a curly fry that is not covered in bright orange seasoning? Follow up question. What is your favorite style of French fry? I think curly fries are my favorite, but I could not care less about their whimsical shape.

It's all about that seasoning, baby. Just to answer the first part of that question real quick, I have definitely had curly fries that were not sort of coated with that orangey Arby's Jack-in-the-box seasoning. I've definitely had just regular curly fries. You don't sound mad about this, by the way. Well, no, I apologize to Mr. Inman who sent in that wonderful email.

Not mad at you, but definitely I've had I've experienced normal fries that are in the curly shape. I feel like that you get those that kept it one-on-one. Yes. Yeah, I think I were, if not there, there's some sort of Hollywood bar where I've had those for sure. And I am mad at him. Yeah, I've had the most basic ones.

So wait, so we are commenting. We are agreeing with curly fries. What are we doing? Well, I think his question was that they prioritize the shape, right? Was it here? I'll give this two questions that he gave. Have you ever eaten a curly fry that is not covered in bright orange seasoning? We feel like we've addressed that.

We all have. Follow up question. What is your favorite style of French fry? Oh, okay. Well, I was way off. Sorry, everyone. I will say, though, the one good thing about the curly fry is you get those like bunches sometimes.

I agree with you. And it's like a string. Yeah, like, what was that, the monkeys in a, you know, when you, when you pick a bunch of monkeys in a barrel, in a barrel, yeah, barrel of monkeys. Yeah, if you get that tight coil, that's just like a very satisfying bite. And it retains that sauce really well. Also, how fun, like when you get normal fries and a curly one is in there, it's like the best.

But how fucking wretched is a normal fry in your. It's like, it's, it's close to having a bug in your. Yeah, it's disgusting. It's like, it's nothing wrong with that fry. I feel like if you sometimes, you'll sometimes get that order of regular fries and then in that, there will be a buried an onion ring. And to me, that's always just, I feel like my meal is just giving me a high five. It's just like, oh man, a little bonus onion ring in here.

That's great. And it's got that fry grease all soaked into it because it's been kind of sitting in there. I like that too. You're like, sweet. And really, that's just like an onion ring that like fell in the wrong place. The shittiest onion ring. They didn't wink at you when they handed your tray.

They're like, well, an onion ring got in there. All right, who gives a shit? That would be funny to do, though, if you work there to like make them wonder, like, you know, like, you're like, here's your meal. Enjoy. Check out those fries. All right. I went to, I used to go to the summer camp, Aerobare Music Camp.

It was like this hippie run, hippie run camp where you would go and play like band instruments. I was a real cool kid. And, and, but they had this cafeteria there and one of the chefs in the cafeteria where they would serve you breakfast and lunch and dinner, the normal meals that you eat at camp, he would have sometimes like he would make you a, if he was making like a grilled cheese sandwich or like an omelet or something, he would be like, hey, do you want to surprise one?

And he'd put a little surprise into whatever you were eating. And sometimes it would be like a toy. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Sometimes it would be like, oh, he'd put a little, a little piece of ham inside your grilled cheese sandwich. So it's like a little treat. But other times it would be like a piece of French toast and he'd like hide

like a small spoon in there. So like you just be biting into it. And there's no way that this man is an in federal penitentiary. I was like, he was fired, right? This guy is so, he's locked up for sure. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I saw him put a basil leaf in a pancake once. It was just like, it was kind of like one of those, what's the, not truth or

dare, but just sort of like a 50, 50, like that subreddit. There's that 50, 50 subreddit where there's like a picture that's either something that's really cool or something that's really disgusting. It was that kind of thing. You were, you were flipping a coin there. I think he's in jail and he has a Weiger tattooed all over. And he also like, it like has a job in the cafeteria at the prison. It's always, you want a surprise?

Shock him as soon as he says that. I, for me, I think actually my favorite type of fry might be a curly fry, a seasoned curly fry. I actually really enjoy that. Sometimes a waffle fry. I will get a normal regular fry more than anything, but probably if I had to pick a favorite, I think I'd go with a seasoned fry that I can, a seasoned curly fry that I can dip in some ranch.

I'm the same way, uh, Sands Ranch, like, uh, like, because I'm exact, I rarely ever order the curly fries, but I prefer the curly fries, um, but the seasoned one. Um, but I also don't like dipping my season, uh, curly fries, but I have to dip my regular fries. Totally. That makes sense. And blue cheese is my favorite, uh, oh, that's a good choice. That's a really good choice.

That is good ranch and blue cheese is always nice. I, I, uh, I like curly fries and I like seasoned curly fries and waffle fries. I also enjoy waffle fries a lot. Uh, Carl's Jr. has a great waffle fry that comes in that seasoning. Uh, and I guess I, for fun, you know, if it's going to be, if I have to choose between the two, I'd probably get like a nice seasoned curly fry, but nothing beats just a really good, well-cooked fried, regular French fry. If I, if I, if, if I had to choose like between like, Oh, you get like a great,

perfectly fried French fry. That's just like even they're big and fat, but they're crispy. And I would be like, I want that instead of the curly fry. I don't need the seasoning. I just, I would rather just have the taste and Tommy's actually had, I thought their fries were kind of like that beneath the, beneath the cheese and chili. So yeah, I like, I like a nice golden cooked, uh, maybe like a Yukon potato, like thick, really crunchy French fry.

Yeah, Mitch, I give you a lot of guff on this podcast, but I honestly think you just might have the right answer here. I think like a perfectly cooked regular fry is probably the, if you had for an everyday fry, that's like what you'd, what you'd want. So that just might be the right choice. I'm going to stick with curly fry, but I think you've, you probably are the people, you probably are the people's champ here. So you said I respect you, but fuck you.

You know what, we should drink these at the beginning. I'm having fun. Lager on did his collar. I definitely am feeling this more than I expected for something that I thought was like, Oh, this is a thing for sorority girls. And now I'm, I'm at least marginally fucked up. Um, all right. If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you

can email us at doboyspodcast at gmail.com. Uh, you can always, uh, follow us on Twitter, uh, at doboys pod, check out our Facebook fan page, uh, we're do boys on there. Um, Jim Woods, thank you so much for taking some of your trip to LA and, and budgeting some time for us to come with us on the doboys podcast. You've been a lovely guest. Um, is there anything at all you would like to, to plug? Um, well, I'm, uh, leaving on Saturday.

Uh, you can come and come and see me and you can last day of school tonight at 11. You should be Franklin. Um, so this, this is one week ago, uh, if you somehow, if you somehow receive this message and are able to travel back in time, or if you have a radio that can communicate with your father, like in the movie frequency, send him a message that he can go see the show one week prior and let him know about that guy who's trying to kill his wife. But, uh, if you by chance happen to be going to the Edinburgh French festival,

you can, uh, check out, um, doing a week of shows there, uh, with the free association theater. And then also in London, when I go there for a few months, uh, that's where I'll be regularly performing and teaching is that the free association theater in London. That's awesome. Jim, come back. We, I miss you and we miss you.

The USA needs Jim. We, we, we deserve you. And, uh, and I hope you come back and I hope you come back on the podcast and, uh, tell one of your famous stories. Leave them cliff, cliff hang them with, uh, with sesame seeds. With sesame seeds. That's all I'll say. Uh, awesome.

Well, thanks so much for listening out there. And, uh, that'll do it for this episode of Doe Boys. Uh, until next time for Mike Mitchell. I'm Nick Weiger. Thanks a lot. I'm Jim Woods. Happy eating. See ya.

As always, Doe Boys is produced by Dustin Marshall and brought to you by feral audio.com. Home of weird adults with little Esther. Don't ever change with John Roy and more. Our theme song is by Michael Cassidy and our cover art is by Chris Fenard. Stalen. Thanks so much for listening, everyone.