Doughboys - Panera Bread with Bill Oakley

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

Writer and producer Bill Oakley (The Simpsons, Portlandia, Disenchantment) joins the 'boys to talk about lunch habits in The Simpsons' writers room, and to review the casual bakery-café chain Panera Bread. Plus, a McCafe edition of Drank or Stank.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amidst a global geopolitical crisis, with the U.S. fiercely divided along ideological lines, a celebrity who'd never previously held office emerged as a potent force in the national discourse, absorbing the media spotlight and speaking to rapturous crowds who felt validated by his isolationist, neo-fascist, America-first rhetoric. His name was Charles Lindbergh, a famed aviator who'd become a sympathetic figure after his 20-month-old son was kidnapped and murdered, and in the mid-1930s Lindbergh began using his platform to espouse his deeply held conservative political beliefs. From 1936 to 1939, Lindbergh leveraged his reputation as a heroic pilot to gain entry

to overseas meetings with senior officials in the German Air Command, where he controversially accepted a swastika-adorned medal from the Luftwaffe. These wings to the anti-Semitism would become air raid sirens in 1940 and 1941, as in fiery speeches across the U.S., he delivered quotes like, Leaders of the Jewish race are not American in interests and viewpoints. And their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government. Lindbergh would become the most visible member of the influential America-first committee,

whose signature issue was agitating against U.S. entry into World War II and maintaining a policy of neutrality towards Adolf Hitler. While Lindbergh and his America-first associates attracted a legion of rage-fueled acolytes early on, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor reset the playing field, bringing Americans together as the nation joined the Allied war effort. From then on, Lindbergh's relevance rapidly faded, as his isolationist absolutism receded to a crank fringe, and his social conservatism was exposed as hypocritical by the revelation of his three secret families with different mistresses across Europe.

But despite his time as a divisive mouthpiece for racism cloaked as nationalism, his pioneering aviation exploits had united a nation back in 1927, when he piloted the first solo flight across the Atlantic in a single-engine monoplane named the Spirit of St. Louis. St. Louis, Missouri was Lindbergh's adopted home, and, in 1987, it's where Ken Rosenthal opened a bakery and restaurant called St. Louis Bread. Serving fresh baked pastries as well as soups, salads, and sandwiches, the chain where patrons were practically encouraged to loiter quickly expended beyond the show-me-state. In 1997, St. Louis Bread was purchased by rival chain Albonne Pawn and renamed to be

more geographically neutral. Today, a half century after the death of Charles Lindbergh, a different celebrity has seized power under the crypto-fascist banner of America First, while the spirit of St. Louis Bread lives on in over 2,100 rechristened locations. This week on Doe Boys, Panera Bread. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host, single and ready for Pringles, Mitchie Two Spoons, Mike Mitchell.

I am ready for Pringles. You're always ready for Pringles. That was courtesy of Joey Diven, who included phonetic pronunciation of his last name, but not syllabic emphasis, so I just took a guess. But I don't know if it's Diven or Divin, whatever. I took a swing. Hopefully, you're happy with it. If you have an insult, you'll like me using Mitch at the top of the show.

You should be happy. He gave him a half a minute on his last name. I think he should be happy with that. I'm just saying, capitalize one of the two syllables. He capitalized both syllables, and I didn't know what he wanted. Mitch, you're back from Italy. I am. I'm back from Italy.

Arriva Durci, my good boy. Oh, my God. I got a question for you. What can I say but, ciao. Austria as well. Oh, very cool. All right, smart guy. Let's hear some German.

Ah, da. Isn't your whole family German? No. I don't have any German ancestors. Sure you don't. Wait a minute. You're implying I'm some sort of, I have Nazis in my bloodline. That's basically what I was saying.

No, no, no. Estonia. Oh, that's right. That's where the Weigers hail from. And I was in Hungary as well. Oh, oh, you are a man who is hungry. You're always in the state of Hungary. You know what?

I made the same joke while I was over there. I'm back. Are you nervous that I'm more cultured than you are now? Yeah, I've never been to Europe. I am actually, no, I'm happy to have you. It's been a while. It's been a while. You were out of town for a while.

Let me tell you, the house smelled bad last night. I don't know if there's any residual smell, but the cats were here for three weeks. It smells fine now. Yeah, all right, good. You just left them to their own devices. They forgot who you were. I leave a can opener and cat food. They figure it out.

They figure it out every time. Wow. No, I have someone watch the cats and I'm back now. So don't try to rob my house. You pieces of shit. Well, we're going to dig into depth on next week's Patreon episode about your invocation. So any highlights, any, any, any little nugget you want to drop, huh?

We walked a lot. We walked 10 miles a day. Basically, that's a substantial amount. I know too much for me. And then, uh, hmm, no, I'll save it all for the episode. Oh boy. Very exciting. I went to the top of the, the Duomo.

I don't even know what I'm saying correctly. The dome, the Duomo, what is that Lawrence? It's the big, uh, Basilica. Oh, I didn't know that's what it was called. Duomo. Yeah. But anyways, how do you know to Mitchie Two Spoons nation? I'm embarrassed because we got a nice guest today and here's a drop.

Yep. Yes. That's, I agree. Yep. Yes. That's, I agree. Yep. Yeah.

I agree. Yep. Yes. We're happy. Yeah. We're happy about it. We're happy. Yeah.

You know, hey we're happy. We're happy. Yes. We're happy. Yeah. Yes. We're happy. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. We're happy. Yeah. Yes. Mitchie. Mitch has a large package.

Uh, Mitchie. Mitch has a large package. Mitch has a large package. My penis feels weird. Now, YouSong, you sent that to us saying it was a good drop. It had some artistry behind it. This is an amazing drop, YouSong. YouSong, you're fucking fired.

They got sent it to the Doughboys email. I have no idea where to send this to, and I don't fuck with Twitter or Reddit. Maybe a new anthem for Spoon Nation, but in all seriousness, love the show. Oh, that's nice. Anthony. Anthony Abinanti? Anthony Abinanti. Sounds like he was on my Italy trip.

Where did, what is the email address people can send in drops? SpoonManDrops at gmail.com. SpoonManDrops at gmail. Just drop that at the top of the show. No. Okay. It'll remain a mystery. Once in a while, Estre will go into the Doughboys email, and YouSong will forward it.

And it'll be weird. Mitch, we got a great guest. Let's introduce him. Yeah. Writer and producer from Portlandia, Mission Hill, and The Simpsons, and the new animated series Disenchantment, which debuts August 17th on Netflix. Bill Oakley is here. Hi, Bill.

Hello. Good to see you. Thanks for making time for us. You live in Portland. You're here in LA for a little bit, but you carved out a little chunk to hang out with the Doughboys. How long have you been in Portland now? Well, hold on.

I don't know. Okay. Yeah. What's up? I mean, like we forced him to come on the show. Yeah. We have something of yours that is valuable to you. We'll return it after this record.

I don't think that's true. I think there's a lot of pent up demand for this summit meeting between, you know, you guys who are the kings of this genre and me, who is the upstart Instagram food junk reviewer, you know? And so, and I also think based on my listening to this podcast, I think we have a similar style of analysis of this type of stuff. Right. We'll find out soon when that's true.

I would describe our style as bad. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we're both amateurish, I guess, you'd say. Also I would say, as I guess the kings of this genre, heavy is the head that wears the crown. Be careful what you wish for. Heavy is my head.

That's for sure. How much is the average head weight? Eight pounds, right? I mean, if Jonathan Lipnicki is to be trusted, but yeah, I don't know what yours clocks in it. Yours is like a medicine ball. There's eight pound medicine balls. All right.

Mine is definitely over eight pounds. Yeah. For sure. I mean, the brain weighs the most, you know, Nick. All right. That's where most of your weight is at. The only thing I'd say for sure about your head bitch is that it would be banned in bowling. Be too much of an advantage.

So how long have you been up in Portland now? I've been there nearly 10 years. So what is it? You're someone who was in LA certainly before that. And how does the food scene differ in Portland? And how have your eating habits changed at all being up there? You know, I think it's not so difficult to get everywhere and do anything in Portland. And therefore, I eat a wider variety of food that is better prepared.

I think in LA, obviously there's a thousand Jonathan Gold style restaurants all over, but you're going to have to drive two hours to San Gabriel or whatever. Right. In Portland, it's if you can walk or ride your bike to them. So, you know, it's much more concentrated. Right. It's a little bit more compact. It's a little bit less congested in terms of traffic.

So like what do you have any food favorites up there? Do you have any recs for anyone who's going to maybe take a visit to Portland? What is Portland? What is Portland called? Rip City? That's one of its names. That's one of its names. Stumptown is another one.

Stumptown. Okay. It has like five nicknames or six or seven. But they, um, yes, Portland has a ton of great stuff. And a lot of it is in concentrated in the food cart scene, which we have. You guys have food trucks. Yes. I guess that's what I've run.

In Portland, they're mostly food carts, which are like, they're stationary on like parking lots and stuff like that. Uh huh. There's tons of them. And there's at least like 20 that are terrific at whatever it is they do. And there's a lot of specialized weirdness. Right. Um, uh, but there's also a ton of great restaurants.

And it's like the food, you can easily go on a trip to Portland and have each of your three meals be one of the best meals you ever had. Wow. Um, the food in Portland is, is great. It's really amazing. And I've only been up, Nick, have you been up there ever? Well, I've been up there a couple of times. My parents used to live in Vancouver, Washington for a stretch.

And so I visited Portland. Oh, really? Vancouver, Washington is right across the border from Portland. This is a little tidbit about, yeah, I didn't know. Yeah. My parents, they, they kind of, they moved around a little bit. Moved away from you, huh? They sure did.

Honestly, as soon as I went to college, my parents sold our child, my child at home. And they were like, we're getting the hell out of here. A lot of mistakes were made in this. And then they, you found them somehow. Yeah. And they moved, yeah, they, they moved all over the place. They lived in Washington for a little bit and they lived in, in Arizona for a bit. And then now they're back in SoCal, but in a different part.

But yeah, it's, it's, it's, I do like it up there, Portland, up in Portland. But what were you saying, Mitch? Oh, my one question is, where is Stump Town? Is it like an actual, like a stump? I think it was back, I believe that it was back in like the 1860s and 70s. And when the whole place, like the Lorax, the whole place had been chopped down. Oh, wow. And there were a lot of stumps because they were building stuff with it.

I think that's when it came into vogue. Did they ever do a Lorax movie? They did with Danny DeVito. Wait, it was a live, was it live action? No, it was a, it was a, That's a crazy question. That would be a good live action movie for Danny DeVito to star in, but it was CGI. It was CGI?

Okay. Yeah. I think it was by the same, I think it was by the same studio that did the Despicable Me franchise. Oh, okay. If I'm not mistaken. Your favorite, your favorite studio. Oh man, I love the Minions. Illumination does good work.

Nick really does love the Minions. I love the Minions too. The first 20 or 30 times I heard and saw about that, you know, them and then they became less amusing with each passing time. Right. I mean, if I'm being honest in terms of yellow animated creatures, they'll always be second to the Simpsons. Of course. Jesus. But I love the Minions.

They're a lot of fun. They're for a different demographic. They're for the kids. Simpsons are for mom and dad. And mom and granddad. That's it. And a teenager with a bad attitude. Neil Campbell sent his crossword puzzle today and it said, it said animated, I think it was animated teenage boy who liked to prank Carl,

such a weird way to describe Bart. Like a teenage boy. Yeah. Hold on. Let me, let me, maybe I'm saying the wrong thing. I'll see what it was. It was. It was.

All right. Here it is. Cartoon boy. It didn't say teenage. My fault. Who makes many prank calls. I get that. I get it.

But come on. That's what you boil Bart down to. That's sad. Well, isn't, but isn't that in, you know, I'm no, I'm no puzzle crafter. No, I may have a background. I may have a background in video game design, but I've never crafted a crossword. But I think perhaps that's part of the art of it is that you try to come up with a little bit of a different angle. Because if you said like he's got spiked hair, everyone knows that's Bart Simpson.

If you have any familiarity with the show, you'd know that's Bart Simpson. You should make a crossword for me sometime. It will be a nice gift. Oh, that would be fun. I'll make, I'll make, I'll make a crossword challenge for Mitch. There will be six clues. I'll limit, limit to one syllable words. And we'll have you solve it on a bonus episode.

Now, Bill, I, you may, you may be, I talk about this all the time in the podcast. You, you, you may be the one of the few who doesn't know this, but I, I worked at the Simpsons for three and a half years as an assistant to the writers. Oh my God. Yeah. I was shocked. Yeah. I'm shocked that nobody told me that prior to this moment. How awkward.

I'm sorry. I was, I was an assistant to the writers. And you were also Barney's stunt double, right? Were you in the room or were you like the writer's assistant? I would, I would come in. I would, I would get the lunches and stuff. I actually, there was a, there was a, there was a moment in time where I was asked if I wanted to be that guy in the room. I said I had, I had grown out of, I mean, like at that point I was like, I don't want to stay here anymore.

I had been there for so long. Right. But, but I love, I love, I love all those guys. I liked working over there. There was times that were bad, of course, but there was, there was a lot of great, there was a lot of great stuff. I did a lot of food runs for, and Selman was, was kind of the, and you know that he loves, he loves his food. But there was a lot of, I feel like I got a, like, umami, how do you say it, Nick? Umami.

Umami. You said it right the first time. Right. Like I tried umami burger the first time. There was like a lot of places I tried because of Selman's recommendations. But yeah, that actually was, was one thing I wanted to talk to you about, Bill, because I know from Mitch that, that the stretch he was there. And what years were you there, Mitch, approximately? I was, I was there from 2007 till 2011, basically.

Right. And this was, so this was after you left, obviously, a good amount after you left. But during that, that sort of, that time in the, the 90s, you know, people kind of maybe colloquially refer to as, as peak Simpsons when you, when you were there. Um, what was the, what was the food? That's the time I was there, actually. I'm gonna, I'm gonna take it. What, what were like, what were lunches like? What were dinners like?

Was it, was it still this like epic thing where people were getting a ton of food? I'm so glad you asked this because there's a lot of interesting stories about this. Okay. Yeah. This was a time when we, nobody was paying attention to what we were, or the budget or anything. Right. So there was a lot of grandiose waste. Yeah.

In terms of people would order extra shrimp cocktails and then take them, like extra ones and take them home, like to their families and stuff. Wow. Um, there was also a, uh, or an extra, or dinner, you know, you order your lunch and your dinner and you take the dinner home. Wow. Because we were staying for dinner. Right. And there was also a time, I would say there's also a little bit of resentment ordering because this was a time also when Fox, this, this was the, we were doing really well at that time and getting a lot of respect. And we were, several years were the only network, the only nominated, the only eminent show on the whole network.

Right. Yet they didn't care. And they never, so we were just like, we're gonna have caviar tonight. And so I, there's definitely ordering of caviar by me at least once that was like, you know, Fox, they deserve this. Right. Some spiked caviar. Exactly. It wasn't even that good.

And, um, they wouldn't let us over order alcohol though, which was kind of a bummer, probably better. Right. Um, so there was, there was also, there was just a lot of gluttony too. You know, I lost 65 pounds after I left the show. Wow. And a lot of other people did the same. You see those photos, man, like Mike Reese also. Oh yeah.

They lost a lot of weight and, and, uh, Dan Graney and all of us to, because the eating, um, that's what you do because you're bored. Right. And you don't have anything else to do. There's this before cell phones. So people weren't able to fritter away their time looking at Twitter in the room. You either paid attention and worked or ate or both. You know? And so like people, um, would actually order and eat sometimes a whole pie like the apple pan.

You guys know the apple pan. Yeah. Oh yeah. People would order, um, like one person would often order a whole pie and, and, and, and in order that they'd order their burger and lunch and then they would have the whole pie and they would eat a piece every hour or two throughout the afternoon. Oh my God. And a milkshake too. You put in the freezer.

Like everybody got really fat there. That's crazy. 65 pounds is a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Good. I'm, I think I'm one of the few people who gained weight after the symptoms. I, you know, working there, the, I was, I was actually there at the turning point where, where they got strict about food.

I heard, I heard that. I heard about it from Dan. I was, I was the, I was the guy, there was like an insane lunch order one day and I was like, man, we're going to get in trouble for this lunch order. And I was the guy getting it. And I was like, we're going to get in big trouble for this lunch order. I won't even say specifics of it, but it was gigantically huge. And it was still the same thing over there where they didn't, they, they, for some reason, Fox never respected the show.

They don't give the show any for whatever reason. Probably Rupert Murdoch is getting too many prank calls from Bart. I think it's that they're not involved in the show. Like the whole, the, the, the, when the show was invented, Jim Brooks was like, okay, we'll make the show, but you can't even come to the table readings. You broadcast what we give you and that's it. And I think that they felt a lack of involvement, which created a little bit of a cold war between the actual show and the network. What a funny dynamic that exists where it's like, you have a show that's great and that wins Emmys and that is financially successful,

but because the people who are making the decisions don't feel like they have a say in it. They don't, like that makes them think of you as like pariahs. That makes them think of like, like, oh, this is a, we don't want anything to do with this. Cause like so much of it has, I feel like that mentality is so much of like, they want something they can control. It's so strange. You would think that's like, that's the dream scenario of like, we got this hit show that can run forever. The whole network, besides their news is terrible. You're there for that handy hit.

Tucker Carlson. Block. I was, so I was there for, I was there for the, I was there for the downfall. I heard about that. And I felt bad. And they have like a list of restaurants that they were, they couldn't go to anymore. Right. At one point, like they didn't want us going to Los Aranada, even though I went back there, which was, which is a Mexican restaurant.

Yeah. We were just talking about. Yeah. We should mention that's, I think that Los Aranada got Gordon Ramseyed. Isn't that great for it? What? Cause it was a very high end restaurant. Yeah.

It was a Mexican restaurant in that era. It was the place to go to. It was, it was, and it was, the food was really, really, really good. And then when I was going, so this is 2007, it had like, I would give them an order and I would be like, I'm going to come and pick it up at like, you know, like 12 or something. And I get there at 12 and they like wouldn't have had put it in. So I could see that there was like issues going on at that time, but the food was still amazing. But yeah, I think, I think it just got Gordon Ramseyed. Yeah.

Cause I remember seeing, I walked by it. It's on, it's on Pico Boulevard right by his shopping center, right by the, the, the West Side Pavilion Mall right there, which has a nice landmark movie theater. Anyway, so I walked by that. Yes, it does. This is branded content for landmark cinemas. I was walking by the Los Aranada and there's a chalkboard sign outside that said like as recently renovated by Gordon Ramsey. And this was like eight months ago. And I guess the episode is like either has just aired as of this release or is about to air.

So obviously he'd done the renovations. They, they, they took some time to edit it. And they're just about to broadcast. There's a lot of TV because the, that comic book shop, wasn't that Kevin Smith's comic book shop too for a long time? Oh, the Kevin Smith's secret stash. Yeah, but like it started in that weird, whatever that comic book place was there that like the video rental place. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.

A lot of weird stuff over there in West LA. Yeah. It's a, it's a wild scene. Yeah. But, but that was my, my job was basically, I had to make a list and make sure that like they, like everyone got one meal and then like one side dish or something. And then we, like, we basically, it was such a bummer and you had to keep track of what everyone got and it couldn't go over a certain number. And so that was like this other job that they were like, now you have to do this job to like, and then eventually I was like, I fucking hate doing this. And I just went back to doing it the old way and they never said anything.

I think those guys also were pushing it in terms of ordering from fancier places. Like certainly in the nineties, there was a lot of ordering from islands, Yeah. Apple Pan and like just kind of burger places. Right. We only went to the, often went to the high end places for dinner sometimes because it felt justified if we were staying late. Yeah. But the lunches were usually kind of just, you know, regular old burger type stuff.

Right. I would feel, I would feel like you were saying with people like feeding, like giving food to their family, I would, I would, I was in a sketch group and I would, I would bring home food. I would bring home food and feed everybody. I was, I was, I was, I was, it was great. If it was a great feeling to go home and feed a family of sketch people. Right. Which is great.

The birthday boys. Yeah. Yeah. Papa Tim Kelpakis. Mama Hanford. Baby Chris Benhart Stalin. Tween Ferguson. Right.

Bill doesn't want to hear any of this. The pet koalik. Koalik's out of his cage. The rodent. He went back into the hole in the wall. This is inside baseball. So wait. So while we're, while we're in the Simpsons food sort of cubby hole right now.

I, I, and this is something that just coincidentally a quirk of scheduling. We'd recently talked about Simpsons food extensively with our, with our good friend, Julia Prescott. In fact, I saw that. And I have a nuts and gum right there. We wrote that. Josh and I wrote that. That's your joke. Julia Prescott bought it to life.

You can look at it. I saw it on your Twitter feed. That's fantastic. I was wondering, did you have, did you eat any of it? I did. I took, I took a, I took a big handful of it and it was, it was not good. Yeah. I took a handful.

Yeah. It's, it's, I mean, there's a reason it's the joke in the show is that it's a bad idea. Right. Right. Josh told me he's, he's actually had nuts and gum voluntarily at times, but he kind of likes it, but you know, it does seems a little odd. It does a weird thing to the, the oil does a weird thing to the gum that real, at least with this gum that like breaks it down.

I just, it just makes, it's too challenging because you've got one thing you can swallow and one thing you got to keep chewing. I just, I can't handle it. It's, it's the, you know, cause I mean, the cliche is walking chew gum at the same time, but here you got to swallow peanuts and chew gum at the same time. It's a, it's a challenge. I get it. I get it.

The degree of difficulty is too high for that food item, especially because it's kind of unpleasant to eat. It's not like you're eating like crawfish or something where it's like worth the weight, worth the work. So you've got, so the Simpsons has so many fictional food items and one of them, perhaps like I'd say there's, there's kind of had this recent renaissance in Twitter is something that you and Josh Weinstein are responsible for steamed hams from 22 short films about Springfield.

That's gotten a lot of press in the past. Yes. That was the only thing I ever, that was the only thing that I wrote actually, Josh wrote a different segment of that thing. We all, in 22 short films, everybody picked their favorite character and got to write a segment about it. And mine was Chalmers. Your favorite character was Chalmers.

My favorite character has always been Superintendent Chalmers because he's the only sane guy in town. I don't want to turn your whole podcast into a discussion of this because I want to talk about food, but Chalmers, I love the character who's the only sane guy in town. Right. It started out on Green Acres, which was my favorite show as a kid and a lot of other Simpsons writers favorite show at the time back when we were a little, Chalmers plays that role in the Simpsons because he's the only sane guy in town.

But he's learned to deal with it because the other version of Chalmers is Frank Grimes, who was a sane guy in town, but was unable to make the compromises necessary to live in the town. Yeah, it destroyed him. Whereas Chalmers knows that Skinner is lying. He knows people are lying, but he just, he asks a question or two and then he moves on. He knows like, he obviously knows Skinner is lying every single time they have that thing, but he asks a question or two and he's like, he moves on.

And it's like, that's how Chalmers has learned to survive and function in Springfield. Whereas a person like Frank Grimes, who just couldn't let it go. He just couldn't let it go. He paid the ultimate price. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's a very controversial episode, which I, which I love. I love polarizing. It is a polarizing enemy.

Yeah. Yeah, but you're, you're a hundred percent right. And I, and I, and now it makes me so fascinated by Chalmers and what happens, what's going on with Chalmers in that world. But then also at the same time, it's then funny that he's become a part of the craziest thing that's happened, the weirdest thing that's happened with The Simpsons is this weird shit posting thing that. Yeah, I know it's, and I really like that stuff too.

And it didn't really take off until about two years ago. Like that was just kind of another footnote in the history of The Simpsons until suddenly it became this thing for no apparent reason, like two years ago and was, it became a meme and everybody was, and I don't have to tell you the history of it, but I, I like it well enough. Yeah. It's straight. I don't, some of them are, are, some of them are good.

I find them both. I like, I love them and I'm also, I find them like they almost, they make me mad because they're so like the, when someone has a new angle on it, because it's been iterated on so many times by this point. And when someone has a new angle on esteemed hams meme, I'm just like, I'm like, fuck, but I also enjoy it. It's like both those feelings are the same thing. It's like nuts and gum.

I feel like I said, I think I said this in January. I like, let's, I think we should retire. I don't, I have no influence over what everybody in the internet does, but I would say, let's retire this so we don't all look back on it and go, God, they ran into the ground. I hate it now. It's like, just like, so what we do is, oh, it's such a relic of 2017. What a bunch of idiots we were then, you know, like all, like the, all the old memes, which now everyone laughs at is being so antiquated.

I'd rather, I'd rather retire it with grace rather than, than kill it. But, you know, I think where the internet is not going to listen to me. What in, you use a meme all the time. The, the, no, it's the children that are, that are wrong. Oh yeah. I like that one. I like the, the, that's sort of just a sweet Seymour's a bad ass song. Yeah.

Yeah. The, the, where, where Skinner is scolding the children. Yeah. Yeah. I like the, it's easy. Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children that are wrong. It's really iconic.

Yeah. I'll change. But the, but so that makes me think of something, Bill. And I think you were, you were driving towards this, which is that kind of like, you know, it's our culture has kind of folded back on itself. So now it's like, if you look back on 2016, 2017, 2018, if you're looking back at this moment in time, you're thinking about like Simpson's shitposting, which itself is referencing something from the nineties.

It's like very strange to think about that some point at some point people will have nostalgia for like a take on something that previously existed in a different generation because people also like that, that episode of the Simpsons is it's a great episode. Some of people's favorite. It's a classic episode. So it's weird that they call it shitposting. It just doesn't even make sense.

Right. It's just confusing to me in many ways. But I think it is an outgrowth of like super fandom. I think it is an outgrowth of people who grew up with the show and like love it so much and they're trying to find new ways to like to riff on it. But let's return to Steamed Hams for one second. Like the, the scene, because the scene is amazing. It's such a great, like well written and well acted and well animated scene. It's just so, it's so awesome and so, so funny the way it heightens.

Did you like, when you were writing it and when it aired, like was Steamed Hams something that anyone latched on to? Obviously you couldn't have anticipated this. No. In fact, that episode wasn't even that well received at the time. Right. And it just kind of, I don't think it was, I think it took 20 years for people to finally start liking it. Like nobody quoted that thing.

I never heard, I never heard another word about it until like two years ago. That's crazy. I will say that as, as a fan of the show growing like that, I love that episode. And I love that moment of, of Steamed Hams. And maybe even just because of the steam and I'm from Massachusetts. So like the Steamed Clams parallel, that yeah, I don't think that was funny. The only reason I picked that was because it rhymed and it was the first thing that popped into my head.

What's he going to lie about? He's going to make a really obvious fake lie. And okay, Clams Hams. I actually didn't even know, I didn't know that Steamed Clams was actually a dish recently when we went to Seattle and they had it at the pier. Oh, I thought it was, I thought you thought you had made that up as well. That's hilarious. Now, have you, have you eaten that?

Have you gone to Universal? Have you eaten a crusty burger? I have not, but I had the cleatest, whatever the heck it was, the waffle chicken. It was pretty good. It's good. It was a little nauseating in its kind of sickly sweetness, but I didn't feel the nausea until I had finished it. I enjoyed it during the eating process.

There's always a good sign. If you can make it to the end and then feel sick, I think that's a, it passed to the test. I thought that was really, I thought that that whole Simpsons thing there is really well done. It really is. It is. I was super pleased. I thought there was nothing shoddy about it.

There was a lot of good, especially if you go upstairs in the dining area, all like the deep cuts that are up on the walls and stuff were well done, well chosen. I know that, that Matt Warburn did a lot of work on the ride at least. I'm not sure, but I know that the, the, the, all the, all the writers were, were writing stuff up for that entire, entire thing. I think it shows cause it's, it's awesome. Really high quality and all the, I mean, the big fiberglass figures and stuff. They're all good.

It's, it's a good time. And the, and the food was also pretty good. The food is good. And when, cause there was a back to the future ride before in that area and it was Doc Brown's fried chicken, which also not a thing, which it was not a thing at all. Yeah. I guess it doesn't make sense, but that I liked that was my favorite food in the

park. And then they saved it and made it Cleetus's, which is, which is great because it's still that fried chicken is still some of the best food I feel like you can get in the park. They could have, I mean, yeah, cause also Cleetus does not have a chicken restaurant in the Simpsons universe. Oh, so you're mad about this. No, I'm not mad about it.

But it is like, it's like they already had an invented thing of like Doc Brown, not a restaurant tour. And then they, who would you say besides Cleetus should have the fried chicken? I don't think there is. So I mean, you could make another crusty cake fried chicken restaurant that appeared one time on like season two is Shakespeare's fried chicken. Oh, okay.

That's a really like a really rarely referenced one of the early things like gulp and blow. There's a lot of stuff that kind of went by the wayside and is now like in the deep attic of the Simpsons, one of which is Shakespeare's fried chicken. Wow. There, there we go. It should have been Shakespeare's. But nobody would have known that.

Like even I had a hard time remembering that that actually occurred. And I just remembered it recently. Oh man. Was there, was there a joke in that or was it just like this, just a sign, just a sight gag? Any memory of it? I think it was a, I think it was a sight gag. And I think it was just like, what's the most in, in appropriate, you know,

source of fried chicken. Right. Well, let's talk about, let's talk about your passion for fast food. Cause one thing that you've been doing recently, one of the reasons that you are on the show today is that you started doing a bunch of fast food reviews on Instagram. So you've done a bunch of these and here's, here's a recent one you did when you visited White Castle, I believe in Vegas.

Let's take a listen. Hey, I'm here at White Castle in Las Vegas because you asked for it. So of course I've had White Castle microwave burgers dozens of times, but I've never actually been to the real restaurant. This will be a first. I don't know, man, these, these aren't quite as good as the microwave ones. So it just occurred to me that maybe you guys were joking when you said I should go there, but I'll tell you, my friend.

This wax figure of Bruce Willis does not approve. You can find these at that Bill Oakley on Instagram. So what made you decide to start embarking on this? Well, it's a long story. I hope you have about 45 minutes remaining in this thing. I'm a huge, I'm a huge fan of McDonald's, but I have a love, hate relationship with it and that I hate a lot of the crap that they've been doing in recent years. And I can, can you elaborate on that?

Just a little. Oh, well, I can elaborate all day long. I had, OK, I was really deprived of fast food and video games when I was a little kid and I've been making up for it ever since. Yeah, that's fucked up. I know. Well, there wasn't that, you know, we lived out in the country and the nearest this wasn't like there weren't fast food places around so much in the 1970s. There were really any and the nearest McDonald's was 60 miles away.

So maybe I get to go once a year. And so it became a huge thing to me. I love McDonald's, same with video games. We didn't have any of that crap until I started earning my own money. Then I bought every video game. OK, so McDonald's. I love it. I don't like a lot of the things they've done in recent years.

And in particular, I don't I really don't like all day breakfast. It actually makes me mad that they're so desperate to not buy any new ingredients. Just want to keep combining the stuff that's already sitting in the building. So it's like, oh, we're going to put a bun on another bun and we're going to do this. We're going to serve this crap that we had in the morning at a different time rather than say, change one thing or add one new thing. Like I I find and what made me so mad was that there was such a such a huge amount of fanfare about all day breakfast.

Right. It was like and it's and a stock went up and the CEO got a big raise on all this crap. And I just like it's the same crappy stuff served at a different time. Wow. And I didn't like that. And I went on this long rant on Twitter about it. And you know, I guess you guys maybe disagree with me, but I feel passionately about this topic. I like anyone who feels passionately about it. So this is good.

So I went on a long rant on Twitter and it got a lot of attention. Yeah. And I remember this actually got it. Yeah, it got people it got written up in some places and I did an interview about it on NPR and it was crazy. Anyway, so when they said they were introducing this fresh beef quarter pounder, I feel like that's one of the biggest problems with McDonald's is that there all their larger size burgers sucked. They taste like cardboard for many years.

And like I was like this this fresh beef thing could be the solution. And so I felt like I was going to go the day that they opened and I was going to tweet about it. But then I got there and I was like, maybe I should take a video of it instead. And I did. I took a video of me sampling it. The result was that it was a slight improvement, as I said. The video is on my Instagram and it got a lot of attention.

Like people really liked it, including like McDonald's themselves. Right. And the guy and also one of the chefs at McDonald's, who was the big innovative guy and stuff. And so I was like, well, maybe I'll do another one. And people seem to really like them. And and so I started doing a whole bunch of them. And that was really just like it was really just about like two months ago. Right.

But since then, it has gotten a lot of press and a lot of attention. And it's more like my hobby now. So anyway, right, that's and I do have a lot of strongly held opinions about various fast food things. So that's perhaps why I'm here. That I I get what you're saying about the about the bigger. Also, Nick and I should should scare you from continuing to do this. Because I can't I lost feeling in my left arm.

I've gained 60 pounds probably since we started this. Yeah, we were going to serve you with a cease and desist order today just for your own health. Well, guys, it's only really I only get to have one or two fast food items a week on this thing is like I'm doing it all day long every day. I reduced to one, two or three of these videos a week. And it's like, I would be eating like that anyway, or worse. I might even be eating worse if I weren't if I weren't.

I've had two veggie burgers in the past two weeks, which I would never have otherwise had unless the people had been nagging me to go try them. I saw I saw what I loved about that review is that I also love the White Castle microwave. They're good. They are. They're really, really. They're such a well done. No microwave burger has ever been good until that White Castle microwave.

It's so good. You're so right. It's it's really, really good. I love the idea of someone being disappointed by the real thing like this. Well, people who live on the East Coast were were responding. Right. Commenting on Instagram that they're very different on the East Coast. Oh, interesting place doesn't know how to make them and that you got to get them in New Jersey and so forth. So perhaps that's true.

Yeah, that's what I because because, you know, we Las Vegas is kind of this this oasis of a bunch of East Coast chains. They have like one exactly in Vegas, but a lot of them, like the first I think the first Shake Shack was out there. I've heard are just like not real representations of what you can actually. I've never I've never had White Castle. I've never had it either. Wait, Mitch and Weigar go to White Castle.

Oh, God. Jesus, no, no fun for anyone. Who's in the back seat? We get we get there because of your direction skills. We get there immediately. Yeah, there's no high jinks instead of Neil Patrick Harris. It's like like Tom Arnold's brother.

That's a good guess. I like Tom Arnold. I like Tom Arnold a lot. Yeah, we can probably I don't know about. We can reach out. Now, to get back to the McDonald's review. I kind of agree. I don't 100 percent agree because some people will be mad

at what you said. I mean, they're talking about the fresh beef, big mac or fresh beef quarter because I think it's really good. I just think on on some you think in general, the McDonald's breakfast thing, too, but but I I kind of agree with you on on a lot of different levels of one that I like McDonald's breakfast a lot. But it's I like McDonald's lunch and dinner way more. And so that's the thing that everyone goes and I and I like it.

And I and I like an egg McMuffin or a sausage McMuffin. But I always feel a little it gives me a case of the rumblies. And then as far as the big burgers, I agree. I like the quarter pounder and I and I've liked the double quarter pounder. But and I know what you're saying, like the the staleness of it. But that's maybe something that I just liked to you. But I feel like there are other bigger burgers. I 100 percent agree with you on like when they would have the big and tasty,

which when I was over in Europe, by the way, they still have the big and tasty on at every McDonald's I went to. Wow. But like they're like whenever they would try bigger signature burgers, I always thought that the taste was not great. Yeah, their Angus burgers were kind of whack when they had those for a while. Yeah, I was I was I was not a fan. So I would always just I would prefer the, you know, the the Big Mac or the

cheeseburger ones made with the standard, the little patties. Yes, which they can't be beat. Like if I go to McDonald's, I I'm I'm happy just to have several cheeseburgers. In fact, I feel like I could eat McDonald's cheeseburgers until I fell over. Like I could just eat six, eight, 10, 12, 14 of them. And like I would feel I wouldn't feel bad and I would enjoy it. Right. Maybe that will we we had a chicken nugget power hour here, where we took we ate one chicken nugget every minute for 60 minutes.

I tapped out about halfway through Nick. Nick tapped out of how many 20? I was I think it was in the mid 20s. I get this is my thing. I have a small appetite. People think because I have a chain restaurant podcast that I'm some guy who can is like a like a garbage disposal who can just eat anything. I have a small appetite.

I get full off of one plate at a buffet. So I got challenges I'm not good at. I got into the forties in the forties late forties, maybe or maybe mid forties. And our friend, Nicole Byer, was here, did about the same as me and and John Gabriel's powered all the way through it. He got he ate 62 nuggets, which is more than he had to, by the way. We should maybe do a cheeseburger power hour. What do you think of that, Nick? Oh, man, that'd be a disaster.

You can do it. I mean, how long we can make it? If you want to die on the air, that is the plan of the show. Instead of do gun to gunshots, we'll go through 32 burgers. But I think I think I agree with you that I have the Big Mac burger patty and the cheeseburger I've liked more just because I yes, I like that. Yeah, I don't think anybody does it better than them in terms of that. I mean, they've been doing it for whatever, 70 years, and they really have that particular thing nailed. Right. Yeah.

I also say to your point about the the all day breakfast, I feel like that was a thing that where it was like it was close to being fulfilled in an ironic way, like a like a genie in a Twilight Zone episode where people have been asking for this for I feel like for my entire life, people have been clamoring for a for all day breakfast. How come you can only get breakfast till 10 30? And then when it finally happened, it's like, well, they don't actually have we don't actually have hash browns all day.

You know, you got to get fries with your egg McMuffin and it's a limited menu. And I feel like it's also to it's just like not as good to get like when it's good to get in the morning, having him a griddle at like 6 p.m. It just it feels incongruous. It doesn't it doesn't really work. Why are genies always trying to cheat people when they give them their wishes? It doesn't make any sense. You would think a genie would want to fulfill wishes correctly

so they get repeat business. So people like you got to fucking check out this genie, man. You rub his lamp, he'll hook you up. They just they fucking get off on this shit, man. Those pieces of shit. They're twisted. Genies are twisted. Where are they from? Is it Egypt? I mean, I don't know.

Oh, this is a problem. I read it. I inferred they don't exist. Genies are genies are from nowhere. Why are you going to break my heart every episode? But yeah, but I mean, it's not. It's also the devil. The devil fulfills things in in ironic ways.

Don't sell your soul to the devil. It always backfires. I don't know. I mean, unless she looks like Elizabeth Hurley and Bewitch. Oh, wait, what was it called? Bedazzled. Be dazzled. Bedazzled, right. Bewitch was a different one.

But yeah, even she screwed up Brendan Fraser. He wanted to be a basketball superstar. And she gave him a little wiener. Oh, wait, is that true? That's what happens in the movie. Yeah. Oh, God. There's also one. There's something that I'm sure has aged horribly,

which is that he wants to be like this amazing lover. But she makes him gay. And he's just like, I'm gay. And it's like it's really bedazzled. It was Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser. It came out. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's a remake of that Dudley Moore and Peter Cook movie. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's it's it's it's weird. It was the height of Brendan Fraser, who was great. The mummy movie, the original mummy is great. I love Fraser. No, no objections to Fraser. I love Fraser and I love Fraser. Oh, all right. They're both excellent.

So what have you so you've been going through beyond McDonald's? What have you found as you've been going through this? This this tour of different fast food restaurants? You've been it feels like when I've been like watching your Instagram videos, a lot of them are like limited release items, like things that are that are that are new to the menu. What are any highlights? Any low lights?

Well, it's not I would say it's not entirely fast food. It's I would say snack food. Other things I've done a couple sandwiches. Sure. I've done a couple of things that you kind of do at home, like the mayonnaise, taste test and things like that. But it's things of that nature. Tell me more of this mayonnaise taste test. You watch it on Instagram.

I feel locally on Instagram. Nick, Nick, Nick used to eat a spoon. He'd eat just a spoonful of mayo. He loves what brand of mayo was it? I'm a best foods guy. I mean, I would grow up on the West Coast. Well, I'll spoil the ending. Best foods did win my taste test of two.

However, everybody has been saying that Dukes is the mayonnaise. It like I've never had it. It was it was it was the best foods versus Helmins. Was it that was it was best foods versus the new Heinz mayonnaise? Oh, you know, there's a condiment war going on between Heinz and best foods, Helmins right now. They're keep trying to invade each other's territory. Oh, best best food is the West Coast versus Helmins.

Yeah, it's that Carl's Jr. Their hearties divide. It's like that's the same sort of thing that splits the nation in two. OK, I'll tell you a couple of things that I found. Yeah, these are all will be well known to my Instagram followers. But first of all, I never even heard of Freddy's, right? Have you seen? Did you see my review of Freddy's? I didn't watch it, but I've never been to Freddy's.

But people have told us we need a terrific Freddy's. OK. It's a it's a burger place. Yes, it's there's like 150 locations. It's like it's it's national, but it's not in any big cities, really. It's like it's all over the Midwest. It's located at its headquarters is in Wichita. It's called Freddy's Steakburger and Custard. But there are like there's one in Las Vegas.

There's the nearest one to LA is in Victorville. You know, it's like a lot of like outlying areas. Oh, man, we went to Victorville one time. Victorville, another place like it like Vegas that has I think it's like a like a place where a lot of truckers stop. It's like a logistics hub where there's a bunch of chain restaurants. This this this little town that's like about a quarter of the way, a third of the way between LA and Vegas. Yes.

Yeah, but sorry, go on. So but so but Freddy's somebody said I should try it. And I read this thing on the line that said it was the best burger chain you've never heard of. And it was terrific. And the burger itself was the best fast food chain burger I have had. Wow. Rivaling in and out. Wow. Like and I think the only difference would be that it's like it's a matter of your personal preference.

Like I would have a tough time choosing if there were two right next to each other because Freddy's is a different type of thing. The burger is more of that like it's more of like that Shake Shack smash burger thing where it's it's smashed in. There's a little bit of char, but there's two of them and they're really thin and there's cheese between them. There's also two giant pieces of pickle. When you look at it, you're like, there's way too much pickle on this thing.

But it doesn't taste that way. It's taste magnificent. And so I love that I love and their fries are very good too. They were much thinner than your average fast food fries. And they had a different a variety of dipping sauces with the fries. OK, so I just had the burgers and fries. The meal itself was fantastic. And wow, I didn't even try it.

There's like there's a dozen other things on the menu. And plus they've got custard and all that other kind of like ice cream, Dairy Queen type stuff, which I hear is great too. So this is a place that people should be discovering. And it's just weird that it's located outside of metropolitan areas. Yeah, it was part right. My only concern, like this sounds awesome. My only concern with a place called Freddy's is that you'd get

a bladed gloved hand through your chest. And here onion rings, bitch. Wait, you didn't make an effort. Yeah, what is that? What is the pun there? Yeah, come on, Freddy, stop floating it in. So that's one thing I found. Yeah, I found I mean, I try to do places that the broad audience

would appreciate and not just one location places. But I run a few like this place in Portland that just opened yesterday, which is the definitely the best hamburger in Portland from a team of like all star chefs, this place called Super Deluxe, which burgers are better than Shake Shack. Wow, the best burgers in town. And it's just this one location. So that's that's a very regional thing in that it's just Portland.

I also went to Hi Ho Burger here in Santa Monica. Yes, yeah, yeah. But it's over on the Third Street promenade. That was that was terrific as well. And then I've had a couple of fairly good things like I had to really get that sandwich for Wendy's and stuff. But I've also had a lot of I've had some crud like Burger King, man. What's going on Burger King?

Is it like is it falling apart? Like every we've we've we've talked about this. I mean, I had a Burger King near me when I was close to me when I grew up and I and I so I held held in my heart and I and I I do I make excuses for it, but it's gotten it's gotten bad. It's regressed a bit. I'm I've been pretty disappointed in my recent Burger King experiences. Although we had the the Farmhouse King is the one burger we had,

which I thought was pretty good, which was a which it was a recent promotional burger that was kind of like a that had an egg on it that was well done. But in general, I feel like the they're just like, how did it? I don't know. How did Burger King become like the the restaurant that you go into and it's like shitty and dirty? Like, yeah, it is. And I haven't read at least I can certainly say in Portland, every one of them looks like it hasn't been renovated since 1991.

Yeah, if you're lucky. Yeah, and the food is of the standard quality in most places. But it's like it seems like they're they're waiting every other like McDonald's. They've all been renovated in the past five years. They look pretty good. Yeah. And and other places are like innovating stuff. Or is Burger King seems like it's waiting to die. You know, it's it's sad to me.

And it still is probably it's right. It's still up there as far as chains go, right? Like I want it's going to be like the most drawn out death ever. Because because it's so you. But just back in the day, just the fact that you could get just the grilled burger-ness of it. And that was the difference between it. But now I don't think that's as big of a deal

because there are places that actually grill their burgers, not even like the fake thing that Burger King does or whatever, puts it through the little machine conveyor belts or whatever. There was a thing you talked about, though, before, Mitch. You talked about the just how solid the the whopper. And for me, I like the whopper with cheese. I love the whopper. I do. I still find it delightful. And I like going to Burger King.

I'd rather buy it and eat it in my car than enter the restaurant. But I do like the taste of the whopper. It's it's really it's really it's really strange that they've become like they they have no identity where McDonald's is its identity is that it is the number one place. And it has all these things that it has. It has all these classic things like the whoppers. It's one classic. Yeah.

They change their fries and about when was it? Like the late 90s or whatever. Remember when they changed their fries? Yes, I remember actually because they had a free Friday when they gave everything away. And then and then besides that, like when you think about Burger King, like what is what is even their other big thing? It's like the that long chicken.

I like the long chicken sandwich. But that's it, right? I mean, like what else besides that? The big king, which was just a knock up like it's a big Mac knock off. I mean, the the the regal theming, I guess, is part of it. Yeah. The crown you get the little crown. That's a lot of fun. But do they do that still?

And also the the when I when I would go back in the day, they have little apple pies that would be warm. But I don't even think they I don't think they offer that anymore. Yes, it's just it's really it's a sad thing to me because I used to I I loved it back in the day and it's just it's dying. You're right. I totally think it's also one other thing I've discovered. I discovered in this journey was that I like that.

I thought Arby's was very good. Love Arby's. You know, I hadn't been to Arby's. I have only eaten the sandwich Arby's in the past 20 years and everybody's like, you got to go to Arby's and I did. And although it was a dump in the Burger King tradition, yeah, the sandwich was excellent. Yeah, they have good meat at Arby's.

Yeah, I liked it a lot. And it's like it's just it's a figure of fun because of its funny name. But ultimately, the food is I thought the food was deserving of more credit. Yeah. And they and they like obviously their roast beef is their thing. But then also you can just like they advertise like, oh, this buffalo chicken sandwich, you're like that looks good and you go and have it. You're like, it is good Burger King. It there's nothing like that.

They've put up a new promo and you're like, that's going to taste like the Burger King taste to go there and it tastes like Burger King. You know, I like about Arby's. We agree. What's that? Spokesperson, the voice of the We Have the Meets campaign. Bing Reims, a.k.a. Luther Stickel from the Mission Impossible franchise. That's right.

The key member of Ethan Hunt's team. Nick and I are one fixture of the franchise. Nick and I are big Mission Impossible fans. The movie. Have you seen any of the Mission Impossible movies? I saw the first one. Uh-huh. That's where a lot of you got a lot of catching up to do. The new one comes out this week and we stand by it as the best action movie. Go like action.

Actually, I feel like it's one of the best franchises go. Yeah, it's it's got to be and and a lot of my Quincy friends hadn't watched and I'm getting Mike Ramondi to he's watching them all right now. Yeah, I've been I've been rewatching all of them. I'm having the time of my life. I told him I said watch he so he just watched three yesterday and he texted me. He said he said three was fucking awesome. I was like wait till you see four and five.

They're great. They're all great going. They're great. If you ever have if you're ever looking for a movie, the the Mission Impossible series, I'd say three on is you can start at three and keep going if you already seen the first one. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Hey, you guys check it out during this break. We were right back before. You want them to watch a movie?

Yeah, what's the whole movie? The second half. Welcome back to Doe Boys. We're here with Bill Oakley. You've hopefully just watched one of the Mission Impossible movies. You know what's crazy is that someone just now tweeted us. You song sent out a picture of us podcasting. Yes.

And someone made a Mission Impossible reference reference to the tweet. What's the reference? It was like like Ethan. I don't know. It's just I don't want to get into the how dumb the tweet is. But you just tell it. You just showed me your lock screen. Oh, well, I'm telling you, we're not going to get into it. But I'm saying they made a reference to Mission Impossible

right around the same time we were talking about it. I wasn't going to say this, but it's because you brought it up. My lovely wife Natalie texted me while we were recording. I wasn't looking at my phone. Texted me, okay, you need to watch MI5 and we need to tan about it. I think I'm sure she she meant talk. That was a typo. Or maybe you guys are going tan.

Hey, man, I'm a little pale. P.S. We got a book the MI6 showing now all in so fun. Wow. She hadn't seen MI5, but we saw MI5 together mentioned theaters. I'm about to rewatch it. So we did. We did see that together. Why?

Why did I go with you? I don't know. Bill spur of the moment review. Bubbly cherry seltzer water. What do you think? This is what we've been sipping on here. You know what? I like Bubbly.

This brand just introduced like a month ago. I feel like I saw a lot of stuff work. I think it has slightly more flavor than all the competitors. This cherry flavor is very cherry. There's a strong cherry taste to it. More so than the Croy or something. I like it. I feel like this brand is living up to the hype.

Yeah, yeah. I think this is Ellen's brand, right? Is that right, Nick? The Bubbly brand? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Which Ellen? Ellen DeGeneres.

I know. Jesus. Which other Ellen? Clay corn. All right, dude. Ellen Clay corn's brand. Mitch, I want to, we got to get into our chain a little bit. Panera bread, which is a big one that we haven't covered yet.

We got to talk about some stuff. I know you have some big thoughts on this one, Bill. But before we do that, and I don't know how you want to address this exactly, Mitch, but you, during the break, you went into your bedroom. That's right. You reemerged with a dust-covered cardboard box with just 1992 written on it. That's right.

Now, I don't know what's going on here. I don't know if this is the remains of a sibling or something. I don't know what is in this JJ's mystery box, if you will. Mack Mitchell died in 1991. Was this a burger you considered your brother? This is, from the time I worked at The Simpsons, I was, I would come upon a lot of things, that would be considered trash. And this was literally given to me to throw in the dumpster.

And I didn't do it. It's a bunch of scripts from 1992. Oh my God. So you were there in 1992. So a bunch of production scripts. I'll just pull out a few of them. This is like when a Cardinal Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict, discovered Pope John Paul's memoirs.

This was like Graning drew the cover to that one? He asked for his diary to be disposed, but he could not bring himself to do it. So he held on to it for its historical importance. So yeah, this one has some hand drawn Simpsons art on the front of it and marker. These are table reads, I believe. This one is the, this is the record draft. The record draft?

Oh yeah, the blue is the blue page. Two weeks before we started. Wow. This, yes. And this is, that's the one that Conan wrote that came with about the art wanting to date that teenage girl. Oh yeah. This one. There's a few, see this one is this one.

New kid on the block. Oh yeah. This one is a record one and the Homer's line to Harley. So Dan Castle might have used this. Yeah. You know what's interesting is I've got some of the stage directions here, and like you don't, you see this on the screen, you don't ever see how this is actually written,

but it says Bart, a cartoon boy who likes to make prank calls, enters the scene. That crossword was, that crossword knows some inside info. Spot on. This is amazing. Yeah, these are great. This is, this is Dan's too. This is highlighted. Wow, you got a Dan grainy there.

This is a Dan Castle in that. Oh, okay. Still very cool. Maybe a few of them are Dan's. Yeah. So wait, this is one that he read at the table or read for the record. Yeah, Marge gets a job. I mean, wow.

That's the one that we were, that was our first one. It is, it is, it's yours. That is the first assistant script that we ever wrote. This is amazing. We were there at this table reading and it was stunning. Would you, would you like, do you have a copy of the script or do you like it? I do. I have a copy of at least one of each.

Phew. I'm going to keep this. This is also one of, this is also highlighted. This obviously must have been a cache of stuff that Dan Castle and that I left lying around somewhere. They were going to throw it in the dumpster. They're going to throw it in the dumpster. Mitch, you can flip this on eBay. Get yourself a house.

I opened up one page and there was a dead bug in one. Yeah. Oh man. I mean, it was an old dead bug. Right. I don't know. So this is, this is crazy. Yeah. It's Homer's highlighted lines and then some handwritten notes in here.

Yeah. I mean, this is pretty awesome. So how much money, so this basically why we had to come on the show here is how much money you think I could make from these scripts? You can probably make six or seven bucks a piece. Whoa. Yeah. All right.

So long dough boys. Hello little Caesars. Let's talk Panera Bread. So it was founded as the St. Louis Bread Company. It still operates as the St. Louis Bread Company in the St. Louis area. Hey, if you're a St. Louisian and there's a St. Louis Bread Company in your neighborhood, tweet at us. Hashtag a local St. Louis guy or girl or person.

I'm flubbing the hashtag. Never has a hashtag been, that was one of the best hashtags we've ever had. It was purchased by the Albon Pan Company, which then sold off Albon Pan and then a holding corporation purchased Panera and then re-bought Albon Pan. So the corporations got merged, then separated, then merged again. And 2,100 stores nationwide, pretty well done, are pretty well known rather. So Albon Pan is gone? No, it still exists.

Oh, it does. Okay. But I mean, it got, it would absorb these other companies. Albon Pan absorbed Panera. Then that new company sold off Albon Pan and was just Panera. And then another company bought them back together and merged them. So I went to the Santa Monica location with my lovely wife. And this used to be a beloved local chain called Polly's Pies.

There's a bunch of these in Southern California. A Panera went up in its husk like a hermit crab. It was, I remember going to the Polly's Pies when it was there. And it was something that the seniors loved. It was a place you could sit down and get yourself a good sandwich and a slice of pie. It was a cup of diner coffee. So I kind of, that particular Panera location, I have some ill-will tours. But I like Panera in general.

I'd say the customer service there was very, very informative. There was a little bit of a kitchen miscue, but other than that, everyone was super duper friendly. And the person working the counter, Amber, I believe was her name, was super helpful in terms of guiding our many decisions. Have you, Bill, I know that you have strong feelings. Actually, Mitch, I want to hear your feelings first on Panera. Your bias is going in because I know Bill has some particularly strong thoughts.

I've never had really strong thoughts on Panera. It wasn't a chain that I visited a lot of. Obam Pan is more of a place that like, interesting. My mom would like, I had like, like a, like a honey mustard or like a, some sort of baguette from there, like some sandwich. Obam Pan, I mean, Panera, not too, too much experience with, I feel like I've gotten sandwiches from there like once or twice, but it just wasn't in my, it wasn't in my sphere, Nick.

It was never something that I was eating growing up. So I don't have strong thoughts about it. When we worked on the birthday boys, there was a Panera on Brand Boulevard, which I went to today. Yes. And that was kind of like the first time where I was like, okay, we're having this for dinner and for lunch and stuff. We ate it a few times, you know, and I was fine with it.

I think it's like, it's kind of got this hotel lobby decor where you can kind of sit in it for a while and they generally have free wifi. So, you know, it's, it's like a place if you need to kill some time. I feel like it serves that purpose well, but, but, A waiting, you're saying it's a waiting room. It's akin to a waiting room that serves food. Yeah. But Bill, I, what, look, what is, what is your thought on Panera going in?

And how did that perhaps color your, your feelings regarding this particular meal? I have so much to say guys, I hope you got in two hours for this. Okay. This is what began. Okay. This is what got me into this thing. And I know Panera was, I was one of the most places I recommended that we do tonight. This fast food, this rating of national fast food chains came out at USA Today on July 3rd.

And I read this and it just, my top of my head flew off. Okay. Right. Top fast food. You do have an exposed right now. This is a national poll. Top fast food scale of zero to 100. Number one, Chick-fil-A, 87.

Okay. I can understand that. People feel passionately about Chick-fil-A. Right. It's good. You know, the quits good. Number two, Panera bread. Wow.

81. That, I just like, I couldn't process that fact. Now we'll move on down here to, next one is Papa John's. That's controversial. Next one, Pizza Hut. Also controversial. Then Subway, Arby's, Chipotle, Domino's, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks. Okay.

It's weird to me that there's no McDonald's or anything else in that list, but it defies logic and reason that Panera bread is number two. First of all, you can't qualify it as a fast food place under any circumstances. At best it's a fast casual. Although when I went today, it took 18 minutes to get my food, which is a regular restaurant. That's not fast food. It's not even fast casual. It's not fast.

Yeah. Okay. But the fact that so many people across the United States would vote for this above all the other many very good fast food places we have made me angry. Yeah. I, that whole, I mean, that list that you read down, it sounds like it's generally kind of wack. I mean, Papa John's number three is insane.

I would push Dunkin' way up too. Well, I mean, I would expect Dunkin' to score a little bit higher because for the same reason, Chipotle has scored high. People are asking about it. Yeah, he's got to score high, yeah. I wonder if this poll was like exclusively people over 60 years old or consulted or whatever. Like that other poll that everybody was talking about last month about Taco Bell, voted best restaurant in America.

I believe it turned out that it was of the Mexican fast food chains. It was voted the best one. Right. But it, the headline was that it was best restaurant in America. So it misled everybody. Bill, you know, I've said on this podcast that I consider Taco Bell my favorite restaurant of all time. I like Taco Bell. It's perfectly fine.

Yeah. I wouldn't say it's the best fast food chain in America, but it's, it's a contender. Yeah. But Panera is not. Yes. Okay. Now I want to talk for about Panera. Yes.

I want to talk about this. I've been to Panera hundreds of times. I've only eaten it because I have to go, my wife loves these pastries and I had to go pick them up. I've been in the restaurant hundreds of times. I've only eaten maybe four or five meals there and every one of them has been a disappointment. I ate one today, which we'll talk about in great detail. Should you want to hear about it in great detail? I certainly do.

But I think the thing about Panera is ultimately it's mediocre food served in a depressing setting. And it is, it's also attracts a client. I made up a jingle for, which I tweeted a few years ago for Panera that said, there's no tune to it, but it's like, there's a place where middle-aged women go to have serious conversations and it's Panera and it's been borne out and it's not just women, but in my observation, it is mainly women, but it's also people, middle-aged people go there to have serious conversations. And I think as you said, it's like a waiting room. It's a hot, it's a place.

It's a neutral place with, in my opinion, depressing decor where you're welcome to sit for an hour and they have Wi-Fi and it's like, you can go talk to your financial planner. In fact, I all made up a fake New Yorker cartoon where it was like the husband and the wife heard Panera and he says to the wife, the husband says, it's time to talk about putting your father in assisted living. So I brought you to Panera and that's what it is. That is that place. It has a, the decor is a 1992 waiting room.

It really is. It's bad. And I don't know how it's intolerable to me, but also the food is not so great that it makes up for that. And you know what, I think the decor, the, oh God, the interior decor, thank you, looks like is a worse Olive Garden. Yes. It looks, it's dark like Olive Garden. Like, why is it more bright in there?

This one on brand is cave-like too, but then it just is like, it's a step down from what Olive Garden looks like. It's crazy bright. It's like, well, Olive Garden is too stylish. It's someone that's, Olive Garden has too much style, has too much pizzazz. Remove all the fake plants and the palm trees and just give us that, that airport, you know, look. Yes. And it's neutral. It was focus-grouped that people, anybody from little kids won't hate it.

The old people will be perfectly soothed by it. It's like a nursing home. In fact, one of my friends, his wife summed it up perfectly and said, Panera is like a second rate hospital cafeteria. Yes. And I think that's the most perfect thing I've ever heard about Panera. When I, when I, when I think back on like, like, you know, hearing the news that my dad was sick, like the environment is a Panera, it's like the Panera dining room,

even though it didn't happen there. I'm saying like, you were eating a giant cookie. Let me tell you, this, let me, when I put this, I put this observation on Instagram stories after my outrage at this thing. Yeah. I got a few comments from people who had, who agreed with me, including like, my mother-in-law just got divorced at a Panera. My local knitting group used to meet Eddie Panera every week, but we had to change venues

because we had seen two arrests, four breakups and many bad dates. And another person said, a man came running out and said, my wife got in a fight and she just drove away and left me here. That's the kind of thing that you get at Panera. Right. And in fact, I went there today to eat for this podcast and sitting next to two different groups of middle-aged women arrived. One was talking about court-ordered child therapy and the other was talking, it was a woman,

and I just heard her saying, I'm just doing the best I can to do it. It's like a lot of depressing materials going on in Panera. So that if the food were amazing, maybe the depressing atmosphere would be worth it, but it is not. We can go into a deep dive on the food in a moment, but I just wanted to get my rant out of the way. I get that. I think I was the depressing person for the people in Panera today.

They were bummed out when they saw me walk in there. I don't know, it's something that stands out. I mean, it is something that you think about when you go. You can't help but think about how it's, I swear to God, the same thing with that one on Brand Boulevard. We went to three different locations, and I've been to three or four different locations in Portland as well, and they're all identical in terms of the look, and also in terms of the demographic of people there.

I think we've covered that, but that's what I wanted to say is the preamble. Well, let's get into the food. So on my visit, I got the You Pick Two. This is a deal that Panera has. You combine any two half portions of salad, sandwiches, soups, mac and cheese, which they offer now, or flatbreads, and everything comes with your choice of French baguette, apple, or chips. I feel like apple is the right move there.

I mean, it depends on how hungry you are, but I feel like the Panera apples I've had are generally pretty solid. That was the case today, or not today, but this most recent visit. I got the black bean soup and the bacon turkey bravo sandwich. The black bean soup is a vegetarian broth, onions, red bell pepper, garlic, cumin, and black beans, of course. The bacon turkey bravo sandwich, turkey breast, bacon, gouda, lettuce, vine ripened tomatoes, and signature sauce of some sort,

which had a little bit of sweetness on this tomato basil bread, which was an odd bread. Then we also got the barbecue chicken mac and cheese, which is one of their recommendations, which is basically mac and cheese, white cheddar cheese, the sauce they call it, with a pulled chicken, apple cider vinegar, barbecue sauce, frizzled onions, and fresh cilantro. I also got myself to drink a peach and blueberry smoothie, which is made with almond milk, peach and mango puree, and a few different juices. I would say the barbecue chicken mac and cheese was subtraction by addition to invert the idiom.

It adding the barbecue chicken and adding the onions and the cilantro made it less good than just mac and cheese on its own. In fact, as we dug through that bad boy, when you get to those bottom layers that was just the mac and cheese, those were the best bites. The stuff with the protein on top and the onions was just like, I was honestly too saucy. I gotta say something here. Yes. It's going to be divisive. I want to hear it. Barbecue chicken is fucking whack.

Wow. It's bad. I think barbecue chicken on its own can be good. I've had barbecue chicken, but you mean the barbecue chicken food item, like the salads, the pizzas. Yes. It's such like a saucy. I will take buffalo chicken over it always. That would have been better in this context. I was with Wu Tang when I was back in Boston. So we hit some balls at the driving range. A lot of fun. And he ordered a Hawaiian pizza when we were up there. I said, Jesus, a Hawaiian pizza,

that's bad. I'm not, but whatever. So I ate it. And then we went to Boston Bowl later that night. We were at Boston Bowl. He's like, I'm going to go and get another pizza. I said, great. He comes back with a barbecue chicken pizza, the two worst pizzas in one day. So you guys go to a driving range in a bowling alley. He gets two, he gets two sweet pizzas. He got two sweet pizzas. What a strange, that's, is that what your life is like in Quincy?

Yes. Just go golfing and bowling and then you eat bad food. Why do you think that I want to go back there all the time? We did the batting cages as well. And I was the one who played baseball a bunch and they said, the loser has to buy the bowling and I somehow still lost. That's like, it's like a weekend with the, with Tom Hanks character from Big. Let's go to the batting cages. That eat two pizzas.

We're just as disinterested in women like Tom Hanks' child character. So yeah, two, two, two. And I, when I was eating that pizza, I was like, this, this pizza is good. The Boston Bowl pizza is surprisingly good. But, um, but the, that barbecue, that sweet barbecue chicken, get it out of it. It's, I, I, it needs to be, it feels like a relic from the 90. It needs to be done. I agree. Cause it did actually, when, when California pizza kitchen was like a cool thing,

that was their signature item, the barbecue chicken pizza. That is very 90s. So yeah, I think I'm with you. It's not even what real barbecue chicken is. Real barbecue chicken doesn't taste like this thing that they've made barbecue chicken. Right. It's usually like a, like a white meat. The, the, the, the one that you get in the barbecue chicken is usually like a white meat that's, that's, you know, certainly not barbecued. And then just covered with this, this, this overly sweet molasses based sauce.

Sorry, that was my, that was my rant. Hey man, that's okay. I don't get that out too. I'm not sure. I don't agree with you entirely, but I can see where you're coming from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're all ranting here. Hey, you know, while we're ranting, why the hell isn't Waluigi playable in the new smash brothers? Oh Jesus.

I mean, he's in Mario tennis, but he's just an assist trophy and upcoming smash brothers for the switch. This is going to be the most widely played smash brothers of all time. And you can't even make him DLC. This will get the most reaction from our listeners too. The, the, the tomato basil bread on the bacon turkey bravo sandwich I did not like. I thought it just thought it was a weird flavor it had to it, but overall it was a fine sandwich. I really like the big leaf of lettuce in there. They just had a big old leaf of green.

What was the bravo element besides the bacon and turkey? What else was on the sandwich? I think that's just what they call it. They got a registered trademark after the bravo. So I don't, maybe it's because that's what you're supposed to say upon finishing it because you're so astounded by the, the sandwich they prepared for you. The soup I thought was fine. It was just, it was filling. Just a little under seasoned.

It would have been nice if they'd had just a little bit more cumin in there, a little bit more garlic. I mean, it's pretty subtle. I was just, I felt like I was just having like a plain black bean sort of a side. And then the smoothie I thought was quite nice, you know, the, the, the juice was maybe a little syrupy in there, but the almond milk worked well and, and, and I, I enjoyed the flavors. It was not overly sweet. And it, you know, I, I, I felt like it was something where what, sometimes you have those smoothies and they're super duper unhealthy. This did not feel like that. Natalie, my wife got the butter and cabrera sandwich. This was where we had the

kitchen miscue. They were out of the basil wheat, white bean puree, which is supposed to come on it and didn't tell us. So that sandwich just arrived dry. Nellie's got enough problems with dryness being married to me. But, but I mean, like, why not, why not offer some mayo on the side or something? She had to go out, go up to the counter and ask for a pesto. They just gave her a sandwich with no condiment on it. I can't believe I didn't say that. She also got the, she also got the Green Goddess Cobb salad with chicken, which was fine. It was a totally fine sandwich, had some avocado in there. And then to go, we ate this at home, the kitchen stink cookie, which is a big old cookie with, with milk chocolate, caramel pieces, pretzels and finished with flake salt.

I actually thought this was the highlight of her whole meal. It was a very nice cookie, very, very soft. The flake salt on there really helped bring out the sweetness and contrast with it. Yeah, that was an excellent cookie. And if I'd just had that cookie, I would have been like, oh, man, this is this place knows how to bake. But that was my meal. Let's get into what you guys got. Bill, let's start with you. Let me say that across the board, I don't think that any of the food was worth a special trip to a special place to get. I'm with you. I think that's like, that's the nature of Panera. It's like, you really like that cafeteria in the county courthouse. You know, you really like that, that little cafe in the convention center, right? It's exactly that

kind of food. And, but I guess it's, it's because number one, it's, it's a national chain. It's easily available. And you can sit there and use Wi-Fi and have conversations about putting your dad in assisted living or whatever. It's the perfect place. So like that, okay, I had the following. I wanted to have a sampling of things I had never tried before. I don't like having apples with my sandwich, by the way. I find that offensive to be getting in the sandwich with an apple next to it. I don't like that. I like the option, but I can see that you, you know, you're in good shape, much better shape than me. So you probably like to eat apples. Hey, I'll take the combo. Oh God, he's going to talk about this for months. Okay. I had the chicken frontega panini. And I never

heard of this either, but I looked it up and I gather it's one of their most popular things, because there's like these, there's recipes online how to approximate the sandwich. And it's kind of like a sandwich. It's a chicken sandwich with some onions and some Mediterranean flavoring and special sauce. And it was pretty good. It was definitely pretty good. It wasn't so great that I would ever stop to get it somewhere. Right. I also was never offered the option to choose whether I had an apple or a baguette or anything like that. Oh, they just decided for you. It says right here on the thing baguette. And it's I never said anything like that. Wow. I also had a cup of the soup, which was the the onion French onion soup. That was good. I actually like that. And I

would order it again. And I would go, I might actually go out of my way to get it, but probably not because I don't like Panera. Then I had this salad, I don't usually order salads, but I had, I thought I would try a wide range of stuff there. So I had this modern, it's called the modern Greek quinoa salad. And it was totally like one you could get in the supermarket or in a craft like that, like the airport, like it had ingredients, it had Greek-ish ingredients. But again, in terms of the quality of everything about it, no different than any place that you could get any public cafeteria of moderately good quality, any hospital or whatnot would serve something like this. So the highlight of my visit was the French onion soup, which I really enjoyed. I ate all of it,

everything else was so so. Frontegi chicken sandwich is good, is good enough. Mitch, go for it. By the way, your joke has caught, I'm caught. Now my throat is dry. Oh, no. Your dry joke. Do you need another Bev? Want me to get you a Bev? No, I'll be okay. Have something that bubbly. I did. I drank it down, but you got me. You really got me there, Weiger. I try to do kind of a mix of stuff because I've eaten there a few, like just a few times and my big go-to there was the Greek salad. And I would get the same one. A different one, just like the Greek, like the Greek, the regular Greek salad. Not the modern quinoa salad. Yeah, not the modern quinoa salad.

Yeah, just traditional Greek salad. The traditional Greek salad with chicken. And I always thought of it was like, oh, it's feels healthy enough. And the chicken is just good enough. Like the chicken is borderline bad, but still not like the worst levels of grilled chicken fast food bad. So I was so I liked it. And I thought the dressing was pretty good. So I would get that quite a bit. That's kind of a healthy option. Who knows how healthy it is. It comes with a big roll. So probably if you eat the roll, then it's all out the window. But today I went with I got a small mac and cheese, just plain. I got the agave lemonade. And I got a small broccoli and cheddar soup. I got all those to go. And then I got when I first sit down, I got

the half Southwest chili lime ranch salad with chicken and then a half Chipotle chicken avocado melt. So kind of similar. I thought they kind of matched up as far as the sandwich and salad went. The sandwich and salad were disappointing. The Southwest chili ranch dressing is like, it just isn't, it's kind of, it's almost too, I wish it was more ranchy. I wish it was kind of more like, it's kind of like too like, too Chipotle. Oh, I got you. You know what I mean? Like it's like too much where I'm like, I don't want to like have this be the, it's too, I don't know, more than a dressing. Yeah, it's just too, it's too. Yeah. And it needs to be a little bit more ranch. And the sandwiches kind of, it was just kind of like a let it was, you know, it was like the

half sandwich. Yeah. It was just kind of, it was just kind of a let down. It tasted very much like hospital food or it was, it was, it was, there was nothing special about it. There was avocado in the salad, but the avocado was like slightly brown. It just wasn't, there was nothing special about it. However, I brought the soup and the mac and cheese home because I was embarrassed to eat all that food in one sitting. So I brought that home. They gave me a little piece of like French bread and then what they said was the whole wheat roll looks like it's in there. It looks like a like a bagel. Yeah. So you just had a stray roll just on your counter. It looks like a bagel, right? It does. I thought it was a whole wheat bagel. I think it is a whole wheat bagel that they gave

me, which is weird. But they called it a roll. That's what I said. I said a wheat roll. The broccoli in cheddar soup was great. Yeah. I loved it. So maybe that maybe they got something going with the soups. Yeah. The broccoli and cheddar soup was really, I thought it was really, really good. I was dipping the roll in it. It was great. I've had that soup before and it is quite nice. And then the mac and cheese was good. It was very, very creamy mac and cheese. It was, it was, it was very strong. Right. But it was, it was, it was surprisingly good. You and I are both creamsmen though. We like, we like a little bit. We are creamsmen. We like, we like heavy, thick, creamy, cheesy things. Right. But, but, but I ate, I ate kind of half of both of them.

But, but the sandwich and salad combo let down. I like the Greek salad from there, but then the other two were surprisingly good. Yeah. So I don't even know what, I don't even know what to think of Panera. But, but I, my idea of this place is that you said that there would be middle-aged people like middle-aged women. And I think that, I think a lot of it maybe is like the fact that you can get a combo of a half salad, half salad, half sandwich. And it's kind of like a, to go fast foodish version of a half and half place. It feels health, whether or not it is, it feels healthier than a lot of fast food places. And you can kind of, it encourages taking your time eating there. And I think for, you know, for certain demographic,

it's like, Oh, it's nice that I can, I can grab a sandwich and a cup of soup and have a conversation and sort of, you can also take your kids there too, because of the kids like the mac and cheese and stuff. And so it's like, it's, if you, if you were going, it's much better than taking your kids to McDonald's and you're into health and stuff like that. And that's more, it's more of a restaurant experience than, I wouldn't call it fast food in any way. And it's barely fast casual. It's more like a restaurant chain, you know, and unless you're just getting stuff to go like bread, pre-made rolls, right. So you can take the kids and tell them that you have to put the dog down. Yes, that's a perfect Panera out here.

Mommy and daddy are going to be living in different houses. Guys, come on, family, we're going to go, we're going to go to Panera. Oh no, bad news. You guys are getting divorced. No, we're just putting the dog down. There's kids terrified. It's a Panera day, guys. I'm so sorry. I just got the biopsy results back. Kids around the country are terrified to be brought to Panera. But, and I think the other half of it is, I think it is a health thing. I think that, like, besides, you're right. I think that it's a big part of it of like, oh, I get the kids a bowl of mac and cheese or they like the soup or whatever, shut up kids. Here you go. And then, and then I

get, yeah, here's the apple, Nick's favorite treat. But that was honestly one of the best things I had. That was a good apple. But then, all right, but then that's a good reaction. Guys didn't see that at home. It was a good one. But then for the, for, I feel like for, you can get, for adults, you can get a salad. It feels, it doesn't feel as heavy. You know, when you're buying a big bag of dinner for people, you get yourself a salad and there's, there's a bunch of different salad options that I feel like it just feels like a healthier place. Yeah. If you're not eating the bread and everything.

I think it's had its all its edge. It's perfectly concocted to be the least offensive. You know, dining option in the world. There's nothing, there's no startling decor. It's very soothing. There's no unusual food options. You know, it is like a hospital or a place where people would be recovering from surgery and they wouldn't be too startled. Right. They wouldn't have any strong flavors. You know, there wouldn't be, and the music, oh my God, where they, did you guys listen to the music? They were playing when you were in there? Oh yeah. I don't, I don't remember anything specific, but it was very like, like mainstream.

Oh, it was, yeah. It was soothing, depressing stuff for your, you know, your recovery center. Yeah. I also have to say the bread was decent for a bread place. They do an okay job with it. Yeah. I just like their bread. For me, I was like, I was, I think if you're going to call it, put bread in the name of your place, the bread should stand out. And I feel like the bread, at least on the sandwich I had was nothing special. And the baguette also, you know, the one, when I've had the baguette, it's like, you know, it's fine. It's a fine baguette. The cookie was great. And if, and if, you know,

their, their, you know, their breads were on par with that pastry, I'd be like, oh, this is, this is part of the hook of this place. They've got great bread. But yeah, I don't know. I thought it, I think it's just fine or good enough. Well, let's get, let's get. Can I ask you one more question about this guys? Did you, when you went, was it at a busy time of day? No, it was pretty low traffic. I went in the evening. Mine was pretty low traffic too. I went in a little after the lunch rush. Yeah, me too. I would say the thing is what I, many of the times I have gone, it's one of those places where there's, there's nine registers and only one person is working at one of the registers and it takes forever to order. And then because like, and,

but there's a million employees behind the counter making stuff. And it seems like, it, I would say it takes an annoyingly long time to get, to get anything during a high, it's a high traffic. Yeah, right. Yeah. No, I could, I could see it. I could, like you were saying that the 18 minutes, that's, that's, that's not quick. And especially if it's a busy, if it's busy, that's, that's, that, that would be insane. So yeah. Oh boy, I'm kind of nervous for what we're, what the review will be for, for Panera, because I, because right, you know, it's funny because coming into this, all these complaints I get, but I, it was kind of harmless to me. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't hate it. And I, and I, and I, and I liked the Greek salad enough that I was like,

yeah, that's fine. But then now when you break it down, it's like, oh yeah, there is a lot of stuff that's not good about this place. I mean, I don't want to color your opinion of it. It's like, it's, it's not hateable. It's more just like, it's the least offensive combination, made by a computer to be the least offensive food place possibly imagined, you know, that could ever be conceived of. It's basically the dough boys of restaurants. Wait, this, this is an inoffensive. Oh yeah, it's very offensive. Yeah, whatever. This, yeah, this, this show is very hateable. Yeah, we could learn, we could learn something from it. Well, let's, let's get to our final thoughts, Bill. So here's how this will work. We'll each go around. We'll sort of give our

closing argument on a Panera bread and then ascribe it a rating on the order of one to five forks. Hey, you can go down to zero five forks, zero to five forks. And so close with that score. Tines are encouraged and welcome. You're our guests. We will begin with you. Okay. I would say that the food, I cannot do it as a unit. I would say the food itself is three to three and a half forks. Okay. However, the atmosphere is one and a half to two forks. Wow. There and, and, and if you're taking the food to go, there you go. If you're eating it there, you have to calculate the mental toll that the place is taking on you. And therefore, you know, maybe I would say 2.75 forks max as a, as a unit. Wow. Go ahead. That's pretty good. Yeah.

I'm going to, I'm going to go a little bit higher. It's, it's so, it's in offensive to me. And then I find things that I like. It's another thing though that has a sprawling menu and, and, and so I'm sure that there's a lot of bad things and a lot of good things. The menu is huge and there's a ton of choices. And as I said, it's probably like you could take your grandparents there and your kids and everybody would find something right, which is a rare type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I agree with you. And it's something that was in my, in my head. And then until you said, I was like, Oh yeah, I've never, I've never really thought this out too much, but it is just a kind of a depressing place. And it's funny we talked about Burger King too. Maybe they're, maybe they're

both in need of, of an update because it is just, it just lighted up a little bit. Just like who knows? And when I was younger, when I go to Obampan, it was so much more exciting to me. I mean, a lot of it was just kind of like almost like a counter in a mall or whatever, but the food was kind of more exciting to me. And it felt like a, like a special. The way that those places were designed was cool. I always thought at least like in the, in the nineties and the eighties, they look, they had kind of a modern, you know, modern art kind of look to them, which I thought they do. Yeah. And those, the food just was interesting. And this food is, isn't really interesting. It's, it's just kind of like here it is. It is, it is what it is.

It's engineered to be generic. Yeah. That being said, I like the Greeks out. I really liked the soup. The mac and cheese was good. Then the other half of the meal wasn't great. I think I'm going to go, I'm going to go three, 3.25 forks, which is still, still respectable, but not, but you're right. My food rating is slightly higher than yours. I gave you three and a half on a food rating. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, and that's, I agree with you. I think, I think three and a half for the food rating is, is right. I bring it down, but you don't deduct quite as many points for the pressing. I would, I would just get out of it. I would just eat it in my car. I would eat at home. I wouldn't, I wouldn't eat it there. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a fair point. And, you know,

especially a place that is, that tries to be inviting and tries to be like, like, Hey, there's a lot of tables here. Take as much time as you like. You got free wifi. You know, they, they, they kind of want people to hang out there, or at least they're making it an option. It is still kind of an appeal, an unappealing spot to be in. Yeah. I agree. I agree with the way you guys have characterized it as, as, you know, this something out of like a, like a hotel lobby out of a Cone Brothers movie. It's just like, it's not like a great place you want to be. It has like a little bit of, of just the blandness it offers because it's something of a discomfort. I thought the food was fine. You know, I think the, the, the, the, the, the UPIC 2 is great. I like that you can

customize something. I like that you can get a soup and salad or half sandwich and whatever. I think that's big. I think that's big for a lot of people. It's great. And I think that's, especially as a lunch option, you know, there, there are a lot of, there are a lot of directions you can go with it. I think it works really well. It's expensive too though, man. It's, it's a little expensive. It's a little on the pricey side. The, the service I thought was great. You know, they, they made that one mistake and they should have, they should have told us about it, but you know, they, they did rectify it when informed and were very apologetic. So, you know, the, the employees were very, very nice there. I think perhaps these Paneras are a little under

staffed, which is, which is, you know, maybe part of the, the, the reason that, that Bill was saying that, that it service them, it takes, takes some time when it's a, when it's very busy. But overall, I think it was, I think it was, I think it's fine. I think Panera is fine. It's not a, not a place I'd want to go to, but if I'm there, I'm not upset. It's fine. Natalie rated it two and a half forks. I am going to be in the handholding club with my wife and also give it two and a half forks. I think that's, that's the middle of the five fork scale. If this place is right down the middle, I think that's absolutely, I want a little high. I want a little high. I think, I think where you went is fine. I think 3.25 is, is,

we're all ballpark buds here. We're on the same approximate. We're in agreement. Yeah. We're in the same approximate area. By the way, I want to, I want to real quick amend the hashtag I flubbed. If you live in the St. Louis area, hashtag spirit of St. Louis. That's a little better. And also, I have, I have an alt for my, my Freddie miscue. If Freddie stabs you in a fast food restaurant, he can say, there's the beef, bitch. That was good. Yeah, it's a little better. That's good. That was good. He's being nice to you. Like I was being nice to Panera. You know what? It's of equivalent quality to the actors, the scripts of the Freddie movies.

Okay. That's what I was going for. If you, if you pitch that joke while, while Bill was running the Simpsons, you'd be fucking on your ass. You out the door. We're not trying to write the sister, trying to write a Freddie Krueger movie. Right. So that he did a good job. Also, what is it? You're taking down notes and you're correcting yourself at the end here. Yeah. I had some, I made some notes. I live with what I say. It's bad. Also, you know that cough I've been having throughout the episode? Yeah. I want to tell you about it, but we're going to have to go to Panera. Oh boy. Oh man. It's not good.

If we can just, if we can somehow just give this reputation to Panera and the bad news restaurant, the place where somebody's going to tell you some bad news, I think we'll have a accomplished our mission or at least my mission for coming over here. If very much seems like that, it is funny that the decor, why am I having a problem with decor of a restaurant just can influence how you feel about it and forms your mental state. I will absolutely say that those, if you go into one of those McDonald's, those recently renovated McDonald's that are really nice. Yeah. It improves my McDonald's experience to go there. Right. Actually feels kind of hip and kind of feels like a bon pan from the, you know what feels kind of

cool and you're like, especially if there's not a lot of, you know, people lingering around crapping up the place. You have it to yourself and it's like that. It improves the McDonald's not designing, designing experience. Do you think, do you think, well, do you think a Burger King could come back from, because I do think it is partly food related with them too, but could a Burger King come back from that if they did, if they, if they did an overhaul? Definitely. It would take a major overhaul though, because their whole aesthetic is so 1989. Yeah. It's grim. It's, it's doesn't, it doesn't look good. There's a couple in the Valley that are, that are updated, but they like are updated in the way like they look like newer versions of the old ones. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, well, they were needs to figure it out. Yeah, they need to figure it out. They seem to be, but they're doing the second most popular chain in America. So apparently they're doing something right, at least with their audience. There's a lot of, there's a lot of bad news in this country. Right. You need a place to have some food. Tell them about it. I remember now, Mitch, we took a, we took you song to a Panera to tell him he was hired on Doe Boys, right? You song got, got the drink for our next segment. And this is one we do all the time. We got a beverage and we're going to decide if it's worth pouring down your throat. It's drink or stink. You song, what, what, you picked us up by a McCafe drink. Is that correct? This is, but this is not

the McCafe that you get from the McDonald's restaurant. This is one that they sell commercially. I'm surprised. I don't think McDonald's does this with a lot of their items. No. You know, there's no, there's no, uh, Big Mac sauce. You know, no, yeah, there is. There is. There was. You could, they'd never sold it in America, but there was a time where they weren't, they gave away a bottle of Big Mac sauce to right, Nick. There was a, yeah, they did at one point. And I, and I heard that, I believe they still sell it on the shelves in Canada. Oh really? I think so. Those mother, why, why are they so nice? We never get any good American McDonald's stuff. They, all the overseas McDonald's is they're getting all this crazy crap every week. There's some new

sandwich, which people say is delightful and we never see any of it. It's bullshit. It's bullshit. Um, so this, we made you McDonald's. Me and Mitch specifically made you. Um, the, uh, the McCafe's, uh, so this is like, it's akin to the Frappuccino. It's akin to the Frappuccino. It's very much like you're opening a sauce right now, by the way. It is like the, the, the, the bottle is a little oddly shaped. I'm going to pass this one around. This first one is the Mocha flavor. Okay. Um, and, uh, Mocha Frapp, I'm a fan. Yeah. But they, it is kind of like, it's not like the, you know, the, the Frappuccino can it comes in, actually. The, the bottle is like kind of sleek. This is like a, this is like a, a, a child's milk jug that you would get. It's

like a little bit less, um, it's got a little bit less, less, uh, pizzazz to it. Uh, Bill, as someone who has some strong opinions on McDonald's, have you, have you tasted the McCafe line at all? I have not. I'm not really a big, like, you know, coffee or coffee type drinker. Do you drink it in the morning? Coffee? Rarely. Oh really? So wait, so how do you, are you someone who caffeinates at all? You know, I was drinking, I didn't, I never drank coffee until about, I never had even like a cup of coffee until a few years ago. Right. Then I drank, Portland has some great coffee. I did have some, but then I didn't, I didn't really like it that much. So I stopped drinking it. I'm not, I'm not a huge coffee person myself. Uh, I drink a lot of iced tea. Oh, okay. Interesting. I just,

on the back of this, that this is 270 calories. Oh my God, that's pretty hot. That's insane. Per serving, right? And there are 20 servings per bottle. Uh, so yeah, this is, I mean, this is very thick. This is like gravy thick. It's really got, you wish. Oh, I'd be in a hot hog heaven. Give me a jar of mayo and a side of gravy to sip on. Now I have had a few of the Starbucks ones of these. Um, not that I drink coffee a lot, but I do have, I've had it once in a while. I've had those, um, bottled Starbucks ones. Right. And this is their McDonald's attempt to, you know, cash in on that market. Yeah, which, you know, it is a lot of character for them. So the mocha I'd say is pretty good. It's, it's,

it's like, you know, a thick chocolate milk with a little bit of coffee flavor. It's, it's very basic. It's, it's, it's very rich. And here's, here's what I think it reminds me of, is it, it tastes like fake, it tastes like fake milk, like Yoo-hoo or something. It reminds me of Yoo-hoo, like coffee Yoo-hoo or something. Um, it's not, it's not a bad taste. It's not bad. Yeah. It's just not, it's not particularly impressive. I would say it's not, it's, it's only 5% worse than Starbucks ones. Sure. So these are cheaper. You might as well load up. And Bill, we have, we have, we have extra cups too. Perfect. Um, yeah. I guess you don't want to finish any of these. That's okay. I chucked my whole one. So I'm, I'm using the

same cup. I'm having the caramel one right now. Yeah. So you'll be awake till, uh, 7am tomorrow? Oh man. I do not, I didn't even think about that. I do not handle caffeine well after. I'm, I'm, I'm like a, I'm, I'm, I'm akin to a gremlin. I like, after 3pm, I can't have any caffeine or I'm wired. You're, you're, you're, you're trying to compare yourself to a gremlin? Well, I don't know. A Mogwai? What, what, what is the breakdown here? You're, you're. I'm a Mogwai. You're a Mogwai. Yeah. But the can turn, can I, can assume a gremlin state if I have caffeine too late in the day? Um, this, this caramel, you're gonna take over theater and put on the snow white and seven dwarves. Right. And then, and then I'm going, there's a fruit one for some reason. I don't,

I've only seen gremlins do when I have a vague knowledge of the project. You've only seen gremlins too? Yeah. I've never seen gremlins. What the fuck is wrong with you? I realized for a while, there were a lot of movies that I'd only seen the sequel to. Why? I don't know. I just like, I'd, I'd only seen Shrek two for a while. I went, I came into the Shrek franchise on two. It's a good place to come in. I'd only seen Fletch lives. I hadn't seen Fletch for like, until like last year, I watched Fletch for the first time. I'd watch Fletch lives like eight times when I was a kid. And, um, oh, well, yeah, and gremlins do the same thing. I've never seen the original gremlins. That's insane. Right. You get the original gremlins is great. You're gonna

see it. You're making references to it. You don't even know what you're talking about. I've absorbed the references from you. Uh, the, um, I think the, the caramel one is a little bit more artificial tasting. I don't really like that. I was going to say, man, that fake caramel taste, like it seems like it came out of a chemistry set. To me, it is creepy. Yeah. That's not, I didn't like that one. We got one more, which is the vanilla. I'm going to pass this around. But yeah, I think, I mean, clearly the, I'd prefer the mocha to that one. I think the mocha might win is if my guess is, well, we'll see. Boy, can you imagine drinking a whole one of these? Like I'm having like, this is my third sip. And I feel like this is just so like, it's like drinking cereal milk.

It's like so sweet. Yeah. And, uh, and I just, I can't imagine drinking a full one of these bottles. It'd be so much sugar. Whoa. Okay. I don't, I really don't like that one. That, oh, that's awful. It seems like we're totally in sync on this. Oh my God. That vanilla tastes like even like it, like it would come in from a chemistry set, but they didn't know what they were doing. That's really bad. It's super fake and weird. Yeah, that's terrible. That's the worst vanilla flavor I've ever had. Oh, that's terrible. That's so bad. I was like, yeah, right. When you guys are saying that, and then I took a sip of it and it's, it's, it tastes like there's like, what's the, what's the ingredient in diet soda? Aspartame? It tastes like there's aspartame in it, but,

but also it's sweet. Like it tastes like they added aspartame to a very sweet tasting. It's like there's a weird aftertaste. That's terrible. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's like on a, it's an approximation of vanilla that is not, like it was made to get a computer trying to simulate a vanilla that, that failed on a spaceship when you, you know, when you ask it for a vanilla frappe and it's like, how, how spit out this, this, uh, this, it's, it's, it doesn't even taste, I can't believe, I don't, vanilla seems like an easy thing to do. I can't do that. And the Starbucks, the Starbucks vanilla one is really good. Like it, the vanilla is not nauseating in any way. I agree. I think the frappuccino flavors, I think that, I actually like the vanilla one

from Starbucks. This one is absolutely stay away from it. I mean, if we're saying, by the way, your impression of hell is just similar to who you are. It's not too, not too big of a difference. It's not too far out of my range, Dave. Sorry, you don't like my vanilla. You'll prefer my caramel. The, uh, I, I, you know, I think the mocha for me is a mild drink. The others are hard stanks. I don't like, I don't like those. Mocha is, but like, it's just hard because like, I want that on ice. Like, like, like, right? There's nothing, I'm not going to drink. I love McDonald's. I'm with you. I love McDonald's, but there's 50 brands of these on any supermarket shelf. These types of drinks. And unless these were half the price of any other one, I wouldn't

bother with them. I think that's an assessment. My other, my other big issue with them was Yuzan, correct me if I'm wrong here. When you, when you brought them, they, do they not have to be refrigerated before, right? They're, they're warm. What's that? They weren't refrigerated. What? Yeah. Oh, that makes, that perturbs me. It's probably refrigerated after opening. That's my guess. I'm unsettled by that. Either that or we just drank. It says contains milk on it though. How do you know? Yep. Refrigerate after opening. So that, because, because they came here, they were warm and I was like, Oh, these are, like, it's like a, you, it's, I don't know if you, who even was that, but like,

Oh, wow. So, yeah, weird. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it is, it is, it's refrigerated after opening. So in the, in the, and they were on the shelves just to warm. So you guys are both going stank on, on all three of these. I, I mean, it's a very, very, very light drank on, on Mocha, but why? That's kind of how I feel. I mean, yeah, you're right. You're right. Completely agree. And it would have to be significantly cheaper than any competing brand. Yeah. Father. Yep. Well, that was drank or stank, just like a restaurant or via your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Sean Holloway. Sean writes, I've been traveling for work the last month and have been enjoying a lot of local food

on that sweet, sweet per diem allowance. However, I am working out here alone and can't shake the awkwardness of eating alone when I go to a restaurant. Is this fear normal or am I overreacting? What do you guys do when you eat alone? Eat at the bar, stomach the difficulty of saying table for one, stick to fast food. Thanks for the question, Sean. That's a tough one. Bill, what do you think dining solo, what's your, what's your take? I think it used to be a lot weirder than it is now that you can take your phone with you and look at the phone all the time. Oh, interesting. Places are like, you know, 20 years ago when people didn't have phones, it was super weird to see someone sitting at a restaurant reading a book.

By themselves at a table, but now everybody's looking at their phones. It's, if you're sitting at the bar, it's not weird at all. That's what everybody at the bar is doing at any restaurant, is looking at their phone by themselves. If you're at a table, it's a little weird, but if, again, if you're looking at your phone and it seems like you're, you know, a normal member of society functioning and communicating with others, it's not that weird. I think it's just all about your self-consciousness and nobody will notice, especially if you're sitting at the bar. Right. That's a great point. Just back in the day, going to eat alone, you just sit down there and say, well, time to eat and you eat alone. That sucks. I'm happy that I didn't have to deal

with it as much. Maybe watch CNN on mute if they had a TV or you'd have a newspaper if there was one with a counter. I feel like also it's more weird to go into a restaurant and do that than it was to go to a bar and get a drink or something alone. It's really, it's bad. You know, my thing is I just don't leave the house, is my solution to that. If I'm alone, I'll stay here and order food in. But I've recently been, because Nick, you had no issue like going to see a movie alone or getting something. I love doing things alone. I mean, I'm happily married. Our engineer at Emma is nodding along at that thought. I'm happily married, but if I am in a situation. What does married have to do with it? I'm saying, I'm not saying I'd prefer to be away from my spouse.

I'm saying if I have a situation where I'm by myself, I'm comfortable with it because it's the thing I've done a lot. Yes. But yeah, if I go to a restaurant, I will oftentimes sit at the counter or sit at the bar, some sort of place where it's meant to accommodate single diners. It's like the single writer line at Disneyland. You kind of get into that little area where it's so comfortable in that zone. Because I can just, I don't know, because I'm just like, I can be alone with my thoughts. Scary. But you know, the phone does go a long way. Actually, just having fork in my right hand, phone in my left hand, that can be a fun thing. Don't confuse them. Oh boy. It depends on the architecture of the restaurant. If you're in a booth in the corner

and nobody's going to see you or care, especially if you take your phone or even a laptop, then you always see people in every restaurant with laptops and booths doing stuff. Even the people who work there are sometimes doing the accounting in a booth with a laptop and stuff. Only in the fanciest kind of restaurant would you stand out seating by yourself because you'd have to be like, people would see you, I guess, and think you were weird. But that's 10% of restaurants at the very most, I think. Yeah. I have a story about dining alone. This is my friend's story. He used to work at a restaurant here in LA. He was a waiter. I'll say the celebrity's name now, but I may decide to bleep it out later. But he was working at the restaurant, and it was like,

it was the place that had breakfast. And so he was there. It was like 6.45 AM. The place opened at 7. And at the restaurant, the front door shows up. And he goes out there and he's like, oh, you know, I'm sorry, we don't actually open till 7. And he's like, oh, you know, I'm a regular here. I'll just set up shop and I'll let you guys do your thing. And then when you're open, I'll go order some oatmeal and some coffee. And they're like, all right, fine. So they let him sit up in the corner booth and has with him this like antique reading stand. It's like the you know, it's like a thing that you would set on a table that you can you can put a book on and it'll lay flat. And so he's got this like ornate antique like wood carved reading stand that he's brought

with him to this restaurant so he can hang out. So he sits down in the corner and you know, again, everyone's still still opening is getting the place ready doing their side work. He sets the reading stand down and he takes out of his satchel a Playboy magazine and opens it up, lays it flat and then like licks his finger and thumbs through the magazine one page at a time. Until like his oatmeal is ready, he gets his oatmeal, eats his oatmeal, drinks his coffee, puts the Playboy away, takes out a penthouse, puts it on the reading stand, goes through the same process of just going through the whole magazine cover to cover over like a 90 minute span. And this is like a this is like a character actor. Everyone kind of thinks of is like this like oh,

this is like a wholesome, lovable guy. It was very strange. Wow. Yeah. But I would say if you if you do dine alone, don't bring an antique reading stand print pornography, because that could be awkward for the clientele. It's hard to even find that anymore. You'd really have to. It's a choice. Hey, and if you like to dine solo hashtag dine solo, let us know or hashtag never dine alone. Mm hmm. And hey, if you have a question or comment with the word of chain restaurants, you email us at doboyspodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 go doh, that's 830 4636844 to get the doboys double our weekly bonus episode. Join the Golden Play Club at patreon.com slash doboys. Bill Oakley, thank you so much for for spending so much time with us.

Thank you so much for for carving out a section of time when you're when you're here in LA at that Bill Oakley on Twitter to hear takes on Instagram. I don't care about Twitter anymore. You don't care about Twitter anymore. I want to be a star on Instagram. Follow me that Bill Oakley on Instagram, please. I was going to say on Twitter and Instagram, but I guess X out the Twitter part just the Instagram. Yes, Twitter is toxic. Get rid of it. Get rid of Twitter. Right. Anything else you would like to plug? Yes, also watch Disenchantment, the new show from Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein and a lot of us other old Simpsons and Futurama vets, premiering on Netflix August 17th. Hell yeah. You say at Weinstein? Weinstein.

I said at Weinstein. I've been making an idiot out of myself. I've been doing the same thing. That was news to me till just now. Oh man. And I worked over there. I wish someone had told me. We don't like you. We like you making mistakes. Yeah. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you, Bill. My pleasure. I guys were in sync. I would love to do this anytime. It's a lot of fun. I got a question for you. Did you make a story to put on Instagram later about Panera? Or are you going to have to go and do it again? I'm going to do it again. Okay. Jesus. Hope everything is okay. Yeah, I know. That'll do for this episode of Doe Boys. Until next time for The Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell,

I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya. Hey guys, you want more Doe Boys? To get the Doe Boys double our weekly bonus episode, join the Golden Play Club. Sign up at patreon.com slash Doe Boys. That was a hit gum podcast.