Doughboys - Papa Gino's with John Hodgman, Jean Grae, and Jeff Tweedy

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

In Mitch's home state of Massachusetts, the 'boys are joined by John Hodgman (Vacationland, Judge John Hodgman), Jean Grae (Everything's Fine), and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) to review a New England native chain, Papa Gino's.Recorded live on June 29th in North Adams, Mass. as part of the Solid Sound Festival. Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a headgum podcast. When most Americans hear papa and pizza, their minds go to disgraced commercial pitchmen and botched plastic surgery survivor Papa John. But for residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they preach about a different papa. The chain founded by Italian immigrant Michael Valerio and his wife Helen in East Boston in 1961. Known as Piso Pizza until 1968 when it adopted its current moniker, the pizzeria developed

a reputation as the most authentic slice in the city, earning it the honorary designation of Boston's favorite pizza. By the 70s it began expanding into a chain and made a rapid advance across New England in the 80s and 90s, rebelling against the storefront delivery kiosk model of national franchises like Domino's and maintaining spacious parlor-styled dining rooms. In 1997, the pizzeria acquired regional eatery DeAngelo Sandwich Shops from Juggernaut chain restaurant triumvirate Yum Brands, further ensconcing it as the Primo Italian American Restaurant Group of New England.

And though it's currently undergoing a painful restructuring, abruptly closing dozens of stores and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November of 2018, at the very least this papa's brand remains beloved in the baked bean state. And unlike the progeny of Papa John Schnatter, remains untainted by scandal. This week on Doughboys, Papa Geno's. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants, how you doing, solid sound! Thank you guys so so much, very excited to be here, but before we go any further, this week's roast is courtesy of Alex Reeves.

Let me introduce my co-host, the Boston Market Strangler, Mike Spoon Mitchell! What's up solid sound, how's everybody doing? I could get used to this, I like sitting very far away from you. We have an extra divide between the two of us today. It's great, this is a very, very long table. Mitch, we're here in North Adams Mass. That's right. You're wearing your Pat's hat, which is very on brand.

You are a native of Quincy, Massachusetts. Yes, I'm a native of Quincy. Oh, some some tears for Quincy. Oh, I don't know about that. It's kind of weak. Who's Quincy's rival? Quincy's rival? Yeah.

What's their rival city? I don't know. Milton. Do we have Milton people here? Is that what's going on? Oh boy. Dead after the show. No, I don't know.

We don't have... What do you mean rivals? I don't know. Sometimes cities have a rival. That way, when you're in high school, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Like we don't want to...

Who do the Riverdale kids not want to miss with? I have never watched Riverdale. I haven't either. I was referring to the Archie comics. I actually forgot there was a show, the modern update. You forgot that there was a hunky Riverdale? I did. I forgot about that briefly.

I was thinking only about the comics. Jughead is like hot now. He's a fucking hunk. He's a hunk. They made Jughead a snack. They made Archie... They're all snacks. It's true.

It's a snack pack. Nick, it's gonna storm out there, it looks like. That should be the new... You remember when they had the rat pack and then the brat pack? And then Howard Stern has his whack pack. Someone should have the snack pack now. That should be like a new thing. A new collective of...

A new collective of good-looking people. By the way, I'm gonna get this music stand out of our eye line real quick. You panicked. I saw you panicking after you were done. Were you gonna just keep it with you? No, here's the thing, I was gonna walk it off, but Glenda very, very gratefully came over, thankfully, came over and...

Hell yeah. Graciously, I was trying to say. Thank you, Glenda. Yeah, there was some... It was my responsibility to fold that and strike it, and I forgot. Well, you fucked up. Yeah, well, I always fucked something up. At least they got through the whole intro without botching a word.

By the way, I'm very nervous. There's children in the audience. John Hodgman scared me by saying there were... I'm just gonna... I'm gonna say fuck a lot. I'm sorry. Whoa. It's true. Dropped an F-bomb.

An F-bomb. You little kids out there, if you can't handle it, get the fuck out of here. Yeah, like Hodgman said earlier, if you don't know who we are, you are gonna know who the fuck we are. Mitch, we spent... So I'm a lifelong SoCal surfer, dude.

I've never been... Yeah, you've never been surfing. I've never been in the Commonwealth prior to yesterday. And so far, not enjoying it. Well, here's the thing. I'm having some sort of allergic reaction to the flora and fauna.

Something is going on with my sinuses. Okay. I'm not used to trees. This is true. He was freaked out when we were driving here yesterday. I was like, what do you think? It's beautiful, right? And he was like, I'm freaked out. I don't like driving into trees.

It felt like we were going into the forbidden forest. That's a Zelda reference. Like we were going on a quest. Yes. But it was fun. We were doing it in real life. God, it was good. We were out in nature. I was disoriented.

But we spent... My first time in Boston. We spent Thursday night in Boston. When we were landing... I just want to give an example. When we were landing, we started doing the little landing maneuver. What's that called? We started circling.

You know, we circled... All right, circling. We were circling. And I was like, you can see my house. We flew over my house in Quincy. And I was like, Nick, Nick, you can see my house. And he went, oh, yeah. And it didn't care at all. And went back to playing his Nintendo Switch.

This is what you always do with anecdotes, is that you omit key details to present your side more favorably. I was in the aisle. You were in the window. Our producer, Usong, was seated between us. It was hard for me to lean over and get a good look. You didn't care at all. I acknowledged that I could kind of see

something outside the window. It was driving by a beautiful river on the way here. I was like, look out the window. Isn't that beautiful anyway? It's all right. That was your response. You wanted me to gasp at its beauty. It was a river. I did want you to gasp at its beauty. It was a fine river.

It was a great river. It got the job done. This is your East Coast favoritism. That's insane. We're in a beautiful part of the country. It's beautiful. I'm like it. It's picturesque. We came in here through the Berkshires. How do you say it? Berkshires? We went through the Berkshires.

This might go on for a while. I read it as Berkshires, like the Shire from The Hobbit. That I know was incorrect. Well, it's kind of Shire-like with all the greenery. But anyway, and it's very quaint. We were going through the Berkshires

and there were these beautiful rolling hills in this wonderful valley. It was picturesque. I loved it. I was like, this is great. I'm into this. Yeah, you turned on it. Don't throw me under the bus. You're trying to get cheap heat by saying I'm dissing the hometown.

That's right, because I love Massachusetts. I love Solid Sound. I love Wilco. I love all of you. So Mitch, and this is not the chain we're reviewing, but it is pizza adjacent. I'll switch on it briefly.

You took me Thursday night in Boston to your favorite pizza place in the world. That's right. What the hell is wrong with you? Santarpios? No. Tell the people, Mitch.

The pizzeria Regina on Thacker Street. Thatcher Street. The original. Yeah, decent pop there. It's the best. I ate a lot of pizza, and it gave me a lot to think about. Wow.

We're going to review this on a future episode, so I don't want to tip my hand. But that's a little tease for the listeners. I burned my mouth so bad. I had a Freddy Krueger mouth where my skin was just falling off the inside of my mouth. Well, that's your fault for going into the kitchen and pulling it out of the oven.

You couldn't resist. Your favorite pizza was sitting there in front of you. You don't get to have it very often, and it was piping hot and just jammed in your mouth. The waitress warned us that it was piping hot, and I think the slice was already halfway in my mouth when she said it. It was great, Nick. It was a good time.

The city was past. I think we should introduce our guests before we say why the city was... Because, Nick, we were like, what's going on? Parking was sold out everywhere, and we'll explain why in a moment after we introduce our guests. Well, let's welcome our guests.

No, you got to do a drop. People don't know what this is. I'm going to give everyone context. We're at this festival. We know that we have some listeners in the audience, but it seems like the plurality of the crowd... The majority, I'd say, of the crowd is people who are maybe not familiar with the Doughboys

and just wanted a place to sit down. Which is a great choice. Which is a great choice. We have a very dumb thing. A lady is applauding like crazy. Hey, man, that's more power to you. I'm glad you're enjoying that seat. I hope it's adequately padded.

We have a thing we do on the podcast that is very, very stupid. Which is that we play a drop that was sent in, that was made by a listener and sent in, and we play it live in a theater when we do a live show. Now, a lot of you are not going to appreciate it.

Even if you listen to the podcast, you probably won't like it. Most people dislike it. However, podcast listeners are fanatic lunatics. And they'll be very mad if we don't do it. If we don't play it, they're going to be livid and we're going to... We'll never hear the end of it on our subreddit.

And our lives will be miserable. We could've just played it instead. We have a five-minute disclaimer about why it's bad. That's okay. We're teeing it up. You saw my friend. Oh, hell yeah. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Someone did make that. It's impressive.

Probably the biggest applause break we've gotten so far. People like that. I know a shampoo-ler who's something with no comments, Nick. It was just a straight message, so... Wonderful. Hey, guys, are you ready for us to bring our guests out? Let's do it. Please welcome, returning to the stage,

John Hodgman and Jean Grey. Jean Grey! Where were you like? I got to sit over here with Team Massachusetts, because I did not like what I've heard so far. Here's the thing. I heard that story about you on the airplane. Mitch goes, I tried to show Nick my house from the airplane.

He was like, yeah, it's fine. And you were like, no, it was a bad angle. It's like, you know what? You can pretend to care. That's an option you have. To pretend to care about your friend. That's all I want. I appreciate your robot-like honesty.

Your data-like honesty. This is an area of the world. They have trees, the river. The river is doing its job. It's getting water from mountains down the watershed. Good job, river. Thank you guys so much for warming this crowd up. We cooled them back down for you.

Now, both of you are from the East Coast originally. Yes. What is that? What is happening? What is that music? By God! That's Jeff Tweedy's music! Oh my God!

It's Jeff Tweedy! Oh my God! By God! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! This is my festival.

That's right. I heard there was pizza. There's pizza now. You're holding pizza in your hand. Mitch, you teased an anecdote earlier that I'm not sure we'll pay off now, but we might as well get people closure. No.

So Boston was crowded. The streets were packed. It was packed. There were so many people out. Does the panel want to wager a guess as to why everyone was headed to TD Garten on Thursday night? It was a musical.

Someone said it in the audience. Hugh Jackman Live! Wow. Well, it's a very cultured town. Boston loves Jackman. It's the hub of the universe after all. We're going to see the greatest showman! All right.

So you guys are all frequent travelers, I know. And before we get into this week's chain, I want to talk a little bit more generally about what are your hotel food routines? Oh. You get into a hotel. What are you doing for food and drink?

Who goes first, Nick? You go ahead. You started talking. First thing I do is run to the mini pack of Pringles and eat them as quickly as possible. And if they're not there,

I don't know what to do with myself. One time, I don't think you guys are cursing enough on stage, so I want to give you permission to go as deep as you need to go with this true story. One time, I got to a hotel

in Austin, Texas, and I got to the Pringles as quickly as possible, made to shove them into my mouth, opened them, realized they had already been opened. Oh my God. And two-thirds of them had been eaten and like three were left to tease me.

And I called town to the front desk and I said, this is unacceptable. This is not only my ritual, but you have failed on a much deeper level. You have failed in your intrinsic promise to present to me a room that has been conjured

from another dimension. You have ruined the illusion that I need that no one has ever masturbated in this room before. Or into that can of breakfast. You have broken the social compact. And then also I like a Caesar salad. That's

that's happened to me. That's happened to you? Absolutely. Specifically Pringles? Yes. Yeah, it's a rookie mistake. You got to bring your own Pringles, John. By applause, who's encountered an opened Pringles can in a hotel room?

Just the two people on stage. Just the two people on stage? That's it. I'll even go so far as to admit that I have faked a Pringles can to be full. I don't know what you mean.

Wow, wait, you ate it? I'm talking about an actual Pringles can. Are you talking about a euphemism of some kind? You gently lift up the foil and you replace the cap and put it back in the minibar. Wow! Wow!

That all said wow! I said why? To not pay for it? You get the Pringles for free and you screw the man that charges you five dollars for

half a can of Pringles. Jeff, it's John Hodgman here with a quick follow-up question. Is it possible that you did this at the Stephen K. Austin Intercontinental Hotel in Austin, Texas on or about November of 2015? It is possible.

Wow! You left me a secret message. God, I wish that was just like the most beautiful coincidence in the history of the world. If it were true, it would be great. But since it's a lie, it's terrible. No, I've never done that. But I have been fooled by that

trick by other people. Oh, I didn't think about that. That's why I didn't care why it happened. I just didn't. I was just mad. Gene, what about you? Well, first I make sure there's a hotel that has food that's going to be open late

somewhere around it or a place that's in there, and if that's not happening and I'm at a random place, I'm the first question I ask when I get in the hotel if they have a place. I'm like, what time does it close? Because I need to know how fast I need to move. The thing that I am always most

excited about hotels and food is eating food in bed. And I think one of the greatest things is if you didn't ask for a double bed room and you happen to get one

and immediately I get in and I'm like, that's the fucking food bed. So you have one bed for food, one bed for sleeping. And then I could get up and be like, bye-bye. What piece of shit would eat like that? That's crazy. Who lives like that?

And then I go to my perfectly clean classy side in the room. I kind of live like a hotel. I eat food in bed at my home. I kind of live a hotel lifestyle at my house. I throw towels on the floor.

Do you have two double beds with the same picture above each of them? Yeah, the only difference is unlike a hotel, your floor is covered with kitty litter. So just kind of tracks throughout the house. I have two cats. By the way, you warned us that there may be children in the audience.

I heard a baby. Wow. I heard a baby in the crowd. There's a baby watching this show. That's right. That's the baby I invited earlier. Where's that baby now? Hold up the baby, please. Bring the baby to us. Place the baby on the

stage. We demand this tribute. Bring the baby! We have pizza! Baby! Baby! That's how babies respond to trying everything.

It's in its first words. It said, let's leave. Adjacent to hotel eating, I have a take that I stumbled upon this morning at the breakfast buffet I was at. I know exactly which buffet it was. Okay, well, that would be, yes,

we're the same spot. The Holiday Inn. I'm from 502. 502. But I'm staying with my son, who's here, and I told that masturbation story in front of him. That's the party this is, you guys. He's waving, right?

Yeah. How do you do, son? We'll all learn something. Here's my breakfast buffet take. Toaster speed is key. Because that can be a huge bottleneck in the breakfast buffet. That line got clogged

because too many people were trying to toast, and that was a slow toaster. I really thought you were talking about drugs for a second. Toaster speed is key. And then it became truly the most mundane. When you get down to the buffet, what you need to do is take the meth right away.

So you don't hold up the line. I didn't even notice the toaster down there. Do they have a conveyor belt toaster? No, not a conveyor belt. A toaster toaster. Make a note, Jeff. Tell the Holiday Inn.

Yeah, that conveyor belt thing. It's an old-fashioned doodad that actually works quite well. What about backstage eats? When you guys are performing, what do you like to have a pre-show and post-show to munch on? Tweety, we'll start with you. Actually, we try and keep our

backstage snacking down as much as possible. Right. Mostly me. Because I'm getting larger as time goes on. We need to eliminate

snacks. Try and have healthy options. Right. This is really boring. I'm sorry. No, that's great. I'm riveted. That was inspiring. I can't go on. We used to have prosciutto.

Then we realized we were paying for it. It wasn't just being given to us. It wasn't just magically appearing. That's the thing nobody realizes about your backstage writers, that you actually pay for it. It took us 30 years to figure that out.

I found out about that I was paying for it because there was a year that I went on tour where I thought of the most ridiculous things that I could put on my writer. Like I had a DVD's

of Planet of the Apes. I had a cattle prod. I had a monkey, but named Shambles. A lock of punky Brewster's hair. I had a lot of things on there. We used to have a puppy. Did you get the puppy?

No one ever gave us a puppy. I always had a baby on my writer. Well, today's your day. But nothing now. I used to want a lot of food. I think I used to want to have a lot of food there so we could make sandwiches to take back

in case everything was closed. Now just water and alcohol, please. Water's optional. Hodgman, how about you? Hummus? Oh, hummus is a good one. Hummus and some crudite, which is

cut up fresh vegetables. But I didn't understand what an East Coast elitist I was until I went on a comedy tour and I said hummus and crudite. Like three hospitality managers, these poor kids were like, I don't know what crudites are.

I'm so sorry. I'm such a jerk. I just cut up pieces of whatever and everyone knows hummus. What about uts? No, I'm not going to talk about uts. Uts doesn't sponsor my podcast. The John Hodgman podcast, they're dead to me.

Do you what about rhymes with uts? What about nuts? I mean, I feel like that's a pretty healthy munchable snack. One of the greatest transitions of all time there, Nick Weiger. That's incredible segue. Hey, you know, that's what I bring. I'm going to go back to prosciutto for a second. Yeah, let's go back to prosciutto.

Now, people say prosciutto. Oh, yes. Is that a nickname or is that is that Italian or is prosciutto just a nickname for prosciutto? Does anyone know? I think prosciutto's nickname is just thin pee. So it's not.

She's full of prosciutto. I think prosciutto is one of those overstated Italian pronunciation. Right. You wouldn't know it to look any but I have some Italian American in my background. Oh, really? I haven't really said mozzarella and prosciutto and stuff, just to rub it in my face.

I had no idea. And I was asking them to rub mozzarella in my face. So it was fine. It all worked out. The one I really don't get the etymology of is gabbagool. Where did gabbagool come from? That's the one thing you cannot say in this room. I can't believe.

Wow. Nick, I'm so sorry, Jack. I apologize. Gabbagool, it sounds like a horror movie villain. Gabbagool. Like these friends with the Babadook? Yeah, exactly.

Babadook is like a soft, with a blooming rind Italian cheese. Let me have the Babadook. You go to Red Box and you try to rent the Babadook, but you accidentally get Gabbagool, the ripoff. Fuck. The mock buster.

It's like trans morphers. Steve's ripping the Gabbagool. It's just something we should not be saying. Probably. I feel very strongly on that point. That it's not a good thing. Is there any Italian Americans who can verify my instinct?

Does that baby know? Don't yell it out. It's fine. It's fine. Keep going. Okay, I looked up an Esquire article on stage. I apologize. But apparently it's a... Wait, was that an ad for prosciutto?

Oh my God. They're always listening. I'm gonna be getting fed ads for prosciutto from here on out. Terrifying. I mean, I've already been getting them. It's Capicola. It's a mispronunciation, or not mispronunciation, perhaps a more authentic

sounding pronunciation of Capicola. Okay, that makes sense. There we are. What a relief. While we're in the Italian area, let's talk about this Italian-American chain this week. Papageno's. What's our Papageno fandom like out here? Let's give me a temperature of it.

Wow. Oh, I'm getting some booze. A few jeers. Okay. Four people walked out. Yeah. These gobbled ghouls out of here. Let's go down the line on this panel, starting with you, Mitch. You spent... You grew up here in New England.

I'm going to talk about if you've had Papageno's before, and if so, what is your general experience? Go ahead, Mitch. I mean, it reminds me of... John, I think you said this, but it reminds me of childhood in many ways. I never said that.

It was to another restaurant. The restaurant we're doing next. No, that was... Teresa Backstage had that take. Teresa is a different person. Backstage, she said it smells like childhood and I remember not saying anything at that time. So it's very confusing.

I asked her name so I could make sure to credit her. Thank you. I appreciate that, Nick. You got so excited by that, too, Nick, when she said it smells... I perked right up. You perked up, yes. It's a great sentence. It smells like diapers. It smells like that baby out there.

It smells like that baby. It doesn't smell good. But you have a long time since childhood association. I had my birthday there where you could play Pin the Tail on the Puppa or was it putting pizza?

I think you put toppings on a pizza. Oh, that's fun. Very sanitary. They blindfolded you. No, it was just a pizza on the wall. It was a... Even more... It was a poster on the wall. They nailed a pizza to the wall. What is happening in this place?

It was a poster on the wall of a pizza. Okay. The top of that they nailed a pizza to the wall. Pizza. And then they would blindfold you, spin around, and you would put little toppings on the pizza. And then you could make a pizza. They would have you put on an apron,

and they were like, you could make a pizza as a child. And they were like, what do you want to put on it? And I was like, cheese. And they were like, anything else? I was like, no. And then they were like, all right. That's how Papa Gina's famously skirted the labor laws in Massachusetts.

I really loved when I was younger. And then as time went on, when I was about 14 or 15, I just stopped getting it completely and never really got it again. When did you leave Quincy for the Golden Shores of California? When I was 20, as soon as I was out of college. So there was a period...

But you went to college in New York. And they didn't have Papa Gina's there. And they did not have Papa Gina's. So 18, I was basically gone. You put aside childish things. I have never had Papa Gina's until today. And you grew up in Brookline.

I grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was out there, but I had never had it until today. That said, I am the CEO of the company. You're Papa Gina? I'm Papa Gina. I had to legally change my name. There have been a long line of Papa Gina's.

And now that is... I am the Papa Gina. I'm the three-eyed Papa Gina. The Dalai Lama. I didn't even want to be the CEO. In fact, the last CEO came to me and said, you are my reincarnation. And he killed himself.

That's exactly what happened. I'm like, all right, fine. Not so bad. Nick, I want to say, Papa John's has a terrible Papa John Schrader or whatever his name is. We don't like him. He's an asshole. A conservative activist.

A conservative activist. An awful guy. Papa Geno's used to have a little mascot, and I couldn't find it. He was like a G. He was like the letter G. Be careful, because this is a Boston chain. It could be a racial stereotype.

There may be a reason they retired it. He was the letter G. I think he was made out... For Gabagool, maybe. He was made out of the letter G. It was kind of abstract. I don't know if people remember that, but he might be gone now.

I don't know what the deal is. Does anyone remember what Mitch is talking about? See? A couple. My mom and sister. Are they here? No, they don't like to see me. Oh, I see. Papa Geno's, what is your experience?

I've never had Papa Geno's until just a little while ago, backstage. But I grew up in New York, so... I lived in New York my whole life. So pizza is very fucking serious.

And especially when you go somewhere else and everybody's like, oh man, you gotta try this pizza. It's the best in the town. And then you get it and you open the box and you're like, what is this? And then you gotta throw their childhood on the floor. And then nail it to the wall.

And then nail it to the wall. And then nail them on top of the pizza to the wall and be like, die for your pizza sins. Yeah. So... Dear God. You're gonna need some sturdy nails if you hammer me to the wall.

On top of two pizzas. Just use my strength. My inside strength. So saying that, I take pizza very, very seriously. And I was able to taste it backstage. But because I am on a diet

and I cannot have breads, I ate the cheese off the pizza. And then felt around the crust to do more research. And I feel like I have a good grasp of this pizza. And after Jean ate the cheese

and felt up the crust. I put it back in the box. That's the one I ate. So it's maybe not representative. I may not have had a representative's sample. And Tweety, I assume this was also your first Papa Geno's?

This was my first Papa Geno's. Talking about childhood memories of pizza. I'm thinking that I might be a lot older than everyone. You were there when pizza was invented. I was. No, the pizza I remember

from my youth, we used to go to a place where they would give you straw hats and there was Dixieland banjos being played. Oh, yeah, those make me uncomfortable to hear them. There's a chain called Shakey's Pizza.

I've heard of Shakey's. Yeah, you remember Shakey's? Where I grew up, they still had the Dixieland jazz band playing when I was growing up. And they got around the child labor laws also. Oh, they did? The children make the pizzas.

It was like a live band, it wasn't animatronics like showbiz pizza. It was a live giant rat. It was before robotics took their jobs. Wow. It's not going to be a joke in about five years.

Shakey's still exists, does it not? I don't think so. Yeah, I've seen it. It's a shell of its former self. It started in California and there's still a number of them out there, but some of the locations are not and they've seen better days.

We were sold a pack of lies. We didn't understand that it was a chain. We thought it was a lovely local establishment growing up. We didn't understand a lot of things in the town I grew up in about franchising. Why, it wasn't until you were 11 years old.

The restaurant on the strip was, oh, it blew our minds that other people had a steak and shake. These are all places that I didn't grow up with as well and my husband grew up in the Midwest. I was always like, you know, when you used to go to steak and shake

and I was like, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. We didn't have chain restaurants like that. New York has just started to get all these things and you're like, oh, I can feel everything changing. But I'm glad I get to experience them now. When a red lobster came

to Times Square, that was seismic. Yeah, that was weird. And I did not grow up in New York, but you grew up in the Chelsea Hotel and there was no chain restaurants of any kind. Just heroin shops. Just murders and heroin? And you got by.

Murders and porn. TGI Fridays did start in New York City, which was a local establishment. And it was a huge singles bar. The movie Cocktail is actually based on TGI Fridays.

The founder of TGI Fridays was the inspiration of the Slayer bartenders in Cocktail. Yeah, all that flash bartending came from TGI Fridays. Because everyone knows if you want really good drinks, go to TGI Fridays. But Gina was a thing as a con personally as a con with sir of 70s

magazines, I read an article about TGI Fridays where it was like, this is the most incredible innovation in singles nightlife ever to be invented. They are wearing striped shirts. Like it was it was insane how seriously it was taken invented the velvet yes. So that's why

hang on. I rarely defend Nick, but you stepped all over a very important thing. Sorry, I apologize, Mitch. I'm just I'm just mad. Hold on. All right, step back. What are you mad about? I hate the velvet rope sucks. I'm not a guy who gets through the velvet rope. I'm a big

monster. You're the guy who stands and doesn't let people in. Yes, I bow to the velvet rope. Unfortunately, I don't like the velvet rope. It's exclusive. Fuck the velvet rope is what I want to say. But what Mitch is saying is the velvet rope. I'm saying that they created. I'm sorry. You love that velvet

rope. I don't. I don't think it's the velvet rope. If someone is walking in right now, they're like, what the fuck is this? What Mitch is saying is if you want to mob him backstage, the door is wide open and what's your room at the holiday and Mr. I hate

exclusivity 312 come by. I'll be playing my switch till three in the morning. Let's let's dig in on Papa Gino's a little bit more. So I also had not had it before in my life. Like I said, life long so Cal server dude, but

I had it and I had it for the first time not backstage, but last night dining in at the North Adams location, Mitch, you insisted we get the dining experience. I wanted him to go in the he got a you have to experience the restaurant. Nick was not in a good headspace last night. I felt like I was losing my mind.

I saw you last night and you're you're fidgety. You're sweating. A few things just hate New England that much. No, it's it's a few things were going on. I was dealing with allergies. So it took some allergy medication and that like affected my mood you up. I was I didn't

sleep well. I actually slept it and Mitch's childhood home and it was a you know anytime it was nothing nothing against your childhood home. Sounds like it. It sounds like you didn't like my I did sleep in your actually slept in your bed. He slept in my bed. Yes. My mom has not washed those seats since

I was there. Why is there all this spaghetti under the pillow? That's not spaghetti at all. So he didn't get a great night's sleep. Nick you at dinner you said this. Yes. You at one point you said this is true. You said

am I alive? Ha ha ha Ha ha ha Ha ha ha Ha ha ha Again you're misrepresenting things slightly. Why isn't that on YouTube right now?

Nick Liger and Papa Genus is this real life? How are you going to spin this? I mean that is truly just what happened. To be granular about it to be granular about it I said I feel like I'm I said I'm not sure if I'm alive.

I didn't ask you if I was alive. Oh no we apologize. Sorry for being concerned. Allergy medication very little sleep, jet lagged a lot of time in the car got very motion sick

and then I had two drinks on an empty stomach with you John at the hotel bar. Why is this on me now? It's not on you. I'm saying we were with you. I'm not blaming you. You were being convivial. You were being a good host. I was trying to show you a good

time in my home Commonwealth where certain people had obviously fallen down on the job Mitch because here's the thing Nick Liger played the bassoon in high school. I played the clarinet. It's a classic double read, single

read rivalry between us. I rarely will come to your defense. You can defend yourself. But in this situation and you know my hackles are up because you hate Massachusetts obviously. This is your first time to New England. You can't even pretend to think that it's nice

but do you know what? I'm on your side because here's the thing. Mitch is bringing you to his home. It's adorable. He's bringing you to his home. He wants to show off Quincy both from the air and the ground. Yes. You know, if you listen to the podcast you know that Quincy is

a Brigadoon-like place of legend in Mitch's cosmology. And he's offering you his childhood, his childhood bed to sleep in, which I understand from Mitch's point of view is a gesture of affection, but by any other measure is a weird thing to do. You're a grown man. You should get a hotel

room where you can enjoy yourself, have some Pringles. Who knows what's going to happen next? You know what I mean? And then the hospitality continues to lunch at a place that I will not name until later when we do the second show. Yes.

And then dinner inside of Papa Geno's. This is a wonderful town. North Adams has so much to offer. The food trucks here at the Solid Sound are amazing. I know it's your festival, Jeff, but I feel very proud of it too.

I kind of consider myself the CEO of the festival. I feel that way. You are being purposefully denied the best of what Massachusetts has to offer because of your slavish devotion to this weird podcast. Right.

And I don't blame you for feeling a little out of sorts, but also I love you too, Mitch. I don't really disagree. Oh, sorry, applause. I felt like that was a good argument. But my argument is simply like sometimes you just got to suck it up and do what the fuck your friend wants to do.

Yeah. And then like get back to your shit tomorrow. And sometimes it's okay to be like, am I fucking dead or what? He's a healthy feeling. Yeah. Where are you on this, Tweety? Are you Burger Brigade or Spoon Nation?

They don't know what that means. And neither do you. I don't know what that means. I think Nick's being a little bit of a bitch. Wow. Wow. I think... Will you say it again for my son, please?

I mean, you know, you're here to do a job. This is your job. Right. You expect every second of your fucking day to be a cakewalk when you're working? I feel like

that was the nicest thing I've ever said now. And you were like, oh, I'm going to translate. I'm going to translate. I'm going to translate. I'm going to translate. I'm going to translate. Jeff, are you yelling at Nick,

or yourself here? I don't... I'm not... I'm not... I'm not... I'm not doing here. I appreciate that you're being here at this moment as disorienting as Nick being a papatunna.

I have a lot of things I should be doing. I have to prepare for the show tonight. I had no idea this was going to take so long. I'm sitting here thinking, I'm sucking it up, Nick. No one's offering neither childhood bed.

Which I could really use a nap. Maybe we should get to your review of Papa Genus. What did you think of that slice you had right now? Or you have in front of you right now? I had one bite. You had one bite of a cheese pizza? One bite of a cheese pizza?

A mouthfeel of mulch? Oh, no. There was a note of tinsel. I live in Chicago now. Our mouthfeel

is more... ketchup's mint. It's a different thing. I don't want to give it a rating or anything. If you're wanting to relive your childhood, I suppose it's okay. It's like a frozen pizza, I suppose.

It's a nostalgia slice, not a present day slice. I thought it was a local establishment like a nice little family run business, but apparently it's not, so I don't feel any... I don't really have to pretend to like it.

Unless they paid us in some way. You're not getting paid by them. No, we're not. You were very direct with me, and I appreciate that. Can I ask you a direct question now? Sure.

Do you want to leave? Oh, no. I'm starting to have fun now. Jean, you had some cheese from a cheese pizza. What did you think of it? I didn't just have the cheese. I sampled everything with the senses. I had the cheese with my mouth.

I was watching the pizza. Yeah. Thank you. I witnessed that. I made a contemporaneous note. Thank you. Which also could have been weird if I had come out here and said nothing about that.

This is our first time meeting. You'd have been like, she's cool, she was like failing up her pizza. Weird. I enjoyed... I wish I was able to taste the crust more

than I know that I enjoyed the cheese. I know I would have enjoyed the crust. Because it had just the right amount of bubble. That's right, baby. And it had some give

to it. But it was also crunchy at the same time. It was a little bit chewy. It wasn't just that bite into the crust and it falls apart in your mouth. Nobody wants that. I don't want to eat a cracker.

I don't want it to be super dry. I want it to have some sort of substance. I'd say it would be the kind of thing that I'd be like... It wouldn't be the pizza that I would order if I was like, hell yeah, I want to get some great pizza.

But it would be some shit like, hey, I'm having my cheat day and it's a small pizza. If I ate this whole pizza I could still not want to kill myself at the end of the night.

A ringing endorsement. And enjoy it at the same time. Yeah, you won't want to kill yourself. That's what they say about this pizza. It really is a sound. I'd just like to point out that it does sound like that baby is getting closer.

Yeah. We had asked for the baby to be brought to us but now I feel like someone's just incurred the baby's on its own. Like, okay, go ahead baby and it's slowly crawling its way to the stage. Good luck, baby. I hope you make it. No, it's just taking so long

that it's learned how to walk. I mean... He's like, I gotta talk, man. I gotta get up there. Hodgman, your cheese pizza will you had? Mouthfeel of mulch and notes of tinsel.

That's the song I just wrote. I think that someone who sometimes eats the cheese and saws off a piece of pizza and leaves the crest behind. I think you made the right move, Gene because this crest was junk.

That's sad. I think that it was a good step above high school cafeteria pizza. I definitely could see how if you grew up with it, it would be a familiar, nice flavor, but it's nothing special in my opinion and I'm glad

I did not have to dine in at the restaurant. Mike Mitchell, you just gonna take this shit? I just want to say the bed that you slept in in my childhood bed. Jesus Christ. Helen and Edward Donovan, that was their bed, my grandparents.

My mom was possibly created in that bed. Unless it was a shower thing or a kitchen thing, I don't know. But there's a good possibility my mother was conceived in there. Your second one was kitchen?

I don't know. I feel like making dinner and I don't know, things got saucy. I don't know. Papageno. So that bed is a very important bed to me. You squandered it.

It was a beautiful gesture. I love Papageno's. The thing that makes me appreciate it more. Nick, we had a steak and cheese sub as well. We had a Greek salad. We're doing a lot more at Papageno's than I realize.

Right. We did breadsticks. The cheese breadsticks are great. I remember from my childhood that are still great. Comes with some more marinara dip and sauce, which worked nicely. And John, you got a lobster roll backstage. Yes, that was another thing we got.

I had no idea they did lobster rolls at Papageno. And I made me very excited because I drove down from Maine yesterday morning, stopping at every McDonald's along the way to get their summer only lobster roll to bring here

and store in my hotel refrigerator until today and then dare you to eat it. But they're not offering lobster rolls at McDonald's and all of a sudden, even though they're pizzas, John Papageno's presents this miracle of a lobster roll. And I have to say that lobster roll,

I had a very strong feeling right from the beginning. It's a legit lobster roll. It's a good lobster roll. The bread was toasted. I was like, I can't eat bread right now. And I felt that bread. I was like, you're fucking eating this bread.

I did not eat any of the lobster roll because it had been sitting out in the sun for two days. No! I think you're all going to regret it. Yeah. I thought there was some legit lobster meat in there. I think that was mostly knuckle meat. There was a lot of it.

There was a weird tinge of pink on the entire thing, which I think I felt a little bit of gilding the lily with red number 5 dye, perhaps. There was also some lettuce in there which was not necessary, but on the whole, it was a solid lobster roll

and I got to give them credit for that. I kind of like the lettuce. I thought I'd just mix up the texture a little bit. Well, you're wrong. Okay, fine. But yes, they say on the website 100% real lobster salad is not the age or anything

to try to get away with it. So I think it's all lobster meat and there's a lot of it. It was better than it had any business being. I just saw the baby walk out with the baby walked out on his own with a wife. Yeah.

He's grown up in front of us. I'm like, good luck to the happy couple. It's a magical shot. It's great. Mitch, we also got a Greek salad that we thought pretty good. It was good. Romaine, a bunch of veggies,

ample amount of veggies, a lot. For one salad could easily feed a family if you were not having it as your main. Yeah, decent price on that. The steak sandwich you mentioned, which I thought was okay. They said it was their best sandwich.

To me, the lobster roll was far superior to that. It was pretty good steak sandwich. It was pretty good. Everyone from work is going there. I didn't feel like pizza. That would be an okay option. As far as cheese steaks go, there are better ones available lots of places.

We got small pizzas last night as contrasted with the large pizza we had backstage. We had a large cheese backstage. This was your observation, and I think you're correct. The small is not a good representation of what a pizza is. Always with pizzas.

This isn't just like some fat guy scheme. Get the large pizza always tastes better than the small. It just does, right? It's the right proportion. They really do the poor proportions matter. Yeah. I can't wait until your book comes out,

Fat Guy Schemes by Mike Mitchell. See you at the literary panel at the next solid sound. It includes the Pringles heist, how to steal it with the only point in the library. It's refreshing to hear someone admit that there are fat guy schemes. What would be another one? I'm not the Pringles bandit, for God's sake.

I'm not the Pringles bandit, for God's sake. I'm not the Pringles bandit, for God's sake. I also got a cup of water, and the water was pretty good. I would say their very friendly service there, free Wi-Fi, had a lovely time overall.

Food was hit or miss. But on that note, let's get to our final thoughts. Mitch, we'll go down the line. You know how this works, but I'll explain it to our panel. I think that's part of the representation of our Papa Genos experience. Although we've already

touched on it, but just sort of like an overall summary, a closing argument. We'll just go back into the past 15 minutes again. Yes, we'll relive that. We'll give a fork rating from zero to five forks. From zero to five forks. Mitch, you can start us off. Being in California, I sold out and I went to California.

I left Massachusetts. I think about it every day. But I think about the easy to go delivery pizzas you can get in LA, which is Papa John's Domino's Pizza Hut.

I think that Papa Genos is superior to all of those places. I really do think it does. There is a nostalgia factor, but when we were in there yesterday, that was good food for a takeaway fast food place. I'm going for forks, Nick. I love Papa Genos.

It's good. It's a restaurant. It's weird to me that they're going out of business, so I guess I'm wrong. Are they going out of business completely? They're doing what a lot of chains do, which is they're undergoing a restructuring slash acquisition by a holding company.

Closing a lot of locations, but I heard that at the last board meeting. I didn't know that. John Hodgman. Well, it's listeners to the Judge John Hodgman podcast know I think nostalgia is a toxic impulse and the source of a lot of evil in this world. The past was not better than now,

and we can't go back to it anyway. So with the babies here, the baby is here. The baby is running around. Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby. Does the baby want to try some lobster roll? So, all right, I guess I don't matter anymore. That's about right.

You know, I'm 48 years old, babies matter. The baby is here. I'm going to say, absent any Proustian magic of remembrance of things past, this pizza was not my Madeleine. It was a piece of junk that I didn't want in my mouth.

So I give that one fork. Stop pointing at the baby. I'm trying to talk, madam. The podcast people can't see the baby. Is everything okay? Is the baby all right? The baby was waving.

The baby was waving. I would say one fork for the pizza, but I'm going to say, it's inconceivable to me that that lobster roll was so good. I can't give it five because that's too much, but I'll give it four forks for an average of two and a half forks.

Roughly. I hate being in between you guys. All right, Gene, your review, your fork rating. First, I just want to say when they started saying there's a baby, I thought they were screaming at you because of what you were saying.

I was like, wow, I feel strongly about Papa Gina's. I feel like the rating I would give it would be lower compared to pizzas that I'm used to because I don't like ordering from pizza chains. But I think I need to be fair

and compare it to other pizza chains and pretty much their trash. They're terrible pizzas. And I also do want to give it points for the crust, which I think you're wrong on that. Well, they say we eat first with our fingers.

I admit I did not touch the crust all over for a full five minutes like you did. Well, that's how you're supposed to eat pizza, Sean. And yeah, I think the toasted bread of the lobster roll deserves some praise as well.

So I'm going to go with three forks. Three forks? Wow. I didn't expect that. Really surprising. Jeff Tweed. I don't think ratings are adequate for, I think there needs to be another category.

I think you should have two different ratings. I think there should be a hungry rating and a not hungry rating. If I was hungry, I would give it a four. No problem. Because it's cheese pizza and you can eat it and it would be the best thing you ever had

in your life. Because your brain doesn't work that way. I don't want to get into the whole thing. I have a lot of philosophies about this. I have a feeling this audience would be cool with it. To get into your philosophies.

Yeah. So if I was really hungry, maybe even a five, depending on how hungry I was. But a one. I just want to be fair. I know I wouldn't be

crying, miserable if I was really hungry and someone gave me this pizza. I would be like, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. But now I'm angry that I was forced to put it in my mouth.

So many relationships that I just had can be summed up that same way. It's very accurate. Very versatile statement. I'll close things up with my thoughts. I thought the food was fine. It was mediocre as far

as chain restaurant fare goes, as far as chain pizza goes. I feel like it's in that same sort of range of a pizza hut or a dominoes. They're all on that same sort of range. I prefer dominoes, but sort of like you got them.

But I think I am going to give a little bit of an extra bit of credit, some extra tines to Papa Geno's because they have embraced the parlor. I think more pizzas need the parlor

experience, the dine-in experience. So many of these places are just delivery. You're getting it to go or they're sending it to your house. It's fun to sit down with your friends and sit down with your family, have some pictures of soda, have some pies on the table and share them. That's a blast. You don't like those things.

I had fun. I had a good time. That's what I like to do, things like that. I think my little pep talk has changed your attitude. I have a positive now. I have a positive outlook. I agree.

And that's a fact. And I am going to give this three and a half forks for Papa Geno's. Very solid score. And guys, that'll do it for this episode of Dope Boys Live. Give it up for our panel. John Hodgman!

Gene Gray! Jeff Tweedy! The baby! We'll see you next time for Mike's Movement Live. Nick Weigher happy! See ya! On the next Dope Boys Double

in the 2019 Solid Sound Festival recorded live in North Adams, Massachusetts. John Hodgman and Gene Gray return as we review New England Institution Friendlies. And hey, we made this episode free for everyone. So check it out this Tuesday only at patreon.com slash Dope Boys. It's free!

Double! Double! That was a hate gun podcast.