Doughboys - Rockdoughberfest: Rock & Brews with Zoe Jarman

Episode Date: October 29, 2015

Rockdoughberfest 2015 concludes, as writer and actress Zoe Jarman (Workaholics, The Mindy Project) sits in with the 'boys to review new-ish chain Rock & Brews, from the cofounders of KISS. And, a Halloween candy edition of Flavor of the Week.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1972, two members of the band Wicked Lester, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, recruited a drummer named Peter Criss from an ad in a local rag. The next year, after adding guitarist Ace Freely, the ensemble decided to liven up their act by donning makeup and costumes, and also changing their name to KISS. Over the next four decades, KISS became more of a brand than a band, softening into a nakedly corporate venture with movies, merchandise, video games, roller coaster rides, and an arena football team. Then, in 2010, an impromptu brainstorming session, Simmons and Stanley convened with

friend and restaurant tour, Michael Zislis, as well as Hard Rock Cafe alums Dave and Del Ferrano, led to them breaking ground on a chain restaurant of their own in El Segundo, California. Out of character for KISS, the concept downplays the clown makeup, blood spitting, and pseudo-satanic imagery of the Touring Act in favor of a casual, laid-back, pseudo-gastropub feel that follows the guidelines established by its rock restaurant forebearers. In a 2012 Rolling Stone story on the chain's debut, reporter Ian Cohen profiles an expansion-minded Simmons who claims, quote, we'll have 50 in under two years and my goal is 505 years.

Three years since its founding, the chain hasn't met Simmons' wildly optimistic projections, or attracted the devoted following of his and Stanley's Psycho Circus Act. But they do have 12 locations across the continental U.S., Hawaii, and Mexico, and they become another valuable territory in the KISS brand's sprawling capitalist empire. This week on Doe Boys, the conclusion of Rocktoberfest 2015 with Rockin' Bruz. about chain restaurants, I'm Nick Weiger alongside my co-host, Mike Mitchell, the Spoonman. Spoonman, how you doing this week? Doing well, just want to say, uh, to Spoon Nation, and I also want to say, what, okay,

to the monster squatters out there, and monsters go, hey, it's almost Halloween, get yourself ready, get out there and go nuts. So the monster squatters are fans of the monster squad, me and you, the Doe Boys? Yeah. Okay. I read him following. Uh, that all tracks. So Mitch, the two of us, we're down in New Orleans this past weekend for a wedding.

We certainly were. And we ended up going out and having a good time together, I feel like, in a different city. I'd never been there. I don't remember if you've been there or not. I have never been there. So we were both new to New Orleans, our first night on the town. We went out and we got to, we got some food, we got some libations.

I think, I feel like we had a great time. I feel like New Orleans was a, was a welcoming city from a hospitality standpoint, and I had a lovely evening out with you. I had a great time. You know, people here, this podcast, they say, these two must hate each other sometimes. But you know what? We're friends, but you're also right, I do hate Nick in a lot of ways. But we are friends and we had a, we had a good time.

It was a really, really good night. I got into New Orleans on, on Friday, and you, like you said, we were new, new to New Orleans. And I, I got there earlier than you did. I got there around four-ish and kind of, I hung around the airport for a little too long. I didn't know what my, I went there without a plan, which you're like smiling. That's kind of your life philosophy.

Yeah. Weigler likes, when he hears that, like, I do something that's like me, that's on brand for me. He sits there and gets like a goofy, grinch-like grin on his face because he loves that I went to New Orleans with no plan at all and sat in an airport for two hours. And then I went to your hotel, I checked my bags, and with the hotel I wasn't staying with. And I walked around New Orleans by myself.

I went to Bourbon Street. I got tricked. I got scammed by a guy who said, he said, I bet you I can say what shoes you got your, what state you got your shoes in. This guy who spotted a mark from two blocks away, his eyes turned into dollar signs, his tongue extended and made a cash register sound. You know, he got me good. Yeah.

He got me, and you know what? He said, you've just been had, because you know, the whole trick was you got your shoes on in the state of Louisiana. That was the trick. I'm still not following. It was like, what state you have your, what, what shape, I don't know, see, he swindled me so good, I don't know, he says, I bet you I can tell you what state you got your shoes in.

Okay. Like, and they think you assume that what state, you purchased your shoes in, gotcha. Turned out, he met the state we were standing in. Which state you've got your shoes in currently, that's how I pulled a little fast one on you. And I said, how much do I owe you? He said, 10 bucks. I said, you know what, here's 100, just get out of here. He said, sir, I don't want 100 dollars.

I was like, take it, get. But you did give him the 10 dollars. I did give him 10 bucks. Wow. And then I went and I, there was this Jester's frozen drink place, and I got like a, the strongest frozen drink that you can get there right on Bourbon Street, I drank that for a little bit. I went into Felix's Oyster House, I had some charbroiled oysters, it was really fun.

Yeah, I would say that I, you know, I had a different experience at Bourbon Street and granted, you're a square. Yeah, I'm a square. Natalie, my wife and I went over to join you. We ended up, we had a lovely dinner at this restaurant, Chocomos had a fantastic meal. And then we ended up back at Bourbon Street, just to kind of see it. And I think I was there about, I would say less than 10 minutes. And to me, it was just, it just felt like a pit of despair.

It was just so like crushing, just how many just like stumbling like, I think you and I, we both agreed, we saw one of the most fucked up people we've ever seen. Yeah, that guy was really, there was a guy who was just fell into a door. He fell into a door, he almost cracked, it was pretty funny, but I mean, it was almost cracked a skull open though, real and his like, even his almost as fucked up friend was trying to steady him, which was like, it was like if a, you know, if like a bear was caught with two feet into two traps and then another bear who had like just one foot in a trap was trying to assist him, you know, it was just like two completely

incapacitated men trying to stumble through this horror show. And I mean, that was just like, it was just, and it smells so much like urine. It was just like, it smells like a litter box throughout there. So I would just say, again, I don't know who, who this advice is for, but if anyone out there is like, I've never been in New Orleans, what should I do? I would say look at Bourbon Street, just kind of like observe it, get the fuck out of there. If you have to urinate there because it's, it's, it's just an open toilet, apparently. And then go get a little off the beaten path, go to some other, go to one

of the many lovely bars and wonderful restaurants we tried many over the course of the weekend and had an overall great experience, just except for that one anomaly early on. The truth is, Nick got kicked off Bourbon Street for showing his breasts that you already know. He was covered in beans. They said, sir, you got to get out of here. People don't want to see those things. Uh, on that very pleasant note, let's introduce our guest. Nice transition. Think about me putting them on the glass.

Then let's get to our guest. An amazingly talented actress and writer for the mini project, workaholics. Zoe Jarman is here, although you're now Zoe Dorsey, is that correct? Doyle. Doyle, I fucked it up. No, it's. How embarrassing. You told me ahead of time, you had just gotten married and I thought I had it in my

brain and I got it wrong. I apologize to you. I apologize to your new husband. Congratulations on your natural. Thank you. Mitch has got that smile going. Oh yeah, he's always fucking jammed. We stopped this podcast like 50 times per recording because Nick says something stupid. That's not true. Uh, yeah, Zoe, you're one of my, one of my favorite people.

Zoe's the best, one of the funniest people there is. And also the kindest, much better than the guy sitting in my life. Well, thank you. I will easily can see that Zoe is a more talented, better person than me. There you go. That's a, that's an easy concession for me to make. And we're very happy to have you here. So you, well, thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to be here. Of course, of course. So, uh, am I correct? It's an honor. Are you from, you're from the south. Are you from Tennessee? I'm in Nashville. You're from Nashville.

Okay. What's the food culture like in Nashville? You know, there's a culture there now, but when I was growing up, there wasn't a culture. Really? There wasn't great food in Nashville. No, I mean, there were a couple of nice restaurants that, uh, I remember my parents normally, you know, for nice occasions, they'd go out. But now Nashville's super cool and there's a lot of cool restaurants.

Gotcha. But that all happened after I, you know, moved away, which was 2001. After the show premiered. After the show premiered. I was like, I can't live like this. They've taken over my city. I'm out of here. That's, that's, it seems, it seems like a, I know a lot of Tennessee people.

They seem like good folk. I feel like, uh, there's, yeah, there's a lot of good Tennessee people. And, uh, Oh, I love Nashville people and Tennessee. Yeah. Yeah. You know, similar, a lot of people I met in New Orleans, who I talked to, it just seemed like, uh, different in the people I met from Tennessee, but I feel like the people in New Orleans that we met were, or, I guess, Mississippi as well.

Yeah. We're so much about getting really fucked up or messed up. Like they were like, that's what we do down here. Like they're like every single person. And I was like, Jesus, like, uh, Nick and I were at a wedding, but like, man, like, uh, they, they, they, they knew how to, they know how to party down there. There's a little of that in Nashville. Yeah.

There's something about just like really tying one on. And it feels like also, because I really felt like in my experience in New Orleans, not to go back to this too much, but I, I feel like it was like, it really affirmed my stereotype of the culture of just like, Oh, this is like a drunken party town. And, you know, it's like Southern hospitality. But then these people are also just like really into just getting completely blasted. Yeah. I mean, I have a, I've never been there either.

And I have a vision in my head of Bourbon Street that like the set of the like dead wood or, you know, like the wild west, like the main square where like whores are hanging out the balcony and like people are stumbling out of the bar and falling over and getting trampled by a horse. You're not far off. Yeah. Honestly. Is that sort of what it's like?

That's basically it. And then there's also just like a gigantic person on a Wrangler scooter with a meter long cocktail that they're sipping through a straw. It's just, it's crazy. It's like a garbage place. Yeah. I would say, you know, again, I don't want to focus on Bourbon Street. That was a little unpleasant diversion, but the rest of the city.

Oh my God, I fell in love with it. I was like, this is great. It's lovely. The architecture is great. All that. It's a lot of fun. You know, you mentioned dead wood. This is a total tangent, but I was actually a few years back.

I was working on a TV show and we ended up shooting something on the deadwood set, which is still standing, which is really crazy. Because it's like, you just go in there and it's just the town of deadwood and they just use it for like, if you just watch like random commercials that are like old West themed or whatever, it's just on the deadwood set. It's still standing there. But the thing that's also still standing there is the creator of deadwood. What's his name?

Is it David Milch? Am I right about that? I think, yeah. Does that sound right? I think so. Something like that. So he's this really eccentric guy. And at the time he was, uh, he was on the floor to type.

Yeah. He doesn't like, he doesn't, he wouldn't prepare, uh, scripts in advance of the day of shooting. He would like come in and write stuff the morning of and be handing it to actors. And they'd be like, what the hell is this? So he's like this eccentric guy. And part of that is, so he had this other HBO, HBO show called John from Cincinnati. Do you guys remember this weird surf noir show?

Didn't last, but the, there are the soundstage where they shot John from Cincinnati is built like right next to the deadwood town because he was just like, Oh, well, I already have deadwood town, the deadwood town here. I'm going to be here anyway. Let's just put this John from Cincinnati set right here. So you got to where deadwood is, but you can also go ahead and tour this like giant, like, uh, airplane hanger sized building where they shot John from Cincinnati. That's still standing.

They won't get rid of John from Cincinnati. It's still lingering. What an honor to the deadwood set. And you got to shoot your mock three branded sketch there. It's a really storied place. Yeah, it's crazy. I do wonder what was shot there. I'm guessing I wasn't far off.

No, yeah, no, not not far off at all. So, uh, so Zoe, being a newly web, yeah, you went on something of a honeymoon you were telling us before the show. I did. So do you find yourself because I find myself sometimes on vacation and the thing like, like a honeymoon, like just kind of like indulging food wise. Does that happen to you? Or do you try to stay on point when you're like going on a vacation?

Absolutely. Now I really, I let it all go. And not, I don't know what I have that I'm letting go, but I used to be very concerned about food and I was gluten free for like three years, like pretty seriously up until a couple of years ago. And I had to be, I think because of that, I went in the opposite direction the past couple of years where I'm sort of like, I'm just going to eat it all and see how it works out.

So, um, I did go on the biggest trip that we've gone on in the last since I've been with my husband before we got married. We went to Switzerland in 2013 and I was solidly gluten free there for like five days of the trip and then I had a taste of bread and then I ate like bread nonstop for three days and it was incredible. And then I came back to the States and continued to not eat gluten, but on this trip we were in Florida and we just ate fried seafood for like four days. And it was good.

It was really good. I didn't feel amazing at the end of it, but because I like vegetables and I like to have a healthy mix, but I just, we really, I mean, there were tons of little seafood shacks. It is really nice to have those stretches where you just sort of like go for it and just sort of do whatever. I feel like that's kind of what I was in this, this past weekend of just like not paying attention to health concerns at all.

You know, I maybe try to sneak a salad in there just so I could have a little bit of vegetables, but I was eating so much just like, like you said, just like deep fried seafood, because I guess that's a big part of it down the gulf. You had a big piece of a big old rabbit. Yeah. You had rabbits. I had a Panade rabbit. Does it, I didn't, I'd never heard the term before I got in the restaurant.

It was not explained to me, but it was a big old slab of rabbit that had been deep fried and was served with pasta. It was very, very tasty. When you say slab, does it look like a steak or a chicken? It looked more, yeah. It looked more like a chicken breast than an actual like half rabbit. They couldn't really see like the, you can see the outline, like chocolate bunny.

Yeah. And this will, this will, this will clue you in on Nick's character there. Will you like a full grown adult rabbit? And he said, no, give me a young bunny rabbit. It was someone's bunny. Yeah. I want this to be owned by a child. You know, everyone is like Boston is this, this, you know, oh, seafood in

Boston and stuff like that. Yeah, that's true. But I mean, being, being down in, in New Orleans and up in Mississippi, where we were, there was so much, there was so much seafood. So much. Yeah. Like, like, like that sort of thing in Boston where I'm like, oh, you know, like everywhere I went down there, like, oh, you could get a po-boy or what?

Like everywhere. And I was like, oh, it's, it's so much more of a seafood culture down here. I had no idea. And it was really good. And, and, and, and it's also that sort of thing. We talked about this. It was like, you know, in Arizona, you can get rattlesnake, but it's kind of like, it's kind of like gimmicky or something.

It's like, oh, you can get rattlesnake in down south there. They eat Gator for real. Like, like, like, I think it's like a thing that they truly, truly, like, I asked a couple of people there, yeah, they enjoy it. Like, I was like, do you eat Gator? Like, yeah. Well, we got some, we got an alligator cheesecake. That's true.

Alligator sausage cheesecake. It was an insane sounding savory. Yeah. Like a savory cheesecake at this restaurant in Chocobos. It was fantastic. I thought it was one of the best bites I had. It was really good. It was really, really tasty.

But it is kind of crazy. I think we talked about a little bit on the podcast before about how it feels like when you're, maybe I'm just, maybe there's a fever dream. Maybe we didn't actually talk about this. But, um, we, uh, I remember like how Gator feels like a food where I don't know if Gator is actually good or if we're just eating it to show that we have conquered Gators. We've killed you.

Yeah. It's kind of like, like, yeah, you tried to, you know, you tried to bite me and I'll fuck you. We're going to, we're going to cook you up. You know, how do you like that? You got in my swimming pool. Yeah. Took a shotgun and killed you.

Yeah. I don't know how you kill an alligator, but. Yeah. We're eating these purely out of spite, basically. Yep. They're not, they're not, I bet it might even be part of it. Like this says, we don't, you don't even taste good. I'm just eating you cause I can.

It tastes like a hard sponge. Yeah. I have to say, I thought Gator cause I ate some, I thought it was pretty good. And I did feel kind of like a master of beasts. Now, did it, did it taste like seafood or was it like a meat? It was kind of, I hate to say it because everyone says it. Well, I had it in the cheesecake. I also had a fried Gator.

It was pretty masked in the cheesecake. I don't feel like you have too much of a Gator character. The Gator, it was, it's like a darker meat, at least when I looked at the meat. I try not to look at it too much, but it, I hate saying it because a lot of people say it, but it tasted like chicken, but it was actually almost kind of like juicier. And I know that's kind of a weird thing. Like, but it was really, it was really, I liked it a lot. Like, was it like stringy?

Like when you eat it, like a chicken tender, like maybe it was a little bit like, maybe it was a little bit tougher, but there was a lot of flavor and it was really juicy. I, I, I, I, I, I enjoyed Gator. I liked eating it. Where does the meat come from? Like the sides or the tail? That is a great, great question. I think it's, I think, I think I got Gator tail was what it was, deep fried Gator tail.

Right, because there's so much of it that's head and mouth. Yes. I mean, it is, it's a dinosaur is the crazy thing about like alligators and crocodiles. You're like, Oh, those are like dinosaurs that made it to our time. That's what they are. Yeah. And, but it was, it was tasty, you know, like I get it. I get when people don't like people eating things like that because it is this beautiful

creature and, and stuff like that. But, but I, I'm into trying things and I, and I tried it and I, and I enjoyed it, but then there was an angry line of Gators. I think Nick remembers that followed me to the airport. It's just a big long line of Gators that are angry at me. Yeah. They can move fast. They certainly can.

If they want you. Yeah. You talked your way out of it. Um, so real quick, we're going to get into this week's restaurant, but I'm just curious, like what, like, do you have a favorite change? You have a favorite fast food establishment? Hmm. That's interesting.

Well, so are you okay if you don't do, do you eat? No, I do. Yes. Okay. Okay. I was vegetarian for the first five years after college. I think when I first met you, yeah, you are. Uh-huh.

I believe 2005 to 2010. Yes. And then I started eating meat again, sort of because I stopped eating gluten. It's tough to do both. Yeah. It's sort of a hairy, yeah, story, but, um, but very boring. So I had to eat something. Yeah, sure.

So I started eating meat again and I feel very conflicted about it. In fact, my best friend, um, her toast at my wedding was a roast about like my different food weirdnesses that I've gone through food phases. It was very, very funny. Um, but even this, this summer, you know, at lunch at work, I, well, every other day, I'd be like, I don't even know if I like chicken, like eating it. And, and sometimes I do, but like, you know, when you get chicken breast on a salad, cause you feel like you need to eat food, eating it.

I'm like, why? I, I have a lot of conflicts with chicken too. And it's because I think chicken is such a, I said this to Nick recently, I think chicken is such a strange meat. Like, like, I think it's, I think it's a really weird, like just a bird alone is weird to eat. I have no problem with, even turkey, I feel like it just feels bigger. And, but like chicken can be kind of like, veins and stuff. Like there's a lot of that sort of stuff that, that gets to me and it, and it

weirdly bothers me. I mean, I still eat a ton of chicken. You can't, you can't really think about the animal and eat them. Like you get a little weirded out. I get a little weirded out by the gator, you said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I try not to think of that stuff. And I know that, like, uh, I don't think of, of cow, but if I get a big nice

steak, I, I, I really, really love a, a big steak. You know what I mean? Yeah, sure. I just, I kind of, I separate it in my head. Yeah, definitely. Well, it's kind of like, I think it's a little bit more abstract. The less it feels like an animal, obviously, but there's also an argument to be made.

I've read this, and this is again, something we may have talked about on the podcast before, maybe again, I'm misremembering, but there is something to, I have read like an ethical argument of like how it's better to eat beef, even though there's more water involved in beef production, because you can feed like so many more people off of one dead cow versus like one dead chicken will feed like two people and just so much, so many more chickens are killed in factory farming versus number of beef, just because of the raw size of the animals.

And I feel like that's really amplified. Like, again, returning to, to the Gulf Coast, like, I got like a shrimp po-boy, and if you actually calculate how many like souls were in that po-boy, if you subscribe to that, there were like, there were like 30 shrimp, like deep fried shrimp, like these were all like living creatures. And it was like, you were eating them in their entirety, just as like a part of a sandwich, like one would fall out. Slamming them down.

Just slamming them down. One would drop on the floor, you'd be like, I'll just throw that away. You know what I mean? It's like, it didn't even get eaten. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. It's, it's, it's crazy that, that there's that much, you know, so I don't know, I guess you try not to think of it, because if you break it down in

that macro level, then there's like, oh, there's a bunch of bacteria that are living in mayonnaise that are fucking killing millions through by emulsifying an egg or whatever, you know, they're in your body. That's true. That's true. I like, I like that this leads to some sort of breakdown. I don't eat anything. I'm very philosophically conflicted about our food production system here in

America, but I just choose to, it doesn't slow your fork down. Yeah, I choose to do nothing about it. I get a little upset sometimes. And then I just fucking go to Chili's. I feel like with chickens, hear me out on this. Yeah. Sure. There's outside of myself, me, there's no creature that's cuter as a

baby that then looks more monstrous. I don't know, I bet we could find some animal. Baby chicks are little yellow chicks are so cute. Adorable. And then fucking big chickens are gross. They're pretty gross. They're like gnarled with big eyes and like, yeah, they look like they they've got like big claws.

Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. That's a really astute observation. Besides me. I was the other right here. Well, it's like their skin on their face looks like a gnarled like knuckle. Yeah.

Yeah. Like on an old, old, like an ancient person or something. And and then like they get a little tiny beak that looks stunted and sharp. And yeah, no, they don't have the looks of the bird family. They do not. They have they have like a knuckle face. Yeah, that could that could be a fly. I know they're I mean, and our chickens dumb.

I think they are right. I've got to be down. I think so. Yeah. Wait, Nick, to answer your question, we grew up eating at Wendy's instead of, you know, I never we never really went to McDonald's or Burger King. But sure, when we went to a fast food restaurant, which we didn't do a lot. My dad is a really good cook.

So is my mom. But my dad enjoys cooking. And I think that's we were really lucky that way. We at home a lot. Gotcha. And we love I mean, I loved going out, but we would eat at Wendy's and they used to have like, I remember my mom getting like baked potatoes. Oh, yeah.

There was this actual salad bar in Wendy's for a while growing up. Yeah, I don't know how many of them have that left. We haven't reviewed Wendy's on the show yet, but I won't give any spoilers. But I will say that I really, really, really like Wendy's a lot. You do? Yes. I just had a spicy chicken sandwich at the Orlando airport. One of the greatest fast food inventions, I feel like of all time.

They do do a good chicken sandwich in general at Wendy's. Yeah, I'm a big Wendy's supporter as well. Again, no spoilers. No spoilers. But I think you can still change your mind when you go to review it. We'll give it an honest assessment. We'll go on as a blank slate for each episode of Doe Boys. Yeah.

All right, let's get to this week's chain. So we're talking rock and bruise. So here's the thing, Zoe, and you are very, very kind in terms of agreeing to come on the show, agreeing to do this chain for Rock Doberfest. We wanted a big celebration of rock and roll chain restaurants as last of the entire month. We wanted a big special guest to close out this shitty thing we did. Because we decided to review these dumb fucking restaurants.

This terrible gimmick that ran out of steam a half episode in that we've been doing for four weeks. And you were very, very nice to agree to go out of your way to Rock and Bruise, which is Kiss's pretty new restaurant that was open in 2012. Did you go to the El Segundo location? Yeah, we did. So what kind of drive was that for you? It was really easy. Oh, that's good.

We live on the west side. Oh, wonderful. Me too. So, oh, you do. Culver City. Oh, boy. We live in Santa Monica. Amazing.

So, yeah, hopped right on the 405 to the 105, got off down main. Oh, well, there you go. There you go. It's really easy. We were right there. Yeah. Mitch, what route did you take to the... The El Segundo Rock and Bruise?

My route was a little bit different. Took the 101 to the 110 to the 105. So, like going to the airport, except I didn't have to go to the airport. I just had that same... Make a weird left turn instead. Yes, I had that same shitty awful airport drive. Yeah. But instead of shitty airport, I got shitty restaurant.

I mean, honestly, like, I've been all over LA and I know areas of... A lot of areas of LA well, but I don't think I've ever been into El Segundo. Yeah, it's... I've been into Hermos and Beach and Han Beach and... I didn't even know that the, you know, the 105 or whatever, where the Imperial Highway ends. And then I thought the ocean was right there, but it goes for a while. And then I guess El Segundo's to the left.

It's like a nice little beach town. It's so weird in me. That's almost as big of a part of my review as anything. It's like, oh, this is like this nice little town that feels kind of like a Hermosa Beach light or something like that for people who don't know Hermosa Beach. It's kind of like a little town on the water just south of the city. What would you call that?

Like a... A burg. A burg, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't know, like a... Well, they all have little main street, like everything sort of clustered around the street that runs parallel to the ocean. Yeah.

And, and El Segundo seemed to have that too, which I thought was charming. It feels like very marine oriented. It feels like almost like when I go down to Cape Cod or something, right? That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Like, like, what, you're going to make fun of me. No, I'm just wondering if we're discovering a new format here of where we just review small towns.

Anything better than after Rock-O-B-R-S. I would love to give a review of El Segundo instead of any more rock restaurants, which there probably is, because every fucking restaurant on earth exists. There's so many stupid chains. This podcast is never going to end. Are you breaking down? I want this podcast to be over with. God damn it.

You're like hilarious podcast. It's so delightful. You're just hating. I'm ready. Oh my God. Weigur was like, we were talking about this idea. We, we met at Cheesecake Factory. And he said, you know, there's like 2000 chains we can do, dude.

And I was like, oh, cool. And then I didn't realize how many fucking chains that is. I, I, I don't know. Maybe even, even Susser will be, uh, 2000. I don't know. I don't know how big the number 2000 is. I really messed up. I, I, like, we went to rock and bruise for God's sake.

Yes. Yeah. And a few, well, a few, part of the reason is we went to a few different rock restaurants. I feel like we hit some of the bigger ones. And then we got a few different requests on social media, people asking us to go to rock and bruise specifically. So we're like, okay, this, this is an up and coming chain.

We, it's our, it's our duty to review it. And you know what you expect me to say, I'm going to bring down all my other reviews, which I probably should, but at this point, I don't even remember what I gave those stupid restaurants before this. So I will just say that my experience at rock and bruise is actually maybe the best one of all. Oh, wow. Okay.

All right. Well, let's get into it a little bit. What did we get when we were there? Well, I, so I brought my husband, he was, he agreed to go. And I think we were expecting something I didn't know was brand new. So I think I was expecting like a Denny's, but that was like a smaller chain or something. So we were sort of like, oh, like a nice open air. There's basically like a room that's not a room that you sit in.

I don't know what that's, a courtyard. We had, we started with buffalo shrimp, which I've never seen. Yeah. That's a, that's a, that does feel specific to rock and bruise. I feel like you don't see buffalo shrimp very often. So this was you and Mr. Duff Snowy. I apologize. Mr. Doyle.

I apologize to your husband. I'm very sorry. I think he'll be, I think he'll be fine. Okay. I hope he kicks your ass. His ass? Yeah. I hope he kicks Nick's ass.

Oh no. You were looking at me when you said that. Jesus Christ. Zoey, you're on my side. Don't help wag her out. The Boston is coming out at you. Wait, should I tell you everything that we had? Yeah, yeah, go for it.

Please. Okay. So we had that and actually I think that was probably the yummiest thing that we had, if that's the technical term. I had, then he had the ultimate burger, which is just like cheese pickles. And then I had chili, which was like a pork and beef and beans. It was like, it was a red hot Chipotle chili peppers. So like a bowl of chili?

Yeah. Is your entree? How was that chili? I thought, I'm also a chili maniac. Oh really? I love chili. Oh wow. And I eat it way too often.

We're eating veggie chili when you were a vegetarian? You were still doing that? Yeah, yeah. Love to veggie chili. All right, get a little chili nerd with us here. So where would you get like, like your favorite chili? Well, I live in Culver City and there's a tiny market on a residential street called Jackson Market.

Okay. Have you ever been there? No, I haven't. It's near the Sony lot. And I think it's been there for so long that it used to be in the middle of like cow pastures. And so it's kept its license to be a store. It's like a bodega. Gotcha.

Really run by really nice people. They have, you know, they have like deli sandwiches that I think are boar's head or something and they make soups and they make an incredible beef chili. Oh wow. I mean, I don't know if it's like their recipe or if it's like the people who they buy the meat from are like, here's the recipe to make this. I don't know. But I eat that chili a lot.

I love that chili. I mean, this is, I have a very small tour of chili for LA. That's okay. Well, we're right down the street from a place called Chili Johns, which is a really big place that you should try at some point. I should. Yeah, if you're, if you're, which I didn't know. I had no idea you're such a chili fanatic.

It's come up. Well, I've always liked chili, but it's come up recently in the last couple of years as something where I'm like, it's such an, I feel like it's such a meal. And if you have some tortilla chips or some cheese, it becomes such a good meal. And you can put like green onions on it. And then you're like, oh, I feel like I'm having a whole, a complete meal. I love chili, big chili fan. Yeah.

I was going to say, it's also not a bad thing to eat if you're not, if you're a non-gluten person, like a. Right. Yes. Yeah. Jack and I were, were when we were, which I have to still get back on. I was in Boston and then New Orleans. So I had a good week of eating terrible. And I feel awful right now, but, but, uh, because I was,

I wasn't eating any carbs or sugars for a long time. Oh, right. I remember you told me that. Yeah. And then I, you know. So your system's a little shocked. Yes. 100%. I think I could die in the next 24 hours.

The rock and bruise is just like, at the top, sort of like wobbling. How appropriate would it be if I died from fucking rock and bruise? It would be a rock and roll death. If I die, everyone get mad at a burger boy, Nick Weiger, for doing this to me. And say, tweet at him, tell him he killed me with his stupid podcasts. But chili, chili is a great, it's a great hearty meal. It is. You can do no beans.

You can just do a beef chili. I also really like chili. I don't. We live near Tubbs Chili, which is not overland. And are there other locations? I think it's just that one, as far as I know. It's, it's, what a weird place. They have like seven different chilies and I've only had the,

I think the chili that I've had there is just meat. It's like a Texas chili. Only thing I'll say, it's fine. Yeah. I didn't love it. Yeah. Well, the only thing I'll say just real quick on your point about gluten free, be careful, check your, check your chilies,

because sometimes they're thickened with a little bit of flour. That's a great, I'm glad you pointed that out. Just be cautious. Some people really can't have gluten. Yeah, yeah. We don't want to say that chilies always gluten free. No, not universally, but sometimes you can, you can find a good, sorry. Where do you eat chili?

Well, see, here's the thing. I like chili, but I can't say I have a chili spot. So I mean, that's, that's partly why I was probing you for answers. I've never actually been to Chili John's, which is right by our studio. I should give that a shot sometime. But I do have, I did one time make chili when I was in college. I tried to make a homemade chili recipe that I found off of the internet

for just, I just made a big pot of it for my roommates. Nick Weigar's Wild College. Hey, fella. So crazy. Welcome back. I made you a big pot of chili. Well, we, we couldn't all have been playing Mario Kart 64 single-player. Sorry, dude.

That was a Gamecube is out at that point. Oh, sorry, sorry. It was a double dash. Yeah, no, but I made, I like tried to make this, this chili recipe. I was like, oh, I found this recipe. This is great. I followed their directions and I made it and it was so fucking bland. And it's like, it's like, it's served to my roommates and they were just like,

you could tell they just didn't like it. And I really, I just felt so bad that I was making this out of pity. Nice men. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Friends. They were, they were, they were nice boys. Yeah. But I was just like, it just made me be like, there's such an art to this,

like to like get it, get it properly seasoned and really sort of bring out that flavor and simmer it for the right amount of time. And I just totally blew it and I just had this bland bowl of brown. It was just so disappointing. I think it is like in sautéing the onions and all the spices, whatever the spices are. I don't, I won't even, I have made chili before, but I, I don't know it off the top of my head. But I think you, you want to get it in there and then the, with all the simmering for a while. It can be an all day process.

Yeah. Jack, when Jack makes some chili, my roommate, Jack, Alison, in front of the show. That's true. People who are, yeah, serious about making chili. They'll, they'll do it all day and they'll be tasting it. Instead of just serving this brown clop you serve to your college roommates. That I'm surprised anyone lived with you, to be honest with you. But I, I have another West Side place for you.

Oh, go for it. Do you, have you ever been to West Side Tavern? I have not been to West Side Tavern my, my wife has. Okay. We stumbled upon it because we used to live in Westwood and we were trying to go to Apple Pan and it was the one day that Apple Pan is closed is Easter. Yeah. Real quick. And for anyone who's not an Angelino, uh, there's this burger restaurant called Apple Pan, which is fantastic. We're out in LA, go to Apple Pan. It's great. There's one location, but I think they are closed on Mondays or Tuesdays.

Oh, are they? Yeah. One of the two days they're closed. Yeah. Well, we, we happened upon it on Easter, which of course they have, they should take Easter off and, but we were furious and because we had gotten so excited about Apple Pan. So we went across the street to a complex that has a, a movie theater in it and this big restaurant that looked sort of like, you know, it came out of a factory from the front, but it's a really delicious restaurant and it has incredible vegetarian chili.

Oh, that's good to know. Yeah. That's another chili that I love. That's a great tip. I love this, this West Side Los Angeles chili focus. I mean, when did you get that? What else did you get today? Yeah. What were you doing on Easter? Were you going after getting Nade Rabbits every time? Nade Rabbit rampage?

I was at, you know, incidentally that movie theater that's above the West Side Tavern. I've seen a lot of movies there. The landmark. The landmark. I've seen a lot of Mark Cuban's movie theater. He owns, he has his ownership stake in that company. If you, if you want to get in, you have to shoot a free throw to get in. But they have, it's one of those theaters where they'll have like, like displays of costumes from movies there. And like, sometimes what they got like is just so not cool. Like I remember one time they had the, uh, they had Armin Hammers, or sorry,

Armi Hammers suit from J Edgar. Oh, who wants to pose next to this for a photo? That's so weird. Like, give me, like if it's Iron Man's suit, I'm like, oh, that's awesome. Like, of course you want to see Iron Man's suit, but I don't know when it's just like, oh, here's the hat from Albert Nah. Who cares? Get this out of here. Well, that's even a little more interesting than like a man's suit. A man's suit. Yeah, exactly. A million man's suits. And I'm not an expert, but I wouldn't be able to, I wouldn't have, get any thrill from no, I mean, I don't know.

Arklay does a better display job, I feel like. Arklay is a, is a Los Angeles, uh, same type of nicer theater. Yeah, nicer theater. Yeah, yeah, and they'll always have some, they had the vacation, that wacky vacation car. That was fun. Yeah, that was fun. I just remember the Grand Budapest. Oh yeah, they had the model of it, right? That was cool. That was really cool. Yeah, my mom, big fan of Grand Budapest. Before we change subjects from Chile, I just want to say, Chile, great cold weather food. If you're at a football game,

you're tailgating, you get a cup of chili, oh boy, you go watch the Pats, and they win the game, baby. But yeah, we all love Chile. Well, and talking about Chile, so how did you, you're Chile fair as a Chile expert? I actually thought it was really good. Wow, okay. I mean, maybe between good and really good, I mean, if it had a Chipotle, I didn't realize it was in the name, it was called Red Hot Chipotle Pepper Chili, I think. Gotcha. Something like that, a play on the name of that famous band. Oh, Red Hot Chili, okay, yeah. So I Duke tasted it and he was like, oh, it's got, it has like a Chipotle bent or like a sort of smokier barbecuey sort of flavor,

which isn't like what I really want out of Chile. Yeah. But for what it was, it was good. It was very like rich because it was beef and pork, like ground pork, I guess, and it felt like pretty, like fatty, which I'm not afraid of. Sure. And it makes it taste amazing in terms of that like richness, but it's not the flavor that I want. And I ate like a third of it and felt so stuffed, but I really went to town on the buffalo shrimp. Was it like, so I took it, I took the rest home. Was it a substantial bowl, would you say? Yeah, I would say it's a substantial bowl, and it came with sour cream on it and garlic toast or garlic bread toast that had cheese melted on it, which I was like, I'm not going to really eat that. And then I tried that and that

was really good, like really good garlic bread. So I ate all of that. I was a burger. Did you try the burger at all? I had a bite of the burger and the burger was really good. I mean, it was that sort of like, not the fancy burger, but the burger, the great version of a burger that came off the grill like in your backyard. Oh, okay. So that flavor? Sure. Yes. I know exactly where you're talking about. And I really love that. If you get like, you get like a nice char grill taste and this American cheese is usually kind of like the strong flavor that comes out for me in that situation too. Burgers are so funny to me because they're at every single rock dober restaurant we went to. Oh, yeah. And they're at every restaurant. And now I don't know if I ever

should get a burger at a place again, unless they're like, you have to get the burger. Right. But that sounded it. And I looked at it and it looks like a good one on the menu. But I, but I, but it was so huge that he could barely, you know, it was, which is sort of unappealing. Yeah, when it tastes good, he couldn't really like handle it. And he, I think he only half of his burger, which is unusual, partly because we got stuffed on the buffalo shrimp, but also because it was so large. I feel like they really, they really feel like they need to increase the portion size to justify the cost of those high end burgers. And it's, it's just excessive. Like we don't, we don't need a burger that big. I don't, I don't feel like anyone needs like a one pound burger. Like once

it reaches that stage, just like, just give me half of that and charge me three quarters of as much. I'm fine with that. I always feel that way at a Starbucks or a place where I'm getting like a coffee drink. I normally always want a small and when they, when the person thinks they're like doing you a favor by giving you more beverage for, you know, because they're out of cups or because they're just going to do that. Yeah. I'm always ticked off. Yeah. I'm like, I want, because I have this very like, oh, the ratio of like the beverage or the milk or whatever it is. I get that. I feel like, I feel like size can, can definitely create a little different taste. Like a, I will actually say this, if you're, if you're giving me a burger, I can't get my

mouth around it. You're doing it wrong, man. Give me a burger that fits into my mouth. I want to take a bite. Yeah. Cause basically if you're, if we're talking about Mitch's mouth, you could basically like a, like wedge a softball in there. No problem. If you can get his mouth around it, your burger is bigger than a softball and that's just gross. That's excessive. Yeah. I swallowed a softball one time. Those are my college days. I also got the buffalo shrimp. You did? Yeah. I thought they were really good. I've just been on the buffalo quickly. Are these breaded? What are they? They're like breaded like a wing a little bit? Yeah. They were, they were, they were lightly, I would say light,

lightly breaded. Yeah. And fried. Yeah. But it wasn't like a thick or greasy fry. It felt more like a breading. Yeah. Kind of made them just kind of crispy and it was good. The, and the blue cheese and ranch were good and it was, it was a nice, it was a nice app. I thought it was, I thought they did a good job with it. It came with three salaries and three carrots as well. And a coleslaw that was not great. I didn't have any. You didn't have the, okay. It wasn't, it wasn't that great. It comes with a coleslaw? Yeah. Yeah. That's an odd choice. It is kind of an odd choice. I feel like it's, it's like kind of like a mayo-y coleslaw. Maybe, maybe because it goes well with like, like a, I feel like coleslaw is

kind of a seafood sort of side dish. I guess. What were they thinking with that? Cause that's, like, that's not a finger food. Like, yeah. So were they thinking you dip the shrimp in there or was it clear like, oh, this is a little fork side? It's a little fork side. Weird. Real weird. And I also, yeah, I was, and for the shrimp, the shrimp is also a forker though. Okay. Yeah, yeah. That's what I was using my fork for. Yeah. You got to fork the shrimp. Ever using your fingers? You're having a messy, it's, it's, it's cause they're, cause the shrimp are huge. Yeah. And it was very saucy. So yeah, but they were good. I was, I was, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Like, they weren't the, they, but as far as, you know, these stupid Brock Dober

restaurants that we're going to, they were really crispy and good and pretty tasty. I enjoyed them. I agree. Yeah. I, if we're talking apps, I had the, so Natalie and I went to the LAX airport location in the Delta terminal. So this was actually, I guess, if they, my history is correct, this was the second location. The El Segundo was the original. The second one was at the Delta terminal at LAX. So terminal five, I believe. And then now they're, they're like 12 all over the country. I actually think it doesn't count. You know, LAX one doesn't count. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I might agree with you because you're not getting a full experience at an airport one, but I thought, okay, this is an interesting side of the chain. And I feel, I feel like, okay,

well, this is a, maybe it doesn't count. I don't know. I'm willing to concede that if someone's going to say like, you didn't get the full rock and bruise experience. I say I didn't get the full rock and bruise experience, but I think it's worth testing out because there are going to be people who are going to go to airport versions of these restaurants. And I think you could see whether or not the rock and bruise one is worth your time and worth your dollar. And I would say on balance, not to spoil my review, I feel like you could do a lot worse than that rock and bruise at the airport terminal. It's pretty good. We sat a little nerve with old burger boy over here. I just, let me just say this. I don't want to be accused of not being comprehensive or half

assing anything. When I have to basically beg you via text message to go to one of these restaurants and to show up to the podcast each week. So I put my fucking phone on silent. I just feel like I'm trying to do my due diligence. Maybe I should have gone to the El Segundo location. It wouldn't have been too much of a drive. Not much further. Not much further. I think you're providing something essential because I want to know, is Chili's too as good as Chili's? I don't know. I would say, I would say, Charlie's in the, yeah. What, Charlie's? What's Charlie's? Oh, Charlie's. Do you have? Oh, Charlie's. I know of Charlie's. I guess that's in the national airport. There's no Charlie's in the airport, but I'm like, is that as good as,

I mean, it's not a great chain, but I would say like, generally, I would take, if we're taking our fork ratings and I will apply this to my fork rating, get not trying to spoil anything. I feel like you go, it's a half notch worse. It's like a half fork worse just being the airport one, maybe a full fork in some locations. Sometimes you kind of get lucky and you get like an airport burger king that's just like spot on or something, but it's, it's, it depends. They're pretty fickle. I think in general, you could experience, you can assume to be the experience of a half fork worse. But I would say this is pretty good. We got the garlic cheese fries as our starter and pretty tasty. You know, the fries were nice and hot. They were well fried.

They had the good Christmas to them. Everything was on paper plates and with plastic utensils. I assume that wasn't your guys experience. This was unique to the airport location. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. So, so that's a thing to keep in mind. Yeah. We were getting everything on, on paper with plastic, but you know, I ate mine off Gene Simmons back. It had some good Parmesan flavor, a lot of garlic really loaded on the garlic. So if you're a garlic fan, you'll be happy with those. I thought they were pretty good app. They were exactly what you expected. And sometimes in that situation, if you're traveling and you just need a bite to eat, that's what you want, something that delivers on what your expectations are.

I also had the garlic Parmesan cheese fries as I got two apps. Gotcha. And they're sitting in a to-go box at my house right now on Palmerston at Palmerston Place and they were good. I thought they were really good too. Yeah, much better than the fake airport version that Nick got. They did a good job. The garlic was really, I wish I had more integration. It felt a little bit just kind of like there was garlic poured on top of these french fries. Yeah. And a lot settled at the bottom underneath it. It's kind of like a, it's kind of like you pour marinara sauce over them and some of it just like soaked down to the bottom. Like you take a clove of garlic and you like

press it through the mincer and it's just that? Yeah, pretty much it was that. It was just a minced garlic with a little bit of seasoning. Yeah, maybe mine could have just been cooked up a little bit more. Like I actually think that Dodger Stadium does a really good garlic fry. Those do do good ones. Yeah. And I'm trying to, I'm hard pressed to think of another great garlic fry spot. Tweet it as if you know one. But these weren't bad. They were good. They were tasty. I thought they were, they did a good job with them. They were completely fine. They were kind of like, they were just like right in the middle of that bell curve, which is just like, that's fine. I'm fine with that. So for my main, I got the pulled pork pizza,

which came with some, it says had some pork on it, had some pineapple, had some jalapenos, just a little bit of heat. It was pretty tasty. Again, you know, like the crust, I got the regular crust, not the gluten free crust, and it was a little, maybe a little cardboardy, but I think that's to be expected with those airport ovens. I feel like they don't quite get the, you just don't quite have a real pizza oven there. So it can't quite get to that right crispness of the dough, but it was very flavorful. It certainly wasn't flavorless. It had a lot of character to it and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the bites and I thought it had a good, sometimes with those pizzas too, they're like a little bit of dried out if it feels too like

frozen, but this one had like a lot of the, a lot of moisture to it and I thought it was had a good character to it. I enjoyed it. This is funny because you were eating this after you got off your plane, right? Yeah. Okay. So we landed. Oh, you didn't go to the airport just to eat? No. We returned from New Orleans after like three days of just like the most magnificent food and drink and then headed straight for my very game wife and I headed straight towards, we had to go to a different terminal. We were like in terminal six and we had to like go to terminal five with our luggage. But was it inside of security? It's inside security, yeah. And then we went over there and we sat down and ate at Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley's

Rockin' Brew's airport kiosk location. But that pulled pork pizza was pretty good. It wasn't bad. Did it have barbecue sauce on it instead of? Yes. Yes. Actually, that's a good thing to point out. Instead of the, in lieu of the typical tomato, it was kind of that, that kind of like a barbecue chicken pizza, same sort of thing. Okay. I, eating at airports is tough for me. I just got to say, I, unless I'm like super desperately hungry, I'll never try to eat on airplanes because it will mess up my stomach when you go up in the air. Like, I don't like to be full. I think people are filthy on airplanes and they eat food and then just like, like smell and they are get gassy and it's fucking disgusting. Well, Mitch, you famously, at least famously for me, because I think about it

often, you famously had someone vomit on your ass on a plane, correct? How did they get to your ass? This is true. It is 100% true. I was flying back from Dallas and that was just a pit stop. And this guy got, actually, part of the story is he looked a lot like Weiger. He was a guy who like looked like- No, I remember you did tell me this, yeah. He like looked like kind of like a chubbier fattie, like a fatter, fatter version, a fatter version of Weiger. It's basically me, like four years ago. Yeah, it looked like Nick four years ago. And he got on the plane and he was like kind of like shaky. I was like, oh man, this guy looks fucking weird. Was he sitting next to you? Yeah, and he was in the middle seat next to me. I had the window and so this guy sat down

and I was like, man, this guy is fucking like he and he took out like the the air-sick bag and I was like, dude, if you're sick, just get up and go to the bathroom. And nothing happened for a while and I was like, all right, all right. And so, you know, time goes by, I fall asleep and the lights, they take the lights in the cabin down. I wake up and I was like, my ass is wet. And I had curled up and leaned towards the window and I was like, my ass is wet. And I like touched my butt and I like smelled it and I was like, oh, it smells like vomit. And I was like, it smells like I was like, did I sit in something? I didn't know it was coming. You kept touching your butt. I kept touching my butt and smelling it and the guy was still next to me kind of like looking

like a weirdo. And the plane lands and actually before the plane lands, they turn on the lights and I just see that he had his tray down on a cup on the tray. Oh god, this is awful. Oh no. The lights came on, that cup was filled with vomit and there was vomit like on the tray and I think he either vomited on the tray and it slipped off onto my butt or he had turned at one point and vomited on my butt. And he vomited on my ass and then the lights came on and he like kind of gave me a look like this look like I know what I did. I puked on your butt. But he didn't say anything. He just got up and ran to the bathroom. Did he take his cup with him? Yeah, he took his cup with him and like napkins. Oh god, I can't even fucking think of this as really good. And he ran to the

bathroom and then there was a podcast about food. There was this guy next to him in the aisle seat and he was like, what happened? And I was like, that guy puked on my ass and he was like, he puked on your ass. He thought it was a crazy story. I was like, yeah, he puked on my ass and he ran to the bathroom. I think he's, I mean, he's definitely sick and the guy never came back again because I was going to be like, hey man, you shouldn't have puked on my ass. I don't know if I ever would have said that. But he never came back and I got off the plane and it was disgusted and I smelled like vomit. And as I was leaving the plane, I saw like a nurse or something charging towards the plane. Whoa, charging. So he didn't throw up and go, huh, I feel much better. I still feel bad,

but I feel much better. He threw up and he was like, I'm still really sick. Yeah, there was, there must, I thought that he just looked like kind of like hungover and shaking because he was a younger looking guy. Yeah. But also Ebola had broken out in Texas right then too and he died of it. He died of Ebola. But yeah, that's my puking on my ass story in American Airlines. I treated him and told him that I got puked on my butt. I think the part of the reason he might have fled to the bathroom, just honestly, I feel like he might have felt like he was in mortal danger because you are a hulking man. You are an offensive tackle sized man and if I looked over at you on a plane and I knew I'd like did something that would upset you and then saw you wearing a New

England Patriots hat, I'd be like, oh, fuck, this big drunk Bostonian is going to beat me within an inch of my life. Well, instead, now you know my thing is I need to get, people need to puke on my ass. I'm into it now. You really let it happen. Well, that was a terrible, awful, disgusting story. Absolutely disgusting. Shake that from their memories. Yeah. Some people might like it. Maybe that guy is listening. If you're out there, we need to talk about this. You owe me at least for her jeans cleaning. You use the hashtag not sorry, Mitch. And then we'll know. Turning back to food, my wife Natalie got the Tequila Sunrise Fires You Grilled Spice Rub Steak which had a flaming guitar logo next to it denoting that it was spicy and she said, you

know, she chases the heat. She likes a spicy food. She said it had a good amount of spice to it. You know, not overwhelming, but if you want something spicy there and you want to sell it, I think you could do a lot worse in the Tequila Sunrise Fire Grilled Spice Rub Steak. Mitch, what about your entree? My entree, I got the Yellow Submarine Sandwich, which is a play on the famous Beatles song. Is it now? Walk us through it, Mitch. I wanted to get something that was a little bit different, had a fun pun name to it and that's what I went with. And you know what? I was surprised. It was actually not a bad submarine sandwich. And I feel like it's hard to get a good submarine sandwich out here. There's a couple good spots.

You can go to, what's it called? Subway. You can go to Subway as well. You can go to Subway, get their Italian BMT, or you can go to, Bay Cities has a great Italian sandwich. That's your New York guy's neck of the woods. And they have some great food over there too. And then the other one, I think, is all about the bread, has a decent Italian sandwich too. Larchmont Wine and Cheese. Oh, and Larchmont Wine and Cheese has a great, they have great sandwiches just in general. Yeah. I was at Larchmont Wine and Cheese once, and I was standing in a line and waiting for my sandwich, a big line there, and the woman behind me, like her kid, was like acting up and she like hit her kid. No. And I was just like, I was like,

Jesus, that's horrible. But I was so paralyzed. And then I just looked away, looked at my phone. And then for the next five minutes, I was like, oh, this must be one of those, what would you do shows? They're secretly filming me. They show this horrible woman, do this thing, and they're testing, and I'm failing. I'm doing the worst. I'm not doing my responsibilities as a human being. And then some more time passed, I went up there and ordered my sandwich or salad at the time. And I realized that, no, she was just a bad mother who was abusing her child in public. And I also did nothing. So just like, what would you do but no happy ending? No, there's no resolution. And then it's reality. No positivity.

What's on that yellow submarine sandwich? Yeah, it comes with a bunch of different Italian meats, and there's like a little red wine vinaigrette that was kind of soaked into the roll, mayo, some spicy, I think yellow mustard cheese. It was kind of like a basic Italian submarine sandwich. How yellow was it? There was no real, I think the mustard is kind of where you get the, the bread was white or whatever, wheat or white bread or a roll. With a golden hue? No, not really. I think that it's because, you know, honestly, maybe they should have baked it a little bit more or the bread wasn't bad. It was just, I think it was the yellow mustard that they were trying to make. That's where they were trying to push it maybe. And it

was spicy brown mustard, I believe. So that doesn't really help. It's not even really yellow. Yeah, it's kind of weak. It wasn't the best sandwich, but it wasn't, I was surprised. I was like, this is good enough. You know, and I, like I said, I'm so sick of these fucking chains, and this thing was different. And I was like, this is kind of like, I wasn't getting this at Hard Rock. You know what I mean? Like it tasted like kind of like a nice, like a nice little sandwich that you would get at a, at a shop like that. Not the best, but kind of like, oh, like a little, a middle of the road sandwich shop. Yeah, look, I'm just, I'm hearing the second hand. I don't even know what the sandwich looks like, but based on your description,

I think Zoe is with me on this. I think they could have gone a little harder with the yellow. I think you get, you get banana peppers. Oh, banana peppers. You get some yellow bell peppers, maybe. Sure. They have some American cheese. I feel like there's a, there's enough yellow foods where they could have made that a little bit more of a yellow sandwich and really deliver another premise. If you come and it comes to the table and it sort of has a pop of yellow, then yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they messed up. All these places shouldn't exist. And I got pasta salad with, and the pasta salad was decent. And that's a, because I, because I had fries with it. Like a mayo based pasta salad or? It wasn't, it wasn't,

no, it was kind of, there must have been a little bit. Probably olive oil and vinegar or something. Yes, yeah, it was, it was nice. It was a, there was some cheese in there and kind of like a little, like, yeah, the, some sort of vinegar or dressing or something that kept it all together, but it was decent. And, and you know, I will say about that place, the atmosphere is nice. When we were outside, when I was outside like this, it smelled like a, kind of like a septic-y smell. And I think we just, because we were by the ocean or something. I smelled that too. Yeah. But when we were in the restaurant, it was, it wasn't that bad. And, and, and I feel like, like it was like, oh, this is a fun atmosphere. I could see going to a game here. They, they had

all these different bands, like banners of bands that made up the roof, if you remember. Yes. I took a, a gander. Yeah. It was, it was kind of nice. And they had that magic bus, the who's magic bus play pen for kids. And there was like a lot of nice stuff. And they had, they had a great beer selection too with like local beers that they swapped out. And I, and I tried this habanero beer and I didn't like it. And then I got a, a peach pear IPA that was, that was pretty decent. It had like a nice little hint. It wasn't too free, but I had a nice hint of stuff. But the atmosphere was nice. I get it. I get, I get why that place is up and coming place that people enjoy. It would be a fun place to watch, like a big baseball game or the World

Cup or something. A lot of TVs, but it's really airy and open. And yeah, even the airport version had a lot of TVs, like Ford Square footage. And yeah. And then that rock music that sort of like 70s and 80s hard rock playlist was kind of ongoing. Let's talk libations real quick. Sure. Mitch talked about his, what did you guys end up getting to drink, Zoe? I had a red wine and I was not hopeful about it, but that's what I like to drink. And it was actually great. It was a, I asked her what she thought was good. And then I just said, that's fine. I think it was a Pinot Noir, a crew. Sure. And then Duke had an, I'm sure he had an IPA because that's what he likes to drink, but I don't know. I think he enjoyed it. He had two.

Gotcha. So I think it went down easy. And your husband, Duke Doyle. Duke Doyle. Is he busy with his private investigator service? He should be. Duke Doyle. It's an awesome name. I had the 312 Paylale, which was just a local brew. They've got a lot of local beers on the list, even at the airport location. And Natalie got a metal mule, which was just basically a Moscow mule, but they said it was metal. She didn't really like it. I had a sip of it. It was basically just like lemonade. It felt like it was a little light on the spirits, a little heavy on the mix, which may have been a fun feature of the airport location. But overall, they have a very nice selection of good beers there. If you're a brewhead,

I think you can pick out something that'll satisfy you. Yeah, they weren't kidding about the brews part. Yeah, they're really... It seemed to me. Exactly. It feels like rock and brews. They're rock and brews. They're giving you that. And you know what? I get this play because, yeah, like you said, if you're a brew dog, a brew hound, you're gonna like it because I mean, I feel like this concept of all the other places, sure, they're gonna play like everyone likes whatever rock and roll music. We've talked about how maybe it's a dying art, but there's these classic bands. There were Pink Floyd posters and stuff like that. I appreciated that. But it also just functioned as kind of like a nice indoor outdoor open bar that had a huge

selection of beers. And I was like, oh, this makes sense. This is almost as good of a bar as it is of restaurant. And that to me is what helps that place out big time. Like, I don't want to go drink at Hard Rock Cafe because it's stupid. And here I would go and drink. And I don't want to go drink at Cabo Wabo Cantina. Maybe I'd go drink at Margaritaville. Here, it's like going to like, let's go to rock and brews. Yeah, all right, they got a big beer selection. There's TVs everywhere and it's indoor or outdoor and it feels like a big fun bar. It feels like a neighborhood bar in a way. It does. Like it obviously is specific with its paraphernalia and the decorations and the theme. But the theme is so like, yeah, that's what you expected a bar. So yeah. They were right to downplay

the kiss and just in favor of a more generic like rock and good time vibe. And you're right, Mitch, that it's a lot less in your face and a lot less annoying than these other places. However, I will say I not only will go back to Cabo Wabo Cantina, I've already been back to Cabo Wabo Cantina on his way to a Jimmy Buffett concert. I went with Mike Carlson and Scott Gardner, who are two of our guests for Rocktoberfest as well as a few other friends. And we went to see Jimmy Buffett at the Hollywood Bowl and we had a great time. Scott Gardner and I almost got punched by an old parrot head. But beyond that, it was a great time. A very frightening crowd. I was scared for my life the entire time surrounded by all these drunken men and women in their 40s

and 50s and 60s who were so just a crowd. Getting ripped. Yeah. It could be any crowd that would cause that. Any crowd ever. Where is Cabo Wabo? The Cabo Wabo Cantina in Hollywood is on Hollywood in Highland. It's actually right by the Hard Rock Cafe. They're basically the same complex. Yeah, but there's a few Cabo Wabos around. You can find one in Vegas, Lake Tahoe, south of the border. Right. I had a great time. Let's get to our final thoughts on rock and bruise. So Zoe, here's how this will work. We'll each go around. We'll take a turn. Sort of give your closing statement and at the end of your statement, give the chain a rating on a scale of one to five forks. Got it? Oh, okay. Awesome. Cool. So we'll start with you, Zoe. Okay. We didn't have high expectations and I

think that's part of the reason why we sort of had a delightful time. Everything, it was nice to be in sort of, the room was sort of like a hanger and then there's the open courtyard. I liked being there. And a lot of times I don't like being in restaurants because they get so loud. This felt fun. The food was fine, but way better than I thought it would be. And I guess I would give it like a three forks. Wow. Three forks. Yeah, I don't know if that's okay. That's a very respectable score. Out of five. Yeah, out of five. It's very respectable. I enjoyed, we had a good time there. Great. Perfect. Go ahead, Mitch. Well, let's see, anything I didn't touch. I had that habanero beer and it was really too spicy, but I'm not going to deduct points for that. I saw the

strawberry greens, strawberry fields, green salad or something and that looked pretty tasty. I appreciated that they tried, like I made this point on, I think during the Hard Rock episode, I appreciated that they tried, even though it wasn't a yellow sandwich like we talked about, they at least tried to kind of make puns out of the food. They were rock themed. But yeah, my experience, you know what? Ale fucking Lula. Oh my god, I can't even say it. Alleluia. Alla fucking Lula. Oh my god. One more time. Fuck, I hate Rocktoberfest. I'm happy it's fucking over. I was just trying to say Alla fucking Lula that it's over with. I'm so happy it's over with. And I ended it with the best

restaurant of the bunch, I feel like. And maybe it's because it's that original restaurant. The atmosphere was nice. It would make a nice bar. The Buffalo Chicken app was tasty. The Italian sandwich wasn't too bad. The garlic fries were fun. The beers, nice atmosphere, nice environment. The theme's not in your face, but it's there. But overall, just a nice experience and a nice little sea town. And I'm going to give it three forks as well. I liked it better than all the other ones. And if there's any other restaurant that got three forks, Margaritaville, you get down to 2.5 forks. All the other ones go down half a grade because this place is the best. And although I would say on my closure of Rocktoberfest, even though now I'm worked up and I hate it and I'm

so happy it's fucking ending, is that rock and bruise in Margaritaville were the two for me that I enjoyed, that came out kind of on top. It's all the same shit though. And this place felt the most different to me. It just kind of felt like the theme worked the most. With Jimmy Buffett, it works well, but I feel like it's such a specific thing. And here it's just kind of like whatever. We're a bar and we're a restaurant. And it's three forks worthy. It was a good time. I enjoyed myself. Mitch, I think your overall observation is fair. I'm not going to say anything negative about your score, but I do think you need to orient your internal compass so people can trust your future reviews. Because if you don't know yourself, what is three forks? What is four forks?

What is five forks? And that can change it a whim. Like why would anyone bother to listen to your score? Why would anyone bother to trust your opinion if they don't know if this five forks is going to hold a candle like six months down the line? If you're all going to say, oh, I had something that was a little bit better. That's not five forks anymore. Now that's three and three quarters because I've had this other meal that surpassed it. Well, guess what? This is what Rocktoberfest did to me. Okay. And listen, I ate at the actual restaurant, not some airport fucking version of it. Fuck you. Fuck Rocktoberfest. I'm so happy it's done. And there will be no Rocktoberfest next year. It's the last one. Well, Mitch, I've got a surprise for

you. Right after this, we're going straight to Kenny Rogers Roasters. We're going to record a live fifth episode of Rocktoberfest. You'd have to drag me my dead body. Here's my thoughts. I hate kiss. Kiss is a terrible band. I agree with that. I didn't get to say that either. 100% on board. Their gimmick sucks. They look stupid. Their music is terrible. We just lost some fans, but that's okay. Gene Simmons is an awful man. In my experiences as someone around the periphery of the entertainment industry, someone on the fringes of Hollywood, I have met a number of celebrities. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to get feral audio, our podcast hosts, and our wonderful producer Dustin sued for libel. But Gene Simmons is the worst celebrity I've ever

met. And I'd even go so far as he might be the worst man. He is an awful man. I think also, if you kind of look at his general life, he has done a lot of awful things. He is a force for evil in the world. So it takes a lot for me to endorse something that he is affiliated with. However, I will say that maybe Paul Stanley, the yin to his yang, is an okay guy. Maybe he's kind of putting a thumb on the scale here. Maybe he's a little bit more involved in the business. Whatever happened, if it's the other three guys in this restaurateur cabal that runs the rock and bruise brand, they're responsible for it, whoever depressed all the kiss imagery and made this not a shitty kiss restaurant that would suck as much as all their other merchandise and all their terrible music

and their unwatchable touring act, whoever made that decision to excise the kiss and make this about the general concept of rock and bruise made an astute decision and is the reason this is a restaurant that you can tolerate unlike anything actually directly associated with kiss. So, oh my God, I will say that rock and bruise, the airport kiosk, I will concede I did not get the full experience. Mitch, I think you've got me dead to rights there. I think I probably will have to go back to rock and bruise and maybe we'll tackle that next year for Rocktoberfest 2016 with the new Doughboys co-host Evan Susser. Thank God, fine. Please go. God, I hope I'm in my fucking grave at that point. Get my casket ready.

That said, based on my experience of the LAX airport location Delta Terminal Rock and Bruise, I would give that experience three forks and because it was the Delta Terminal kiosk, because with the airport version, I feel obligated to give it an extra two times three and a half forks for rock and bruise. Again, a highlight of Rocktoberfest, one of the better restaurants we've eaten at. That's true. You ruined our hand holding club, but that's okay. I have to say true to myself. I liked that breakdown. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you. I agree with you. I like everyone's breakdowns. I think we all get a good assessment. I just had an actual breakdown, I feel like. You did. You've had a couple.

Well, you know what? I'm glad you said that about kiss. I don't like kiss that much either. I hope we don't offend too many people that love kiss out there, but they're shitty. That pants off. I don't know anything about kiss and I don't... Well, I probably know a song, but I'd like to get behind Nick's assessment of kiss and yours. They're stupid and I don't like them. Thank you, Zoe. Yeah, thank you. Gene Simmons attacks Zoe now. All right. My voice for Gene Simmons just came off as completely anti-Semitic. I apologize to everyone listening. Dear God. We'll cut this in the many anti-Semitic remarks you've made over the past hour and a half out of this podcast. God damn it.

All right. It's time for our next segment. We've got four of the same foodstuffs and we're going to determine which is the best. This is Flavor of the Week. Now, it's the month of October. We all know it's Rock-Dober Fest. That's true. But it's also Halloween. And for that reason, we've got a Halloween edition of Flavor of the Week, a Halloween candy edition of Flavor of the Week. So a couple of things. First off, Mitch fucked up. We're supposed to ask our guest if they have any sort of food allergies or any sort of things they don't like to eat. Mitch neglected to do this with Zoe in advance of setting up the segment. She has a dentist appointment. It's not true. I'm just abstaining from the candy. And it's not that I don't like candy and fun, but

you know, it's just a personal choice. I'm not blaming you at all. I'm blaming Mitch 100%. But Zoe is not going to taste test her candy, which is well within her rights. However, she is going to give her assessment purely based on the aesthetic qualities of the candy. So whatever non-flavor characters of the packaging or whatever she wants to evaluate. And we're going to have a little guest reviewer come in here. Dustin, our producer, is going to help us out with the taste testing. Dustin, can you step in? He's like Dustin's heading in. He's a candy freak. Is he a candy freak? I don't know. I made it up. Would you say you're a candy freak, Dustin? No, but I eat it all the time. Okay, you want to hop on my, you can hop on over here with me. So I'm going to,

I'm going to just explain what we got here. I got us some peeps, milk chocolate covered marshmallow pumpkins as one of our candy options. Here you go, guys. You guys have one of those? There you go. Thank you, buddy. I got us pop rocks, pumpkin patch orange flavor. Okay. You got an orange, I'm sorry, a pumpkin on the label there. Then I got us some M&M's white candy corn artificial flavor. And there's M, so I guess these are kind of like a combination of M&M's and candy corn. And then finally, this is a classic, I got us Snickers pumpkins. Snickers pumpkins, great. I'm going to get a shot of this candy line up here. All right, Zoe, what are your thoughts looking at each of these? Well, you know, I don't think any of these are, are that inspired. Oh, really?

Well, the M&M's bag is pro, is definitely wins aesthetically. Gotcha. But the peeps, I mean, the orange that they've chosen isn't that great. And there's a picture of the chocolate pumpkin peep on the cover. Yeah. It's sort of like, it's so unspecific that it's sort of creepy. Yeah, it's hard to tell what it is exactly. Yeah. Are we all just going to taste one at the same time? Oh, right. Dig into whatever you want. We'll each take our bites today and then we'll have our assessment at the end. So I'm trying the M&M's right now with the white candy corn. They're yellow and orange. Those are the two colors you got and white. I hate candy corn. I'm okay with these because it feels like they have more of a white chocolate character than a candy corn

character. And they're not being the texture of candy corn is a little bit better. Very sweet. Mitch, what are you, or Destin, what are you tasting over there? I think there's two of these candies that I think are massively disgusting. I hate candy corn and I hate peeps. So I'm not trying to be biased. These actually don't taste like candy corn. They kind of remind me of animal crackers because of the frosting. Not too bad, but the aftertaste is kind of rough. I don't personally like candy corn though. They're very, very sweet. I'm with you, Destin. All right, I'm digging into this peep now. I am as well. And as a pumpkin, it looks like a pumpkin, Zoe. You gotta give it points. The real thing in real life looks like a pumpkin.

But the flat, two-dimensional. You take a bite into it, there's orange marshmallow in the middle. Well, I like the chocolate because I enjoy chocolate. The actual texture of the peep in the middle, I think, is a little gross because I think peeps are kind of gross and very artificial, but it's fine. Does it taste like a bunny, the bunny, but with just dye in it? It does kind of just taste like a regular peep just covered in chocolate. Yeah, it doesn't really have a different distinct Halloween pumpkin-y character. Interesting. I like the chocolate on the outside of it, I will say. Yeah, I really do like that chocolate on the outside of it. A good milk chocolate. Any thoughts on that one, Destin? The chocolate is really good. The thing I don't

like about peeps is the sugary, granulated texture of the outside. The marshmallow is kind of also really dense, but I don't mind this, but it is a little flavorless. Chocolate's good, but the center doesn't taste like anything. It's kind of a mush. Yeah, yeah, I agree. All right, I'm hopping into these Pop Rocks, what do you taste, Mitch? You guys are just slamming through these. Well, we've eaten a lot of food over the years, Zoe. So, this is our first rodeo. Orange and green popping candy, there's orange and green pieces, and so I'm going to put it in my mouth. I know people don't like to hear us eating, but you're going to hear the pop effect. It's unavoidable with Pop Rocks. I don't mind it.

Thank you, Zoe. Oh, that sounds really cool. That sounds really weird. Yeah, that's like a total ASMR thing. That sounds what it feels. Okay, pumpkin patch orange. Orange and green popping candy is how it's described. I will say I like this orange on the Pop Rocks envelope. It's a really saturated, really dark orange, almost bleeding into like a brick red. They're going for like an old-school vibe, I feel like. Definitely. Yeah. I guess they have to because they're Pop Rocks. All right, again, I mean, a candy I'm naturally skeptical of, and I guess this is okay. What were you going to say, Mitch?

I mean, sugar. This one is just the most sugar. It is just we're eating sugar, but I don't know. I don't know if it's a, I don't know. It's like an Alka-Seltzer, right? Like the thing they put it, well, one just exploded and hit the back of my throat, and it really hurts. Oh, God. It's super dangerous. Dear God. Yeah, you came over, you walked out of the microphone dust, and you look like you were in physical pain. I'm glad it wasn't super serious. I'll say this right now. There's a single tear running down his face. This might be the tightest race we had for these,

for these, for what is it? What is this flavor of the week? Flavor of the week. I don't know, Mitch, because we got this Snickers pumpkin right here. I'm really interested in what this is going to be. Yeah, I think this is the heavy favorite coming in. This is a great looking pumpkin too, I got to say. Great design on the actual chocolate. Sort of tall and thin pumpkin though. You're right. You're right. The shape is not a conventional pumpkin. I mean, there are pumpkins like that. Absolutely. Yeah, you're right. It is more of a gore. Great. Home run. Is there a pumpkin flavor in that? Like a spice pumpkin? No, that is a Snickers purely in the shape of a pumpkin, but I love Snickers, so yeah, that one sales right

out of the park for me. What do you think, Dustin? This is so good, and it's the same. I look forward to Halloween and Easter because of the Reese's Buttercup shaped candy. For some reason, they're best served in oval form. They're softer. It reminds me exactly why I like those. It tastes just like a Snickers, which I have not had in years, but texturally, it's really good. Yeah, this is really good. Fantastic. What do you think, Mitch? I think they do taste different than normal Snickers. It's the weirdest thing on Earth to me. They're softer to bite into or something. They're more chewy. It's great. That's a good one. Really good. Okay, so would you mind throwing those on the ground? Yeah. Here's what I think we can do. Normally,

our system is the point, but I think since we each have our own, we can just hold them up. So here's what we'll do. We'll go one at a time and we'll hold up what are in reverse order. So let's start by holding up your fourth place finisher, your last place here in this flavor of the week. Dustin has held up the peeps. Mitch is holding up the M&Ms. I'm holding up the pop rocks. Zoe, what's your pick? Oh, what? Yeah, hold up your fourth place. The one that you like the least. How could you like the least? She also went with peeps. Okay, all right. Great. Third place. Man, maybe I shouldn't have picked M&Ms. Jesus. I'm holding up the white candy corn. Mitch holding up the peeps. Dustin also with the white candy corn M&Ms. Oh, interesting,

the Snickers for Zoe who did not taste these. Yes, didn't taste, only based on the fact that I thought they could have done better. You're right, it's pretty half bad. Very fair. Halloween is about putting on a costume and it failed. It did not do a good job. They should do better. That whole thing should be orange or something. I agree with you. All right, now it's time for second place. Wait, hold on, I fucked up. I'm holding up the peeps, Dustin and Mitch, and Zoe are unanimous in the pop rocks in second place. Okay, great. And first place, well, this is a foregone conclusion, but yeah, from a flavor standpoint, clearly the Snickers pumpkin delivers. Me, Mitch, and Dustin are unanimous,

whereas Zoe's first place finisher, I think a very, very fair assessment based purely on the packaging. The M&Ms white candy corn, it's a lot of fun. It's this orange and yellow and white aesthetic. It says that it's about candy corn, but it also tells you that the M&Ms are not going to be shaped like candy corns. The M&M himself mascot is on there. The actual mascot is in a costume of a candy corn. That's actually really a great layer. A lot is going on here. It's all animated like the character design. It's a great character design. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you, Dustin. Dustin Marshall, our producer, makes Feral Audio happen, makes Doe Boys happen, many, many great podcasts here on Feral Audio on this network. And when Mitch messes up,

he comes in and does a taste with it. But I loved it. I liked judging because of Halloween, too. This was great to judge all the candy based on its packaging. I think it's a fantastic. It was your idea, Mitch. I'll give you credit for this one. And I think it worked out well, despite you bringing food that our guests could not eat. Okay. Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Dave Ferguson. Oh, my God. Dave writes, Jesus, Ferguson, one thing I like about one thing I like about your approach to the show is that even when you don't like a place, you don't seem to discourage people from checking it out and having their own experience. I think that's mark of a good reviewer.

Are there any critics you look up to food or otherwise? What was the first half of that? I zoned out. One thing I like about your approach to the show is that even when you don't like a place, you don't seem to discourage people from checking it out and having their own experience. I think that's the mark of a good reviewer. So a nice compliment he's paying us. Are there any critics you look up to food or otherwise? Zoe, I know this was directed towards Mitch and I, but if you have any sort of critics you like in any field, feel free to chime in. Well, I like to read the reviews in The New Yorker. Sure. Peter Sheldahl, who I think is an art critic. Gotcha. I like to read... I don't know.

I like to read his reviews. So like a thoughtful critique from an expert in his field and not too bumbling doofuses who don't know what they're talking about like Mitch. Well, that's just what came to the top of my head, but I also enjoy your reviews. Oh, God bless you. Thank you for saying that. Was that what you were trying to do to make her say that? I'm always fishing for compliments. Dave, come to bed. Hold on, Katie, after I email to the Doe Boys. Dear God, Ferguson. Dave Ferguson. In case you're not aware, Dave Ferguson is a member of the Birthday Boys, the sketch group that Mitch is a part of that had a TV show for two seasons

on IFC. And we're like brothers. We love each other. Yeah, we love Dave. He'll get on here at some point. We'll get him when Susser takes over. You know, I look at reviews, I look at movie reviews. I watch like the Food Network and stuff like that. And I love hearing reviews of restaurants. But I only want to hear about food when it's good. I like seeing reviews to not go to a place. Like, oh, this place is really bad. But I'm only looking for good food reviews. And when I look for... If I want a bad movie review, it's after I've seen a movie and I'm like, that movie was bad. Sure. People agree with me. And then I'll look up to see if there's people who also don't didn't like the movie or whatever. But, you know, I'll always try to give a film a chance or

something like that or a TV show a chance. Regardless of the reviews, I'll try to go. I'll try to check it out. So there's no real reviewer that I really look up to, though I do like, you know, Food Network. And I mean, I even am okay with Guy Fieri. I like Guy Fieri. I'm a Guy Fieri defender. I'll watch them. I like seeing people eat food. I like seeing people enjoy food. But, you know, I don't know if I look up to a certain reviewer now. Yeah. I mean, just to give you some names, I really like Jonathan Gold, who's a local LA film food writer. And he's, you know, won the Pulitzer Prize. His writing is fantastic. He gives insights into a lot of smaller places. Evan Kleinman, who hosts the KCRW's Good Food. Another

guy, they think she has like, I don't know if she'd classify as a reviewer, but she has some really good insights into the world of food. And I like listening to her. And also, you know what? I was an old Leonard Moulton and Roger Ebert fan. I used to like those guys growing up. When I look at movie reviews, back before you had IMDB, you'd have the big old Leonard Moulton. Yeah. Yeah, it was like a huge like 700 page book that just had all his reviews in it. I love that thing. I loved looking through it too. I love flipping through it and looking at movies that I'd never actually see and just reading the little capsule review of them. A lot of fun. So that's who I think. I loved it when you looked something up and it just said bomb. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's,

yeah. I think it's, I think it's interesting. I think, I think movie reviews, even still like with, with Ebert, like I would still be like, hmm, I still want to check out this movie on my own. Sure. Where you said you like Jonathan Gold. Yeah. That's, I'm reading his reviews when it's like, oh, he gave a great review of this place and you want to go to that restaurant. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Like, it's such a funny, weird, different thing with film and restaurants. I feel like, I feel like if it's a poorly reviewed restaurant, then who cares? You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, but, but, but it's, it's, it's, there's such different things to me. Like, a meal and a movie is two, you know, completely different things. I totally, totally agree. You

agree that a meal and a movie are two different things? It's just the most sensible thing you said on the podcast ever. And then things turned crazy. I fled. Well, you heard it from me first. Meal and a movie are completely different things. So they go well together. They do go well together. Absolutely do. But you know, you don't know, like, do you, do you look up reviews after a movie to see if the people, I like, don't even like to read a review before a movie because I don't want it to be spoiled. I like to read a consensus in advance. So I know, like, if people think it's good or bad and you want a tomato meter, I want a tomato meter. Right. And then afterwards, I want to look at an individual review and then sort of see someone who's either going to reaffirm or challenge my

own assessment of the film. How about you, Zoe? There's a mix. Yeah, gotcha. Sometimes if I see a movie that's sort of like baffled me, I want to read more about it afterwards, like movies like Moon or things that leave you going like, Oh my God, there's a twist, maybe, or there's a surreal feeling from the movie. And I want to know like what that meant or something. So I'll read about it after. I like to know that a movie isn't garbage, although there are some times where I've already made up my mind that I'm going to see a movie, so a review isn't going to dissuade me or like a tomato meter isn't going to. But I'm not, I don't have a hard line on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like they're, I feel like they're two different, they're two different things. But I try with food,

it's the only one that I will actively seek out to be like, what's getting reviewed and like, what's getting good reviews and I'll read about it. The other ones I try to stay away from until, until after the fact. Yeah. And there's one category of reviewer I have unflinching respect for. That is everyone who's left us a review for the Doe Boys podcast, the iTunes Store. Thank you very much for doing that. What the fuck? I'm just saying, like it's nice when people give us a review of the podcast, favorable or unfavorable, it's just nice to read a little something. Was this a you and Ferguson set this shit up to thank the reviewers? We've been scheming, baby. We've been doing this for years. What do you

think, bribed that guy who puked on your ass on the American Airlines flight? Me and Ferguson greased his palm and high five back in LA. So yeah, like, subscribe in the iTunes Store, leave a review. We like that. It helps out the podcast. And if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at Doe Boys podcast at gmail.com. We take emails from all our listeners, not just personal friends, like Dave Ferguson. So please, if you have anything you'd like to ask, go ahead and email us. Follow us on Twitter at Doe Boys pod. Check out our Facebook fan page. Zoe Jarman, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. What a delight. It was great. So fun. We had a great time. Do you have

anything you would like to plug? Plug? Oh, my God. You don't have to. No, no. Your Twitter. The concept of life. Great. I'm a fan. You can plug your Twitter or anything like that. If you want to. But you don't have to. No. Yeah, stick with no. Stick with life. And not in a weird, and I didn't mean life in a weird way. Yeah, no, I got you. Not in a political way. No, I was just in like... It just takes a hard right turn at the end. I do have something to plug in. Next week's guest. Next week we'll have Ben Carson on the podcast. Now we're talking. That'll do it for this episode of Doe Boys. That'll do it for this edition of Rock Doberfest. Fucking God. Thank you, everyone who listened. Thanks to our guest, Zoe Jarman.

And we'll see you next time. Until then, for Mike Mitchell, The Spoon Man, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya.