Doughboys - Shake Shack with Jason Concepcion

Episode Date: July 6, 2017

Writer and podcaster Jason Concepcion (The Ringer, Binge Mode) joins to discuss a culinary move from NYC to LA, touch on Game of Thrones and NBA free agency, and review upscale fast food upstart Shake Shack. Jason and the ‘boys taste test Kobe Bryant’s sports drink Bodyarmor.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chances are low that you know the name Frederick J. Osius, but his two deputies have surnames that are a touch more recognizable, Lewis Hamilton and Chester Beach. After hiring the men in 1910, Osius, a man who loathed this own name, paid for the rights to entitle his appliance company after the duo, and Hamilton Beach was born. Though Osius was the company's founder and chief inventor, he's now entirely omitted from the history section of the corporate website. Perhaps the publicity shy tinkerer would have preferred it that way, and regardless his innovations proved influential in America, both in the restaurant industry and in home

cookery. In 1911, Hamilton Beach introduced an electric drink mixer called the Cyclone, and for the first time, ice cream milkshakes could be made with relative ease. Hamilton Beach would improve upon this in the 1920s, buying the rights to a now commonplace device created by Polish-American inventor Stephen J. Poplowski called the Blender. In the 1910s and 20s, mixers and blenders, plus other company's innovations in making carbonated water scalable, gave rise to the soda fountain. Not the self-service kind in now commonplace at fast-food restaurants, but a full-service

counter akin to a non-alcoholic artisanal bar, manned by a professional known as a soda jerk. Soda fountains and jerks were a fixture in the U.S. through the first half of the 20th century, offering up an extensive drink menu featuring flavored sodas, phosphates, malts, and shakes. And though they faded beginning in the 1950s, their sweet treats were adopted by diners and fast-food outlets, as sodas and shakes are expected to be served anywhere you can buy a burger and fries.

In 2004, high-end New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer opened a hot dog and hamburger stand inside a small hut in Madison Square Park. And though he intended it as a single location, its wild success quickly grew into a chain throughout the city, then the East Coast, then the nation, and now the world. Lauded for its high-quality menu and worker-friendly corporate culture, it's the current trend center at Quick Service, offering burgers, dogs, sides, and its namesake creamy sweet desserts, for which it owes a small debt to Fred Oceas, the now-forgotten pioneer who named his life's work after two other men.

This week on Doe Boys, Shake Shack. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants or the production of Feral Audio dot com. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host, the mayor of Squincey, Massachusetts, the Spoonman Mike Mitchell. Ooh, okay. I stumbled the delivery there a little bit, that one was courtesy of TK Wilson, if you got a roast you'd like me to use on Mitch, roastspoonman at gmail.com.

I was supposed to roll in right into Massachusetts, but I paused on the comma too much. Yeah, you got the comma pause going. The classic comma pause. It's a day one of acting class, they tell you, don't get hung up on that comma, of a comma pause. They say, thousands of people have come to the city looking for stardom, and they all go home because of that comma pause. They get to that audition, they see one comma, and they stop for five, 10, 15 minutes straight.

It's just a sitcom length, fourth of dead air, and the person running the audition is like, well, this guy's got a comma pause, get him down the hell out of here, get back on the bus to Indiana. Yeah, get to Indiana, you fuck, you sick fucker. They say that every time, it's really, I mean, it's a tough town, you gotta be tough to make it here. Yeah, like you and I, two tough dudes. You think we've made it here?

Oh yeah, good point. Is this what success looks like? That's a good point. No, we haven't made it yet. No. Trust me, when I make it, I'm not talking to you anymore. To Spoon Nation, and here's a little drop, why are you got a sneak peek of it? Like I have trouble communicating certain emotions through my voice.

I want to hook up. Oh boy, okay. It'll happen before this bog ass ends. I'm saying Nick and I will hook up. Yeah, unfortunately I'm in the same boat as you, Mitch. Oh my God. I was saying that you were making the right decision in your life. I put the gentle and gentle man.

You look great. I would have to abandon my wife, people around showing their genitals to each other, a passionate love affair. I could be a gay priest, a female priest, et cetera. Fireworks. Oh, chopped up. They chopped that one up to mess with you and me. A little, yeah, that's, I mean, that audio has been altered.

Yeah, it's not verbatim what we said. I don't think anyone thinks that it's the straight audio from the show. Well, some people take things at face value sometimes, so I just want people to know that audio has been altered a little bit. That was a good edit job. Christ. Oh, Liger, another, hey, I'm going to crack a gold one. You're opening a sparkling water.

It's true, but it's 4th of July. Yeah. I feel like it's drink season, am I right? We're recording this on the Monday before 4th of July. 4th of July is coming up. This episode will be out on the Thursday. People just like it when we recite dates on here. Yeah, that's fine.

It's the Thursday. They're still, they're still loud. They're still having fun from the 4th. They're still having, yeah, you still got that short work week, that Wednesday through Friday work week. Yeah. That's a lot of fun. And hey, we're shouting out dates.

On Monday, July 10th at Largo in Los Angeles, we'll be performing with Wild Horses, great improv group. So check out with me and Mitch there. You can get tickets at LargoLA.com. Harry Holland, Aaron Whitehead, Stephanie Allen, Lauren Lapkus, real, real quadra, quadra, quadro of powerhouse, quattro. That's what I was trying to say. I was trying to say quattro and then I realized my brain was making me say quadrant is like

quadrants, not the right word. The comma pause. Yeah. I got, I got hung up on the comma pause, which that's why I never book any acting work. Let's, let's cut the bullshit. Let's end this. They made fun of them. They made fun of me because I was squinting.

By the way, I need to address that. Yeah. Yeah. What do you want to say? I feel like people have made fun of me forever for that. Yeah, it's fine. I'm okay with it. Don't worry about it.

You look fine. You know what? My drops used to be the thing you would make fun of me and my drops, but now the drops just make fun of me. You make fun of me. Well, I make fun of you less cause I didn't like, what am I, what's, what's my standing to make fun of you? That's a good point.

Let's introduce our guest. He's a staff writer for The Ringer and one of the hosts of the podcast, Binge Mode, Jason Concepcion. Hi, Jason. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Great to have you here.

A recent transplant to LA spent a lot of years in New York City. I did. Where are you from originally? I'm from Queens, New York. Oh, you're from Queens? Okay. Long Island. Yeah.

Lifelong New Yorker then? Lifelong and in terms of that happening for a portion of my life. Right. Gotcha. Right. You know what? You don't, you don't have that overwhelming Long Island. I lost it somehow.

When I go, when I went to my brother's wedding like three weeks ago and it was hard and heavy. What the fuck we doing tonight? Yeah. A bunch of gabresses. Yeah. Right. Isn't, isn't Gabris Long Island?

He's from Long Island. Yeah. Yes. He has a tattoo of it. I know this. Does he have Long Island? He does. He has a little tattoo of Long Island.

It looks like a log of shit that he has on his, on his bicep. Like, yeah. The geographic shape of it does resemble that. Gabris. It looks like a log of shit that you've tattooed onto your arm. Long Island actually started because of a glacial deposit. So it kind of is shit. Whoa.

We learned that in school. Why, why, why do you look, Gabris is our friend. He is our friend. I don't want him to beat us up though. Oh my God. I knew that that's the look you were giving. He could easily beat both of us up at once. Yeah.

For sure. He'd smash our heads together like coconuts and we'd fall to the ground and fall in the 69ing position. It's a very Long Island thing for people to do. Smash people, smash people's heads together. Classic Long Island move. So Jason, from New York, moving to LA, food-wise, you know, a big bicoastal debate exists in terms of which city you reign supreme.

I imagine you have your biases, your preferences, but what do you think of the food scene out here in LA? It's fantastic. I would consider it essentially a wash except for pizza. Obviously, Mexican food is going to be a big edge for LA so far. I've really enjoyed the poke scene. Oh yeah. Just thriving.

Yeah. But pizza is the one thing that I think New York has as an edge. They beat us and they beat, wow, I said us. Whoa, Mitch. Whoa. You're wearing a Pat's hat right now and you're referring to LA as us. Oh, no. What's next?

Will you be rooting for the LA Rams? Oh, god damn it. Are you going to be going to Jersey for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks? No, I will not root for the Ducks. But you know what? I would. The Rams could be my NFC team. I'm okay with that.

Have I had to have a NFC team? Yeah, sure. You can have an NFC team. Why are you confused by this again? No, it's fine. You can do that. Jason, do you have a NFL team? The Giants, nominally.

Right. Do you follow the NFL at all? I don't follow it at all. I followed a bit. I follow it through Osmosis because I work at the ringer. Right. That makes sense. A few years ago, I was just like, you know what?

I'll just try because I didn't care that much and it was also before LA had a team again. Right. And I was just like... Does that mean a lot to you that LA now has a team? Well, I was an LA Rams fan as a kid and then they moved away. Yeah. And then I...

He has a stance on football. I also kind of like... Yeah, I kind of like have trouble enjoying football because of... Because it causes brain damage. Yeah, exactly. So I can't put that out of my mind when I'm watching the games. And I also just care less and I also had too much going on in my life. I was just like, I'll just cut this thing out and I actually didn't...

I don't really miss it. Right. I feel like there's enough other things to occupy my time. Yeah. But you are... What? Why is the heavy sign there? I just...

I don't like your NFL opinion. I mean, I get it. I... The concussions, all that stuff there, it's bad news, but... Yeah. It's... He's just very... Yeah, bad news is quite an understatement.

You're just very high and mighty about it all. I don't think I'm high and mighty. Yes, you very much are. You hold this over my head and you say, NBA is the best league. You always say shit like that. I do feel that that's the case. I love the NBA too. It's not a competition between...

I think you should get back into football. The Rams are here. Get back into it. You can see guys get concussed right there now. Right in front of you. Right in front of you. There's no need to watch it on television. I think you should play.

I think you should go out. And immediately be killed. I see what your plan is transparent. Like a miracle. Was that what it was? Was that what it was? The Mark Wahlberg when he joined the Eagles? Is it called miracle?

Oh, yeah. No, I don't think that was called miracle. I think that was called... It was something like indestructible or something like that. Invincible. Can I guess what it was called? Yeah, go for it. Lucky Mark.

Yeah, no, I think that... What miracle was the Miracle on Ice movie? Yeah. They all got names like that. That makes sense. Kurt Russell, yeah. Which I've heard was good. I've never seen it.

But I do love Kurt Russell. Are you excited for the summer season? Do you love the summer? I love the summer. It seems like it's always summer out here. Yes. Is this going to be your first summer out here? This is going to be my first summer.

I walked in Runyon Canyon, Runyon Park. Canyon, yeah. And I felt as if it was summer. The sun beating down on me. There's no humidity here, which is wonderful. That is nice. Me and you are now tied for the number of times that we've done Runyon. You're going to beat me soon.

I just want to say that people who take your children to Runyon don't do that. It seems like child abuse. Like there's kids that are like, I don't want it. And they're dragging them up this freaking hill in like 95 degree heat. I don't like, I found out that I just don't like hiking. I like the woods. I like to drive around the woods. I mean, like I can walk through the woods.

You know what? I can drive around the woods. I can walk through the woods. I can even bike through the woods, but hiking. What makes a hike? What differentiates? Especially in LA it is just, it's completely all inclined and you're, and you're going way up.

I've gone on a date on a hike and it's bad news. It's not good. That seems like a real sweaty date. It's a sweaty, you know, like, like, and your dates are already sweaty enough. It's one of those things where you're like, like you're, I'm out of breath, but I like still am trying to like, they're like, where about you live? And I'm like, I'm in Los Feliz and it's by the incident.

And like, I'll say things very quickly. Sure. Which I was just, a new character was introduced where I like to hike. And it's, it's, and you can see how, how, how good I am at acting by, by the fact that I actually don't like it at all. Nick. Yeah. Um, so aside from, I said, you recent, a transplant from New York.

True. Um, a big NBA fan, but you're also like a walking game of thrones encyclopedia, I would say. Yes. What brought, what like, what originally stoked your interest? Cause this is a crazy time for you as someone who's like, it's kind of like your two, uh, areas of expertise or coming to the forefront. Like, you know, we're an NBA free agency.

We've got the Game of Thrones season premiere looming. What originally attracted you to, I guess you probably started with a book, the song of ice and fire series, right? Um, it was, I'm a fantasy fan. I like sci-fi stories. I like stories in which a, uh, misbegotten orphaned hero rises to prominence. Um, I like things like dragons.

I like magic. And so, um, Game of Thrones was cool. It was cool. The thing that spoke to me originally was just because a lot of the magic stuff is stripped away in the beginning of the story. So it's just this political story. And then as the magic comes into it, um, it takes it to another level. You know, there's a lot of real politic and, you know, sex, bad sex writing

that I actually really appreciate. Um, and like extreme violence, murder of children. It's, it's all that stuff, um, is stuff that I just really like. Right. Yeah. It is so like the, because the thing I like about Game of Thrones, especially the early sea, I've only, I read the first book and then I've watched the, all this, the TV.

And the things, the things I really like about it, especially early on, is that it's so much of fantasy is, or I'm sorry, so much of fiction rather is like we kind of escape from the realities of our world, which is that, you know, in the real world, monsters die in bed. And in the real world, like the heroic are punished and suffer horrible fates and they never, you know, actually have any, their, their moment of glory. And you kind of get that. Monsters die in bed.

Yeah. Like, like, I don't mean actual monsters. I'm not talking about Frankensteins. I'm talking about like a metaphor, like a metaphorical monster. Like someone who's done work. Like Pinochet or something. Yeah. Like a Pinochet. Yes. I was just saying that it was, it was, it was just a very funny line.

It was like a, it was a lofty like a monster's diet. So you're saying, no, I didn't have a mental image of like a mummy with a sleeping cap, having a stroke. I did picture Sasquatch getting into bed, but you're like saying like, like, who do you think is it? Who do you think is a monster for you? Like Hillary Clinton, I guess. Hold on. Hold on.

You're saying like she'll die in her bed at an old day. I'm not calling. I'm not going to go on. She went on a lot of hikes. She did. She after very much a hiker. Yes. Can you get on board? Nick, do you like hiking?

I did a lot of hiking as a boy scout and I didn't have fun doing it. I love that your voice does. I didn't have, I didn't have fun doing it. So I guess my answer is no, but I'm open to trying it again. Yeah. I would rather walk a nice walking trail. Yeah. I would rather walk through the woods. What are you distinguishing?

Cause like a walk through the woods to me is a hike. But hike, like if you go to running that is, I'm saying it's like so inclined. You don't like going up the hill, but a hike is not just going uphill. Like a hike is like, it's not a difference in elevation. Then I like a hike if it's, if it's not a lot of incline. Like a level hike. Yeah. I wonder how you're going to feel about Los Angeles summers because they are weird.

Why is that? Cause they just get like, and I feel like on the east coast that I'm from Boston, you, it feels like summertime. Right. You get, you get a true feeling of summertime out here. Like when it gets very, like the, the changing of like when it gets very hot, I mean, July is like a step, but then August is when it's super, super hot. And so, and then that lasts through September and now even into October

because the world is fucked up. Right. But it's, it's, it's different from, it is very different from east coast. And there's, there's not a lot of humanity. It's like that dry heat. And for me, I miss humidity. I know that's a weird, I know that's a weird thing to say, but I, I like humidity feels like summertime and you don't, you don't get that here, which is, which is,

you miss humidity. I weirdly, I miss humidity because here's the thing about humidity as a man who just doesn't care generally about his, his appearance with humidity. Everybody's on the same boat. You're all look like shit. Everyone's equalizer. Yeah. It's an equalizer.

It's a great equalizer. It's like, you don't, you don't get it. And it just, when you, when you have those hot human nights in New York city, it can be three or four in the morning. It can be like that. And it, and it just, it feels like you could go all, you know what I mean? Like it's kind of magical in that way. And that, and you don't have that out here, Nick.

And sometimes it's hot at night. It's sometimes it's hot at night, but it's there. It is more deserty. It is more like that polarized, like it's hot during the day and it can get really cold at night. That does happen sometimes. That's more amplified, the more inland you go. But yes.

Who would have thought I miss humidity. Yeah. I guess maybe it is the low humidity that's added to this feeling that I have that I look like a piece of shit when I walk around Los Angeles. No. You look great already. Fantastic. Wow.

Thank you. No, but. Look at Nick and I. We look like we're running for our preschool photos. We're both wearing polos. We're wearing polos and shorts. Now I was walking around West LA the other day for no apparent reason because I don't have a car.

So I walk and everybody looks like, like the fourth star in a CW series. Yeah. Good chance they are too. Yeah. It is. I mean, you will just see like celebrities and just, but also just like actors on TV shows just like, oh yeah, I know that guy. Just like, like I just saw Tim Curry just at the supermarket.

Did you really? Just happened. Yeah. That was a couple of years ago, but it happened. I was going to say Tim Curry was in bad shape for a while. He was in bad shape for a while. Yeah. No, no, that's not a sign that he's in.

I didn't want, I hope I didn't give him any false hope for a second. This was a story from years ago. I also saw Don Cheadle at Orange Julius. That's my favorite celebrity sighting ever. Tom, we were waiting. Me and Ali were at an ATM and we were behind Don Cheadle and then we got money at the ATM and then we went up to the Orange Julius and he also was in line at the Orange Julius. It was like, oh, we just did the same transaction.

We got cash so we could get Orange Julius. Who else have you seen? Did you see B Arthur? I never saw B Arthur, but I did see Faith Ford. My first celebrity sighting, Faith Ford from Murphy Brown. I started a charity event and that was actually in Long Beach in my own town. The marching band was playing at a parade and she was one of the grand marshals or something. I don't remember exactly what it was.

She was there to do a charity raffle. I don't remember what it was. Her and Andy Griffith. I saw Brett Gelman on my second week. Hey, that's cool. Who's Gelman? He talked to me about Fox Tales, about the dangers of Fox Tales. Whoa.

Getting in the nose of my dog as I was walking my dog. Whoa, that's crazy. Yeah. Gelman, what in the hell? He was walking his dog and I was with my wife. We were walking our dog and he said, see all these Fox Tales here? You got to watch out for those eyes. Okay.

He's like, do you know about Fox Tales? I was like, I'm not unaware of them. And then he told me about them and how the needle part of the Fox Tale could get stuck up in your dog's nose and then it's a surgery. Whoa. And he was very nice about it. And then he moved on his way and we continued our way and I turned my wife in with that was Brett Gelman, comedian.

Oh, that's nice. Yeah. We got to get him on the show and maybe we'll have an in-depth Fox Tales discussion. We'll use this audio against him. You say you're a pro Fox Tales. Yeah. We'll do a little edit job on it like I did on your drop up top. So Jason, so like as someone who goes to, we're talking a little bit before the show,

you'll go to, you used to go to Nick's games in New York. It's certainly a big basketball fan. What is your go to in terms of stadium food? Like, what do you like to get when you're watching a ball game? Nachos because I feel like it depends on what the quality of food is. There's certain places that have really good food. Let's Barclays Arena has really great food for a bad Nets team. The Knicks have good food, but you usually are not sitting in the place where you can

get to it. So I think any place that has shitty food, the nachos are go to. Yeah. You feel like it's the cheeses in a package anyway. Right. You can't really fuck up like dry nachos and anything that's wrong with it will be visible immediately. Yeah.

There's a high contrast between the yellow of the cheese. Do you load those nachos up or do you get them very simple? Like just like the cheese and jalapenos? Simple. Extremely simple. Yeah. That's a good movie. Yeah.

Because they have the Staples Center, you know, where I'll see games. I usually will just, my go to will just be like either the shitty nachos or the, and shitty, I don't mean, I'm not saying they're bad nachos. Which means shitty. And you know what I mean when I'm saying shitty nachos. It evokes a very specific thing. But it might go to either be the shitty nachos or like a wetsul pretzel if I need a little snack.

I like a pretzel. Yeah. I like a pretzel. Are you a pretzel guy? I'll always do a hot dog. Hot dog. Yeah. Or hot dog, as I say.

Well, you said it the right way. You don't have to correct yourself to say it the wrong way. I feel like I've been trying to pronounce it correctly. I'm going back to the way I say it normally. Yeah. This podcast. Yeah. You said you were a part of LA earlier, but like you should pay a pay homage to your Boston

and like a pretzel. Yeah. I'll do a pretzel too. I feel like those are the two main ones. I don't know how I feel. We've talked about this a little bit. But I don't know how I feel about. I mean, I guess in some ways it's a good thing.

But the having like these kind of fancier food options at games. Right. I guess that's just the way things go. The one at LA, the one at Staples Center they've got, which is the arena in Los Angeles if you're not a sport. Oh, the one they have at Staples Center is they've got the Ludo bite. Like Ludo is the chef Ludo, the celebrity chef out here. And he's got like this high end chicken place that's on the ground floor.

And it's great. It's fantastic. It's like, what if I'm going to get an entree? I'll get that Ludo every time. And so I feel like that's the right balance of just like, oh, he does like a really good fried chicken. Like that feels still ballgame appropriate. It's fancy though.

It's still fancy, but I mean, that feels ballgame appropriate and you're going to pay through the nose no matter what you're getting. So it's nice to have those more upscale options. What's that set you back that Ludo? Oh boy. I think you're going to spend in the $11 range. It's not bad. It's not crazy.

It's not crazy. It's not insane. The other thing people don't know about Staples Center is that you can get, there is, you can, there is a Staples attached. So you can get during the game, you can get like a stack of white copy paper. Yeah. If you just run out at toner at halftime, you can run down there. They'll fill you right back up.

So that's good. If you watch a Lakers game and you see someone in the crowd with a big printer, like a giant printer next to them, they got that at the Staples Center. Right. Sometimes you'll, you'll notice if you watch the sidelines carefully that Luke Walton, the coach of the Lakers, when he's making a substitution, he'll push the easy button. So yeah. I mean, it's, it is, they really do try to integrate the Staples marketing to the product

there. And it's, it's quite nice. I feel like every team that visits the Lakers, they push the easy button when they walk in there. Whoa. Whoa. Hell yeah. Celtics roast.

Hardcore sports analysis. Got you, dude. They were bad last season. They'll get, they'll get better. How about those Celtics though? Well, here's the thing. Okay. So we can say, I think we can say this because we're kind of going to be frozen in time here.

Monday, July 3rd is when we're recording this. This episode will come out on Thursday, which will be the sixth. If I'm the way I'm, do we do dates today? Three, four, five. The way we do. I'm just at three things. Wait. No, I'm trying, I'm trying to three, four, five.

Yes. That's how that will work out. Right? Yeah. Thursday will be the sixth. Okay. All right. So that by then, Gordon Hayward, the top free agent still available at this point will

likely have announced his decision. Yeah. Now the Celtics, Mitch, your team, covets him. They do. There's a possibility he'd go back to the Utah Jazz. He's also met with the Miami Heat. Anyone who doesn't follow sports is put the pot, put the podcast up to like two X speed right now.

Just skip through this. But where do you guys think he is ultimately going to land? I'm going to go on record and say, I think he's going to resign with the jazz. Wow. Jason, what do you think? I think he's going to go to Boston. Wow. I do think he's going to go to Boston.

Wow. Yeah. You don't want him to go to Boston. I don't want him to go to Boston. I definitely don't. I don't want to, I don't like the jazz, but I'd rather they retain him than for him to go to Boston. But Jason, what do you think he's going to Boston?

Uh, just because of the connection that he has with his college coach, Brett Stevens, I'm leaning into the mic. So all the, all the hardcore sports heads can really understand them right now. And they, you know, they have a, they have a connection because Brett has Brad recruited him right out of high school when no one else was looking, can you guys hear this right out of high school? No one else was looking at him. And I think, I think he will, I think he'll move.

That's just a hundred. I don't know anything. Yeah. He's also a huge, one of the most hardcore video game guys in the NBA. I've heard that. Yeah. I've heard he's like crazy into it. Overwatch and StarCraft.

Right. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. He's a game. He, this guy is a gamer. He's a real, he's a real gamer.

Was it Kirillenko who had the full back tattoo of his world of Warcraft characters? I think that was, he apparently had eight characters worth upwards of six figures in real like dollars. Like if you sold the character to an enthusiast, so wait, I love Kirillenko. So this guy who was like a pro basketball player, like in his spare time was good enough that World of Warcraft put enough hours into it where like he created something far more valuable Mitch than you, our podcast. There's billions of things that are more valuable.

No, I know. But I'm just saying that the fact that this was like a triviality of this, I mean, that just kind of just goes to show how, I don't know, I'm like, he's better than you and I in every single way. He's better. I agree with that. He's a great being. Yeah.

He's one of those amazing, he's one of those, those alpha men we hear about. I think, I think he's funnier too, actually. He probably is funnier. He truly seems kind of funny. Yeah. I've always kind of liked, I've always liked him. He's funny. He's a funny NBA players.

They're always fun. That's one thing I like about the league. I feel like the players are funny. I feel like they're funny guys in it and I feel like it's also too. There's like a lot of fun. There's funny guys in the NFL. You just don't get to see them as much. No, I agree.

But I think. Yeah, they're not despite. They do some, I feel like they have some rules to kind of like, you know, tamp that down a little bit. Also, just like the fact that everyone's wearing helmets and the cameras far away, like that kind of tamps things down. The concussions also, I think, dead in the woods. Oh, God.

It's true. I said it. The concussions, they're not great. Right. I think, I think you said, yeah, I think you said something to the effect of not great. Yeah. And I think I agree with that broadly. Should we rewind it and see exactly what it was?

Yeah. Let me, let me, let me rewind really. All right. I found this on the tape. I'm playing back right now. Here. Here. Press play.

Good. Good. Concussions. Oh, I think they're, uh, uh, good concussions. I think that, uh, that they're, I could take them or leave them. Mitch, we got to talk stadium snares. Time to move on. Uh, you, you did your big rewind thing and then you were looking at me like I, it was

my time to take it. I thought you were going to do, I was going to rewind it and then you were going to say what you're going to say. You, you wanted me to do a Mitch Impression. Yeah. I wanted you to do a Mitch Impression one, but after you went, I'm not going to take over after that. That's all you.

It's you after that. Okay. From there on. All right. So well, that'll be the rule that if you initiate a Michael Winslow-esque sound effect, you have to take the next step. You have to land it. You're throwing an alley-oop to someone else.

That's you going down the lane. I'll jump in afterwards. Yeah. That's just the setup. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Well, yeah, that's not, that's not really, that's barely a setup. Here's, we'll do, we'll do an actual edit and fix this later. Um, all right, let's get into, let's, let's start talking about this week's restaurant. So Jason, you're kind enough to come on the show and, and, uh, volunteer some of your valuable time to us. Shake Shack. Yes. A New York staple that is now out here in LA.

Why was this the place you wanted to talk about? Uh, just because it's, it, like me, it's a transplant. I've been eating it, uh, for a while. I remember when it first started and, uh, what a craze it was. It was one of the best uses of a webcam. It, when it originally started, they only had the one location in, in Madison Square Park. Right.

And you'd have to look on the webcam to see how long the line was. Oh, yes. And the line would stretch for three, four, five hours. That's crazy. Ridiculous, stupid lines. Do they still, we actually have a thing going on like that right now, howling rays, which is great. And we've talked about it on the show before.

Yeah. It's a hot chicken place out here. It's hot chicken. It is so worth it. It's great. I still haven't had it. Natalie's had it. My wife Natalie's had it a few times and she says it's amazing.

It's amazing. The lines are now three hours sometimes. Wow. Four hours. Yeah, it's too much. They need a webcam. They do need a webcam. Do they still have that webcam?

No, they have, they have multiple locations now, so they don't need it. And they used to have it set up where, uh, like Goldman Sachs guys would have like a separate like lane so they could send their minions down to like get stacks of hamburgers. You know, I don't like that Shake Shack did that. Yeah. That's kind of points deducted from Shake Shack. That's tough. Wait, they had the bit, the, they'd set this up or someone, they, they had set up, I guess

it was such a popular, and when it, when they only had the one location, they had set it up so that businesses such as Goldman Sachs places like that could, could call in and then have their minions go to a separate line for a separate. And just to be clear, we're not talking about Mel and Stuart and Kevin, are we? We're talking about metaphorical minions. Jesus fucking Christ. We're not talking about Gru's yellow helpers. Yes.

The minions. No, we don't mean the minions. They're, I mean, they're up to no good, but that's, this isn't the kind of no good they'd be doing. Yeah. That'd be great. These Wall Street guys send them down to get burgers and they come back with a bag of bananas.

Why are I hate the minions? I hate you. That's the first time I ever went to Shake Shack was that location when, I think it was a doubt. I think I went to a delt. I've only been at the delt close marathon like two or three times. Nick, have you never been as much as I have been? I have been.

Oh, wow. Okay. How many times you go? Probably same as you two or three times. This is the, Jason, if you don't know, this is the, this New York improv festival that is like, it's, it's exhausting. It's too much. That's what it says.

It's too much. It's, it's, it's a lot. But then I also never felt like it was that weird thing where I then like, never felt like I had a team to go back there. I felt unwelcomed at the delt close marathon. Oh, wow. Right. Fuck delt close marathon.

I'll back you up on that. Fuck the delt close marathon. Two thumbs down for Mitch and Weigar. The first time I went, yeah, this is probably in 2008, maybe 2000, maybe 2007, no, 2008. I don't know when, I don't know when it started, 2008, 2009 is when I went and I, and I, and I did, it did blow me away. I mean, I get, I got, I got the lines. Yeah.

It's very good. Also, it's good to have this discussion right for the fourth, a very burger centric week we got going on. Sure. Perfect. Yeah. Let me, I mean, just do the date math real quick. We had the fourth, the fifth.

So this will be on the six. So two days after. And the fourth, if that's how dates work, day math. So yeah. So people will still be thinking about the fourth. They'll still be in their heads. Yeah. It's a great burger and fry place.

And someone's may still have a piece of a burger stuck between their teeth. Oh boy. I hope not to me. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, right now. You talking about the audience. Sorry. I'm not good with metaphors. You did look right into the mirror.

That was very that. No, I mean, some audience member from their fourth of July party might have a piece of burger still stuck in their teeth. Hey, much like your popcorn kernel, you had stuck in your teeth for a little bit. Hey, guess what? Update. It's out. Hey, all right.

It's out. It's gone. What happened? You went to the dentist? No, I didn't. I actually didn't even go to the dentist. Oh, you got it yourself. It worked its way out.

I worked it out. A lot of tongue action. Hey, all right. I worked. I worked the tooth with my tongue. It came out. I pulled it out of my mouth and I said, I really shouldn't. And then I put it back and ate it.

You got to take it down. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. That popcorn is dangerous stuff. I went to the movie theater on my own last week and I not so did I because of you, but we can't talk too much of that, I guess, but I went to the movie theater on my own last week and I in the cup holder in my seat was a discarded popcorn kernel and a piece of

used floss is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen like in a movie theater. I was just like, fuck, this is gross. Like this is so gross. And it was like a sold out show with like a signed seating. So I had to like to get a napkin and like throw it away. But I was like, man, what an awful thing to do. An actual floss or one of those floss or implements? No, like a piece of floss.

Like someone had like floss in their bag or whatever and they'd flossed out a popcorn kernel and they just left it there. Even more objectionable. Yeah. It's really gross to do that in the bathroom. Fucking savage. What the fuck? It's so gross.

You know what? I got to say this too. We made our opinion clear on Del Close. Also, I'm not a big fan of flossing. Big thumbs down to flossing. I hate flossing. Oh, who likes it though? Who likes floss?

Yeah, I do. I do. Why are you floss every night? I ride floss every night. Yeah. Damn. I'm a regular flosser. I'm a regular flosser.

I can't say that I enjoy it, but I do floss. Right. It's not fun, but it's a thing you have to do. Hashtag regular flosser and we're going to use someone who does it sporadically like I do. Hashtag. Public is terrible though. That's just.

Gross. Right. If you're going to do that, go to a public restroom. I keep, look, I keep some floss in my desk drawer at work in case I have an incident where I get something stuck in my teeth. And in that case, I will usually, I almost always will go to the, unless I'm like alone in my office, I will go to the men's room and do it there because it feels like the kind of activity that blogs in a bathroom.

If you do it sporadically, hashtag toss the floss. And then if you, if you're, if you're responsible for the floss and Wiger seat hashtag, I tossed the floss. Oh boy. What theater? This was at the landmark theater. Mark Cuban's theater. Yeah.

I don't know if he still has an ownership stake in it. Does he? I think he does. At one point, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks had an ownership stake in landmark theaters. Um, do they still, is the, the theater screen still like a, uh, uh, oh boy, where you going? Fuck it. Don't fail.

No. I did the rewind thing. You made me do mine. You got to do yours. Is that where the theater screens there, uh, instead of like a white theater screen, it's all, uh, basketball texture. Oh God. Oh no.

Oh no. Oh, Mitch. Oh boy. Oh man. What a mess. Hold on. Is that where the screen is like, basketball texture? Who's cheering?

Who's this, who's this crowd? I don't know. The fans. Right. The podcast. The listeners. No one. No one.

And then I buried myself deeper. It's always good when you tell a bad joke to, to just go deeper. Yeah. You know, just keep digging. You know, I, I felt like I could never be embarrassed by bad, like you and I have been on the stage and we've bombed thousands of times. Right. Never thought I could be embarrassed by saying dumb bad jokes anymore, except for this podcast

came around. I am constantly embarrassed when we do this. Right. Well, there's something too of like, cause you can tell when you've got like no audience, you can really tell when the other people you're around just didn't like something. And then you're also knowing. Constantly for us. Yeah.

Constantly happening for us. It's constantly just our, our guests just staring dead eyed, just like, just like, what is it? I'm wasting my time here. But the, but you also are knowing that like, cause, cause you're just talking and, but as you're talking, it's also like kind of being etched in stone. Like we don't really edit this podcast. So we, we, we talk about editing it, but we want to really edit this podcast.

And so then you're, you're just sort of like, okay, so I say this thing kind of off the cuff. Oh wow. That was really stupid. And now then it's just going to be a thing that people are just going to view as, oh, this is like the, this is like the constitution. This is something that's, that's, you know, canon and they treat it as such. It's so, it is very weird.

I feel, but I also feel like people are just like filling their cars up with gas and not even paying attention to this. Like a, like a man or a woman is driving right now and not even listen, right? It's, they, they don't care, right? They don't, they, no one care. Well, that's the thing. I think some people don't care. I think people, to be, a lot of people this is disposable.

I think some people care too much. And I think there's a lot of people in the middle too, who will like care a little bit and are kind of like, you do a bad joke and they're just like, oh, fuck this. So like, we know that that's happening. We should end the podcast. I agree. We should end that. We've talked about this for a while.

I agree. We're on the same page here. All it takes is, is for us to do it. Did someone, did we re-curse by a witch? I do feel like maybe we were cursed by a witch and we both want to hit the end, but then it keeps going. Yeah. Just out of its own inertia.

Did you like, did you happen to eat like a candied house, swagger? Why is this happening? You think in some sort of Hansel and Gretel type scenario, I went into the woods. I was not, I was hiking in the woods or maybe walking at a flat elevation in the woods and discovered a witch's house that was made of candy. I ate all of it and the witch returned, saw an empty lot and cursed me as a result. That's, that's your, what your suspicion is. Something has happened that we both dislike our lot, our current lot in lives.

Right. Shouldn't need to do it. One thing I noticed from doing a podcast is having to listen back to it. I just hate the sound of my voice and everything that I say. Right. Yeah. Knowing that other people are listening to that is like extremely, it feels like shameful to me.

Yeah. I mean, definitely. And then I'm also like, I know, is that when I'm talking, I know what I'm not making sense. Right. And I'm just like, fuck, I kind of try to have to make this sound like something. Right. But I, and then I just don't. And then it just is gibberish and I just feel like, ah, fuck, I'm going to sound so stupid

when people listen to this later. But you know what? We'll edit all this out. Let's talk to, let's talk burgers. Let's get back in a shake shack. Yeah. I had shake shack for the first time in New York city as well. Um, I went, I can't remember which one this was at the time when they probably had like

a half dozen locations. They started to expand to be on the medicine square park one. And I don't remember which, I don't know which one I went to. I actually have no, it's somewhere in midtown. And quite a line, but yeah, my first experience was very, very positive. My first time I ate at shake shack, I was like, oh, wow, this is great. I get it. Like I understand the hype.

I mean, it's expensive. It's more expensive than a lot of fast food places, but it's very high quality. It's very good. I really like it. And it's kind of been a thing that until it started opening up in LA, which is pretty recently with that last year, right, Mitch? Yeah. Yeah.

Last year middle of 2016 was when the first West coast outlet opened up and on the first one on Santa Monica, maybe a little over a year, but yeah, at least probably a year or so. Yeah. It hasn't been too long, too long ago. I think I remember the first time you ate shake shack. Wow. This is better than that.

Wait a minute. I didn't say that. I could never tell anyone. I'll lie about it till my die. Okay. Hold on. That's another discussion, but the, but it is really, really good. And when I've noticed, but I definitely have noticed versus the LA restaurants, I've noticed

a little bit more inconsistency in the West coast outlets versus what you'll see in New York City. And, but let's talk about our most recent visits, Jason, which location did you go to here in LA? I went today. I went to the Hollywood Boulevard Shake Shack in Hollywood. And then I went to the one in Century City, which is part of the Century City Mall there. It's kind of, it's not quite a food court version.

It's actually like a proper shake shack, but it's located proximal to the food court one. Mitch, Mitch, which one did you head out? I also went to the, the new location on, on Hollywood Boulevard. Which part of Hollywood Boulevard is that? It's right by Pantages Theater. Right. Okay. Yeah.

That's a real dense area. Yeah. It's, it's kind of like in a complex where there's like a few, it's funny. The complex is, it's like apartment buildings. They built like, whatever, condos or apartments or something. And then there's like a soul cycle. And then like a, a boot camp, like one of those like boot camp places. And then, yeah.

And then also a Shake Shack and a Dunkin Donuts. They put like all brand new restaurants and stuff in the bottom there. You know how LA's do, they, they pop up everywhere where there's like, hey, it's like a living space and then there's all the restaurants down below. But I feel like they're doing like fancier and fancier ones in some of those high end places. Right. They're trying to just load them up with upscale options.

Yeah. Because that's what the, these neighborhoods are turning into. They're having more and more upscale residents. Yeah. No, the one, the one in Century City is it was crazy crowded. It was crazy packed on a late on a Friday night. I think it was like, you know, a lot of the other, a movie had just gotten out of a lot of the other food options had shut down.

I was there with my wife, Natalie. We waited in line for not an inordinate amount of time, but a decent amount of time for one of those restaurants. I remember when that West Hollywood one first opened, Mitch, it was similar to, it sounds like what it sounds like, not quite on the same scale, but similar to what things were like in New York for a time where it would be like a, you know, we waited for over an hour, I feel like a couple of times, Mitch, when we were going towards the start of the opening.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. When we did the, because it was, oh, was the, what was that? Was that the tournament of Champi? It was. It was tournament of Champi in 2016. It was for the burger brawl.

That's what we had. Shake Shack was entered the competition. We won a couple of times. Yeah. Wait, was that the, there's been two tournaments. Oh yeah. It wasn't the second one. It wasn't the second one.

That was chicken fight. All right. Yeah. Oh, all right. So it is older. It is over here. Yeah. It's been over here.

Yeah. Yeah. We waited a good 45 minutes to an hour. Right. And the, but our late, wait, wait still aren't that hefty in LA, right? They, these, these lines of dying down a little bit. Well, I think they, did they open? No, that was the first one that they opened up.

But LA also quickly opened up like the three other ones shortly after. So I think that that curved the wait time. I went, I went and I had no way, but I also went at like, it was a later lunch. It was like two 30 or something. Yeah. I walked in at 11 ish and I walked straight to the front of the counter. I think everybody's at the beach. Right.

It is the fourth of July. That's a good point. That's true. Early lunch and a late lunch, we, we, we, I feel like that rush time between 12 and one 30 or something. I think you might have a wait still, but I don't think it's like it used to be. Boy, we hit a mega rush. It was quite, quite a con.

When you went this time? Yeah. That's what I was just saying. We let out, we let out right after a movie and it was just like fucking packed. It was crazy. We waited about 20 minutes and it was like, you know, just like a huge line. And this was, so this was towards the end of service. So we'd gotten there around, you know, this was, they, they close at 10.

We were there around nine. But the crazy thing of this experience and I, we've done a lot of these podcasts at this point, Mitch. We've done too many of these podcasts. We've been to a lot of restaurants. There are a lot of different experiences. I'd never experienced this. Wow.

Went to Shake Shack, got up to the counter after this wait, ordered some food and of course added in some fries. The guy says, I'm sorry, we're out of fries. Wow. They run out of fries at Shake Shack. I was stunned. I couldn't, I like, I couldn't believe it. I was just like never experienced.

Have you ever, like I've seen people run out of stuff, but that's such a staple. You would think they would have so many fries, they wouldn't know what to do with them. And they're also potatoes. Like if you could just stockpile potatoes, they keep, I just, I was so surprised by that. This is so fucking annoying because the manager is going to get fired now. They should shut that place down. They should. They'd throw Taffer in there.

Yeah. Shut it down. Retool it. This is so fucked up because now you're going to use this against Shake Shack. Well, hold on. I will, when I get to my review, I will be, I'm going to put this into perspective because I was hopping mad for a time and I told Natalie I was like, I was like, I'm going to give this place zero forks on principle.

Just nope. This is why I said, I said, okay. So you won't be biased. No. I said this. I said no fries, no forks. Like that was, that was what I thought. Like I'm going to go with no fries.

Natalie, like this? Yeah. She said, calm down. About the podcast? She said, calm down. What's the matter with you? I said, I'm sorry, I'm hopped up. No, no, I said, but, but she talked me down.

She said, like, look, this place is good. That was crazy. Obviously they had a huge volume of people they weren't expecting. They didn't plan for it. They should have had fries, but that's crazy to deduct all of their forks just for that. And I was like, all right, you're right. So I will be reasonable, but it's something I will take into account in my review. And I just want to give, I just want to note that because it was crazy and unprecedented.

Let's talk about the food a little bit more specifically at Shake Shack. Oh, you really flipped out. What do you mean? I really flipped out. Natalie texted me a review for your marriage. She said, one and a half for us. Hey, I'm happy for that half fork. I wonder, I wonder how you're hearing that extra half fork.

No idea. Yeah. I think it's because you're gone doing the podcast a lot. Right, right. So let's talk a little bit more specifically about the food we got in Rosar. Do you have a stock order you go there? Yeah. When you go there, Jason?

I get the Shack burger and fries and a drink. Sometimes I'll get a shake depending on how fat I want to feel afterwards. Right. Because those shakes are fantastic. They're really good. They're really, really, really good. And you just hit the nail on the head. I want a shake all the time.

But then when you do a burger and the shake, you're just like, fuck. It's excessive. It is very excessive. Because those things are, they're not large. The shakes aren't that, probably like the height of this, we have LaCroix cans here, the height of this LaCroix can. Yeah. If you don't have a LaCroix can in front of you, just think of like a soda can or a beer

can. This is a 12 ounce can. You stay at a 12 ounce can. I'd say probably go out and buy some LaCroix and see for yourself. Right. Compose the podcast, go get some LaCroix. Don't keep listening to this while you're shopping because you'll move past this and you won't have this for reference anymore.

Go get a LaCroix. Come back and then you have actually, we should probably just pause for like 15 minutes ourselves to give them time. Okay. We'll pause. I'll press the pause button and then we'll edit that out later. Okay. Great.

I'm gonna pause it. Dude. Okay. We're back. Yeah. So now you have your LaCroix in front of you. Yeah. The shake, shake, shakes are about that height, but they're very dense is what I was going

to say. They are very dense. Yeah. And so for me, and I did this on this trip, I usually go with, because I love lemonade, I usually go with their specialty lemonade because they have like a lemonade of the week. And that's usually what I go with over the shakes. Yeah, they do.

I love those shakes. They do have a lot of seasonal offerings. Is that something they have in the New York locations too? Yes, that is. And they also partner with various restaurants. They're close to the particular Shake Shack to do these kind of crossovers. The one I go to by the Brooklyn Bridge Park that I used to go to a lot had some kind of partnership with like a local ice cream place where they would use their ice creams in their

concretes and shakes. They were very good. Right. Yeah. They, the one out, the one out here, the one in the Century City, they had a, they had a partnership with a local pie shop and they worked, they were working their pies into their shakes. Which pies?

And just whatever they had like a pie. I'm saying what was the pie place? I don't remember what it was called. Was it pie hole or no? I don't know. I should, I should add this information here. Here, I'll look it up real quick. Oh, God damn it.

Who cares? In Brooklyn, it's four and 20 Blackbirds, I believe it is. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And it's like that, that shake is, should be illegal. It's so good. It's ridiculously fucking good. Yeah.

Right. I did, I did not get a shake this time. Any shakers? What? No. Any shakers? Any shakers? Did anyone get a shake?

Yeah. I got a shake. Yeah. Any shakers in the, in the group? Any shakers? Oh, fuck you. That's blowing your mind. No, I'm just confused.

And the shakers. Did anyone get a shake? Yes, I got a shake. You sick fucker. I can't say shakers. You can say it. For people who get shakes. You can say it.

I just say it. It's a fun thing to fucking say. It's funny. You can say it. It's fun. I'm just saying that like it doesn't necessarily make sense just by, just in isolation. I needed some context. Understand what you meant.

I turned on the AC because I'm fucking steamed. Yeah. You will say it here. Well, I'm gonna give you a second to cool down. Shake or we'll be right back with more Doe Boys. Welcome back to Doe Boys. We're talking to Shake Shack. So, Jason, what was your order on this most recent visit?

I got a Shack Burger and fries, a small drink, which I got Coke. I got a Coke Cola. I think a Coke Cola and a hamburger on the 4th of July, on the 3rd of July technically is what America's all about. Then I got a, then I got a peanut butter shake for the walk. I walked here. Oh man. Damn.

That peanut butter shake. That is great. Natalie also got a peanut butter shake and that was so fucking good. God, it was delicious. Couple of shakers. Yes, we were a couple. You don't like shakers? I like it.

What the hell was wrong with you? I'm not gonna rally up again. It's great, Mitch. You're saying a song about Oreo fireworks. And I say shakers and I'm a weirdo? I didn't say it was weird. I was saying, I just said I didn't know what you meant. I don't think you're weird.

Mitch, I don't want you to, I don't want steam to come out of your ears, under your earphones anymore. I'm just gonna, I like shakers. You were right. I was sorry for not coming immediately understand. I'm gonna fold you. I'm gonna, you know, have you seen Freddie versus Jason when Jason folds the guy in the bed?

I'm gonna fucking fold you in two. I feel like I've seen Freddie versus Jason. I don't remember that. We've talked about Freddie versus Jason, a problematic film if you go back and watch it. Right. There's some lines that are. There's some lines that are do not work in Freddie.

There's the, is it Kelly? What's the name? Destiny's Child. She's in the movie, right? Kelly Rowland. Kelly Rowland. Yeah. She has a, she has a line that's very homophobic.

She's a homophobic slur. And then Freddie says a line to her that's, he says, how sweet dark meat. Oh yeah. Jesus Christ. And like, it's like, what the fuck is going on? And then it's one of those things too. And you look and it's just like, oh wait, this movie came out in like 2006. It's not like this movie came out in like 1974 and it's like, oh, things were different

then. It's just like, wait, this wasn't really okay then. I got to say though, I do love when Freddie causes trouble. That rap scallop. Yeah. He's a rap scallop. Oh boy. He's good.

Like in my mind, I'm like, oh, we'll never have, there's not going to be another Freddie ever again. You know what I mean? I feel like he's, he's, and I feel like his time has kind of passed too. I don't, I don't, I don't think people like their, I think there's a separation between horror and like what's funny. Kind of camp. Yeah.

That's too campy. It's like so campy where it's no longer has any scares at all or something that's just like straight, like ominous horror, you know, it's more in the, you know, like these, like, like, uh, like don't breathe and like it follows and I don't know if I like that trend in horror. Is that, is that weird? You don't like the grim, dark stuff, the bleak, I just, I, like, I like, I like it. I sometimes like it to be more fun or you want a little levity, you don't, you don't like when a blind guy is stockpiling his semen in the freezer.

Yeah. No, I don't need that. That's right. That's like, like, like, uh, the thing is my favorite sci-fi, John Carpenter classic. And that's like, there's so much that's fun about that movie. You know what I mean? Like, and it is like, it is camp a little bit, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's not that campy, but, but like, it's, cause it's just awesome and

it looks great. Yeah. But like, that's a big fun thing. And now it's always going to be like some like serial killer or, I don't know, I don't know. What's the one I just watched? I liked it. It comes at night a lot.

I liked it. I thought that was great. But it's very, it feels like it doesn't feel like in the, in the, the same lane as those other ones. Yeah. It's, it's dark. Horror. Yeah.

It's art horror. It's dark and bleak and hopeless. It's just sort of like, you know, so I don't know if I like art horror. I don't know. I don't know if I'm a big fan of it. Yeah. You want a wisecracker who's going to. I want Freddie.

I want to chop people up and turn a pizza into somebody. He crosses the line sometimes, but it's, it's all for fun. Freddie versus Jason. He messed up. Yeah. And he fucked up a little bit in Freddie versus Jason. Freddie has some things in his past he needs to apologize for, but in general, Freddie just apologized and then he could come back.

They'll give you another movie. Right. Mel Gibson is back. No. So. Okay. All right. All right.

Let's not make this the Mel Gibson redemption doer. I'm saying he's back. He's back. He's in daddy's home too. Which is weird. Hollywood has accepted him back. Yeah. Freddie can come back too.

All right. Anyways, we went on this tangent, I think just because you said shaker again. Jason was talking about his meal. Shack burger fries and a shake is delicious. The Jason. Yeah. I'm just saying Freddie's mortal enemy. Okay.

All right. It's a different Jason. It's not this. I'm not the same. Cool. Good to know. People can have multiple people can have the same name. I know that there's multiple Jason, right?

It was very good. The burger has a kind of typical moistness that I associate with a Shake Shack branded burger. Yeah. The bun is like that potato-y softness. Oh, baby. There's like an over. Great bun.

There's a good greasiness to it. Oh. You're hitting everything right now. Yeah. And then I guess the thing for me about a Shake Shack burger is there's that there's a softness to the general texture of the entire burger, whereas like let's say an in and out burger, there's more resistance when you bite into it, you know, you feel like you're biting into it kind of a little harder bun.

But I like that. Veggie, Veggie City too. I like that style of, I like the Shake Shack style of burger. The fries are just okay. They're fine. Yeah. Crinkle-cut fries. They're apparently frozen too, which I was surprised by.

They had like, I looked into it a little bit and they had like a, so they started these off because they didn't originally sell fries and then they started selling these frozen fries, these crinkle-cut frozen fries and people love them and then when they tried to switch to a more like wholesome preparation of fresher fry, people rejected them and they went back to the frozen ones. But yeah, you were saying the fries are only okay. They're okay. They're on, they're an average fry.

It's not a bad fry. Not overly dry. I'm not a big crinkle-cut guy. Not a crinkle-cut guy. Okay. What kind of fries do you like? I think McDonald's fries are the best. Just like a straight up fry.

Straight up. You nailed it again. That's it. McDonald's fries are the best. They're the best fries. If I'm walking by a McDonald's, I may go in and get fries. Just on any, and I didn't give in time. They're good.

They're good as hell. Yeah. Does this make sense now that when you first got here and I asked you where your hockey mask was? I agree with you about pretty much every single thing you said about the burger. I like that soft bun. I like the right amount of grease. When I go to In-N-Out Burger, I open up that burger and I look at it and I'm like, what

is this? The VeggieTales feature film playing on my burger? You know what I mean, Nick? You said that to me in the restaurant and I say, shut up, people are looking at you. It's like VeggieTales inside the burger with In-N-Out sometimes and over at Shake Shack, you got a nice soft mouthfeel, not just enough veggies that it works, not too many veggies. They do pile on the iceberg at In-N-Out Burger. I like it.

I like having a lot of that in there. It's a burger. Honestly, I think with the Shack Burger, a lot of people complain. I'll say what people complain about with Shake Shack is that those veggies can be a little moist or they're just kind of like blended. I like it because the thing with Shake Shack that I like so much is I love a 4th of July backyard burger. When you're eating those that are like this melted cheese, soft burger, soft fresh buns

because you're getting these fresh buns the day of, you go out to the store and get them. It was just a nice soft mouthfeel and Shake Shack is kind of similar in a lot of ways. Nice and soft. You're really leaning on mouthfeel a lot. It's important. It's important. It's very important. I agree.

I like it a lot. I think it's worth mentioning that the Shack Burger is derived from the In-N-Out Burger, which itself is derived from the Bob's Big Boy Burger, which was the progenitor of all these sort of the burger with a thousand island dressing. So the Shake Shack Burger is derived from the Bob's Big Boy Burger, I'll say. Yeah. Like indirectly. Yeah, yeah.

Not from In-N-Out, from Bob's. There was an intermediary step that caused it to spread and become more of a phenomenon. Philosophically, they're very different. Yeah, they're very different. You know that the man who created the Shake Shack Burger said this is going to be like the In-N-Out Burger. Look, I'm saying it's a similar kind of burger. It's a more upscale version.

Excuse me? You just sighed into the microphone? It's a similar type of burger. We're going to wrestle today. What is your deal? Which way? Which way? I'm saying Mouk feel too many times.

No, it's fine. You don't understand shakers. I was confused by shaker. I think that it's a very different type. Jason's right. It's a very different type of burger. But it is all derived from that sort of In-N-Out style burger, which is that one that it's got the spread.

The Thousand Island-esque spread, the lettuce and the tomatoes, and then the cheese. I mean, it's a very basic burger, but it's a style that's kind of become a trendsetter. But here's what I was going to say. This is fireworks, baby, on Palmerston Place, me and you. Yeah, I mean, it's July 3rd now. You don't mean that July 4th fireworks, which I would be the day after tomorrow, the day after today, and then, which will be two days before when this podcast comes out. That'll be the sixth, the fifth, and then the fourth is when that holiday will be.

So I got the bacon, I got the seasonal burger. As I mentioned, no fries. I got the seasonal burger, the bacon double cheeseburger, double cheeseburger topped with all natural smoked Neiman Ranch bacon, very aggressively bacon-y. This was like, I felt like an attempt at the Baconator, the Wendy's Baconator, which is just loaded up with bacon, very basic, just kind of a classic cheese, like burger cheese, kind of like the Jack in the Box ultimate cheeseburger as well, if anyone's had that, the bacon ultimate cheeseburger that's just meat and cheese.

And very good. Sometimes you get so much bacon grease that is kind of overwhelming, and I feel like that was kind of the case here. It was just like a little too bacon-y. Natalie got the double shack burger, and I would always rather, I feel like when I've had their seasonal burgers, I'm always just like, I think I wish I'd gotten the shack burger instead. I just feel like their basic burger is just so good.

There's not a real strong reason to deviate from that. I also got the chicken shack, which is the crispy chicken breast with lettuce, pickles, buttermilk, herb mayo. Real good chicken patty. Have you, Mitch, have you had that, either you guys had that chicken sandwich? I had had it. I do like it. My one issue is the bread sometimes wilts under the onslaught of the sauce and the chicken.

Right, yeah. That's absolutely fair observation. I like that. The chicken shack is good. It's good. It's good. It's a good version of it. We were craving a chicken sandwich.

They do a proper, they do a proper execution there. I don't think they do anything bad at chicks. I truly don't. Yeah. I'm forgetting your fries. That guy, you all upset. I don't feel like they don't. Well, they didn't forget my fries.

They ran out of fries. It's a totally different issue. I'm pretty sure there's someone behind you in line for that. I also got a flat top hot dog with mustard, just a straight up regular old hot dog. Oh, here's the thing I meant to say. So I was going to get the fries, I was going to get the cheese fries. The fries is a cheese sauce delivery mechanism because that cheese sauce is so good. And so part of why I was upset they didn't have fries is then I, in the chaos, I ordered

like a hot dog instead of fries. And then I was like, I forgot to get cheese sauce with it. And their cheese sauce is so good. Like I love their cheese sauce there. It's just like such a great, great, just, just gloppy cheese sauce. And so I was a little bummed I didn't get that, but that flat top hot top hot dog, a very good straight up hot dog, good char to it, good Christmas to it, good, good, you know, just sort of pop of the Frank snap of the Frank.

I really liked it. And then the, the, the thing I closed it out with was I got the pyomai concrete vanilla custard with a slice of apple pie mixed in. I think the apple pie for the fourth of July. I assume that's what it was. And that was, that was good as hell. It was really good. Well, you know, I went on a swim that day.

I swam, I did, I did a very vigorous swim. No, no, in the, in the afternoon, I did a very vigorous swim. So I'd burned a lot of calories. I was very hungry. I just blazed through a lot of food. You know what swim I'm excited for you to take? The one straight out into the Pacific. Man, what a way to go.

That would be just, just keep swimming until you can't swim anymore. And then that's it. I wouldn't, it's a really good shark. I'm so afraid of sharks. You know, this is such a rare thing. Shark attacks happen. So I watch, I watched JAWS last night. Well, stop watching JAWS.

I watched JAWS again, and it is scary. It's a scary thing. These things are monsters. Yeah. Well, JAWS is like a horror, but it's meant to create those sorts of feelings within you, but the actual real sharks are not that much of a threat to people. They're like the actual shark attacks. They're in the single digits worldwide every year.

I think they, they, they keep rising every year. And I heard that a lot of great whites are, have been beaching themselves. They're trying to come on. My order, Nick, was a, was actually kind of similar to yours, but, but a little different. I got the bacon double cheeseburger, which is bacon month, by the way there. Right. So they're, they're doing a lot of different bacon things.

Um, I, uh, I liked it. I didn't think there was too much, I didn't, I did not think there was too much bacon on it. I think that, I think there was probably a proper amount of bacon, but I just think the grease got a little overwhelming. If that, if that's, that's a granular distinction. What I do agree with you, I, the, the grease didn't bug me as much as I just wish I had gotten that double shack burger.

Yeah. The double shack burger is the, it's so good. It's really good. And I, I, the, here's, here's a small complaint about it, but it's not really complaint because I, because I love, I haven't ever found anything that's on the level of that. The shack burger is just so well done and like, like so perfected that I always want it.

And then every other burger that I've tried, I'm like, that's not as good as the shack burger, which is kind of bumps me out in someone. You know what I mean? Like, Oh, when you go to McDonald's, like, Oh, maybe I'll get a quarter pounder made with cheese, or maybe I'll get a big Mac or some options you want to mix it up. It's, it's, it's obviously very different, but, but here it's that thing of like, I kind of just want to get that shack burger.

I went on a limb, got the bacon, double cheese burger. It was good. I really liked it. Great mouthfeel. Um, but, but, but overall, I just wish I had that. I wish I had that shack burger. Right. Um, uh, I got the, I got the, I got the cheese fries.

Now here's where I fucked up because there were bacon cheese fries. I didn't want to get those because I would rather go lighter on fries, but I thought that the cheese came on the side and if you order there, no, yeah, they'll pour that, that over the cheese on there. And I love that cheese sauce. I'm with you, but it just, when it's poured on there, like, you know, it hardens up and you have the, you have the issues of the, like, you got to eat them fast.

I feel like, but I do like, I like the, I, I like crinkle cut fries. Maybe I think when we ranked them, I put them like fifth or something. Mine were towards the top. I think, I think crinkle cut, maybe I would move them up. Well, there, there's, but they're so, I think they're very well done at Shakespeare. Yeah, they do a good version. They do, they do, they do the right temperature. I also got a chicken dog and the guy at the front counter was helpful.

He said, do you want to just like, like run it through the garden basically? Like, oh, what do you want? And we were just, oh, we'll have it. Like the, like the shack cargo dog, which is, which is a Chicago dog. And he just put all the kind of like the Chicago toppings on there, the Chicago dog toppings on there. I was with Evan Susser, by the way, uh, commissioner, commissioner got himself a free half a hot dog or whatever.

And then I got a, wait, all he had was a half a hot dog. Yeah. He had eaten, I guess. Oh, okay. So we just came to like have your leftovers. Oh, he got cheese fries too. Okay. Yeah.

I don't know what he was doing. He, but he came in, he kept me company. It was nice. And then I got a large mint, the mint lemonade, which was, I'm sorry, strawberry mint lemonade, which was the lemonade of the week or maybe month. I don't know how they, they circulate them or if it's, if it's a small period of time or a month or whatever, but the mint lemonade was, was really, really good.

I liked everything. I would just rather have the, I would, I'd rather have the, uh, the shack burger, right? The double shack burger and, and the fries, I, if you're going to get the cheese fries, I'd always put the, the cheese on the side. Yeah. And the chicken dog was good. I feel like their hot dogs, hot dogs are pretty good.

I am less of a snap guy. Are you, are you Jason? Yeah, it's the snap is extremely important to me. The snap is important. See, I, I don't know what, I don't know why that is. Cause maybe because I come from like a boiled Frank's area and the, and, and the snap isn't as, I like kind of, I like to kind of be soft. Yeah.

I like to know that it, it tells me that the juices are, are pushing against the skin in some way. Sure. Yeah. It's just also just a fun sensation when you bite into it. The soft feels like, I don't know, that feels unnatural to me. I'm not as into the soft. Yeah.

Are you, what, what's a good hashtag for this? Cause I want, I do want to know this. Hmm. Uh, hashtag, uh, uh, I'm snappy snap, hashtag snap on snap off. Yeah. That's perfect. Yeah. There you go.

Hashtag snap on, hashtag snap off. Not that crazy different from shakers, honestly. No, it's not. I look here, there you gave that some context. So I knew what you meant. You just said shakers just out of nowhere. I was trying to get some clarity. That's all it was.

I wasn't mad at you. Um, uh, yeah, I'm fine with the, but the, the chicken dog did have a little bit of a snap to it. Um, maybe, maybe, maybe the, the Chicago, I feel like maybe the meat isn't thick enough for it, for all the, all the Chicago toppings, cause it kind of gets a little bit lost. But yeah, cheese on, you got to get the cheese on the side and you got to just go with that, that Jack burger.

But the, the mint lemonade, here's my other thing I was going to ask you guys. How do you, how do you feel about me? When I was a boy, like mint chocolate chip ice cream was my favorite ice cream. Yeah, I really like it. And then I'm always kind of like bummed out when it's like a minty dessert or something. And I, I saw, I was like, Oh, I wish it was just strawberry lemonade. But then I got the mint strawberry mint lemonade and I was like, this is great.

And I don't know why I have an issue with that. I don't know if it's because it's like a weird, like mint kind of like floats around in all different areas. And also it's a thing that you use to make your breath better. Like, like, like, I have a weird thing with mint, but I do like it's the association with toothpaste and mouthwash for a lot of people. I feel like that's the kind of thing of just like, oh, this is like a cleaning thing. This is not a thing that you eat.

Yeah. So yeah, people sometimes have trouble getting over that side. How do you, how do you feel, Nick? Are you, are you a mint fan? Do you like it in dessert? I'm a mint fan. Yeah, I'll take a good mint dessert. And I'll take a, if the dish suits, if it suits the dish, absolutely.

I'll take some mint in there. What about you, Jason? I like mint on Asian food or on some kind of salad. Kind of refreshing mouthfeel. That's the funny thing about it. It's, it's my, yes, mouthfeel. Yeah. Um, that.

In drinks, I'm kind of, I am a bit against it because it does tend to overpower the general taste of whatever it is you're drinking. Right. This, this, this worked well and I, and I love strawberry lemonade. I'm a big strawberry flavor guy. I don't, I like strawberries is the fruit. I'm not even the biggest fan, but then like when it's in a lemonade or whatever, I love it.

Yeah. Um, I, you know, I think on the drink front, I'm realizing that I like I may not, I may not like mint in drinks in general, but I do really like a mojito, which is very mint, mint heavy, but that's the weird thing with mint is can be it's in hot food. It's in desserts. It's in drinks. It goes on.

It's just versatile. Yeah. It's very versatile. And it's also like, it reminds me of like, like a 1920s treat or something. It's like my grandpa, like, well, like got paid in mint or something. Like, like, like he would mow a lawn and they give him like a leaf of mint or something like that. You know what I mean?

Like it's like, it's like, you will go to the candy store and be like, uh, you would get a spear mint and shit, like a stick of mint, a stick of mint. It's very, it's very, it's very strange to me. I don't know. I'm not sure you're understanding of the 20th, early 20th century economy. Hey, Bobby, here's a stick of mint squares with history. Great job on the lawn. I have a sense of the depression.

No one has any mint anymore. We used to have fields of mint for this family. I remember we were cleaning out my grandpa's house after he passed away and there were just boxes upon boxes of mint sticks. Stashed away. Right. It doesn't, it feels like an old time. Like I feel like I feel like a York peppermint patty.

I feel like that's like a candy that like all old people love. Sure. Like, or just like a peppermint stick, like that whole classic peppermint. Is that a thing that has season candy cane? Is that a thing that happens to you when you get older? Or is it a thing that was it like more of a thing back in the day? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Right.

Is it like you, you like it because it's the thing you liked when you were a kid in that era, or is it a thing that you like because your tastes have changed over time? I feel like tastes are changing. Oh, I feel like mint, like obviously they're still mint teas and mint drinks and whatever, but mint candies. I don't know, but it's things that freshen your breath. Sure.

But are you excited about a York peppermint patty? I use, I like it. I mean, I like I'm not excited about it. Yeah. Does it does mint even really fresh in your breath or does it just make your mouth feel fresh? I think I'd rather smell in terms of someone else's breath. I think I'd rather smell mint than most things from smelling someone's breath.

Yeah. But yeah, I don't know how much, how much of it is just to cover up or if it's just a since the sensation of, I feel like sometimes with the gum and the mints that I have, it's just like, oh, that's just what you're saying. It's more just the sensation of freshening rather than actual any freshening agent. You know what? The world of mint is fascinating.

I don't mean to set us up on this mint tape, but mint is interesting. Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot you go on with mint. By the way, we should, we should mention real quick that this, this episode is branded content brought to you by the American Mint Council. Try me today. We got bought off by the Mint Council. Yeah, the big mint, but finally bought the dough boys. So they gave us like what, like $15.

It was $15 and a couple of gift cards to Chipotle. How much, how much money would it take for me to buy all the mint in the world? I think it's probably, I think probably, honestly, it's probably like eight billion dollars. It's probably a lot of money. It's got to be more than that. Yeah, it's got to be, it's probably even like, cause when you look at agricultural numbers, they're fucking insane.

It's just like, they'll talk about how, you know, this small, this small company that is like, oh, this struggling drink manufacturer, this up and coming soda manufacturer last year only did $300 million in sales. And it's just like, because the scale of food is just everyone eats, eats and drinks multiple times per day. So there's just so much money in it. I want to, I want to start a Kickstarter. I want to, I want to, I want to buy off all the mint.

You want to be the mint kingpin? I want to be the mint kingpin and all the mints. What is it? Seeds? Every mint. You want all, yeah. You want to own all the mint in the world, all the mint in the world. And then I'll have the freshest breath.

The girls will go crazy. They'll be winding up at Palmerston. This is, this is your plan that you'll become the most eligible bachelor out there because you'll be the only one friend with fresh breath. That's true. That's right. Sure. All right.

Go for it. The, the, here's where your plan is going to fail, Mitch. You will never even make that Kickstarter page. That's a good point. Let's get to our final thoughts on Shake Shack. So Jason, here's how this will work. We'll go around, we'll say kind of our closing argument on the chain, our summation of thoughts based on all of our experiences there, and then

assign a fork rating on the order of zero to five forks. You're our guest. We will start with you. Um, Shake Shack, I find it to be of the restaurant style burgers that are influenced by roadside stands. I put it at the top. Um, it's a different burger philosophically than the in and out burger, which is more of that kind of roadside Bob's big boy classic style paper

wrapped burger is more restaurant burger. Shake Shack, everything to do is very, very, very good. Um, I give it four forks, four forks. Very good score. Great score. Go ahead, Mitch. I now realized what you were doing this whole time. You're, you're, you're giving me a hard time.

The shakers and stuff like that, because you didn't want me to get into the in and out versus Shake Shack thing. Is that, was that your fucking plan? I think you're asking, there, there was, no, it wasn't, no, here's what I was going to say. It was, there is less, I think there was less hostility coming from this side of the table than from your side of the table. Well, you, you blew up at me a couple of times, you did, you got really heated.

You guys, people don't know our relationship. You're a fucking trickster. You are. I'm like Loki. You're like Puck. Well, I'm like Puck. Yeah. From the real world.

No, for midsummer's night's dream. Oh, okay. Midsummer night dream. Oh, God damn it. And what is it? Midsummer's night dream. Right. You're like Puck.

You're a little trickster. You're playing, you're playing tricks. You think I'm needling you and making, and you're like, and you are like Puck from the real, you're, you're a combo. And Loki, you're a little bit of, of each of them. You didn't want me to argue, you didn't want me to argue about In-N-Out versus Shake Shack. You get under my skin.

People don't see this stuff. He's smiling right now. He knows this. Anyways, here's what I'm going to say. Yeah. Shake Shack is better than In-N-Out Burger. Hmm. I like Shake Shack.

Everybody, okay, I get the complaints about the vegetables, maybe getting a little soggy in the burgers, but man, that soft bun, the way that double Shack burger tastes and feel the quality of the meat and the cheese together. It's so good. It's, it's so, so good. It beats In-N-Out Burger hands down, in my opinion. I'm sorry. Great shakes, great lemonades, and they mix them up every week.

I like the fries. That cheese sauce is good. It can get a little too much after you have it for too long, but get it on the side and dip it. Good dogs, whistler or a little thicker, but man, I don't know, five forks. Wow. Yeah, it's, it's, to me, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the, it's one of the best fast food chains that there is right now.

Right. You know, I have concern about the future of Shake Shack. Like, if it's going to scale, because like, as it keeps growing in locations, we've already seen some consistency issues in the West Coast ones. Yes. So yeah. And like, they went from one to what, six or something, or maybe even more. They went to a, they went to a cluster of a, you know, a dozen or so in New York

City itself, but also it was all localized so they could control it a little bit more than when they started to go nationwide. It's, and now worldwide, I guess, it gets a little bit harder. Well, Shake Shack work, like on, on a, on a national scale where, like in, if there's one in Quincy, Massachusetts, I don't think so. I feel like, like what they have going on is great. And I think that it takes, like there are places that you just, it just takes a lot of care and McDonald's became what it is because it's years and years of

figuring that out and, and, and working it down to a science and people just, it's a different level of quality. You know what I mean? And, and sure, the price point is, is, is, is heavy over at Shake Shack, but I think it's worth it. And is that sort of thing of like, you need, you need kind of like, you need these smaller numbers, you need more hands on deck, honestly. It has to be more of a special place for a place like that to work, in my opinion.

Yes. I mean, like what you mentioned about the price point may actually be a limiting factor in how far it can expand. Cause I think in a lot of, for a lot of people, this is, it's not a thing that you can, I mean, it's pretty expensive. It's, it's not something that's regularly affordable for a lot of families. And I imagine if you're feeding a boy, if you're feeding a family of four there, like what, you're going to spend like 50 bucks.

You know, it's, it's, it's pretty substantial in terms of costs. So that's the thing to consider. Or is this us or Mitchell? Mitch, what you said about you preferring Shake Shack to in and out burger is a fine opinion to have. Okay. You're angry. No, I'm not angry.

It's a fine opinion to have. I grew up out here. I love in and out burger. Nothing is going to displace that, but I think Shake Shack is good enough where if someone says, I prefer it, I understand that position. Okay. And you said it in a very diplomatic way. And I thought that was very kind of you to do.

So thank you for being so for handling that in such a professional adult manner. But that was going on. I'm saying like, I really appreciate the way you handled that. You didn't, you weren't like, fuck you, Weiger in and out burger is trash. Uh, you know, Shake Shack destroys burger five. You gave it five fours as well. That's what I say. You were very diplomatic about it.

You said you prefer it, but you said it like, and I just appreciate the way you did that. So I was expressing some genuine gratitude towards you. Also new writing for in and out burger three, four. No, you can't ret, you can't retcon that out of the pot and plate club. That's there to stay. Um, here's what I'm going to say. That was okay.

Uh, Shake Shack is great. It's really, really very good for a place that has so many different things on its menu. I kind of wish that everything was at the same level as the stuff it does the best. Like I kind of wish that the, that everything was at the same level as that Shackberg, that double Shack burger. It, when they go on those experiments, a lot of times they don't really pay off

in the same way, but every, but their best, their highs are so high. It's, it's really good. You definitely have to be conscious of the fact that you're going to spend a little bit more money than, than you are at other fast food spots. But I think it's worth it. The fries thing was a debacle, but I don't think that's enough for me to substantially punish this place. In fact, I'm going to say, despite that, I'm still

going to give Shake Shack four and a half forks. So Shake Shack, you are in the golden plate club. Get your fry game right. We'll get you up in that platinum plate club in no time at all. Not five forks, four and a half forks. It's very, very, very good. You're going to wait. I gave it, I gave it four and a half forks.

Jason gave it four forks. Yeah, but he's our guest. Uh, all right. That was Shake Shack. I'm going to go get a little something for the segment. I'll be back in one second. You guys can, can talk for one second. All right, Jason.

Yeah. I'm going to ask you. Sure. As a Celtics fan. Okay. How do you, how do you, how do you envision the Celtics next season? Well, I think they're going to be similar to what they are. This season, I already, which is good.

I'm on the record that they will add Hayward. The Eastern Conference is going to be significantly weakened. But if they add Gordon Hayward, does that not, that's not enough, huh? It's not enough to beat LeBron. It's not enough. He's just so good. And he's whatever the PEDs he's got, he's got the best ones. In my mind, though, if they add Hayward.

Yeah. Doesn't that mean that they're going to make a trade at some point during the season for someone else? Like I feel like they're, they'll trade one of those first round picks. I mean, are, are they going to do that? They haven't done it yet. I know. It's a thing.

I know. Um, I, I think if they do do it, yes, then you have to think, okay, they're really going to go all in for real this time. And Danny's really going to move stuff. Um, you can just never tell what the hell he's going to do. You just can never tell because he's holds those things so tight. Yeah. Which I think could hurt us in the end, but it will be interesting.

And also speaking of basketball, right, Nick? Oh, speaking, hey Mitch, well done. We've got ourselves for, for, for drinker stank, which is we're going to taste as a beverage aside of it, something you're going to pour down your throat. Mitch has ably segwayed into this week's beverage. We've got some body armor, super drink. This is the drink of the upstart, uh, competitor to powerade and Gatorade courtesy of Kobe Bryant, NBA legend, Los Angeles Lakers.

Great. Oh, you got a few of them. We got a few different ones. I got you guys some blue solo cups, uh, to taste these out of. So I've got the orange mango body armor. You guys can sort of talk us through what you got. And I'm going to pour myself a little, little sample here to take a drink. So what do you got there?

I've got a tropical punch body armor and, uh, blackout berry, which is this black imposing black bottle with the red lettering for body. It evokes the black mamba himself. And I got the strawberry banana body armor. Super great tropical. This is very funny to me because it looks like a smoothie. I'll say this from the outside. It does.

It absolutely does. These look like smoothies more. And, but then they're kind of more like a Gatoradee drink. It looks like right, um, natural flavors and sweeteners, electrolytes, potassium, uh, coconut water, vitamins, vitamin B, 200% of B three, B five, B six, B nine, B 12, and a hundred percent of vitamins A, C and E. You're just reading the nutritional label. This, it was right.

It's, it's, it's, this is what is, this is what this drink is. Oh, these are, they're marketing bullet points. Yeah. These are, these are all on the side. This is what this offers you. You thought that I was reading. God damn it, Weiger. No, it's good.

It's good. I'm raising that sports drink for today's athlete, providing superior hydration by combining electrolytes, coconut water, vitamins, natural flavors and natural sweeteners. Hmm. Natural sweeteners. What, what does that mean in natural? That's an interesting question.

Well, the thing with that natural sweeteners, that does encompass a lot of things. Right. And so like, I've read, like a, you know, natural colorings. This was a thing I read once that, that a lot of the natural, you'll read like a natural color and some of those can, can come from like a ground up beetle. Like you can get like a red beetle, grind it up into a red paste and use that to make a beverage red or to give it, to give a photo of food and red hue.

And that technically qualifies under the natural flavor statute. So yeah, or natural, natural coloring statutes. So I imagine natural flavors has some similar loopholes. Jason, are you a sports drink guy? No, not really. I mean, I will occasionally have a Gatorade because it's, uh, has a color to it and a flavor to it. And that psychologically makes me feel like it's better than water occasionally,

but no. Mitch, you're a big Gatorade fan yourself. I love Gatorade. Yeah. It's, I used to drink Gatorade after I'd run and then I just like, it's so much sugar, even though the electrolytes and sugar or electrolytes and sodium rather is stuff you need. It's just so much sugar that you're putting in your body.

It feels kind of counterproductive. Gatorade has like gone up there as one of my favorite. It is really good. I love a Gatorade. Like when I'm, when I'm sick, or on the rare occasion, when I'm like hung over these days, as a 36 year old man, I will treat myself to some Gatorade. And it, when I do it, I'm just like, Oh man, this is so good. There's just something about just sort of like that little bit of acid it's got

to it, just like that little bit of sharpness is just, plus the sweetness is just such a good sensation. I've poured myself like half a cup of each. I fucked up already. Ooh, Jason, not like that one. This one's funny. Oh yeah. I know, I know.

Strawberry banana body armor is weird. Right. Just we, we hand me those. I haven't tasted that one yet. Let me, I'm trying that strawberry banana. So far I've had the orange mango. I've had the tropical punch. I've had the blackout berry.

I think the orange mango is my favorite. I like that kind of orange sensation with just a little bit of that subtle tropical flavor to it. The tropical punch is good too. Not, you know, it's not bad. Nothing particularly outstanding. Blackout berry for me, I was expecting something a little bit more intense. It actually felt was the most watery of the three that I've had so far.

What are your thoughts going through these, Jason? Blackout berry, I liked actually, um, it, I agree with you that the, the packaging led you to believe that it would be something a lot stronger than it was, but I liked the mildness of it. The tropical punch had a chalky finish, which I didn't appreciate. But it did kind of broadly remind me of like the stuff they'd give you in school when you were a kid, you know, like a juice time. But yeah, there's a weird chalky finish that I didn't appreciate that much.

The orange mango was good. I think that is the best one. Yeah. I said that. Orange mango kind of threw me a little bit. The mango taste, so the mango, it was overwhelming or something. I actually like tropical punch one. Oh, and then, uh, strawberry, I don't know, maybe, maybe orange mango does

beat strawberry, but I thought that strawberry banana was fairly whack. I mean, I could, I could drink more. I like, I was, it didn't want to spit it out, but I was just like, this is the, the one of these that seems a little bit less pleasant to drink because that's the thing I think that's Gatorade is so dominant in the sports drink market that it's so hard to dethrone it even if you've got the star power of Kobe Bryant. And I imagine he'll sign some other, you know, admittedly fading star power of Kobe Bryant is a retired athlete.

And we'll see if he's, he'll be able to stand the test time like the Jordan brand. Yeah, you didn't fade. Yeah, but we'll see that, that, that might have been an outlier, but, uh, you know, they're funny because they are kind of like, there is substance to them. They are like, that's the thing. Yeah. For sure.

That thing of being like, Oh, they're, these are smoothies. They're not, but then when you drink them, they are like, Oh, but there are like, kind of like, they're more than a Gatorade. There's something, yeah. And that kind of like, I will say that it like, it does feel like you're being refreshed. It like, it feels like a, it feels like a positive that, you know what I mean? Like, it's not like they're like, you get like, it doesn't taste art as

artificial as other things. Yeah, they have, they, they have some real, like they're, they're thick in a good way. Like they're not, they're not obviously not approaching smoothie thickness, but they, they have like just a little bit of, huh, but what's the word I'm working on? They're a little bit of density, a little bit of weight to them as you're drinking them. So yeah, I do like that's the substantial.

I love how substantial it is, but yeah, I don't know. Overall, I think I like the orange mango the best. I think I'd probably put, I might go similar to you, Mitch. I think I'd go, it might go orange mango or similar to Jason rather. I think it might go orange mango, tropical punch, berry, and then close it out with that strawberry. For me, tropical punch, blackout berry, then strawberry banana and orange mango are kind of tied.

What, and give us your full rankings again now that you've had them all, Jason. Uh, orange mango, uh, tropical punch, blackout, and then the strawberry banana, which is just weird, weird, weird. All right. So we're, we're in the, we're in the same page on that one. We're in the hand-holding club, if you will. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

I think the, I think these overall, if I'm, if my choices are drink or stink, I think I give these a drink. I'm not a big sports drink guy. I try to stick to water for hydration if I'm doing a workout. So I'm not adding out superfluous calories, but these are pretty good. And I think I could see a situation where, so this was offered to be, instead of Gatorade, the default, I think I'd be like, yeah, all right, give this a shot. You know, I'm, I'm happy to have this.

I would prefer Gatorade. Yeah. I think I probably truthfully would. I mean, you know, yeah. I'm just not sure what, what, what, uh, niche this occupies in the quote unquote space, the athletic drink space. Well, here's the thing. I mean, this is actually the tricky thing because are, are these like, is this

like a healthy version? Is that what Kobe's trying to do? And then, and then just immediately always with like a thing that's like, this is like a healthy, natural drink. This is the natural version. And then you, but you always question that with the, like every product that comes with the soda is like, is this really that? Or is it like, you know, people are like, Gatorade's bad for you.

It's just like candy. It's like soda or whatever. It's like, is this like soda? I know there's, there's coconut water in it, but like, is this more like soda? Is this more like an actual beneficial drink? I don't know. Nutritionally, I think this is much like Gatorade is a lot like soda with somatted vitamins.

I mean, it's just, you know, it pulls the old two servings per container trick when, you know, everyone's going to drink this whole thing in one shot. And so that's 140 calories. Have you told it up within one of these? And that's a lot of calories. That's a lot of calories. I mean, it's on par with maybe even less than Gatorade. It's probably less sugar, if I had to guess.

But, but I think, I think Jason's right. That like, you kind of like, it kind of needs a little niche. It kind of needs a little targeted thing that it's going to focus on. And I'm not sure if it was something where it's like, oh, wow, this is the 30 calorie sports drink that tastes pretty good still. Then that would really be something. But yeah, I'm not sure other than this kind of the sleekness of the marketing. I'm not sure what this has over Gatorade.

It's 10% coconut water. There are vitamins in it. I mean, so that, that is a plus. So Gatorade has no vitamins. I don't know. It's, it's, it's, it's tricky. Is this better than vitamin water? I don't know.

I have no idea. One thing's for sure, when it comes to replenishing your nutrients, nothing works quite like mint. Again, we were brought to you by the National Mint Council. Yeah, a tall glass of water. You know what you should do? First, fill it all the way to the top with mint and then pour water on top of it. Nothing like a classic mint water on a hot day.

I'll be drinking this, this for the July. Is this, is this a, I haven't decided if this is stank or a drink or stank. I'm giving it a mild drink. I like it. Very mild drink on me as well. Ooh, the mild, the mildest of drinks for me as well. Kobe, you just made, I should have said stank because it's Kobe. Does it put it into the stank category?

If you want to. No, I've come around to respect Kobe for basketball. Some begrudging respect for him. Yeah. Even though, you know, he's had a lot of off the court issues that we don't know about. People get mad about that stuff on the podcast. So I don't know, I'm judging from his basketball wise, I've come to respect the man. Right.

Much like Freddie, Kobe has some things in his past to apologize for. They're very similar in a lot of ways. Both, hey, they were the best at what they did. You know what I mean? Freddie killed people, but in, in Kobe. Freddie killed people and did wisecracks and Kobe was dominant on the court for about a decade. Yeah, that's true. I wonder, I just wonder what his brand, what Kobe's brand is going to is going to is going to be in the future.

Well, Jason, you mentioned a little, you mentioned the Muse Cage a little before the podcast, which is like a crazy thing he's doing. The Muse Cage, it's hard to know how to describe the Muse Cage. The Muse Cage is generally a theory that Kobe has has propagated of a place, I guess, kind of like a psychological place, a spiritual place from where you're at the animating force of your life flows. It's the Muse Cage. Your muse is in this place and he has, you know, he's made like a puppet show that aired before NBA games, where he's talking to this weird puppet about the Muse Cage and what it does for you.

It's very, I feel like I have touched the Muse Cage ever so slightly by drinking this stuff. Maybe that's the goal of it. Well, that was Drank or Stank, just like a restaurant without your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Dave Walker. Dave writes, Hello, my name is Dave. I will like to know if you do catering service. My daughter's wedding is coming up on the 29th of July, 2017.

So I would like to order for 150 individual grilled chicken breast and garden salad with lettuce. I want them in Italian dressing. The order will be picked up at your location by 3 p.m. What's will be the cost for that? If you don't that, send me your menu. I will be expecting a fast response from you ASAP. Well, Dave, we're not a catering service or a restaurant. Doe Boy's podcast at gmail.com is the address.

Podcasts in there. I'm not sure what you thought we were. Maybe you thought that was their restaurant called Doe Boy's at some point. There's definitely a multiple restaurants named Doe Boy's. So I think I think you're looking, but he put in the email. It says podcast. Yes, it says podcast. So Dave, you're a little confused.

Obviously, you don't know what this is and you're not going to be listening to this. But yeah, we do get emails like this sometime. Or maybe it was a listener and they just think that we do this sort of thing. Yeah, Dave, if you listen to the podcast, if you're a regular listener, again, we don't prepare food. So just keep that in mind. I just want to read that one because it tickled me when I looked through it. Yeah, go for it.

Congrats to your daughter. We have another email here from Andrew Ditman. Andrew writes, when you're going to a sit down restaurant and your waiter hands you a menu, what do you appreciate or dislike about the physical menu itself? Thanks. I like this question. Jason, what do you think any physical menu preferences?

I don't like when they have too many pages and I don't like when the interior page is held on by by some kind of piece of courting or something. I agree with that. That drives me crazy. I got a big no-no when it comes to menus. And I've seen this at Buffalo Wild Wings quite a bit, a restaurant that I do like. Sticky menu. Oh, God, Sticky's the worst.

Sticky menu is gross. It's disgusting. B-dubs is actually one of the worst culprits for it. And what would you rather, Nick, a sticky playboy or sticky? God, Jesus Christ. I'm asking you pornography anymore. Dating yourself. You know something to me is I will go buy a fresh playboy.

I bring it home. Sticky, sticky pages right before it was fresh. It would be pre-used. You wouldn't realize right out of the package. You wouldn't realize that someone had already used it at the factory or whatever. Yeah, probably you, probably you himself, you himself will occasionally open up an issue and go at it for quality control, quality control. Yeah, very important, though, for me, I'd like the stick.

I'd rather have I don't like this. I'm not going to answer that question. I don't like the sticky menus. I think they're really gross. I kind of sometimes like when my attention is drawn to their signature items, like if there's like a little asterisk or a little like chef's head next to what they say they think are their specials, their delicacies. Chef said like like a like Kathy Griffin holding Donald Trump.

No, not like a dismembered chef like he's been decapitated. I mean, like, like, you know, like a little like, oh, the Italian or the or sometimes it'll be like a knife and fork. Just some sort of iconography to be like, these are our signature menu items. There's a little box around them. I really like that because like I trust when a place is like we want you to get this thing. I'm like, you know what, if I haven't been there before, a lot of times I will and I'll have some success.

That's too hokey for me, Nick. I don't care if it's hokey. I'm fine with hokey. OK, but but I think that like Jason, what you were talking about earlier is is something that you they'll when on any time they'll do like these kitchen rescue shows. It'll always be the place that has like a 200 item menu and they'll always simplify it down. I love just like that single page menu that's just got like 12 things on it. And the fewer decisions I have to make the better.

I love it when they make decisions for me. They're like, this is what it is. This is how it comes. I'm like, great, just just set me up like that. I can do two or three pages. I mean, once once you get once you get up to like five territory, yeah, then that's pretty bad. Two or three I can deal with.

Sometimes you'll go to like an Asian restaurant and it'll be like a like a 12 page menu. And I'll just have so many options and I'll just be like so intimidated. That's kind of cool though. It is cool. No, I like I like it. But it's just like, man, it's it's very overwhelming. And that's what I definitely need some help ordering. How do you guys feel about pictures on menus? Oh, I'm anti, generally anti.

Makes me feel as if I'm traveling when when I oh, sure. Yeah, it's either like a very kind of like low quality place and or I'm traveling overseas. But I think generally speaking, I like pure text menus. Right. You know what? My issue is that all the time the pictures are never the thing I want. Right. Right. It's never it's never the thing that I that I want to. Oh, that's true.

You kind of wish you could have it like then you see the picture and just like, oh, that's not that shrimp dish. That's some other dish. Yeah. I want to know what that one looks like. So either pictures for all or no pictures at all. And then if you do pictures for all, then you got another too long menu unless you've got a very simple menu. It's a whole paradox.

Yeah, I I want, you know, like the sticky menus. I want to make sure they come from the food, right? It's not the same thing as it's not like no, it's not like guys who are attracted to food. No, it's a restaurant, right? It's not men like you, Mitch, who will be this is going to be my pornography. No, yeah, the sticky menus. People need to take care of that.

Clean those, wipe those menus down or use disposable paper menus or something. Just figure that shit out because that's disgusting. Thanks for the question, Andrew. If you have a question or comment with the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at doughboyspodcast.gmail.com to get doughboys double our weekly bonus episodes. Subscribe at patreon.com slash doughboys. Jason Concepcion, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for giving us so much of your time and anything you would like to plug at this time. We're having the live Largo event for the Game of Thrones after show, which is at Largo, as I said, July 10th, I hope. And then we're doing after the Thrones, which is a streaming live on Twitter after the East Coast showing of Game of Thrones season seven. Awesome, sweet. Check it out. Check it out. And we might have to have you come back soon and talk some MBA stuff with us.

I know the people can't wait for that. We've got people who like basketball, who listen to this show, and then people who could not hate basketball more, who are like, it's tough to do. So we were talking about this because we would love to do it. But then I think some people will be upset. Right. We don't know. We don't know what to do. And then also, too, like, we'll start to talk about the NBA and then we'll end up fighting about a horror movie from the 90s.

So it won't even matter. Good point. They'll do for this episode of Dole Boys until next time. For The Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weiger. Happy eating. See you.