Doughboys - Steak 'n Shake 2 with Evan Susser

Episode Date: December 17, 2015

Friend of the podcast Evan Susser returns for a follow-up to our controversial Steak 'n Shake episode. The 'boys and Suss travel to a full service Steak 'n Shake in Victorville, California, to get the complete experience. Plus, a new holiday segment called Season's Eatings.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zero. Audio. Good morning Steak and Shake, Luis Piquet, I'm up here. Hi, I just wanted to check, this location in Victorville is a full Steak and Shake, correct? With the full menu? A full Steak and Shake? With the full menu? Yes. Okay, because it's not one of the Steak and Shakes by Big Larry?

No, it's a whole Steak and Shake restaurant, it's the only one in California, I believe. We do breakfast to 11 and then lunch, just stop for 24 hours. Great, and do you have the side by side shakes? What? Do you have the side by side milkshakes? Yes, we do. Okay, great, thank you. All right, no problem.

All right, thanks. This week on Doughboys, for the final episode of 2015, we return to Steak and Shake. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host, as always, the Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. How are you doing, Mitch? Merry Spoonmas to all, and happy Spoonica. All right. And also, joyful Spoonza.

Okay, all right. I just wanted to say a big how to how to Spoon Nation, and just a little bit of a what? Okay. Do all the monster squatters out there, and well, isn't that special to everybody else? Okay, all right. All of that was unnecessary. All of it? Yeah.

Even Merry Spoonmas? Yeah, all of that. I hope all of Spoon Nation has a Merry Spoonmas and a hashtag Spoonful New Year. Hashtag Spoonful. All right, great. Spoonful New Year. Hashtag Spoonful New Year, sure. You know, this is our last episode of 2015.

I feel like we've had a nice start, hopefully, to the podcast. Hopefully, there's more to come in future years. Worst of your my life. Actually, that's not even alive. Worst of your my life. I don't have to get into it. But not chiefly because of Doe Boys. Only partially because of Doe Boys.

So, the show I was on got canceled. Back and forth relationship thing ended. Born of my best friends died. What else had happened? I thought that I was old and a loser for the majority of the year. And on top of it all, Doe Boys started. The worst thing of all was that Doe Boys started. I admit, I think this has been a lot of fun.

I've enjoyed my time with our time together in the studio. I think it's been great. I think it's been a great thing to share with the world. I think it's been great for our personal relationship. Oh, yes. Oh, that wonderful relationship between Nick Weiger and I, thank goodness. Oh, when I look back on 2015, I'll remember that Weiger and I became closer as friends. Me and old robot man became better buds in 2015.

No, Doe Boys has been fun. Sadly, the highlight of my year shows you how things are going for me in 2015. But I'm looking forward to 2016. You know what? 2016, the year of the spoon. You're declaring it right now. Like you're the cat, you're the dragon. Yeah, I say we call up those Chinese restaurants and tell them it's the year of the spoon, baby.

What is it supposed to be next year? I don't know. Probably, I'll just guess year of the rabbit. I have no idea. It's not the Chinese. It's every year of the spoon. This is universal. This is universal.

This is the year of the spoon. Well, also too, it's its own calendar. So like their Chinese New Year is a different occasion. Well, they're on it too. Everybody's on this thing. It's the year of the spoon for everybody, you get me? It's universal. It's a universal thing.

It's going to be a good 2016. Doe Boys will most likely end. And other things will happen. Do you have any resolutions coming for the new year? Anything you would want to disclose here on the pod? Hmm, any resies for 2016. I should get a loose and weight still. Well, that's been on my resolution list for a good decade now.

No, you know what? You know, I got some personal goals. I want to make myself better. You can see a better Spoon Man in 2016. I'm going to make myself a... You know, I'm going to better myself in every way possible. So you're resolving for the general idea of personal betterment. You're just going to improve as a human being.

Here's a resolution. Yeah. Doe Boys will end. Well, that's very easy for you to make sure. You just have to stop showing up. That's true. You've elected to keep coming out and making the drive out here to Burbank. Yeah, I do it for the fresco, baby.

You did have a complimentary fresco from the Feral Audio fridge here in the studio. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a fun year. I mean, an up and down crazy year. Yeah. But I will say Doe Boys has been a lot of fun. Ugh, are you serious? You're going to get me to say this.

Yeah, it's been fun. I don't know. We've done a lot of different restaurants. I've gotten fatter because of you, which I think is your main goal. But yeah, it's been fun visiting some of these places. It's a lot of fun. And I think, you know, to all our listeners out there, thank you everyone who got on board with the podcast in 2015.

It's made a lot of fun. We've really been surprised by, frankly, that anyone listened and that we've had a large number of people who have really enjoyed the podcast or, you know, interacting with us. All that is great and we appreciate it and we welcome it and we hope to grow and improve the podcast moving on into the new year. And, you know what, fuck you. God damn it.

I can't be allowed one moment of sincerity. No, you can. You're just going to put everyone to sleep. You know, if you're kids, if you've got kids and they're excited about Christmas, just play them Weigar's little speech. And they'll be out like a light. Santa's coming. Yeah, whatever.

Listen to this. Sleep. It works. That boring man. Mitch, I know, personally, I know that your own sleep aid is three hours of consciousness. After that, you're about ready for a nap. Can you fucking blame me? Step it up.

Oh, speaking of which, step it up to the world. 2015, you need it. 2016 is going to step it up big time. And I got to say this, this is better than Christmas Eve. This is Force Awakens Eve. Oh, yeah, Force Awakens. Well, we're recording this a little bit in advance, but this podcast is releasing the day before Star Wars, the Force Awakens is in theaters.

Certainly, we assume a large portion of our fan base is like us or huge nerds and are excited about this movie. I'm excited about it because I know what it portends. It's just like there's new characters that everyone will have opinions on. Constable Zuvio. Constable Zuvio will be in the zeitgeist. Who's the new guy? Bamboo or whatever his name was he saw today?

I didn't see that. Well, these will be household names by the time this airs, people will be saying that it will be like Bart Simpson. Yeah. Constable Zuvio will be like the new Bart Simpson. They'll be bootleg merchandise with Constable Zuvio stomping on Saddam Hussein's head. They'll be Zuvio X with him stylized like Malcolm X. It's going to be a post-Force Awakens world when the day after this podcast premier.

So I wonder what future Spoon Man is thinking of all this. Yeah, everything will be different if he's still alive. It is like comparing the excitement with potentially like everything is going to live up to it or it's going to be a huge let down either as an option when Star Wars or any of these big pop culture phenomenons are going to finally be realized in their final form. Either is a possibility. So I'm excited to see it. Who knows?

Maybe this is the thing that this is the last hope of 2015. Maybe this thing really knocks it out of the park. Yeah, this is the only. This redeems the year. This redeems the year. The one good thing that happens in this entire year. I don't know. I'm trying to think back.

I guess it's been a lot of negative world news and a lot of just terrible stuff that's been happening, but. 2015, no good. I don't like it, but you know what? Today, we got an episode. This Doughboys is one of the most anticipated episodes that there are more so than even Force Awakens. Yeah, we're actually.

This is like the Lorne Michaels WTF episode. This is like, yeah, this is what I don't have a, I can't beat that. Why did I try to beat that? That was good. The Lorne Michaels. I don't know. I don't have anything better than that. Good job, Swoom Man.

Thank you. I like to see this good change already. Yeah, we were actually following through on something we promised. We had Evan Susser on previously on an episode. We went to Stake and Shake. He's back with us today. He's a screenwriter. His upcoming credits include the film's fist fight, Sonic the Hedgehog.

He is the real deal, the third Doughboy, friend of the podcast, sitting right across from me. Evan Susser, welcome back, Evan. Hey guys, it was great to be back. You know, I was very excited to be back and you know, I think it's no secret. Last time, I kind of really elbowed my way in to get an invite back. Oh yes, of course. And as you guys were going, I was like, are they just going to not introduce me the entire

time? That'll be the revenge taken against me, which would have been fair, but I'm thrilled to be here. Jesus Christ. It was only 10 minutes. God damn it. I had so much I wanted to jump in on. Well, now you know what, now we can clear up rumors.

Will Sonic appear in Force Awakens? And I'm also, I'm not going to answer that. You're not going to answer what Sonic the Hedgehog is, so it's still a possibility. Who knows? If you're camped out right now, they're waiting for the midnight screening. Who's that blue guy next to Zuvio? You get a post-credits sequence where the blue blur flies into frame. And I'm thrilled to be here at the last episode of the year and take stock with you guys.

I mean, you were talking about it. It's kind of incredible. You know, how are you guys, I mean, it's the podcast I feel like has been a great thing and the reaction's been great. And you know, I actually, I thought that it would be fun to, you know, for me to prepare something. Oh, what the fuck? For this episode.

And I thought... He has his blue folder back, by the way. You know, his famous blue folder he brought last time. You guys used to do a segment called An Angry Yelper. And I thought... And unsatisfied Yelper. An unsatisfied Yelper. Okay.

I thought I would try and look up some of your iTunes reviews and find an unsatisfied iTunes listener. Oh, I think it'll be hard pressed to do that. We're sitting pretty at five stars, maybe. And that's exactly what I discovered of 63 reviews. So we brought you... 58 of them were positive reviews. People love this thing.

And I just want to read a few of these glowing reactions and get your guys' reaction to it. You're going to read some glowing reactions. Okay. Okay. I want to listen to an in-depth analysis of chain restaurants. But it turns out I do. The podcast is fun and enjoyable. And the hosts have a great rapport.

Yet another fantastic podcast from the Feral Audio Network. Wow. That's great. Who's that? Dan Harmon. Doughboys. This one's titled Doughboys Not Half Baked. Nick Weigar and Mike Mitchell.

Two comedic writers doing a podcast about chain restaurants. No, they're not food critics. And that is what makes it a great idea. They think like Joe Everyman, a pretty enlightened thinker from what I hear. And analyze their dining experience as I and I assume others would. I like how both of these have started from a standpoint of being incredulous. Wait a minute. This shitty idea is actually listenable?

Well, do you think that is part of the success? That it, you know, like a chain restaurant that delivers a better meal than you're expecting. That's what the podcast is doing? You know what, Susser? I don't know what the fuck you're doing right now. We might be the beneficiary of low expectations. I can see that happening. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. You know, I think everyone likes chain restaurants. So that's a, you know, you got that in your court. Yeah, definitely. It's something universally relatable. But I think this is also kind of like you sabotaging us in a way. Like, yeah, tell us why this works.

If I wanted to start a podcast, this is exactly what I would do. Very specific. That's exactly what they would want to do. And then there is one, the only negative one. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it thinks that Nick is titled. Sorry, we're not all rich and they think you're a snob, Nick. But overall, I think, I mean, the reaction is great. Everyone I talk to loves it.

You obviously, you know, you've been getting great reactions from people and pretty cool people. And I think that really, and something that, you know, a lot of them touch on is the earnestness which you guys discuss these chain restaurants. I think that has been really refreshing to people. Oh, thanks. You know what? That makes me think we should, we should get some big guests on here and not end our year

with sorcery. Also, for the record, I am a snob. I think I am a little bit of a snob. Oh, no, I disagree completely. Well, I think I know. I'm going to run with that. Oh, great. Cool.

Just what you needed to tighten your shirt. To put on a little other button. Actually, you kind of lose look today. Yeah, I'm kind of dressed down. I'm wearing the sweater from Target. I've got these pants from the Gap. Yeah, I'm a fucking, I'm no richy rich over here. I'm doing all right financially, but I'm not eating caviar.

Tell them what you got in the bank. Let's hear it. No, you want me to disclose my checking account balance? Of course. No, I'm not going to do that. Connect to the people for crying out loud. So, there is no scene in Force Awakens where Sonic spin attacks Kylo Ren. Like I said, I'm not going to disclose anything at this moment.

People have to seize the Force Awakens to find out. All right, fine. Fair enough. But tell me, in your opinion, what will be better, Sonic or Force Awakens? I think Sonic, honestly. Wow. Wow. I like that.

I like the confidence. I actually do like the confidence a lot. And also too, I think that's kind of like, I like how a little bit of the jab at Force Awakens. You're kind of like, step it up, JJ. Let's see what you get. Right, yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll find out tomorrow.

Everyone will find out. Well, you know, I think that the expectations game for Star Wars, I mean, it's the opposite of Doe Boys. The expectations could not be higher for Star Wars Force Awakens. That's absolutely true. So, how are you going to meet that? Yes. So, there you go.

All time, probably. I think it will be. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, not adjusted for inflation or whatever, but just because of the price of tickets keeps increasing. I had another question for you real quick, Cesar. I know you probably can't answer this, but can you confirm that Finn gets in a lightsaber battle with a big the cat wielding a fishing pole?

Again, I cannot comment. I cannot confirm people are going to have to watch Star Wars Force Awakens. What about the movie? I'm going to say After the Credits to see if that happens. There is a post-credits sequence, so that is a possibility. I've said too much about Force Awakens. What about the rumors that Luke does, in fact, resurface, and he's in the midst of a love triangle with Amy Rose and Rogue the Bat?

Man, Huyger is really out of himself as a grown man who knows all the Sonic characters. Susser's writing that movie. He doesn't even know who the fuck half these people are. Oh, wait. No, he knows all of them. He knows Vector the Crocodile because he was Miles Teal's praller. He was forced to have to know them. The thing about Sonic is that he's got such a sprawling array of friends that are all,

you know, I know I'm not speaking for you, Susser, because you're a company man. You're advancing the Sonic brand on behalf of Sega and the studio, which I believe is interesting, but speaking for myself, I feel like Sonic's friends are very, there's an array of uninteresting characters, and there's a few that kind of work, and there's like Tails is cool, Robotnik is cool, but down the line, you just start to get them. They're generic, and I don't know what they're for, and I guess the challenge with handling this franchise and steering this ship is figuring out a way to make these characters interesting and defined.

It's just getting to know the characters. It could probably be said about your group of friends, like what's so interesting about Jack Allison or Mike Hanford or Armin Weitzman, and then they come on Doe Boys and you show the world how interesting these people are. What is going on here? Why are you being so nice about our show? Also, what you're trying to assert yourself at like the top of some sort of friends hierarchy. I got it.

I'm the Sonic character. I guess everyone in their life thinks of themselves as the Sonic. Yeah, that's a good screenwriting rule. Like every character is a Sonic of their own movie. Yeah, you should teach that somewhere. But please not here. It's in Robert McKee's story, I believe. Oh, I got to touch on one thing before we move on from Sonic slash Star Wars.

I have for a long time guessed that Snoke, supreme leader Snoke, is a Yoda. So people right now are finding out whether Snoke is a Yoda or not. How are you defining what a Yoda is? A Yoda creature from the Yoda planet. I'm saying that Snoke is a Yoda. Now, Mitch, you used the word guest in there, but on Twitter you've claimed to have seen an advanced screening of the Force Awakens. You don't have to bring that up.

Are you just claiming now that that was a hoax? That was a Twitter lie? Listen, if Snoke is a Yoda, I just want that hashtag spoon man is a genius to start training. Because you know that I guessed this a long time ago and saw a preview. Yeah. You didn't say this months ago, and I think it's a very astute prediction slash remembrance of something that you saw on the silver screen at an advanced screening. Why do I have to be quiet?

I'm withholding this from the 500 Doughboys listeners. We're all on the same page here, guys. I tweeted that I had seen the movie and I really haven't, but I think Snoke is a Yoda. So it turns out I'm going to brag about how I saw the movie and no one believed me. Yeah, if you're out there in Spoon Nation, you can get in on this and be like, you know, not everyone who looks at Mitch's Twitter necessarily listens to the podcast. So if you do, then just play along and act like Mitch has saw the advanced screening. Don't say that he, don't reveal that it was a hoax.

The people who follow Mitch on Twitter, not interested in the podcast, but he does. But they follow it for Star Wars news. They follow him so closely. And also this hoax. This big thing of people really caring about who saw a screening of the movie after it comes out. No one cares at all anymore, or they don't even care now. But once the movie comes out, no one will care that I saw the movie anyway. So I'm just going to push the fact that I'm guessing Snoke is a Yoda.

We are also literally having this conversation one month in advance of when this episode will come out. So every part of this is so... Stupid? Yeah, it's so abstract. It's the dope boy's way. Susser, going into 2016, any resolutions on your end? You should probably do a couple of mine, by the way. Oh, thanks. Which one specifically?

No, I would say I'll probably lose weight, as always, is on there. And I would say just a general say yes to life more, get out there, explore new opportunities, and put myself out there more, I would say. Here's a resolution. I'm going to go on a trip with Susser. Oh, that would be fun. That would be great. Just the two of you guys? Yeah.

Motorcycle and sidecar? I think that would be fun. Yeah, that could be fun. I think we're pretty good road trip buddies, as we kind of got a glimpse at this weekend. That is very true. We drove for far too long to Victorville to go to a real steak and shake. So let's give a little bit of context. In case you...

It's been a couple of months since you were originally on Evan. And in case you're just jumping in, you're a newer listener, and you don't remember the part one, or you're unfamiliar with the part one. You must be so mystifying if you're a new listener. The episode starts. This man plays Clip from Popular Culture. He's talking about Spoon Nation. There's talk about Star Wars and Sonic the Hedgehog.

A podcast that you're probably checking and being like, this is a food chain restaurant podcast. Can you imagine? But anyway, in case you're just jumping in, go ahead. It's increasingly become like the most insular and opaque experience for a new listener. No, I think people are on board if this is their first listener. Sure. I also will say that Susser called this man on the phone,

and the man thought he was a complete idiot. He was like, yeah, this is a real steak and shake. What the fuck are you talking about? Do you serve side-by-side shakes? Yeah, we serve side-by-side shakes. Shut up. I'm trying to do my job. He thought you were also not suspenseful in any way, I guess,

for our listeners that we found a real... I mean, we had already determined that there was a real steak and shake, right? I like the phone call. Evan, I liked you doing it. I liked you recording it. Thank you. Single-party... Who do we think we're breaking bad or something?

We're gonna do a cool opening. I thought it was cool. I thought it was a nice little break in the form. It may have technically been like a crime. I think single-party, like one-party consent recording is on the phone call is a crime. Please, God, please let us... Please make it so that the opening is... Sus are asking those questions in big, long bleeps.

Anyway, returning to what this is all about. So, we had an episode where Evan came on, and we went to your favorite steak and shake. What we thought was a real steak and shake in Santa Monica, but it was actually steak and shake by Big Laurie, which is their founder whose name is Big Laurie... Not founder, I'm sorry. Their current CEO whose name is Big Laurie.

He's created some smaller versions of the restaurant, which are basically like an airport version of steak and shake. They have, as opposed to the full menu at a steak and shake, they have a limited menu, and as opposed to the table service at a regular steak and shake, they have counter service. Is his name Big Laurie or Big Laurie? It's something Big Laurie.

I want to say Sardar, but I'm sure that's not right. It's a... He's a gentleman of Iranian descent, and I had his name written down in the notes from the previous episode. I could look them up when we get a break in the action. I may do so, but anyway... Good luck. We're gonna break in this action.

This is an action-packed episode right now. Anyway, we went to the steak and shake. It was kind of like an anemic, unconventional steak and shake experience. It was a disaster. It was not the real thing. Yeah, I think I made the comparison. It would be like going to a Chili's too at the airport and trying to assess Chili's based on that.

It was not the real experience. I advocated very strongly on this podcast that we should do a follow-up episode at the steak and shake in Victorville, which was two hours away, partially motivated for me wanting to get on the podcast again, but partially... And a free meal.

And a free meal. But really a lot for journalistic integrity and wanting to give steak and shake its day in court. And after being a little resistant at first, you guys were eventually convinced on the podcast to do it. That we would go back to a real steak and shake, drive two hours, have a meal, and make our judgments.

And that's what this episode is. And as you may have heard on that phone call we played in the cold open, whichever made, it is the only authentic steak and shake in the state of California, which is what necessitated a two-hour drive. Basically, we were driving almost halfway to Vegas. Barstow, which is kind of the traditional midpoint,

was like 20 miles from Victorville. So it was quite a haul we made. It was a long drive. But you know what? I would rather do that ride again to go to steak and shake than the four-hour ride to Vegas. Wait, are there steak and shakes in Vegas? I'm sure they're having one.

Oh, never mind. I just go to Vegas. I think there might be a... Well, I don't know. I think there might be a big lorry, steak and shake. Interesting. Why are they so... The elusive steak and shake, huh? Yeah. What's the deal?

Well, on the Midwest, there are plenty. Yeah. Not out here for sure. It's a hard one. And I had never tried it before. And I finally got my real life steak and shake experience. And, Susser, not only did we like the idea, but we made it the last episode of the podcast season.

It meant the world to me. It really did. You know, I think that I, you know, I... Look, my name comes up on this podcast. And so, I've said before, it's always a thrill. Oh, my God. But to, you know, be... I guess I am your first return guest.

Yeah. Is, you know, such an honor. And honestly, being on one time was an honor. And it kind of feels like, you know, when an actor wins an Academy Award, and they're so overwhelmed with emotion, and then they win again an Academy Award, it's like, what do you even say at that point?

You know, my dream already came true. And that's kind of how I'm feeling. So, we shouldn't have had you on. Do I know that experience of winning two Academy Awards? Yeah. I can relate to that. I seem to more watching what happened in the Academy Awards. I get that.

Ben. Well, it was worth it to make that two-hour drive on a Sunday during the most exciting Patriots game of the year to go and try out a real steak and shake. I thought it was a fun trip. We had fun. Yeah, it was quite a haul. And actually, you know, you mentioned the Patriots game.

This was a fun thing I got to observe just as a little tag to this adventure, is we ended up back at your place, which you share with Jack Allison and Palmerston. And we got to watch the fourth quarter of the Pats game with you, Mitch. And, boy, you were riled up. You were riled up. Again, this was the Giants game

that took place probably five weeks ago at this point. It was the only time the Patriots played the Giants this year unless it happens in the Super Bowl, hopefully not. But, yeah, no, I got into it. You got to see a little side of me that gets riled up for the game. I think I... We were listening on the radio on the way back. You were getting pretty worked up as it wasn't going well.

Blaming the trip to steak and shake on the game. Yeah, there was a lot of things I was blaming. And then I kind of, I think I went off on Eli Manning for a good 10 minutes after the Patriots won. Yeah, the things that enrage you, Mitch, it seems to be like the Pats on the verge of defeat that really riles you up, having to wait for a refill. And then also interracial dating.

Jesus Christ. Seems to get your Quincy bones all rattled. That is such bullshit. Don't listen to him. That's, this is your main goal through a fucking... You're a confusing jumper. The person just jumping in with this one. What is... Weigar's goal is to paint Quincy as a racist city

and me as a racist man, but I love interracial dating. Oh, boy. That sounds weird, too. I love all sorts of dating. He says, Spoon Man's on the market, baby. I looked it up on my phone. It is, in fact, Sardar Biglari. That is his name. So we went over to Victorville, which was a drive.

We arrived in Victorville. We went to the Steak and Shake. It was a blustery afternoon. Oh, yeah, the wind was howling that day. Wind was really kicking. Uncharacteristic for Southern California. Uncharacteristic even for Victorville. Oh, no, it looked like a scene out of a twister.

Yeah, it was really something. We got into the Steak and Shake, and I gotta say it really is a vastly different experience than what we felt at the Steak and Shake by Biglari in Santa Monica. I mean, it is like just a old school diner feel interior. We waited for a table. We were seated, and we had a waitress coming up

who was very nice, who was helping us, and all that, I feel like really enhanced my experience there. Yeah, it was still very clean. Like, I think the Santa Monica location kind of hit a little bit of that. Like, a very, very clean, white, you know, like, what's the word I'm looking for? Aesthetic?

Yeah. Layout interior design? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not the word I'm looking for, but that works anyways. I'm gonna move on from it. It was a... Color street looking word.

I'll never think of the word I'm thinking, unless you guys guess, and if you guys can guess a word out of thin air. Yeah, it's not gonna happen. I think of like a... I'll get this word. I'll get it after all. Anyways, it was a very nice, clean, inside place,

but yeah, very diner feel. But outside, it looked like a scene from Twister. It was windy. Yeah, it was pretty windy. That's not related to Steak and Shake. Yeah, I was very glad, you know, like I said, the last time I had been to a real Steak and Shake was, you know, probably seven or eight years ago.

Uh-huh. And I was just... Well, you went to a big lorry's one. Yeah, I went to the big lorry's one. It was seven or eight years ago when you were that adamant about it. Like, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I was excited about it.

And... But I had in my mind, I'm like, oh boy, like what if it's... What if they've changed it beyond just the big lorry locations? Mm-hmm. And, you know, I came in and I told you guys, oh no, you didn't go to a real one. Are we gonna get there?

And it's gonna basically be just the same thing. Which I would have loved. It would have been funny. It would have been funny. But no, it was very different. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the inside was, what's that fucking word? Jesus.

You're gonna be thinking of this all episode. And then at the end, you're gonna be like, oh yeah, that's right. Thing. Big. And, you know, it was bustling when we got there. Boo bustling, good word. Yep.

And we, you know, had to wait a few minutes for a table. But it was a fun, for me, it was a fun atmosphere. Getting there, you know, seeing the big steak and shake sign, it felt like, ah, we've arrived. After two hours of driving, it felt like, you know, getting to a destination. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination.

This was an example where the journey was great, destination better. Yeah, I agree with that. And we also had, we kind of had to cry out in, because like as I've said, outside it was like a scene from Twister. So. So.

So we really had a crowd into this steak and shake restaurant, or else be out there in that scene from Twister. When did Twister come out? 1998? I want to say, yeah, I think it was 96, 97, 98, somewhere in that range. So Clinton was president? Wait, yeah, this is very Clinton's presidency.

I think I remember. Oh, God. Oh, Jesus. This was also, as we mentioned on the Sammy Hagar's Cabo Abo Cantina episode during the successful promotion Rock Doberfest. Fuck you. This was a dispute over the Twister soundtrack.

A song for the Twister soundtrack is what led Sammy Hagar to be booted from Van Halen, which is an interesting bit of trivia. That's very funny. Yeah. And he got fired on Father's Day. Hey, you know what I liked about Twister? What, Mr. President?

I've never seen anything suck that much my entire life. Okay. If you catch my drift, baby. Yeah, it's pretty clear. What are some of your favorite movies, President Clinton? Let's see. I like Twister. Okay.

Twister, you mentioned? That's it. Just Twister? That's the whole list? Twister. What's the one that was like Twister? Like Twister? Like another tornado movie?

Yeah. I'm not sure if there was one. Yeah, I think there was. Wasn't there, there's two volcano movies, weren't there? No, I don't think Twister had a clone that was released around the same. It doesn't have an ants to its bugs life. It doesn't have a Dante's Peak to its volcano.

It doesn't have an Armageddon to its deep impact. It doesn't have a Wyatt Earp to its tombstone. Do you have any other examples? Maybe I should have asked you. You can do the Clinton voice for God's sake. Don't put me on the spot. I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can do a Clinton voice.

I was trying to think of some other sex movie. I can't even think of anything else. Well, we've got two writers here, huh? So this is the podcast. I talk about Star Wars. You think they're talking about food? That becomes Bill Clinton impressions. And then arguing about another movie like Twister.

What else do I like? What's that Paramanderson movie? Barb Wire? Yeah, Barb Wire, that's my other favorite movie. I thought it was going to be the sex tape. Oh yeah, that would have worked. Oh yeah, that one's not too bad. How about a deep blue sea?

The shark movie? Yeah, you know why? Why? Because Monika's dress was blue. Okay. She's just becoming Morning Zoo. Jesus Christ. Oh Jesus.

Don't tell me to do a 30 minute improv set with Clinton. What other movies do you like, Mr. President? What the fuck? Fuck you. It was your choice to start with the impression. I was just trying to yes-and it, bitch. Oh, poor Weiger. So we sat down, we were served,

and we ordered some drinks, we had a round of drinks, a much, much larger menu. I was absolutely like, it's really, because you're looking at a little sheet with like a half dozen options that's up on the big board at the Bible Glory at the limited menu location. Here you've got a big physical menu with multiple pages. It has a breakfast section that we weren't able to order from,

but you know, a bunch of different chili options, a lot more burger options, a lot more sandwiches. It's just kind of sprawling in comparison to what you can get in that limited menu. So yeah, it really makes a big difference with that full one. My impression based off of that alone is like, don't even bother with a limited. It's not even worth your time.

Don't even bother going to a steak and shake by big glory. Wow. Just go to the full one, because anything else, otherwise it's just like it's such a pale limitation of what you're actually... Those shakes are the limited ones that were still good. They were fine. Yeah, they were good.

Those were absolutely good. So let's get into our food a little bit. So I ordered the Wisconsin buttery steak burger, which is described as a double steak burger with real Wisconsin butter melted on top, then covered with American cheese and grilled onions. Man, this was a yummy burger. It was really, really good.

I mean, like they're... And I think we can also lead into this discussion, which is that their price point is very reasonable for a sit-down restaurant. Extremely. It's crazy. Like I think this was $5.99. It might have even been $4.99.

You're getting a burger and fries. Yeah, some of that, I'm curious. Victorville is not the most affluent of communities. I don't think so. I actually don't really know, to be honest. But it's not a major city. I don't know if all steak and shakes have that price level. I'm trying to remember from the last time I've been to one,

but it was great how affordable it was. And I don't think the Big Glory's one is... I think it's more expensive, right? Yeah, I think it was. We spent as much money at the Buy Big Glory. For what, felt like twice the food. Yeah, and we got a lot more at this one. Yeah, this one?

Yeah. And that burger, I mean, I just had a bite of it, and it was just great. Oh, man, so tasty. I mean, I just like... You know, I kind of got it partly for the gimmick and partly because it wasn't available on the limited menu, but boy, that butter baked into that burger

is just really, really yummy. Yeah, I'm sure, you know, not too good for you. No. But I mean, it was like eating like a cake burger. It was fantastic. Yeah, the American Artist Association does not sign it off on this one, but boy, that buttery flavor baked in with those onions

and it was just great. That was just delicious. I savored every bite. I saved the burger for last. That's how much I finished my fries first and went back to the burger because that burger was just so yummy. I do that too with my favorite thing in a meal.

Oh, yeah. I always like save that for last. You know, I think that maybe people... I wonder what people's philosophy on that is because you maybe think, oh, you eat your favorite thing first, but I'm always saving that favorite thing. I always like to save a bite.

I like Nick's method, but usually I'll go after the sandwich and I'll be eating the fries as I go along and it usually ends up that I kind of just like finish with some fries, but I love those last bites, baby. If you can put aside a little bite, that's a way to close out a meal.

Take that last bite, wash it down. You're good to go. Yeah, it's real fun. You know, my eating strategy is usually... I kind of think of it like you get that cafeteria divided tray where you've kind of got your different sections for like your vegetables and your potatoes

and your roll and your dessert and your main. They're kind of all segmented and I kind of just tackle them one at a time. So I'm just sort of like, okay, I'm gonna blaze through the sandwich, then I'm gonna go to the fries if it's that. But this was one where I had a little bit of the sandwich. I had some of the fries

and I was like, oh, man, I'm finishing off these fries because this sandwich is just so yummy. Let's talk about your guys sandwiches a little bit. I kind of want to try a cake burger, like Cesar was saying. It's not a real thing. You know what?

I don't think that's far off though because there was an episode of The Simpsons where I don't remember, was it when Homer has open heart surgery where the one with a good morning burger? But it's like... Oh, yeah. They make a big thing of like,

oh, it's a burger, and it's an ad that's supposed to parody how over the top fast food is. And it's an ad that Homer's watching on The Simpsons TV and it's like a burger that has bacon and egg and butter on it and they call it the good morning burger

and it's presented as like, oh, my God, this is this ridiculous over the top thing that was a joke when it came out in like, you know, 1994 or whatever. But now it's just like, oh, you can get that burger at like any gastropub. You can get a burger with bacon and egg on it and, you know, a buttered roll.

So I could see fast food. I could see in 10 years from now, 20 years from now, I could see someone having a cake burger concept. Like that does not sound crazy to me. Especially in the proliferation of the birthday cake flavor as we've kind of talked about before. Yeah, maybe.

It's not the first thing The Simpsons predicted. They've predicted a lot of stuff before. Yeah, the popularity of the little girl with the spiked hair style and pearls. That's kind of ubiquitous now. There's been some other stuff. Yeah, I had the Frisco burger

that Nick had. Well, yeah. Do you want to explain what happened with the order? Okay. So I didn't know what to get. And then our waitress, who was very nice, by the way, she recommended that we get the, that I, she said, I like the Frisco burger.

Great service there. Very nice. So because I was stuck between the Frisco melt and the All-American melt, which was kind of like your classic, like two patties with American cheese, pickles, ketchup and mustard, in a patty melt, pretty much, on sourdough.

And I was, I didn't know which way to lean. And then I said, you know what? I'm going to get the Frisco melt. It just seems better. So I ordered the Frisco melt. Then Weiger gets an, it reveals this email to us out of nowhere and said, I read this this morning,

this guy raving about the All-American melt and how we had to get it and get it with grilled onions on top of it. And also we had to try the onion rings. Yeah. Might be a woman too. Jackie Walters emailed us in. That was definitely a woman.

Yeah. But it was a crazy coincidence actually. This was an insane coincidence. Okay. So the timestamp of this, we got an email with subject-aligned steak and shake episode from Jackie Walters to the Doughboys Gmail account. And the timestamp for this was November 15th,

12.03 PM, meaning we were en route to steak and shake at this point, right? Correct? So we got this in the car while we were driving to steak and shake for this follow-up episode. We got a very comprehensive email from Jackie. I won't read all of it, but Jackie was a steak and shake employee for some time.

Just talked about like a lot of personal work there off and on for five to six years. She met her husband. My husband is one of the regular customers and had a few recommendations. One, if they offer the All-American melt, get it. Add grilled onions if you can. Two, get the onion rings.

They're where it's at. And three, don't get a milkshake with candy in it. So we kind of followed her advice pretty much to the lever. I mean, to the, what did I say? To the lever? To the lever, the letter. To the letter. That's what I was trying to say.

It's a more common expression. I thought it was to the, I was trying to say to the level, but I think my brain was correcting it to do the letter, but I landed on to the lever. Hey, it looks like I'm not the only one who's having word problems tonight. Yeah, well, I don't know.

No, okay. Sometimes I stumble over my speech. It's a free-flowing conversation. Oh, it's okay when he does it and you guys jump on me when I do it. God damn it. It's, I think there's just a little bit of a difference when you're searching your 200 word vocabulary

to land on a word like lamp. Oh, the fries had, oh, what's that? They were crunchy. I was trying to say that it was a very like a, like a medical, like a term for like a medical, clean medical. Clinical? It was a clinical?

Yeah, that's not it either, but whatever. Stereo? Stereo, thank you. Stereo, okay. Stereo, we found the word. You should be happy. Anyway. Everyone can have a merry Christmas now.

Stereo, everyone can sleep tonight. This restaurant we ate at made Mitch think of a word associated with male impotence. But yeah, so Jackie gave us a lot of advice and we, we executed it when we were there. So this, this led to your indecision between the Frisco Melt and the All-American Melt. I sprang into, well yes, I ordered the Frisco Melt.

I ordered the Frisco Melt with fries and I got an orange soda, a Fanta orange soda. And I ordered that and I also ordered a slider, the ketchup and onion slider. I'm sorry. Oh yeah, no ketchup and onion slider. And then I put the order in and then we read, Nick read this email out loud.

I sprang into action. I jumped up out of my seat really fast. And I, you know, went over to the waitress. She was kind of busy so I sat back down but she came over and I said, listen, do you mind, I hate to do this but is it possible to change my order and put in the All-American Melt with grilled onion?

She said, not a problem at all. And she went back and put it in. The meal came out. It was the Frisco Melt, unfortunately. She hadn't changed it. And I will say, the Frisco Melt, just the size of it was not good. It was kind of like a,

it was kind of a rinky dink Frisco Melt. It wasn't looking great. It was smaller. It tasted great. I loved the taste of it. It was nice, also buttery like yours. Had some good flavors in there and the fries were really amazing.

But I was kind of bummed out that we didn't get the All-American Melt. Thankfully, you didn't let that stop you, Mitch. You decided there was a way forward. Like a good Doughboy podcaster. At the end of our meal, I ordered the All-American Melt with a side of onion rings.

And I could see where this was going because, you know, Mitch is a good friend of mine out on Doughboys and off the podcast. Yeah, I don't know about off. But something that I've noticed about you, and I don't think you'll argue with this, is if your mind gets set on something, it's very hard for you to get off of that thing.

And I just saw, you know, from the moment that you got that email, you were having that melt. And it just, you know, and you kind of put it out there like, hey, what about we order one and we just, you know, split it, the three of us. And I mean, they're like, yeah, we don't have a need to do that. And you're like, yeah, well, maybe I'll just get it to go.

And they're, you know, this was only going to end one way, and that was, you get in that melt. And then to be fair, we did all have some. Yeah, we had some. And then on American Melt, I thought was pretty good. It was good. I don't know if it was as great as it was raved to Bebo, but it was a nice, classic, all-American Melt.

The onion rings were okay, but a little battered, a little too bad. But when I got the thinner onion rings, I really enjoyed them. Also, Susser, I don't think when something gets on my mind that I always have to, like, you know, like that word sterile. I didn't have to figure out what it was. It was no big deal. I just let it slide.

Yeah, the all-American Melt was, it was pretty tasty. I couldn't really taste the grill. There were onions on there. I don't know how grilled they were. If they were grilled, they were grilled really lightly. But it was. It was a nice sandwich. I'm happy that we tried it.

Yeah. It put us over the top. I got close to sick after we split that up and took it down. But how'd you guys feel about those onion rings? Did you like them? They were good onion rings. I didn't think they were mind-blowing, game-changing. Honestly, like, and, you know, not to contradict Jackie,

she certainly got a more refined steak and shake palette than I do, having worked there for a number of years and had a lot more experience with it than I do. But I kind of, I like the steak and shake fries so much that I feel like I generally order them over the fries. Those shoestring fry, order them over the rings, rather. I think those shoestring fries are so, are really good. They've just got a nice texture.

Just like the right balance of oil and salt. I think they're really, really yummy. I will say that was the thing that, to me, the biggest improvement. I mean, everything was improved. I'll say that now. I was going to say that for my final review. Everything was improved. How much was it improved?

We'll see. But the fries were the thing that stood out to me the most where I was like, oh, these are really good fries. And at the big lorries one, I didn't care. I mean, like, they were fine, whatever. I just didn't care that much. Oh, and I know, I'm just realizing now that whole seasoning fried nonsense. That was at the big lorry thing.

That was an option was to get the fries with seasoning. Didn't seem to be an option. It might have been present, but it certainly downplayed. They were really trying to push you and upsell it at the limited menu. But at the full menu, it didn't seem to be as big of a focus. So, Susser, what did you have? Well, I got the Chili Mac Supreme, which you may remember for those who listened to my last podcast

was a real favorite of late film critic Roger Ebert. That's Chili on pasta with cheese, which is great. And, you know, not something when you hear Steak Shack, you're thinking burgers, you're maybe not thinking that you're going to get pasta. Steak and shake, rather. Steak and shake, sorry. The fuck is Steak Shack? It was a combination of Shake Shack.

Oh, gotcha. You got it. You're not thinking, oh, pasta and chili. But, you know, it's a real part of their menu. And I thought it was great. You guys tried it. I don't know what you guys thought of it. It's really good.

I mean, I've certainly had that before where it's basically a chili spaghetti in place of marinara sauce. You're having chili. And it's pretty good. They have a very tomato-y chili there, which is a thing that, you know, I had the chili cheese fries in lieu of fries is my side. And I like them, but the very tomato-heavy chili with beans is maybe not the best accompaniment for,

or maybe not the best combo when you're having chili cheese fries. I could see that. It makes them very saucy and kind of soupy. Whereas with pasta, it's like, you know, tomato sauce. Yeah. It's fantastic. You're used to it with pasta. And then I also got, they're actually not called sliders.

They call them shooters, the Little Burgers. That's right. And I got some, the Cajun, the garlic, and the Chipotle shooter. And I think you've tried some of those or one of those. I tried half of your garlic one, which was super, almost a little garlic. Yeah, a little garlic. The other ones were kind of more mild and went down a little easier.

The ketchup and onion slider was good. It went down. It was a nice, they did a good job. Those are fun. I like sliders. And the quality of the beef and, you know, you get a nice little cheesy, beefy bite, they do a good job. They're a fun thing to get.

I would never make that my main meal. I wouldn't get like a few sliders. But I really, I liked your chili dish. Such a strange dish, spaghetti. I'm not used to this. A lot of people are. So a lot of people won't think this is weird. But spaghetti with chili on top of it is a really strange thing to me.

It's very much like a Midwestern thing. I feel like that's a Cincinnati thing, right? Like that, Ohio is where it originates. Steak and shakes of Midwestern institutions. So there you go. Tracks. Wow. What about that?

That's crazy. It was good. It was tasty. I liked it. Susser definitely had an interesting lineup for his meal. But it was all kind of tasty stuff. By the way, on that, real quick on that shooters thing. This is a, I have a personal distaste for a place

that kind of puts their own spin on something and renames it in just a way that's confusing. Like just calling the slider shooters is just like this arbitrary designation. They're sliders. Just call them sliders. It's just easier. I feel like I'm just so, you just made things less clear.

And then you just have to, and you're just making your wait staff say, like you're asking like, hey, what are shooters? And they're like, oh, they're just like sliders. It's just confusing. Just don't do that. All right. Fair enough.

Yikes. No, I had, I'll say that I had a more extreme example. There's a Mexican restaurant I was at. And they had this item called barachos. And I was like, what's barachos? I looked it up on my phone. And I think I think it was baracho. And I think it's like the,

it's like a slang term for a drunk in Spanish. And then I ended up asking like the bartender, hey, what are barachos? And he's like, oh, they're just what we call nachos. And they're just like, why do you fucking, why are you wasting my time with this? Like, why do I need this confusing new terminology for something that's just the same as a thing

that already exists? Like calling your signature nachos or something, but just don't call them the same thing. Whatever happened to that guy? What, that bartender? He's still working there. His bones are in Wiger's garden right now. No, no.

I didn't, my temper didn't flare up. I was just, internally, I was just, why are you doing this? But you know what, that Frisco Melt, it was all hearty, nice food, nice and warm. And I was enjoying it. The football game was on. And the service was great.

We kind of, a little bit skipped over, but it was really good. Oh, yes. She was a delight. She was great. I think the Frisco Melt confusion was understandable because it was a good five minutes before we got her attention again,

and she said she was going to fix the order. Not her fault at all. It was like the kitchen, there's some confusion in the kitchen, which is totally understandable. It wasn't chaotic at all. It was great, but let me tell you, I can't stress this enough.

Outside, it was like a scene from Twister. No one likes it. We did, there was kind of one issue, which I don't know if this is a service issue, but so we took a picture at, as take and shake. This is big. So we were about to take the picture,

and I realized my sunglasses were kind of on my head, like in my hair. And I remember, I don't know who this is. I saw a comedian once, a heckle somebody that had sunglasses in their hair. I think it actually may have been Jimmy Pardo. I can't remember the joke, because I'm like,

your hair thinks it's cool or something? Oh, man. It was like wearing the sunglasses. I'm sure Jimmy Pardo is thrilled that you're destroying his joke. It was much funnier than that, but that burn stuck in my brain, and I was like, ugh, take the sunglasses off.

To be fair, you never had them on your eyes. You were just wearing them in your hair all day. That's true, because I did think it was cool. And I took them off, and then we left them, I left them at stake and shake. Yes.

And we're driving, we're probably like 40 minutes out, and I realized it, and you guys do the half-hearted, do you want to turn back and get them? Which, I mean, I felt like I would have been killed. Which would have made me miss the end of the pages game. I would have hated you.

Yeah. And not to mention the weather conditions, which, yeah, in Dwiger, you can tell them. Well, I just, I think probably the best description is, similar to the movie Twister. That's right.

And you know what, Susser did the appropriate thing, and I will say, I just, I tip my cap to him because it was sunglasses, and he said, you know what,

I'm going to leave them. I'm going to leave the sunglasses. And that sacrifice, you know what, I think if it's for sunglasses, you got to do that sacrifice. If you're with a group of friends, you leave something like that,

and you decide to turn around, oof, I'm not happy with you. I would not have been happy with Susser if we drove back. I would say, 15 minutes or fewer, I think it's okay.

But 40 minutes, I mean, that's pushing it, unless it's a phone or a wallet. If it's a phone or a wallet, I'm like, all right. Major did say that if it was his phone,

he would have just left it. Yeah, which is insane. I can't imagine leaving your phone instead of driving back 40 minutes to pick it up. There's a cloud or something, I don't know, or maybe I would just have

a mail-it to me or something. I, ooh, how would I call him? This is a conundrum. Let me do it, let's step back a little bit because we did skip over an entire course.

Yeah, oh yeah. And we also skipped over me using the bathroom and seeing a man who said, oh, you can use the sink in front of me because he had to,

he said, I really need some time to clean my wound. What? There was a guy with like, You kept this one to yourself. Yeah, I didn't know about this. There was a guy with like

some sort of jacked finger and he was like, he started to use the sink and I had finished using the urinal and went over to queue up behind him for the sink and he was like,

oh, you can go in front of me. I really got a scrub into this thing and I was like holding up his wounded finger, which was just a... That's not too appetizing. Yeah, which was just a weird like, you know,

restroom along the highway sort of experience that you sometimes have at these spots. But that was... I wonder if you got that wound in those twist or like conditions. It very well could have been.

Well, yeah, at least it was a sterile environment to treat the wound. But let's step back a second. So before we took this picture on our way out the door, you left your sunglasses. It was an entire ordeal,

which we'll return to because there's more to the story. Folks, I know you're on the edge of your seat about this lost sunglasses anecdote, but there is more to cover here. But we were back at our tables. We had finished our meal.

We'd ordered the second, the all-American melt with onion rings. And we also ordered a round of shakes. In addition to our round of normal drinks, which for me, I got a Coke. Cesar, I believe you got a Diet Coke. Mitch, you got an orange soda. That's correct.

All very fine fountain drinks. We talked about this and we've hit on this before. Do you get a milkshake with the meal? I need some sort of soda. I need to be having fun and drinking down the soda. Yeah.

Not in this milkshake. The milkshake is just... I need to be having fun and drinking. But I think it's not a drink. It's not a drink. It's not a beverage. No, it's a dessert. It's a dessert.

And so getting it with your meal, a lot of times we'll bring it out before your meal gets there, so you're effectively eating in reverse order. You're eating your dessert first, which is fine sometimes, but it's also kind of just disorienting for your body.

No way. Yeah, so I think we made the right call in getting conventional beverages and then waiting and getting some milkshakes because I'm made of money, baby. This is the rich snob ordering both a drink and a shake. But yeah.

I'm getting that. I'm getting what that reviewer's getting at me. But no, it was... And also too, just on the fountain beverages real quick, they give them to you in a glass, which I really like. Yeah.

For a fast food place, they could give them to you in a paper cup with a lid on it and you'd be like, fine, but getting it in a glass for a sit-down experience, man, that is nice. And you get everything on plates.

You get real silver wire. That's all nice. You kind of blew by like, oh, it's a fountain drink, perfectly standard. I've been noticing that oftentimes, you know, fountains don't get it right. Their machines are broken.

That's true. And, you know, it was no problems. It tasted as it should taste. They were on the refills a lot, which Nick said is a thing that holds me up a lot of the time. And I think about... Yeah, they were hitting our refills.

They were doing a good job. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But yeah, for me, no way. I need that milkshake after the fact. Mm-hmm. And we got the famous

side-by-side milkshake. I did, at least. As did I. Which, by the way, has no divider. Evan Susser was completely wrong on the last podcast. Yeah, you'll have to listen back. I think I say very confidently

that they have a divider, and I guess I just made that up. It's not true at all, but I got the Choco Vanilla. It was like a chocolate-slash-vanilla milkshake that's side-by-side. Mine was a little bit more sloppy. Kind of was kind of mixed up, intertwined.

Mm-hmm. But it was still very good. I mean, two... Like, I got a little taste of vanilla. I got a little taste of chocolate. It was great. Best of both worlds. And they were both really, really well-done milkshakes.

They were... It was really tasty. What can I say? It was kind of classic, but then at the same time, you get both of them. I was in the Hog Heaven. Yeah, I would say that...

What? I was in the Hog Heaven way. Is that an expression? Yeah, that's an expression. Yeah, I've never heard of... Geez. Well, you're a man of the Jewish faith. You would not...

That's not kosher. Mm-hmm. You wouldn't hear Hog Heaven. Hog Heaven and Temple. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would say that, you know, because you had... You guys both had a side-by-side shake,

and I felt like yours had a very clean, dividing line down the middle. Yeah. It was just a very nice side-by-side shake. Yours was a little bit more mixed up. I would say kind of reminiscent of the conditions outside the restaurant, which I don't know how you describe the bitch. Ooh, definitely.

Like a scene out of... Yeah, Twister. There is no other... What's he gonna say this time? There is no other movie like Twister, huh? I can't think of another tornado movie. I can't imagine people listening to their podcast yelling, like, there's this one.

The Big Storm or something? There's something like that. Well, Matt Walsh... Oh, yeah. He's not friend of the podcast, but friend of us. Yeah. He was in...

Oh, yeah. It was that movie called. That came out this year, right? Yeah. Or last year? That's from the run-up. Don't remember the name. Good job.

I actually watched that movie, and I enjoyed it. Into the Storm. Into the Storm. Yeah, that's right. You fucking idiot. There's also a Perfect Storm, a boat movie, right?

That's a boat movie. Yeah. I thought there was like an equivalent for Twister, but there's not. Anyways, yeah. The conditions were... Now with my hat, I called Matt Walsh a friend. I don't know if he would say the same thing.

A friend, Lee. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. We'll get Matt Walsh on here to denounce Evan's... I want him to just make fun of Susser for two hours. Susser, can you confirm or deny that Matt Walsh is voicing Knuckles the Akidna in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie? I will not confirm that for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie or for Force Awakens.

Wow, okay. I got a question. Is this podcast, Susser's Return, a bigger letdown than the Force Awakens? I don't know. People are finding out on the same day, pretty much. Yeah. Maybe listening to the first half on the way to the Force Awakens, watching the movie, listening to the second half on the way back, maybe being disappointed twice.

Hanging themselves. Yeah. But yeah, those shakes were good. Nick, you got a different one because Susser got the... I got the strawberry and vanilla. You know, I had kind of talked up the side-by-side shakes. Then when I got there, I didn't really want one, to be honest. Jesus.

But I talked it up and then I got strawberry and vanilla and, you know, I already know I'm a big steak and shake booster. I honestly didn't like it that much. Hmm. The strawberry was very artificial strawberry, which I don't even really like. I don't know. But you got chocolate and vanilla, so I felt like I had to do something different. Okay.

The other kind of... They have a lot of great flavors of milkshakes and some of those other ones looked more appealing and I kind of regretted it. Yeah. It's my biggest regret of 2015. I will say that my milkshake, I got the birthday cake milkshake. We touched on a little bit of the idea of birthday being a new flavor, which I'm in favor of.

It's weird. I'm not sure to say birthday is a flavor, but it is very...it's very specific and identifiable and I think just good. Like those birthday cake Oreos, which we taste tested on here on a previous episode of additional flavor of the week, those are damn tasty, man. Those are real good. I feel like birthday stuff generally delivers for me. And this was an instance of a billboard working on me.

As we were driving down Interstate 15 on the way to Victorville, there were a few billboards for steak and shake. One of them had the birthday milkshake on it. I was like, some rainbow sprinkles on top. I was like, oh boy, I got my eye on that. It was kind of messed up. Nick walked out of the speeding car and went over to the sign and tried to start drinking from the giant milkshake.

We pulled him back in though and he was fine. Yeah, worked out. But yeah, my mind didn't get changed. There were a few different options there. There's one. There's a salted caramel with pretzels that looked really intriguing. So Jackie in the email mentioned the turtle milkshake, which is like a, why is turtle like a thing for, like a kind of chocolate?

What is that? I don't understand the analogy of that. Are we sure, by the way, that this wasn't Jack K? What? What are you talking about? Are you sure this email wasn't from the famous actress slash comedian Jack K? Oh, Jack K, yes. Well, I mean, her name was spelled differently.

And I don't think Jack K, the actress, was a steak and shake employee for some time. We met her husband there. We could check her Wikipedia. We could see. We might have had a little celebrity pop in with Jack K emailing us. Yeah. That's probably what happened. Oh, Jesus.

Sorry for bringing it up. The birthday cake milkshake, it was very good. It was very yummy. I really liked that birthday flavor. Had some chunks of cake in there, which were great. Rainbow sprinkles, which they called festive sprinkles. I'm a big fan of. I know that they're kind of flavorless, just little festive sprinkles.

I don't know. They put their own little spin on it. I'm fine with that. Wait, weren't you just angry about that shit? Yes, I'm mad about shooters. I'm okay with festive sprinkles. I'm inconsistent and that's fine. But yeah, but if Mitch brings up Jack K, you both sit there angrily.

What the fuck? You guys suck. I think Wiger's point was that when they changed the name and it's confusing is a problem. So, you know, with shooters, you're like, what is a shooter? With festive sprinkles, you can figure it out. I don't know. That could be a little bit confusing. Whatever.

Who cares about any of this stuff? I'm you now. For the milkshake bottom line, it didn't do it for you, huh? Well, you just said I loved it. You said it was fucking great. Were you not listening? I was talking about how much I loved it the whole time. Jesus Christ.

It didn't do it for me. I had a taste of it. I thought it was just fine. I thought mine was great. I love birthday stuff. Come on. The best type of cake is chocolate cake anyway. Oh, I disagree.

I don't like that yellow cake any day. Here we go. But no, that birthday cake, chunks of yellow cake, good sweet cream, birthday flavor, whipped cream on top, really great. If you're a fan of that. And also, these shakes are fucking big. Yeah, they're great. They're like ruler length and just like big cups.

It's like if you get that shake that comes with that little malt cup on the side, but it's all in one glass. It's like so much. It's a lot. I feel like it's like 20 to 32 ounces of milkshake. It's insane how big it is. But overall, didn't do it for you. All right.

Yeah, no, the shakes are to all the food. It was all an upgrade to me. I thought everything that we tried was really good. Now, we did not try the breakfast. We did not. And I did not want to do this. But I don't know. My fucking God.

But I don't know if we can make a steak and shake known for its breakfast. Yeah, probably. You just want another fucking meal and you want to come back on the pockets. It's not happening. It's over. Yeah, sister. Let's just let's put your expectations at a reasonable level, both in terms of getting us to drive out to Victorville a second time and also getting Mitch out of bed prior to

breakfast hours ending, considering they only serve breakfast, I think, till 11 or 1030. Considering we arrived at Mitch's apartment and he had just gotten in the shower when we went to pick him up. That was false information. I was brushing my teeth. Okay, all right. Well, you were still in the process of getting ready when we came to pick you up to drive to Victorville.

That's spoon life for your baby. I think there's maybe a reality where if we were on, if we stayed the night in Victorville and then in the morning we woke up, we could maybe have steak and shake breakfast. Also, too, I feel like that's less of a priority as far as I'm concerned. I feel like we've got the full steak and shake experience, at least from a lunch standpoint, which is a lunch and dinner is their standard, is what people go there for the most, I believe. So, at this point, let's go around and let's give our final thoughts on steak and shake the full experience.

And, Susser, I know you've got some intense thoughts on this, so we'll save you for last. Mitch, let's start with you. All right. I have to go first. Jesus. The trip was fun. It was a better experience all around. The burger was good.

Though my Frisco melt was kind of small, and you guys saw it, it didn't look the best on the plate. It was still really tasty. The fries were great. Everything I had, I really enjoyed, and I really enjoyed the experience and the ride there with my friends. The environment of the steak and shake was nice. It was different.

It was sterile, as I've said. And although outside it was like a scene from Twister, inside I was having a blast with my good buddies. And you know what? What type of fucking podcast would this be if I didn't give this fucking five forks right now? Here's to five forks for steak and shake, almost just out of the fact that I'm going to do it because who gives a shit?

And here's to a great new spoon year coming up. Five forks. I liked it all. I had a good time with friends. It was a nice environment, nice service, and yeah, I liked it all. Five forks from the Spoon Man. I gave it five forks too. Five forks from our special guest, Bill Clinton.

Wow, all right. What beats a steak? A little shake, if you catch my drink. Oh, all right. Like a woman shaking her bottom, is that what you said? It wags. A little waggy. Oh, you're a classic horn dog, Bill.

Uh-huh. Hey, Bill, what do you think of Bernie Sanders that have run against your wife? Okay, time for me to take off. Okay, all right. Bye. Bye-bye. Here are my thoughts on steak and shake, having visited the steak and shake by Biglary first as my maiden voyage, and now taking the trip all the way to Victorville to visit a proper

steak and shake. The reign of Sardar Biglary, the chairman of steak and shake as of the 2008 financial crisis, must end. He is like the supreme commander's snoke of steak and shake. Ah, Yoda. He is an evil Yoda who is leading this villainous first order, or whatever it's called. Is that it? That's the first order.

This villainous first order of chain restaurants that is seeking to undermine everything that company stands for. These limited restaurants are an abomination compared to the real thing. My opinion of the steak and shake limited, which was three forks previously, is now one fork. Steak and shake limited is one fork experience, because compared to the real thing, it is such a shadow of it. It is such an impossible pale imitation.

It is such a Force Awakens compared to the Empire Strikes Back that is the real steak and shake. I'm making a wild assumption that Force Awakens is a disappointment here. It is such a bad, bad version of what you really want, that there's no point in even going there. And that to me is a one fork restaurant. If there's no reason to even go there, if you don't even want to bother with it, then that's a one fork, and that's what steak and shake limited is.

That's what steak and shake by Biglary is. It's a bunch of bullshit that you shouldn't waste your time with. One fork, but as far as steak and shake proper is concerned, great meal, great sterile atmosphere. Even though the elements outside were much like a scene from the movie Twister, it was wonderful in there. The food was great, really, really good. I like consuming it in that environment, I like getting it off of real place, eating it with silverware, getting real glasses, really, really high quality food for a fast

food place. Good price point. Yeah, you're not getting huge portions, but I feel like you're getting a good value for what you pay for. I'm with Spoon Man. Steak and Shake proper is a five fork restaurant, as far as I'm concerned. Go ahead, Evan. Man, you know, I came in here with a mission, which was to get you guys to rank steak and

shake with five forks and get it in the Platinum Plate Club. Now, you know, the power is all in my hands and it weighs heavy on me. Yeah, we kind of knew your intentions, you fucking idiot. And honestly, I kind of hate having to make the decision because for me, you know, of course I'm biased, but I do have to treat this seriously. The responsibility of being the guest on Doe Boys and reviewing a restaurant. And I think there are real concerns with Steak and Shake, the glory being chief among them. If he's going to allow a bastardization of the restaurant exist, can does does that allow

it to be five forks or do you have to knock off half a fork for that? I don't know. Also, you know, how the whole sunglasses thing worked out, we're going to have to save that for my next episode. But oh yeah, you know, we kind of teased everybody with that earlier, we didn't give us any resolution. I think we should resolve that. Yeah, I don't think that people give a shit about this story.

Susser left his sunglasses there, we called and they had the sunglasses. We said put them aside with the name Evan Susser on them. Evan, Mike Hanford, a guest and friend of the podcast, was running a marathon in Las Vegas and I texted, or actually I should say I texted Susser and said, hey, Hanford's in Vegas, you know what you can do, you can text him and maybe he can grab them on the way back because Victorville is on the way back from Vegas. Susser texted Hanford, Hanford was mid-marathon when Susser texted him. Texted back, I'm running a marathon, I'll text you later.

Susser, but then Hanford still, like a great guy, that he is, a good friend, stopped at the steak and shake in Victorville, they didn't know where Susser's dumb $15 sunglasses were. So Hanford wasted his time, he'd left and then steak and shake called Susser telling them that they had found them again. All right, that was the story. So sunglasses as of this recording currently in limbo, perhaps it'll be resolved by the time this podcast is released. If you live in or near Victorville and you can get those sunglasses back, shoot us a

hashtag, say, I'm coming for you, Suss, hashtag I'm coming for you, Suss, because that will be big for us, right? It'll be at this point, it'll be a month later, I can't imagine they've held on to the sunglasses. They could, you never know. You never know. Okay, but anyway, those reservations aside, I do think if it's been a hard day, if the elements have been rough, where are Dustin Davis, Bill Harding, and Dr. Joe Harding going to grab a beat, a grab a bite to eat, that of course, are the characters in Twister.

Oh boy. I think the place for them to sit down and have a meal with friends to talk about the crazy Twisters that they're encountering, you can't think of anywhere better than Steak and Shake, so I gotta give it five forks. Wow. We're ending 2015 with another inductee into the Platinum Plate Club. Steak and Shake, welcome to the hallowed halls with few inhabitants, you're the latest resident of the Platinum Plate Club, and you can ever attain this.

A hand-holding club. And also a member of the handle. Well, I think if you're in the Platinum Plate Club, which involves getting five forks from both me and Mitch and the guests, then you're by definition, you're gonna be in the hand-holding club. Yeah, but you gotta point it out. It's still a number. All right, it's also in the hand-holding club, so congratulations on both of those honors.

You've earned it, and yeah, get rid of those limited places, because if I'm being fair, if I'm averaging things out, in actuality, Steak and Shake is a three fork, so I'm not gonna do that. Don't do that, please don't do that. I'm just reviewing the actual Steak and Shake, the full Steak and Shake, but those limited, those are gotta go. Get them out of here, or convert them into full Steak and Shake. Stop dickin' around, guys.

Like, what are you doing? My original goal was to, after this review, make my score lower, which I think would be a three from a 3.5 to really just give it to Susser, but it's a new Spoon Man for a new year, and that was a lot of fun, and you know what? It was good. Steak and Shake is good, and I like it a lot. It's a great place. I also love that they have little cookies, and was it bubble, no, not bubble yum, but

what was the gum? Hubba bubba. Was it hubba bubba? Hubba bubba, yeah. And they had that like a set up, like you could buy a pack of gum, there was like some old timey charm to that place that I really liked. Yeah, some nice little nods to the whole 50s diner culture, what Mitch would call a happier time.

Jesus. The era of the people of Quincy, Massachusetts, pine for. God damn it. All right, well that was our review of Steak and Shake proper, our trip to Victorville, the suspenseful story of Evan Susser's sunglasses, and now we never have to have him back on the podcast. Now it's done. That's fair.

It's time for a new segment. This is our roundup of Christmas treats in a segment we're calling Seasons' Eatings. That sounds kind of dumb now I've heard the lyrics. Yeah, a completely unnecessary music cue we just threw in there. That is Guster's Donde Esta Santa Claus. Where is Santa Claus? Wait, Guster? That's, I mean that's the band on Spotify.

Oh, but the band, like they're an American band. Yeah, I don't know. I think that must have been, yeah, you got the Guster. The Guster version. You got the college version, like the, yeah, the frat version of Where is Santa Claus? Oh, this is their cover of Donde Esta Santa Claus. Yeah. All right, whatever.

A little Christmas deep cut, maybe the only time you'll hear it all year. Where is Santa Claus? It's Christmas Eve and I'm looking, was that pretty much the lyrics? Yeah, Mama Sita, Donde Esta Santa Claus, I want to know because it's Christmas Eve. He's asking his mom where Santa is because it's Christmas. I guess he, because it's an older man singing it, it just is kind of stupid. Yeah. Like it sounds like a man asking where Santa is because it's Christmas Eve.

Every part, look, every part of that was stupid. We shouldn't have played it. We shouldn't be discussing it. It's a bad song. Seasons' Eating is a segment we can have once a year, pretty much. Yeah. All right. No, we can have Seasons' Eatings for, we can do that for Halloween.

And we'll play that same Christmas song? Yeah, that's the anthem of Seasons' Eatings, no matter what time of year. Donde Esta Santa Claus, The Guster Cover. Okay. All right, so Spoon Man, we've got an array of Christmas treats that you picked up. We certainly do. Holiday treats that you picked up on the way to the studio. Go ahead and open up that brown bag and tell us what you got for us to taste.

Ho, ho, ho, Spoon Man has a little sack of his own. Like Santa, I come with treats for you all. Pepperidge Farm Ginger Man. Little Ginger Man cookies. Oh, those are good. Next, we got Junior Mint Peppermint Crunch. So, they're red juniors made with real candy crunch. After that, and a little callback to our last episode, we got Jelly Belly Holiday Flavors.

It comes in eggnog, candy cane, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and hot chocolate. Now, we got a couple more, too, guys. We got Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Trees. We've got Peeps Milk Chocolate with Mint Flavored Marshmallow Trees. We also have some eggnog. And, yeah, I know Nick Wyver doesn't like this much. I hate eggnog. And, for our guest, Evan Susser, we got a plain loaf of holla bread.

For those of the Jewish faith, this is a treat for you to snack on during the Hanukkah season. You're aware that holla is not particularly seasonal. Ah, fuck, this thing just fell over. Sorry, this music stand that we're using as a table is not working. Maybe the holla is a problem here. I'm going to toss the holla to Evan. And he's already opening up into it. Producer Dustin is in the studio.

Yeah, what a disaster this was. It's all right, it's working out. Dustin is stepping in. He's right in the ship. Susser is already breaking into the holla bread. Okay, so I guess we don't necessarily have a particular point to the segment, other than we're just going to test a bunch of holiday treats and decide what we like and what we don't like. Dustin, would you mind grabbing that eggnog while the door is open? So Nick, you're breaking into the Reese's trees.

Yeah, I'm opening up this Reese's tree, which I know exactly what it's going to taste like. This is just like a Reese's pieces. This is sort of like a Reese's peanut butter cup, but in a tree form. I know it's going to be fucking good. And I'm opening up the Pepperidge Farge. Oh, Mattish, I should say this for a last. God, it's so good. I'm opening up the Pepperidge Farm Ginger Man. Sweet and simple cookies.

Thank you, Dustin. And I'm having a peep, which I'm pretty sure I know what this is going to taste like. Thanks, Blake. Now, I'm a guy. I don't love gingerbread. And I got to say these Ginger Man Pepperidge Farm cookies are really good. I like them a lot. They got like a nice little flavor on top, like a red sugar on top of them.

And they're nice and thin. You know, when you think of gingerbread, it's usually kind of thicker. This is tasty. I'm not the biggest fan of peeps, but this isn't bad. It's got like the chocolate coating to it, right? Yeah, the chocolate coating. We went that previously with the Halloween treats in here, and we had some chocolate-covered peeps. They're not bad.

Yeah. It certainly makes the peeps aspect more tolerable. Right. Alright, I'm pouring a leg. Now, I'm going to hand this to you, Spoon Man. Alright. I'm taking a bite into one of these milk chocolate peeps. Alright, there you go. Got that.

It's kind of weird to have a mint marshmallow. Yeah. But it works pretty well. But kind of nice. Yeah. If you don't think about what it is, I think you just enjoy it. Mm-hmm. I agree with that.

Alright, now I'm going to watch that down with a little... What is it? It's a... It's a Horizon Organic Eggnog that you picked up. Horizon Organic Eggnog. Taking a sip right now. I'm getting into the eggnog as well. I really don't like even the concept of eggnog.

Like, I think it is so fucking disgusting. Can you honestly explain it to me? I don't really, you know, as you've mentioned, I am the Jewish of the Jewish persuasion, so I did not grow up drinking eggnog. Mm-hmm. And I probably only had it for the first time a couple of years ago, actually. So I don't even know what it is, to be honest. It's basically milk, cream, and egg yolks with some added sugar if this ingredients list can be trusted.

It smells almost like gum. It does. And this is not what... This is not to my memory. Well, I guess eggnog is traditionally served with alcohol. Is that correct? God, I fucking hate this. It's fucking gross.

It's like you're making scrambled eggs and then you just, instead of taking the egg batter and putting it, cooking it up in a skillet, you chill it in the fridge for a little bit and then pour it into a glass and drink it with some nutmeg. It's fucking disgusting. I'm kind of surprised by that overwhelming reaction. I can see it now being your cup of tea, but it just kind of tastes like drinking sweet milk to me. That's awful. I kind of enjoy it.

I don't have an issue with it. All right, I guess I'm going to get into this milk chocolate covered... Oh, it's a mint-flavored marshmallow as well with this holiday peep. Yeah, I will say that that one kind of also had like a little bit of a gummy flavor, weirdly. Maybe it's just because of the marshmallow. The Reese's Tree is good. It's what you expect. And I'm getting into the Junior Mints right now, the Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints.

I tell you, I like that this peep is far from a regular peep because I don't like regular peeps, but the mint marshmallow is really off-putting. It's really like just a very oddly textured York peppermint patty, only that instead of a peppermint flavor, it's just sort of a regular, sort of more of a spearmint. I don't know, this is pretty... This is... I know we're not doing snack or whack, but if we were, I'd call this whack. Interesting.

Not a big fan of this peeps. Those peppermint... So what I just handed Sus the... What are they called? Peppermint Crunch. Yeah, Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints are overwhelmingly strong. Yeah, they're not for me here. They're overwhelmingly strong with peppermint flavor, and I would...

If we were to call this a Christmas snack or whack, that's getting a whack from me. I do not enjoy them. Okay, here we go. For me as well. All right, let's just... To be clear, this is not snack or whack. I shouldn't... I let us astray by saying...

By giving that designation, but this is a different segment. This is season's eatings, so... To be clear, though, the Reese's Tree would be a snack for me. Okay. Again, let's not go through each individual item and say which is a snack or which is whack. It's contrary to what our goal is, which is a general item. The Peeps would probably still get a whack from me. The Eggnog would get a sssss...

Maybe we'll get a drink instead of a stink. I think we'll get a drink for me, for sure. These Junior Mints peppermint crunch suck. They're fucking terrible. Yeah, they're really bad. They're awful. They're horrible. Someone's turning into the Grinch over there.

I'm in a sour mood. What happened? I don't know, I just got in a sour mood. That kind of grumpy... You have like a cookie and so much candy in that noggin' year. It's this fucking Eggnog. I don't want him to have to drink this shit. You rich prick.

I'm still mad. Then I got all these treats around me. The Ginger Man, I would give a snack to. It's very tasty. Here, Sus, they're coming at ya. Now, I might right now... The Spoon Man is... He's breaking it into these Jelly Belly Christmas flavors.

First one up, hot chocolate. I'll tell you this pepper... I'm sorry, these Ginger Man cookies. These Pepperidge Farm Ginger Man cookies. These are pretty good. They're like a good... If you like gingerbread, and I'm something about gingerbread. You know what, I think this is what it is.

I think the Christmas desserts, I'm generally not a fan of. Because we just got a lot of things, elements like gingerbread, and Eggnog, and rum raisin, and peppermint. Just a bunch of things that I generally think are just a big bunch of bullshit. Well, there are a lot of flavors, too, that don't have enough oomph to be year-round flavors. Yeah. So they get stuck to the holiday, and there are also... A lot of this is just slapping it onto something that's pre-existingly sweet,

or pre-existingly has a flavor, and saying, oh, now it's Christmas-y. But it's a lot of flavors that there's a reason you don't have them all year round. Yeah. One of our favorite ice cream parlors that me and my wife like to go to, and throw around the large amount of money I carry in my wallet, is they have like a sweet-rose creamery. There's a few in Santa Monica. There's some in mid-Wilshire.

Why am I saying the different locations in the LA area? There's a few different locations. It's a mini-chain. It's very good, but they have like seasonal flavors. But the least exciting season for me is Christmas. Just because, you know, they have like Eggnog ice cream, they have like rum raisin ice cream, and they're fine executions, but they're just like generally concepts that I'm just not into. They have like a peppermint sundae.

I'm just like, I don't give this Christmas crap out of here. Give me the regular stuff. And that's my feeling here. I feel like the one that stands out is the Reese's Tree. Did you get this Reese's Tree yet, Susser? Yeah, I got it. Yeah, put down my Reese's Tree for God's sake. That's, and that's just a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but just in a tree shape.

And I think that's the way you do your Christmas candy. Make it a different shape. But don't try to do some sort of Christmas dessert flavor, because these just don't work. Wow. All right. A man who does not like peppermint, I'm guessing. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with eating, having a mint to freshen your breath.

But peppermint is a dessert to eat. No, thank you. I think peppermint stick ice cream is good. I used to like it a lot when I was younger. And if you get hot fudge on it, I think it's really good. So these jelly bellies, I'll tell you this, the best tasting one is cranberry sauce. These will get a whack overall to me. The candy cane is not good.

The eggnog is not good. The pumpkin pie is decent. Probably comes in second place after the cranberry sauce. And then the hot chocolate is pretty okay. And that's probably third place. But the other two are pretty awful. I'd say overall those are whack. Again, we're not doing snack or whack.

That's a different segment where we taste one individual snack and then we give it a rating. Here we're tasting an array of different snacks. And this is Season's Eatings. Maybe we had a different intro. We played Don't Deist Us, Santa Claus by Guster. It's a different segment. I'm just trying to put it in their world. All right.

The last thing I have to eat is a Reese's Tree. I know I'm going to love it. Well, you haven't dug into the halab red. Oh, that's right. The halab red. I tell you, I'm not going to touch those jelly beans. I'm already a jelly bean skeptic. The idea of having these gimmicky Christmas jelly beans is just turning my stomach.

So I'm not going to touch those. Little wigs turned a little grinch. I'm a Christmas sweets grinch. I'll take a Christmas dinner, but these Christmas sweets, in fact, not take them or leave them, I can just leave them. Leave them on the side of the road to die. I'll say that we were doing snack or whack for the jelly bellies, I would say whack. But of course, we're not.

Oh yeah, for this Christmas tree. What did I say, snack? I'd say this is one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. Yeah, those are fucking delicious. Those are genuinely great. And I feel like they get like... I actually don't share your guys enthusiasm. I think it's good, but I think the proportions are a little off.

It's a little too thick of the peanut butter. I love it. I don't know. I actually think it works a little bit better than the conventional cup. Just a little bit more peanut butter. I think it works. You know what are good? Are those Butterfingers cups?

Have you guys had those? Oh man, those are real good. They're like a Reese's peanut butter cup rip off, but they're more square shaped and they've got like a Butterfinger crunch to them. Man, real tasty. I'll get those any time I have the opportunity. Guys, there's one last thing to taste. It's that challah bread.

Should I do the traditional blessing of the challah or should we just get into it? Please do. Yeah, let's give this a shot. I would love to laugh at this cultural thing. Baruch, I thought of Noella, Lahina, Malikulam, Hamotsi, Lachamin, hearts. That was beautiful. Thank you. Amen.

Amen would have been appropriate. Amen. There you go. All right. Sus broke me off. I legitimately didn't know that amen was something you said in the Jewish faith, so. A nice big break. I just learned something.

I love this challah bread. Thanks buddy. What are they? What are they? They paint it with butter or something? Why is it so shiny? You know, I made challah when I was in Hebrew school. I think that's right, but I'm not 100% sure.

Well, that is tasty. Now again, this really has nothing to do with Hanukkah season, which is not even really a season to be honest, but that's a good challah. Yeah, that is tasty. I don't think I've ever had this before. Really? Yeah. That's really good.

What is the deal with challah? Sorry to sign fell down on everyone. But what is the deal with challah? It's an egg bread. It's kneaded in a specific way. Okay. And it really has no religious significance, but it's just traditional before Friday night Shabbat dinner.

You don't make a sandwich out of it, right? Really? You can. Okay. You know, I gotta say, of all the Christmas crap we've tasted here, the one that shines the brightest, the North Star, if you will, is the Hanukkah treat, the challah bread. So assessor, I think it's appropriate that you're here, that you're sharing this with us.

This is great. It felt like we were ending the year on a real sour note because I was pretty unhappy with how this, what we're tasting this segment, generally how this segment was going, but I feel like this bread is really quite tasty. And I appreciate you sharing your cultural holidays, traditional treat with us here in the studio. Mahayim. Mahayim.

Mahayim. I gotta agree, this challah bread is fantastic. I'm jealous. Yeah, that's real good. Oh, you know, anyone can eat it. Yeah, you know, challah bread gets a snack for me. Yeah, a real snack. Again, it's not snack or whack, but I agree it's a snack.

I'm gonna go dump this eggnog in the toilet where it belongs. That's season's eating. Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from Mitchell Richards. Mitchell writes, I really enjoy eating fast food, but my wife, on the other hand, is an extremely healthy eater. Since we've been together, I eat a lot of health.

I eat a lot healthier than I used to, and that's a good thing, but I still crave junk food out of curiosity. Do your significant others past or present discourage unhealthy eating? My wife does not support most chain restaurants, but I love the occasional chicken tender or burger meal, but I have to eat it alone and or behind her back. Love the podcast. If you guys ever take it on the road and swing through Oklahoma, there's a local chain here called Brahms That Is Tasty, Great Burgers and Ice Cream.

You can find a handful in the outskirts of Dallas too. Howdy ho to Spoon Nation. Thanks for the email, Mitchell. Great name. You guys ever heard of Brahms? I never heard of it. I never heard of it. We'll keep that in mind if we're ever in Oklahoma for whatever reason.

Let's talk about this question. Significant others who have healthier lifestyles or encouraging you to eat differently than you do? Significant others, I mean sure, probably every girl I've dated has at one point eventually been like, you need to slow down, buddy. More so my mom. I have an Irish, you know, I want to say Irish Catholic mom, but that almost paints the wrong picture ever.

My mom has for, you know, forever and still to this day will be like, you're eating bad, you're not eating well, you know, just trying to, you know, looking out for me. She doesn't want me to go too crazy. I love food. So you know, if we get pizza and I love pizza, I want to get, when I'm back home, I want to get pizza every night, you know, she'll get on me. My mom and my dad was the same way too when he was alive. So yeah, I get it from pretty much everyone who's concerned about my health.

So yeah, I hear it from loved ones, but also like, you know, it's if I'm in a, the problem is anytime I'm home now, especially I like to kind of eat at all my old favorite spots. So yeah, I mean, my wife Natalie is a, she eats very healthily, but she certainly does not encourage me to eat healthy. Like quite the opposite, actually. It's like kind of a constant struggle because she has the ability to eat just like, you know, chili cheese fries and not put out of pound. She's just very naturally lean, whereas I will just blow it up and get fat as shit if

I don't eat healthy. So you know, but I mean, I think it is a process where we're able to, since we both can enjoy a salad, we both can enjoy a lighter meal. I think we're able to encourage each other to do that sometimes, certainly not a situation where I have to go behind her back to eat unhealthily, though, you know, what I will do is there are certain things that she doesn't like that I will get on my own. Like you know, like if there's a, there's a, there's a burrito place that she's not a fan of that I'll just go to on my own if I'm feeling like having a cheat day.

So that's more of the thing, but it's less the idea of a healthy lifestyle and having to evade the gaze of my significant other in terms of what my dining choices are. How about you, Susser? How are things with you, you and your lovely wife, Jamie? Well, my wife, Jamie, she's a vegetarian. Oh, wow. So that obviously has a lot of food kind of makes things a little complicated. But yeah, I would say that I eat healthier with her and, but unfortunately, you're

fortunately, I have a lot of friends who are not as health conscious. So typically what happens with me and my wife also travels for work pretty often. And that when she goes out of town, that's like my, uh, you know, kind of lame, but that's my going wild and crazy is usually just eating bad food. Not that I'm really doing it behind her back, but it just is, you know, I'm seeing my friends and she goes out of town a lot, by the way. But, uh, yeah, no, I think that, and I think that for, but also it's the same way that she's not, we don't get into fights where she's calling me to, uh, eat, you

know, that I shouldn't be eating stuff, but it probably would be good if she were a little harder. Yeah. Hey, nice question, Mitchell. Thanks for asking, uh, if our significant others have an issue. I don't know if you've noticed this, but Spoon Man is the unmarried man of the three of us is also a fuck you wager for picking that question. Uh, I'd say Jack Allison, uh, Jack Allison.

I like that you thought of your mom. Uh, every man does. Uh, Jack Allison is, uh, my, uh, is the closest thing to my significant other right now. And we were both dieting and he would get on me sometimes when, uh, when I was eating, yeah, so there you go. That kind of works. And then we should also address the taking, uh, Doe Boys on the road.

When are all three of us going on the road? All right. Well, I think it's time to wrap. If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at doeboyspodcasts at gmail.com. Check us out on Twitter at Doe Boys. Uh, follow our Facebook page, uh, just Doe Boy, I'm sorry. Check us out on Twitter at Doe Boys pod rather.

Check out our Facebook page, which is just Doe Boys. Uh, and we're going to take a little break for the holidays, but we'll be coming back strong with new episodes in 2016. So check those out. Thank you so much to sticking around with us, uh, throughout 2015. Evan Susser, thank you for joining us, uh, bringing your love to steak and shake back to the Doe Boys podcast. Anything you would like to plug?

Uh, yeah, this podcast. Oh boy. Oh my God. What about the Force Awakens? Yeah, go through the Force Awakens, please. And look for possibly, but not confirmed, a crossover to Sonic the Hedgehog. Uh, but not saying anything either way. Can you confirm or deny that Shadow the Hedgehog picks up BB eight and dunks

him like a basketball? I can not confirm or deny that that's in episode seven or eight. Wow. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, I just, congratulations guys on a great, uh, first year of this podcast. I look forward to listening to all of the ones in 2016 and seeing where this rocket ship lands. Jesus, just shut up.

We'll have you back on. Just shut the fuck up. Evan, God bless you. We call you a friend of the podcast because you really are, uh, couldn't imagine Doe Boys without you. Happy Hanukkah, my good friend. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Merry Gentile friends. Merry Christmas. And, uh, all of you out there, happy, what were you saying? Spoon, Spoonza? What did you land on? Spoonza. Happy Spoonza.

Joyful Spoonza and Spoonmas and Spoonika. Uh, to all of you listeners out there, again, thanks for, for listening to us here in 2015. We'll see you on the other side. We'll see you in the new year. Uh, until next time for Mike Mitchell, the Spoon Man, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See you in 2016.