Doughboys - TGI Fridays with Jordan Morris

Episode Date: June 18, 2015

The 'boys review TGI Fridays with the help of @midnight writer and Jordan, Jesse, Go! host Jordan Morris.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, a cornerstone of FDR's new deal. The bill formally instituted the 40-hour work week, nationalizing the concept of the weekend. The next decade saw the emergence of the expression, thank God it's Friday, or TGIF, an acronym later appropriated by musical artists like R. Kelly and Katy Perry, by ABC to promote its family-oriented TV lineup, and most enduringly, by this week's chain. Its founder, Alan Stillman, opened his first bar and restaurant in Manhattan in 1965, and while you may know it for its sugary cocktails and deep-fried appetizers, back then it was a hip, swinging singles bar, pioneering concepts like ladies' night and the velvet rope.

Forty years later, it's a place for the whole family with nearly 1,000 franchises in 60 countries. Whatever day you're listening to this episode of Doe Boys, right now, it's Friday, TGIFRIDAYS. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host, Mike Mitchell. Mitch Howie. I'm good. How are you doing, Nick?

That was very nice. Well, thank you for saying that. Nice pleasure to TGIFRIDAYS. You never fail to impress me, so. I appreciate that. Nice to start the podcast in a little bit of positivity. This is the first one we're recording, to give everyone a little peek behind the curtain. We recorded five episodes at this point, and we've released three, but this is the first

episode we've recorded since we started releasing the podcast, which will be, new ones will be out on Thursday, but for the first couple of weeks, we were releasing two a week. Bonus. Bonus ones. Yeah. How do you feel about everything just hearing your voice out there? Well, now we're going to go from positivity to negativity. I hate hearing my voice.

I ramble on too much. I apologize to all the podcast listeners out there, but we're getting into the swing of things around here. We're figuring it out. I also say that's interesting a lot, I've noticed. Things aren't interesting. It's just me continually saying that to say something. So, you know, I'm going to work on it.

I'm going to give you a better, Mitch. I'm going to change my whole persona, and I think you need to go nuts. No, I think you, I'm going to get a new, you should call me by a different name now or something. I don't know. Call me, I want you to call me the Spoon Man from here on out. I'm not going to call you that. I will not call you the Spoon Man.

That title is reserved for the protagonist of the Soundgarden song from 1993. What's the, oh, you pulled out a plastic spoon. I got a little spoon. Why do you have that in your pocket? Because I'm the Spoon Man from here on out. I'll be in my mouth will be a cool thing, I don't know. I knew a guy in high school named Gary, he was in my creative writing class, and he carried around a metal spoon, and he would always stick it in his mouth and lick it and stuff,

and it was just kind of his thing, and people were just like, ah, that guy's cool. It's kind of like me. It's kind of like, well, not really. Like me, Spoon Man. All right, Spoon Man. That is actually, that was a strange guy. What happened? Did he keep that up forever?

Well, he was like a funny guy, he would bust on people, and that was like, he was known for making fun of them, and then he'd take the spoon out of his mouth and give it a lick or whatever. I don't know. It was a weird thing. He and I. Let's introduce our guest, you know, I'm from at midnight, and the excellent Jordan Jesse Go podcast, Jordan Morris.

Hi, Jordan. Hey guys, good to be here, Nick, Spoonie. Wait a minute, it's Spoonie. I'm shortening it. You can't want to go by Spoon Man and then get upset if it turns into Spoon. No, I hate Spoonie, I'm Spoon Man, not Spoon Man, by the way, not just Spoon Man. This is a real deep cut, but the video game Final Fantasy IV, which was Final Fantasy II in the U.S., you may remember this.

We all know that. Yeah. I know Jordan's a video game guy. He's redundant. Which is why I bring this up. Yeah. He's a video game guy too, but maybe not RPGs, but there's like this famous part where it was like a mistranslation of a Japanese, a very specific Japanese vocabulary word, and

it got turned into a, you Spoonie Bard, and it kind of became like this thing, this Japanese to English translator looked up, and I guess Spoonie is like an old, archaic expression meaning like weird or ill-tempered, and just decided to slot that in there, so it's kind of a famous line dialogue. That doesn't describe old Mike over there. I don't know what does. He is a real Spoonie Bard. He's a real Spoonie Bard.

It's kind of in the zone of all your base or belong to us, it's kind of in that. Which Final Fantasy was that that happened on? Two U.S. for Japan. Two. Okay. For Japan. The first Super Nintendo one. They got a couple more before us, huh?

They got, yeah, well, okay, we don't need to get into this, but. Man, they're still getting Final Fantasy shit over there that we're not getting over here. This is now the JRPG podcast. So yeah. I am disappointed this isn't going to be the JRPG podcast, because I have some opinions on Suikoden, I'd like to share them, and of course, Suikoden too. I got a question with, see, they used to have long delays between the Japanese releases and the U.S. releases because of things like Spoonie Bard, but now I feel like they're

pretty close, right? They're almost released at the same time. Oh yeah, they'll do simultaneous worldwide releases for the bigger budget titles. Just like major motion pictures these days. I did think that was interesting for real. That was good. Can I maybe have a, can I just posit a suggestion to replace that's interesting? Mm-hmm.

Ooh, spicy. Just try it out. Ooh, spicy. Spoonie. I mean, don't, just slip it into the episode once or twice. See how you feel. If it doesn't, if it, you know, if it doesn't feel like a good fit, throw it out. My suggestion.

It's a food-based podcast. Or I could say like, that's a scoop. You're the scoop man. That's a scoop. That's a scoop. Or something. No, man, don't do that. Jordan, you're a Southern California boy like me.

Yes. But from Orange County as opposed to LA County. Yeah, yeah. What's the, to me, then this may be a regional, local thing that isn't of interest to the country at large, but there is like a bit of a cultural difference between Orange County and LA County in your estimation, would you say? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think, you know, when you, you know, when you're just chit chatting with people

here in LA and they're like, oh, where are you from? And I say, oh, Orange County. And they're like, oh, so LA. Yeah. I think that there is a, you know, as a kid, LA felt so different. Like we would come up once or twice a year, usually to go to the La Brea Tar Pits, which is the ultimate family getaway, in my opinion. But yeah, no, I think LA and LA and VOC are very different animals, despite being really

close together. Yeah. And in the world. It's like, I guess people would, you know, you wouldn't, there's a certainly difference between like New York and New Jersey. Sure. Boston and another town in Massachusetts. Quincy.

Alston, I guess. That's another one I know of. So yeah, I mean, I think it's a world away, culturally, you know, an hour down the free way. Yeah. It's, and in the world of chain restaurants, I feel like, you know, what we're dealing with on this podcast, as we've discussed in a few episodes, is that there are a lot of chains that we have to, including today's, where we kind of have to go to the outskirts

of LA to find a franchise, versus VOC, I feel like they're kind of a little bit more present and dominant. Yeah, definitely. I mean, the chain restaurant options, where I grew up, Mission Viejo in Orange County, Plentiful, hard to find a non-chain restaurant to go to, in all honesty, yeah, definitely when I go down to visit family, it's usually part of, you know, a P.F. Chang's, a Cheesecake Factory, something like that. But yeah, I mean, LA, I think, has a lot of drive through, like LA, you know, easy to

get a, I mean, because of the car culture, you know, you have a, you know, easy to find a McDonald's, a Carl's Jr., a Wendy's. But if you want to sit down at a chain restaurant, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Applebee's, something like that, a little tough to find. Yeah, we had to, fast casual, I guess, is that what you would call it? I think that's the market segment we're covering. We should know this. Yeah.

We should definitely know this. Maybe fast casual is like Chipotle. I don't know. Yeah. We've talked about this a little bit in the lack of chains in LA or whatever, because the lack of sit-down chains, like how we had to drive up to Chili's and Encino and stuff like that. Well, also for this, I mean, for this week's, which is TGI Fridays, we had to take a trip

down to Lidera, California, which is a neighborhood, a little east of LAX, the airport. Which is a drive. No one wants a drive to the airport, and that's pretty much what we had to do. Yeah. Driving to the airport when you're not traveling, when you're not, like, going from a destination from the airport, that's a bummer. I mean, it's a bummer in any event, but just going to the airport for a non-air travel reason.

Yeah. That kind of puts a hole in your day. Sorry, Jordan. No. That's okay, guys. I had a blast. And this is actually, you know, not to jump into it now, spoiler alert. We had a lot of fun at TGI Fridays.

Well, yeah, and we can get into it. And this is actually the first time we've been able to schedule this on this podcast. Jordan was cordial enough with his time, where we were able to have a meal together with our guest in advance of recording this episode, which we are now doing about a week and a half later, I think, is the timeline. And it was the three of us and our friend at the podcast, Evan Susser. Evan Susser has made a lot of meals for a guy who hasn't been on the podcast yet. He also was one of the participants in IHOP with Allison Auguste, I believe.

Yeah. It was really nice that when we all walked in the door, they played The Boys Are Back in Town. I really appreciate it. I don't know if you guys called ahead or if they just kind of saw us coming from the parking lot, but it was nice to throw open those doors and hear those familiar guitar strains. We saw that, and this was the night we went was, this will be a little bit dated by the

time this is released, but it was the night of the Clippers, what proved to be their epic playoff collapse, Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets. And when we got there, it was jam-packed. I was amazed by how many people were coming to TGI Fridays, specifically the bar area was just packed like sardines to watch this Clippers playoff game, but I guess it's the spot to be. Yeah, I'd never seen any chain restaurant packed like TGI Fridays was, and it was a bit of a wait.

The wait before TGI Fridays was the longest I waited for a table at a restaurant in quite some time, and I'm including fancies in this, guys. You were... I'm throwing in fancies. The sector of the food industry specifically referred to as fancies. Sure, yeah. You're fine dining. You got there about 15 minutes before we arrived, so I think we were ultimately waiting

about 45 minutes for a table. So yeah, we were waiting. We went to the bar at first, and yeah, it was... It's kind of like part of the experience, though. I'm kind of glad we got that little bit of like bar hang time, because it... I don't know. I felt like I got a better sense of... I agree.

You know, the TGI vibe. Yeah, and so that was a couple of weeks ago. To put it into perspective, it's San Andreas Eve right now. The night before San Andreas comes out in theaters. Mitch, are you measuring your year by when San Andreas comes out? Yeah. Are you that excited about it? Like next Friday will be like seven days after San Andreas.

I'm very excited about San Andreas. Mitch is picking up some extra. BSA and ASA. I think it was just going to change the movie landscape, but we'll see what happens. Yeah, we'll see. Signs point to yes, but I mean, you know, we'll have to wait and see. Disaster movies are an interesting genre. I feel like they're always a little like...

I don't know what I'm... I don't exactly know what I'm watching. It's just like a bunch of streets are getting fucked up and cars are getting flipped. And we want someone to rescue someone else. I don't know. It's... While like millions die? While millions die, but we're going to focus in on this one little girl or whatever.

The last disaster movie I think I saw was Pompeii. Oh yeah. And it was so strange. It's just this, you know, kind of story wise, a complete mashup of like Gladiator and like 300. Sure. Just a, you know, taking a couple of story points from each and smushing them together. And Jon Snow in there.

And just, you know, so this kind of, you know, political struggle slash, you know, unrequited love story is playing out. And just occasionally between scenes, cut to a volcano that hasn't erupted yet. Like a volcano that's smoking. So it was like, oh, that's going to happen soon. Like... Well, that's the thing because you can't... I guess in the contemporary one, you can kind of get some evil industrialist who's kind

of scheming to, you know, he's going to benefit financially from this giant earthquake or he doesn't want to evacuate the town near the volcano because it's a tourist attraction, whatever kind of the jaws plot. But I guess in a period one, you can't really have that element. It's just sort of like, well, the volcano is eventually going to erupt and that's just going to end the story. Yeah. It seemed like the volcano was just another thing that, like, you know, a second movie

that happened. Yeah. Oh, something interesting I learned from going to the Pompeii exhibit at the Science Museum was the Ancient Greeks had no word for volcano, so they just didn't know what was happening. Wow. Like, they had no frame of reference. It just started happening. Oh, man.

Anyway. That's terrifying. Yeah. That's so scary. I will have to say that if we were all the root for a man to live a big disaster, it'd be the rock. I think, yeah, sure. From a casting standpoint, it's a win.

I think the rock is a... Yeah. Good get. Yeah. Sure. Let's talk about our meal at TGI Fridays. So we sat down, four of us had a nice little cozy booth. I have written down what I ordered.

Do we... A little time has passed, but do we remember what we got there? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think I've known I've had to do this, so I've been, like, periodically just sitting down and thinking about TGI Fridays to make sure I'm mentally warm for this. Let's... Jordan, you and I actually got the same entree, I believe.

Yeah. We went for the Jack Daniels Grill Ribs and Shrimp combo. And I was a little surprised. I've ordered off the Jack Daniels Grill in the past, which is like a subsection of their menu with things specifically the Jack Daniels Sauce, and I was expecting, like, a barbecued or grilled shrimp with the Jack Daniels Sauce, but instead, you're kind of getting a crispy popcorn shrimp that's been in the deep fryer alongside your rack of ribs. Yeah, I think the shrimp has not been Jack Daniels at all.

No. Jack Daniels Ribs and then shrimp from the regular menu. Yeah. But I think... I know we're not going in chronological order. The shrimp was soaked in vodka. I think I really... I was pretty...

...taste the pop-off. I was pretty satisfied with mine overall. I mean, I'm not sure what your reaction was, but I think I thought the ribs were tender and tasty, and I thought they had the very nice glaze to them, not an overpowering sweetness, nice Jack Daniels flavor, and the shrimp were crispy, and just how you want a deep-fried piece of fish. Yeah. I'll go a little bit lower than you on the ribs.

Totally agreed the fall-off-the-bone factor was way higher than I thought it was going to be. Yes. The tenderness and fun-to-eateness of those ribs was, again, exceeded expectations. But for me, the Jack Daniels Sauce was a little too sweet, and I think in general, that's... We can get into that, but I think that's something that I have to avoid in chain restaurant situations.

Sweet with the on the meat, the sweet meat. Yeah. I think so in general, and I don't want to... I certainly do not want to come off as a food snob or elitist because I'll just throw anything into my fucking body. I am not a healthy guy in general, but I think it seems like the sweetness palette of America in general is pretty high, and I think that if you are trying to attract a mass audience, the amount of sweet something has to be is pretty ridiculous.

Yeah. I agree with you. It's definitely... There's a lot of sweetness. I mean, this was a thing we ran into in our Chili's episode where I just found an overpowering sweetness on my burger and on the ribs, and what I may have mentally been doing is comparing these Jack Daniels ribs to the Dr. Pepper ribs we had, which if you listen to Chili's episode, you may recall our opinion on that, basically just tasted like Dr. Pepper, and

it was a little tough to get down, but you're right, it's certainly a little bit sweeter than you might get at a traditional barbecue restaurant, and I think that's a thing to keep in mind if you are going to order anything off the Jack Daniels grill. We're going to kind of out a sequence here in terms of the, I guess we should have probably started with cocktails and apps, I don't know, this is all chaos. Much like the movie San Andreas starring the Rock. Is that what sent you on your spiral as a San Andreas that I put it up? Make sure you have viral marketer for San Andreas.

No, I swear. You getting a little kickback? Like, hey, just mention it on the pie, guess a couple times, don't tell Weigur. People are already, Hollywood is knocking down the Doe Boy store. They want to start. They want to get a stamp of approval, you'll win the weekend. Mitch, talk about what you ordered. Okay, well, so to start off, I had a captain's cup, which was a Captain Morgan's, and pretty

much Sprite. The drink was not good. There was a bunch of fruit sitting in the bottom, and it just tasted like a friend, I'm sorry, a friend. It tasted like a drink, but a friend would make me like in high school even or something, it tasted like something. We've got two things in the house. My parents are in Cabo.

Yes, exactly. How can we get drunk? Exactly. It was something my buddy, Micas, would give me a bottle of, and I'd be like, this is terrible. Just get it drunk to get drunk. So it was not a... There's no detail that brings me more of a smile to my face than when you give the name of one of your friends from Quincy, Massachusetts.

I mean, there's Micas, or Chankton, or Rondie, or Frailbot, or any of those guys. Kibo, Muncie, Goober, Floydbin, all the gang. People, I was just listing my friends one day and people were laughing at me. I didn't realize they were so cartoony, so... It's a shame all those guys are dead. Yeah, Boston had its own kind of San Andreas. Sure, yeah. Well, yeah, it tastes like something those guys, one of my great friends, that Nick laughs

at their names. One of those guys would make me in the past or something. My buddy Joe Tormy or something would, there you go, and more normal name, would shake up a bottle of Sprite and Captain Morgan's. So the drink wasn't good, but besides that, I got the All-American Stacked Burger. It was great. It was really, really great. A couple of beef patties and just kind of had some classic American cheese on it and

some kind of Big Mac-esque sauce. It was really good. So was there a riff on the Big Mac? I felt like it kind of was, yeah. That's an interesting subgenre of burger is the Big Mac rip-off, because that's such an iconic thing that everyone loves and people go to McDonald's specifically for, and I feel like they've tried with the Big Carl to get that going. The Big King?

The Big King, certainly. The Big King. I love all of them too, by the way. I like both those sandwiches a lot. They're big in the name. There is something of that formula of the two patties, the two American cheeses, and then the Thousand Island kind of dressing with some lettuce for texture. Here's a quick question for you.

Have we as a country moved away from ketchup and mustard and more towards that Thousand Island on our burger? Aolies? Yes. That's a good question. Because I honestly, TGA Fridays, for example, I feel like there was no burger that had ketchup and mustard on it. Yeah.

It seems like most dressings you're going to get these days, and dipping sauces are all mayonnaise-based. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's like the more high-end burger you'll find is they'll usually have some sort of aioli, like you were saying, some sort of more cream-based or mayonnaise-based sauce. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe mustard and ketchup will make a comeback at some point, but I think you're right. It's starting to be phased away if it hasn't been phased away already.

When it comes to barbecues or whatever, I'm always going ketchup and mustard. It's easy to put on your burger, and it's great. Would you say barbecue? Yeah, barbecue. Just like you were talking about burgers and dogs on the grill. Yes, burgers. Sorry. You don't take brisket and dunk it in mustard before you eat it.

Actually, I also do that. Just squirt some Frenches on there. I'm sorry. Yeah, grilling or cooking out. Gotcha. Yeah, that will always go ketchup and mustard. If I'm in a restaurant, I'm always going for those little sweet aiolis or little mayo or something like that.

You had, so getting back to your cocktail, I believe it came in a little bit of a mason jar. It came in a mason jar. Another popular thing to do nowadays. Yeah, that was another thing that I think like cool restaurants were doing like a decade ago, and it's just now making its way to your chilies and your TGI Fridays and your chains. Yeah, I mean, we can get back to cocktails for a second. I had the Electric Blue Lemonade, which I was expecting was going to have this overpowering

sweetness like your drink, but it was actually a little bit stiffer than I thought. Basically, I think it was a rum-based drink with some blue curacao, and yeah, a little bit of that rum came through, which is nice with that sort of tropical drink that has a fruit garnish. Yeah, I actually thought mine by drink wasn't sweet, and I wanted a big sweet drink. Oh, really? Okay. What I wanted, it was more just like Sprite in a lot of Captain Morgans or something.

Okay, okay. But I tried yours too, and I liked it. I think you're right. It was almost when you get such a sweet drink like that, it's nice to get a little kick of rum. You want to know that you're drinking a booze drink when you pay for it. Yeah, and also too, I mean, this is me being a dumb kid. I just like that it's a blue drink.

That's really a cool thing to look at. It gives me a certain layer of satisfaction. Yeah. Jordan, what did you get for an alcoholic standpoint? Yeah, while we were at the bar, just chilling, watching the game, I got a Heineken Light, which is a nice thing about going to a chain restaurant is they have some of those domestic beer variants. Your Heineken Lights, Bud Light Lime, Miller Chill, stuff like that, Bud Light Platinum,

that maybe you can't get in your finer, nicer drinking establishments. Back in the day, it might have been like a red dog. Yeah, sure, exactly. The Bud Light Platinum is just like a red dog, it's just like, you guys want to get fucked up faster or something, it's never, it tastes pretty much the same, but you're just going to get fucked up. Yeah, you want to get drunker with a weird aftertaste. There was one like Platinum.

What was the Super Lean one they had? Was it Michelob Ultra? Oh, sure. Yeah. It came with like 60 calories, but it still tastes like beer. Yeah. It was a little insane. But for my cocktail when we were sitting down, they have a custom margarita plan at TGI Fridays.

The idea is that you pick a premium tequila, I think it's eight bucks, which is the price is right. You could get a premium tequila and then a float, like float of additional liquor. So I got a, oh boy, I think I got a Don Julio 1800 in it. I think you're right. You're getting that brand wrong. And they think a Quantro float, it could have been fucking anything in there. That mix was so sweet, it was so, it was just like, there could be two different premium

liquors in here. I don't know. It just, it feels like I'm drinking a popsicle. It was, yeah, definitely the big disappointment of the meal for me was that margarita. Very excited about the customizing options and it, yeah, again, could have been anything. It might have even been no booze in there. Sounds like they over poured the sweet and sour. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, if I, I wouldn't have known there was booze in there, I mean, if I hadn't gotten that DUI on the way home. So yeah, definitely, I mean, again, it kind of, you know, it seems like TGI Fridays with their new giant cocktail menu, which was fucking huge in the menu. It's massive, yeah. The separate laminated appendices to the menu seems like they're kind of chasing the gastropub a little bit. Yeah.

Do they even know how to make all those drinks? Yeah, and I know, and I feel like, you know, a, you know, the thing of those drinks is subtle flavors or a melange of flavors and it's just not, doesn't seem like what they're good at there. I think the, because TGI Fridays was, is so known for its bartending and that's like, they host the national bartending championships. Do they? Yeah, that's like a, it's a TGI Fridays event and they kind of are behind sort of a, I believe

the flair bartending that was kind of a trend for a while, it has its origins in TGI Fridays. So yeah, they are known for their mixology, but also like what we think of as contemporary mixology has kind of gotten away from what you'll get at a TGI Fridays, where, I can't believe I just said the word mixology unironically twice, I'm so mad at myself. What we know about contemporary cocktails, they're now like a little bit more artisan than... It's okay, Nick, just, just, I'll just tell everyone, Nick was making the jack off most of the time he said mixology, so you're absolved of any, of any douchebaggery.

I feel like that's an emoji we need, like just like a little jack off motion would be. Yeah, when you're sure, just to be like, to indicate sarcasm, you're rolling your eyes at yourself. Yeah, but I know, I mean, I think to have this conversation, you know, we do need to talk about, you know, the cocktail trends, which TGI Fridays is clearly, you know, doing a little catch up on. Yeah. They're still taking a lot of very sweet punches and mixes and throwing them in with

cocktails while everyone else is like hand-muddling cinnamon cloves or whatever and putting together these crazy... Yeah, just crabbing lavender and... So if Magic Johnson is listening to us, he owned that TGI Fridays we were at, right? I don't, I think this was formerly a Magic Johnson branded TGI Fridays. It was, yeah, yeah. I don't think it is anymore. Okay.

He lost the, lost the lease or something. He might still own it. It's just he's taken his name off of it if he does. Well, Magic Johnson is the guy I know who's closest to the TGI Fridays guy. So that's, please, you got to start muddling things and you got to slap some lavender in those drinks. I think for sure it was the most inconsistent thing and also hearing that yours is too sweet and mine just kind of tasted like straight up booze, it was interesting.

No one enjoyed their drink. What did Susser get? Do we remember his cocktail? I think he got like an old fashioned or a Manhattan because they do have a, I mean, in their massive laminated drink binder that they give you in addition to the menu, there's also like a little Mad Men section with an old fashioned, a gimlet like these other, the other side of the cocktail trendiness. So yeah, I think he got that.

I don't remember how he felt about it. I tell you what, guys, I'm going to text Susser now. Okay. I'm going to ask him how his old fashioned at TGI Fridays was and he got a cup of grape for you about that. That's what they call the old fashioned, just like Don Draper used to drink. I'll see if he responds to us before the end of the podcast. Sure.

This is made, this dough boy is maybe one of the most exciting. A cup of gravy with a ranch dressing rim. That's the Evan Susser special. This is what in the screenwriting side of things you might call, we're adding a ticking clock element. Ooh. We're adding a little, let's, a little bit of tension that's going to be with us throughout the way.

When I gave Mitch that sweet new catchphrase, that was me saving the cat. So let's talk about our apps as I'm trying to talk in text, which is really unprofessional for everyone who's actually listening to this podcast and thank you for listening. Yeah, we agree. Let's talk apps because we got, I think this was a thing that for me was a high point of the meal. We got a big platter of apps and I think we did, we correctly calculated. So we got the three for all appetizer platter, which is a, I think a very good option if

you've got a party of four or so because of the number of apps you get. And the three for all appetizer platter included loaded potato skins, mozzarella sticks, bone and buffalo wings. So we had the three of those. And then additionally, and this was your recommendation, Jordan, and I give you a lot of credit for this, we got an order of the green bean fries, which came with a sort of a horseradish aioli dip. Yeah, a little bit of a dark horse appetizer, but I think it always, always a good choice

at a chain. I wasn't expecting the, because that's a thing I would never get, green bean fry. Green beans for me makes me think of like my dad cooking us dinner and not like the vegetable we would have on the side with our meatloaf, you know? So like a fried green beans app to me doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd want to get when I'm going to indulge in eating something that's really bad for me at a chain restaurant. But they were really tasty. They were, I was shocked because when Jordan brought them up, you know, the guests there

and I thought to myself, oh man. Thanks for going with me on that. I didn't know you guys had so many reservations about it. It sounds like it was a... I was really angry. If you remember, I stormed to the restroom and didn't come out for 20 minutes. No, they were great. Okay.

No, thanks. Yeah, yeah. And they came with a nice little wasabi aioli. A wasabi, that's what it was. Okay, okay. I didn't even realize that. Little green, had a little kick to it. Yeah.

It was great. It was really, really good. I got to say that. So, kind of my experience with TGI Fridays, I said in an early episode that they put one in Quincy and that's actually not true. There was an Applebee's that they put in and I found out, but it was after I graduated high school and I didn't really know. So, I don't really know TGI Fridays that well.

My whole experience with it is from the appetizers. It's from my dad buying the mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings and potato skins for like the freezer version of them and putting them in the freezer and I would come home late at night drunk or whatever with friends and I would eat them and that's kind of only the experience I had with them. Just frozen right out of the box. I would never eat them up and so, I never kind of even went, I don't know if I've even been to TGI Fridays because this might have been my first visit, but I was really blown

away by those appetizers and also when I had them at home, the frozen variety are not nearly as good obviously as they are in the restaurant. Yeah. You can't judge it by the frozen take home version that they sell at the supermarket. I mean, that's like judging Taco Bell based on the Taco Bell ground beef seasoning they have. I'm judging Spago by the Wolfgang Puck pizza you get at the airport. Yeah.

100%. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I think there is something about the apps they have there that they're all very satisfying and also portioned correctly for shareability. I mean, a lot of times if you get an appetizer platter and you're sharing it with a party, you'll have like three of something.

I ran into this at a restaurant, a non-chain restaurant I went to last night. They gave us, we had like a party of five and they gave us like this pepper's appetizer we ordered and there were only three of them. We had to cut them in half and it just wasn't that satisfying. But there you got four pieces of the loaded potato skins and the mozzarella sticks. So we each got to have one and that was great and I think that's a little bit of their calculating correctly in terms of what their normal party sizes are, which I think are usually two and four.

And also, they just, I didn't know that they were so big into apps. I didn't know apps were their thing. They have the endless apps, which was on the menu. I don't know if that's something we want to get into right now, but the option to have as many apps as you want is like, I feel like they're proud of their appetizers. You Mitch, the look you gave me when you were like, I don't know if we want to get into this right now about, you said that in the same way like, do we want to talk about your divorce?

Yeah. Since we last recorded, your wife has left you. Do we want to get into it? Nick, it's in dough boys, it's an abusive relationship. Nick is kind of the, he scares me. I'm afraid to bring some stuff up occasionally. Why would you be scared of me? Oh, all right.

Well, now the world knows. Yeah. Well, we can talk about- We just say Nick is currently wearing a Disneyland pullover sweatshirt. Yeah, they seem app-proud, I'll say. They're very app-proud, and that was only, my only experience with them when I was younger was the apps, and you know what, they lived up to their app reputation. They're great.

And those green beans, to take, you know, when you're always, when you're taking a vegetable and turning it into a delicious appetizer, you just get some bonus points for that. Yeah. We probably got some vitamins out of the deal. Uh-huh. Others? I don't think we've nailed down quite why those green bean fries are so good. Like what, I still can't quite figure out what worked about them.

I mean, the sauce was part of it, but they just had a crispiness, and then there was just like a, was it just like kind of a refreshing crispness when you'd bite into them? Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, yeah, I mean, they've got good batter. The batter that was on the shrimp was terrific. I'm assuming it's the same, you know, basic thing. Yeah, and I think a green bean is just kind of a nice thing to fry. It's not like inherently greasy. Sure.

So it doesn't have its own natural grease that it's adding. So you know, there's a, you know, it's not like a chicken wing, which you are deep frying and also has its own, you know, fat and juices going on. And yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's nice. Good dip. It's a, yeah, a good dark horse appetizer, I think. Maybe similar to like a blooming onion or something in a way where it like, it reminded

me of that or onion strings or something. Yeah, yeah. It was, it was, I think you're right though, though. I think that it was mostly that, that sweet batter in the back, wherever it is, I want to get my hands on it. It's like you want to fuck it, Mitch. I want to get my hands on it, then fuck it. Okay, sure.

Yeah. That's the subtext of every dough boys is that Mitch just wants to fuck the food or the basic elements of the food, not necessarily the finished dish. That's not what this podcast is about. I thought everyone wanted to fuck the... Nah, dude. Guys, Evan Susser has texted me back. Oh boy.

We're ready to hear his response. I texted Evan, how was your cocktail at TGI Fridays we're asking on the podcast? His immediate reply, just the word horrible. He added, I think we all hated them. It was the only sour point in an otherwise stellar meal, too sweet, way too sweet. Seemed like a cartoon version of a cocktail. They all kind of looked cool but tasted bad, the kind of thing you'd get at a theme park. Interesting.

Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty fair assessment. Yeah, I mean, because they all did look nice. I mean, Mitchers was in the requisite jam jar and Nick Gears had a great color and yeah, I mean, I think that, right, I mean, a waitress carrying a tray of them would look great and make you go, oh, gotta get me one of those. Or like a dad would say that. Dads love to say I gotta get me one of those. Yeah, but boy, it just, I don't know, I mean, again, I don't want to sound coastal and

shitty, but like, is it because we can get a properly muddled old fashioned made by a fucking asshole with a mustache? Are we just, if we had not, if we had didn't have that at our fingertips, would we have enjoyed those cocktails more? I will say, just comparing it to Chili's, the Chili's drinks were better. They were kind of, they were sweet for sure, but I just enjoyed it more. It was kind of like what you were expecting. These drinks just weren't what I was expecting at all.

It was strange. Yeah, I mean, I guess the one takeaway is that the make your own margarita, it seems like that's just overpowered by the mix, so that's a thing to keep in mind. Yeah, I'm not sure what you do with the cocktail order that you're going to make a TGI Friday is if you want a stiffer drink, I guess you just call your own liquor and just order something like, you know, give me a Tito's and soda just to kind of order just a traditional cocktail. It seems like a lot of them do have this added sugar to make it more palatable to, well, you know, I mean, that's the thing is a lot of people going to these chain restaurants are,

or a lot of the audience rather for chain restaurants, I feel like as people who maybe don't have a cocktail all that often, or maybe they don't even like the taste of alcohol, and so you're excited to have something that tastes like a sprite or tastes like a fruit punch. I will say that there was one plus side, you could buy the mason jar that my captain's cup was in if you paid like 10 more dollars. Did you do it? I did not do it.

No, I didn't want it. I recently visited the Simpsons land at Universal Studios and paid the extra couple bucks to get my Moe's pint glass. Oh, that's awesome. That's cool. I like it. That's totally worth it. We're going to make a trip to Simpsons world at some point.

This is a discussion we should have off the podcast, but we need to delineate whether that... Let's talk about parking issues. Parking at the studio. What if you block somebody in? As Jordan mentioned earlier, I'm wearing a Disneyland sweatshirt right now because I went to Disneyland yesterday as of this recording and Mitch and I have been talking about Universal and Simpsons land was just brought up.

Does that qualify as like a chain restaurant? Can we cover like the food of Disneyland or the food of Universal or can we go to Moe's at Simpsons land and make an episode out of that? You know what? I say yes. I think people will be excited to hear that. Let us know. Give us some food back.

Sure. Feedback. Yeah, hit us up on atdoboispod. I think you're at the first time. I think you guys need to start calling this shit food back. Hit us up on Twitter. We love your food back. We've been calling it feedback, but food back might be a better name.

Possibly. Also probably another thing we shouldn't discuss on air. Naming and branding and such. Talking about this Doughboyz logo over here. The font. And then we discuss mains. You know what? Let's get digging a little bit more on the apps.

The loaded potato skins. I thought those are pretty satisfying. I found out that in my research that TGI Friday's actually claims to have invented the loaded potato skin back in 1974. Kind of a staple of bar food or chain restaurants from the appetizer standpoint. They claim that's a starter they came up with. I thought those were pretty satisfying. With the potato skin, I think the ideal is it's got a little bit more potato texture

than a fry, a little bit more weight to it. And this definitely had that. And also it came in the right size, I think, with a little bit of sour cream for dipping. We also had ranch on the platter, which was also good to dip it in. I forgot specifically what the dips were, but I remember being satisfied with the number of dip choices we had. We had three dips and what was they were of the sort where they were all a little distinct and also cross app, like they worked from a cross app standpoint.

I think we had a little bit of a marinara for the mozzarella sticks. We had some sour cream for the loaded potato skins and then we had some sort of ranch for the wings. The buffalo wings. Yes, the buffalo wings. But yeah, what do we think of the potato skins of the wings? I loved them. They were great.

Like those classic apps, just really, really well done. Jordan suggested bone-in wings and I was kind of like, you like bone less. When I go to restaurants like TGA Fridays, which I don't think I've ever been to, but a place like Chili's, I like the bone-less wings just because they're fun to throw in your mouth. Sure. And you don't get to get messy, you know, that's that whole thing. But they were there.

No choking hazard. No choking hazard, which I did choke at TGA Fridays a couple of times. I think I try to swallow every bone. But the bones and wings were really, they were really good. And the potato skins were really good and the mozzarella sticks were different, but really good. I liked, they were kind of like thicker, but they were great. All three, I give an A plus to.

I liked all of them. Yeah, they were a little bit more, not quite twinkie shaped, but a little bit more, not the traditional round straw, a little flatter. Yeah, rectangular. Yeah, more like an eraser, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, boy, I would say that a chicken wing is easily my favorite appetizer in the world, probably up there with my favorite foods in the world.

Oh, wow. And yeah, I thought these were really tasty. I mean, traditional, nothing mind-blowing, you know, classic barbecue sauce. But yeah, just great, fun to eat. And yeah, same goes for all the other apps in the three-way, three-some, manaja food, or whatever it is they call it. I think, yeah, what was the actual, I think, the TGI's triple platter or something like that.

Yeah, I said it earlier, I had it written down here, wait, let me see if I can find it in my notes again. Also. It was the three for all. Three for all. Which is pretty clever. Three for all. I like that.

Yeah, it does give, and it does, you know, dad and mom are there together, it gives dad a good opportunity to make a three-way joke to mom that maybe the kids wouldn't get. I mean, you know, for instance, I've been asking you for one of these for years, kids don't get it. I'll play the part of mom in this one. Okay. So you, okay, your mom, I'm dad, or daddy, and Mitch can be our naive child. You're around six, Mitch, I would put you around six.

So yeah, go ahead, order the thing. And we would like the three for all appetizer platter, please. Three for all. I've been asking you for one of those for years. Paul. I'm sorry. He doesn't get it, he's fine. He's fine.

He has friends at school who talk about these things. Stop fighting. Shut up. Shut up. Well, time to cut my own throat with this steak knife. Anyway. That's a good turn. Daddy's sweet blood.

Daddy's sweet blood. That's the world that we were in. If you guys title your episodes, Daddy's Sweet Blood is probably a good candidate. You know, as our meal wrapped up, this is a thing we experienced with the Chili's episode. We once again were turned to the Ziosk. Now the Ziosk, if you haven't heard our Chili's episode, or if you, the weeks have gone by and you've forgotten what we were discussing, it's kind of like a tablet-shaped device. It is a tablet on a stand that's on the table, and then you can use it for certain functions

like calling your server, ordering certain appetizers or desserts, and then also for paying for your meal. It's interesting that both Chili's and TGI Fridays have this. I would expect it to be like a unique feature of one of these chains, but they're both kind of the same place, and they both kind of mutually decided to adopt the same technology from the same company. Yeah, a little sad to see that they both did it, but it made it seem a little less cool at Chili's.

Yeah, I will say, if we're comparing the two Ziosk experiences, at Chili's, our server was very forward with the Ziosk, and kind of gave us a little tutorial up top, which was a little overbearing. Here the Ziosk was just kind of nicely tucked away at the end of the table. We kind of even forgot about it, and then at the end, when we went to pay Mitch, we just were like, oh yeah, we can use the Ziosk, and no tutorial was needed. We just sort of figured it out. But I will say, we were waiting for a while for the bill until we finally were like, oh,

we can just use the Ziosk. Yeah. Chili's really doing the hands-on explanation kind of saved us some time, because we just swiped whenever we were ready, and here we were just sitting there like kind of fools for a few minutes. They need to find, there's a happy medium between the guy giving us the hands-on tutorial explaining option by option, how the Ziosk works, and someone just saying like, hey, you can pay with the Ziosk, or someone giving us no attention and all this, figuring out

on our own, and the happy medium is what it was said earlier of just like someone just saying, hey, you can use the Ziosk to pay with a credit card at the end. Yeah. That would have been helpful. The TGIFR is Ziosk was also a little glitchy, a little Y2K-ish. Some apps were just weren't working. The only thing it really did was let us pay for the mail, which was good. Yeah.

You were hoping to play Be Jeweled for a while. Mitch zoned out of the conversation for a while because he wanted to play Be Jeweled. There were, I feel like, multiple birthdays being celebrated the night we were there. We heard that TGI Friday's birthday song. Yeah. At least twice. Yeah. They do put on quite a little production for the birthdays at TGI Fridays.

For sure. Yeah. And they didn't lose their energy each time they went out there. Yeah. I think there was at least two, maybe three. Yeah. Left it out. Left it out all out on the floor.

They really, really did. It was kind of fun to see. And also, there was an Instagram frame at the front of the store. That's right. That was, which was really fun. We all took a photo with this Instagram frame. That's a thing that, not knowing too much about Fridays, it's a fun little place. It is fun.

It's not Chuck E. Cheese or something, but it's for adults, but it's not like a Dave and Buster. Sure. It's a big cardboard cutout that is kind of resting behind the hostess stand. And you are meant to either on your way in or on your way out. Everybody squeeze into this Instagram frame, which I don't know, do you think it's a partnership with them? Because it looked like the logo.

It looked like, yeah. It was Instagram branded. Yeah. I don't think they did it on their own initiative, that individual franchise, or they have some sort of partnership. Yeah. I think the idea is that, you know, let all your friends know you're hanging at Fridays. Yeah.

It is weird. Blasted out there on social. People put the photo out there, but I guess it is like, so what you'll be looking at on Instagram is an Instagram frame of someone holding up an Instagram frame of just like a smaller photo. Yeah. Which I guess- Yeah, it's like if they had just like a blank white one for Polaroids back in the day, which

is really bizarre. But our hostess was very excited to have someone use it. I think after we used it, she was, she remarked that we were the first party, I don't know if that day she meant or ever who would use the Instagram frame, but she was pretty excited about it. And I was completely embarrassed. You can all put your heads through the MySpace hole if you want to. If we are going to talk about service, touch on service real quick though, I was pretty

happy with the service. I thought every of them one was very friendly at the Ladera TGI Fridays. I thought they were, they made us feel like we were having a great time. They were swamped too. So it was very busy and they were very smiley and very easy to please. It wasn't that, and they said there was going to be a wait, but it wasn't that long of a wait. And then also I was just like, this is going to be the most fucked up service ever.

We're going to get our meals at different times and they're going to be cold or they are going to, and it was great. Yeah. No, no issues at all. Yeah. Clearly used to the high traffic, the, the, you know, the big game crowd. Yeah. I was, I was really pleased.

And yeah, again, I think, you know, you're talking about the ziosk and I heard the Chili's episode where you guys were talking about, you know, the guy making jokes that this was his replacement or this is the robot that's going to take him down. And I think that's something you wanted though, sit down chains is a pleasant goofy server, you know, with the, you know, suspenders with the flair and stuff like that. So yeah, I would be, I, you kind of want to interact with a goofball when you go to one of those. And I think it happened for us.

Yeah. Our waitress was great. Yeah. She was great. Or if you're, if you're a horny dad, I guess you also want like a waitress you can flirt with a little bit. Absolutely. Yeah.

I thought you were about to go back into one of your stage productions. We're developing that into a one act. Sure. Put that up at UCB sunset. Let's horny dad goes to Fridays. Let's see, this is a vehicle for Paul Giamatti. I'm so horny. I wonder if Paul Giamatti's ever been to a Fridays.

Maybe. I'm going to guess yes. You think so? Yes. Yeah. I'm going to say yes. Several hundred locations across America. There's airport versions, right?

I bet Paul Giamatti's been to a TGI Fridays. Okay. If you're out there, Paul, tweet at the show, let us know if you've been. And if you'd like to be a guest, we'd be happy to have you. Don't worry about that. Yeah. I don't know how big his Twitter following is. Let's get to our closing thoughts on TGI Fridays.

So we'll go around the room and everyone will give their rating from a scale of one to five to forks five being the highest. I want to say zero to five forks also, right? You can give something zero forks. I guess you can get. We've been having one as the minimum. Nothing's gotten one fork yet. So I think if you feel, if you're so upset with the restaurant that you want to get zero.

If you get food poisoning or something somewhere, you can go zero. Zero to point five forks or something works. Whatever. It's on Amazon reviews, like the lowest is one. And like people, someone will be like, my toddler was killed by this toy one star. They can't give it less than one. It's just what the bottom is. Choked on this light bright reviews.

Are you? Um, there should be a tumbler that collects more of it. It's like any time the death of a family member is blamed on the product. That's Nick is the Banksy of that website. Whatever, zero to five forks, whatever your rating is. We'll start with you. It's better. Yeah.

You know, in general, wrap up some disappointments. The cocktail, if I could go again, I would have stuck with beer or, you know, like you said, a captain in coke, a, you know, jack and soda, something like that. Great apps. Highlight of the meal, a mixed bag for the entree. Some good points about the ribs. A little too sweet fries, coleslaw and fried shrimp, all very, very tasty. Yeah, would go again in a heartbeat.

I think, you know, learned my lesson. You stick to the, you stick to what the restaurant is known for. You know, you don't, clearly they're experimenting with some things trying to, you know, trying to maybe lure some of this gastropub crowd over to Fridays. And yeah, would would hang out again, but would probably stick with apps and beers. Yeah, gonna say three forks, three forks. Yeah, Mitch, go ahead. So like I said, hopefully this doesn't get too rambly, but I want to just try to get

all my thoughts like I said, I didn't really experience to TGI Friday as much growing up besides the, the frozen appetizers and having them at the actual restaurant was, was great. It was blast. I, they were delicious and my burger was great. And I tried some of your ribs and I thought your ribs, as opposed to the Chili's ribs were actually, the meat was just a little better and it would taste it better and it looked better.

And I kind of went into this thinking like, Oh, Chili's is kind of rain supreme, as far as, as these restaurants go, as far as the chain restaurants go. Fridays, I'm leaving there. I felt like Fridays, besides the drink experience, which was poor, Fridays really, really knocked it out of the park for me and kind of made me rethink everything in my life. Like religion and sexuality. Wow, geez, it shook you to your core.

It really, it really, really did. And it's like a car accident or something. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was deep for me. And I, you know, I've always, here's another thing. I've always loved the day Friday when I was young. I looked forward to Fridays. Friday was pizza night and Urkel and TGIF, like you said, and all these things that I loved as a boy.

And now here's this restaurant that. I was trying to, I was opening my heart. No, keep going, we're laughing about something else. All these things I loved as a boy and, and, um, here's this place, you know what? Zero four. Oh, no, no, no, no. Um, it celebrates Friday and I, I love Friday. And, um, and everything about it was good.

The food was all good. The drinks were the only bad part. But as a kid, I wouldn't have minded, minded about that at all. Anyways, so I'm going to have to go with a four and a half forks for my rating. Uh, I really near perfect and near near perfect rating. I, I, I, if, if the drinks were good, I honestly would have gone, um, to, to five. So like, like I said, uh, tips off to the, to the service at the, the former magic Johnson tips off.

Tip of the cap or hats off. What are the two tips off? Uh, tips off to all the service, everyone who, who, who served us at the, the former magic Johnson's teach I Fridays, uh, down near the LAX airport. It was, it was, it was a great, great experience. Four and a half, four and a half forks for Mitch. Um, Mitch, I agree with your love of Fridays. It's a great day of the week.

Uh, I had a great, I too had a great experience at, at TGI Fridays. And I wonder how different our assessment might have been if we just gotten around to beers, because it feels like we've really gotten hung up on drinks that were a little too sweet. I didn't personally think mine was a little too sweet, but it was definitely on the sweet side. You have to be prepared for a sweet cocktail. If you're going to get that electric blue lemonade, um, because I think if you

are going to go there with a group of dudes, maybe just get some beers and, and just enjoy that with the, with the deep fried apps you're having and whatever you're ordering off the Jack Daniels grill, if you so desire. Um, but I agree. The apps were outstanding. Um, I really, I enjoyed my, my entree. Again, maybe I'm comparing it to chilies and, and maybe that's how that's governing my thought process a little bit, but also this is a chain restaurant

podcast. We can take our experience and compare it to a previous one of the chain restaurants. I feel like TGI Fridays. I agree with Mitch is a superior experience to chilies. And from that standpoint, I am going to give it four forks. Wow. Good reviews.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think we all had a great time. Would, yeah, would return. I would definitely return. I would make the drive down to that TGI Fridays. Absolutely. You guys are ever down.

We can, we can hustle up sus again and the floor of us can get in the car and, and go on down to the, to the LAX TGI Fridays. Only if it's for work. You wouldn't want to hang out with friends if a podcast wasn't at least in the, in the, in the making. Exactly. Social, social interaction is just people like doing stuff for podcasts. I think most of it these days.

Yeah. I got, I got a quick question for you guys. Yeah. Cause we're talking about chilies and TGI Fridays. One place where we got boneless, one place where we got a bone in. I know your opinion, Jordan. Yeah. Boneless versus bone in.

You're a bone in guy. Yeah. Hard bone in. Okay. That's where I'm talking about my butt. That's where I want the hard bone to go into. Yeah. No, I think, you know, boneless wing is tasty, but to me, it's just a chicken nugget

that's been dunked for me. Okay. A, you know, a bone, a bone in wing is, you know, experience, you're, you know, you're primal, you're a beast. You're getting in there. You're rending the meat from the bone. It's a, it's tactile. It's primal.

Um, yeah, I definitely much prefer the bone in. I'm a bone in man myself. I agree with you. I think that might be in East Coast, West Coast. I mean, I, I love bone in wings as well, but East Coast, they, they, they seem to love their boneless over there and they do a good job with it. And I don't just, I don't just wash up to, to just nugget, uh, you know, buffalo nuggets or anything like that.

They, they, they take it, it's a little different. Okay. I will say. There's maybe a subtle difference that I'm not, I'm not seeing, but yeah. That's, that's something for another day though. Yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll have our, we'll have our wings, uh, podcast at some point. We'll tackle a buffalo wild wings or a wing stop, wing stop.

What's your, what is your preferred wing restaurant as a wing man? Yeah. I mean, as, as, as if we're talking chains that everyone can go to, uh, boy, I sure like buffalo wild wings. And I say my, my, uh, expert opinion, try the dry rub next time you're there. I think people usually, you know, they, they see how hot they can get as far as the sauce goes. Sure.

Ooh, that's spicy. No, I was just going to say. Yeah, I think the dry rubs and buffalo wild wings, uh, delicious, not that you're going there because you're health conscious, but a little bit better for you. And I would say, uh, just as if not more tasty. That's a great tip. Very good tip. Um, let's get to a new segment.

Uh, this is something we're going to call flavor of the week. So we have four different flavors of the same food item and we're going to determine which one is the best in our collective judgment. And this week's food item is pepperage farm goldfish. So I have gone to the grocery store and, uh, with Mitch's council, I have picked out four, uh, different varieties, uh, of, of pepperage farm goldfish. I'm going to go ahead and grab these now. Mitchell, we'll just chit chat here for you and where are you looking forward to

going on the podcast later? Do you guys have anything else planned? Buffalo wild wings is great, but I'm, we're talking about some stuff. I don't want to give too much away, but universal and stuff like that. That seems like a lot of fun to do in theme parks. Yeah. Maybe we, we put some, you know, we have some input on the rides and stuff. I mean, obviously you want to save this for the episode, but, uh, at the,

at the, um, at the universal studios, you can get a duff beer or a duff light. That's amazing. Did you like, have you had them yet? I have not had them yet. My roommate, Jack, who was on a, another episode, he went and he, he said that he, he loved the experience. I used to work at the Simpsons for almost four years as an assistant over there. And, uh, I'm really interested in seeing how, how, how it's all come out.

I, I, it seems, it seems like a fun step for universal. Yeah. Boy, I should, as a Simpsons fan, I sure liked it. And the, I tried both the duff and the duff light, both very tasty and apparently brewed at universal studios. That's very cool. I like that a lot. It's not just a, you know, Heineken that they've slapped the duff label on.

It's, I guess a unique brew to them and real good. That's really cool. That's, I, I like that little touch because you want it to be a Simpsons specific beer or whatever, you know, that's, that's, that's great. Guys, thanks for the, thanks for the, the, the very, uh, listenable vamping there. That was a little bit of an excellent convo about, uh, Simpsons universal. Um, I, this is a, this is a, uh, a journey we're figuring out as we go. One thing I've just figured out about this flavor of the week segment is I

should prepare whatever food item we're going to have in advance. So I'm not spending two and a half minutes opening bags of goldfish. Yeah. Um, but, uh, let's get into it. So we have a four different goldfish, uh, Mitch, I'm going to hand these to you one at a time and you want to tell our listeners, uh, what our different flavors are. Okay.

First we have goldfish flavor blasted wild white cheddar. Okay. And then I'll hand you this next one. A lot of adjectives attached to that. Then we got goldfish, goldfish flavor blasted explosive pizza. All right. Explosive pizza. You can have me one of those back.

And then we got, uh, goldfish flavor blasted burst in barbecue. Okay. And then this is our last contestant. And then the last one is flavor blasted extra cheddar plus pretzel mix up adventures. Jesus Christ. So these are all specifically the flavor blasted goldfish, which I imagine I haven't had any of these, but I imagine they have a little bit more of an intense flavor.

Sure. Have you had any of these, Jordan? Uh, yeah, I don't, I'm not a big eater of goldfish. I mean, I think if, uh, if there's a, if there's a bowl of classic goldfish around, I'll take a handful, but it's not something I buy myself to have around the house. And by classic, you mean cheddar, correct? I think so.

Cause there is actually, I found a classic goldfish, which I think is like a weird, unflavored one. That's, I've always, when I'm like, I remember when I was younger, I'd be like, mom, get like regular goldfish and she bring home those flavorless ones. And I would be very, I'd have a big tantrum and throw them around the house. Get rid of the classic pepperage farms. I don't think anyone wants them. It just, there's some weirdos out there that swear by them, but I swear by the

cheddar, the original cheddar, the cheddar, I think is the, is what people think of when they say those are my favorites. I've never had one that's better than the cheddar. So this will be a fun little activity. Okay, great. So I know we're kind of, we're a little spread out here in the studio, but that's all digging. We'll start with this, let's just kind of take, we'll kind of kind of grab

whatever you want as you go and then just sort of give us a sense of what you're tasting. So I'm starting right now with the explosive pizza. I want a couple of those. Okay. This is the part of the podcast where people listen to us eat, which I've heard some people say already that they're grossed out. I'm now tasting the burst in barbecue.

You guys can chime in with what you're tasting. Yeah, I'm having a wild white cheddar. I do in the burst in barbecue. It is pretty wild. I feel like I'm going crazy. You know, the barbecue, I think is not as forward as I thought. It's definitely a barbecue sort of smokiness, but it's not overbearing. And I'm trying the, Mitch, what are you having over there?

I'm having the barbecue as well. I enjoy it. Mitch, I know from listening to a previous episode, you don't like diarrhea jokes or as dairy jokes as they pertain to food, but they sure have attached some poop evocative words to these explosive and burst it. My one complaint was people always say that about Taco Bell. Yeah, you think it's, you think it's, it's elitist. It's too easy.

Yeah, a little bit of elitist. Yeah, that's fair. All right, I'm going to have the, I just had the, the combination and the ones that are cheddar and pretzel, and now I'm going into the wild white cheddar. When you guys have done the round, let me know. I'm almost done right now. You're on the extra cheddar and pretzel as well. So we all kind of rounded out the cycle with the extra cheddar and pretzel.

Or do you still have the pizza to do? I do, but start giving your thoughts. I'll jump in. Okay. Um, enjoying all of them. They're actually, I was, you know, I'm a little skeptical sometimes of these exotic flavors, but all these are very edible. These are all, all very well done by Pepperage Farmers.

Yeah, I was expecting by the graphics on the bags, which are intense. And the, the language attached to them burst and explosive, uh, fuck you. I think one of the bags says, uh, which points and says you're gay, which seems unnecessarily aggressive. Um, uh, I was expecting much bigger, spicier flavors from these, but it's pretty mild, pretty, pretty, I mean, about what you would get from your average snack. As far as, I wonder if they toned it down even cause I feel like I've had flavor blasted in the past and been like too much.

Yeah, they are. I mean, flavor blasted to me conveys the exact same thing of like, these are going to be extreme and explosive pizza, can you handle it? Exactly. Yeah. Explosive pizza. They emitted the E. It's just X plosive. To me, again, that's just like, that's action sports.

That's a BMX bike, going up a ramp. And, uh, yeah, I'm not getting that intensity, but I like it. I don't know. What do you think, Mitch? I, I, I kind of liked them more than I thought they would. There's a weird thing with all of them that I feel like they all kind of have different flavors, but then ultimately kind of taste similar. And I don't just mean the cracker.

I mean, like the, whatever that flavor is, that's, that's shot on them. Um, I gotta say the pizza flavored ones are my least favorite. Okay, let's, let's, and let me, let's, I think we'll try it this way. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is the idea I had for this one. Um, we'll do a simultaneous, uh, point for which one, for how we're ranking them so we can kind of see in real time. Okay, cool. Is this going to get, this is probably going to get very confusing.

No, I like it. Let's give it a shot. Okay. All right. So we'll start as we get into ranking them, start by touching your least favorite. Oh, well, all three of us have touched explosive pizza. Yeah. When you're eating a chip or a cracker, you don't want a vague tomato taste,

yeah, which I think is the prominent flavor in that kind of the downfall of combos, I feel like the pepperoni combos is just the tomato. It's, it's a little off-putting. That's, that's, that is such a weird, like they've never nailed pizza taste ever. I feel like, like, uh, like it tastes like a, like oregano or something. Like it's a weird, strong tomato oregano taste. And yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think, I think pizza and watermelon are the two like elusive flavors.

Of the snack world. Agreed. No one can get them right. Let's, uh, let's go for our third place. So this will be, I guess, second runner up. So let's all go and touch our third place now. Wow. Jordan has touched the Burston barbecue and Mitch and I both went with the

Wild White Cheddar. Um, Jordan, explain your reasoning. Uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, just, um, yeah, I mean, it tastes like it was dunked in ketchup, kind of, you know, over, yeah, not the kind of salty savoriness that you kind of want from that kind of snack. Uh, yeah, just a little, a little too much. Mitch, I, I, for me, Wild White Cheddar, I, I think it might just be a personal preference for barbecue.

I enjoyed the barbecue a little bit over that kind of milder cheddar flavor. Yeah, the, the, the White Cheddar is kind of the same thing with like the P it's just like that very strong taste, which, which I just don't know if I like more than, uh, so you're, you're saying that you thought it was mild. I thought it was too much. Yeah. I would more say that, let me, let me say this in a, in a, in a more clear way. To me, it was basically neutral with the regular cheddar goldfish and the regular

cheddar goldfish don't get your fingers very dusty, which these do. Agreed. Um, all right, let's go ahead and get our, our runner up. This will be our second place entry. Okay. So we have just flipped positions. Uh, Jordan went for the Wild White Cheddar and, uh, Mitch and I both went for burst and barbecue.

Yeah. I mean, in general, I like a White Cheddar as a, you know, a dust. You can apply to a snack for sure. Um, I think there was a White Cheddar Cheeto or cheese ball for a while. Wasn't there? Yeah. That sounds right. Was it, maybe it was their like selects kind of healthier version of the Cheeto.

Might have been. Yes. They have a, you know, they, on the cover, I'm sure they had a, like a big block of cheese that someone was delicately shaving, you know, ribbons off of as if that was how they were prepared. Uh, yeah, but I, I like White Cheddar a lot as a, as a flavor. I love a White Cheddar cheese and I like a, like if it's a strong thing, but if it's, if it's so strong in a snack, it can kind of wear me out.

But sure. And I think I just prefer cheddar, uh, the regular cheddar, uh, like the, even when it comes to cheez-its, you know, like, uh, the White Cheddar cheese. Oh yeah. Now like those two. Yeah. I've figured out my, uh, my error in constructing things this way is that this ends on an anti-crime acts, um, because we already know what our winner is going

to be. But you couldn't have known that. You couldn't have known that there would be such a consensus. That's true. And, and so our champion, uh, our unanimous pick for flavor of the week, flavor blasted extra cheddar plus pretzel mixup adventures. I forgot the adventures was on the end. And it was an adventure.

I learned something. Um, I would definitely get these again. You know, for me, that's just like, they're, they're like goldfish snacks with pretzels. Great. It's a great combination. I mean, I think that's something you guys will probably discover over this podcast is that, you know, keeping it simple is probably the best, you know, of course,

try and innovate and branch out, but, uh, you'll probably fail. Yeah. Don't, yeah, you get a, you get, don't leave your comfort zone. I was going to say with these ones, it's that with the extra cheddar and pretzel, it's almost like those pretzels are offsetting the extra extreme blast of the like they're almost making these just like regular goldfish. Yeah, sure. Which maybe is, it's cutting them a little bit.

Says something about all that. Yeah. Like if your drink's too strong, put a little water in there. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But, uh, I did, it was a nice little taste. You got a little bit of, you got a little hint of the pretzel. It didn't remind me of eating like a pretzel dipped in cheese or anything like

that, but I will say that the barbecue reminded me the most of just like other barbecue chips or something. Like, uh, like they taste so much like Lay's barbecue chips. So yeah, I think if you like a barbecue flavor and you want it in goldfish form for whatever reason, uh, the flavor blasted burst in barbecue will do you right. Um, well, that was flavor of the week. Uh, if you have any suggestions for the segment or any feedback on it at all, you can hit us up on Twitter, uh, at doboy's pod.

Um, just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feed bag. All right, a little context for today's email. So it comes to us from Farley Elliott and Farley is a very well respected, well regarded and very good food writer. Uh, he's, he's been on Eder and LA weekly, a lot of places. You can follow him on Twitter at over, over under. If you're something of a foodie, I recommend it.

Um, and Farley had a little bit of a complaint with our Taco Bell episode, which was episode two. Um, and I'm just going to go ahead and read this email for us now. Hey dudes, long time doboy's listener, first time emailer. First, I wanted to say great work on the cast so far. Really enjoying your hot takes on usually awful chain restaurants. Second, I actually, he was talking about the restaurants, but I also disagree with him. Uh, second, I actually did have some small beefs regarding your Taco Bell history

lesson and the stuff about sriracha. First, there's nothing really wrong with what you said about the history of Taco Bell. It's just incomplete. Here's a link to a piece I did in January that goes into some detail regarding the Taco Bell, Glen Bell, Mitla Cafe, stolen recipe theory as first put forward by Gustavo Ariano of the OC Weekly. Um, Farley includes a link to a, an article he wrote.

Uh, we'll tweet out the link if you guys want to dig in, uh, on this Taco Bell controversy, uh, he continues, this is still mostly just a glimmer of what's out there, but it's fascinating stuff. As for sriracha, I got to say that you two really dropped the ball. Oh boy. First, the plant is in Irwindale, not Carson. Second, the notion that the plant was pouring out fumes that were hurting people were ultimately debunked.

Lots of people agree with the owner, David Tran, that the whole thing was more akin to an extortion attempt by the city of Irwindale than anything else. They backed off when Tran threatened to move his pepper plant to Texas. It's also important, I think, to note that sriracha is actually a local product made from peppers grown right here in Ventura County. And no, there was never a shortage of the hot sauce, only a perceived threat as the lingering lawsuit from the city of Irwindale hung over the factory's head and could have forced a full shutdown.

Things never got that far and sriracha hasn't gone anywhere. Anyway, I don't even care about sriracha that much. Just trying to fact check an episode that I loved in order to make sure everything's getting the truth they deserve. Keep fighting the good fight, gentlemen. That was tough to get through with a mouthful of like goldfish dust. I should have, I should have swig of water or something before I started reading that all out. It was good.

It was good. I wouldn't have known you were fighting dust if you wouldn't have mentioned it. Jordan, you've had a podcast for, I want to say, 300, 50, 400 episodes now. How deep into it are you with Jordan? Yeah, I think we are about at 350 in that zone somewhere. Have you dealt with a controversy like this before? You guys will learn this. And I'm sure maybe you've gotten just a little taste of it already is mainly the

feedback you will get when you do a podcast is a correction on something you said off the cuff. OK. For instance, I on our last episode of Jordan, Jessica, I think I mentioned the Flash Villain Weather Wizard and neglected to say that although he is alive in the comics, he has died on the Flash TV show. OK. And and several people took to Twitter to tell me that I had dropped the ball on

that one. So, yeah, I think I think just, you know, brace yourself for that. I think just, you know, remember that the people correcting you are probably I'm reminding myself of this, too, as I'm saying this to you guys. Just remember that the people listening and correcting are fans and they're just listening very closely and that's a compliment. But yeah, get ready for it. Here's my take.

Farley's wrong and he's lying. That's the attitude. That's the attitude. He's completely wrong and we were right. Don't bother looking up his link. No. Also, I'm battling a goldfish like a buildup around my teeth. That's my issue with goldfish.

Kind of get that like marine layer or whatever just to stuck to your gum. Yeah, gum around. Kind of just need to work a finger in there to take care of that. You sure? Yeah, Farley's wrong. The Spoon Man has spoken. Spoon Man has spoken. All right.

With your new persona, you're more confident, more in your face. I knew that was going to happen. I feel really good about it. No, I mean, I think that's why Batman puts on the cowl is because he can be someone else. So, I think when you put that fucking plastic spoon in your shirt pocket, you become a beast. Sorry, Harley. Well, actually, we appreciate. We appreciate.

That was done with a nice tone, a funny tone. Thank you, Farley. Except you said you read it as a podcast I've loved and he wrote, Hate It. I changed some words to make us look better. Farley, thanks for the email. If you guys have any feedback about the podcast or any questions or comments about the world of chain restaurants in general, you can email the feedback at doboyspodcast.com. Jordan Morris, thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Oh, our pleasure. Is there anything you would like to plug? Sure, I've got a podcast we mentioned it. It's called Jordan Jesse Go. You can find that at MaximumFun.org or in iTunes and I'm a writer for At Midnight. It's on Comedy Central At Midnight Monday through Thursday. Nick, you wrote on it for a period.

I did. Mitch has been on the program and won, if I remember correctly. I won the internet. So, yeah, watch it. It's a ton of fun. Awesome. Great. Awesome.

Well, that'll do it for this episode of Do Boyz and I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time. Check out San Andreas in theaters. Oh, boy. It's depending on... Cut a sit on this, buddy. Happy eating.