Doughboys - Winchell's Donut House with Mike Horowitz

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

Mike Horowitz (Prison Break, Burn Notice, Turner & Hooch) joins the 'boys to discuss eating on set and breakfast burritos before a review of Winchell's Donut House. Plus, A Taco Bell edition of Jingle All The Whey. Sources for the week's intro: https://www.nytimes.com/1961/10/15/archives/foul-claim-fails-donut-king-91-wins-aqueducts-206800-champagne-by.html https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/features/tapits-world-224760 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-nov-28-me-winchell28-story.html https://lasvegassun.com/news/2002/nov/29/doughnut-chain-founder-winchell-dies-at-lv-home/ https://startupsapience.medium.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-winchells-donut-3c3236b7370f https://winchells.com/about Commercials featured in the Jingle All The Whey segment: The Works Taco Bell Rancho Burrito The Fresh Food Place Run For The Border $.49 Tacos! Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up, everybody? It's your boy Mr. Slice, and I got some exciting news. The Doughboys are going back on tour in 2022. That's right. CS Live in Seattle, January 8th, Portland, January 9th, at the Fox Woods Resort in Connecticut, February 4th, in Boston at the Wilbur Theatre on February 5th. And guess what? Two new shows have just been added. One in Milwaukee on January 28th and one in Chicago on January 29th. Ticket info at headgum.com slash live. That's headgum.com slash live. See you there, baby. What's up, everybody? It's your boy, The Spoon Man, and I want to talk to you about today's sponsor, Uber Eats. At Uber Eats, we've helped more than 400,000 restaurants across the U.S. reach new hungry customers and deliver growth quickly through new orders.

Uber's global platform can help you grow, reach new people, get valuable sales data, and unlock ways to expand with flexible delivery options. Put your business on Uber Eats. Get access to the Uber Eats platform, including valuable sales data to grow your business. Dig into your data. Really dig in there. Any time to monitor your performance and customer order trends. Wow. Wow. WIGS restaurant owners enjoy 0% commission for the first 30 days on all orders. Offer subject to change per the terms of the restaurant agreement. Wow, 0% on the first 30 days. Sign up today. That link that you want to click on is down there in the episode description. Right down there. Check it out. There it is. Move your cursor.

Go ahead and click. Or if you're on your phone, use your finger and click that link. Click that link in the episode description. Foul claims fails. Donut King, 9 to 1, wins Aqueduct's $206,800 champagne by a head. So reads the 1961 New York Times headline recapping the champagne steaks at the time, the biggest money horse race in New York. Its equine winner, Donut King, shared his playful nickname with the horse's owner, a man who made his fortune via a donut shop opened in Temple City, California in 1948. Two years before Dunkin Donuts debuted in Quincy Mass, one upping its competitors by offering an absurd 14 donut dozen. The company surged in popularity in the 50s and 60s, merging with Diner Chain Denny's in 1967. Denny's, incidentally, first founded as Danny's Donuts. The founder cashed out and spent his retirement further immersed in horse breeding, a passionate son, Ron, the Donut Prince, if you will, carries on today. But this royal family's Donut Kingdom would start to falter with the King's absence, battling carb conscious California consumers, competition for the national expansion of Dunkin and Southern Dandy Krispy Kreme.

As well as the rise of upscale artisan donut shops, the chain has declined from its thousand strong peak to just 170 locations today and was absorbed by competitor Yum Yum in 2004. Still, the eponymous Donutery founded by the Donut King, who owned a horse named Donut King, charges on, like a wild stallion running free. Surviving in the chain restaurant industry, after all, is a marathon, not a sprint. This week on Doe Boys, Winchell's Donut House. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, Farton Scorsese, the Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. I don't. This isn't a thing.

This isn't a thing for me. You know, you sneezed on the show, you burped on the show, you hiccuped on the show, and the person who submitted this roast writes in, getting ahead of Fart Month, anticipating where we're headed next. And this is signed, Mitch, Love the Devil, PSU soon, Mitch Boo, roastspoonmanatgmail.com. Does that mean I'm going to die soon and go to hell, or does that mean? What does that mean? It could be that like the devil shows up in human form, like with a banjo at the side of the road. How you doing there, sir? Yeah, like a southern devil man.

You don't really realize what, like, oh, this is a nice guy, and then eventually he's like, say, how much do you, how much value do you place on your soul? You're like, hmm, what if you could be the most famous actor in the world? Does that prospect intrigue you? Could I offer you a first dose of Pfizer vaccine? Or perhaps Moderna is more your speed. Wait a minute, so is the vaccine bad? Then you're confused. You don't know what's going on.

You know, Johnson and Johnson has been re-approved. I got that if you want it. Well, I hope I don't, you know, that seems like a good version of the devil to see, honestly, is the kind southern gentleman devil. I feel like I'm fine with that. I don't like Pizzuzu or the exorcist devil. I don't want to see Reagan. I don't want to see Reagan. Is it Reagan or Reagan?

It's Reagan, right? I think it's Reagan. It's like Ronald Reagan, basically. I think it's like, I think it's like Ronald Reagan. Yeah, speaking of the devil, speaking of pure evil, that's right. We hate to get political on this show. But Ronald Reagan, he might as well have been the real devil in my eyes. Well, I'm the devil.

I knew it. I fucking knew it. Hey, what's his wife's name? Hey, Martha. I'm just going to go. No, Nancy. It's Nancy. Nancy, Reagan.

Not Martha. You're thinking of George Washington, the first resident. I was actually thinking of Martha Kent. Oh, you're... Martha Kent's mom. Got it. Why did you say that name? Hey, Nancy, turn the AC off.

That's my impression of... You hot fuck, you love it. You can do a better Reagan than me. I've never really tried a Reagan before. Hey, he kind of sounds like this, I guess. Well, I'm Ronald Reagan. I don't know any of my phrases. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

That's one. That's good. My brain is rotting, you see. So I've forgotten the things that I used to say, except for, well. This is good that the SNL off-season, not even in the writer's room, when they were trying to figure out what Reagan sounded like in 19... When did he go into office, early, late 70s? 81 took office.

Yeah, when the 80 election took office in 81. Absolutely fucking demolished Mondale in 84. Nice try, Mondale. Just fucking a shellacking. You look like a fucking, you look like a fool, Mondale, still. I went Minnesota, shut up. Shut the fuck up. One state, fucking pathetic.

Wags, how to Spoon Nation, including those fools up in Minnesota. And here, here is a little drop. People are going to think we're a right wing, we're not a right wing podcast. We're leftists. Because we're making fun of the Democratic candidate who lost to Ronald Reagan, who famously completely dismantled public infrastructure in this country. Crushed Indians. And because we're also expressing skepticism about the vaccine earlier.

You think those two factors might make people think we're right wing, especially if they're listening to the podcast for the first time. Well, guess what? You're right. That's our new thing now. Gotcha. All right, here we go. Here is a little drop, Wags. Oh, yeah, I'm the I'm the bad guy, Nick. I'm the bad guy, Durr.

Well, I'm not the bad guy, Durr. Was that Franny at the end? Was it? We love our Franny. I think it was Franny. Wow. Hasn't been on the pod in a while. Come back, Fran. We love Fran.

She'll probably text me to say no. She, Fran, we had on to discuss the exorcist, which we were talking devils earlier. Wow. That's right. Yes. How about that? Wow. All these doboy connections. It's almost like the devil is at play in this episode. Wow. But also, we're kind of like the numb three years of podcasts, numbers.

We're like the numbers of podcasts, the show numbers. We're like the numbers of podcasts, Wags. Numb three years, yes. Numb three years. That's what I called it. Nancy Reagan. Hello again, Joe from Bellingham, Washington here. I've been in Bellingham before. Wow. It stays, stays light really late.

I was there with Mookie and Betsy. Who else was, damn it, who else was there? Was Nicole there? It was a good crew. It might have been Nicole. This was, this was back in the day you were doing a UCB touring show. You were like go to a college and do improv. Yeah. What a lineup they were seeing back then, back in like 2009 or whatever that is. Mike Mitchell, molasses boy, Alan McLeod.

Oh, I'm sorry, Mookie Blakelock. I knew Alan would do it sometimes. Alan, I did, I did it with Alan a couple of times. Yeah. Nicole Byer, Betsy Sadaro. Seeing all these future stars up on the stage, doing improv at your fucking college dorm. And a lot of them would be like, hmm, I'm not going to do this anymore. I bet you could find, I'm going to find, I'm going to, I'm going to search by place. I'm going to find it. But look, you're trying to find pictures of this, of this trip.

You're trying to geolocate them. There's Washington, but it's D.C. Anyways, that is, hello again, Joe from Bellingham, Washington here. My last drop, introduce you guys to the hip indie band, The Brawlers. Here's another banger, see y'all at the Seattle show. We made a joke about The Brawlers is what that is. Oh, what was, was that, wait, what was that? What was the joke?

Yeah. I know who was, I know who was in, I know who was, who was up there with this. It was me, Betsy, Mookie, Dave Tooney, friend of the show, Dave Tooney. Wow, Dave Tooney, what a lineup. We're going to have Dave back, good lineup. We didn't know any band, so I think we made up The Brawlers. Oh, it was a fake, Emma's nodding along. This was a fake band.

Okay. Oh no, but I think by, I think by Doughboy's lore, it's real. We should, we should say it's real. It's canon in our universe. Mm hmm, right. Weig's, but I mean, it shouldn't, look, there's just been a lot of bad stuff lately and I feel like we're sad about it. And so there was a hurricane and then all this bullshit that went down in Texas.

And then Michael K Williams passed away the other day. I'm just, just a, just a shitty stretch of time here. And so we're bummed out when we're thinking about all of it. I like, we don't record on, on a regular basis where things are updated weekly, but we wanted to say that our hearts go out to everyone and everyone affected by that in Texas and everyone affected by the hurricane into Michael Kenneth Williams. That's all. Yeah.

Always a continuing torrent of bad news in this failed state in which we live. It's a bummer, but yeah, we hope everyone is safe and sound and hanging in there. And hey, I hope maybe the podcast has given you a little bit of comfort if you're dealing with something. Who knows? Or maybe you're just like, hey, I actually don't think it's that bad. I think it's actually pretty good. Oh, shit.

Oh, no, we're in the Reagan seal of approval. I lost how to do the accent already. All right, let's get our guests in here for God's sakes. Yeah. After going through a raft of recent tragedies, let's introduce our guest. We're actually very, very excited to have him, a writer and producer in prison break and burn notice. And now Turner and Hooch, which you can find streaming on Disney Plus.

Mike Horowitz is here. Hi, Mike. Hey guys. How are you doing? Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for making time for us. Mike, right off the bat, I have to say this because this is my first association with Turner and Hooch.

And I know the series is, you know, a drive from the Tom Hanks movie, although it's its own thing. But the Tom Hanks movie back in the Turner and Hooch, I saw as a little boy, the first movie to make me cry. Oh, yeah, I cried at Turner and Hooch. Yeah, it breaks people that the movie art our show, hopefully is a little happier, at least at the endings of episodes. Every episode, you cry as much as that.

Also, I'm going to say this, Mike, Nick hasn't cried since that movie. That was my first and last cry. I was all the tears. Yeah, flushed them all out and was just like, oh, I'm OK from here on out. Hey, buddy. The it was because like there's a I don't know. It's like, oh, there's a fun kids movie. And then it has a very sad ending.

Canine, the Jim Belushi movie, which came out at a similar time has because that's just we all know how Hollywood works. There's like what, you know, why do one thing if you do two things at twice the cost? They canine was the same thing. It was like a cop and his dog partner and they didn't get along. But it had like a happy ending. And I remember being like, canine is better because the because it's not sad. Like that was just my kid brain's way of dealing with it.

No, absolutely. We went back and, you know, rewatch Turner and Hooch, the movie. Yeah, when, you know, when I was up for this job and I was kind of shocked. I was like, are they really going to do this? Oh, wait, they do. They they they just rip your heart in half. Yeah, it's really sad. And like as a kid, I was like, I think even remember as a kid being like,

I shouldn't have seen this. It feels like something I shouldn't have seen happen. But then they do that there's a little puppy Hooch at the end. And also there's like a little there's like a young Tom Hanks, too. It's weird. There's a young puppy and then like a little young version of Tom Hanks. Yeah, he gets he gets a reverse big at the end. Yeah, yeah, really.

I wrote that sketch wise little I wrote little for the birthday boys thinking we could get Tom Hanks and Colin Hanks for an episode. Not going to happen. Yeah, this is not going to we're not going to we're not going to get either of them. That's a tough booking. It's a big swing. It was a big swing. It is.

You got to take them sometimes. Mike, I got to ask you, you worked on prison break during our intro. Before we introduce you here, was there any time where you were trying to make a dough boys break where you thought you would escape from being on the pod? Yeah, I was just really excited about my mom watching or listening to this. But at least, you know, at least I got the double episode. I'm excited. That is the issue.

We actually were just talking about this on the last episode of recorded unlistable for any any family member. Like, I don't want my mom to ever she came to the live show. And I didn't like that she was at the live show. I just had to forget that she was there kind of, you know, it's not good. She was she was beaming. She was happy to see her boy up on stage in a crowd of people. Like a dueling crowd.

But how do you say that? A dueling, adoring, adoring, adulation. Is there a form of adulation that's like aduling, like an active version of that? I think you would have been right on if you said a drooling crowd. Yeah, adulating sounds bad. Yeah, it does. Yeah, no, that was she it was a fun Nightwags, but it's a shameful show. We say stuff we shouldn't say. You know, everything everything is kind of embarrassing if you show it to your mom.

That's true. That is very true. She I remember my mom with we I had a sketch show, The Birthday Boys. I mean, the listeners know this now, but I had a sketch show, The Birthday Boys. And I remember she would watch it and like she would tell her friends, like when she was telling her friends about she'd be like, it's a little weird. She'd say that. She'd always say it's a little weird. And I'm like, all right, Ma, you don't have to say it's a little weird to everyone you show it to because it's not our friend.

Our friend, our friend. Yeah, exactly. Our friend, past guest, Lauren McGuire, who she and I both worked on, wrote for Comedy Bang Bang for a time. And she brought that up to, I believe, maybe it might have been a doctor or someone or like, you know, like someone at a salon or something. She and she it was just in the small talk of like, what do you do? And she brags like, oh, I write for Comedy Bang Bang and they just stopped. The person just stopped and said, that show is rude.

I mean, that's I feel like that's the same thing people will think about our podcast. Have you guys ever brought your mom to set? I have brought my mom to set and I and I've like always tried to make sure that I wasn't filming something because the last thing I want to do is like be acting and then like turn around and see my mom like staring at me. And that just it's it's it's it would be a horrible experience. But I think she has gone to set and has seen stuff be filmed before. I've worked in a lot of studio shows, so it'll be like, hey, like, you know,

like my parents would come and like sit in the audience. So it's a little bit of a different experience. It's not like there's a take in your four feet away from an actor is standing behind a camera. You know, it's not quite the same thing, but Mike, you've experienced this. Bringing my mom to set. Yeah, it's it's well, I mean, the main thing is as you guys know about visitors on set is it's extremely boring after 15 minutes. Once you figure out, you know, where the food is and what's going on,

it gets super dull watching take after take and then, you know, different setups. Yes. Yeah. I think that is it's very hard to explain to like, you know, my mom or sister, what I like, what it is that I do. So it is great for them to see a sneak peek. And then when we were doing Tomorrow War, that was cool that they came and and Pratt kind of waved at him. That was like a nice moment where they were like, oh, Pratt's waving at him. And was this at the move?

The while you were shooting something or was this at the premiere? There's no this is that tomorrow while we were filming. I brought they came down to it. I brought him to set. And they were, yeah, it was like the the scene where they come back from the future spoiler alert and they fall. Wait, they come. Wait, they come back. God damn it.

Did you did you check out at a certain point in that movie? Wags, I watched some of it. I saw the whole movie. It's a great action film. It's an original IP. I wish there were more like them. You know who else? I someone I've been texting with lately.

George Weigar. You said I've been texting with my father. That's right. We mentioned this. I've been texting with Wags's dad. Yeah. He told me that he enjoyed the Tomorrow War. OK, great. He said, very scary. He said, the aliens made me.

He said, practically made me piss myself. And I said, that's crazy. And then he said, haha, but would it be gross if I really did? And I said, I don't know. He said, well, I don't know either. And then that's the conversation kind of fizzled out there. But yeah, sounds like him. So you mentioned being on set, Mike, what it like?

OK, you're there. You're working these long days. There's a lot of downtime. There's a lot of snacks available. And this is a question I'm always curious to hear about people who work in the industry is like, what is your what is your snacking routine when you're when you're when you're there and you're captive and there's kind of no place you can go.

But exactly where you are. And there's a whole bunch of free food you can gorge on. Yeah, I fairly early on, I just kind of decided that I can't just keep raiding crafty because then I would die. So I just pretty quickly got to I'm just going to eat healthy things. And yeah, it's kind of boring, but but that was that's kind of my rule because otherwise, yeah, you're in for a long time. What what qualifies as healthy for you?

You going for like some, you know, celery sticks in a hummus? Or what do you have in exactly? Yeah, that's that's a mainstay. There's a lot of like a soluble kind of kind of things at various sets. Right. Yeah, I'm trying to think nuts, maybe. Yeah, some nuts, some fruit sometimes. Yeah. And then if you're if if you're filming somewhere where it's cold, which most of the places where, you know, we shoot now are the the

Atlantis in the winter or Vancouver or something, then you start getting into the I just physically need to warm up category of things. So that that gets you into your your soups and your less healthy options. But after about midnight, you just have to throw everything out. Mike, you go on to a good point of Hollywood has become like kind of like just like a hub where they shuttle you off to other places. They don't really film movies and TV shows much here anymore in Los Angeles. They just it's like, it's like, oh, it's like it's there's a tax break

to shoot in the Arctic Circle. So we'll shoot there instead of shooting anything in fucking Los Angeles, which is that's I mean, that's what that's what Hollywood was for, was to shoot movies and that's what there's all those sound stages there. That's what it's for. Yeah, because it looks like other places. It's it's it's warm or warm year round. No, absolutely.

There's a reason that it that Hollywood set here or is, you know, was built here. But but useless to one hour people in movies. So but yeah, that's that's why I get jealous of comedy writers sometimes. To it, I, you know, I've heard that it's actually legal to film your show in LA, but I've never had one. Never get jealous of comedy writers. I feel like they all anyone who's like staffed on a comedy show. Well, you know how it is.

It just seems like hell on earth. There's there's two good ones usually. What do you mean shows? Yeah, there's two good comedy shows going at one time. Maybe most of them. Yeah, most of everything that's being made is bad and you know what you're working on is bad and you're so you're just sort of like, but I mean, that's that's also a reality.

I feel like of so much of any sort of creative field. I mean, that's how I felt working in video games. A lot of people felt in the video game industry feels like I'm working on this thing that I know is going to be bad and there's only so much I can do with a small chunk that I have stewardship over. They have control over. Rotor Respect is a classic, but. The Sopranos game.

Rotor Respect, a classic game. Full casted V.O. So that is cool. I and I think it maybe is Canaan. Don't they refer like in the Sopranos, like, I don't know what it's called, like the Tony Tony wiki or whatever the fuck it they all have like funny names. They bring up Sopranos. Rotor Respect, video game protagonist, Joey Nails in in season five.

Do they really? No, they don't. Oh, I'm glad they don't. The Gabba Ghoul wiki. It's something like that. It's something stupid. Like, it's probably like a it might be like the Bada Bing, like wiki or something. Oh, yeah.

It feels like we kind of actually do. Or what? Or Satri Ali's. What was this at the pork store? Yeah, Satri Ali's, which does exist, right? It is actually the or maybe the place it was based on. Yeah, like the place that they first filmed in was actually like a meat shop. But Mike, I'm with you when going back to sets.

I don't like so many people like, oh, craft service and that's fun. I don't even like craft service. There are people who bring around like they'll bring around special stuff like you were saying, like, I can't say it, but a sigh. How do you say it? A sigh bowl. A sigh. I think it's a sigh.

Yeah. OK. A sigh. I had to tell at the end that I thought was accuracy, but I'm not sure a sigh. Was it a sigh? It's got a little accent over the eye. Who cares? Who cares?

Yeah. A sigh e-bowls, but like they'll bring around stuff like that and like little smoothies and stuff like that. That is another part that people like there's there's craft service. And then the the caterers or craft service people will bring around kind of like, especially on on some nicer sets, they'll bring around like little smoothies and stuff like on plates. They'll like they'll bring around like little things like snacks during the day.

But get rid of that table to me. I don't need that table. And so many people are like, oh, I don't need it. I like the lunch. Of course, I like a big lunch and I like a I like a I like a free lunch. Who doesn't like a free lunch? But the table, I don't need. I don't need donuts and chips and shit sitting out.

I don't need that. I will say, you know, when you work a job that there is a period where it feels like absolute heaven. And because it is such a perk that you don't get in so many other lines of work, you know, where you've got to like you, that you maybe might maybe you get a free meal if you work in a restaurant, but maybe not even that. But like, you know, like if you come from a work in office jobs with vending machines and then all of a sudden you've got like, wow, this shit is just free.

I can just grab a soda and drink it and not have to pay a dollar out of my paycheck for it. Like that that there is a period where that feels like heaven. And then you get you start to get spoiled by it. And you're like, ah, this is just like empty calories. I'm consuming that I fucking don't need my life. I think crew likes it. I think it is a lot like a like, I think a lot of the crews and grips and stuff. I think and so those guys are fucking they're on their feet working

all day, they're like moving shit around. You got to move like a fucking 30 pound light and like rig it. It's like that's very different than like me sitting in a fucking folding chair trying to think of Alts for, you know, what quirky job some like the the the guest star had, you know, he's a dog ball inspector. That's good. All right, that's good. That'll go in. That's the one to beat.

By the way, Mitch, I looked up the I looked up the the the Sopranos Wikipedia. I have the name of it. Are you ready? Yep. The Sopranos Wiki. Classic. I like it. You know, it's it's good. There's more than one because it can be multiple ones.

But that's what I let down. Yeah. Mike, I'm curious. So going back to, you know, before you were before you were working in this in the industry and and even when you were just growing up, like, what are some of your favorite chains? You seem like a guy who wants to, you know, eat pretty healthy. But like back in the day, or even if you ever like, you know, veer off that path.

What are your indulgences? What do you what are you craving? Yeah, no, I grew up. So I grew up in Orange County. So we were we were a Carl's Junior family. Oh, yeah. And I spent I was realizing the other day, I probably spent the better part of my seventh and eighth grade after school going to Carl's and sitting there

and ordering, like, you know, three dollars worth of food with my friends and trying to stay there the entire time and feeling like persecuted by by management for not being excited that that a bunch of preteens were hanging out there. But so, yeah, a lot of that, a lot of a lot of McDonald's, more of a nuggets guy. And then and then basically my 20s, which was my long, dark period of writing script after script and being in debt. I was just into anything that was a good place to sit and write. So I was doing a lot of renting tables.

So that got me into whatever level of chain, you know, Cheesecake Factory is and things like that. Yes. Oh, yeah. So I sort of decided that my time was worth, you know, twenty dollars an hour. So if I spent fifteen dollars an hour and then, you know, was writing the entire time, it was worth it. You're coming out ahead is is the. So wait, Cheesecake Factory, you know, obviously, like I I love Cheesecake Factory.

That's a platinum plate club chain here on the podcast. We've we've had a we've had a great time every time we've gone. And I'll get that just for just for a fun indulgence. But I've never heard of anyone getting work done at Cheesecake Factory. You were able to sort of post up and and just have the booth yourself and and work on your laptop for a bit. Yeah, do you by any chance remember the one in Brentwood that is no longer there? But yeah, for whatever reason, nobody sat in the bar.

So you could sit there and you could get there whenever it opened and nurse a tropical iced tea and then order, you know, something off the menu at some point and that would give you about three hours of writing time. I used to love that Cheesecake Factory. I used to go all that we used to go like when we had like a little bit of money to spend in college. And then Nally and I, my wife would go in the early point when we were dating as a great Cheesecake Factory, RIP.

Man, I don't even think I knew Cheesecake Factory existed at that point. Why I said that was a phenomenon. I didn't even know it. But it's funny to me that I mean, it seems like a good place to do it. By the way, I wanted to say, Mike, that if the show, the OC was more about teens hanging out in a Carl's Junior and in trying to stick around longer than they should. I think I would watch that show more than what it was about whatever that show was about. Yeah, we were we were living the dream.

That's the real OC to me. Exactly. We've I mean, we've talked about this with our friend, Jordan Morris is also from Orange County and I'm not from Orange County. But, you know, I spend a good amount of time in Orange County because Long Beach is just at the just at the southern end of L.A. County, it's right on the border there. It's like, you know, the outside image of Orange County is so informed by like

the OC and like Laguna Beach, that it's like this glamorous. And there is that side of it. There is the super rich, hey, fucking Ronald Reagan, you know, supporting contingent. But there's also just kind of like this, you know, working class, surfer, dare I say, dirtbag side to OC. That's like really, I don't know. It's like it's like a really interesting side. You never see portrayed in media.

I think mostly just because it's boring. We were in we were in Anaheim and Garden Grove. So we're not there's no surfing happening there. And it was just kind of solidly middle class suburbs. Yes. You know what? I've taken the trip to Garden Grove, much like Brad Knoll. And it's it's it's not a bad spot. I, Mike, I got to ask you what you're sipping on, too.

This is actually a tropical iced tea as well. Wow, the tropical iced tea. I'm really, yeah, selling tropical iced tea today. Well, I was I was going to say, why are you going to say something I cut you off? Are you going to say before I get to my point? Just on the Cheesecake Factory, Brentwood, I have a very strong memory of a very strong

memory of the Cheesecake Factory, Brentwood, specifically. I was with a larger party and we sat down and the hooting the blowfish song, I only want to be with you is playing. And as it hit the chorus, our server arrived and singing along with a soundtrack went, I only want to be with you. Welcome to the Cheesecake Factory. I was like, this fucking rules.

Oh, my God, this is so good. It's as good as it gets. God, yeah. Wow, that's a life highlight, eh? I mean, top top five. Did chains like that use? I know that, like, California Pizza Cafe Pizza Kitchen got worse. Yes. And and she's and maybe Cheesecake Factory is a little worse.

But I feel like that was just like the like early 2000s, maybe was just the banner, you know, era for those places. I feel like the party was so was so good for sure. And you know, that was they get to be kind of usurped by like the, you know, like the gastropubs and the local farm to table restaurants that kind of, you know, if that was a time when that was the nice restaurant that you would go to in town. Hey, Brentwood to fucking one of the the fanciest, richest areas in LA,

if not the country, you know, there's a fucking Cheesecake Factory that was thriving there and that eventually couldn't do business anymore. But I do I say the end of my rant is just going to say, I think that Cheesecake Factory is still about as good. I think I think they haven't really dropped off in quality. They're still pretty good. Yeah, I've not gone and been disappointed. But but I normally just order, you know, kind of a rotating,

you know, small list of things there. So it's that menu is so enormous that 50 percent of it could drop off. And I wouldn't even know. Right. From the first time I've had it till now, I do think that wise. I think you're right. They're still pretty good. I mean, they're still good. They're I shouldn't say pretty good. They're still they are still good.

That the quality hasn't dipped. Not that I can see at least not that I've not that I've noticed. But my thought was is that it's a good place to write just because it's so huge because it feels like a part of those those chain restaurants that were like in the real estate market. Like just the one of the Grove is such a fucking huge. So we met where we met to to discuss the first doughboys where we were to conceive of this podcast.

We were at the Cheesecake Factory, but and I was like, oh, yeah, like we went late afternoon and Mike, that makes sense. Because I'm like, they were empty. They were just empty. It's just so cavernous and huge that you could probably sit there all day and not even be noticed. So that so that makes that the real estate world of of fast food kind of gone. Now people don't really want to eat there.

Right. Like if you like it is more like gastropubs or what do you mean by the real estate world? You mean like they're just like gigantic dining rooms? Yeah, they don't it's you don't see that as I mean, like it's just the thing of Pizza Hut going away and a lot of other places. Like I feel like a lot of places like Taco Bell is just doing like they're doing a drive through thing now. They're they're trying to reinvent the drive through. And I feel like the Wendy's on Vermont even like it seems like a more streamlined

less dining room sort of thing like I don't think people are sitting down and eating in a lot of these places anymore. I don't know if that's the same deal with Cheesecake Factory, but yeah, it's pretty tough to judge in a pandemic. So it'll be interesting a year from now to see if that's true. Go back to. Yeah. I do I do think to your point, Mitch, that like, for instance, Starbucks consciously keeps their their their, you know,

their dining area is pretty small. Like they're there. You see it go to a Starbucks and he's just fucking swarming. It could be as big as an old school Pizza Hut, but they'd rather have like two Starbucks in the same neighborhood than have one giant Starbucks, because that doesn't feel like the brand anymore. And fuck Starbucks. Yeah, I mean, like I'm not being pro Starbucks.

I'm just saying there's a strategy there. We support small businesses like the Cheesecake Factory. Sounded like a little pro Starbucks to me. Mike, what do you what do you what do you so you eat healthy and you mentioned? Oh, I don't I don't eat healthy. I just healthy while I'm on while I'm on set, because it's one of those. I also decided that a while like I used to review movies terribly when I was in college and I decided that I can't eat

while I'm at the movies every time, because that would be a disaster, too. If it's just a small like I just have to draw like a hard line. Yeah, yeah, I that is my issue. Every time I go to a movie, I want and I'll get a diet Coke, but I want to Coke and I want to popcorn with butter. Like that's what I that's and I go to the movies a lot, at least before the pandemic. It's like the thing that I like to do the most and you just can't.

You can't you can't be eating that liquid butter wigs. You just can't do it. Yeah, I mean, as we've discussed, I'm a popcorn skeptic. I'm not somebody who likes popcorn, but I will. But I will do shit. I will do nachos and I love movie. Not you just you're just you're just texting about nachos the other day. You know, I was texting about this is my my my and sorry to cut you out.

But but I think we're about to say the same thing, which is that the my cases, the AMC nachos are as those nachos go are superior to other offerings because they give you two cheese cups by default. You don't have to ask for an extra cheese cup. Yeah, the last thing you want is some dry chips and no cheese leftover. That's a bomber. Yeah, all about the ratio. Yeah, you said you were saying that the AMC nachos are the Supreme nachos, right? You say there's no other movie nachos that are better.

Contrasting them with, say, the Cinemark nachos. Cinemark, another chain that's out here. I just like the Cinemark. You get one cup and maybe you get some jalapeno slices on the side. And I like that because I'm something of a heat seeker, but I'd rather have that second cup of cheese. Hmm, one wide two cups. An old reference and old isn't that an old bit?

Is that wasn't that two girls? Oh, two girls, one cup. That was like 2007, I think that was so long. Most listeners aren't even we're not even alive. Don't Google that. Yeah, don't look that up. If you're not sure what it is, don't use Bing videos to look that up. You won't be happy.

Mike, I was going to ask you, what's your normal go to for breakfast? We're talking Starbucks. Great question. We're talking about a breakfast chain today. Right. And so what's your normal? Are you like just a black coffee guy or do you get a little bite to eat or what's the deal? So I'm a huge. So this is more on the can't do this every day front.

But, you know, LA has unbelievable breakfast burritos. So I have. Oh, yeah. I have worked extensively on trying, you know, 100 plus restaurants for their breakfast burritos. So and put together my own my own list and as I dork out. Wow. But I would like to not ever do that more than once or twice a week. Right. So then that so then, you know, kind of some some kind of eggs I need. I generally need protein to keep me going until lunch.

And and then, yeah, I'm trying to think. Yeah, coffee, cold brew, if if it's above, you know, 65 or something. Right. Yeah. What's your let's talk breakfast burritos for a second. What do you like in a good breakfast burrito? So I think it's all to me, it's all about the texture. It's got to be you. It's got to have like some contrast in the texture.

So so that's why a lot of the time, you know, hash browns are important or something like that, maybe bacon and it's got to be breakfasty. I've I've disqualified some for being not not eggy enough or not generally in that category. I agree with that. I think it's going to be egalitarian. Like I don't there are some that I like a lot that are $12 or something. But I think generally, you know, breakfast burritos are for the people. Yes.

And and then I think the tortilla, I think they got to go back to the grill. So it's it's all about the tortilla being, you know, appropriately grilled. Right. So those are a few things you brought up. You brought up two points with me with breakfast burritos that are, one, I do like hash browns, like I like a crunch and a potato we crunch. But oftentimes when you when you get the potato in the in the breakfast burrito, it's just over potato. You get an over potato breakfast burrito, it's potato and you can't.

And then because of that, you can't really taste the eggs. But also like you were saying, this great point is that like you'll get one that has like chorizo in it and eggs and then you're eating it. You're like, it just feels like I'm eating a chorizo burrito. It doesn't feel like I have any eggs in here. The eggs are an afterthought, which to me, I I'm with you. I think that like the eggs and cheese have to be like a strong factor in the in the breakfast burrito, which I think a lot of the times

with a lot of these places, they're kind of afterthoughts. Now, you made this list. I want to hear I want to hear some of the top ones that you got ranked because I because I pull up my please. Dear God, I would love it. Yeah, please bring up this list. OK, actually, I already already hacked into your computer. So my my list.

Yeah, OK, great, great, great. Let me know. So I don't I don't actually go by like I don't have a top one. My wife was frustrated because I do have numbering here, but it's just within the categories. So anyway, my my my top 10, I think, for LA currently would be Tacos via Corona over in Atwater. Yeah, I think the rooster is great. Cilantro Mexican Grill, you know where that is.

It's in the Chevron over in North Hollywood. It's unbelievable. Yes. Aztec Las Tecca, then low key burritos, the truck. I think Cassell's hamburgers, surprisingly good. Oh, wow. All right. Tacos to Madre, electric owl, Lucky Boy in Pasadena. Lucky Boy's big and Great White over in Venice. Wow, Great White.

There's is the Great White Hut. Is that what it's called? Because there's a Great White Hut and no, it's I know. I know you're talking about the Glendale one. It's I don't I don't believe they have anything to do with each other. OK, the the Tacos via Corona on in Atwater, correct? That I've had that one before and it's it is it is really fantastic. It's really, really good.

But breakfast burritos again, going back to set thing. You get to set as as an actor, at least. And they're like, do you want a breakfast burrito? Like they offer you food in the morning, and that's the thing for me, which is like the hardest to say no to because and I want it really bad because they're usually really good. Like that, you know, they have like their their caterers make up a like a food truck, basically, and they'll cook up a breakfast burrito.

But then you just got to you got a bomb and you're you got to it's a it's a it's a it's a gut bomb, at least for for me. I'm like, I'm no I know at some point I'm going to have to use the bathroom and I'm on set and I'm now wired up and I'm like, if I I need to eat lighter than that, I can't do the I can't do the breakfast burrito. But I want it more than anything. It's always what I want when I think I think you just got to say yes to it. And then just maybe throw half away, which sounds terrible.

But but the other glorious thing about breakfast burritos is they travel. So it's because it's going to be like, you know, half an hour or 45 minutes until some PA gets you your breakfast burrito. And that and you have a chance at it being good at that point. Anything else is going to be terrible. The poor PA who has he's carrying like thirty nine breakfast burritos. Yeah, yeah, I think I think that the only thing you can do is just I kind of go veggie at a certain point because yeah, just otherwise that just slightly

improves what you're eating. Going back to your list, because I had I had tacos to moderate. It sounded familiar. Me and I looked it up and I was like, oh, yeah, I would have had this one. I've had their breakfast tacos, but their breakfast burrito has something. You're talking about potatoes in the texture in them has tater tots in it, which is like, you know, unconventional, but gives it a nice little crunch, a little Christmas crunch.

No, I think I think that is a is a great sneaky move that a lot of places do. Yeah, exactly for the crunch, but not too overpowering. Also, it tacos to moderate. You should I think they're way better if you sub out their cheese. They have another cheese there, the queso Pinello. I think OK, as I met probably Massacre, how I said that. But but anyway, it's pretty fantastic. You're your list.

I'm just I'm impressed because it's like it's you're like a best breakfast burritos in L.A. But this is like a sprawling geographic area. Like you you're talking about stuff from Venice to North Hollywood work. You were covering like, you know, we're talking we're talking 90 minute drives over some of these spans. You know, we're going all the way to Pasadena. So you you did you did your homework. Yeah, but I still have a lot more homework to do.

And there are a ton more. The L.A. Times just came out with a list like Bill Addison's list and a fatuation's got one. And there's a bunch of great ones that that have in it, you know, the pandemic has not slowed down the proliferation of breakfast burritos. So there are plenty of great ones to try and and in all directions. Yeah. And if you are looking for breakfast burrito guidance in the City of Angels, beyond Mike's list, our friend Farley Elliot, past guest of the show.

Coming back on the show real soon, hopefully has a 20 essential breakfast burritos in L.A. that he published in 2020. So it should be still pretty current. But yeah, there's there's no shortage, no shortage of good ones. Well, as you know, know who has a good one, I think. Oak score may right around the corner from from a UCB from the UCB Theater. That's right. You go you go there early.

I mean, if you're over there early enough for a breakfast burrito, there's something wrong. You got to do some sort of rehearsal or some sort of practice group at fucking nine in the morning or something terrible. Be let into the theater. Do comedy for people at at 10 30 a.m. Uh-huh. And then you go around the corner, you get yourself a little oak score made burrito.

And I like that because it's got runny eggs. It's got a little bit of runny eggs. You got some yolk going. So. Yeah, it's a good one, too. That is, yeah, that is, you get the like the over medium eggs. I'm also I'm like, I'm looking through Farley's list. And this is a place that my lovely wife, Natalie, introduced me to the Chory man.

Oh, yeah, I need to go to San Pedro. Yeah, Chory man's got a got a got a got a really good one. What is the shorted options? It's like it's a portmanteau of chorizo and man. Oh, well, it sounds like a horror movie in many ways. And it also is a Korean horror movie. The Chory man like lives off death and anger or whatever. Yes, that sort of eats children's souls.

And he has a taco shop. Well, look, we could talk breakfast burritos all day, but we have doughnuts to get to. We're going to take a break and we'll be back in doughnut country with more dough boys. That's my country. You know, Mitch, you're about to take a little trip abroad. You're going to Costa Rica.

That's right. Why? So I'm going to Costa Rica with the family. It's going to be a lot of fun. Going to maybe see a monkey. Oh, that's fun. Going to maybe see a bird. Just that, just a one monkey, one bird. That's it. Hey, that sounds like a heck of a vacay.

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We're here with, I guess, Mike Horowitz discussing this week's chain. Winchells Donut House, founded in Temple City, California in 1948, merged with Denny's in 1967 and later sold to Yum Yum Donuts in 2004, peaked at over 1,000 locations in the 80s, but now is down to around 170 somewhere in that neighborhood. So it's kind of had a bit of a hard fall. This is that's that's all of this, all of this is news to me. The fact that it's a Denny's bought it at one point.

Denny, it bought Denny's. It was this big. It bought Denny's. It acquired Denny's. Yeah, Winchells was huge. So the I talk about this in my intro a little bit, but the founder of Winchells was like a this this entrepreneur who, you know, he basically was like looking for a business and he just was like,

hey, donuts, that'll work. It's not that he had a passion for donuts. He was like just an opportunistic sort of like this is this is a slice of the market that I can like carve out for myself. And and he was very successful with it. And and the company under his leadership was like successful, but then he eventually retired and started breeding racehorses. And when he did that, like the company kind of, you know, receded a little bit

that combined with, I think that, you know, Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme didn't used to be out here. I mean, Mike, you know this from growing up out here. Those came around in like after the 20th, the 21st century. So that Winchells kind of had this market all to itself. It was like Winchells and Yum Yum for a long time. And I think that I think that competition and then also just people just kind of generally not wanting dessert for breakfast anymore,

because people are mindful of what they eat. I think that all those factors were kind of tough for it. So what? So Yum Yum bought Winchells eventually. Yum Yum bought Winchells in 2004 when it was really. Wow. Yeah. That's really wild to me. I mean, like, yeah. When they, when Denny's was involved, was that a weak point for Denny's?

Because it feels like to me, Denny's is massive. Yeah. Yeah. I think Denny's had a little bit of Denny's had. Denny's has had some struggles over the years. And I think this was maybe at one of their low points. And Winchells actually revived them a little bit. Well, Winchells and Yum Yum seemed so different to me. I said this to Mike when we we had we had lunch recently.

And I was saying to you that Winchells to me feels like like if Quentin Tarantino put Winchells in one of his movies, it would feel like appropriate. It feels like a very. Right. Socal classic donut shop. Like it feels like in Boogie Nights, like when when that when that guy gets shot and Don and John Cheeto, like, oh, yeah, to take the money. Like that feels like a Winchells to me.

I don't even know. I think it is just like an LA donut shop, but it feels like a Winchells. Winchells, like when I think of LA, like California donuts, which there are a lot of great local donut shops that that that people love. And but to me, it feels like, oh, this is like originally what Winchells was intended for. But you saying likes that it was just an entrepreneur trying to make money is funny to me because it feels like such a like an earnest.

This is a little donut shop and we care about the donuts type of place. Yes. Yeah, it does feel like that. And maybe it turned into that. Maybe he developed a passion for it. Certainly, you know, the the Winchell, the man was was a good businessman, at least. So. And the heir to the Winchell fortune, Karen Winchell was my boss when I was a CBS page. Wow, Karen Winchell.

Karen Winchell was my boss at CBS. She was a head. She was head of the page program when I was over there working on fucking prices right in one life to live or whatever the hell, whatever soap opera they shoot there, she had to work. She had she was working. I don't know if she had to work, but she was working. She chose to work, Mitch, Mitch, I got to I got to ask.

Was she kind of a Karen? Why? She kind of was a Karen in many ways. I mean, she was nice to me. But I think that she would like yell at people. But she was nice. She was nice to me. I've never been. I'll say this is someone who's been to when I've been going to Winchell since the eighties.

I don't feel like I've ever been inside of Winchell's that's been remodeled. They all feel like they all feel like an old and dated. Yeah, which I kind of like, but it seems like it's this is it's a funny thing to Dana and I were we're talking about this of like there's the ice cream shop, the ice cream parlor in Quincy, which is a Brigham's. And he was like, I'm so shocked that like hipsters never appropriated that. And not that he was badmouthing hipsters or everyone relax. But he was like, I'm shocked that no one take it easy.

He wasn't badmouthing hipsters. No one. Relax. Hipsters, yeah. If hipsters relax, but it's that sort of thing of like, he's right. I'm like, and that's kind of how I feel about Winchell's where I'm like, oh, like it feels like eighties and it feels like kind of a thing that like people should embrace.

But I don't know if people do. I mean, I know that they get business, obviously. But from what I from what I could gather from it. And I don't know why, because if you have any more background on this, but it feels like a lot of Winchell's really cater to the Latino community, which I think is is great. At least the one I went to it for sure. Like, like just even some of the offerings on the menu and stuff.

And Los Angeles has a very large Latino population. And I know that that's just a part of it. But when I went in there, it was, you know, like Spanish speaking and a lot of the customers were Latino. And I don't know if if that's something that has it's always been that way or if it's it's something that's more recent or what the deal is. But yeah, it's certainly not like the company's DNA is like a strategy. It wasn't like that was I think that just sort of kind of over over time.

It's because like to what you're saying, it just reflects the population of the city and California. And so so mine was because I went like middle of the day and it was it was busy. Like like even like whatever it was like afternoon. And there were still like a lot of people kind of coming in and out of there more so than I would like because I actually sat down to eat at one point. And then there were more there were more people that came in because I thought I had it to myself, which I did for about 10 minutes.

And then people were coming in and out a lot after that. I just want to clarify, because you're recording from your mom's basement in Quincy, Massachusetts, which you were, which is where you live. But the winchels you went to was not in Quincy. It was in LA. It was in LA, of course. There's no winchels in Quincy. Yeah, no one would dare compete with Duncan.

Yeah. Well, there is doughnut. I actually there is doughnut king, which which was my sister like one of my and that is like that to me feels like a winchel. Like it's an old school doughnut shop and my sister loves it and it has great doughnuts, but it like does it the old school way. And I will say the winchels I went to, it did it had had that vibe to it. There was like a you could make the dough. Like they made the doughnuts next to like there was the doughnut baking area

next to the actual restaurant. Like you could see inside where they were making doughnuts, which is great. That's its advantage over like a Duncan is that it's like, it's like, oh, they're actually making the doughnuts here. They're not getting them shipped from a, you know, like a factory that's supplying them. I want to say, or like, you know, like one bakery that's serving like 30 of these different local outlets.

I used you met you said doughnut king. I have to say this also in my intro. Winchel, the man was nicknamed the doughnut king and famously owned a horse, a champion racehorse named doughnut king. Is that true? It's absolutely true. Very much a man of the people naming his horse. After himself.

And forcing his wife or his daughter to go work and run the page program. I don't know how she was, but she was, she was like, she was a winchel. I know maybe she just was a winchel. Yeah, I could have just been the name. Mike, are you a page rumors? Are are you a it seems like you lean towards the savory side for breakfast, which I do as well. But do you ever indulge in a doughnut?

Yeah, I I know. Obviously, I've given this some thought because, you know, the the assignment is winchels and it's it's funny, actually, because I I feel like it's interesting to hear that there are places in the world that don't have winchels because they were so ubiquitous in Orange County when I grew up that I just sort of feel like that's what a doughnut tastes like. And I think it was, you know, Paul Tompkins on your show, who was sort of

complaining about something that tastes exactly like it did when he was a kid, which I thought was an advantage of fast food. But but winchels just is the taste that I expect a standard doughnut to be. And so so, yeah, no, absolutely. I've I've partaken in the doughnuts at times. And yeah, no, I'm a fan. I'm I'm also, you know, hipsters did appropriate doughnuts in general.

And true, you know, all the I feel like they're all, you know, Portland, Oregon, chains of the side cars and the blue stars and the voodoo's. And those are fantastic in their own way. Yeah. Yeah, those are those are good. But it's also like you're, you know, you're spending five, six dollars on a doughnut. It's kind of absurd. Yeah, you'd never do that every day. No. But but I also I also realized that my doughnut consumption has a lot to do with my coffee consumption in life

because I for whatever reason in my 20s, I don't really drink coffee. So I because I kind of think doughnuts without coffee are terrible. You really just need you need to like cut the cut the sugar, especially, you know, in the morning. And the combo, I think, is pretty good, you know, even even early. But but without coffee, it's just a sugar bomb. Yeah, when I when I was a kid and I'd have doughnuts and those were always a treat on Sunday, usually from like a local like independent place.

But the just like a local small business, the the pink box doughnuts. And you remember that getting those pink box doughnuts. Yeah. And and I always remember having like milk with it. Like I can't just like I need to drink something that's not super sweet before I was drinking coffee. And nowadays, absolutely, it's it's it's whatever I have a doughnut anytime of day, I got to have a cup of coffee with me. I'm with you on that.

Yeah. Mitch, you're not a coffee drinker, but I'm still not a coffee guy. Yeah, I never it's funny. I've never really I don't think I've ever dunked my doughnut. And I know it's dunked in doughnuts, but I don't think I've ever done it. Right. I don't think I don't think I've ever done it before. How about a basketball? You ever throw a stick jam?

I've never dunked a basketball. You've seen me. You've seen what I am. You think I've ever dunked it? You know, that was my I was terrible about. I I've grown up to love basketball. I love I love basketball, but I was I was horrible at it. I was bad at all sports.

Why? Besides baseball, it's why I'm in in calm. I can't do anything. Well, I did. I mean, I heard a rumor that you rode crew in college, actually, though. I mean, were you maybe good at that? Why are you doing this to me? I don't know. I just I've never heard it from you, but I just kind of heard kind of read it out there.

I rode crew in college. Wow. And guess what? I was bad at that, too. Just get one of the big chunky guy that they had a fucking. My seven other guys had to fucking roll me around. Sucked. Sucked for everybody. Well, they were like, if the if the boat ever capsizes, your head will keep us afloat.

Just kind of be bouncing there like a buoy. That did happen one day. There was there like there was a big wake and the other the other crew boat got it snapped in half on Lake Cayuga. Unfortunately, my boat didn't. We had to like sprint back to try to get help to tell the sucked. Yeah, I wish I was saying I wish I was in the water. It seemed more fun to just be in the water.

Snapped in half is is crazy. It was that. Yeah. What caused that? It was it was a wake from like a big boat. And I remember like my crew coaches was was pissed off because it was like a huge wake from a boat. And then, you know, like the when the boats hit it the wrong way. So they went up and then they went back down. And then the other the other wave took it and snapped the boat in half.

Snapped it and snapped it right into. Wow. Yeah. Ward Romer, great guy, great crew coach. You that was my that was my freshman year crew coach Ward. Cornell guy, but he like kind of hated Cornell. He's like a former Cornell guy and then he hated Cornell. And he and he and he was a coach of crew at Ithaca. Great guy. Wow. And at the end of the year, he's like he's like,

we did a lot of great stuff this year. And they was like, and look at Mike, Mike like lost weight. That was kind of like one of his rundowns. That was one of the highlights of the year. So this guy's not as fat as anymore. He's lost a little bit of weight. I'm going to be nice if you if you transition this all the way back to donuts. Well, you know, here's the thing is that there was there was Ithaca bagels nearby.

They're like, but to me, post, because we would have morning practices. This is the thing with donuts for me is like, I'm never really craving it. Like I wanted to like a hot, either like a bagel sandwich or to go back to the cafeteria at Ithaca and get like a bunch of eggs and bacon and like, you know, whatever in a protein and but not to say that Winchells doesn't offer that because Winchells offers a bunch of that stuff too, which I which I also had no idea of is that they they they offer plenty of things beyond just donuts. Yeah, well, and I think that that that actually leads up to one of my thoughts on

on Winchells, which is that I think they're trying too much. Like their menu has gotten so big now. It's so sprawling and there are so many new items. There are at least three different items there that that had like new on it. And like pizza, they didn't use to offer bowls they've got like like protein bowls. They've got salads now. They've got, you know, they've got all these different smoothies. Clearly, like some of the stuff is also a pain in the ass to make.

You can tell without even ordering it that like they're not really set up to have pizzas here, but they're just going to figure out how to do it with their like microwaves or whatever they've gotten there in their kitchen. But it's like they, you know, still what they do best is donuts and coffee, but their menu has gotten so far away from that. That said, let's get into our orders. So your location was hoppin, Mitch, my location was pretty dead. I went to a West L.A. location mid-morning.

I'll say, I'll say my thought on, my thoughts on this particular Winchells is that it was a microcosm of where the food service industry is right now, which is that, you know, there's this labor shortage. There was only one person working all over the, you know, there's all these new items, and then there's also all these signs for now hiring all positions. Like they're clearly like trying so hard to find anyone who can, who is willing to work there. Um, and then they were also, you know, there's the, there's all these supply

issues right now, uh, they were out of stock of a bunch of stuff. In fact, when I got in there, there's one of their customer in line in front of me, he ordered three different sandwiches in succession. And each one he ordered, they were out of, and then at some point he was just like, okay, well, all right, thanks. And then just walked out of there. It's just like they, you know, they didn't have chicken salad. They didn't have tuna salad.

They didn't have turkey breasts. You know, they were just out of a bunch of stuff and it didn't seem like they're getting it anytime soon. So it's a, yeah, it was, it was kind of a bummer for that reason. That said, the person who helped me out was great and she was, uh, she was a delight. Um, I tried a few different things. I, I guess let's start with donuts because this is a donut place.

This is their money maker. This is why this business is still hanging around. I, I got a, I got a standard glazed and agree with Mike. This was just a, this was just a bite of a memory. This just took me back and died. This is like, this is what a Winchells glazed donut tastes like. Tastes exactly the same as I've had at any point in my life. Did you like start, did you start like Gaga and going in the, uh, in the

restaurant? Yeah. I regressed to infancy and then, uh, she was like, sir, you got to mop that up. Jesus Christ. Down on all fours, huh? Yeah. It's covered with gunk. Um, I also, uh, I got Natalie, she requested specifically a chocolate

frosted cake donut with peanuts. So this is like the, the cake is not the, not the, not the devil's food. It's like the cake donut with the, the chocolate frosting on top and peanuts. Uh, and she loved it and she thought it was great. And, and I liked it as well as like, this is a good solid donut. And I also got what is for me, one of my tests of, of a place's donut proficiency, which is the maple bar, one of my favorites, great maple bar, great maple flavor, great texture.

It was just like, it's like, this is exactly what I want, uh, from this tier of donut from this, from this sort of price point. I thought the donuts were great. Uh, Mr. Slyce, what did you get? Donut wise. Well, I got a lot of stuff, Nick. And, uh, so I went to the, I had to get my car fixed because it, there

was a recall. I'm like, what the hell is he doing? What are you doing? I'm going to the chair. Okay. All right. Yeah. I mean, you, you started walking off.

I can stand or sit at my setup and it helps me to, to stand for a while because of my lower back. And then I just got tired of standing. So I grabbed my chair. I didn't like it. If you hadn't called attention to it, the listeners would never know. Those freaks would have no idea. Now they know your little secrets.

You can't be doing this shit. You got to, you got to be, you got to be, you got to be, you got to be forward about this stuff with me too. Cause I don't know where you're going off. You're, you're running off mid-record. You're, you're, you're running to the back of the room. I don't get what's happening. I reached behind me to grab a chair.

Yeah. And I was in your field of vision. What did you think I was doing? It's not like you did on the winchels floor or something. I don't know what you're doing. I, uh, so I went, I went to this, uh, so I had to get my car, my car had a recall. Uh-huh. My, uh, my, my Ultima.

So I brought it up to the Universal City Nissan. You know what else has a recall? Gavin Newsom, which we voted yes on. We voted, we voted for him to be recalled. Okay. We're not right wing. Yeah. Not, not a conservative podcast.

Right in, right in Karen Winchall. Yeah. We wrote in Karen Winchall. You'd be a tyrant. Um, so I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm up at Universal City Nissan, which by the way is I was like, one of these things where I need to get my oil changed. And I had a, I had a, a, I got a flat tire. So I had to get a new tire.

I'm like, I'm going to leave this place like spending $1,000, which was the case because Universal- Jesus Christ. Sucks. It sucks. They suck. You go to the fucking dealer. I mean, that's just, uh, I had, I had to go to the dealer cause of the recall. I had to go.

I get it. And so anyways, I was up there and I was like, there's going to be a Winchall's around, right? There's Winchall's all over the place. I was trying to go like North, you know, I'd like, you know, I'm up in North Hollywood. And so the closest one was for me, not going back down into this, into the city was, was in, was up in San Fernando.

It was, it was on brand Boulevard in San Fernando. Um, in Y's, I got to say the, the service was great. I, I was, I talked to a woman there who was, was helping me out and she was great. And I did get myself, uh, I think a half dozen donuts. Um, they were all, they were all pretty good. I, I, I got to go back over, but I also got myself an apple fritter. Um, and, uh, and, and, uh, a couple of filled donuts. The filled donuts were, were not my favorite.

There was a, a, uh, a raspberry filled donut and an apple filled donut, uh, raspberry and apple filled donut. And those were, those were just okay. Those had like more of a artificial, the, the, the filling tasted artificial. Right. And that was my, that was my kind of like my, the, the, the point deduction there. Um, I had a, a blueberry muffin wigs, um, which was just not enough blueberries. There just wasn't, there was, yeah, there just wasn't, there

just wasn't enough blueberries in it. It was, it was a bummer. Uh, the apple, the apple fritter was, was great. It was really great, but I wish it was like five hours fresher. Now I did go in, like I said, it was the afternoon. It was, it was like 12 45 when I went in there. So I think maybe around 10 a.m. This thing would have been, would have been great, but it tasted just like a few

hours too old. Uh, and then I also got a cheese Danish. So I'm just covering everything I got from like, kind of this window there. Sure. And it was good, but it wasn't my favorite. And as far as the donuts, so I asked, I asked the lady who worked there, I said, like, what do you get? What do you get for donuts?

And she said, she said she didn't eat anything there and seemed very unsure of stuff, which we've talked about before. Yeah. Um, and so I actually, I had asked for a Boston cream and that's, that was the one that was an apple stuffed one, but then all the, like all the other more plain donuts, like the chocolate frosty ones. Uh, so I got like a, a chocolate cake, chocolate frosting with, uh, with chocolate sprinkles on it.

And that was good. I got a classic, uh, honey glazed and that was, and that was really good. And then what, what do you call this type of donut? Why it's like the, the, this looks like an old fashioned. Yeah. With chocolate frosting, a chocolate, a chocolate old, I think it was a chocolate old fashioned and then another old, old fashioned with like pink, like a, like a, like a pink or strawberry.

That's like that, that homer frosting, the homer frosting. And those were, those were actually both pretty good. Uh, oh no, it wasn't old fashioned with just the regular, uh, it was not chocolate. It was, it was chocolate on top. All, all of the plain ones were good and the filled ones were not as good, but those weren't, those weren't my favorite. Uh, the, you know, the donuts weren't my favorite thing there. Well, we'll get to that in a second, but Mike, I want to start, I want to hear

your donut assessment. Yeah. So I, I tried, I went a couple of times, uh, to try and hit more of the donuts. Um, by the way, I thought, uh, I was, I, in my sad small amount of research, I looked up best donut just to see what, you know, Winshills, just to see if there were, you know, people had a pick that I should try. And I did come across that, uh, that one of the secrets that I guess people share about Winshills is that, uh, what times they make the various donuts.

Yeah. And so it feels like, uh, it's all about getting there as early as possible. And donuts, you know, kind of have this fairly short half-life anyway. So, uh, I went both times before eight AM, uh, and, uh, and mostly enjoy, which, which is a function of having a kid, uh, not, not being super excited about donuts. Um, but, uh, but, but basically, yeah, I think I'd agree with you about the, uh, so I had a glazed raspberry filled. Oh, I will also point out in the world of, uh, your favorite Starbucks, uh, you

know, labeling everything perfectly, uh, it's actually kind of hard to order at Winshills because it, it, you just, all your only method is pointing. And so you, you have no idea what the things are called. I couldn't figure out, cause they, they also make a big deal about which donuts are fancy, but I think that, but that's like, uh, in the eye of the beholder thing, I have no idea what that's about. Um, yeah, the fancy ones are more expensive, but it seems pretty arbitrary. Yeah.

So, um, but I, I thought, um, I mean, just simple glazed, our glazed twist is kind of, I think always going to be my favorite. And I, it's exactly how I remembered and kind of love it. Uh, and then the buttermilk bar, uh, I thought it was pretty fantastic, especially. And, uh, and then, and then the, you know, the more, the more stuff you put on it or fill it with, the more artificial I think that they taste. So, um, I agree with you there. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the, those were, I actually just looking through these now, I'm like, I think I, the kind of more plain donuts I thought were great. And the fact that, you know, like, why is like you're saying all these tongue and donuts, they just get them shipped in now. And it makes a huge difference that these things are, are baked or fried or whatever, right in the other room there.

Like it, it, it helps. Like, uh, like you could taste the, you like, you could taste like the appropriate freshness of them of being made within the day or whatever, you know, and, and, and I, and I thought, I thought all the ones that were not the artificially filled with goop, all of those ones were, were, were, were really great. And I wish Dunkin Donuts, donuts were more like that. Like I, like, uh, I wish that was the case. Now does Dunkin Donuts do stuff better than Winshills?

Yes. 100%. Well, yeah, I'll agree with you there. If you got an apple fritter at the right time, I think that it could really hit. But I'll also say I did pretty good on the hot food once we get to it. So, so, so I, I, yeah. One more thing about the donuts, I assume this is maybe as its own category, but the cost is crazy.

I mean, for a dollar, you like, you can't tell me that like whatever donuts, you know, I had at Winshills are at least 80, 90% as good as super fancy Portland donut and, uh, and it's, you know, 20% of the price. It's crazy. So it's hard to, hard to compete with that price for sure. Yeah. That's a huge part of it. Uh, well, let's get into, let's get into our hot foods or, or, or other items

that we got non-tonut items, Mitch, go for it. All right. Well, I already, I already talked about blueberry muffin, not enough blueberries, which is just, but the taste of it wasn't bad. They just need bigger, they need bigger, uh, bigger blooms. Swags that you, they needed to, they, those blueberries needed to be bigger. They, they, and they needed to be more of them. Just when you're biting into a thing, there's, and there's, and there's just

like a, you know, just a plain muffin. Come on. Right. I prefer to great cheese. Dennis was okay. Not my favorite. And then as far as the other food goes, uh, I got it myself and everything bagel with cream cheese and it was really good.

It was really, really, really good. It was like made in that sandwich way where they put cream cheese on it and then cut it into. And I had apologized to the, like I said, when I went in, there was, there was no one there. And then like after I had ordered all this food with this super nice, uh, women working behind the counter, someone did walk in and then I sat in eight for about 10 minutes and then probably like six people came in that time,

which to me for one PM, I thought was, was kind of was, was busy enough, especially cause I was terrified of COVID. Um, and I was, and I, and I also ordered all this food, including, uh, six doughnuts in a box and took it all over to a seat. And the lady thought I was a fuck. She, I just, it was an insane amount of food to go and then sit at a table. But like, she thought, I think she thought I was bringing it to somebody. Um, I got an orange juice to start off with.

Why is they have like a fresh squeezed orange juice? Yes. Uh, the issue with it was it was kept behind like that was kept in those like like little display case and it was kind of, it was basically room temperature is close to room temperature. But if it wasn't, if it was cold, it would have been really good because you could tell that it was a fresh squeeze right around then. Uh, the ever, everything bagel, like I said, was great.

And then my other hot sandwich was a bake and I ate the everything baked. Like I kind of ate it like a sandwich. You know how like some places they put the cream cheese and they cut it into like I was saying sandwich style. I kind of ate it that way too. And then I would break it apart, but I kept going back to that. Everything bagel with cream cheese. I thought it was great.

I don't know if they make their own bagels or what the deal is, but it was, they did a good job with it. And then a bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant. And I thought that was great. I thought it was really great. Uh, surprisingly great because I did not think it was going to be good. It feels like I thought sandwiches were kind of like an afterthought there, but it was really working for me.

Um, yes, they, they seem to do all right with their sandwiches, both breakfast and otherwise, which I'll get to in a second, but I keep going. Well, and this is, and so like I was saying, like, uh, and this, this, this, this is like a, to me, it feels like this is like, uh, something that's like a Latino drink. It feels like something that's catered towards the Latino population. And I loved it. It was a chila cha, cha mango would have, it had, uh, tahin on it on top of it.

Yes. Uh, I don't know if you saw, and so it's, it's, it's a mango drink. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's chila mango, but it's called the chila, like chila with an A. It's a chila and it's a cha mango. Yeah. I, they had, they had that and they were heavily promoting it at mine, but they were out of it.

So I ordered it and then I had to, I had to pivot, but you liked it. I loved it. I thought it was great. It was a weird, it was weird, but it was, it was really, it was really good. It was, uh, it was, it was really fantastic. And I was like, this is such a weird thing and something that you wouldn't get at any other place and it's really working for me. It were, and they had like a lot of fresh juices.

Like you could get a lot of different things like that there. And it was, Mike, I agree with you that the, the menu was basically overwhelming cause there was a lot of stuff on there and you didn't really know what it was. And it was kind of, it was kind of like a point in kind of asking what it was. And it's way too fucking big. It's too big. And also like it's too big to not have pictures next to it or like a better menu or not, like a, the online, if you go to the website, the website is like

hilariously from, it feels like an 80s website. It feels like one of the first websites. It's a plain text link. It's like, it's, there's a few images, but, but the, the menu itself is like a plain text list of like literally like 200 different items. It's absurd. Yeah. And also some of the items they have in store aren't even listed here.

It's not, it's not really helpful. And they don't have, they don't have an app. No app. Yeah. There's, they had no app, the app doesn't exist. Um, and that does everything except of course, I got my self a little cup of coffee wags. I got myself a, a, a small cup of coffee and I, I ordered it just black.

And then I added a couple of sugars to it. And the coffee to me was watery and a little burnt, but I also was okay with that. It did like, it almost tastes like diner coffee a little bit. And I was kind of okay with it. Like I almost expected it to taste that way and wasn't disappointed by it. If that makes sense. Right. But I think a lot of people would taste that and be like,

this is watered down and burnt. But I'm like, I kind of like a plain black coffee like that anyway. So, so it didn't, it didn't, it didn't bother me much, but it was like very basic. Like, I feel like it's like, if you went to like whatever a college campus or if you went to like a funeral and there was, I don't know how often there's coffee set up in a funeral home, but, uh, of course, but it'll be sort of my funeral. I'll insist on it. The party, uh, but, but just, just like anywhere where you can get coffee for

free where like a hotel lobby or something. It was just like watery kind of burnt coffee, but I was okay with it. And it also didn't make me question like, so this isn't like Starbucks or Dunkin's in that way. Like they're not, they're not trying to do a lot of like coffee drinks. It feels like even like some of the bigger drinks to me felt more like fruity drinks and a mix of fruity drinks, but there of course were like some of those like some of those coffee drinks of like the ice latte sort of things, but

they're offering some of them. It is weird that they're not, they're not really trying to compete on that. No, they're not, they're not, it doesn't feel like they're in the coffee game as much, uh, but they do offer it. So well, they, they are, and they aren't cause it's like, they don't have, there's, they, they clearly don't have like a sufficient like espresso, you know, station or whatever. It's just sort of like they're just trying to cobble together what they can

with the, uh, you know, uh, with the equipment that they have, uh, they do have like coffee versions of the chillas, like they do have non-fruit versions that use coffee and then they also have like, you know, though, you can get like a cappuccino or whatever. Like they'll do a few different drinks, but yeah, absolutely. It's, it's like old school diner coffee. It's, it's like a little watery and weak like you mentioned, but I liked it. I like my cup of coffee.

I just got a straight up cup of coffee. Um, Mike, let's, uh, we talked through donuts. Oh, uh, what else did you have in your Winshills order? So yeah, for me it was a mixed bag. Uh, I was pleased to hear you, uh, say that you liked the everything bagel, uh, with cream cheese, cause I was surprised by how good that was. Uh, I thought the, uh, thought, you know, nice B plus kind of bagel in the morning. Uh, I thought the breakfast sandwich, which was still on the bagel, uh, was

decent and then, uh, the breakfast burrito will not be making any list. I compile, uh, that was, that was, that was not a winner. Uh, and, but, uh, I, I was actually expecting the coffee to be what you had. And I, I was really pleasantly surprised. I thought it was, I thought it was much better than that. So definitely better than Starbucks coffee was. And again, this is, so this might be the situation I'm walking in there. One PM, you got that, you got that early, uh, that early morning coffee, which is

kind of, I kind of liked this about this place too, though. Like I kind of liked that Winshills is that's the way Duncan was back in the day is like, you walk in at, at one PM and you're getting like the leftover coffee and the, and the, and you know, the bagels or the donuts that have been sitting around forever and it's not as good. And, and Winshills has that vibe to it of like, oh, if you're in there at like eight, nine or 10, you're doing okay. And then if you're in there later in the day, it's not as good.

I'll say, I, I did like my coffee. I thought that was like, this is exactly what I want from a donut shop. You know, like for me, better than Starbucks is like, that's a pretty low bar because I don't really like Starbucks coffee. I would say this is, but I do like, you know, I do like this kind of kind of coffee. If I just want like a straight cup of coffee in the morning, though, I will say that I think Duncan does it better. I think Duncan's coffee is some of the best, like, you know, fast food coffee.

I like Duncan's coffee too. And I was, I was also going to say, I tried to get some version of any of those smoothies and they just said, no, that wasn't possible, gesturing in that corner of the, of the place as if there was no possibility of ever getting that, but they weren't super nice and every other way. And it was kind of crowded. Yeah. I think the workers are just like overwhelmed because the menu is so big

and they're not set up to do some of these stuff, which I, which is some of these, to prepare some of these things, which I mentioned, like at my places, like the, when I got, I got the, I ended up getting the strawberry banana chila and clearly like the, the blender was in a different part of the restaurant. Like she had to go like in the back and I was like, this is such, this must be such a pain in the ass to fucking make. And it feels a lot like you're, or like you're at like your, your grandma's house and she offered to whip you up something.

Like it feels like as spur of the moment as that. And then she's like running around and getting a blender. Like it doesn't, yeah, there's no system, which maybe is a good thing. I don't know. Like with Dunkin Donuts, there's every, you know, there's, there's probably a machine for everything that you get. And this feels so much more like, oh, this person is kind of like making this. And I don't know how often this thing is made, but, but, but I don't know.

I thought the results were good. I kind of liked almost everything I got there. Yeah. For the, for the record, I like, I did, I felt so bad for this worker. I just like took literally all the cash I had my wallet and put in the tip jar, which was like nine bucks. So it's not like I was going crazy, but I just like, fuck this fucking, this fucking sucks.

Uh, and my thing is like the, the, I actually liked my strawberry banana chila. I thought it was good. I thought the, uh, I like, I, I, this is a thing. And Natalie had some of this and she was like, oh wow, this is not like super sweet. And it wasn't. It was just like, honestly, less sweet than I'd get it from like a juice place. It was, it tasted very much just like straight fruit. And, and I'm sure they had some added sugar and I'm sure it had some juice in it.

But I thought it was, I thought it was really good and really refreshing. And especially like you were talking about earlier, Mikey, you're having all the sugar from the donuts. This was a, was actually a fine counterpart because it wasn't adding. It wasn't just also punishingly sweet. Um, I, so I liked the strawberry banana shell quite a bit for a minute. I thought you were calling me Mike and I was fucking freaked out. I did not like it.

You, well, you don't like, because your name is Mike. Yeah, I know, but I thought you were calling me Mike. I didn't like that. I thought, no, we have a mic on the show. I know we have a mic on the show, but I thought you were talking to me for a minute. That's what I'm trying to say. That must never really happen to you because Mike is a super uncommon name. I don't know how many mics we've had because of Hanford is Hanford.

I don't know how many people we've had on the show that go by Mike and you said Mike countless mics, so many mics on the show. It's a common. Don't still make sense. I thought you were talking to me when you were saying Mike and I didn't like it. All right. That's all I had to say. Yeah.

If we get a Mitch on the show, I'll call you Mike, but otherwise you're Mitch. All right. Good Mitch. I also got the veggie bagel sandwich on sesame, so this is like a toasted bagel. I agree that the bagel was better than I expected. The veggies on this were good. Romaine tomato, cucumber, avocado, and then also she asked what kind of cheese I had. She had Jack.

I got Jack with mustard and mayo. So very simple sandwich. But to compare it to the Einstein Brothers veggie sandwich I got, I was like, this is like on par. This is a really good sandwich. And if I was like, I wanted a cheap lunch and this was in my neighborhood, I'd be like that I would 100% get this veggie bagel sandwich from Winchells. I thought it was quite satisfying.

And yeah, I mean, like, here's what I'll say. It's like, yeah, I think they should have bagels for sure as a donut shop. And yeah, they probably should have some bagel sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. But I think they should probably kind of draw the line there. I think everything beyond, they have a menu beyond that. Like they don't need to be having protein bowls. They don't need to be having, you know, like, like, like they probably don't even need to necessarily be having smoothies because that's clearly a pain in the ass to

prepare. Like just simplify this menu a little bit. Streamline what you're doing because the stuff that you're doing that's that you've been doing is working what working well for you. I actually thought I think what you said right there, that veggie sandwich is good. But I do think that there was a lot of afternoon-y lunch sandwich stuff that like a lot of lunch stuff, which I just feel like, I feel like people don't even think of that place as a lunch spot.

You know what I mean? Like I think that you could cut out some of the lunch, some of the lunch meats and lunch sandwiches that they had there. But I don't know. I think if you worked in the neighborhood, like if you worked by a Winchells and you were looking for a cheap lunch, like you might be like, oh yeah, wait, they have something, but that said, you're right in terms of they haven't been, they haven't been doing a good job of getting that into people's heads that Winchells offers lunch.

Like I wouldn't have known unless I set foot in a Winchells that you get a veggie sandwich there. Were the ones you guys went to 24 hours, by the way? Yeah. I don't think I try to go to one that was permanently closed. OK. And then this one up in San Fernando. I don't know if it was from here.

I'm going to look right now. Just because I feel like that is one other metric where you got to give some credit to Winchells, because I used to think that every restaurant was going to be 24 hours eventually, but that is not at all the way the world is going. And between whatever, 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., there are not that many options, especially the smaller city you live in. So if you can get a pretty good lunch style sandwich at that point, that's pretty great. Yeah, that's absolutely to its credit.

I just so I just I just looked it up and it is and it is open 24 hours. This one is open is open for 24 hours. So so, yeah, no, that's that's that's huge. That's a great point. And I felt the same way, Mike, I like it. It felt like when McDonald's and Wendy's and everything when they were when they were all when they were all going 24 hours, just felt like everything was going to be that way. And then not the case.

Well, now it's like going the opposite direction. Like you see, you hear about like like Wendy's is like, you know, in a town, everyone's quitting and now they're either closing all together or maybe they're open for like six hours a day, you know, like five days a week. It's like, yeah, yeah, the labor shortage, absolutely. I call it labor shortage, but it's just like fucking shitty businesses not wanting to pay people enough to get them to want to work there. But like it's what's what is characterized as a labor shortage

is absolutely affecting a lot of these businesses. But yeah, I absolutely think that's a great point, Mike, that this that this place is open 24 hours and that it's an it's it's maybe the one option in your area at a certain time of night or day. It's that's a that's actually a big plus for it. Well, we should get to our final thoughts on Winchell's Donut House. So, Mike, here's how this will work. We'll each go around.

We'll give a summation of our thoughts, a closing argument, if you will, on this particular chain and end up by giving a fork score from zero to five. You are our guest. We'll begin with you. So I wish I had a blazingly hot take on Winchell's. Right. But I do not. I think that Winchell's is works pretty well for donuts. I think they're not that many times where I'm super excited to have donuts.

But if somebody brings some to the office, I'm pretty excited to try one. And and if I want and certainly if you're driving somewhere before eight a.m. or, you know, you just need something quick in the morning. I think there is a place for donuts and coffee that I think Winchell's does a great job with. I was surprised that the the the savory options worked at all. I don't actually know if I'd ever go in there for that. But but then the other the one other point

that that is probably worth bringing up is it's sort of adjacent to the 24 hours thing is just the kid factor where you've got, especially if you look for places that are open before eight a.m. in whatever area, there are not that many places. And if your kid is going to enjoy anything sweet at all, it might as well be one dollar. So so that's worth something. And and kids fucking love donuts. So so yeah, I feel like for what it is. And, you know, as kind of the the donuts for the people place,

I think it it basically does its objective, which I think is, you know, how are you know, how you guys want to rate these things? So I don't think it's golden plate, which makes me sad. But I think I'm going to go three forks two times. Wow, three forks two times. That's a great score. And and because there are bagels there, do I get to go back later if I want and subtract times? Yeah. Yes. Sure.

OK, just checking. Yeah, you can retcon it. That's a rule just for places that offer bagels or any any round foods with holes. Right. OK, great. It's funny for us to both say that at the same time. But what if we had said no, we both at the same time? Like, no, only I may retcon my scores. Fair enough.

Mike, you make a good point. But for me, I was trying to think out like I was trying to think, why won't I give this place like four forks? Because I don't think that it's above and beyond. I don't think it's platinum plate club. But I also I think you're all my food was good, though. You know, like that's the thing is like like the couple of jelly filled ones weren't great. There was also a little there was a little kid in there with her mom getting done.

But she was also she was playing on her phone and she had her mask down and she freaked me out because I was eating there. She had her mask down and I was afraid that I was getting Delta variant as she was in there. So I didn't like that little kid. But I do think that you're right that it's it's a good spot for a lot of kids to get like a cheap tree and the donuts taste good. Like that's that's the thing that really stuck in my head was that I'm looking next to this place. And I see this little bakery in there where they're making donuts.

And I don't see that at the Dunkin Donuts anymore. It's just they don't even pretend to do it. You know, there there there sometimes are like racks of donuts, but you know that they're not being baked in house or they're not being, you know, or they're just being heated up in house. And I and I love the fact that this place kind of still tries to do that. And you know what, it shows with the donuts, the donuts taste good. The bagels were good. All the food was good.

So why don't I give this for forks and I and I can't really tell why. Like, like maybe, you know, there was a couple of things that weren't great, like the muffin in the in the in the filled donuts. And maybe it's just the quality of the food. But I don't think this place is also trying to be like very fancy either. I think it's it's trying to be just what it is, which is the working man's donut shop. And I'm going to go as close to four forks as you can get. I'm not going to give it.

I'll stay within tines. Why is I going to go? Yes, I'm going to go three forks, three tines. I think it's a three point. I think it's almost I think it's almost there. And but maybe this is like kind of what Winshills should be. And I hope Karen Winshills is happy with my score if she's listening. I hope that she's I hope it's not affected by any way by Karen Winshills. Probably not. She's a she's a fucking Karen. I deserve five forks.

Excuse me. Can I speak to the Doughboys manager? Excuse me. Emma, Emma, Emma is the Doughboys manager. I think that this is just the I think it's as close to four forks as you can be. And I think that kind of the plainness of it and just the fact that it is just like the every man's donut place maybe doesn't put it over the top. But I do love that about it, too. And I'm interested why is on what you're going to say. I wonder if you're going to put it in the Golden Play Club.

I'll be mad because I should have, too. But it feels it doesn't feel like it's there. I was just thinking if if Emma like said to one of us that we were fired, that we would just believe her. No, technically, technically she works for us. We're just like, yes, ma'am. Sorry. She should do herself a favor and fire both of us. Stop giving me ideas.

It's a I'll say why I'm not putting Winshills in the Golden Play Club, which is that they're just trying to do too much. And I think their menu is over complicated and it's got many things that I think that's that's overwhelming for the kitchen. I think they they should simplify it. I think a lot of the things that you could order from Winshills are maybe not going to be up to par, although there's with the fucking, you know, encyclopedia of options,

the fucking 300 up the things that you can order there. You'd never be able to try anything, try everything. But like some of the stuff I'm just like, why do they? Why do they even have that? Why do they have a hot pastrami sandwich at Winshills? What are they doing there? There's no reason for them to offer a hot pastrami. All that said, well, hold on now.

It's not go crazy. And let's just say that maybe if I had seen that hot pastrami, it probably would have been ordered. But but you know what? A testament to how big the menu is and how this giant board of stuff. I didn't even see the damn pastrami sandwich on there. Can you imagine saying out loud, I went to Winshills and got the hot pastrami. It's a they've got too much going on.

That said, I think the I think what they're, you know, like Mike talked about the thesis of this podcast, like what is this place trying to do? Which I think it's at its heart, it's trying to do donuts and coffee and, you know, some other breakfast foods. And I think it does all that stuff really, really well. I think, you know, hey, it predates Dunkin Donuts and its founding. And I think it does donuts better than Dunkin Donuts just by virtue of having them being prepared in-house.

So but not better than us. I think that I think the donuts are better than Dunkin Donuts. I don't know, but as a whole, not better than I was going to get there. That said, I think I'm in I'm ballpark buds with you guys. I think this place just has it just it just needs a little bit. It does what it's trying to do really, really well, but it just doesn't quite get over the top, over the hump and into the hallowed halls of the Golden Plague Club.

So I'm going to be right there with a spoon, man. My friend, Mike, and say three forks, three times. Wow. Wow. Now I really want to add a time. You can. It's you still can. Can I come back in a future episode and add the time? No, I'll do it. I'll go. I'll go. I'll go three, three and three.

Let's do this. Wow. Just outside holding club. Yeah. Q in the handholding club holding hands right outside of the Golden Plague Club on the outside, looking in as close as you could possibly get. That was our view of Winshills doughnuts. We'll take a break. Yeah. It seems like a perfect score for Winshills.

It's what it's absolutely what Winshills deserves. I fully agree. This is this is I think I think we we did a good job. Good job, everyone. Emma, can I get my job? I'll think about it. Thank you, ma'am. We'll be back with more dough boys. Hey, you. You craving fresh, delicious, easy meals.

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doughboys at checkout. Do it. Welcome back to doughboys. We're here with our guest, Mike Horowitz, and hey, it's time for a segment. I've got a food related quiz, a food related audio quiz, and Mike and Mike must compete for superiority. It's another edition of Jingle All the Way, way spelled W-H-E-Y. Mike, before we get into this, you now have to say, Food podcast, what is Hooch's favorite food?

Well, there actually there actually is a Hooch eating donuts in episode three. Yeah, that's true. And we made, you know, they ordered specific dog friendly donuts, and then it turned out that the dogs actually preferred just human donuts with bacon on top, as you'd expect. How many how many dogs how many dogs were you working with on the show? There were five Hooch's. Five Hooch's. Yeah, they're all fantastic dogs, but it's a tricky breed.

And they really, all they want to do is do one little thing and then go to sleep or just go sit down. So they're not they're not the trained dogs that you'd expect. Sounds like Doboy's hosts. So the rules of Jingle All the Way, way spelled W-H-E-Y, whoever guesses closest to the year without going over gets a point. And if you get the year exactly right, you get two points. That's the yard and marine rule.

And today we have a bunch of Taco Bell jingles. All right, look, that's great. But we should change it so that the going the price is right rule is bad. And we have to make we have to fix it. I think it's fun. If you go one year, so that means that you can guess it within one year and then be the most wrong of anyone. Yeah, that's that's the part of the challenge.

No, that's not part of the challenge. I like the prices right rule. We're keeping the prices right rule. No, people online said they like the non prices. They like being closest. Which which people? Who said that? My friends, my friends online, my good friends.

OK, well, we'll just see about that. I the rule staying as is for this particular relation, if there is a public outcry, we may we might amend them. We're going to do it. We're going to do it on this whole. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to change the rule. It's going to lead to you losing.

And then you're going to be mad about that. Good, I want to lose. Emma, what are you going to say? Were you going to fire one of us? Oh, I was thinking about it. I know I was going to say we could pull the Patreon or something. If you want to if you want to put this up to chance, pull, pull the Patreon.

Look, if there's ever been an incentive to join that Patreon, get in and made your this I sound like Democrats, get in there and get your voice heard. Just all you got to do is sign up for the Patreon. You two can make a difference. So sign up for the Patreon and go vote for which host I should fire. You you recall one of us is like who you it's a recall election. So like you recall the host and then you vote for the replacement.

And then it's a list of like 30 candidates. There you go. It's the Winchell's menu. People are going to vote to recall me because Weigar will come on and sing to the soul to the tune of Soul Man. I'm a jelly bean and people will fucking tweet Weigar is a genius and all this stupid bullshit. Because he's coming up with one.

I'm a jelly bean. Well, what do you want me to say? It's a doughnut episode. I'm a whole man. There you go. We're going to go nuts. They're going to say you're a fucking genius. I thought you were Mr. Hole.

Yeah, I am Mr. Hole. I'm Mr. Slice and Mr. Hole. Oh, wait, I didn't want to be Mr. Hole. Oh, all I'm saying is that people are going to vote to fire me because Weigar comes up with the songs. That's all that's going to happen. We're both going to be fired. And then our replacements will both be koalic.

Koalic in you song. What a show. We get pot. All right. So jingle all the way. Whoever guesses closest to the year without going over gets a point. We're keeping that rule for this particular iteration. And if you guess the rule the year exactly right, you get two points.

The Ardenmarine rule. And this week it's all Taco Bell jingles. These are classic or contemporary Taco Bell jingles. We'll play it. We'll play the jingle. You'll see the commercial. Our listeners will hear the audio and you'll guess the year. Let's play this first one, Emma.

It's not a visual format. At the end of the day, everybody's earned a real meal. So give them some work. Three delicious combinations. Only at Taco Bell. Bring home the work tonight. Everything tastes all right. Take a big beefy bite.

Go for the work tonight. Crunchy or crispy like. Energy's golden rice. Now by any combination platter plus a medium size soft drink for only two ninety nine. Well, I have a good guess. I have a good guess, too. Just our our our associate producer, the drop king, Robert Persinger,

picked this video and it ends with it ends with text that says Offer expires 1985, 1985, June, 1985, June 1st, I believe, 1985. But you know, I can't really place this one. But can I go first, Wags? Oh, sure. Go for it. Are you going to go 86? Now, yeah, what's the deal with the overrule?

You have to go under 1986. Final answer. Wow. 1986 for Mitch. Yeah, I'll go 86, too. I'll throw it. You're both wrong. It was 1985 commercial with the text that said the Offer expires June. 1985 actually released in 1985. Wow.

In theory, it could have aired in 1984. It could have. That's true. It would have been right. It didn't. But we know it didn't. But also. I thought it was funny because I was scouring the video for clues and like hairstyles and everything I could possibly see and the price and then it was just written on screen.

Yeah. OK, that the dad's wearing a polo. There's like enchiladas on the plate. When did they offer enchiladas? Oh, wait, June 1985. I would say before that, when I was trying to think, I actually thought it was a little bit earlier. I thought it was like 82 or 83, but 85 makes the most sense. Yeah. Now that I know it's 85, it makes, of course, makes the most sense. But all I was thinking watching that was take me back.

Oh, yeah. Take me back to fucking whatever, May of 85, I want to be there for the deal. Surprising price point, right? Yeah. Oh, my God. That's pretty close to what it is now. Oh, that's. Well, I thought it was. I actually thought that it was a good deal.

Now you make a good point because Taco Bell for a meal deal, it should probably it's probably five ninety nine now, right? Yeah. Or like a. But you can still cobble together a meal for about three bucks there. But yeah, that that looks like more of a full, you know, like a like a nice spread you were getting for your three bucks back in 1985 dollars. Yeah. 85 bucks. Reagan bucks. All right.

Let's see what dates are written on the next ones. In all fairness to the drop king, I'm looking at his email that he sent to me and Emma with all of these. And he wrote, P.S. I did not watch any of these. So. Well, I just go up through the rest of them and I don't think there will be any more spoilers.

OK. All right. All right. Here's number two. It's 1999. Kind of a cowboy theme here. Beans and season the rice and real cheddar cheese. Shit. Due to the big cowboy hat taking a bite. This game, my stomach is grumbling.

I want this. Final shot is a horse in slow motion rearing up as the cowboy has a fistful of Taco Bell and we hear the the the the bong at the end, the Taco Bell bong sound possibly a clue. All right. Mitch went first for the first one. Mike, that means you get first crack. Oh, OK. Second one. Guessing wildly. 2002.

2002. All right, Spoon Man. I think that it's a little bit. I said 99, but I'm afraid I'm going to go over with like a jokingly before the video even started, I said that 99 joke. I think it might be 99. But I don't want to go over. And I'm wondering, like, should I say 97 because of the stupid rule?

Should I like say something under? Which I guess I'll do. I'll say 97, but I think it's 99. You thought wrong and you still overshot it. 1994. Whoa, shit. Ninety four. This came out.

Damn. Wow. In fairness, there aren't a lot of clues because it's like it's, you know, that's cowboy, so it's not like you're wearing, you're seeing like someone wearing a hyper-colored shirt or something, you know, it's just cowboy clothes. You're lucky. I didn't guess 1899, wigs. All right, let's hear the, let's, let's hear and see the next ad. 1899, famously The Time of the Cowboys.

Oh. So we're seeing the old mission style structure of the Taco Bell restaurants that that that was in use for a time. The, perhaps a clue as to when this released. All right, Mr. Slice, you're up first for this one. When do you think this ad, The Fresh Food Place, First Aird? Take me back to that as well.

Looked fantastic, wigs. Yeah, the food shots actually looked very appealing there. Wise, I think I'm going to pull a Billy Corgan here and I'm going to guess. 1979. Wow. That's right. Favorite year. 1979 is your guess.

That's right. All right, Mike. Shit. When do you think The Fresh Food Place, First Aird? Stunningly, that was going to be my answer as well. So now I feel like, do I go over or under? I think I'm, I'm going to go, I'm going to go over to try and steal. So 1980.

Wow. 1980 is your guess. Perhaps a good strategy. If this ad released in the 80s or later, which it did not. 1977. Shit. Overshot again. No points. We are pointless. First point wins.

Both you have to get on the board. There are two left. OK. And I feel good about this next one because this is a this was a this was a famous slogan for Taco Bell for a time. This is an ad from 1980. It's an ad from 1988. Called Run for the Border.

Why did you say 88? We could have guessed it. I'm going to guess 87. I'm guessing 89. Well, do you want to watch it? Yeah, let's watch it anyway. Yeah. All right, here it is. What I have thought, 88.

Here we go. I got to eat. Just down the road away any time, any day is what's happening next. It's where best meets ways. You've got to cross it, jump it, cross it, bump it. You've got to cross it, jump it, cross it, bump it. Taco Bell at your order. I'm a star. Make a run for the border.

They were here to make a run for the border. And they have a two gentlemen in trench coats. It looked like almost like detectives or undercover cops. And it was some sort of train caper. They were running horses. Oh, was that a Midnight Run reference? I have no idea. Yeah, I just watched Midnight Run for the first time, loved it.

Oh, yeah. Did they go to Taco Bell? They did, yeah. That exact scenario played out. Interesting. Maybe a clue. De Niro being a badass in it. Well, let's just, I know it's hard to put yourself in this mind space because I accidentally pulled a drop king and told

you what year it was. What is the, but when would you have thought that might have come out? Like, would you have guessed the 80s? Oh, are we going to get points on this? Yeah. You know, I think I would have guessed, if I watched that, I think I really would have thought 1988. Yeah, that 88 is going to say what.

Wow. You know what, you both get two points because you got it exactly. So it is mounted up at two apiece as we go into our final question. This will determine the winner or if we're a tie. I think I've realistically would have put that mid 80s just compared to the because I know that the other one we had. What was the first 80s one? What date was that first?

The works. But what was the first one? What was the date? 1985 was the works. That was the first dad wheel. So I would have thought that it was later than that, but maybe just by a couple of years, so 86, 87. Yeah, it had a little Bill and Ted's vibe, which is late, late 80s. Yes, 100 percent.

Yeah. All right. This final ad, I won't say the year of, but this ad is entitled 49 cent tacos. What a bad show. 49 cent tacos. Such a bad show. The producer puts a date in, you say a date.

Me and Mike are the only good people here. Emma, you're all right, too. I'm questioning it. I don't know what you're talking about. All right, let's play this last ad. There you go. So again, we have the dawn, we have the, we have some early CG that we're seeing the bell effect, like that definitely feels like, you know, this is when computer

graphics were first on the map. And then also just like the, I don't know what's going on in that commercial exactly, but there's like a giant man just sort of striding throughout the Southwest and he's singing the song. Did they say you got a run for the border when you see that dong? No. Pre haze code. Yeah, the giant man.

They're talking about the giant man's dong. You see it at the end. Who's who's up first? Swags, wait, hold on. It was this will decide the game right here. This is this one is tough because you're up first. You're up first for this one. I actually don't want to be first for this one.

I think that this is early nineties. Hmm. But is it 92 or 94 or is it right in the middle of 93? I want to guess 93, but I don't want to be wrong with the stupid one overrule and have it be 92. I'm going to go 92. It's going to be 93. I'm going to be so mad.

It's 92. 1992 from the Spoon Man. Mike Horowitz, your guess for this ad. Yeah, trying to base it on that cutting edge CG right there. Yeah, what is what is the answer? But it feels everything else about it feels more dated than 92. So yeah, it's it's tough. What year did Jurassic Park come out?

94, 93 or four? Yeah. I'm going to go 1990. 1990. You are both within a year, but because of the prices right rule. Oh, my God, Mike Horowitz is the winner. Oh, my God, 1991 is when it came out. Oh, my God, Mike.

Well played. Wow, you really, yeah, just gave us a hint of foreshadowing there where this was going to go when you started complaining about the rules. Well deserved. I don't know who deserved anything there, but but it happened. I'll tell you who didn't deserve it, the listeners deserve. Yeah, they didn't deserve to listen to that bullshit where we were saying the names, saying the years, maybe you can bleep yourself flags.

No, I thought it was fine. I like the I liked it. I will say I like those jangles. I thought it was fun to watch those and listen to those. So maybe, you know, maybe kind of feel bad for a Taco Bell's like ad agency having to come up with new plans to sell the same stuff. Right. Yeah. Like giant man, let's do giant man.

Hey, it worked. Hey, just like a restaurant, I value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. And today we have an email from Britt Hayes. Britt writes, Hi, Nick and Mitch and Emma and Wally and Irma. My boyfriend, also a member of Spoon Nation, and I lost our favorite restaurant to COVID last summer, Sunflower, a local Vietnamese restaurant. But in a miraculous turn of events, they survived.

And after being being closed for over a year, the owners recently reopened in a new location. Wow. So here's my question. If given the chance, which beloved long gone restaurant chain or otherwise, would you revive? If I had to pick a chain, I'd go for Benegans. My dad used to take me there for my birthday every year. And I missed those chicken strips. PS, I've attached photos of my cats, Leo, the orange guy and Harley Quinn,

the little tuxedo lady for Mitch's approval. I'll bring these cats up real quick so we can get a gander at them. Bring them up. Oh, there's one of them. That's Leo on his belly. Or I'm sorry, on his back showing his belly. And then we've got a two shot. Oh, man, what cuties.

Yeah. We got Harley Quinn in the foreground, the tuxedo cat, and then Leo, the orange guy in the background. Very, very. I like Harley Quinn's a little cutie, too. They're both cuties. That gets the Mitch seal of approval wise. I love the I love the little kiddies.

Mike, are you a cat man or any sort of pet man? You got to like Hooch. I know, exactly. I have grown to love dogs. But there you go. Yeah, yeah, I'm a fan. We have a good nice old lady dog. Rescue dog.

One one chain restaurant that comes to mind. And I'll be curious if anyone remembers this. But there was a chain that existed that was a sit down place that was for a time. It was like right there with a Chili's and a TGI Fridays and an Applebee's in my mind, which was called Spoons. And the gimmick of Spoons is you didn't get a fork. You got a spoon. Now, eventually they'd bring you a fork if you got like a fucking salad or something.

But like, you know, it was their whole thing is like you sit down your silver where I was like, oh, wow, I got a spoon here for to eat my food. Honestly, it was very thin and very stupid. But the food I remember really liking and they had the Spoons nachos, at least in my memory, nothing has ever exceeded the Spoons nachos that I used to have as a preteen when I go there as a kid and they get the Spoons nachos. Like these are the best fucking nachos that have ever existed. They had, you know, like a like a cheddar jack blend, black beans, guacamole,

pico de gallo, very standard stuff. But I just remember them being so fucking good. Again, they probably if I had them now, I'd probably be like, these are fine. But my kid memory of the Spoons nachos are such that I want to try them again. Mr. Slice, is there a chain or a local spot, a small shop that you like to see rise from its grave? Well, there's when you said local spot, I just thought of something else. But I can't tell if you're like trolling me with spoons.

If this is actually a real place or if you're just being a weirdo. Spoons was real. All right. Spoons was real. Well, I was just talking about this yesterday with Dano and I'm sad that they maybe are are gone for. I can't tell what's going on down there. But my beloved ice cream parlor, Dieter, Dieter, oh, yeah. It's been closed for a couple of weeks.

I don't know what's going on. I don't know. I don't know if I don't know if it's if it's gotten. I mean, if it is, I got to talk to Dieter. I got to figure out how we make some of the stuff. I mean, I just I just need to I can't. But Dieter's recipes. I need Dieter's recipes. But Brigham's is the answer, Wags.

The ice cream parlor. Brigham's ice cream parlor, Boston, New England ice cream chain. Love Brigham's. Just the fact that like I was just I was just saying this the other day to Dano. We were talking about it, but like a mocha ice cream float. Can't get it's hard to find stuff like that anymore. A scoop of mocha ice cream with chocolate syrup floating in in tonic water.

You know what I mean? Like just these weird old like cherry coax vanilla coax like all that stuff that it's like made in house. Just like at that old school classic ice cream chain. I'm so sad that it that it went under. And then for a local place, there used to be this place called Montclair deli. Scott Keef worked there. Keefa, he worked there. Keefa worked there for a while.

I saw him the other night at the fantasy football draft where I ate the the the one chip challenge is it by Oh, yeah. The the and and and they it was it was terrible. I ate the one chip and it was a fucking nightmare. I was I had a drink like four glasses like a super. It's a single super spicy chip. Yeah, it fucked me up like the next day. It was it was have we not done that?

No, we ate the nuts. We ate the nuts. We haven't done a one chip challenge. Here's the deal. It like it was bad. And I was like, oh, it's hot. And I didn't realize that you were supposed to wait like five minutes because I drank something after like two minutes.

But I drank some milk. But it's it's very strong. But like within like, you know, 15 minutes or so, I was fine. But the next day, just the rumblies, it was it was horrible. The next day was was worse. But side tangent, there's Keefa used to work at the Montclair deli. And so did the Nader's wife, Jess.

But they had goblers there, Wags. There was a lot of great sand. There was had a great gobbler, had a lot of great like local sandwiches. Yeah, and I and I and I and I really miss it. Not a lot of like not a lot of great sandwich shops like that anymore. And in Quincy's, there's good subs and stuff. But it's not a lot of great sandwiches. But but for the big chain, it would be Brigham's.

I can't think of like a national chain. I know that there are some, but maybe I can't. I maybe I'll think on it a little bit more and think of something. But those are the ones that come to mind. There used to be more A&Ws around. I feel like a lot of A&Ws are close. A&W is good. But also after having A&W Canada, I'm like, this is fucking puts A&W U.S. to shame.

It's like not like I don't even necessarily crave this the same way anymore. By the way, I did look up spoons. It took a little bit of binging. But I found the I found the spoons that still exists. There are two spoons left left, apparently, one in Fountain Valley, one in Santa Ana, both in Orange County, California. So there you go. Mike Horowitz is home county. We could maybe take a trip down to Spoon someday and and and I'll take a little

trip down memory lane with these Baja Nachos. Well, guess what? Yeah, you got to change your answer now because it still exists. OK, I'll come up with something else. Mike, is there a chain or other restaurant that has gone away that you wish would come back? First thing that came to mind and I think it barely fits the definition of a chain would be Ed DeBevix. I remember that place.

Ed DeBevix, yes, I know Ed DeBevix. Yeah, I remember thinking like how exciting it was that restaurants were going to be themed and, you know, so exciting and put all this energy into the production design and all the waiters are going to, you know, have, you know, be giving performances in the food. I remember being pretty decent, but that that does not feel like anything that could even exist now. Yeah.

That that's and that's like a big Chicago one, right? The Ed DeBevix that's like where they're kind of mean to you. So maybe maybe does it exist in Chicago? Maybe I'm wrong. I just know it doesn't exist in LA. There might be one as well. Now you're making me think of other some more I've just popped into my head because for LA, hamburger Hamlet is one that you exist no longer around.

Also was one in Brentwood. Yeah. Well, here's another one. There's only one that still exists, I believe, maybe two. But it's in Disney World, one of them, Brown Derby, which is like the L, like a local LA place that that used to be around. But for me, I thought of a couple more, but Bickford's used to be around a breakfast chain that was like a also like a late night diner sort of place and also Howard Johnson's.

It'd be fun to go to Howard Johnson to get some breakfast. Those those all of these are popping back now. Yeah, there have definitely been some great local restaurants that have closed. There's one I wish I could I could remember the name of it, but it's a place Nellie and I would go to and it was downtown was fantastic. And there's actually like, I think a good food podcast where the the chef and owner talks about like what it was like to have to close his restaurant and what it was about, you know, just that particular

concept, even though the food was great, it just had trouble finding business. But that does make me think of a couple of places that close under quarantine, Mitch, both and I'm sure they'll be back in some form, broken Spanish and BS Takaria. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Both fucking great. Those those are two. But I thought you were going to say the

the what's the railroad one, the the the Pacific dining car Pacific dining car. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The one that the one that kills me from the pandemic is Spoon by H. Fantastic Korean place. Oh, man. Also, sad one to see go. Cafe 101 Wikes 101 Cafe, whatever you want to call it. Great classic diner.

Green Blats fucking Green Blats just closed. God damn. Yeah. Green Blats. Well, hey, we started by talking about all the bad things that were going on in the world and we kind of came back around to talk about all the restaurants we love that are now gone. So just like a doughnut. Bam, just like a doughnut.

If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at doughboyspodcasts at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830. Go dough. That's 830-463-6844. And to get the doughboys double our weekly bonus episode, join the Golden Bear Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash doughboys. Mike Horowitz, thank you so much for joining us for being so generous with your time for making multiple trips to Winchell's Donuts. Turner and Hooch is streaming on Disney Plus.

You can check that out and anything else you would like to plug? I guess Instagram. What's Mike eating now is then you can find my burrito list. Oh, wow. Important stuff. Wow. I'm sure listeners will be all over that. Check that out. And hey, that'll do it for this episode of Doughboys.

Until next time, for Mr. Slice, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya. What's up, everybody? It's your boy, Mr. Slice. And on next week's Doughboys Double, we're talking DMB to Wigs once again. We went to a couple of live Dave Matthews shows up in New Hampshire, and I'm going to tell Wigs all about it with special guest, Dano, patreon.com slash doughboys. Check it out.