Fine Dining - Gordon Biersch Brewery (Part Two: Review) feat. "Pretty" Peter Avalon (All Elite Wrestling, Ring of Honor)

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

The review for Gordon Biersch is here! All Elite Wrestling & Ring of Honor's "Pretty" Peter Avalon joins Michael to review the restaurant of the week The Gordon Biersch Brewery that Michael & Peter hit up closed its doors just 7 days after the boys dined there Peter eulogizes the Burbank Gordon Biersch Ever wondered what it'd be like living in a Buffalo Wild Wings? Harrison Augustine 💸 Arrylius the XIV takes offense to vulgarities Michael pitches a restaurant-themed wrestling gimmick to Peter Peter discusses his relationship with chain restaurants while staying in shape for wrestling Peter details his injury history A review of the food, including the garlic fries Gordon Biersch invented (Michael & Peter do NOT see eye-to-eye on these) Michael swaps out the Headline Game with a brand new game tailored to Peter Avalon's specialties: it's Chain Wrestling! JUB got a phone...???   Music by: James McEnelly (@Ramshackle_Music) Theme Song by: Kyle Schieffer (@JazzyJellyfish) Segment Transitions Voiced by: Sandy Rose "Fine" Dining is on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month (October's episode explored Dave's Hot Chicken), extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more! Patreon Producers: Sean Spademan, Joyce Van, & Sue Ornelas   Get the 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send in your Gordon Biersch stories at [e-mail].   Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast Follow "Pretty" Peter Avalon on Twitter @PPAallday   Let me know where I should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, PodcastAddict, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I read every one!   Next week on "Fine" Dining: Katz's Delicatessen (Part One: Eat Deets & Yelp from Strangers)! I'm off to New York City with my girlfriend, Joyce! Learn the storied history of the NYC establishment that's allegedly been in business since 1888 (which has maybe been debunked). Ever work at Katz's? Send your stories to [e-mail].   Totally Not Sponsored By: Harrison Augustine 💸 Arrylius the XIV

From this point forward, the word cheese will be bleeped because Michael finds it offensive. Hello and welcome back to week two of the Gordon Beers Brewery episode of the Fine Dining Podcast, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. I am still joined by all elite wrestling's Pretty Peter Avalon. That's right. PPA. All day. All day. All day.

All day. All night. Every day, all week, all month, all year for me. I mean, at this point, two weeks in a row. Absolutely. Good for the listeners. Good for me. Absolutely. Now, for those of you who are joining the podcast for the first time, this is the show where I go to restaurants and break them down based on their atmosphere.

Based on their service. And based on their food. Yum. Yum. Yum. And I am looking for the perfectly mediocre restaurant, that 5.00 out of 10. You have to know what's right in the middle to know what is objectively good and a beautiful. objectively bad. Currently, Applebee's is in the lead at a 5.02, but I can tweak it a little bit more.

I can find a place that's slightly more mediocre than a 5.02. Absolutely. Always room for improvement. Absolutely. So we are going to get into it. We are going to talk about what we thought of Gordon Beers Brewery. But before we do, I kind of want to jump to the future. Because one week to the day, after we dined at Gordon Beersh Brewery, Beersch, they closed their doors. Sure did. We shut them down. Clearly. Like, do you have speculation? I know we haven't really gotten into it. People don't have a point of reference. We haven't explained to them yet.

Yeah. But in last week's episode, we did mention the dokey drips. Ooh, I was going to say, you know, dukey drips. It might be that. Someone complained about the dokey. You've got brown looking water just dripping from the ceiling above your beer tanks. I don't know if it was a malfunction of the beer tanks and that's what the brown water was. The thick, thick beer.

But one week to the day, I even saw a Reddit post that said they've officially announced that they're closing their doors. You can still go throughout the week. But if they run out of any item, they're not reordering it. Oh, boy. So, like, it's like when a restaurant, like liquidates. Yeah. Like, imagine a one week liquidation sale at a restaurant. Do you think they were also doing that, just selling the booths and the chairs?

You come in, they're just selling things. I would buy a restaurant booth. That would make for a great set. Yeah, would it not? Yeah, get some of the beer things and the beer steins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have any thoughts or feelings or opinions? Do you have a tribute you want to lay down?

I just want to send my heart out to go to Beersh. Thank you for the dining experience. For the memories. For the memory. Yeah. And good luck. I'm sure there's still other places. Yeah, they still have other locations.

But the Burb—I mean, it'd been there like 20 or 30 years. You know, with yardhouse nearby, do they really need more places for me? Bure Beer and mediocre food. Apparently not. So it's fine. So we're going to jump into talking about the atmosphere and break down exactly all of the things that make Gordon Beers Brewery, Gordon Beers. Or as I could say, that made Gordon Beers Brewery itself because it's no longer there. RIP.

RIP. Gordon Berge. Hello, this is Margo P. And this is Margo D. and we are the Margot's co-hosts of book versus movie. We are the podcast that talks about films adapted from books. We read the book, watch the movie, and then decide which we like better, the book or the movie. So you know what you're going to say?

Duh, the book is always better than the movie, to which we usually reply, Have you ever read Jaws? Have you ever read Jaws? Right. We are not film experts or literary scholars. Nope, we are just two friends who like to chat about books and movies. We go for a deep dive into the history of the book, the background of the author, and the trivia from the movie. Past episodes include The Birds, Chitty Chitty Bang, The Exorcist, Slaughterhouse Five, and The Spy Who Loved Me.

And not just books, we will cover just about any literary source, including plays, magazine articles, poems, even thongs just like O to Billy Joe. We also spoil all of the details and plot points along the way. You can find us wherever you get your podcast under the name Book First. We also have a very active listener base who give us suggestions for episodes, so be sure to follow us on social media at Book versus a Movie. There you spell that all out. Hope you check us out soon. Atmosphere. It's like warehouse high ceilings, brewing tanks.

It was very close to empty. Yes. Yes, very empty lunchtime. Yeah. Yeah, it was a standard brewery. Yeah. The tank, there's not much to look at really all over. Like, they didn't even really have, like, pictures of their food.

There was one, like, it looked like an extended chalkboard. Yeah. But I think it was like a photo stylistic choice. Yeah. On a piece of art. But yeah, it just looked like chalkboard of like a top down view of a beer. Yeah. That was it.

It had their brewing process on the wall behind me. Did it? Oh, I didn't see that. It was step by step up the process of how they do beers. All right, walk us through it. Well, I looked, I glanced at it. So that's all I know the final product is the beer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which you had. we'll talk about later in food. There was a briefly squealing baby. Yes. That was very noteworthy to a point that I was like, we were conversing and I was just like, I got to avoid you for a second and like eye down this baby. Yeah, yeah. Just so that they know that I see them.

This baby needs to know how unpleasant I think this baby is. I think it gathered that. I think I locked eyes with the baby and it was like, okay, dude, I'll chill. I was like, full die die die, ducy drips. He was dokey dripping. I'm sure that's why he was crying. This is off the rails. They had yacht rock-esque music.

Which I was okay with. I'm here for it, man. I was off for it. Baker Street, like, just all these different, very soft rocky things that I'm just like, this is my vibe now. I've chilled out in my 30s, right? Totally. I need that background music. I need to enjoy it.

Yeah. Nothing like a sax. Like, this was just, this was the boomerest place you could be. Totally. It was completely, yeah. Yeah, it was just my mother picked the music selection, I feel. She's actually in back, like, on the ones and twos. I love this record, yes.

They had one room that was like, this is one of my favorite things that comes up at some restaurants where you have like an off limits room. Yeah. They called it the Pilsner Room. It was like right next to the hallway for the bathroom, which we'll talk about the hallway for the bathroom. Oh, it threw me off. But they had the Pilsner Room and it was just, you know, it's a private event room or whatever. But a little bit too far away from the Pilsner Room, they also had a little table that had a sign that said room for rent. And I'm a, I think, smart individual and I piece together that it was rent out the Pilsner Room, have an event here.

But it was like far enough away to where I'm like, are they trying to like actually have someone live here? Because that sounds awful. That'd be something, though. I want to live inside the restaurant while it's going. This didn't end up happening because of the timing and the pandemic. but Buffalo Wild Wings in 2020 was running a March Madness promotion to where you could live in a Buffalo Wild Wings for all of March Madness. Why? I don't know.

They put a cot for you in the back or something? Basically, I think it was like a loft. Oh, all right. But it was like one location. I think it was New York. But like these places, they have an overinflated sense of what they are. They think you want to spend more time and then you do. Clearly.

Most chain restaurants are like a get in, get out. and I hope no one saw me here. Yeah. That's the process of a chain. I'm going to spend a total of 35 minutes here and that's it. Yeah. Like, oh my gosh,

that would be ideal. Yeah. We were there close to two hours and I was just like, oh, man. It's starting to like mess with my mood. Yeah. And not once it gets any busier or anything. No. It just stayed the same.

The place is as popular as it is. It does not get more popular or less popular. It just, it is. And I mean, that's why we go to change. Yes. Consistency. Consistency. Correct.

I do want to talk about this restroom experience because you went to the back hallway and I went and checked it out after you told me. Do you see what I was saying? Oh, absolutely. I'll let you put it to words. I thought I was going to go into the back patio to use the restroom because the sign is just right between two doorways. The doorway on the left is for the bathroom.

Doorway on the right is to go outside, but you don't see the doorway on the left. Yeah, there's just that men's restroom sign on like that little seven inch patch of wall, the taint between the two doorways. Yep. And you go, it really looks like it's trying to lead you outside. Like women, you get a restroom. Men, your dogs, pee in the alley. That's what I was expecting. I was like, do I have to call it outside?

Is it outside? It's like, you know, like a weiner snitzel bathroom. I got to get the key from the front, go outside. I share it with the lot with the employees. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, why is the key sticky? Yeah, it's kind of storage. It's kind of a storage unit at the same time.

There's ice in the urinal. Yeah. It's like one of those places. Yeah. It's like a twist ending when you find out there is actually a men's restaurant. It was a very large men's restroom. Oh, I didn't actually go in. There were like two guys walking in front of me as I went to check it out and I always

feel weird like, I don't know, if there's other people and I'm not, what, do I go in and pretend to pee just to like, why is this guy walking back here? Why is he filming? Like, why is he taking time? pictures of this doorway. Is you trying to take a picture of us? Yeah. And the answer is yes.

Yes. Yeah. I want to see the experience. And if you want to see these two unsuspecting guys pissing, go to our, go to our Instagram at Fine Dining podcast. It's exclusive on the Patreon. Yeah. It's on Patreon.

I did not take a photo of two guys being. No, it's not there. Legally put that out there into the world. Yeah. Yeah. You can't do that. So we got to put some thumbs to this atmosphere. Somewhere between two thumbs down to two thumbs up.

What did you think? of the vibe, the physical space and experience of a Gordon Beersh Brewery. The bathroom, I give it a firm thumbs up. Oh, we're subdividing this. This is like, okay. They get a nice firm, single thumb up, but then the restaurant experience gets an Orange Cassidy, lackadaisical thumb. Like, you're like at like 0.5 thumbs.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm just straight up a nub. I'm just no thumbs on the atmosphere. Didn't do anything for me, didn't do anything against me. I just was. The one thing I didn't like is that for being a brewery, there's no event space.

A lot of breweries seem to have like an event, like an extra event space. I feel like the outdoor area is typically, at least when I walk by where I see them hosting events. I know I have seen more than one time where I've passed by there and there are big balloons out there. So presumably a birthday. A birthday. Man, let me tell you, when I want to have a real hot birthday party, I go to tour a beer. And let's turn up at G.B. Yeah.

We are different in that way. I do not think of G.B. is my B-Day place. Oh, you know? I'm more of an outback guy. So, like, I'm cultured. I travel to Australia. That's right.

For a nice steak. Yes. I'm a burger boy. The burgers. Give me the blooming onion. Fill my arteries up. Literally. With bloomin onions, I am not going to live as long as I would have without blooming

onions. It's worth it. It's worth it. You'll live happier. So they say. When my mobility is limited to a hover-round scooter. Yeah, but you'll have that blowing onion. And honestly, I'll have some sweet hardware. I'll put rims on my hover-round. You might be able to get a discount at that point being wheelchair, if you're older. Get that sweet parking. That's it. Yeah. Right in front.

Anyways, that's it for the atmosphere. Let's talk about the service. Service. This might be one of the first times where I genuinely didn't even take. take note of the server's name. I'll say a server's name if the service is like stellar and it's nothing but complimentary. If it's not that, I'll leave them out of it.

I'm not looking to get anyone targeted or anything like that. But this was a case where I could just tell immediately. And it had nothing to do with the guy. Yeah. It had to do with like the vibe, the setup. Yeah. There's something about an empty restaurant that makes you get slightly worse service than

when there actually are people to attend to. Yeah. And I don't know what that. phenomenon is, but it exists, like, it's a very real thing. It's odd. It's very odd. Right. Yeah.

But I also knew because our server was also the host. Yeah. That's true. The guy who takes to your menus and walks you to a table and, like, I was like, wherever's fine. And he kind of wouldn't settle on that. He's like, no, I need you to tell me patio bar or restaurant. We should just specifically pick a table for him, like this one next time.

Yeah. Yeah. That way. I think he just doesn't want to have to make decisions. Yeah. I think I think this guy just hates the process of decision making you. He might honestly hate making decisions. That's why he wants you to make all the decisions.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, he was nice enough, kind of more absent than I would have expected him to be. For sure. But like, he was fine. Yeah, wasn't bad. He's a chain restaurant waiter. He's not like a five-star restaurant waiter. We never had to flag him down.

There were times where I think I wanted to, but I had to play my cool because I had a guest on that I don't know personally. Right. Like, you are literally my first guest that I don't know. Oh, okay. In life before this thing. Right. So I was like, all right, Michael, play it cool.

I know you want, you know, whatever it is, but like, just be chill. It's all right. I mean, I think we've all been there where you're trying to like, you're trying to do the nice thing where you just hope to make eye contact. You just kind of stare at them. Oh, man. And then just never look at you. If you listen to some of our older episodes, there have been active. avoidings of eye contact made from service.

The worst. We talked about Bob's Big Boy a little bit and man, when we went to Bob's, we were in a section where we were like one of four tables right next to each other that were all in the jurisdiction of this one waiter. Yeah. And he gave great service to three of them and just actively looked away every time. Now, there is another wrinkle to that story in that I have since retired this, but there used to be a thing on the podcast called the you must bowl. And the you must bowl was something

you had to draw from if ever a restaurant's final score was outside of the four to six media, the zone of mediocrity. Yeah. If you ventured too far past that, you got punished for picking a place that wasn't mediocre enough. And you had to enact that punishment at the next place that you went. That day at Bob's Big Boy, I had to show up and like make a painting of Bob's Big Boy. at Bob's Big Boy before I could go in to the restaurant. My mom did half the painting

and I did the other half and both of us decided it's dog shit. I know you're looking at the painting right now and you're like the little Bob. That was my half. I like it.

You're nodding as though you're like trying to be like understanding like when a kid shows you like look what I made and you're like oh yeah, it's good. Yeah, I see you. I see what you're doing.

I thought my acting would be better. You're not getting away with it. Oh, not at all. But like, my mom and I thought it would be fun, well, I thought it would be fun, and I forced my mom to do this. If we both wear like French style

like bray hats or whatever and had mustache. So I had an actual mustache. My mom had a painted on one. Yeah. And we suspect that it like threw the waiter off and made him feel uncomfortable. And that's why he avoided eye contact

because we were literally dressed like two French painters. Now maybe. Yeah. But I don't know. I mean, if I had that as a server, I'd be like, they're fun. I would ask questions and be more into it. Yeah.

Yeah. He just wasn't into it that. days. I think I would still put him as the worst server we've had. Oh, really? Through this entire journey. You know what? Shout out to the Bob's big boy server. You're lacking. You're slacking money. So now I'm going to docks him. I'm going to tell you his name is a dress. Oh, good. Yes. His credit card numbers. Call him. His search history. I've got it all. Yeah. I'm coming for you, pal. Yeah. But no, like, having that low bar, you know, I now am a lot more like, okay, I know what the worst can be. So we didn't have like actively bad service, but we definitely

didn't have good service. No, I wasn't. I was right in between for sure. I wanted, I wanted a little bit more. Now, he did do something kind of odd. Yeah. We placed orders for starters. And then he looks at you and he's like, do you guys want to keep one menu? We haven't even ordered. No. Yeah. We didn't order the entree. And he just takes your menu. Yeah. He takes my menu. I don't know why. He just must have thought we were done ordering or. And it just makes me ask a question. Pete, it, Can I call you Pete? Yeah. Makes me wonder, what's going on over there?

Pretty Peter Avalon. What's going on over there? We kind of discussed that he doesn't seem like he's one for decision making. You know? He took away my power to make a decision. He's taken away your menu because it's just like, look, I don't want to make decisions, but I also don't feel comfortable with you doing it. He did leave the lunch special menu, which is quite a limited menu compared to the actual menu.

trying to hone in. He's like, look, if you pick between two things, I'm in my comfort zone. If you do more than that, I'm going to have an actual freak out here in this Gordon Beers Brewery. Yeah, it was a little odd. That's what the dukees stains are. Those are the results of his panic attacks from too many, uh, too many decisions. He like goes upstairs and it just leaks to this. Can you imagine that that? This is so gross. If that was like the panic that it put his body into decision making is that it just gave him the worst bubble guts. Bubble guts. I have never heard that term. This poor guy decision-making just kills his innards, you know? It makes him, like, actually queasy to a point that he has to excuse himself and go to the roof and take a shit.

And just, uh, this poor guy. This poor guy should find a different job. It's less decision-making, maybe. I mean, honestly, that's all being a server is, is it's, hey, make a decision and tell me. Yeah. God, can you imagine if we asked him for a recommendation? I was thinking, I was like, yeah, what would happen if we did? His head might explode.

He'd still go up to the roof, but he'd jump. He had a bad mustache like the dude from the cocaine bear. I mean, I literally have a bad mustache right now. No, you do not. Not like this dude. You look like you upkeep your mustache. I carved this mustache out of thin air like three days ago. I had a full beard.

And I was just like, well, all right. You got a good stash. Yeah, yeah. And his mustache definitely was like, I made a choice. This is my one. Yeah. It's like, there it is. Leave it be.

Like, don't make me do more. It wasn't like a firm choice. He was like, I think I'm going to do this. And then he did it. It was a noncommittal mustache. Yeah, he's like, all right. Yeah. Well, I think we figured it out.

I think we have in fact learned what's going on over there. What is going on over there? I have to make a decision. Yeah. We got, we got to give a thumb rating to this service. You know, I wanted to see a little bit more of them. I wanted him to engage with us a little more. I wanted him to realize that he was.

lucky enough to be in the presence of the self-proclaimed hottest boy in AEW. He must have not realized. He didn't. So for that, I'm going to go one thumb down. It's not an aggressive one thumb down. It's not a two thumbs down. It's a slight thumb down. It's a, yeah.

You know what? I'm going to agree with you just because he took my menu. He was going to get no thumbs. He stole from you. He stole my decision-making power. Yeah. Yeah. And then we had like a lady in the trant moment where we're like both holding onto one side of

the menu each look. looking at it and then we like kissed. It was really weird. I don't know where the spaghetti came from, but it was, yeah. I don't even think they serve that. They don't. Yeah. Anyways, that's it for service.

Actually, before we move on from service, I've got you here. I have a very specific thing to pitch to you. Okay. You're in the world of wrestling. Kind of, slightly. And a lot of wrestling gimmicks are occupation-based. Yes. I have come up with the ultimate.

chain restaurant wrestling gimmick. All right. And it's a part of the service team that I didn't really notice much of at this restaurant.

Bus boys. Oh. I want to be a wrestler called the busser. The buser. Yeah. Like, I'll take you to the back

and throw you in the sink or whatever. As a man with a former occupational gimmick of the librarian, I am all for it. I am all for it. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, like finishing move, the Buster Buster. Yeah. That obviously makes sense. He comes out with that tub, the plastic tub full of the dishes. That's like his like, Raven had the shopping cart. Yeah. He would just come out with a tub of like used it. It would be like gross.

You could do like a broken dish death match or something. Oh, that's grimy. Yeah. He's got the gross wet towel. He's a whips dudes with him. Oh my gosh. That is such a heel gimmick of like, it's not even that I'm choking you. It's that it's dirty.

It's gross. It's the fact that it has been used to wipe a table. He's got like a little. little spray bottle of like windex equivalent or whatever water and a slight bit of soap yeah just a bottle of blue a bottle of blue yeah yeah i want you to rank this gimmick idea for the busser nine out of ten can you give me a short promo from the perspective of the busser oh let me tell you something brother i'm gonna go over there and i'm gonna bust those tables i'm gonna clean them up i'm gonna wipe it down and i'm gonna wipe the floor with you buddy yeah i like it yeah not bad i could uh

You got to do the Hogan 80s thing right away. You got it. Just a fanny pack full of somas. Yeah. Yeah. Zubas. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's the busser in his off hours.

Yeah, in his prime. Yeah, yeah. In his prime. Food. Yum. Yum. So the food for Gordon Beersh, I mean, they invented the garlic fry, allegedly. We got that as a starter.

Yeah. Before we actually talk about how well we liked the food, I have a question for you. you're in an industry where like your health and like body image matters health as well yeah do you eat at many chains oh all the time do they have options that are like good enough to upkeep your health or do you just do you not care everywhere's going to have options yeah it's it's funny to go to like a waffle house with some wrestlers and they'll ask for like yeah can I get 10 egg whites and then just toast and then it's like they get the most boring breakfast they can get but it's healthy for them.

Yeah, yeah. But then I'm getting the waffle. It's like, I just got to eat, maybe. I'm a skinny boy, so I got to eat, eat, eat whatever it is. So you've got that like overactive metabolism so you get to like. Yeah, they're looking at me like, you better get another waffle, little boy. Did they call you little boy? Man, they've called me everything under the sun.

It's wrestling. All right. So we had the Gordon Beersh legendary garlic fries. We differed on these. Yeah. I thought these were the best thing I tasted all day. I'd pass on them. Yeah.

I'd pass on them again. Just too much garlic? Too much garlic, yeah. I don't know the definition of that phrase. I like garlic. It's not like I dislike it. I just, you know. I'm skeptical now.

Prove yourself to me. You know what I fucking hate garlic. I have a vendetta against garlic. Let me tell you something, garlic. If I see you in the ring, I'm going to beat the shit out of you, garlic. I'm going to life the table with you. Exactly. I'm the busser.

Yeah. I mean, I really enjoyed them. I went to Stinking Rose. and loaded up my face with garlic and have no complaints about it. So there really isn't a thing for me as too much garlic. Yeah.

I'm going eight out of ten. That's all right. Like it's a shotgun blast of garlic to the face, but I welcome it. I'll give it a five out of ten. You're only going on five. Yeah, one and I bit one and two of them.

I just couldn't do it. It's too much. Too much for me. Would you say it was way too much? Yeah. This is. This is weird because I have this award, but I don't agree with the awarding of it. But if you say so, like, I'll give it to you.

I'll let you award that this is way too much award to the garlic fries at Gordon Beersh. I mean, I think it's too much that they claim to have invented them and that the internet. That can't be right. Like, that can't be right. Garlic fries just conceptually feel like a thing that have to predate Gordon Beersh. It just seems like it has to. I was just, I saw something on, I think it was Reddit this morning that was like, they were talking about the origins of the pinia collada.

And there's a couple places that say they invented it. But then they found a drink book from like the 20s or 30s that had the recipe in it. So like I think that probably is a world that the garlic fries live. And just like, no, we invented it. But then some dude over here is like, hold up. I invented it in 1922. And they're like, yeah, well, can you prove it? Because we have more money than you to flood the internet.

So search results show that it was us. Yeah. Damn you can. Compete with us. Poor. Damn. Damn, you're right. Yeah.

All my shit just shows up on Bing. No one uses Bing. I'll just believe you with you based trombone that you invented garlic fries. Yeah, sure, sure. God, can you imagine the garlic breath shooting out of a trombone while you're playing? That's tragic. Imagine me from front row to that ska concert. Man, no, thanks.

You just go with like nose plugs. Yeah. Or you just breathe with your mouth open the whole time. I mean, that's what I. And then people say, but then you can taste it. No, you can't. No. When you breathe, you're not tasting.

No. Yeah. I mean, I have survived a lot of situations by, breathing through my mouth. Oh, absolutely. I'm also, I'm very sensitive to smell, like, I'm sure you have friends that, like, will smell something that stinks, and then they'll be like, oh, dude, smell this. And it's like, no, you clearly indicated that it's unpleasant. I will smell it. I'm like, oh, of course I have to. Oh, you do? Of course, yeah. Oh, I never do. I'm so, I'm foolish. I'm like that. I'm just like, you've literally indicated that it's not going to be a good experience for me.

It's also hilarious. That's something you want to share like, oh my God, this is the most grotesque thing I've ever seen. Look at this. Like, look at this infection on my arm. Oh, gross. Can I touch it? Yeah. And then on the other side of things, we got the crispy balsamic Brussels sprouts.

I was a fan of those. I was too. The balsamic was working. Yeah. I feel like I had the right amount of, like, grease moisture from the balsamic with, like, the crispiness of the brussel sprout, sprouts, leaves, whatever you want to call them. Right. This is the thing that, like, I will make sure I order every time I go.

I would get that again there. I don't even have it rated higher than the garlic fries, but Brussels sprouts, I'm a little less worried about them being bad for me. Right. I went seven and a half out of ten on the Brussels sprouts. I was going to say, seven point five as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Big agreement on the, on these, the, I was going to say the BS, the Brussels sprouts.

I was looking for a for a catchy abbreviation and then looked, I was like, oh, it's BS. Yep. Cool. They are no BS. They were a solid. They were a solid. They're no BS. Solid Sprout.

Oh, that's what they should call them. And now a word from our totally not made up sponsor. Greetings. Harrison Augustine flying money-wad emoji really is the 14th again, taking a brief pause from my yachting adventures to give you people some advice. Now when I started sponsoring the Fine Dining podcast, I thought it would be a classy affair, but now they're out there trying to abbreviate Brussels sprouts to BS.

Why the profanity? Why not keep BS something more appropriate? Like the degree of, I almost earned, a Bachelor of Science. I was a mere 18 credits away from graduating before my father invented the first batch of emoji symbols, and I became heir to the greatest wealth of the modern day. So let's look the other way and forget all about the fact that my father did invent the coil of poop emoji and cloths things up a little bit.

If you're looking to rebrand Brussels sprouts, why not use your parents vast riches to purchase the Coca-Cola trademark and just call them, that. It comes with built-in brand recognition. It'll do swell. Anyways, that's my advice. What do I know? I'm just a rich man. I do hope you apply this advice, but in the meantime, I must make my way to the bespoke tailor to discuss the intricate embroidery for my newest set of custom-made silk pajamas. You understand. I could not possibly settle for less than absolute luxury. Even in loungeware. Toot-liloo. My entree came with more fries, but it was a different fry.

It wasn't the garlic fry. It was the salt and pepper fries. Yeah, I had the regular fries too, yeah. Why bother? Yeah, well, we'll salt potatoes. The same potato. It's the same. But the good, like, I mean, I guess we disagreed on this.

The garlic, I thought, was the strong thing about the fry. Having them without it just kind of exposed, like, this is a pretty mediocre fry. The garlic fries are better than the regular fries. And you didn't love the garlic. So, yeah, I'm going just a, I'm just going a four and a half. out of 10. So a little on the low side of mediocre. I'll give them a four. Straight four. Straight four. Straight four. These were the chips of the fish and chips that I ultimately ordered. Right. So yeah, it was the beer battered fish and chips and it came with a marzin battered cod, tartar sauce, apple cider, slaw, salt and pepper fries. I actually didn't try the slaw.

In hindsight, I regret that. I wish I would have at least known what it tasted like. But the tartar sauce, it worked. I actually, this is a fairly good fish and chip. it didn't have a lot of structural integrity. Like, it was falling apart. You take a bite and, like, the fried skin just kind of slips off. Oh, yeah. And you're just, like, getting, like, meat. The fish out of its skin. Fish out of water.

Yeah. But skin. Fish out of skin. Weird. Yeah. It was good enough. Yeah, the tartar worked. It had, like, a green infusion.

I want to say it was, like, a cilantro tartar. Okay. And six out of ten? Like it got the job done. I was, I didn't eat a ton. Actually, this is probably the most conservative I've been with the amount that I've eaten. Now, that speaks volumes. At any place.

Yeah, you want to finish the good food. I want to finish the good food of which there wasn't a ton. I think we finished the Brussels. Yeah, it was tasty enough. But nothing blew me away, but nothing to me was bad other than just the, they had the substandard regular fries. Yeah. But yeah, six out of ten. All right. Can you talk about your beer? Oh, the beer was tasty. Do you remember what you got?

I had, I forgot the kind of beer. It was a Colch beer, which I thought Colch was supposed to be like small glasses. And I got it because it reminded me of my trip to Cole in Germany about a year ago. So then reviewing the history that it's got all German things. It's like, oh, it makes sense. That's cool. The beer was actually tasty. I'd give that a seven out of ten. The beer is probably what if you, if you go to Yelp, the majority of at least good reviews are talking about the beers and like listing specific ones. Yeah, the beer was good. Like they're kind of a destination for beers, at least for being a chain.

It's definitely like a big draw of why someone goes to a Gordon. I mean, a brewery in general, that's going to be what happens. Brewery in the name, right? Yeah. It was good. I give that a seven out of ten. And then for your entree. I had the Wagyu chit burger.

And for something to be advertised as a Wagyu, you'd expect, ooh, tasty. A little more? A little more? A tasty beef. Yeah, and that burger was was overcooked. Was it? got it. It looked pink in the middle from... It was, but I think it's just like overcooked on the outside or something because it wasn't very good. That's bad balance. Yeah, it wasn't very good.

I give that a 4.5. Wag you coming in... That's what, yeah, that's coming in slow. Yeah, it's going to be Wagyu B for Kobe B if you'd expect to be delicious. But also it's a chain restaurant burger. Right, right. I mean, I just did a whole month of Septemberer eating nothing but chain restaurant. Eight 24 burgers in that month. Oh, that's pretty good. Three burgers per place, first round, second round, and third round. Even if they didn't advance, I had to taste it, so I didn't have to go back another time. Yeah. That's rough.

That's rough. Well, I wouldn't recommend this hamburger. Cheap burger. Good to know. Maybe they'll be in next year's September. Got to have a number eight seed somewhere. Yeah, yeah. I guess you can do it then.

Got to have a last place option. Just forget this show happened and then go try it brand new. I've never had this before. This show I often try to forget about. I feel like it's a fever dream. This entire podcast is just. Hey, let's go slowly chip away at my life expectancy by eating out constantly at some of the worst health food, non-health food places you can go to. There you go.

That's how I think of me in wrestling. Let me chip away at my life by taking bumps and then not remember a thing. Do you hurt? Always. Do you really? Oh, physically? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, emotionally.

I thought I was physically. Yeah, once in a while, yeah. Yeah. Like, have you had any big injuries? Oh, yeah. I broke my, I have a scar on my wrist here that I had a plate. I actually have the plate. I had this plate in my, it's on my keys now.

I had it in my arm for about eight months. Icky. Yeah. I broke my arm in training, my very first year training. I did a frog splash and it didn't go right. And then I blew out my ACL not too long ago and I had to get PRP injections. I broke my face. You broke your face?

Like your orbital? My zygomatic region right here, the little bridge. right here. Like your cheekbone, basically? Yeah, it got popped in. Someone punched it too hard and I had to get surgically to pop it back out. So I've had facial reconstructive surgery technically. How long is that to feel normal again?

It was odd, man, because like... I imagine like every time you chew, you're feeling it. The way it broke, if I opened my mouth up really wide, I would feel the bone like in my mouth. Which now that I've seen you eat, you do eat like a snake. You kind of just unhinged. It really inhibited my unhinging at that moment. It was weird. And the thing is, I didn't even realize it was broken right away.

I just thought I got popped real good because, I mean, I've been punched through wrestling. So I was like, I should be fine. My face was swollen. I was like, oh, swelling will go down. And then two weeks later, I had another match. And that swelling went down, but I just had a hole in my face. You could see just this like dip. And I had this match.

And the very next day I went to the doctor, got x-rays. and they said, yeah, your face is broken. Jeez. You can always see the incision right here. Oh, yeah. They had to go in and pop it out. And then I had this little plate that I just wore on my face for a few weeks.

How long ago was that? I remember because it was my 10th year anniversary in wrestling pre-pandemic. I forgot the exact year. Yeah. 2018, 19. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah, it was at bar wrestling. And we were wrestling. Okay. Me and my tag partner were wrestling crime time. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Great match.

They're great dudes. Sure. Yeah. just, you know, shit happens. RIP, Shad. Yeah, yeah, it was him. It was Shad. Oh, that shattered.

Shad, yeah, we did a, we were doing a spot and he popped me up to punch me as I came down and just, dude's big. Yeah. Got a big old fist. Yeah. Sweetheart, man, he was, he was so worried. He was like, you'll be sure, I'll take you to the hospital, I'll do this, I'll do that. He was checking up on me and making sure I was good.

But I just felt like that kind of the etiquette. Yeah, you know, he's got to take care of each other and shit happens. Yeah. I've gone with people to the hospital. People I've gone with me to the hospital. like yeah we're just but in that sense it's for sure brotherhood yeah yeah i missed my window i feel to like to start getting into wrestling at like 34 35 seems like i've probably missed a boat but it was always a thing where i was like man i know that i can just call a wrestling school and

join and learn but yeah but now like i can't your face broken i can't well and i can't stand up without grunting right that's me now like shit yeah but you but you earned that i just I did nothing and ended up there. You've like put your body through stuff to get to that point. Anyways, we're talking about Gordon Beersh Brewery. So now we can talk about the delicious afterwards party that is dessert. The brownie Sunday. That hard brownie.

Yeah, it was kind of hard. Yeah. Like physically hard. Yeah. Just muscle. Yeah, this brownie had tendons. We had an abdominal muscle for the brownie. brownie.

Yeah. And it was actively flexing. Yeah. Really had to like push to break through. Yeah. I had a bite and that was it for me. You know, it was a brownie. Like it wasn't a bad brownie.

Yeah. Wasn't a good one either. But it wasn't impressive. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a brownie in general to me is a more delicious treat than your average food. So I have it. I have it over five, but not by much.

I give it a six out of ten. Okay. I'll say five. Just because it was a little too hard. I like soft brownies. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, in your line of work, soft food.

That's it. You got, you need it. Yeah. When you're breaking your face, you don't want to chew too hard. Exactly. These missing teeth. Yeah. But overall, I think when I put this together, I'm going to go a pretty enthusiastic

one thumbs up on the food. I thought the food was the best of the three elements. Like the atmosphere, kind of whatever, the service left something to be desired. The food, I didn't hate it. You know, it's not up there with like the really good meals in my life, but I'd call it above average. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm going to go one thumbs up.

Approaching two. But I'll go one. I'll give it one thumb. Yeah, I want them up. One not firm thumb up, but it's a it's a thumb. Like if someone got that thumbs up from you, they'd be like, I think he likes me. Yeah, it's one of those ones that like you kind of acknowledge someone in the car. Like, you know, like.

Thanks for letting me through. Exactly. One of those. Yeah. Final rating. We have to boil down Gordon Beers Brewery to its essence to a number to a score. and throw it up on the Chotchky of mediocrity, our running scoreboard of all the restaurants that I have been to so far

and where they stand in search of that perfect 5.0. Would you like to go first? Let's see. The restaurant was for sure a restaurant. The atmosphere was there. It was a brewery. There were the big vats of beer. So, like, you knew what their, what their sound.

I like how in a world where you can give opinions, you're all facts. That's right. You're like, it existed. It was in a building. That's right. There was a building they probably pay rent for in Burbank. There was tanks. There was duky drips from the ceiling.

The bathroom was confusing. The food was food. I would give it a 5.5. Going 5.50. All right. I think I liked this a bit more than you did. I mean, this place didn't like impress me. but I would call it above average.

And to me, four to six, that's your average range, six to seven, six to eight. You're looking at good. I thought this was a comfortably good place. It's not a spot where I'm like, oh, you've got to try Gordon Beers. Never going to be one of those recommendations. But in a pinch,

looking to go somewhere other than my usuals, my haunts, I think, as they call them. I don't know where that term came from, but sure. Would you go to this? this place over another Burbank legendary place of Lancers? I've never been to Lancers. It looks sad.

It is very sad in there. It's so fucking sad, bro. But that breakfast was not bad. When your exterior looks stained. Yeah, the interior's no better. I know it's going to be equal or worse inside. I can't bring myself to do it. It's a place.

But I have reviewed the Burger King right next to Lancers. That Burger King was in Back to the Future at the very beginning, Marty McFly's skateboards past it and you can actually see the Lancers in the background behind it. Oh, and I'm going to have to go back and look just for the Lancers. I rewatched it like a week ago

for the first time in probably 10 years. That's awesome. Just because I was like, I went to that Burger King. So yeah, because I like this a bit more than you, I had a neutral opinion of the atmosphere, but a positive opinion of the food. The service,

I did give it a thumbs down, but it wasn't that enthusiastic. Like, I didn't hate the guy. It wasn't bad. He didn't insult me personally. He didn't spit at me or shoe me out like most of these places. Right.

So this is a place where if my parents were in town and I wanted a place that was like a step above a Chili's or like something like that, I'd probably be like, sure, let's go to Gordon Beersh and my dad will get weird about it and start like making like poop faces. And I'm like, dad, knock it off. I'm going to go 6.47. Oh. Not crazy. But like it's a healthy rating. Yeah. Right outside the zone of mediocrity. Right outside the zone of mediocrity.

It puts it just ever so slightly below like the cheesecake factory for me. The determining factor for this rating was I had macaroni grill at a 6.54. Okay. And I just would ever so slightly prefer going to macaroni grill than this Gordon Beers. And that's a place I haven't been to. So that's a little boy. They changed the bread. It's a travesty.

No. But that was the Cerritos location that I went to that the bread was different. If you go to the Irvine location, it's a little bit closer. to the old bread. Okay. And I mean, the bread is why you go to a macaroni grill.

That's what's getting you in the door. That like rosemary pull apart loaf. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With the olive oil. That was good. All right. So when we put our ratings together, crazy enough,

Gordon Beersh falls just ever so perfectly inside the zone of mediocrity at a 5.99. That is the average of our scores. Beryl and mediocre. It's better than I will be. Okay, so we didn't find the most mediocre restaurant, Gordon Beersh, not the 5.00, which means I've got to keep looking.

I've got to go somewhere next week to review and evaluate if it's the perfectly mediocre, perfectly average restaurant. I believe in you, Michael. I believe that you can find. You think I'm going to find it? Absolutely. I think you can find that 5.00. And it is a science. I have to round to the nearest hundreds.

If I did a tenth, it's too vague. Olive Garden week seven scored a 5.1. But when you add that extra decimal, like you're really, you're in there twisting the knobs, turning the dials. Yes. Usually to determine where I go next, we play a game called the headline game, where I have prepared headlines about the restaurant that we went to and you would have to decipher, are they real headlines? Are they bogus headlines? But we're not going to do that.

No, no, no, no, no. You don't get to play the headline game. Darn. Because I get to make a pun. The highest form of comedy is. I want to play a game that plays to your strengths. I'm calling it chain wrestling. Now, to play chain wrestling, I'm going to name either a professional wrestler or a chain restaurant.

And you have to match them with someone or a place that fits the exact same vibe. So if I say, wrestler, you have to name a chain restaurant that fits their vibe. If I name a chain restaurant, you got to tell me a wrestler that fits their vibe. All right. I'm on the spot. Are you ready to play? Yes.

All right. Coldstone creamery. Cold stone. Let's see. I'm going to say, cold cabana. Stone cold. It's in the name, dude. See, now I see, like, I thought you wanted an honest thing, not just a joke.

I was I say like Colt is reliable like Coltstone is you know what I mean he's delicious I am going to let you filibuster about Colt Cabana as long as you want

Love Colcabana Love Colcabana There are right and wrong answers to this This is not just word association This is an exam I was thinking it's it's word associations Let me get in my test brain Let me take my classes off

I'm serious You got a study All right Daddy Magic Matt Menard What chain restaurant would you be not back steakhouse wrong he is a Denny's

after midnight oh okay yes they're there at 2 a.m it just has straight up cocaine energy but there's probably not actual cocaine Danny Magic Matt Menard is just a bag of cocaine if it were a wrestler yeah yeah out of his mind maybe my favorite promo in wrestling these days he's great

he's great uh father magic if you are listening to this come on my podcast father magic yes orange Julius Orange Cassidy Orange Julius Julius Caesar Cesar Benoni

Come on dude He's one of your wingmen How did I not make that connection? Damn My bad Cesar Sorry CM Punk I'll be a Young Brands restaurant

Because they just served Pepsi That is the most political answer You could have given Waffle House Because you can rely on a brawl I didn't say it Tony, Tony, I didn't say it, Tony. You didn't say it, Tony. You didn't say anything.

Chris Jericho. Hmm. Probably be a steakhouse. Some kind of steakhouse. We'll see. Outback Steakhouse. You'll say Outback Steakhouse. The correct answer is Cheesecake Factory.

Long list, constantly reinventing itself. The Ocho, the Demo God, the Wizard, the List. I like that. Y2J. All the things. Lionheart. to select from and in a menu sense, it's a little too much to select from sometimes. Yeah.

When a guy's pulled out a list of a thousand and four holds cheesecake factory. Yes, absolutely. Christian Cage. Hmm. Where is a restaurant that you would go with your dad? You're on the right track. Okay. Not that you would go with your dad, but...

Mm, Sizzler. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, because there was no father figure in Forest Gump. Oh, bright. And lastly, Margaritaville. Oh, who's the Jimmy Buffett wrestler? Prince Nana. There you go. All right.

Go to Margaritaville, maybe swerve when you drive. I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah. All right. So you got one correct. That's probably appropriate for an exam.

Yeah. Because I wanted this to be hard and vague. Like most exams. I'm going to New York. So I want to pick where I'm going to go in New York. York. So I may have rigged the game to be a little tough, but I'm going to go to the world famous Katz's Delacetessen next week. So get a pastrami on ride, try the Latkees, try their hot dog. A Rubin? Just, I hear it's amazing. So I'm very excited. Going to go to Katz's

delicatessen. Thanks so much, Petty, pretty Pete for coming on the podcast. You are welcome. I had a blast with you. I hope you had a fun time. It was great. Is there anything you want to like? plug or tell people where to follow you. Follow me on Instagram at PPA all day. You can see me kicking ass at AEW and Ring of Honor. You can check me out on Championship Wrestling, the United Wrestling Network brand. We are doing some cool stuff. We have a show in Louisville called Derby City Wrestling.

We have the Hollywood brand, which is Championship Wrestling. And we're always doing some new, new stuff. So please stay in touch with the United Wrestling Network and your boy, PPA. And folks, he's not lying when he says PPA all day. This guy, I was like, do you have an out time? And he was like, I literally have the entire day. And I'm like, you're living the gimmick, man. That's right.

All damn day. Living the gimmick. So now that we're closing in on midnight, we spent 23 hours and 50-something minutes together. I can firmly say, thank you for helping me. Look for mediocrity. We didn't find the most mediocre restaurant in America. The search does, in fact, continue. We'll see you next week.

Have a fine day. The search continue. We still need the perfect fire The search continues Like and subscribe The search continues Our journey did not conclude The mother rat in search continues

Write us in iTunes review And hey, while you're right it Why don't you go ahead and make it five stars, Follow us on TikTok The same on Instagram All the socials At Fine Dining Podcast We have a website

Find Diningpodcast.com Buy our t-shirts Then put them on And don't forget You can always suggest Where we go next? Okay! We're going to find it up to.

The search continues. See you. Heard my throat a little. Have a fine day. Call me. Yeah, I know. I got a cell phone. How crazy this guy's driving me.

Two weeks ago, I think that you must fall the spine of this podcast and bury it. And he says, nothing about it. And then you want to get me started on Gordon Fierce? They rated 5.99 so conveniently you don't eat that you look full and he says it's retired. You damn right I got a phone. Things have got to change. You know what? Maybe I'm willing to go back to prison. We'll see what happens. Two hang up.