Fine Dining - Joe's Crab Shack: Drunk Toddlers, Racist Decor, & WHO THE HELL IS JOE

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Joe’s Crab Shack has been serving seafood and sass since 1991 — but who is Joe? In this week’s episode, I dig deep into the murky origins of this kitschy crustacean-themed chain, uncovering mystery, missteps, and marketing that somehow works. From accidentally boozed-up babies to scandalous decorations and trans fat deception, Joe’s has made some serious waves. Plus, I’m joined by longtime friend and podcast voice Sandy Rose to question whether you can truly trust a restaurant that sells shirts saying “I’ve Got Crabs.” Is Joe’s just a goofy seafood joint? Or a case study in chaotic chain dining gone rogue? 🦐 Who is Joe? And why can’t we find him? 🕺 Dancing Servers & Shark Mocktails Gone Horribly Wrong 🚫 The No-Tipping Policy That Sunk Morale 💀 The Lynching Photo That Sparked Outrage 🧈 Trans Fat Lies (and Why They Were So Tasty) 👕 Merch Madness: Peace, Love & Crabs 📉 From 130+ Locations to Just 20 Today 🏝️ Sandy Rose’s Holiday-Themed Restaurant Pitch 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Have you eaten at Joe’s Crab Shack? Did your waiter dance or just bring you trauma? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🔥 Patreon (Bonus reviews & exclusive content!): https://www.patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Chat chains & share horror stories!): https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@finediningpodcast 🔗 All links: www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast ⚡ Like, Subscribe & Share if you love deep dives into crabby chaos! 👉 NEXT WEEK: We ate at Joe’s. Was it all kitsch and crabs — or something much weirder? Stay tuned. 🪝

Joe's Crab Shack! We're 34 years in, and while Joe's Crab Shack is hanging in there, all records of who Joe is have been wiped clean from the internet. When I die, please do the same with my browser history. I don't need any of you knowing which Pokemon I find the sexiest. Sneezel. Shut up, inner monologue. So with no Joe, let's focus on the crab stuff.

No other chain restaurant would even dream to sell a shirt that says, no worries, I've got crabs. But Joe's Crab Shack isn't just any chain. They've embraced and rallied around everyone's favorite crustacean, just as Bubba Gump has with shrimp and Red Lobster has with too much butter. Famous for their buckets of crabs and dancing servers, Joe's Crab Shack has a reputation for being a light-hearted delight for fans of seafood. But it's not all been smooth sailing for the brand.

From drunk toddlers to unfathomably inappropriate choices for restaurant decor, Joe's has seen its fair share of controversies. This week on the show, I'll use my seafood pick to rummage around in those tender claws of knowledge and scrape the meat directly into your crab bucket of curiosity so that you too can become as well educated about Joe's Crab Shack as I am. Then we'll turn our attention to Yelp to see what others think of the Disneyland adjacent Joe's Crab Shack we visited. Stay tuned. This is the Fine Dining Podcast. Okay, I heard drunk toddlers and sexy Pokemon. Yeah, what else do you need to know? I skipped over all of the Joe's content and I focused in on it. I was like, I really want to know what your sexiest Pokemon choice is.

Hello and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. I am your host Michael Ornelas and this is the show where I dive deep into the history of our favorite chain restaurants before reviewing them. In this week's episode of the show, we're going to sail the seas of Joe's Crab Shack history. And my first mate is a close personal friend

I met while working at Paramount Studios. You've heard her all over the show in its various iterations as she's lent her voice to many of the segment transition bumpers. She's also faced the wrath of Juicy Jr. in the season one finale, TGI Friday the 13th. She consistently makes me laugh and is also a board game enthusiast. It's Sandy Rose. Oh, I love that intro. Thank you so much. How's it going? It's good. Having a good chill day.

How many days removed from our meal at Joe's? Like three or four? It was Tuesday. It was Tuesday. I often do these right after I eat. And I mean, I did just eat. I've been apologizing for burping up garlic this whole time, but at least I don't feel the heaviness of like a podcast meal.

Oh yeah. We were com of like a podcast meal. Oh, yeah, we were. Coma doubt. Yeah, we had like IV drips and all that. Yeah. So our review of going to Joe's that'll be next week. This week is the history of Joe's Crab Shack, as well as picking up some Yelp reviews and then hearing what you would do if you made a restaurant. Do you have any personal history with Joe's Crab Shack, or is this your first time there?

I was definitely familiar with it. I think that I had gone, you know, in my childhood with my family for a lovely dining experience. Yeah, yeah. I already felt pretty positively about Joe's going in. Okay. Yeah, and it is a Texas-based company, and you and I both spent a substantial amount

of our lives in Texas. So I wonder if that played into it. What I assumed was even more prominence than it ultimately did have. It must have. Yeah, it seemed like a very just normal restaurant to go to. And I'm sure that people outside of Texas or maybe, I don't know, just in another place would not have that same experience of it. Yeah, like my sphere of awareness has kind of always had Joe's Crab Shack in it. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

But this was my first time eating there. Really? Oh, I don't think we talked about that. Yeah. Okay. Because seafood is kind of a newer thing for me. Oh, why? What?

I grew up a very picky eater. It's interesting. I had, like, an internet quiz diagnose me as on the spectrum. Not, it wasn't like a, it wasn't like cosmopolitan. It was like a, it was like a, it ended in.edu or something like that. So it was like, I assume trusted. And when I look at, like, my patterns of behavior, like being a picky eater and the difficulty

of changing my ways on certain things and just the mental blocks that I realize I have with that to social things where eye contact is a very trained thing for me. I'm counting in my head, okay? You're doing great. Thank you. But yeah, it's one of those things where my,

it might be silly to say, but like my bravery to try new foods. One, it really has to be on my own terms. Two, I've realized I need to see stuff made. I need to know everything that goes into it, or at least read an ingredients list to be like, oh, I like all those things, so I guess I like this. Like hummus, I didn't try hummus for the first time until maybe a couple years back.

Because you didn't know what it was. It's just like, it's a goop. Because you didn't know what was going on. Didn't know, but I love hummus now. So seafood, I went to Japan from like New Year's 2018 into 2019 and made a rule for myself of I will eat anything that I encounter on this trip.

My one hard line no was octopus. I didn't want, I don't want to eat octopus. Oh, you might be missing out. I don't know, but you might be. I think they're too smart for me to feel like ethically good about eating them. They are really smart. Yeah, like it's just like they're too intelligent.

I've also heard that pigs are intelligent though. Don't, don't, no. No. Not fielding this. Definitely be eating some bacon. Yeah. But all that said, I love seafood now, specifically lobster, crab, shrimp.

Fish, I'm still kind of like, I like sushi, but even then only certain types. So I'm a little bit picky with fish, but I no longer oppose seafood in general. Aw, I'm happy for you. Thank you. Yay. So all that to say Joe's Crab Jack

wasn't even a place I would have considered going until the time where they were already becoming less prevalent. Mm, okay. Well, it's good that you like seafood because we ate a shit ton of it. We ate a shit ton of it. So anyways, that's my history

and your history with Joe's Crab Shack. Do you wanna hear the history of Joe's Crab Shack? Please. All right, we're gonna jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eatery Details

The year was 1991. Presumably, a person with a dream and some startup cash opened the first Joe's Crab Shack in Houston, Texas, but there is no record of who started the place. Was it Joe? Who is Joe? What are you hiding, Joe's Crab Shack? Why have you scrubbed the internet of any information about your founding? That's really sus.

Like, even the About Us section on the Joe's Crab Shack website, it has a header labeled The Story of Joe's, which says simply, Joe's Crab Shack offers a variety of favorites from all parts of the sea and shore. What do they not want to tell us? Like, they don't tell us the story. There is no Joe that I could find when I was looking around on Google. I took it to ChatGPT and I was like, hey, what do you know about the founding of Joe's Crab Shack?

Smart. And it showed, it turned up this guy named Ray Sher, S-H-E-R-R, and then I would Google Ray Sher Joe's Crab Shack and nothing, literally nothing would pop up. Blank screen? Yeah, it wouldn't even say no results. Google broke. There's some deeper conspiracy here.

But like then I would ask chat GPT, hey, is this guy actually part of it? And they were like, oh, I guess not. Thank you for correcting me. And I'd be like, wait, is he a part of it? Just tell me what is your source where you even found this name? And it was like, wait, is he a part of it? Just tell me what is your source, where you even found this name? And it was like, oh, I must have generated it accidentally.

And then I was like, so what's their story? And then it would bring him up again. But the internet has no record of Raesher or the founding of Joes or who Jo is. This has like mafia vibes to Nagalei. Yeah, concerning. Like, just the fact of like, where did you pull this from? I know, and then to apologize for it.

And then to apologize, and I was like, all right, go away. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, it was weird. OK, whatever. So just three years into operating, in 1994, the Landry's brand purchased the first Joe's Crab Shack and converted it to a Landry's restaurant.

Hmm. Landry's really hits for me, I think. Is that another Texas thing? I've never had Landry's. I've been to places that are Landry's brand owned. That's what I mean. But I've never been to a Landry's restaurant. And there are Landry's restaurants.

There are? Okay. I'm just familiar with the umbrella. Okay. The Landry's household name. Like Darden owning Olive Garden and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. No, there is like straight up a Landry's restaurant. Okay. The Landry's household name. Like Darden owning, like Olive Garden and stuff. Exactly. Yeah, no, there is like straight up a Landry's restaurant.

Oh. No, never been there. And so the first Joe's Crab Shack got converted into one, but it was just that location. They didn't buy the Joe's Crab Shack company. And then by the following year, Joe's had expanded to three restaurants in Houston and one in Dallas.

And despite the 1994 sale, the brand continued to grow throughout the late 90s and into the early part of the 21st century. Seafood boom in Texas. Seafood boom in Texas, I suppose. I mean, it was the 90s. We were unstoppable. We could do anything, you know?

Anything. Yeah. According to Wikipedia, by 2006, there were 130 Joe's Crab Shack locations when they were acquired by a privately held company that eventually became Ignite Restaurant Group. The sale was for $192 million and they purchased the brand despite acquiring $225 million in liabilities. So, yeah, I find it interesting. Like, they did grow plenty on their own, then they, you know, cashed out, as often happens, and the guy was like, scrub me from all databases. Right. Yeah.

Well, I wonder when the scrubbing happened. Like, was it initially? He was like, I'm gonna start this, but I want nothing to do with it. Like, if I was more of like an actual investigative journalist, I would look into like who held the deed for the first proper, like the transition and be like, who is this? Is Ray Scherr like?

Like an angel investor, like I don't even, is there a term for like a ghost owner of a restaurant? Yeah, I don't know. Like a ghost writer type of a thing. Yeah, a ghost. Ghost restaurant tour. Franchiser. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. So it's just, it's peculiar to me. Once they sell to Ignite, it's like, okay, that's kind of the route that a lot of these big chain restaurants have gone. They sell to some sort of company, but the company they sold to that became Ignite actually changed its name to JCS something, which stood for Joe's Crab Shack. So I think it was like an equity firm

specifically interested in owning Joe's Crab Shack. Oh. Yeah. Maybe it was the best of the Landry's. Well, it wasn't Landry's. Ignite, right? Landry's just bought the one location. Okay. Yeah. I'm getting caught up on Landry's.

I need to Google that later. No, no, no, no. Your suspicions are correct. We will get to Landry's again. We will get to Landry's again. And then in 2012, Ignite Restaurant Group went public, as a lot of those companies do. Smart. One thing we didn't experience

but is very much a part of Joe's Crab Shack's past, at least, and in some locations they're present, the staff dances. We did not experience that. We went during lunch though. We went during lunch on a weekday. Yeah. Which is not, you know, I think usually weekends

and like maybe busier weeknights you'll get it. But like, you know, Texas Roadhouse. Dancing. There's dancing. The staff, they dance to entertain patrons. They've held dance-off competitions amongst themselves. So... What an incredible time to be a server.

To be alive. And I did find some Yelp reviews complaining that they no longer do the crab dance for your birthday. So, make of that what you will. Okay, I want to see a crab dance. Well, I want to see the crab dance, and I would like to see a crab dance. Both those things are, yeah. I have two dreams. One is to go to Joe's Crab Shack and see the waiters

do the crab dance. But also. Would like to see a crab do a dance. Put on your scuba suit, let's kick up. Yeah. Joe's also has a colorful taste in their marketing choices. Tie-dye shirts with peace, love, and crabs were a big part of their offerings.

And then the slightly more crass Got Crabs merch hit the stands. I was looking at a shirt being like, should I get that? Is that a good fashion choice for me? I really liked the tie-dye rainbow. And like, I am not a guy, like I think tie-dye is like the hackiest of clothing choices. And yet it felt like it fit for this brand

in a way to where I did end up buying one of the don't worry I've got crabs tie-dye shirts. Because you kind of got to. It's sex positive too. Yeah. Always get tested. Always get tested at Joe's Crab Shack. Be a responsible lover.

Yeah. But like, I, yeah, I liked their offerings well enough. They had like stuffed animal sharks for kids and stuff like that. They had, also for kids that I totally would have just gotten for myself, they had, you know those plates that have the slots in them for... Yes, yes.

For like to separate your... Peas and mashed potatoes. Yeah, yeah. They had one of those that was just a giant crab. It was like a big bright red crab, but it was a slotted plate, like cartoony crab. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I liked it, it was kind of adorable.

They had some cool looking hats. I wonder if it was extra murky because it was next to Disneyland, or if all of them are that entrepreneurial in their job. I think that they are probably all like that because there are certain restaurants I go to where it's just like, oh, this chain regularly just has its merch. Mm-hmm. And it was just such a big like area to buy stuff.

All the Hooters I've been to have like Hooters like. Oh, wow. Yeah. I stand corrected. Hooters I've been to have like Hooters like... Oh wow. Yeah. I stand corrected. Hooters shirts, Dick's last resort, but I mean again that was in Vegas so it's like... But I think some of these more kitschy chains all have their merch. Rainforest Cafe straight up has a store. Oh do they sell dinosaur figurines? Yeah. Of course. A notorious part of rainforests. Right.

Dinosaurs. Yeah. All right. And now for the scandals. In 2014, a Joe's Crab Shack in Colorado Springs came under fire for serving alcohol to a toddler. A family with a two-year-old and an eight-year-old ordered a fruity drink called shark nibbles, a blue mocktail with grenadine and a plastic shark toy swimming inside the beverage for their children.

However, there was a mix-up, and the younger one was accidentally served shark bites. You can understand the naming convention, nibbles and bites, which is the same drink but with vodka, rum, and curacao. Oh no. The child had completely finished off the drink before the staff realized.

The child liked it? I feel like a child would be like, this is gross when they taste alcohol. Two years old, you know. They're like, whatever, mom. You're not very discerning. I drink it. That would be like, I used to, as a kid,

at this one restaurant, always order a Shirley Temple as a fun thing. She'll get the Shirley Temple. And it was, of course, obviously not. A Shirley Temple is just a delightful drink. So good. Grenadine, hell yeah. I mean, to be fair, I don't drink alcohol, but even as an adult, I will happily be like,

yeah, give me a Shirley Temple. Right, it's sugar. So I can imagine just one sleepy worker back there being like, they got a bite or nibble I don't know and just getting alcohol in it accidentally and The shark bites is supposed to be served in a glass while shark nibbles is supposed to come in a plastic cup To like differentiate. Yeah, so that when the server picks it up, they know did the little two-year-old get a glass I think so but cup I think so

get a glass? I think so. Cup? I think so. So paramedics were called, and while no charges were filed, the server responsible for the mix-up did lose their job. The toddler was reportedly fine, but did have to Uber home

and come back for their car the next day. Nice, you nailed that. That same year, Joe's found themselves in hot water for misrepresenting their use of trans fats in their foods. According to MASH.com, the Center for Science in the Public Interest reported that the chain was using extremely high quantities of trans fats in their foods despite claiming they used none. Oh, good. That's a bad ratio of difference. So dishonest practices like this just rob consumers of the ability

to make informed decisions about what they're consuming. And not only did these products contain trans fats, but some dishes even had as much as a week's worth of trans fats in one meal. Delicious. That is my first thought, though. God, I bet it's good, though. Yeah, like that. you can't do that. No, literally and legally probably, and ethically certainly.

Like, yeah, once we know better about like the effects something has on the body, yeah, I don't know. We're being slowly poisoned by our food. One million percent, yes. So when we know of a poison, maybe let's cut back on that poison. Yeah, and just tell people what they're eating.

Yeah, let them make their decisions. This was the 90s, though. Don't rob them of the autonomy. This was the 90s, though, right? No, this was 2014. Oh, he said that, I missed it. Yeah. It was 2014, though.

It was a different world. Oh, 11 years ago. Yeah, it was a different time. Honesty didn't matter in 2014. That's a new thing. Does it still ever? We'll find out. All right.

In 2015, Joe's Crab Shack adopted a no tipping policy at 18 of their locations where they raised the price of their offerings, but didn't allow for their servers to earn gratuities. And while in theory, this can be great, the company only raised prices 12 to 15%, which if you've ever worked in customer service, is considered a low ball of a tip. As a result, servers were demotivated

and the service experience suffered overall. They removed the... They were basically like, we'll compensate our servers more. Oh, but not enough that a tip would have compensated them. But not enough that the new money they were making in covers what they would have been making with tips. That's pretty shitty.

Yeah. So yeah, according to federal law, restaurants can exploit the service staff by paying as little as $2.13 an hour, which makes tipping absolutely crucial for servers to at least break even let alone profit above minimum wage. I want everyone to hear that who goes to restaurants and doesn't tip. Yeah. And certain states, that's not the case. Like I think in California, they have to pay you the actual minimum wage.

I don't think they're allowed to pay under, but I know like in Texas, it's straight up just like, and even if you're like a host or a hostess, you're not serving and you're still making that because they have to like tip you in. But you don't get the same like cut. I've definitely heard horror stories from like friends who are servers and just getting low balled.

No, it's miserable. It's just such an exploitative system. Yes, yes. So like, you know, don't open a restaurant if you can't pay the wages that... Yeah? You know? Or any business. Pay the people that do the work that you need them to do for your business to succeed. So, stiffing on a tip can even cost servers money.

The psychology of higher menu prices also led to customers ordering less food as the higher prices scared them off even though they would roughly be spending the same amount as before in a tipped environment. We've just been conditioned to save money for the end for that tip. The policy was scrapped a year later in 2016. Still have high prices, I will say. Yeah. That I do think might be the Disneyland adjacency of it. Oh, OK, got it.

Because it's just that area is very touristy. When the amount of hotels that you see around you is many, many. your prices are probably going to be a bit higher. Again, smart. Yeah. 2016 was an even worse year for Joe's as one location had a racially insensitive piece of decor on display in their restaurant.

A Minneapolis Joe's Crab Shack generated headlines for a picture of a black man surrounded by a white mob at a lynching with the caption. All I said was that I didn't like the gumbo. No. Yep. What? Yep. That's not even a little funny. That's so not a good look. The one, not slack that I'll cut them, but like, if it was just this location, it does

seem like someone was decorating the one restaurant that maybe wasn't from corporate. They kind of took matters into their own hands. I can't imagine that this was like, yeah, this one picture went out to all Joe's Crab Shacks as part of like a more uniform decor. But for that one, that's bad. Did that person get fired? I couldn't find a follow-up on that.

Two patrons noticed and filed a complaint, which earned them an apology from the manager, but no further action was taken to rectify it. What? I assumed they eventually took it down. I couldn't find confirmation, but at least in the immediacy of like, hey, that's there, I don't think they immediately took it down. I would have. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Jeez. The company as a whole later issued an apology. And like I said, I assumed took it down. Further research turned up that the photo was from a very real lynching that occurred in 1896. So it wasn't even staged. Like it wasn't like, hey, we thought of this joke

and like someone- Here's a digital rendering or something. Right. Right. So that, I think, makes it worse. It's like literally... Yeah, using... A person about to lose their life and using it to make a joke. Make a joke, yeah.

Not great. Nope. In 2017, Ignite Restaurant Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after multiple potential buyers backed out. Oh, what year? Remind me. Twenty seventeen. So this is a year after the the race incident, two years after the trans fats and no tipping attempts. Two or three years after the drunk toddler. So it was kind of like, you know, a landfall of bad press.

Calamity. I don't know if that leads to bankruptcy for them, but I'm sure it didn't help. Sure doesn't help, yeah. But are you ready for this? I don't know. Eventually Landry's, who if you'll remember, purchased the original location, was there to pick up the pieces for a mere $52 million,

acquiring 112 Joe's Crab Shack restaurants and 25 Brickhouse Tavern and Tap locations. Oh. They are the current owner, and after getting rocked hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe's is down to just 20 locations. From what? How many before? 112 is what they got it for. Oh, wow. In 2017. They've lost 100 restaurants in eight years.

That is so bizarre. I'm like, is that because like... I think chain restaurant dining is also down. Okay. In general. It wasn't like seafood was connected to COVID or, you know, people were like, we're inside, we don't wanna eat seafood. Well, I'm sure, I mean, you saw how messy of a meal, there's a lot of like touching going on with like messy hands.

That's a great point. So maybe subconsciously people are like, I don't wanna go on a place where I like suck my fingers while I'm eating. I wanna suck my fingers at home instead. Yeah, I'm gonna suck my fingers at home. But like, I don't know. I mean, like the big like health conscious thing for me

that has triggered from the pandemic is I am way more wary about like, I used to love going bowling and then you go to the bar there and you order chicken fingers. And I'm just like, you think about like the mystery holes that you're putting your fingers in due to bowl and then you're eating chicken fingers. And I'm like, that's horrifying. I wanna put my fingers in mystery holes at home. Look at that camera. I wanna put my...

I wanna put my mystery fingers in the mystery holes. At my mystery house. Okay, Dr. Seuss. But yeah, it really feels like Landry's is trying to shoot its shot once more with the one that got away. Like Landry's coming back. To an ex. Yeah.

It's like, oh, remember we hooked up that one time? Yeah. We watched our favorite movies together. It was a good time. And then it's like, I know we're 25 years aged now, but like, oh no, let's give it a real shot. Yeah, we've learned things. We can do this. We're more mature.

Start over. Yeah. I like how I'm just conveying Landry's as a fuckboy. It definitely is. And that'll do it for this week's Eat Deets. Sandy, I hope you were paying attention to all of that to help you navigate of what pitfalls to avoid in your own culinary experience creation, because the next few minutes are all about you and what you think needs to be seen in the world of themed chain restaurants. So, in the style of Creed, make up the second line of this intro song for this segment.

This is the restaurant of your dreams Come here to eat but not be seen Don't crap, Shaq, no, this is your things This is the restaurant of your dreams Excellent. Sandy, tell me about a restaurant concept that, shut up. I feel good about that. That you've envisioned that only you could turn into a reality.

It must be practical, delicious, and memorable. Three, two, one, go. I actually think this is a viable option for a restaurant. They all say that. And if anyone buys this, I want half ownership, whatever it is. Sharks? Yeah, sharks today I present to you. My idea for a chain, it's called holidays. And if anyone buys this, I want half ownership, whatever it is. Sharks? Yeah.

Sharks today I present to you. My idea for a chain, it's called holidays. OK. Every major holiday, even the minor holidays, the menu changes, the decor changes, the servers wear different things, the music changes. I thought you were going to say the servers change. Turnover there is nuts.

Yeah, you get fired immediately. It essentially just kind of flows with the calendar. It makes it very easy for if you are like, where should we be going for this one holiday that we're celebrating, go to holidays. Okay. And it just, and it really digs into those, like to each holiday, it does it to the max

to the best of its ability? Yeah, like if it's Arbor Day, okay, they're gonna have like- We're eating vegan. It's all trees. Just trees. The menu's like, what's a pun? Like maple, right?

They're gonna have like maple elements or the wine is oaky or something. Pine nuts. Exactly. Pineapple. Mm-hmm, or that little Debbie tree cake, right? Just like random stuff. But you know, you can see for the bigger

commercialized holidays how it would be like a very attractive place to go. I love how your number one poll for the holiday that would represent holidays was Arbor Day. Arbor Day. It's not about the Halloween spectacular. It's not about their take on Thanksgiving. Well, I'm trying to clarify that, you know,

many people do think about just like October to February as the big holidays, but the rest of the year, there is shit to do. And you do fill it and it can also create holiday awareness for the smaller ones. It's a very important thing. Now I do think that like a full restaurant redesign for like, oh God, there's another holiday in one week.

I think that would almost be stressful and maybe not worth the overhead of like you kind of have to close down while you redecorate and you're doing that, you know, 30, 40, 50 times a year. It actually makes me think though of it opens up jobs because it makes me think of the scene in Elf where he stays overnight to decorate the North Pole. But I don't know if it's making money.

Sure it'll create- Are you calling Elf an it? No, no, no, the restaurant. I don't know if the restaurant's generating enough money to do those like over. I think it would. Look, I have one major compliment to this idea. I am a collector.

I play Pokemon Go and it's like, gotta catch them all. I want to experience all of the holidays at holidays. There's a punch card. Yeah. So the notion of like, oh, I've done 18 of the 40 different holidays that they do things for. And then I do think, obviously, shouldn't just be on the day, but for the week or something, maybe two weeks.

Maybe do a two week cycle for each holiday or whatever. So it's like 26 redesigns a year. Christmas is a month, Halloween's a month, but the little ones, it's like weekly type of thing. You're right. But yeah, I think my curiosity, especially if you can generate killer menus, pitch me what's your Christmas meal at holidays.

And don't make it just something I can get at home. I need a fresh take on a new thing. Do you? I disagree. I think that the pull is that it's very classic, traditional entree selections, but I think that it would be important to have like a multicultural component to it.

Again, with the learning aspect of it. Like I didn't know this about the Swedish tradition of Christmas, you know, like they celebrate it this way. There's a Boucher de Noel, just different elements of Christmas that make it feel like, oh yeah, this is the holiday that Christmas is. Sure. So different rich meats and desserts and puddings.

I still like, I want, like similar to, we'll go into it next week, but similar to the Campfire S'mores dessert, where it's like their own unique take on an idea of s'mores or something like that. Like, what is the holidays equivalent of like a hot cocoa turned into a cake or a pie or something? I wanna see something like that

where it's Christmas-themed, Christmassy, but it's still y'all's unique innovation. Does that make sense? Yeah. I'll have to think on it. No, no, no, I need it right now. Oh. I don't know.

I am thinking like, maybe there can also be sponsors and partnerships and collabs and like different brands come in and they bring their own version of things. Yeah, I do wonder if like big international girlfriends day is gonna like try and get together and be like, hey, we want real estate. We want one of your two week slots for this year.

We want it to be designated to this. So I can see almost like the board behind, the shadowy figures behind all the holidays that we celebrate. Standing like this. Well, that is a problem because there are, like there's a website that's like, what's the national holiday today?

And there's like maybe like five every single day of the year. So obviously there needs to be limits and this would involve like, what's it called when you get in a boardroom and you're like testing something, market research. Yeah, that thing. I'm clearly going to be set up well to own a restaurant. It's okay. There were birds spinning around my head.

Like, I got knocked out in a loony tune when you asked me that. So you'd research it and see what works best. I think that it would have to spark nostalgia, and it would be delicious. And since it's a chain, I don't know about quality, but I think that... I love that of like, look, I'm not saying it's gonna be good, but it's gonna do the thing it says it's gonna do. Yeah, you get to go celebrate a holiday.

It's more... Consistently mediocre. Yeah, it's more about the aesthetic and the decor and just the vibe. I like the notion that like, maybe it's not the same holiday each year. So, you know, let's say International Girlfriend's Day that maybe it's not the same holiday each year. So let's say International Girlfriend's Day or whatever.

They get two weeks, one year. The next year, International Donut Day is like, we want this one. Totally. And then you're just oops all donuts for two weeks. And that's also where the restaurant gets enough funding to support the employees who are tasked with redecorating constantly.

Okay. Buffet style or is it all served from the back, like tradition? Served from the back. Okay. I'm into it. I would eat at holidays multiple times. Me too.

And I will say maybe more than any of the other restaurants pitched, that one does have the best return factor for me. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you wanna keep going back you want to keep going back. I want to keep going back. You gotta see what's next. Yeah.

So, well thank you for going over all of that with me. Sandy, I now have a better insight into what you dream about. One more time, that theme song. Sing it with me. Just the line. This is a rest. Yeah, just that part.

Got it, got it, got it. This is the rest of your dreams. Good luck. That was that. I was gonna keep going. I know. I noticed. I was there. All right, now let's bring things back to reality and see what other people think of the Joe's Crab Shack

that we went to in this week's Yelp from Strangers. We need a little yelp, a little yelp this week's Yelp from Strangers. A little Yelp, a little Yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally white and die. Yelp. This is Yelp from Strangers, the segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite one, two, three, four, and five star Yelp reviews from the very restaurant that we went to. Sandy, do you mind if I start us off with the first one?

Yeah, please. All right. Excited. Two star review. So this is a two star review from Michelle S from Waianae, Hawaii, June 5th, 2018. After all of the 2016 drama. After, yeah, she was still loyal.

Wow. My visit was very depressing. Our server Jason was not a perfect fit for Jo's at all. Oh my god. Every time we've dined at this location, we've always been surrounded by lovely, fun, and energetic staff. High expectations going in. Not tonight! Oh, you poor Jason. From the get-go, when we asked if they still danced for their guests, he said, no, not every night.

W-T-H. What the heck? So we asked another staff member and requested them to dance, and they did. Entitled biatch. This is when you become the problem. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

Those who participated looked like they were all training and didn't know the train song. The train song? Train? Like, yeah, like choo-choo. The band? Oh, okay. Actually, you know what?

I don't know. Drops of Jupiter? You don't know Drops of Jupiter? Why aren't you line dancing perfectly to Drops of Jupiter? But I like this, minus one star there. So she's ticking away from five. Oh, yeah. This is like that person who puts cash out on the table

and takes away the tip as service goes on. Oh, do people do that? At least a person has, because I've heard of it before. That's wild. That's wild. Next, we ordered our steam pots with extra butter garlic. I think garlic butter is what they meant. And it came only steamed minus another star there.

Geez. Then at the end of the meal, he asks if we'd like dessert. And we replied, yes, the ones that come with the kids meal. And he tells me that they don't that I'd have to buy it. No, your menu clearly states that they come with ice cream, so I asked to get a menu so I can point it out to him, and he rolls his eyes at me and mumbles, oh my God, under his breath.

But God was spelled G-A-W-D, so it's like a South Park, like, oh my God. Okay, now he's lucky I didn't request for a manager at that point. I bit my tongue and took care of the issue with his tip, if you know what I mean. Anyway, he was proven wrong that the kids' meals do come with ice cream. He was very rude and it made the closing of our night and Bill very uncomfortable. Not sure if we'll be making it back to this location.

Not sure? Like she's like, I'll give it another try. Yeah, but they need to know drops of Jupiter. Right, right. This is a person who delights in giving bad reviews. I think so. That's the vibe I'm getting. Or if it's not exactly to their liking. Right, right. Which is upset, like chill.

Yeah. Don't ask them to dance for you. Right, right. Which is upset, like chill. Yeah. Don't ask them to dance for you. They're servers. Yes. That's so weird. Our server didn't know, so we stopped someone else and said dance. Yes.

That's crazy. That's very entitled. That's a crazy behavior. Yes. I have no other way to describe it. Also calling the server rude, that feels like a projection of her being a rude person. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I have no other way to describe it. Also calling the server rude, that feels like a projection of her being a rude person.

Yeah, yeah. I don't like that at all. Four star review. Okay, here's a four star review from Mike C on February 18th, 2023, more recent post-COVID. Yep. Really cool people and servers, no complaints with the food, everything was great,

except for a stupid little thing. They have a surfboard hanging on the wall at the far left end of the restaurant. It has a mural painted on it that is supposed to be a wave with the planets above it. It is hung upside down and sent my OCD into complete chaos. Can you turn it the right way? He said, yo, don't get me wrong, but I can't look at that again and actually enjoy my dinner. LOL! But I'm totally serious.

Once again, everything else was awesome. I love kind of that neuroses of just like, look, I know this is me, but let me tell you my experience. I like this person. Yeah. He's laughing at himself. He's laughing at himself. But I do find that very funny of just like. That's relatable.

Like, I can't stop thinking about this thing over here. I lost my appetite. I lost my appetite and my sanity. Yeah. Yeah. It's making me mention my mental health diagnosis. That's how bad it is. On a public forum. Yeah. Yeah. It's making me mention my mental health diagnosis. That's how bad it is on a public forum. Yeah.

Did you enjoy those two Yelp reviews? You can get three more over at my Patreon. That's Patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. And for just five bucks a month, you can get the extended deal from Stranger Segment as well as an exclusive restaurant that I cover each and every month, dropping on the last day of the month. In January, I covered Dan's Hamburgers, which is literally my favorite burger in the world.

It's this little diner in Austin, Texas, and you get to hear me gush about it. February, I covered Jersey Mike's, a sandwich place that I didn't have a lot of respect for going in, and they have made me respect them. I actually think Jersey Mike's is very good now. And for March, I covered Blaze Pizza, which if you've never had, is one of those assembly line style pizza places with a wood-fired oven in back.

It's actually very good. So you can find all of that at my Patreon and more. Hope to see you there. Thank you. That's part one. Tune in next week as we review this Joe's Crab Shack. We ate there a few days back and it made an impression on us. So next week, we'll go into everything that was good about it, everything that was not good about it and all the other details that were just there.

That'll be in one week's time. In the meantime, Sandy, where can people get more of you online? If you even want them to follow you online? Well, I'm mostly private on social media. But if you want to slide into my DMs and be friends with me, that'd be good. Casting call. I'm available for friends. And you can follow the podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky at Fine Dining Podcast

or fine dining podcast dot blue sky dot whatever it is. I have no idea. Whatever it is. I don't know. But also I have a Discord server. So come chat with me. Oh yeah. There's a bunch of different fun threads that some of them bring back, old segments of the

show. And I want to put some of them into the podcast proper. So it's a good outlet to go tell your stories and just engage with a really fun community that all loves to eat. So Sandy, thanks so much for coming onto the podcast. Thank you. You'll be back in one week to help me review the place. In the meantime, we're just going to be sitting here

waiting on our table. We'll see you in one week to help me review the place. In the meantime, we're just going to be sitting here waiting on our table. We'll see you all next week. Have a fine day. Waiting on our table, waiting on our table. Step is done and we had some fun. Now we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Join us next time, we're stuck in line Waiting on our table, waiting on our table

We're so hungry, tummy's grumbling Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We gotta continue our search for mediocrity Yeah Search for mediocrity Yeah Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We'll be waiting and dissipating Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We're shrinking in this week, we're digging in

Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table We've got an appetite, but just sit tight Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table We've got an appetite for just sit tight Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Search will continue when we see you next week But I'm gonna let you know Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, waiting on our table waiting on our table waiting on our table

waiting on our table Have a fine day!