Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.135 | Turning Stone Resort Casino & Better Burger!

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

A Gastronomic Adventure at Turning Stone Casino and Better Burger In this episode of Good News York, host Matt explores the delightful offerings at the Turning Stone Casino in Central New York, accompanied by chef Jeremy Moore, the executive pastry chef. The duo discusses the process behind creating the Casino's impressive holiday gingerbread village, highlighting the creativity and international representation involved. Matt then shifts focus to Better Burger in Liverpool, where he sits down with the owner, Hammi Hammi, to discuss the restaurant’s unique concept and menu. The episode concludes with a detailed tasting session of Better Burger’s offerings, including their signature sauces, Nashville hot chicken, and seasoned fries, providing viewers with a mouth-watering culinary experience. 00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene 00:30 Meet the Executive Pastry Chef 01:44 Exploring the Holiday Village 04:46 Behind the Scenes of Gingerbread House Creation 10:46 Advice for Aspiring Bakers 13:30 New Year's Eve at Turning Stone 16:01 Better Burger in Liverpool 25:19 Savoring Homemade Sauces 25:35 Condiment Enthusiasts Unite 26:10 Introducing Anthony, the IT Guy 27:00 The Gluten-Free Dilemma 27:36 Freshness Matters 29:21 Seasoned Fries Review 30:28 Hot Chicken Delight 34:17 The Art of Sauce Making 39:42 The Perfect Burger Sauce 44:07 Wrapping Up at Better Burger

Instagram teen accounts come with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising

and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey guys, Matt from Good News, York. We are out of the studio, you may have noticed, and we are at probably one of my favorite places in central New York. We are at the Turning Stone Casino. I brought my good old sidekick Mike hanging out. Yes, I'm here, I'm here. He's having a good time.

We're keeping him away from the slot machines for a few minutes. because we get to talk to a gentleman who works here and does, I don't know, one of my favorite things on earth. He's the executive pastry chef. Now, if you've ever been to Turning Stone, you've had some incredible treats. Sir, please go ahead and introduce yourself and let's talk about some of these goodies. Well, my name is Chef Jeremy Moore. I'm the executive pastry chef here for Turning Stone Resorts. My team of over 30 pastry cooks supplied not just all of our restaurants here at Turning Stone, but also all of our off-site properties. Point Place Casino, YBR Casino, the Lake House, the Cove, all of our Maple Leaf gas station.

So we have quite a nice operation here with quite a large team, a lot of experience. Out of all those things, what is the most popular year-round pastry that your team makes? Brownies. Brownies, really? interesting it is, brownies and cheesecakes, one of those simple desserts are what people really love. I love that, man. How many years have you been in the pastry chef industry? I've been here over, or in the industry over two decades. Wow. So well over 20 years, and I've been fortunate enough to work all over the U.S. and as well as study in France.

That's incredible. That's incredible. Now, as much as we can talk about the pastries and all the restaurants and all the incredible things you're around here at Turning Stone. There's one other project that you and your team work on that's very special for the holidays, right? Oh, yes. It's one of the most creative and festive times for us. They really get to, my team really gets to stretch their legs, help develop their planning skills, but also kind of go crazy with decorations.

And of course, we are talking about this. magical wonderland. The holiday village right here at Turning Stone, incredible gingerbread houses. Let's dive in and talk about some of these incredible things, huh? Oh, yes. This is holidays around the world, so we're kind of showcasing, you know, we have here at Turning Stone over 5,000 employees that represent over 70 countries. So we really want to kind of highlight some of those countries, obviously. We don't have 70 houses, but we can fit nine houses here. So we kind of highlight some of those nine houses

that represent a number of our colleagues here. This is absolutely incredible. Maybe why don't we, especially since there's not a huge group right this second, why don't we jump in the middle and we'll get some shots and talk about the houses right in front of them? Absolutely. This is incredible. So, Chef, tell us what we're standing in front of here.

Give us just kind of a basic overview of what we're looking at. We're standing in front of our holiday village. So we have a few of the houses here. We have a house that represents America with the old-time nostalgic Hershey bars. They're quite a bit thicker, heavy duty. Now, that's actually tiles of Hershey bars is what I'm looking at. It's a Hershey bar. That's incredible.

Gingerbread for the roof birthday Kit Katz. Wow. White chocolate and sprinkles. And then next to it, we have our Japan house. So we have pocky sticks. Look at that dragon. That's incredible. We have macha kit cat bars.

As you notice, because they're from Japan, they're quite a bit smaller than our traditional kick cat bars. As well as, and the chimney is made, we have sushi, but they're made out of rice crispy. So we have little sushi rolls and, of course, a little koi pond. Next to it, we have our French house, so French macaroons for the roof. A little Eiffel Tower down there. Then over here we have our house from Mexico. So on this side, you can really see like the terracotta roof and the colorful, all the colors that you can get down in New Mexico. And then this is our Italian train station with Pizzles for the roof.

Lots of fondant marble to make it look like a marble column. But also these dolls here are made out of fondant. and rice papers. They're entirely edible. That's incredible. So let me ask you, as you're putting all this together, first of all, how long does it take to build even one of these houses? Well, we actually start planning typically in the summer.

So July, August, we start coming up with our ideas and pitch them and kind of develop. And then I get into, in September, we get into working with my team. So I'm able to give team members different houses. give them the theme and have them kind of develop some of their ideas. Gotcha. I work with them to come up with the right design and the right look, get everything ordered. We start making all the things like the dragon and all these little figurines that are all made from scratch. Sure.

We start making those usually in September, October. Okay. And then we come out beginning of November and have two solid weeks to decorate everything here. Wow. Wow. I got to ask, so, you know, like you said, you have the Petzels on the roof there and different cookies over here. So during the planning process, do you know that far in advance, like we're going to use Petzels or do you just kind of come up with the design and then as you're in the kitchen, you, you, you, we usually come up with what we want as we're designing them.

Because that goes into, do you want, like Cadbury bars in the English house for the roof? Do we want to use French macaroons for, like, we come up with all that stuff while we're planning an order. Yeah. That's incredible. And do you, do you build them on site? Yes, we come out here. Oh, wow.

We don't have the train track up. Sure, sure. And we'll have the houses pushed a little bit farther away, so that way we can get in there and work and decorate on everything. But we decorate it all outside, and then we just kind of slightly move them into place. That's incredible. Let's peek at a couple of these others that we haven't seen yet.

Yes, we have our Swiss church over here, as well as our English cottage. So if you notice, all these dolls are made up bread. And then this is actually genderbread on the siding. It just made it look like wood panels. We'll texture them in. You can buy rollers that imprint design so that you can roll it into the dough, bake it, and then, of course, either airbrush, spray them, wipe them off to give that wood texture.

That's incredible. And those different Swedish candies and cookies. Now let me ask you, does your team get to get this creative, any other? time a year. We get creative with different desserts. Yeah, this is the biggest project to be sure. I can imagine. I can imagine the I love the detail even in like the houses are lit up inside. Oh yeah. And I've got to ask do you legit do you have to worry about people picking from it and eating if you if you did do people do that two to three times a day we come out and fix things. Wow. It's either yeah it's a variety of people. I mean we have people. I mean we have people

of all ages. This is open 24-7. That happens, but as well as we're in a very well-lit area, so when we have sun, we get a lot of direct sunlight. That can affect things. It can dry out over time. We work at things that are valuable when you put it on, and over time it cracks, and that's why we just come out every day and fix things. I can imagine. So speaking of fixing things, chef, tell us a little bit about what all went into this in terms of materials and icing and all those goodies. Well, we put in over three. thousand pounds of icing just to hold everything together. Wow. Over 700 pounds of candy, four or 500 pounds of gingerbread, as well as a whole bunch of other things, just to kind of

hold things together. I believe just to make all that, we use 20 gallons of molasses. So just to make the gingerbread. That's incredible. That is truly incredible. But a nice tip when you're making gingerbread. Yeah. Depending on the color that you want, you can use all molasses to make it a really dark color. Okay. Or if you notice that some of our tiles are lighter color, that's because we start substituting corn syrup. So you just, you keep the same weight, but the more corn syrup and the less molasses you do, it will make a lighter gingerbread color. Oh, wow. And then if you look at some of them, they're actually red. Sure. We'll use all corn syrup, so it's a very light color and then just dye, you know, put food coloring into it, so you dye at different colors.

That's, that's incredible. You have another tip for us before we were recording that maybe you could give the viewers at home as well on building a gingerbread house. You said something with the frosting. Oh yes. If you buy those kits in the store, they're made to decorate. They're not really made to hold together very well. So one of the best things you can do is take some of that frosting. Really frosting is powder sugar and egg whites.

So if you put powder sugar and egg whites together, put it in a mixer or stir it with a whisk and get it and just keep adding powder sugar till it's really thick, but just tacky. I see. So if it's running, it's. It's not going to work well to put as glue. Then pipe it in the corners, put the house together, and let it set up overnight. I know you want to decorate it, but the more weight you put on it, it tends to fall apart. That makes sense.

So if you set it up overnight, you do it at night, and then you have the next day you can sit there and decorate, and you won't have to worry. It'll be as solid as a rock. When you pass those kits in the store now, you must be like, right? Because that's, I mean, look what you're building at this scale. From scratch, yeah. This must be just like child's plate to you, I'm saying. They're still fun. how they get people interested in it and it's easier to get it at the store.

It's more convenient to get it at the store versus making it from scratch. You have more variety to make it from scratch. If you always want to make different things, make it out of cardboard first, do all your cutouts, what size you want. What a great idea. And then put it down, cut it out, and then bake it and then you know that it fits if you fit it together in cardboard. That's one of the tips that we use when we come up with crazy designs is we'll make it

out of cardboard first and then use those as templates. What a great tip. Appreciate that so much. Now, Chef, I know we got to let you get back to making all these goodies for everybody here at Turning Stone. But just a couple more quick questions. One thing I'd love to ask you is if folks are aspiring bakers or they're folks that love this and would love to turn into a career like you have, what's some advice you

have for folks to get into this business? This is the fun business to be in. It gives you the opportunity to travel around the U.S., around the world once you've gotten your experience decorating and baking, know that you can come at this at any age. In any career, we're very welcoming the culinary arts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Balee

to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unuworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. With so many options, why choose Arizona State University? For me, the only online option was ASU because of the quality.

Their faculty was really involved with their students and cared about your personal journey. The dedication to my personal development from my professors, that's been extremely valuable to me. Earn your degree from the nation's most innovative university. Online. That's a degree better. Explore more than 350 plus undergraduate, graduate, graduate and certificate programs at ASUonline.asu.orgia.orgia. Easy occupation to get in as long as you're willing to learn. I always tell my externs because we have, we work with a lot of culinary schools. We're having, we have three, four externs here at all times. We're various culinary schools show up with a notepad to take notes and you're willing to learn. We'll happy to teach

you and walk you through it. And, you know, this is very hands-on field. Yeah. So can't, you can't, you can only learn so much in a classroom. Sure. So we tell people, you don't even need classroom experience, come down. Wow. Apply for those externship programs for those of us that offer them, the businesses that offer them and get in that way or start an entry level and then work your way up. That's, that's awesome. I really appreciate that advice. Chef, again, like, I know we got to let you go. Anything else? that we should share with folks about everything that's incredible here at Turning Stone? Well, you can still come. We still have a bit more time to our Ginger Red Village. It'll be up

through New Year's Day. Oh, great. So you can come and enjoy it. We're open 24-7 right by the Commons. We welcome people to stop here and look. Also stop over at Opels, get some desserts, because we have a number of desserts themed after some of these houses. Oh, wow. I'll get like a few different themes to kind of go along with the, along with everything. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Chef, thank you so much for joining us on Good News York and giving us a tour.

The work of you and your team is just really incredible. I don't know that I've ever seen anything like this. Is there anything of this scale, gingerbread houses anywhere else? I don't know that I've ever seen such a thing. Not in this area. Yeah. That's incredible. All the great things, Turning Stone, restaurants.

snacks, treats, gambling, shows. And Gingerbread Village, I don't know. I don't know what more you could look for in a solid day or weekend. I mean, they have everything. From restaurants to gambling to this, which is immaculate. Although I wish you had told me that the fence was not edible.

I think I chipped my tooth. But other than that, this has been... I'll consider it next time. We'll make it a little easier. Oh, chef. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been wonderful. Hey guys, we are back at the Turning Stone, and we're here with Kathleen, the head of public relations, and she's going to tell us about New Year's Eve. And I'll tell you what, I've been to Turning

Stone for New Year's Eve. You know, if you're going to go out for a night of fun, this is probably the place. But you can tell us the details. What's happened in this year? This is the destination for New Year's Eve. It's our biggest night of the year, and we pull out all the stops. We're here at Exit 33, which is our nightlife venue, where there's five concepts under one roof. So at the stroke of midnight, we're going to be doing a big ball drop right here with a live DJ and the action is going to be incredible. Wow. So this is sort of like the lobby area, right? This isn't necessarily even where you are when you're having fun at these different venues. Right, exactly. But on New Year's Eve, we turn this space into a hot spot.

So that's really cool to see. It's very special. That's so cool. Tell us if you could real quick, just some of the other things happening at these different venues around this time. Absolutely. So we're having DJs and a lot of of them come from Las Vegas. These are nationally known acts. There's live entertainment across the property at our 20 plus restaurants as well. So be sure to check out our website and make reservations now because as you said, you know, it's busy here on New Year's Eve, but we have so many options. On the casino floor, we're going to be holding a midnight New Year's Eve parade with can-can dancers going through the gaming floor. It's the first time we've ever done that. That sounds

awesome. It's going to be very fun. So something for everyone here at Turning Stone. Wow. That's That's really cool. You mentioned reservations, obviously, if you want to get a hotel room, you've got a number of places to stay. Book now. Yeah, book now. We're getting pretty full. And can we just sort of tease maybe next year you're going to have even more places to stay, right? We are. We're going to have more than 1,048 hotel rooms. That's incredible. This time next year. So we're very excited. As we were pulling up today, this new facility is coming up like incredibly fast. Ahead of schedule. It looks gorgeous. I'm really excited for it. Our new Crescent Hotel and the Grand Expo, which is going to make us New York's largest conventions and meeting resort. Wow.

In the state. That's a big deal. Yeah, it is. It's a big deal for Central New York, and we're really proud of it. Well, I'm so excited. Come on out for New Year's. Come on out all the time. There's always awesome things happen in here at Turney Stone.

Like we said, this area has, would you say, five different concepts right in one spot. If you like country music, if you like some kind of more chill jazz music, You got everything right here. Make everybody happy in your party and have a good time. Hey guys, Matt Major from Good News, York. We are at Better Burger in Liverpool. So listen, we've had a few guests have come on this show, and they've been talking about this place.

This Better Burger spot that opened up in Liverpool is incredible. And we're very excited to try. We've got a food order in. It's cooking. I'm very excited. We're going to try a variety of things. But before we get there, we've got this handsome gentleman joining us on show you wouldn't go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us what you are doing here

my name is DiHami DiHawari I moved to the US about five years ago wow to go to Soniazwego I was only there for about a year and a half when I realized like that's not for me I want to build something I don't know what I want to build by I don't know what I want to build something big and I'm gonna need a lot of cool hardworking people to do it with and that's why it's kind of gone into marketing and I kind of helped some of the downtown restaurants of marketing and I kind of saw how they were operating downtown and what the market was like here.

And I thought, you know, I like what they've got going on. I tried some of the restaurants down here, but I generally think I can build something better. I don't know how and what it's going to be yet, but that's kind of a path I took. That's incredible. So you dug in, you started working with those folks and just kind of saw an opportunity and got yourself here.

Tell us a little bit about just this concept. What can folks expect to eat here at Better Burger? Better Burger is, like I said, fine casual. spot, casual food, casual environment. That's what you get here. Smash burgers, chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches, cocktails, and milkshakes. Simple menu, very quick. You just walk up, you pick what you want.

There's really not much to pick from. But whatever you're going to pick from, it's going to be pretty fucking good. Yeah, that sounds awesome, man. When we were scrolling through the menu, it was like, I don't know what to choose, but that's why we brought a whole crew, so we'll have quite a selection to take a look at. What, you know, you said you started out as a student, you came here and got in some of the marketing elements. I'm noticing some really cool marketing elements all over the place, from the branding that we see right here on you to, you've got some really cool, I guess, artwork all over the place with some better burger mascots. It almost reminds me kind of the old school McDonald's a little bit.

And I love that because I feel like people don't do that sort of thing anymore. But what was sort of the inspiration for all this look that we've got going on? So I'll say briefly, I didn't own a burger joint previously in downtown. Oh, wow. A couple of things went south, and I got out of that partnership, and I decided to start something on my own. The color is a huge part. Yeah. I will say a lot of people come in here and always ask first question.

Like, why purple and why so much purple? Sure. And I saw a video on TikTok a couple months before I got into this and was talking about real estate value. and why a lot of fast, casual brands go with the cookie cutter shoebox look, with the great building with the logo on that side, because they own the land and they want to keep the value of the property. And they want to lease it out as quick as possible. And that's probably what's happening all over the place.

So one of the biggest things for me was like all they are is just food, and there's no culture behind the food. There's no culture behind the brand, and I'm a big culture and brand person. Sure. So the color is more like a big, can I call some? Yeah, yeah.

Big fuck you to the corporation. I was like, no, this is, this is, this is, color is there for a reason. I love that. It's, it's there for like to trigger something in the heart. And like, that's why you pick purple rather than going with a gray, modern, minimalistic kind of just a flat look. And the purple signifies quality.

It signifies passion and that we're the best. And that's why it's a name Better Burger. I love it. Yeah. I love it. The other part about that, too, is just the attention that it grabs, right? And as we know, we talk about many times. We live in the attention economy.

100%. And being able to stand out like that. That's the goal. And as we go and as we grow, you'll notice some branding limits will change. Like, working on some really cool packaging that you'll be able to notice across the street. Really? Burger wrappers and stuff like that. So that was a goal.

The color has to be so bold because everywhere I go, all I see for burger joints is red. Sure. Chicken spots I see red. There's the tall red and white. And a lot of people told me, you should go red and white, five guys are in white. Sure. Everyone's red. Everyone's red.

Red makes you hungry. You know, they talk about color theory and stuff. I'm like, but everyone has red. Sure. And if I was in between two red buildings, they would 100% be like, what is that spot? I've never seen that. Let me just give it a shot. And that's why I want people to think when they think a better burger.

I love it. I love it. And like I said earlier, we're going to try a bunch of these different things. But let me ask you, what's your favorite menu item? I've said this before. Yeah. I did pretty good. Nashville hot chicken sandwich, cheese fries.

A lot of people coming here for the burgers, they're great. But we have, I think, some of the best chicken in Syracuse. So I'm going to try the chicken sandwich. So we'll put this, I'm a chicken sandwich connoisseur. So I didn't get that one. I got the, I think the Bacon Ranch one. Okay. That one sounded pretty good.

But I'm very excited about that. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. Looks like you've also got some drinks and cocktails here as well, right? That's kind of neat. You don't necessarily get that sort of thing. Yeah. That's the other thing. Like when I say casual spot, I don't want you to think like you don't want,

this is not a viable spot for you to come and have like dinner after work. You can have a cocktail. And the way we do it is pretty fun too. 16-ounce cocktails, heavy pours, two-on shots. Nice. And they're all kind of the same price. You get cheaper than any restaurant. But the whole goal is like we're not making, we're not selling your cheap food to make money on the cocktail,

which a lot of pubs do. Sure. That's the business motto. But we have a fairly balanced pricing. When it comes to food or cocktails and the cocktails is huge. We just come and have fun. Hey. I mean, that's, that used to be the way it went, you know, give people tremendous value and they'll come back.

And I feel like we've gotten away from that. So it's nice to hear that you have that mindset. I think that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Tell us just the basics in terms of when you open and things like that. We opened like late September. So we've only been open for like two and a half months. We started working on this maybe in our March, so about six to seven months of work.

We're here day and night every single day, seven days, until it opened and kind of doing the same now. Until we get the right team. It's been a good two and a half months for sure. That's great. That's really great, man. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Univorold Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Balee to learn about river cruising in France.

As we have been selling there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local community. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Uniworld's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey, it's Cubby. Have you ever had an energy drink

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Scary strawberry, strawberry with kind of a hint of lemon, tropical terror, which is like a pina colada, orange, orange, with a hint of orange cream, and murder mystery, a blend of cherry cola and spices. You see, I love a good energy drink to keep me moving, and I'm glad now I have liquid death, sparkling energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. They have unexstream 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You can buy Liquid Death Sparkling Energy at a fine retailer near you like 7-Eleven

or learn more at LiquidDeath.com. I'm guessing, are you on the delivery apps and things like that? Can folks get your stuff at home? Cool. Uber, Stodash, Grubh, and you can also order from our website. Oh, wow. Yeah, and save on all those fees. That's an even better tip.

I love that. Absolutely. And in general, what are your hours? We're open 1130 to 9 p.m. pretty much every single day. Except Sunday, we close at 8, and we're closed on Tuesdays for now. Cool. Cool.

That's great. Better Burger, this is the spot in Liverpool if you want to come and get all kinds of things. Burger, chicken, everything, you're going to see it all in just a few minutes. Before we let you go and get back to it, tell folks just kind of the websites, the socials, all the typical plugs to find out more. Our website is tastebetterburger.com. If you want to order something, you need to tastebetterburger.com. forward slash order, and you order online, or just check us out on Instagram at Betterburger.

at U.S. Yeah, that's it, man. Better Burger. Can't wait to dig in. Yeah, first bite. Thoughts. Very good. Very, very good.

Unfortunately, I'm gluten-free, so I'm not getting the full experience with the bun. Being gluten-free is very much like being the boom mic operator in adult film. You know, like you're there, but you're not really. part of the experience, you know. I've accepted that. So, but it is absolutely delicious, even without the bun. We are gonna go into the,

I forgot what it was even called. All right, but it's got barbecue sauce. Oh, you got the smoke house. The smoke house, thank you. Crispy onions, bacon, double patties with cheese. What'd you get, buddy? Mm-hmm, she's married. All right, so.

What is this sauce called that's on the double the double cheese burger? It's quite a better sauce. Is it a secret? Okay. Is it your secret sauce? Yeah, I know why. Amazing.

Yeah. Well, you can. But... I love that. This is the chicken that I keep here in Craig Tank. Wow. You were just telling us great things. Well, I'll share it.

Mmm. Yeah. This is fantastic. We just learned he makes all the sauces in-house. That is better chicken. This is a better burger. It's a phenomenal barbecue sauce too. Mm.

This is your real beaches. Yeah, it's like it. It's a phenomenal. We just made that a barbecue yes or a, really? Wow. This is a brew. All-made sauces.

That's incredible. I'm a big condiment guy. I don't know about you guys. But if I go to a place that has like four or five condiments, I'm gonna get all of them. Unless I don't like it. Unless I like them. Love condiments.

I love things too. But you're right, if it's like a Chipotle or one of those. Yeah. I get every salsa that they offer. I know. Not that I eat them all, but excuse my reach. I like three things. Yeah, well.

This is great. I actually gotta get a fork. Oh yeah, Amanda. If you agree, introduce Anthony or you just. No. Yes. Is there, I'm actually in? We're live.

Thank you so much. Yeah. And I will, but Mike just walked away. Thank you. So this would be fun. Whatever, recording, but he's going to go. Oh, my mic is getting rocking around. Sorry.

You're going to talk a like, wait, Mike quoth. Yeah, yeah, my fault, my fault. So, uh, anybody does know this is Anthony, the IT guy. Mm-hmm. Brought him. I figured he's a senior, you know, burger connoisseur. you know, burger connoisseur himself. Yep.

I know a smokehouse burger when I taste one. I always like to bring people, you know, when we can do these little shindex. We're not like these guys that try to like run through five restaurants a day and, you know. We're here for the love of the food. You know, back to the gluten-free thing. As I said, I don't get, a lot of times I don't get the full experience. These fries look amazing. I can't have those, unfortunately.

Can you tell you something? I ordered the coleslaw. It was really the only other option. Coal salaw, usually you're like, oh, it's just like a big sloppy pile, taste the same. Even their coleslaw is like a next step up. Their sauce is fresh, like he just told us. Right.

You know they make, so. Coal saw all they make. Coalce law and I'm with you, man. It's either, to me, coleslaw is either awesome or don't want any part of it. Yeah. And in 2025, actually almost 2026, it amazes to me that there are still restaurants that exist

that where everything is not fresh. I understand in some places it can't be fresh because you're getting seafood and you're not close and up blah blah blah. But otherwise, everything should be fresh. I learned that from Gordon Ramsey. It's all about the afternoon. Put it in the bin, you donkey.

You know? Someone used canned something on Hell's Kitchen and he'd lose his mind. Change my outlook. No, this is delicious. Who would have thought? If you're cooking to try to bring people back, use fresh stuff.

If you don't care if you took for repeat customers, then, you know, freeze your burgers. My wife and I grew, we started a garden last year. And so for dinners, for like salad, we bring in the cucumbers or tomatoes. It made me realize how much quality is lost in food by the time we buy it at the grocery store. Yeah. You know, that whole farm to table thing, now I get it, you know. It's good stuff, man. This is great.

We're just raving about your coleslaw over here. Yeah. I'm gluten-free, so I can't enjoy everything. Anything. So I had to get a coleslaw, and I was saying, it's coleslaw, like, it's the same everywhere. Even this tastes, like you can tell it's the next, yeah, fresh. Fresh is a key. Very good.

Let's talk about the seasoned fries because... Oh yeah, you're the only one about the season fries, how are they? Can you tell it slow, you know? You know? Because I just really want to... So there is a nice little heat to the seasoning. In the back of the throat? No, it's in my mouth.

It's in your mouth, okay? But it's not too intense. I like heat, so it wouldn't turn me away. There's a nice little flavor to it, but it's not overpowering. You still taste the fry. It's a good seasoned fry here. That's a great review. It was really well thought of.

Typically, they're all doused in seasoning, and all you're getting is salt. Just the right amount. Just the right heat. Very good. Yeah. I'm a big fan. I don't know about you guys. I mean, fries are good in all shapes and sizes. I don't know if you'd consider these shoestring, but I do like the thinner fries. Yeah, these wouldn't be shoestring. No, but they're, you know, thin cut.

I do appreciate the really thin ones, though, for some reason. I get really crispy, that's all right. Crispy is... For whatever reason. Some weird reason. Don't expect my brain to work all. brain to work all the time. Do you guys like hot chicken?

Yeah. Yeah. I love hot chicken. I love hot chicken. Sure. Food tests with chicken, just a tender, no bread, and let us. I mean, we will not say no. I will eat some hot chicken.

Do you guys like hot chicken? If you guys are right, you go, this is like saying, you want to make out with this supermodel? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's what I heard right here. You want to try some hot chicken? Yeah.

Who doesn't? Mmm. Ooh. Man. That was good. What a deck. Casino, gingerbread village, better burger. It's a tough job.

I heard you got to fight with the Grinch. Wow. Got choked out by the Grinch. I was going to say, if you take a look at the video, Clearly shows I was assaulted. Salt and battery. What do you tell him? All I said was, dude, you're way less grinchy in person.

You're actually kind of a nice guy. Lost it. Kind of cute. Yeah. Lost it didn't grow three sizes that. No, it didn't. He said, what do you mean? I'm not grouchy enough.

And then he proceeded to squeeze my windpipe like Homer Simpson did DeBartzoff. Oh, you little. That must have been one of the deleted scenes from the Grinch movie. Yeah, I was. Chokes some of the people of the people in Whoville. All the Hoos down there.

Actually, what would be a funny thing that I asked? What are the chicks like in Whoville? I really dig the fries. Yeah? Yeah. What do you dig? Not too potato-y, not too potato-y, not. Yes, two potato-y great.

The shoe strings, like they're cool, but you gotta eat like a million of them to taste potato. This is very important. I like what you're saying. But it's not like a wedge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, I hate steak fries because to me they just taste like plain potatoes. Unless you really season it. What do they put on them? Let's talk about that.

Is it Old Bay? No, there's something, there's some sort of breading on that. Yeah. Oh, on the fry itself. Very thin. Yeah, coating is probably cornstarch or flour. Is that how you get a crispy fry every time? I made fries at the house the other day.

That's how you get crispy wings too. Oh, I had to parboil them. I had to cook them, take them out, let them dry out, and then I put them back in with the oil for another two, three minutes. And they were crisper. Yeah. But it's not easy to get your fries crispy when you're doing it yourself. People think, oh, just making them crispy.

It's not that easy. There's a thin line where you can overdo it and then you burn it. Correct. Then you just got a twig. Then you underdo it and it's just like, oh, it's almost there. We got our house, better sauce, butterfought are most popular. That's a house made buttermilk ranch, real dill inside. That's a sweet peach barbecue or we call the peach please barbecue. It has real peaches in there.

We made last night. It simmers for like four hours before we actually make the sauce. The peaches have to be cooked down. cooked down, get smooth. That's blue cheese, real blue cheese. Super thick. The thickest sauce, the creamiest sauce we have, and then that is the honey mustard, one of my favorites. Super strong. Mm. Mm. Real honey, real mustard. Good stuff. I would say those tenders are, I would say very hot. So they're very, on a scale of like mild, hot, very hot, that's, I would say very hot. That's why I got you guys a cold slough. Just to kind of cool.

Ashville hot. Yeah. That is the most of the original blue cheese I've ever tasted. All right, fellas, you gotta try these. That's a ranch. There we go. Strong ranch. I unfortunately can't.

Yeah, you're gonna have to miss out. I don't get that much breading on there. What are we dipping in, guys? I mean, take your kids. I'll say it's... Try it without it. Try it without, yeah. That's the real Nashville hot leg.

It looks so good. It's so thick. Juicy. A little bit heat, right? Not too bad. Steam coming out of his ears. That's temperature hot. But flavor's amazing.

A good heat. It's definitely higher level. In the back or not. Oh, the face. Front of the faceball? I love it. Yeah. Really good though.

That's not a natural hot. So the front of the face, I know what that feels like, yeah. So this is like a sinus clearer. Yeah. Yeah. And it always comes out to the front for me, and I'll start sweating on the top of my head. Okay. That's great.

That's what he does to me. See, give me a fork. I don't want to reach over. Absolutely. Now we're going to try it with the blue cheese. Here you go, Daniel. That blue cheese is very original. It's not your run on the mill.

Yeah. Chef's kiss, right? The blue cheese with the heat. That's the marriage that you need right now. The heat with the blue cheese. And I'm a blue cheese guy. I'm a ranch guy when I did my chicken. I'm not a ranch guy either.

I mean, I'll eat it if it's there. Yeah. But that's the marriage you need right there. Get in there, Danny. Yeah, I was going to say, so I love hot chicken. But I was like, we're at a burger place. You can't get chicken. That's how I felt.

Right. That's why I had to get it before you did any of it. Yeah. I'm gonna have a burger the first time. It's better burger. For the next time I come, it's chicken time. Right. We're gonna do ranch too.

We're gonna try. Yeah, do the ranch. I like that. Very good placement. It was very. It's got the right shade that you would want your hot chicken. Yeah. It looks hot.

Is it Nashville hot? Because that's my new jam, yeah. It's got that little red tint. It smells amazing. Yeah, you smell amazing. You smell terrific. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Amanda. The ranch is fantastic. I can't do it. You can't do what? Well, you're the, you are the honey mustard connoisseur. Give us a review.

10 out of 10. One more bite. A 10? That's like a bar stool review for pizza. You are for honey mustard, yeah. Wow, she just gave him a 10. She's gave a honey mustard a 10 out of it. Everywhere we've gone, I've been like, this honey mustard is good, and she's like,

it's all right. That bowl was perfect. When we went to, I forget where we were, I tasted the same honey mustard. I was like, that's amazing. And you're like, it's okay. But I only tried those two on the chicken. Yeah, it's amazing. I love it.

That's like the house sauce. Poppy seeds. Yeah. I'm going to have more. He's going to eat the pork. Mmm. Mmm. He can't eat gluten, but plastic's fine.

I can't eat gluten, but microplastics? Let's go. Hey. It's good for the soul. Microplastics for the soul. That's an album name. Danny with the better sauce. Come on. So good. It complements it so well.

So I got to try it. Yeah, it's amazing. Are these... You're an artist. Seriously. The best chefs and restaurant owners are artists. Absolutely. Well, I always say that I'm the worst artist on earth because I pretty much am.

But in the kitchen, it's a different story. I can put together food as the art, the way I put together food. And this is truly, this is a work of art here. Are these all the house made condiments? No, that's plenty. I just wanted to make sure we were trying them all. Yep. When you make all of your own sauces.

And you make those fresh weekly? Sometimes most of the week. Sometimes multiple times the week, especially butter sauce. I think lies. That's awesome. Yeah. Where did you come up with the recipe for the better sauce? Well, I mean, you can't tell me what's in it, but like...

I just want to make a burger sauce. You know, I just want to make a burger sauce a little different, but still familiar. Where it wasn't so different, but I don't want to try that my first time. I think that's pretty close to what you get in most burger spots, but it's a little different. There's something else in one ingredient. Just one. That makes it very different. I don't know what a mistake. And it was a mistake.

That's the best! We've talked about that on the show before, how with music, in a recording studio, or in video production, and in food, sometimes mistakes end up being the best thing that could happen, you know? This is like before we opened the restaurant. Like, it was like two in the morning.

We just went home, and I was like, I kind of went on a burger. I haven't had a burger in so long. I have to wait two more months to eat my own burger. And then we were kind of smashing it on like a pan. I have to always make a burger sauce I'm at what burger I make. That's, I need the sauce.

I'll take whatever's in the fridge. I'll play together. I make something that's close to a basic burger sauce. And my wife was like, hey, why don't she put that in there? I was like, I don't know about that. And she was like, just trust me. I was like, fine. I was like, that's it.

This is the one. That's amazing. That's amazing. So many, like, we made like 11, 12 different burger sauces. You made like 11, 12 different burger sauces, and that one was just like, it's, it's like familiar. But at the same time, there's that one ingredient makes it so fucking unique. And you know what's great about this, that story too, is there's a little bit of sentimental value with the, because it was like your wife and you made it together.

And how many versions of this sauce was there before the final? Like, did you, was there a trial run? There was never the official trial run. It was just like home runs. Right. I would say at least eight or nine. That one was the hardest one to make. I could see.

It's the simplest. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you had Alec on your thing. Yeah, he came in and he was like, that barbecue is okay. And I was like, what? And I was like, no, you know what? Screw this.

I came in the next morning, I read it the whole recipe. I was like, no, that's not okay. I know what he was talking about. Because the second before I gave him the cup, I told my wife, like, he's gonna love all of them. But I just, I'm not a big fan of that barbecue. Like, that's the last one I would get, but I'm not okay with that.

And as soon as I asked him, what do you do anything on the sauce? He was like, everything was really good. The barbecue is just not barbecue enough. I was like, you know what? You know what? Yeah, I'm not putting this back anymore. I'm doing this tomorrow and that's the sauce to came up with it. That's amazing.

Yeah, dude. Out of this world. Peach, please. Are you planning on bottling any of this stuff? Oh my gosh. Yeah, I was going to say, work tonight buying a bottle of the pet. Yeah. That's so good.

Simple, do five, make them really good. Yeah. People will love them. That's it. You don't need a huge amount if you got five good sauces. Imagine those on wings, those barbecue? Oh, the blue cheese with wings? Try the blue cheese, Danny.

I was gonna try the range. That's ranch, right? That's ranch. If you like ranch better, then go for it, they are both phenomenal. I just feel like the ranch was over there. It does. That ranch is banging, dude.

That's what I had at my bowl. See, your timing's perfect because right before you'd walked over, we were talking, and I explained how I'm a condiment guy. And I'm like, when I go to places, if they offer five condiments, I'm trying them off, they offer 50. I'm trying them all. And then you come over like an angel from heaven with these. And the house makes it even better. The fry. You know, when someone makes you a gift, it means more than when you buy it.

You should put that in a shampoo. I want to shampoo my hair in it. That's how good it is. I want to bathe in it. I want to bathe in it. All of it. All of just, you know what? You know how many people would lick your head if that happened?

At least one. You? We know you would. You would. But could be more. That's what I'm trying to say. Man. That was awesome.

Yeah, for real. Everything was amazing. And they've got to go boxes. right over there so I can grab one. You guys should come to Better Burger. It's really good. You're not going to get a handwritten thank you with a heart from McDonald's.

It's with love. They're sending us with love. Have a great Wednesday. It's nothing but chaos because we're all stuffed with the best burgers and chicken, you could imagine. I'm Matt, that's Mike. It's Anthony, the IT guy.

The apparently kid behind the camera. And our super queen, Amanda. Yes. Super queen. Follow Good News York everywhere. At Good News York.com, baby. Peace out. They say if you want to go fast, go alone.

But if you want to go far, go together. At Amika Insurance, we know what matters most to you. And we work even harder to protect it. Together. As a mutual insurance comes, We're built for our customers and prioritize your needs. Amika, empathy is our best policy. Visit amica.com and get a quote today.

It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman, and Univoreau Boutique River Cruises L'ouique Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities.

Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune in to the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials.