Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 83: Josh Groban

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

Multi-platinum selling singer-songwriter and actor Josh ‘Chirashi Joshie’ Groban joins Ed and James at the bar in the dream restaurant, in another New York recorded episode. Plus we get an appearance from the Coffee Comedian.Josh Groban’s new album ‘Harmony’ is available on 20 November. Buy and stream it here.Follow Josh Groban on Twitter and Instagram @joshgrobanRecorded by Ben Williams and edited Naomi Parnell for Plosive Productions.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast. I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny. I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,

which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy now. Please? I'll have the Off Menu special burger, please. You know what that means? It's triple layered, humor, chat, and food. Triple Decker, baby. The Off Menu burger for the Off Menu podcast. Live from New York City. Thank you, New York Head. Thank you very much. It's lovely to bring New York Head out now and again, because we are indeed in New York City, James. In New York City, you're embracing the culture to the point where it's offensive. Yeah, that's a rude voice.

Still, good to see you, Ed Gamble. My name is James A. Caster, and we're going to ask a special guest, their favorite ever, start a main course, dessert, side dish, and drink. We sure are. And this week's special guest is... Josh Groban. Josh Groban. Actual Josh Groban. Actual Josh Groban. Singer. Very exciting. Very exciting. Very excited to meet him. I don't know how many singers we've even had on the podcast. We haven't had, like, a great deal, have we? Not many, but Josh's reputation precedes him, of course. He's very well known for his singing work, and also just as a fun man. It's a fun man. He's in the Muppets,

right? He was in the Muppets most wanted. Of course, he's a fun man. He was in the American office once. That's fun. Yeah, that is fun, actually. Very jealous of that. But it would be a pleasure to meet him and find out his dream meal. But however nice and however fun he is, unfortunately, if he says a secret ingredient, he is going to be kicked in his butt until he has to leave the restaurant. Yeah, that's how we do it around here. And this week, the secret ingredient is... Mocha. Mocha. A mocha. Now, you're okay with mocha, aren't you? I love a mocha. Not me. I mean, I don't drink coffee anyway.

Yeah. But when I did, I was like, I even want a coffee or want a hot chocolate. I don't want this. I know. You're one of those guys. When Starbucks came out, you were like, I don't know. What's all this mocha-chocolata-ya-ya stuff? I don't want a Frappuccino, Grande Venti, mocha-chocolata, cinnamon roll, motherfucking white chocolate whipped cream shit. I tell you what I want. I want a fucking coffee. That's what I was like. That's you, isn't it? Yeah, I was like a mid-2000s comedy routine. Yeah, you know what? I don't want any of this shit. They'll suffer me up some sort of Halloween cinnamon gingerbread latte shit. No, you're going to bring your own cup. You're kidding

me. These glorious cups, these metal cups, say they're killing the animals with the paper cups. I dropped my glass cup the other day on Brooker Dock's head open. That is very funny. I'm laughing at that face fountain. It's an actual funny comedy routine. I'm not even messing around. But we don't want Josh to say mocha. Josh says mocha. No, if Josh says mocha, then that's it. But if I be the same mocha, I'm going to hear more of that guy. More of that character, more of that routine, please. What would that character think about when they write your name on the cup? Oh my God, are you kidding me? I mean, it's like the government. They're trying to find

out who you are. What's your name and they never get the name right, do they? What does it say on the cup? Fucking asshole. But without further ado, because obviously I can just get ed to do this for the rest of my life and be happy. But also, I don't want to do that because I'm very much looking forward to our guest always on his way in now. Look at it. Josh Groban. Josh Groban. Welcome Josh Groban. Thank you very much. To the Dream Restaurant. Wow. Welcome Josh Groban. Thank you. Looks pretty crowded. I don't know if you have a table for one. I'll clear everyone out for you now, Josh Groban. This is your Dream Restaurant. I'll get rid

of all these people. I actually prefer sitting at the bar. Is that okay? Apologies. Everyone get back in. Immediately. I like a little energy. Do you really profess setting up at the bar? One of the things I do love about being in New York is it's not weird to sit alone. I feel like everybody's doing their own thing. Everybody's busy. And just because you're alone doesn't mean you're alone. So in LA, if you sit by yourself, they're just like, who is that weirdo? My experience of LA is if you sit by yourself, you have to have a laptop open to make it look like you're writing a screenplay. Absolutely. Or if you're going to talk to yourself, make sure you have a Bluetooth earpiece in your ear so people

don't think you're crazy. A lot of them are sitting at the bar though. Is that something that we haven't really discussed on this podcast yet? When you come in and they're like, well, you don't have any tablets, but you can sit at the bar. I feel like that's such a great flex because Maturities really get off on like saying, I'm sorry, it's been an hour wait. They just love telling you, do you have anything? I'm looking right now like about 45 minutes. And then you say, boom, hey, mic drop. I'm by myself. Do you have any corner bar seats? First come, first serve. I'll take that one, please. And then you sit down and get served immediately. And you're just like, yes, alone. Thank you. Yeah, it is good. I went some place

in LA once and there's a huge queue for brunch out of the door. Brunch. It's completely alone. There's no brunch on my menu tonight. I want you guys to know. I march straight past the whole queue, march up to the front of the queue. That's right. I am lonely. Victoriously alone. The new album by Josh Groban. And the other thing cool thing about when you sit at the bar too is like, you know, a lot of times the people that are working behind the bar are, you know, they're culinary, you know, fish and autos and they know their stuff. They know their wines. They know their booze. They know their food. And so, you know, you kind of like develop a little bit of rapport and then you become like, they're kind of Powell when you're sitting there. And so they'll just

kind of like, they'll put, all of a sudden you'll see like a little glass in front of you and he'll just be like, Hey, you got to try a little bit of this. And they'll just start splashing you things, you know, try this mezcal, try this, you know. And so by the end of it, you've just had, you know, you've had at least like $13 of free food. Really. It's a, it's a, you shouldn't be sort of writing down, writing it down as you go along. No, just going like, yeah, another dollar there. That was 73 cents of Chattanoof to pop. Thank you. I saw that in a sushi restaurant and these people are sitting basically at the bar, but it was where the sushi chef was. He was just slipping them little bits of raw fish. Like a cat. Like you're a stray dog. Yeah. Yeah. But he was doing it. He never

looked to them in the art. So I was fascinated with it because I was looking for him across the room and he would never look at them. So he would never look at them directly. He would just like, hold the fish at them while looking who the chef. Yeah. So he was like doing this like, like it was a sneaky little deal. Yeah. It's like a cat's is deli here where you go in and get a sandwich. And while they're making the sandwich before they do, they take a bit of the pastrami off or whatever. Yeah. And then just slide, slide it across to you. Yeah. You get a little taste. Get a little taste. Yeah. It's like, it's the closest I've ever come to that, you know, like a crime film when they're like testing the drugs, someone will rub it on their gums first. Yeah.

Are they, are they often passing meat at a crime scene? Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit of meat, rub it on the gums. That always blows my mind in crime films when they do that. When they do that, when the detectives take to do a little taste test, rub it on the gums. That's pure. Are you high now? Like I thought I was watching it going, are you now high at work? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You get, you get the Mel Gibson type who dips his finger at it. Yeah. That's definitely the worst gift stuff. Tito von. And then they just get on with stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely, is it drugs? Cause you're fine now. I don't know. I've never tried cocaine. So I don't know if the, if, if those, if the dose detective types have built a tolerance. You've tried pastrami

though. How? Oh yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The first one's free. Yeah. And then I will pay anything for the rest. They know, they know what they're doing. Change that drug and having to grow. Yeah. You can't really do that with soup, can you? No. You go to a soup place here and, you know, a little spoonfuls. Yeah. Take a slurp of that. Take a little slurp of that or right out of the hand of the chef. You're not hooking anyone on the soup. Like we went to a really nice ice cream place yesterday and they always do that at ice cream place. They're like, you can taste, taste some if you want, because they know it's good. Right. Soup. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Also very rare that, well, I personally wouldn't have the guts

to just be like, yeah, I'll try some and then no thank you and go. That's, that's it for me too, because I actually like, I like little tastes. And so for me, if I get a little taste of something, I'll be like, hmm, what a lovely afternoon this has been. And I'm just like ready to move on with my day. And, but I do, I feel guilty and I'm just like, oh, that, oh, that's really, really good. Yeah. No compliments to the, ever. May I take five pints? Sure. Sure. Why not? You know, we've overordered a lot here. Yeah. It's easy to do. Yeah. Yeah. We've been here for about a week now and most meals have overordered. Yeah. Every single one I'd say. I was saying to her the other day, I overordered once and like, I had like a big half a sandwich left at the end. Yeah. I was in LA

and I wanted to, I thought, well, I was going to throw it away and feel bad. I've seen a lot of homeless people in LA. So I thought, well, it'd be easy to go out and just give it to a homeless person. Right? Yeah. It's like they all just clocked out for the day and went, well, now we're not going to be here. So I walked out. You went, you went searching for homeless people. So I was walking for ages. Where were you in LA? I was in like, uh, like West. Does that make sense? West Hollywood? And like, how far west were you? It's like, I was at a place called Bel Air Road in the corner of Golden Street and Diamond Avenue and I couldn't find any. I kept going west and I was in the ocean. So there I was. No shit. There I was on a little raft.

Eventually I found Tom Hanks on an island. To be fair, he was starving. Here you go, buddy. He was crying though. He said he'd lost a friend. I don't know. Anyway, I did eventually find a man, but like he was, as I got closer to him, I realized he was eating a sandwich already. Yeah. And I said to him, do you want to do a sandwich? And he looked at me and went, I already have a sandwich. Like, yeah. And I was like, yeah, I don't know why I'm offering you a sandwich when you're eating a sandwich. Right. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. I'm sorry. Your, your, your altruism was, was pretty bad, right? And by the end, it walked so long that he had to have the sandwich. You actually have really needed the energy. Well, it all worked out in the end.

Actually, the, the, the, the man who had the sandwich did take the sandwich in the end. Good. Good karma. Even if you couldn't find a new home for the sandwich, it was good karma, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Mind if I ask this was what we're talking about? What, what, what was the sandwich? Yeah. Yeah. So it was from fat sales. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good choice. I really like fat sales in LA. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're a halfer. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. So I got like a full, I knew I shouldn't have got the full word. You got the whole thing. Yeah. And I like the buffalo chicken one was got the mozzarella sticks in it. I always get the fries seasoned. Big flavors. Yeah. Yeah. Big

flavor. I really go for it. Yeah. And then I do a lot of refills on the, on the, on the Dr. Pepper on the Dr. Pepper. Yes. You're the one. Yeah. Pleased to meet you. Yeah. Prescription for one. I feel like everything you just mentioned is like the stereotypical coming to America for like those flavors like the buffalo chicken seasoned fries Dr. Pepper in a 42 ounce plastic or whatever. Yeah. Oh, I'm not, I'm not doing any of that back home. No, no, I could do. You could. But I ain't doing it. Yeah. No, that's a, that's a, that's a lot of flavor profiles. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I just really, I don't know. Something I really like about, also it's like there's no walls to that fat sales. There's no walls. Like you just see out into that. Well, I guess there is like

screen doors and stuff, but there's open it all up. So it's just like completely, and I like being able to look out into the street. Cause the main ingredient there is shame. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and I filled up on it. Yeah. Well, half. Yeah. Half. And then, yeah, try to balance that. Half a loaf of shame, please. We always start with still a spark in water. Yeah. I'm always still, I'm always still. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, maybe it's a singing thing, but I get, I get burpee very easily. So like I, because I use a new listeners will be fascinated to know about my diaphragm work. Absolutely. No, but you like breath control. So like, you know, you, you're, you're singing,

you know, on stage since you're 15 years old and you start to like, realize, oh, if I drink sparkling water, if I drink soda or something like that, I, I will probably burp during a note. I tested that theory and it sure enough. Yeah. During a very serious Italian song in 2006, the great burp of 2006, I drank Mountain Dew. That's our, that's our big American soda. Slam that dew. I slammed the dew. I had a footlong hoagie. I slammed that dew and I went out on stage and I'm, you know, I'm just, you know, just, you know, like full blown burp out there. Did people still talk about being at that show? Oh man. It's, it is stuff of legend. Yeah. The first two, uh, two rows hurt at everybody else.

Well, you must have known, as soon as you did it, you must have been like, well, that's what they're going to go home talking about. Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter what else I'll do tonight. Actually, it was a good lesson because a lot of times things happen on stage that are super magnified to you and to your hand because you're all wearing earpieces. Everything's super sensitive. Like the singer gets a lot of singing in their mix. The drummer gets a lot of drums in their mix. So we're all hearing ourselves super sensitively up there. And the audience is hearing this big kind of washy blend of all of it. So, um, I honestly think I think it was, it was okay. But it taught me a valuable lesson. Still water. Always still.

Or still Mountain Dew. Just keep it out for years. Yeah. We'll eventually, it will eventually lose it. Yeah. What's the half life on Mountain Dew? Actually, I think we could probably survive a nuclear war. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, bring that Mountain Dew back out of Tangier. Yeah. There's a lot of different, I mean, we had Mountain Dew very briefly in the UK. Well, yeah. So when I was a kid, I mean, I think you know this head, but it was still surprising. I used to play rugby. I do know this, but it always still so I did that till I was like, whatever, like 13 or something. A little sip in the scrum. Yeah. Well, that's the thing afterwards. That's what the, uh, the rugby bar sold was, uh, was, was Mountain

Dew. And I'd have that all the time. I loved it. I was obsessed with it. Yeah. But when I'm in England and the rugby commercials, it's always like one, there's a specific beer that is like the walk into the bar on the shoulders of your mates and drink this pint. And I feel, I forgot what it is. It might be, is it John Smith? Yeah. Yeah. John, that's exactly right. Yeah. Where you, where you, uh, you know, you made the winning score or what do you think? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's try. I mean, you're not try. You're also not talking to two sports. You really tried. You really tried to have a beer. That's what's sweet about the rugby. You tried. Well done. Well done. Also, does the temperature of the drink affect your vocals? Good question. Yeah. Absolutely. You

don't want to, as a general rule, you don't want to go too hot or too cold out there. Um, if you had the choice, uh, a warm, a warm tea is always really good. Warm clears the throat. Uh, cold, I have found that cold, um, kind of like makes you look like you get the gremlins. Yeah. Yeah. But I, but I prefer cold, like really cold drinks. Uh, when I'm not singing like today, it's a, it's a gloomy, chilly rainy day here in New York and I've got my iced, very, very cold, uh, iced coffee here. Yeah. I'll be right in thinking then, if this is your, your drink's choice here is based on vocals, that you're going to sing a little song in the dream. You're going to sing during the meal? Oh, oh, oh, do you know after the meal, the bar and then you go over to the piano in the corner.

This is the not great for singing drink, the cold, uh, coffee. But, uh, but I do take, take requests at this. So you have cleared out and then re-lighted the entire restaurant. So, uh, now that I have a restaurant full of disgruntled people who just had to leave and then come back again, surely they'd want to hear a bit of singing. Have you ever had to like, do you ever like play in bars and stuff like coming up? Well, you know, every so often I'll be at like a birthday party for a friend or at a charity event or something like that. And you know, they just go on, give us a song. There's a piano man there. Something happens. Honestly, like I, I'm an, I'm a true introvert at heart. And the fact that I found myself

in the, in the performing, you know, landscape is, is completely, is completely crazy. But, you know, when I'm on stage and I know it's my show, I can really, I can turn it on. I feel good. People are there. They bought a ticket. They want to be there. Most of them. And, and so I'm, you know, I go for it. But if I'm in a restaurant or a public space or something like that, and someone says, come on, you know, honestly, it is, it terrifies the hell. It really, really does. It's scarier than playing Madison Square Garden. It is like 10 people at a restaurant clinking their plates is way more frightening than 15,000 people. Also, is the idea that there's people in the restaurant who just want to get on with their meal? Yeah, absolutely. Of course. Yeah. I wish to God,

I had like the Kanye energy where I was just like, anything I do is awesome and you're lucky to hear it. Like I just, I just can't. I just can't be, I just, I really, I, I will find out of an arena of people. I will find the one person crossing their arms who was dragged there and I will just the whole rest of the night and my inside. I think we, we both do that would stand up as well. Yeah, that's fine. You can, you can find people's faces. I don't think that's, I don't think that's abnormal for performers. Yeah. I think that if you care about what you do, then you're always looking for, you know. Also, you're doing it every night. Every single night you're doing it. You're used to the, you're used to it. The good was spot. By that point, you're your own worst self-critic. And

so you're looking for the one guy that agrees with you out there, you know, you're the one, you're the one, you're not fooling here. The danger is stopping the show and going, right? Why aren't you enjoying it? No, no, no, no. Don't, don't feed the trolls. Yeah, yeah. It's excellent stuff. I mean, I'll do it. I don't know. Nine times out of 10. Sometimes I'll do it because I'm bored. Yeah, yeah. It's never a good answer to that question either. What, why are you looking like that for? Oh, because I'm having the best time of my life. And this is how I enjoy things. I think you're great. It's never going to be the best spot. Do you, do you respond to hecklers in comedy? Do you, do you let it, do you let it roll or do you, do you hit them back?

This, I always find there's sort of less hecklers than sometimes people think there are. Like, like, you watch the YouTube clips and you just assume it happens every show. Exactly. Some people think that, you know, it does to James, but you're, you're an awful comedian. Yeah, to be fair. You're going to take that. I have no comeback to that. There you go. Perfect example. That answers that question. Moving right along. Pop it up, it's all bread. Pop it up, it's all bread, Josh. Pop it up, it's all bread. And I couldn't give away the sandwich. That's my time. Pop it up, it's all bread. Pop it up, it's all bread. I'm so sorry. That was the response to your heckle. That was a question. I don't sound like it was a response to a heckle, actually. Is that an

actual, are you actually asking me? It was a heckle of my own to you. Pop it up, it's all bread. Well, this is the problem that we found crossing the pond. Yeah. Back home. There's a lot of curry houses, a lot of Indian restaurants, and now bringing Papa Doms along before the meal. I have heard it, and I know it's Indian, but it reminds me of the texture and the crispy. Crispy, sort of large, like, almost like large chips. Yes. Oh, it's the crispy. Yes, you break it off and you dip it in a chutney or things like that. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, very, oh yeah. Well, that is very good. Or anything else that is bought at this point in the meal. Yeah. Yeah, we won't, I don't really want to restrict people to Papa Doms or bread. There's

like prawn crackers sometimes, or there's like tortilla chips in depth. I also like a plantain chip. Oh, I like a plantain chip with a little spicy guac. Nice. That's always good too. Yeah. I don't think we've ever had anyone selects plantain chips with a spicy guac. No, we haven't. We have a great choice. Yeah, we'd be pretty great. Cheeky hummus. Cheeky hummus. Yeah. Again, no, we haven't had anyone select hummus at this point, let alone a cheeky hummus. Yeah, well, I'm surprised Nish did. I think Nish Kumar, excellent comedian. He's been on the podcast. I'm surprised he didn't choose hummus because he eats it with a spoon by the tub. Yeah, like I used to live with Nish and regularly used to come to the kitchen and he'd be stood up by the

fridge eating hummus like a yoghurt. It's a controversial question. Is hummus, does hummus always have to have something you're dipping it into or can you eat hummus spoon alone? Texturally, I find it weird to eat it spoon alone. Like I have to have another texture with it. Leave your answers in the comments. Yeah, Nish doesn't dip things into hummus. He dips into hummus. Yeah, I think it's a dip. Yeah, I think it's a dip too. What's your dream thing to dip into hummus? Oh, you know, actually, you know what? Raw sugar snap peas. Wow. Yeah, yeah. They're crunchy. They're sweet. They give me like the crunch of a carrot, but carrots just, you have one and you're like, that's okay, that's my carrot. Like I don't eat multiple

raw baby carrots. You have one, you actually probably eat half of one and have a conversation with someone while you're crunching it and then put the rest of it in your napkin and throw it away. But the sugar snap peas, my goodness, really. Yeah. Yeah. What's the difference between those and like Monge2? Monge2? The same thing, aren't they? The same thing? The same peas and Monge2, I think. We'll get the Great Benito to Google it. You know what a weird thing that I like that's good to dip? That like I can rarely get it because apparently there's like some health rule with most of like the hotel kitchens. They won't do it for you. I like raw potatoes. Wow. I like sliced raw potatoes and I've liked them since I was a kid. My grandpa used to eat them

and used to, you know. That's amazing. I've never heard that. I think occasionally I might have accidentally eaten a bit of raw potato and it's just something that sort of like dries your mouth out or something. It's like, yeah, I think you're supposed to eat that, Josh. I don't know if you are, but it's a strange thing. So you dip raw potato into hummus? I will dip raw potato into hummus or like a honey mustard dip. The ultimate is a raw potato and honey mustard. Wow. I've never ever had. When did you start doing this? Pompadom's bread or raw potato and honey mustard. Do you want raw potato and honey mustard? I do. I'll get it for you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, we'll absolutely do that. Yeah, that's something. So your grandfather used to eat raw potato? Yeah.

Well, that seems like a grandfather sort of thing to do. Like a grandfather would swear by that. He thinks it's cooked. This has been in the oven for four hours. Sure it has. The crispiest chip you'll ever have. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know it's, I don't know. And then my mom likes, would slice them like and, you know, she'd be making cooked potatoes and just would slice, you know, without looking, you know, hand the raw potato slice to his kids, you know. No, I can't talk. You sat up at the bar. Don't tell dad. Yeah, sitting up at the counter of the kitchen, you know, doing math homework and getting that raw potato. Sugar snaps have a rounder shape than Mange2, a crunchy texture and very sweet flavor. Mange2 are flat

with very small peas inside and have a mild flavor. They're also called, they're also called snow peas during cooking. The sugar snaps stay crunchy and green. Yeah, snow peas. So that's, yeah, snow peas are, yeah, they're flat. The snow peas are flat, used in a lot of Asian cuisine. You see them in a stir fry, things like that. Sugar snapper are fatty, fat, fat. Yeah. Great. Plump. But I think you should go for, at this stage of the meal, you should go for the raw potato and honey mustard. I think so. Was that the starter? No, no, don't you worry. That's a little course we're throwing in. Oh yeah, don't worry about that. Thank you so much. I'm not going to push you into having raw

potato for yourself. I fill up on that course. I am guilty of always whatever that is that you just offered me before I've sat, you know, before I've ordered anything. Yeah. I'll fill up. Yeah. Like I think it's always, like I'm always upset about it, but always like smart when the restaurant doesn't give you pompadom bread and snow peas with hummus. Because I will be like, oh, you know, I was going to get a starter in dessert, but you know what I think, I'm just going to have this salad. What is your starter? My starter. Okay. So growing up in LA, we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of restaurants that like when you become famous, you realize you're not, you shouldn't go there anymore because you realize it's like a spot where they're going to be

paparazzi and things like that. So I actually have not been to this spot in a long time because it's got such an aura of, oh, you're going to that place. So there's a restaurant called The Ivy in Los Angeles. Yeah. Very famous restaurant. And, you know, it's just to kind of come a caricature of itself as far as like, oh, you go to the Ivy, oh, you want to get your picture taken at the Ivy. So the Ivy also happens to have just really incredible food. Specifically, they have a corn chowder. So I love corn. If I could live my life eating raw potato and corn my whole life, I'd be just so happy. I know, I'm such a weirdo, but I love corn anything. I just love the texture. I love the flavor. But I love a corn chowder. And I specifically like love a corn chowder that's

not super like thick and creamy. Like, like I like a very kind of fresh, kind of brothy, you know, lots of real, real corn in there, corn chowder. And they make a spike, like a nice, really spicy one. Yeah. And so it doesn't fill you up. It gets you kind of going, you know, feel super stuffed after it. And I think that's probably my favorite corn chowder that I've ever had is that one with the Ivy. So I would start with that. How spicy is it? What spice levels will we talk about? Oh, uh, two peppers. I don't know. A couple of peppers. A couple of peppers. I think a couple of literal peppers in there or a couple of peppers. That would be the rating. Two out of three. Yeah. Just a kick, just enough kick to, to, you know, have another splash of still water. But it doesn't,

yeah, it doesn't sort of seize your whole head up. No, no, exactly. Now, I once had a soup at a Thai restaurant while I was on tour and there was one of those little tiny, you know, those like dark red thin peppers you get sometimes in Thai cuisine and, and it's floating on the top there. And I asked the waitress, I said, is this, is this going to be really spicy if I just bite into this? And she says, hmm, for me, no, but for you, definitely. And I took it as a challenge. So I actually, I bit into it and I, I started to cry and she started, I like my eyes started welling up and I just kind of said into my breath, what have I done? And, uh, she, she walked away laughing. Just like so sad. She warned you. What I like is that you didn't wait for her to leave and then

bite it. She was there for the show. Is it spicy? I mean, no, for you. Yes. Watch this. Bam. I did that the other day. We were at a Thai restaurant. There was like a chili on the plate, popped it straight in my mouth and I immediately get the hiccups. I just get the hiccups straight away. What is that? It's like when you're a kid and you see something that might hurt you and you just have to touch it. Yeah. Yeah. I did that. One of my earliest memories is I touched a red hot iron. It was just left on the ironing board. Well, if you didn't, how else could you tell? Yeah. I walked along it, but I just, just didn't remember looking up at it because I was small. Yeah. Okay. Uh, seeing it and just immediately just, just a whole flat hand. Yeah. Oh, you put

the, bam. Yeah. Just like, just, but it's going like, I wonder what that feels, right? Doing it and then it felt the worst. Oh, horrible. Yeah. Well, that means your nervous system is working appropriately. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why we have it? It did then. Yeah. I can't feel anything in that hand anymore. Now you have what we call the stranger. Yeah. Well done, you. Yeah. Well, little stranger hand. Yeah. Oh, I think that sounds like a nice start to a chowder. We haven't had a chowder. I don't even need a sample. We've not, no samples. I know exactly what I want. No symbol of corn chowder for me. You told us you grew up in LA, but so far we've got raw potato and corn chowder. It sounds like you grew up in Iowa or something. In the great depression.

When I run for president, this will come in real handy. Yeah. Yeah. These foods. Your main course. Main course. Okay. I think you've teed yourself up very nicely for, I think this could go anywhere. Yeah. You actually, you actually called me out on the raw thing because this is another raw item. So this will be a little bit strange, but it's got a little tiny bit of a story. So I love sushi. I love sushi. LA, New York has equally great sushi in my opinion, which is great, great sushi restaurants. And so I recently went to Japan and I love it there too. It's an incredible, you know, convergence of old and new. There's just so many things to see, so many different styles of food to eat there and I love Japanese food. So my girlfriend and I

went to, what is it called? It was the Tsukiji Tokyo Fish Market. It just closed down. There's now a new fish market called the Toyosu Fish Market. But at the Tsukiji Fish Market, you'd have to get there at like five in the morning. You have to get there before the sun rises and all the fish from all over the world is coming in right at that time. And they're just throwing fish around and they're slicing fish up in there. And so it's an incredible thing just to witness that because the fish is just right out of the water. And then there's a row of restaurants right next door to there. And you have what they lovingly call breakfast sushi. So you'll stand in line for probably 90 minutes to two hours. There is no getting around the lines.

Everybody's there. This is now at about 637 o'clock in the morning by this time. And you sit at the counter and it's omakase style. They will just serve you whatever the fish is that came out of the water that morning. And it has been out of the water for like two hours. And you're getting the freshest, most incredible Japanese sushi that you've ever had in your life. You have to have it at seven o'clock in the morning. Your stomach is like, what is going on right now? But since this is a dream restaurant, if I could take my breakfast sushi and have it at dinner time, that would be amazing. And I would even one up that and I would have what I consider to be the most unsung hero of Japanese sushi dishes, which is the chirashi. Are you

familiar with the chirashi? Basically, it's like a bowl of white rice and then they put all the fish on top of it. And you basically, it's like a bowl. It's like a sushi bowl. And so all the fish is right on top and you kind of drizzle a little soy sauce on it and you eat your sushi basically as one bowl. I love it. And you don't often see chirashi at sushi restaurants, but when I get it, oh, chirashi, joshi in the house, in the house. I should start a chirashi crawl blog and just go chirashi shopping. I don't think anyone would have a single problem with that. And I don't think GoDaddy.com has that web domain. No, no one's got that. I know it's got it. Whoever's listening, if you take chirashi, joshi for me, so help me God, I will find you.

I will Liam Neeson your ass. Any particular type of fish that you want on the chirashi? After that, I like the usual. I get the tuna and the salmon and the yellowtail. I love, you know, I like tamago. I love the tamago, which is like the cooked egg. It's like the sweet omelet. Absolutely love it. Yeah, it's really, really tasty. That's really good. I like a scallop. I like a raw scallop on there. Oh, and then my favorite is uni. So that's an acquired taste. That's the sea urchin. I didn't, I didn't used to like it. It was a look thing. It was a texture thing. I think the first thing I said when I saw uni was like, that looks like baby poop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's always going to put you off. That's, oh, yeah, well, yeah. So it was

good many years after those words left my mouth before I actually tried it. And now you eat baby poop as well. Now I eat baby poop as well. Yeah, exactly. It's very acquired taste. Zipping the raw potatoes into it. I have to go. Wow. Dream restaurant. That sounds absolutely amazing. So anyway, yeah, shirashi with all those things, fresh out the boat in Tokyo at a little hole in the wall bar, which is, that's my, that's my meal of life. I went to Japan quite recently. Oh yeah. Every, every night we'd be like, tomorrow we'll get up and we will go to the fish market and we never woke up on time. Right. Next time we will go to the fish market. It was a disaster. We missed it every morning. Yeah. Well, you saw some Pokemon out there,

didn't you? Saw some Pokemon. Yes. That was the first day. Okay. No time limit for that. You don't wake up early. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They're just, I mean, as long as someone hasn't caught them all. Everybody playing Pokemon and it was waking up at two in the afternoon anyway. On day one, when we arrived, we were very jet lagged and couldn't check into a hotel and my fiance dragged us to the Pokemon restaurant, which was a nightmare. You chose that over the robot restaurant. We went there the night after. The Pokemon restaurant was an awaking nightmare. We were so tired. Well, that's the other thing, too, is that your brain is just like, it's two in the morning for you. Yeah, exactly. And then a

massive Eevee came out with security guards. It's absolutely petrified. Yeah. Security guards. I love it. The food was awful. It's like a Mayan fever dream. Yeah. It's so strange being there. It's true. You go through like Shinjuku and all those areas where, you know, you have those themed restaurants and it's absolutely crazy. And you can't, as a tourist, it's hard to tell whether like you're doing just the tourist thing. Yeah. They love those things too. Like you'll go and it's like, no, no, this thing is weird and campy and outrageous, but it's also part of the culture and they love it. And so, I mean, that's part of, I mean, I went to the robot restaurant on night one. So me and my girlfriend, we were exhausted jet lag and we chose to go to the robot restaurant,

which I don't know. I think there was, there was something about being that tired and having that in your face. Yeah. It was just like, this is the crazy shit I've ever seen in my life. But, um, yeah, that's, we went, we went on the, uh, so we landed, did all the Pokemon thing. And then the next day I proposed and then we went to the robot restaurant. And now he's married to a Squirtle. Wow. Congratulations. It's a shame you had to break up with your girlfriend. But she shouldn't have taken you to that restaurant where you met the love of your life. But now he has 24 hour security around him. That must feel cool. Exactly. It's great. It's pretty good. You know, my life's changed a lot. Yeah. I was wandered before I came in here today.

Yeah. Yeah. We can't go to the IZ anymore. No, of course not. No, no. Yeah. Partly because she doesn't have a mouth. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, because the Squirtle's X is an IV sort. Yeah. Which is, uh, it reminds me, reminds me. See, that's a proper. James knows a lot about Pokemon. Only the real Pokemon masters would know. Oh, I'm playing it 24 seven years. You're playing it with the app thing? We could, we, uh, yeah, I'm doing it all the time. I've, I've absolutely cleaned up in New York. They're, uh, they're a Pokemon here that you can't get back home. So I've caught a Tauros. I've caught a survivor. Congratulations. Yeah. Yeah. The other night, we got back to the hotel, uh, and then we all went to bed and then half an hour later,

James admitted that he saw a Pokemon on his phone that he could only get here and he ran back outside the hotel and had to go around the block to find out. Are there 50 other people? No, no, no, no, no. When you go out there like looking at the same. Oh, it is not as popular anymore. So I downloaded it while I was on tour, which was a bad idea because one, you need to sleep. And two, like here's the thing is like, have you, have you been mugged yet? That's my other question. No, no, yeah. Is that the whole thing is like it wants to send you off into the middle of that park at three o'clock in the morning to find, you know, whatever near the fountain. Yeah. Uh, and that just happens to be where everybody's just smoking meth. So like it's,

it's, uh, yeah, it's, it's done that like yourself up. Yeah. People have said that it's like brought them into dangerous areas or, or criminals will look on it and see where people are going to go. Oh, wow. And then like, you know, they're like on their phones looking for what, looking for a new Pokemon. And that's when they'll, well, uh, good luck starting on me because, uh, I've got a, uh, I've got a lot of tough Pokemon that I can set on him. Yeah. I'm not sure. So if they start on me, I just, I just break out like, God, I don't know, probably, uh, what's the strongest one I've got at the minute? It's like, uh, dragon, dragonite, uh, dragonite's the strongest one I've got. I break out the dragonite and he bit them up. Imagine you being stabbed by a monger while

going, but dragonite's going to get you. Dragonite, I'll choose you. Dragonite, please, I'll choose you. Oh, it hurts so much. Quick side note, the dragonite sashimi at the Tsuchiji fish market is Don't you even dare, Josh. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. A little wasabi. Well, that sounds like a delicious, uh, and very, very sort of fresh, almost light meal so far. You're not going to fail too full. No, exactly. The corn soup and the sushi. I'm going to take a little walk and I'm ready. I imagine on this podcast, you get a lot of people that are just, they're just throwing out their most decadent. Yeah, for sure. And like I, this is my pet peeve about like the tasting courses when you go to the five star, you know, Thomas Keller has the most incredible restaurants,

but you go to a place like that has 18 courses plus like the cookies that give you with the bill, plus like, here's a loaf on your way out. Um, and you're just, you reach that point of euphoria around course eight, whatever. Yeah. And then the rest of it just winds up being a man versus food like exercise. You're just like, I can, I will. And then they go, what's something wrong? I was like, yeah, I'm just, I'm bursting at this. Yeah. But no, so far a big, big thing for me was making sure that it wasn't, it wouldn't, we wouldn't get too full here today, guys. Yeah. We want to make it to the end. And now your start is going to be an entire chicken. Yeah, exactly. I'm excited. Actually, I can't believe it. But I said side dishes and entire chicken.

And now your side dishes and entire chicken. And then you put a laugh track on that. You know what he's going to do? Pick what the Josh's laughs from elsewhere in the episode. Put it after when I said side dishes to chicken. He's going to leave in all of that, you know. Oh, that'd be ridiculous if he left it all of that. He's my friend, right? Just use this one. I'm always nice to him. And I never try and screw him over on the podcast. Can we start over? I would write about chicken. A chicken would be great. You've actually changed my mind. We're giving you that as you leave. Yeah, much better than raw potato. Yeah. Oh, the chicken's raw chicken.

The chicken still dipped in honey mustard. But yeah. Don't mean to interrupt our own podcast here. It's Ed and James just quickly chipping in to let you know some exciting news because obviously this brilliant episode with the wonderful Josh Groban was recorded a while ago and lots has happened since then. And Josh has been very productive and he's made an album, James. I'm so excited. I'm loving listening to this episode, Ed. It's a real trip down memory lane. And to know that Grobes is still putting out high quality content during this crazy year of ours, it warms my heart. He's a very productive man and the new album from Josh Groban is called Harmony and it's available on November the 20th.

Go and check it out. But without further ado, we should probably get back to the episode now. Hand it over to past Josh. And past James and Ed. Hey guys, watch out. Something real bad's going to happen in the world. Enjoy your donuts. So my side dish might actually fill us up. It's, you know, we mentioned, you mentioned, I forgot what deli you mentioned. Was it cats? Yeah, great deli. You can't go wrong with cats. My preferred deli here in New York's on the Upper East Side, it's called Sables Deli and they make the most incredible like white fish salad, lobster salad, potato salad, that kind of stuff. And so their lobster salad is, you know, sometimes you get those lobster salads and they're really

skimping on the lobster. It's like mostly mayo and filler and things like that. This is just full on chunks of lobster in the salad. It will go great on a bagel. So I would say Sables Deli, it's on second Avenue, I think between 72nd and 73rd and with like bagel chips. That's Pappadam bread, bagel chips. I love bagel chips, really thinly sliced, crispy, like everything bagel or raisin bagel chip would be amazing. So is it just thin slices of crispy? Thin slices of crispy, really, really super cooked bagel. It's a chip. It's a bagel turned into a little chip. And you dip that into one of these like amazing lobster salad or white fish salad. It is so good. Now the whole salad thing, I think to us in the UK, if you said lobster salad, we immediately

imagine a lobster on lettuce. But here, lobster salad is basically like mayonnaise with stuff in it, right? I mean, yeah, yes. Yes. I mean, you could go to a place and they, depending on the restaurant, lobster salad could very well be lobster on a salad. But at a deli, I would say salad at a deli is specifically when salad means like mayo. Because I was in, I went to Russ and Daughters. Oh yeah, fantastic. Did you, was it a long wait? No, it was really easy actually. The horrible weather. Barely anyone was in there, walked straight in, grabbed a few bagels. And now there's been a bit of controversy on the trip, Josh. Yesterday, we'd been talking about going to Russ and Daughters a lot. But yesterday morning,

I had some work to do. I do a radio show in the UK, so I had to phone in down the line to record. And with the time change. Exactly, with the time change. It was difficult, you know. And then these guys went to Russ and Daughters without me, even though we'd planned the trip together. They did not buy me a bagel. So today, I went to Russ and Daughters by myself. Not only did I get myself a bagel, I passively, aggressively bought them one as well. Oh, you did buy them one? Yes. Because that's the ultimate revenge, being the best guy. Yeah, that's Ed's version of winning. How did that make you feel? It made me feel absolutely brilliant. I got two bagels the second time I didn't even have to go. Absolutely great. The first time I went, didn't have to

buy no one, nothing. Just bought myself a bagel, didn't buy him one. The second time he went, bought himself a bagel and me a bagel. I wasn't even thinking about it. So this relationship is working out just great for you. Oh, yeah. It's so good. I can't believe what a sucker, Eddie. I feel like I've got the moral high ground still, I think. This is working out for both of you. This is how you choose friends. You're just absolutely at peace with being one or the other. And it works for you. Here's the loophole I found. As soon as Ed gave me the bagel, he had a moral high ground. I walked around for two hours until I found a home this man. And gave the bagel away. I gave it away and no one got the moral high ground. Bad luck, Ed.

No. I ate my whole bagel. You ate it all to yourself. What kind of bagel did you get? Just like a classic. It was scallion cream cheese, actually, with salmon. And what the bagel itself? Oh, poppy seed. He got me poppy seed as well. I would have chosen sesame seed. Sesame, okay. So maybe not the good guy. I'm going back tomorrow, Josh. Maybe not the good guy that you think he is. I'm going back tomorrow. Making me eat goddamn poppy seed. It was delicious. What's your favorite bagel? I like an everything bagel or onion bagel. What is an everything bagel? Because as far as I'm concerned, it's making promises it can't keep. Absolutely. It's everything you just mentioned. It's poppy

seed, sesame seed, it's onion, it's raisins. It's basically every single style of bagel you could want, but all put into one bagel. But not everything. Not everything that isn't normally on a bagel. Only, yeah. Yeah. It's just bagel ingredients. So we've spoke to people who feel that that sort of bagel is sacrilege. Really? Yeah. We've spoke to people who think you should either have plain, poppy, or sesame seed. And anything outside of that is like too much on the bagel and it makes them angry. Their sex lives are terrible. Spice up your bagel life for crying out loud. They're never going to be swayed. There's no way there's no reason to rant on Twitter about these people. There's no getting through to them. Never change their minds. It's true. Just order what

you want. So the lobster salad is like chunks of lobster mayo. What else is in there? You know, I think there might be a little bit of spice. It might be a little bit of kick, but I actually think it's pretty plain. I don't think there's much else in there. I think it's just lobster salad. Lobster, a little bit of mayo, maybe a little bit of egg yolk, and a whole lot of love. Sounds delicious. Yeah, very rich. That is the one very rich thing. Yeah. Do you normally share it, or do you have it all to yourself? I will share it with quotation marks. I'll put a little spoonful. Can I offer you a little spoonful of lobster? I'll find like a claw, like one little chunk. There you go. And no, I hoard the lobster salad for myself.

Good plan. It's a great sporting. If you've got a sport to watch, like for us, the Sunday football, you know, and you get a lot of like spreads, you know, you get like the bagels and the locks and the salads and all that stuff. That's a good brunch. Your drink, Josh. My drink. Okay. So this is, I mentioned people kind of might come in here and talk some shishi, real shishi foods. I, my parents, speaking of my dad and my mom, they just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, which is like, this is insane. I don't know. We're the swiping generation. We just, I celebrated my two and a half year with my girlfriend, and it's like, how did we do it? That's incredible. 50 years, we took a barge through France, like through Burgundy. So I love wine. I love learning

about wine. I don't know a lot about it. I just love drinking it. But this was really, really fun because you get to kind of slow roll down these very cool, very scenic barge canals. And then you stop, you hop off, you get on a bike and you go to these, you know, Burgundy wine, apparently, I didn't know this, but Burgundy is like the cream of the crop, especially for red wine. It's Pinot Noir grapes or Chardonnay grapes, which are my two favorite wine grapes. And I just learned a lot about Burgundy. And I learned also just how expensive a hobby it is, like the really great Burgundy wines, like a Romani Conti or one of those. We were holding grapes in our hands, and the tour guide is like, those are $1,000 per bushel. And we're like, wow, okay, yeah.

But they have finished their harvest, so feel free to eat. I'm like, okay, we were eating just $1,000 grapes in a week. And then, you know, you taste it and it was like, oh, this is everything I want in a wine. Like you see, you watch like sideways or in those movies where they talk about what's your aha wine? You know, what's the wine that really got you going? And I'm thinking, that's not a thing. It's like when people say like, when were you called to the priesthood? Like, is that a thing? Like, you actually like, you had a vision? Like, I'm so jealous of people who have visions or who have aha moments about a wine. Oh, yeah. No, it was that, you know, it was that Cabernet 1968. It was like, you had the wine. I've never had anything like that until like this

moment. I had like the wine. And so drinking that, drinking that Burgundy made me realize just what an incredible flavor profile that wine has. So I would say my glass of wine of choice would be a wine I have not yet had because it's $6,000 a bottle. I got to hang out in the vineyards, but I would have a glass of Romani Conti grand crew Burgundy. Wow. So you really are taking the dream drink? I think that, yeah, all of these other things I have had or could have. I think that I'm going to, I'm going to ask the dream genie to pour me a glass of something that is like a pipe dream drink. Yeah, that's a great choice. I'm not sure how well $6,000 a bottle. Yeah, at least. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I, the thing is though about wine too, is that you can have a

great $20 bottle of wine. You know, you can find 95 point wine. That's also 30 bucks. And so you never, you know, unless you're just trying to super impress somebody to party or you won the lottery, like, you just don't need, you don't need a $6,000 bottle of wine in your, in your collection. So, so, so yeah, that would be, that would be fun. I should befriend a billionaire. Yeah. Or go and do a show for like a shake or something. Right. Right. That's what you want. I once went to Andrew, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's house. And we were working on, we weren't working on anything together. We were just, he was a friend of a producer of mine and we, we went over there and, and I got to play him a song. I was working on, he got to play me a song. He was working,

I've, I've been a musical theater guy since I was a kid. Like, I got one to college music. So, hanging out at Andrew Lloyd Webber's house. Super fun. And he was so nice. But you know, at that, at that level of wealth, it's just, you realize that it's just, it's like pouring us tap water. He pulled out a bottle and he says, oh, it's like, it's like a drink. And, and we said, sure. And he goes, we had a party last night. And this was, this was a real star at the party. It's drinking, it's drinking quite well right now. I'm going, great. I mean, this is two o'clock in the afternoon. So we're thinking nice little lunch, wine, maybe a rosé, perhaps, you know. And, and, you know, my friend, Marius DeVries, who's a producer in London,

I took a picture of the label and we're like, oh yeah, that was a $5,000 bottle. Wow. Pulled that for lunch. Yeah. Wow. That's fun. Also, I love that you played each other songs as well. Yeah. Yeah, I'll work on this. What would you have done if you had played him a song that you worked

on and then he had a grin like, oh, that's great. I love it guys. I need to be drunker to hear that again. And then he sat down and went, okay, I'm just working on this. And he was just like, my name's Andrew. Hello, hello, hello. I have feet and I have to go. And he was like, did that. What would you do in response? Could you be in his house? You've just played him a song and he said it's brilliant and he loves it. And then he just does like the stupidest, worst song you've ever heard. How do you respond to that? Everybody. I am Andrew. Hello, hello, hello.

I have shoes and I have to go now. That's the next chorus is I have shoes and I have shoes and I have to go. Because he's found out that feet are not enough to leave. He needs to put something on the feet. I think he only writes for characters that don't wear shoes. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cats. Yeah, for sure. And the Phantom of the Opera.

Beach Blanket Boogaloo. Oh boy. That one. That one. Directions I never expected. Yeah, yeah. Well, to answer your question, I would say, you know, that's really interesting and I can't wait to see how it develops. Oh, yeah. Very good. We got a lot of people tell us that about the podcast. Yeah, our podcast is the equivalent of my name is Andrew. Three hellos, one goodbye. Talking of goodbyes, we made you the dessert. The goodbye, the meal, I guess, the farewell. My dessert is brief. It's not a fancy dessert.

So this was actually because of my mom. For some reason, every holiday, especially Christmas time, we wouldn't get a lot of candy or anything like that, but there was one thing candy oriented I would get in my Christmas stocking every year and it's chocolate covered gummy bears. And so like ever since I was little, and then what I would do, what I do with the chocolate, in parentheses, is have to be refrigerated because when you get the chocolate covered gummy bears, you don't want them to be too warm or anything. That's disgusting. Put them in the fridge or freeze them. That's even better. And just work on that chocolate covered gummy bear for a good two, three hours. It's fantastic. It's great. Oh, wow. I just love them.

See my chocolate covered gummy bears put in the freezer and bought out in a little cup. That's right. Yeah, little cup. And at this point, are you still drinking the $5,000 bottle of wine? Absolutely. I don't think that pairing has ever happened before. Oh my God. So when we were on the barge, we'd still have a ton of wine in our glasses because they poured lots of wine. And so the wine would still be there as they were bringing out dessert. And the other thing about burgundy wine is it pairs really, really well with sweet things, especially chocolate and especially dark chocolate. So yeah, I would just be finishing that bottle of Romani Conti with chocolate covered gummy bears. Are they dark chocolate covered? Yeah, they have to be. Yeah,

dark chocolate covered gummy bears that have been in the freezer. I don't think I've ever seen a chocolate covered gummy bear in England. You can get them in those American shops. I'm sending them. I'm sending them to you. Oh, great. Yeah. I'll send you a bagel. Everything bagel. Oh, no. Maybe feel so bad. And GarageBand for you to put down all those wonderful ideas you have in that brilliant head of yours. Send them over to ALW. It's fine. I came up and called her. I am Andrew. It's for you to sing, really. It's a matter of if you had to say whether you have guests over. Just when you pull out a $5,000 bottle of wine. Yeah. You can sing anything you want, Andrew. Yeah. He bows me back. James, how did you know about my song? Yeah. You have

not written this. Who's the mole? Yeah. I'm going to read you back your order now. Thank you. So how do you feel about it? All right. So you like still water, not too cold? Pop it on some bread you chose raw potato with honey mustard. That seems like a long time ago now, but starter corn chowder from the Ivy in LA. Main course is a breakfast sushi, a terashi style. Yeah. What was the fish again that you wanted? Oh, just your normal tuna salmon, yellowtail, uni, tamago, and scallop. A jamboree there. A jamboree. Side dish, lobster salad with bagel chips, some sables. Yeah. Drink a romani conti grand, crew burgundy. There you go. Yes. A whole bottle, wee wee. Dessert, dark chocolate cup of gummy bears, frozen in a cup. In a cup. Yes, thank you.

That sounds delicious. The cup can be made of cookie. Yeah. Cookie cup. Yeah, a little cookie cup. Also, that's quite, if you ask it at the bar, it's quite a good thing to have that at the bar. A lot of these have been quite good bar foods. Good bar foods, yeah. Like your dips, you've got soup, you've got bowls, you've got another dip, essentially. You've got glass of wine, you've got a little cup of gummy bears. That's right. That's right. That's all growing at the bar. Growing at the bar. Yeah. So if you're out there and you just see me sitting at the bar having, you know, just stay away from my food. It's like saying to the waiter, waiter, send that guy over a cup of warped potatoes. And right, I'm Josh Groban. Hello,

hello, hello. I love warped potatoes. Josh, thank you so much for coming. That's been an absolute joy. Thank you so much. But you have feet and you have to go. I do have feet and I really have to go. Yeah, it's been a pleasure to privilege. Josh Groban there. Wonderful, wonderful menu. Great menu, nice man, lovely chat. Yes, no complaints here. No. Absolutely zero complaints, especially because he didn't choose our secret ingredient, mocha. No. I was a bit worried when he said he was drinking a nice coffee. Yeah. He walked in with that iced coffee. I was like, oh, I've got no coffee going out of hand there. There's no chocolate in there. Oh dear, where's this heading? But luckily, it was a lovely,

expensive bottle of wine. He never even drank in his life. Good choice. Good choice. I would rather have something I've never ever had before than a goddamn mocha, personally. Now, James, that also, that episode was the official announcement that you're writing a musical based on the life of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yeah, absolutely. Happy to announce that my name is Andrew, is going to hit the West End. Well, it's an unspecified date at the minute. I've got to talk to a few people. Yeah, sure. Josh seemed on board. I think Josh is going to help you produce it by the sounds of it. Yeah, yeah. Josh's going to help me. Yeah, say, book by James Acast and music by Josh Grocery. Yes, absolutely. Not that Josh doesn't have his own projects on the go. You

can get his last album, Bridges, which I think is a musical tribute to the work of Kevin Bridges. Yes, I think those files were aware. It's about the Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges, and a lot of the lyrics are very hard to understand. A bit unintelligible, but like, but very funny. Yes. Yeah. So go and check that out. In the meantime, we're going to carry on walking around New York City, maybe as we do a few more characters for us. Oh, so help me, God, if I pass a Starbucks. How big would you like your coffee? I wanted coffee size. I don't want to have to get a bucket from the back. I know the fuck is the woman on the logo. I think she's like a god, isn't she? A fucking god? I don't know. She's like from Moby Dick. Moby Dick? I

don't need a Moby Dick. The only dick in there is the guy behind the counter. Yeah, very good. Very good. I like it. Every time it gets to the conclusion that I enjoy, so it's fair enough. Right. Well, what do you usually say at this point, Ed? I say keep listening to the podcast. Check us out on at off menu official on Twitter and Instagram. Go on the website. Oh, just look, Google it. Yeah, but now I'll tell you what's going to be happening. There's a whole page on our website, whole list of all the restaurants that we've mentioned on the episodes. And now, because of this intro and outro, we're going to have to put Starbucks on there. Yeah, but it is going to have to add Starbucks onto it and you'll click on it

and it will go to Starbucks website or something like that. And you can look at it and be dismayed just the way that Edwin, the coffee hater of the coffee lover, I guess. Coffee comedian. Coffee Edwin. Edwin Coffee. Yeah, that's nice. Edwin Coffee. Keep listening. Like and subscribe. Don't get me started on coffee, a man. Thank you very much for listening. Goodbye. Hello, my name is Rob Orton and I do the Rob Orton daily podcast. The Rob Orton daily podcast is a daily podcast that is quite short, some are two minutes long, some are 10 minutes long, and they are stories and poems. And basically, all the thoughts I've ever had that I like enough to want to share with people. And the Rob Orton podcast is available on Apple, Acast, Spotify,

all the other places where you normally get your podcasts. And on social media, it is at Rob Orton podcast. Thank you. Hello, it's me, Amy Gledhill. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu, where I spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato and our relationship's never been the same since. And I am joined by me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread. I'm not going to spoil it in case. Get him on, James and Ed, but we're here sneaking in to your podcast experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's about all the news stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners,

but we've been living in London for a long time. The new stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off, and that's a new podcast called Northern News. We'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Gledhill's mum on every episode. That's Northern News. When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy! Is it? Yeah, get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late!