Podcast: The Ride - The CityWalk Orlando Saga: Malltiverse of Madness 7 - 1 with Jamie Loftus

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Our powers combined... we are... Podcast: The Ride! The holy trinity reunites to spend a significant amount of time talking hot dog preferences with Jamie Loftus. Wow! The CityWalk Saga is hotter than a grill at 4th of July! Phase 7, Sector 1 Contains: Hot Dog Hall of Fame To level up your Saga experience with bonus and ad-free episodes, subscribe to Podcast: The Ride’s Club 3 at  patreon.com/podcasttheride.  FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever Dog weird muck zone between ends of the multiverse. Is that what you're seeing too? I'm also seeing weird muck. Yes. Anyway, we gotta find each other again. How do we make our physical forms land in a physical place, specifically at CityWalk Orlando? God, it's like we need some kind of new jump point, you know? A place where we can reunite. Like, where is a place of unity?

A place that brings together the best and brightest from far different ends, from miles and miles apart, with a spirit of cooperation, celebration, and yes, perhaps, delicious food. Gentlemen, I know exactly where to go. A place we have not been to yet that brings people together despite minor differences.

Gentlemen, meet me at the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. When your town has made you frown When your square has made you swear When life gives you one more punch When your square has made you frown When your square has made you swear

When life gives you one more punch You need a donut soaked in Captain Grunge You need a place, a place to stroll With alcohol A place that features part of the Berlin Wall Where steampunk robots sell chocolate snacks A place where you can tattoo your lower back So let's go take a walk Let's all go to CityWalk Orlando Tonight, tonight Podcast to Ride presents

The CityWalk Orlando Saga. Multiverse of Madness. A daily, extremely necessary series exploring the shops, restaurants, and cosmic wonder that make up Universal CityWalk Orlando. Welcome to Podcast The Ride, the CityWalk Orlando Saga Multiverse of Madness. We are back together in one place again. Me, Scott Gairdner. You, Mike Carlson.

Me, Mike Carlson. And you, Jason Sheridan. Hello, I'm here. Jason. Hi, Mike. I'm so happy we could finally, it was tough being split apart, but we did what we had to do. But now we're back together stronger than ever this is like what kiss did their solo albums and then they the next album they were back together this must

be what they felt like yeah yeah having conquered the world yeah how many 12 songs on all of those so uh what 48 or something that math strong for like 48 let's just say 48 classic songs that we all remember. No notes, no problems. Yeah. But now we have become, we're back together, the regular group, but I feel that we are now a super group because we're joined by a great guest who, coincidentally, perfectly for today's topic, one of America's leading hot dog voices, the writer of the New York Times bestseller,

Raw Dog, The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, Jamie Loftus. Wow. It's just really great to see you guys back together after this whole journey. You have no idea. I don't. Perhaps at this point,

we have no idea what we've been through separately. It's all a fog to us, but yeah, yeah. We made it just in time to host you to have you so excited to have you here the first non Chuck E. Cheese

I know I was thinking that I kept like I knew we were talking about the Hot Dog Hall of Fame but there were several times this week where I was like I gotta get I gotta brush up on Chuck I had to like tamp down that anxiety cause I'm like I'm gotta brush up on Chuck. I had to tamp down that anxiety because I'm like, I'm behind.

I'm behind on Fector. I muted Fector. I don't know what's going on. That's the correct move is to mute. I feel Showbiz Pizza's, or wait, no, he's the Rock of our Explosion creator. Yeah, right. If you're out there and you aren't following him,

don't, or if you are, then mute. Crazy things happening. I do have one question. I don't know if you know about these happenings in Chuck E. Cheese's world. The somewhat mixed bag of news that the animatronics are officially going away, yet they will have one committed-to residency near us in Northridge, California. There is one place where the robots will not disappear. It feels very dark to be like there's one location where you can like,

because it's that Chuck E. Cheese is just a museum basically at that point, right? Like, I'm going to go. Like, I'm going to go. Like, I'm going to go the second it's, has it already happened? It has happened. I have not been, my wife and child went separately. And here's what it is. They just, they did something.

I don't understand why they don't just, why didn't they do this at all of them? Because, you know, all right, let me step it out a little longer here's like i've been to i've been to that one with my son i took him specifically like we got to go to one of the old school ones with the full munch with the whole robot band uh we went he had no interest in the robots uh i have failed to instill this in him just a three-year-old with no context has no

interest what he has been really interested in at other chucky cheeses are the light up dance floors that they are replacing the robots with yeah i'm looking at this in my own family and i'm seeing that like boy it works they figured out something with these dance floors so in northridge it's both they split the room so it's the best of both worlds. And yes, why not do that? Yeah, I guess possibly because the kids don't like the robots. But specifically with no, because it's entirely context with us. I don't know if I liked them when I was a kid. I might not have started to like them until high school.

I don't know. I was afraid of them. Yeah. But started to like them until high school. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure. I was afraid of them. Yeah. But I did like them. I definitely, I think I liked them, but yeah, I liked them, but I feared them. They're kind of like aunts and uncles in that way. You're just like, I like these people, but I don't want to touch them or be close to them. But I like that they're here.

You see them once a year. Uh-huh. If you're good. And I don't know. I wonder, not to like pathologize your son, Scott, but I wonder if he, because I feel like I have like a clear memory of the first time that I'm like,

oh, I think my dad is disappointed for something. And I wonder if this will lock into he's like i don't know what i did wrong but i know i was supposed to feel a different way about these robots after after the very tense car ride because there's a little bit of a drive that's like half an hour for where i am yeah when when the icy silence set in did you punch the dashboard broke his hand. Delightly, yes. No, it did more damage to me than to the mirror.

Okay, okay. It'll be fine. No, I try to be as open-ended with these things as possible. I try to not like, you know, of course I want him to, I'm just glad he likes being at Chuck E. Cheese at all. And then within that, I'm not going to guide him. I like that he likes being at Disneyland or Universal Studios I'm not gonna I don't I don't need him

I have plenty of like of 80s animatronics for the entire family for multiple entire families so he doesn't need to have this too as long as he likes being in the places yeah everyone gets what they want you guys were driving back and you did

put on the Chuck E. Cheese cover of Cats in the Cradle. We did. I will say a year and a half ago, Scott and I and his son went to see Chuck E. Live on the Santa Monica Pier. Rocks.

How was it? It was pretty good. It was loud as hell. That's right. It was very, very loud. Great show. Great set. Great set. That's right. It was very, very loud. Great show. Great set. Great set.

Only new stuff, though. They weren't playing like, together we got it. Like, they didn't do. Did they at least throw in a happy birthday? They didn't do happy birthday, I don't think. Or there was a different type of birthday song, maybe. I don't know. The point of it was summer.

The point of it was having an awesome summer. Okay. Okay, so he's having an awesome summer. Okay. Okay. So he's doing his theme shows. I respect it. Wait, where was the concert in Santa Monica? It was on the pier. On the pier? Next to the park?

Next to the arcade. Wild. You gotta let me know when this stuff's happening. I didn't. Wow. The last time I went to the Santa Monica Pier was to see Joey Chestnut eat um win a pistachio eating contest whoa a non-hot dog I don't think I realized that yeah I know Joey Chestnut as the hot dog competitive champion but I didn't know he did other food he does other foods he's not general I don't think he's the champion of other foods he was neck

and neck for wings for a while but he's been pretty pretty squarely eclipsed in wings i think uh but he's got he was doing it for spawn he is the guy for i forget what like bread of pistachio but he's like the he has two strong sponsorships that i know of he has his own brand of bespoke mustard, which I do have in my home. It's $14 for a thing of mustard. It's a huge rip off, but he is the spokesman for pistachio nuts and he's the spokesman for dude wipes, which I think is the best,

like the best match from, because is there a messier guy on the face of the planet than our Joey? Yeah, yeah. Are dude wipes for your face or are they for the end of the process as well? I think they're for the, yeah. Based on the commercial Joey did for them,

they're squarely for your ass. Okay, okay, 100%. Oh yes, oh yeah, I'm looking at the, Google did for them, they're squarely for your ass. Okay, okay, 100%. Oh, yes. I'm looking at the Google says for your butt. They're like ass wipes, butt wipes. That was my thought. You said messy, and maybe I was hoping you meant face, but you're right. I guess I never really, because I'm thinking of his face when I say that.

I'm not thinking of his ass, but maybe they are, which adds a great deal. You have to assume. I like that he's being accountable for the end of the process. I think that that indicates growth on his part. I don't think he always was really open. The year I saw him, well, the first time I saw him, he was doing some bounty spawn, which also makes sense. He's a messy guy.

Right. He was wearing a bounty rope and slippers. It was pretty awesome. Oh, wow, Jason. You've got to get out of that. Wow. Him having these endorsements. I hadn't thought about this dimension of dude wipes. Dude wipes were created because

some men felt that using a baby wipe was not masculine enough. That's why I can't, because I was like, there's not really like a feminine equivalent that I can think of. Like they're not. Yeah. It seems like a needless like macho branding. I guess maybe not if it's successful.

I don't know that it is. I don't know. Well, I don't know well i don't know either i know that they like dude wipes at some point they donated like a block of dude wipes like individually packaged things of dude wipes to the homeless coalition i volunteer with and everyone was like i don't think we're gonna give this to anybody this is for no one like this sucks our dude wipes do they have like a scent is it like cedar or something like there's smell very strong. Because I ended up, because we were like, we're not going to give these out, I brought

some home just to test them out, see what they're, and yeah, they reek. So they're, yeah, there's like- Like what? So strong. Cigars? No, they smell like Axe, like they smell like a musky chemical musk. Interesting. Yeah, it's like middle school boy musk on a wipe.

Like cool water. It just automatically, if women try to use them, they just make them sick. Rashes and ill, yeah. They found a way to chemically. Yeah. It's not for a different, yeah, you have to have tough skin to use it. I'm just like, who is it for? Like in the smell element, I find fascinating. I'm like, is it for like in the smell element i find fascinating i'm

like is it for like i don't know i don't know i feel like the guys who are using it are don't have people near their ass often i don't think so yes the desire to i don't i can't see them having the desire to make their ass smell like a specific, to have an ass cologne. I think it's just a vibe-based product. I hope they paid Joey well. The pistachio thing, I'm a little more confused by. It was very underwhelming. We just like, I went, I took the bus to the Santa Monica Pier.

It was at 10 a.m. on a Saturday. It was raining. And he just, boop, boop, boop. Like, you know, he won against the other guy and then they gave away free pistachios. Was it like fixed, though? It was kind of a show. I feel like it was. The other guy threw the fight, threw the contest.

I mean, it's only fair. He was on, God, I don't know anything about sports. He was on a basketball game the other night eating pierogies. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that he eating pierogies. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that he was like just eats if you pay him. Yeah.

Makes sense, but. Yeah, he's very eat for pay. Do you want to show the dream? Yeah. The dream. The Joey Chestnut texture to your book I feel like is big.

It's a big turning point. I wrote down something too because i wrote down like a thought about tommy's and then i flashed back to your book and i'm like oh tommy's is a very kind of pivotal moment as well uh la chain tommy's uh chili dogs and chili burgers and fries and stuff was it a big in popularizing chili dogs, or at least here? Or what's the turning point nature of it? I don't want to ruin the end of your book.

It's more, it's, I learned about myself there. Oh yeah, not history. Not a hot dog history. It's your journey. Oh no.

Jamie's book, there's a personal odyssey. We got it. That's very stirring. Thank you so much. I went to Tommy's by myself on Christmas Eve. I know.

I know. My stomach just tightened saying that out loud. But it's true. I think in a just world, Tommy's would be as successful as Pink's is as an LA hot dog institution because I think Pink a just world, Tommy's would be as successful as Pink's is, as an LA hot dog institution. Because I think Pink's sucks.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a scourge on Universal City Walk. It's a waste. It's a fake thing. Like, you've, especially growing up in LA, as I did, you'd hear about that forever. And then Pink's.

The big wine. And it's kind of put next to In-N-Out. And it's either unremarkable or fully bad it's a bummer the first time i went to pink's it's like years and years ago i like stood in the line i did the line thing and i ordered something that like there was no there wasn't a picture of it but i accidentally just ordered like a little cup full of meat and sour cream like i didn't even order a hot dog i was furious it's like how did this happen what was it called i don't it was called like sunday but it was but i you yeah i don't know i'll take accountability for i shouldn't have ordered something from a hot dog place called Sunday.

But it was like a cup of meat and sour cream. It was pretty gnarly. So don't just like start saying those celebrity names. Don't go up and order the Tom Bergeron. Oh, yeah. You might just get, it might be like a hot dog smoothie. Just put one in a blender. You should know.

That's what the Tom Bergeron is. You've got unlimited access to music, but time? Now that's limited. The PC Insider's World's Elite MasterCard gets you unlimited PC Optima points, free grocery delivery, and time back for what matters. Save time and earn $1,100 in average value each year. The PC Insider's World's Elite MasterCard. The card for living unlimited.

Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Value is for illustrative purposes only. By the way, before any further discussion, I think we know where we're going, but let's officially confirm what are the contents of today's sector with the sector keeper. Boys, boys, and Jamie, phase seven sector one is the hot dog hall of fame. Good luck, boys and Jamie, and keep an eye on Jason. All right. Well, as assumed, I mean, we knew and, you know, this I feel is very serendipitous. This worked out perfectly because, Jamie, I just asked you to be on the show for whatever purpose, not affiliated with the saga,

and you organically brought up the Hot Dog Hall knowing what was not even knowing it was a crucial piece of what is now a series in its 19th day tying the original city walk saga still don't know we don't know how much more we have we will see my luck just to toss that out and then like oh you have no idea okay hold that thought i think we didn't then it was we held on to that for like a year and now we're here to to do it to fulfill a really crucial function so right thank god yes yes and what better place to have all met i think so yeah yes yeah uh to read to reconvene here um so you have and okay so you you you wrote this book about hot dogs and we'll i'm sure things about that will factor into this conversation but so you you you wrote this book about hot dogs and we'll i'm sure things about that will factor into this conversation but also you you have been to the hot dog hall of fame i've

been twice twice oh my gosh twice twice in 2022 same wow so you returned that that speaks well of it i came back from um any other while we're on the city because you were talking about having done a solo city walk orlando excursion anything else from that experience you want to name check before we we narrow focus on not dog hall of fame well i was i so i was yeah i feel like i've given so many experiences of things that you're supposed to do with people by yourself you're in the right place yeah Well, yeah, I was in Central Florida doing a very different project about like a

spiritualist camp and I like made time to stay at like a cheap hotel and go because I wanted to go to the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. That was the thing luring you? It wasn't even just CityWalk would be interesting and not the parks it doesn't sound like. Well, I didn't have time for the parks.

I would have loved to go to the parks, but I was like, I only have time for one. I'm going to CityWalk. And so I went. Yeah, it was great. I went at night. I walked over. I walked over from my hotel at night. I was so overwhelmed by the Hot Dog Hall of Fame.

It's sheer size. I have so many by the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. It's sheer size. I have so many thoughts about the menu. I tried to tell the person working there that I was like, I'm writing a book about hot dogs. This is really exciting. They could not have cared less. I asked tourists to take my picture alone in front of the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. It was really awesome.

Yeah. So I loved the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. I considered because I was like, this is, you know, like when you reach the threshold of like personal humiliation, we're like, let's just keep going. I considered going to like the dance club next to the Hot Dog Hall of oh yeah there's a few of those and one's closed i don't even know which one it would have been the groove yeah i did that coconut or the coconut club that's what it was yeah and it was saturday night and i was like should i maybe i'll meet the love of my life tonight if i go to the coconut club um but i i didn't and uh yeah it wasn't during halloween was it because you could have met a sexy frankenstein it was this okay it's

about to get the stories about to get worse it was on valentine's day got better actually um it was my first encounter with the scary chocolate restaurant. I know that you guys understand the scary chocolate restaurant. I don't. It was my first time encountering it. I don't know if we've discussed it at this point. I think we're possibly more baffled than ever having meditated on it. Is it a pleasant baffling?

Do we like it? Where do we land? Oh, it's unpleasant in many ways there's a lot of ways to go wrong i think i'm sure there's one maybe there's only one formula to get it right and it's like a it's like a maze where there's only one path and then lots of dead ends and pitfalls and traps yeah you'll probably get into one of those. But I'm sure someone out there has had a good time. I somehow had a decent

meal and it's because I got the power green salad. It was shocking to like, wow, this is all really fresh and the vinaigrette is flavorful. This sounds like an anomaly.

It's a strange thing for them to get right. really fresh and the vinaigrette is flavorful. This sounds like an anomaly. It's a strange thing for them to get right. Yes. City Wall, Hollywood, which is a more limited menu, I feel like. Probably, yeah. Because the one in Orlando is huge. Yeah, it's really big. It's looming.

Bizarrely big restaurant. Yeah. Right next to the biggest hard rock cafe. Yes. The scope of everything. Hot Dog. Hot Dog Hall of Fame included. There is scale to everything at this city. I was impressed that they really gave the Hot Dog Hall of Fame some breathing room.

And so then I went by myself and then I came back with my mom several months later and because she has a biannual uh timeshare and she really wanted to go this was on the 4th of july another holiday um she wanted to go see the new minions movie that came out in 2022 on city walk the day like on the 4th of july and i was like all right we're going and so we like pre-gamed at the hot dog hall of fame and it was great it was awesome that's an american day it was a very american um incredible the um what what do we need to what picture do we need to paint of the Hot Dog Hall of Fame before we get into specifics about it? It's like a walk-up window, but so much more than that. It is not an indoor sit-down restaurant, but there are plenty of places to sit.

Great places to sit. It's bleachers. It's bleachers. They took this space. I don't know what it was before because this wasn't there at the inception of City Walk. But you, like it's this like outdoor terrace

on a corner that kind of like, it just utilizes what would just be a weird, awkward space. I don't know what that would be without it. But it turns it into this wonderful little mini stadium corner.

With like baseball stadium seating. Baseball stadium seating. Literal seats from baseball stadiums. Okay. Yes. Right, right. From old stadiums. There is a kind of the, you know,

not just the window that you order from, but that keeps going up into this mighty wall, which has a big screen where you can watch baseball games. It's got many trophies that have a gold fork that is spearing hot dogs. I want one of those so badly. Really? I was zooming in on all the many pictures i have of those trophies and i don't think that they say anything unfortunately i wish that they had they'd taken the time there's not like individual jokes yeah god this is so sad yeah here's my two polaroids

that i have at the at the hot dog hall of fame The stuff in the windows is genuinely cool, I think. Which things in the windows? Okay, there's the trophies, but what else are you referring to? I feel like it's a combination of sports memorabilia and vaguely hot dog related things. But my guess is, I don't know. I mean, how long has it been there? Okay, I have some materials from the opening.

Do the videos say that? I mean, it's like, it's last 10 years, I want to say. Or maybe last like 12. So like fairly recent. It was part of maybe like the second wave of stuff at this city walk. I have some materials from the opening ceremony, but i'll save that uh yes if i didn't if i didn't cover that what kind of did they get any like hot dog celebs at the no no no no no celebs nobody known for hot dog no there was not really a star-studded affair other than

the founder of the restaurant but again i'm gonna deal with that right separately um but it's you know maybe they don't want to distract from the hot dogs the hot dogs are the stars sure of the restaurant. But again, I'm going to deal with that separately. But it's, you know, maybe they don't want to distract from the hot dogs. The hot dogs are the stars. Sure. It is also funny that they didn't like

make a baseball restaurant. That's what it seems like it kind of wants to be. Right. When I went, it was playing, they were playing a hockey game on the TV.

Yeah. It's not called like sports dogs or something. No. Which they could have gotten away with yeah i kind of wish that they had leaned more i mean i'd like the sports ankle is great i like the bleachers but it's a little yeah i feel like hot dog hall of fame maybe i guess sports has hall of fame i was expecting more of like hollywood hot dogs which would make more sense at universal anyways yeah you're right yeah yeah well it's

kind of splitting the difference between hot dogs are associated with baseball and here's hot dogs from around the country but it's still not yeah you would want like like uh like an imprint of a hot dog in cement outside like famous hot dogs oh my god that have put there's an idea immortalized yes from different movie hot dogs movie hot dogs that would be really special different types brought yeah whatever i guess bratwurst you could even do yeah what would you be able to tell the difference like a regular wiener and then a and then a bratwurst like something with more of a curve and then a foot long are you talking about and i i feel like in your version of it correct me if i'm wrong it's not even buns it is purely the wiener it is probably the wiener yes i'm trying to think yeah i'm not against the bun also being part of the cement yeah if it's a crucial piece of the of

that particular hot dog yeah but i do like the idea of just the meat yeah it's spotlight so i'm just saying yeah that's if you're, if the concept is really being like fulfilled, I think it's more like that. And then yeah, cases and like different buns, buns throughout the years, how they've changed. You know, you're really- Types of buns, hyped, toasted, steamed. There's so many ways. Yes.

There's so many. Wow. I would, I love this restaurant you're describing. Earlier in the series we made no the sector keeper somebody made jason say a full list of ways to prepare hot dogs wasn't that yes yes that was again it's a fog but you made it to 10 i think you you've uh and and also but i think it bears mentioning uh jamie i don't know if you know, but I feel like the association with, I think our show has an association with hot dogs to some extent, but Jason especially. I feel like maybe since the original saga.

The original City Walk saga. There's a lot of talk. Cemented. Interesting. About my home preparation of hot dogs. Yes. I just re-listened to this because I wanted to relive the mythology. One is that, I don't think you said this in your list of hot dog preparations, but one that really stuck with us was Jason in a hurry needs somewhere to go

but forgot to eat, so he takes just the wiener, puts it in a napkin, puts it in the microwave for a minute and steams that. Takes it in the car with him to go. Wow. I've done something similar. Not quite, but yeah. it in the microwave for a minute and then steams that takes it in the car with him to go wow i've done something similar not quite but yeah you need you need to wrap it in a wet paper towel so that's yes true say that part of it what was your similar iteration there i mean i've mike i've microwave hot dogs made microwave or boil i feel like you get similar results but the wet paper towel is crucial yeah um because then it like is basically food if

you do it that way it's basically food and it's it's less likely to kind of like explode in the way that makes a mess you know are you doing any condiments in that iteration oh yeah no i gotta get some mustard on there at least mustard relish but how But how do you on the go? I feel like, no, I don't like to eat and drive. I feel like I just eat it really quick. Okay. And then drive. I live with a vegetarian now, so I had already been eating less meat

for the sake of my health. Okay, okay. So I feel like I've scaled back on my hot dog consumption. This was a five years ago thing. You were a different man. You were a different man. I was a different... That is very much a single man's diet. No offense, Jamie.

No, that's fine. It's true. When was the last time everyone here bought a package of hot dogs? Two weeks ago? Two weeks, Jason? I think it's been a while. What do you think, more than six months?

I think a few months. I don't think since I moved. Okay. Yeah, I think it's been a few months. I bought sausages, like kielbasa sausage, because then I can chop that up, freeze some of it, cook some of it. Okay.

I feel like maybe the 4th of July last year. Maybe. That's a respectable answer for a bachelor party eight years ago whoa really wow i don't eat hot dogs on that yeah i know i'm not i'm outnumbered uh it's not a good day to be scott uh um but that's all direct traffic to jason the other thing i i, actually, I feel like listeners in, I'd forgotten this specific quote, and we re-released the original City Walk saga on Club 3 on our highest Patreon tier. And I,

people seem to be gravitating towards something that Jason said that I completely forgot, which is this phrase, hot dog buns are the lowest form of bread. Well, yeah. So, I knew this would come up. I'm thinking if you're like buying it at Rouser Kroger's and you're buying like a $1 pack of hot dog buns.

Yeah. If it's like a real- You can get a bun for $1? Occasionally. It's probably going up now. Even in Biden's America? Uh-huh. Even in Biden's America? I don't know what Biden- Maybe $1. Even in Biden's America? Uh-huh. Even in Biden's America?

I don't know what Biden- Maybe 139 in Biden's America. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that kind of bread is, I feel like there's not a good way to prepare it. It kind of just turns to glue in your mouth a little bit. It gums really quickly. It's a nice, like, you know,

longtime hot dog establishment. They usually have better buns, split-top buns in some of the parts of New England where you're from. I love a split-top bun. Yeah. Wait, describe a split-top bun. It's a little taller. Okay. It's a little breadier.

Yeah, you get to nestle your hot dog in there. Oh. Yeah. It's more of, yeah, like's more of a little beanbag chair. It almost falls inside, right? Is that right? That's a nice way to describe it. It's a little cute.

I've weirdly watched a kitchen staff preparation training video for Skyline, the Cincinnati chain. Despite not eating hot dogs, I did learn how they're made and now they make that that chili spaghetti stuff and and i did i remember that part of it was like making like a little boat like you're trying to make oh yeah which that sounds like with it and you so you need the height to be able to make a hot dog that's similar uh lobster rolls you see split top oh yeah yeah okay okay right we're right um what do you make, though? Do you, Jamie, agree with Jason's assessment about lowest form of bread? I think it's a little harsh, I'll be honest. It's a little harsh,

but I was talking about home preparation. Yeah. Because then if you're cooking for one and you end up with a pack and everyone's like, oh yeah, there's more hot dogs or more buns and hot dogs and you're like what do i do with the rest of these you know it's i don't like when yeah when a bun is overly like chewy i don't know i i i've gone both ways in this because like cost factor is always something that

hot dog consumers are keeping in mind but i feel like if you're making a home hot dog, you can't have a bad hot dog and a bad bun. But if you have a kind of bad hot dog or a kind of bad bun, you can still have a decent meal. Like if you had a spectacular Hebrew National nestled in a kind of shitty bun, I feel like the Hebrew National national will win the day even if the bun isn't great and vice versa if you got a nice bun it's crispy it's great but the hot dog

inside is like mid um huh you you you'll be all right it's just one of those components what about if if both are mid but condiments can condiments rescue on all mid Jason what do you think I think kind of no huh yeah I think I didn't know too like unless it's like you know really flavorful like red relish or stewed onions but that's a real special occasion a real special yeah but then in what scenario do you have bad hot dog ingredients but really good stewed onions? Yeah, so that's so much work. But again, I think if you're going to a hot dog place

and they're really proud of their condiments, that might elevate it. I feel like I've had multiple hot dog sellers be very enthusiastic about. Jason's personally contracted hot dog sellers. There was a guy my senior year, my last semester at Ithaca, and he set up grills in the the comments like the downtown pedestrian mall and he would be making red hots and white like the white hot dogs uh yeah that's a great area that's a great hot dog area it's a great hot dog area and he was so enthusiastic he's like oh i get these i i got a butcher who makes these it's really great company and then once I was at Zuma Beach and there was Hato guy and he's,

and he very enthusiastically, he's like, Hey, do you want some? I have this red relish. I get this flown in these goats. And he was so excited about it in the same way. And it's just infectious,

but like, I don't have this stuff at home. Like, like Rouse is not super, you know, they don't have this stuff at home. Like, Rouse is not super, you know. They don't have this type of red relish at Ralph's. They don't, no. This is infectious. You're describing an interaction from a long time ago,

and this is the most energy. Two interactions. These are old stories for you, but you're the most beaming I've seen you in months. They just, it was so endearing both times. It was so charming and so endearing. Wow. I think it's even more fun when like, I, there's this place, I talk about it in the book, but like, there's a place in Connecticut where like, they had a house relish.

Everyone there was losing it over this house relish. It did taste good, but it was like gray. It was like the color gray. It looked scary and like the whole vibe of the building was like scary and it was like a place that had burned down a bunch of times it was like a hundred years old there was a sign inside that said no dancing what year was that important to put up? And their house relish was gray. Wow.

But everyone was like, this is the best thing to ever happen to Cheshire, Connecticut. This is our legacy. And it was gray. And that said, to any Cheshire heads listening, it was good, but it also was gray. And the building was menacing and it's really nice to see someone get like extremely hyped for something you're like well i don't get it but i'm glad that the gray relish means a lot i'm sure you get into this in the book and i need to read the book and listeners need to read the book but the i don't know as we in this within this conversation i certainly want to

i want to keep it going at home myself but the uh your personal hot dog journey where does it tip into uh full-on fascination uh where where does the love come from i think i mean it was just like my my dad it was like divorce meals like that was like i associated hot dogs with like hanging out with my dad because they were the things that he knew how to make um and we like boiled them which i can't believe that we boiled them i have a lot of nostalgia for a boiled hot dog but i just like i think the rationalization down the line because i was like dad like why did you boil them he He's like, we were poor. I was like, we had a grill.

What are you talking about? You sound so stupid. We had a pan. We could have pan fried them. We had all the tools. You don't need a rig to make a decent hot dog. But he was like, no, it was an income issue. I was like, it wasn't.

It was lack of interest and lack of dedication um so he anyway so that was how i got into hot dogs and then also just like um i don't know like i got really into the 7-eleven hot dog for a while that was like a real point of fascination 7-eleven hot dog and sushi in college. Whoa, really? Whoa. Yeah. Yes. The sushi is going strong at 7-Eleven. I saw some this morning. Wow. Have you added out?

This isn't a regional thing. You've added out here. Yeah, yeah. And it's solid? No. But it's never, like, made me sick, which is honestly what I expected to happen. But it's, like, all, like all like it's just you know like old rice and imitation crab yeah um but you know it did the trick my when I like was in college

and then when I first moved here it was broke but was like but I want to feel expensive I want to have sushi it was great and then the hot dogs at 7-eleven are genuinely i mean it depends they can get pretty old but but pretty good if it's like a fresh one if it's a fresh one i think genuinely good uh i don't know where they if the where they source the meat from is consistent like across the board uh but the last time i haven't had one in a while because it was my regular 7-eleven i was like picking it up with the tongs and the guy working there was like you definitely don't want that oh man because he was like basically i think it's because i was a regular and he but he was like that's been there for 12 hours like Like it had been there for so long.

I'm glad it wasn't longer. I mean, that's long, but I wonder if they can cross. I mean, I don't think that honestly, like a two day old seven, a hot dog has been left out at seven 11 for two days.

I think it's like not meaningfully different from how it started. Yeah, I guess. It's just kind of been out for a long time. Would the person at seven 11, because you come in so often, if it was just a stranger, would he have just been ringing them up, no problem? I don't know. I guess I want to believe that.

I want to believe that my local 7-Eleven feels some loyalty to me and my health, but I'm not totally sure. Yeah, interesting. So localize it for a second. What's the hot dog destination in Los Angeles for you at this point? Or are you a little, has the hot dog consumption gone down post book? It's gone down, but it's still pretty consistent. It's a bar because there were like a lot of places I like in LA

that I didn't that didn't make it into the book but the places I like around here are Walt's oh yes in Eagle Rock

that's a rare recent hot dog I've had yeah yeah yeah really good so good and they have a great vegetarian hot dog which is like

almost impossible to find anywhere so big Walt's proponent which has like if you're not from around here or haven't been here you know like also like old pinball games yeah cool patio yeah recommended like that it's really cool yeah and and so i like i like going to waltz uh i like for chili dogs i feel like tommy's is genuinely like very very good uh there's a couple of those around here. And then they reopened.

I'm wearing the pin right now because I feel such loyalty to them. They reopened a classic hot dog stand in West Hollywood on Santa Monica called Tail of the Pup. Oh, yeah. Oh, the one that was the hot dog. It's shaped like a hot dog.

Is that back, really? It's back, yeah, yeah. It's like some restaurant guy who, I don't know, hopefully isn't scary, but they had, I knew about the hot dog stand because it was this hot dog stand that used to be somewhere else. It's shaped like a hot dog. It was originally just the stand. There's a really famous picture of Sigourney Weaver eating a hot dog in front of it. hot picture it's kind of nuts it's she's going for it um but that like that stand was in storage for years and i got put in contact with the guy who owned the storage unit and i was like what are you guys gonna do with it and he's like we're gonna reopen so now it's like the stand is out front you order in the stand but then there's like a full kitchen and stuff oh so that there's

still there's not the pressure to keep it all in the little box but you get the fun you get what you want there's a there's one with a really mini stand but and then just full food court kitchen uh in in topanga social which is uh in woodland hills they fancified the mall i used to go to okay as a kid. It has outposts of cool local chains and there's a Tale of the Pup there. Tale of the Pup at the start of the movie L.A. Story? Yes.

It's carried by a helicopter. It's like a nod to a Fellini movie but instead of the Virgin Mary statue being carried, it's the hot dog stand. It's a really special moment yeah it is yeah it's a very comforting shot wow wow um okay so well to get it back to florida to where where the where the ultimate game of hot dog is played um I mean, where to begin? First of all, I mean, I just, again,

this environment is great. The like theme parkiness of it, the like the prop design and just the place, I don't know, I just like it spatially a lot. And then you order from the bases basically. Yeah. I forget if that lines up where then like home plate is now you're up i don't quite recall um but that's really charming the only thing i would take away

and maybe you could speak to this from valentine's day or or maybe it was not at all crowded on valentine's day at night you order from the outfield oh it's the opposite way oh okay okay so it's like that oh totally, totally. Okay, okay. Or second base, I guess. You begin your line experience at home plate. Yes, exactly. Then round the bases. The only thing I would say, I really liked being here

and getting to just walk through the empty turnstiles. I also saw this during the summer one time where the entire thing was full and I had friends in the line who were not happy. This, this seems like as with probably a lot of things in this Orlando city walk, we had a great time due to emptiness. This thing's full and your hot dog,

all the same experience is an hour and a half that I don't know. But was that the case when you were there? I was, it was not for whatever. I think it was just cause it was like February was February and it was not a super busy weekend. Sure. And I went towards the end of the night, I want to say. So I feel like more people were there for the Coconut Club than were there for the Hot Dog Hall of Fame.

There, there. But yeah, I mean, I feel like that is any time. That's part of why I think pinks. I mean, well, I think pink sucks for a lot of reasons. But the fact that it's like you're standing in a line and at the end, it's like a pretty humble, like a pretty a pretty small meal. Like you should be able to get a hot dog quickly. Yeah. That should be the part of the point. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. It's no fault of the people who were. I mean, they're. And I feel like you do get if you're into hot dogs, you get a lot of cool stuff. I was very impressed by the mustard cart. Yes. They're like, they have, they know what they're doing. And there's so many different, I just, I don't know if we're talking about the menu yet.

Sure, let's do it. It's thrilling. I love it. It's you're basically it's like it is like like an all star game where regional hot dogs have come to play and you have your choice. Yeah. Great hot dogs from around our great nation. I feel like I don't know. I have some from a list. But but please, Jamie, whatever what you ordered or what call that. Yeah. This is a starting lineup. Right. I really I I i am curious like who

started this restaurant because they did their research uh there's i i generally at hot dog places uh especially regionally but like generally in hot dog places you'll only have one provider so like at this hot dog place it's all nathan's or it's all Vienna beef. It's all kind. This has regionally appropriate meat fenders. It's so cool. That's kind of nuts. You could see them. And hopefully they haven't just like, it's not just like in the menu only and then for real. But I think you can like, we've all had different types of hot dogs there.

You feel a difference between them. There would be lawsuits galore if they were lying. That's false advertising. hot dogs there you feel it would be there would be lawsuits there would be if they were lying the simpsons like you know pleasure where they're just the there's a grave that uh they're spearing stuff out of it yeah yeah this is going to this restaurant this would be a scandal pretty quickly yeah yeah no but it's like yeah yeah just in scanning the menu there's at least four or five regions that's incredible. And for the most part, I haven't eaten a hot dog in all of these cities. But Chicago being Vienna beef makes total sense.

Nathan's and Sabret in New York makes total sense. The Boston one is so good. Chayim all-beef hot dog, toasted New England-style bun, spicy brown mustard, diced onions, and relish. Incredible. That sounds really good. I didn't get it, but now if I was going back, maybe that's what I would.

And you, in working on the book, did you know, are all these names called out to you? You know, Wakayam, you know, Sabret. Yeah, yeah. Wow, wow. And I have rankings and preferences. Wow. Good, good. Yes. But rankings and preferences. Wow. Good, good. Yes.

But for the most part, I mean, I think the only ones that I cannot speak to are the Kansas City and that might be it. And also having the Milwaukee Bratwurst I thought was like a really cool touch. That's what I got. Because, again, I don't love a really cool touch. That's what I got. I kind of, because again, I don't have the, I don't love just regular hot dogs. I was like, what's something different I could do? So that it is, yeah, it's bratwurst, hoagie roll, grilled onion, spicy brown mustard.

And then, but not so much of that that I wasn't able to then sample each and every mustard from the mustard lineup. I love the mustard. Yeah, when I went, the lineup. I love the mustard. Yeah. When I went, the second time I got the Boston dog, I wish I'd gotten the Arizona dog just because it's one of my favorites. All beef, smoked bacon, pinto beans, grilled onions, peppers, and cheese. Always great.

That's unique. The beans. Interesting. I will say that they do have vegan dogs, but like with considerably fewer options. i feel like you should be able i wonder if you could just be like can i have a vegan version of the like colorado dog if they would but there's like pretty limited vegan which i know is a challenge for the hot dog community when i went the first time though i they had a special that I got. The shrimp po' boy dog. Oh, wow.

Yeah. I can't even pronounce everything on this. Smoked andouille? Andouille, yeah. Andouille? Okay. Smoked andouille, fried shrimp, lemon aioli, Louisiana hot sauce on a hoagie roll. And it was pretty good.

I'd never had anything like it. And then, of course, I went nuts at the mustard cart i like that they cycle in and out like other regions that aren't on the permanent menu do they change them like yeah or are you looking at one like if i if i went through mine are they gonna be what's on yours because you were there years before i don't know i'm not here i can is it a curate yeah is it curated oh yeah there it is yeah i i i went through, I did rankings of all of them. And by the way, this is one of the joys of that we're going without theme park pressure to just do everything at CityWalk, that I had time to just leisurely try every mustard

in a place with a lot of nice mustards. Yeah. Because this is a component I do like. I do like spicy mustards and brown mustards and mustards with the seed. And it'll let you kind of do everything. I'm going to do a quick ranking. And then tell me if any of these weren't on your. I set out to do one to ten, but I didn't even go below five.

Because I thought a lot of these were fantastic. Okay, I'm going to get the last name wrong, I'm sure. But it's like Boat G's. Is it like Dutch mustard or whatever? Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm going to get the last name wrong, I'm sure, but it's like Boji's. Like Dutch mustard or whatever? Yeah, yeah. It's a guy's recipe from 1889 that he made in his garage. Fred Boji?

Yes, yes. Stone ground Dutch mustard in his garage in Rock, Illinois. Yeah. This was my lowest at six, but I still kind of find food and wine, spicy jalapeno, nine. I love the spicy kick on that one. House Bar Height, smoky garlic. Be warned, this mustard is not for part-time garlic lovers. It shouts summer, baseball, and picnic salt. It shouts these things.

I love copywriting so much. Somebody did copywriting for this? I don't think there is more than one Hot Dog Hall of Fame today. I think there have been in the past. Yeah. But that means that we are getting this. However, you don't want to see signs changed out at like giant chains at Burger King or whatever. Yeah, yeah.

This one restaurant took the time to write all this stuff and do mustard pairings. It's beautiful. Wonderful. Committed to. They're keeping up stuff and do mustard pairings. It's beautiful. Wonderful. Committed to. They're keeping up with the promise of the name. I gave this one a seven. Silver Spring Beer and Brat. I gave an eight.

And Burtman Original Ballpark. I couldn't find, so it was not ranked. We went back to this place with the level keeper, and he was trying to do the same thing, try them all and I think he found some ketchups and many more missing. I don't think he found the full menu at all. So in that ranking food and wine spicy alpeno

wins at 9. If it's still there when you go check it out. I was like is this something I could buy at home? I could not find any Google results imprint for this. It makes me wonder if they got the name wrong. If food and wine is not a brand that, if that was like the section they bought it from somewhere.

Because I couldn't, I don't know. The winner I can't have at home. Well, help Scott find that mustard, people. We know what kind of mustard. Yeah, that is the thing i think i would you were talking about joey chestnut's special mustard that's expensive i don't do a lot of the special ordering it's very it's a very like shark tank like that people like uh you know pay 20 bucks for one bottle of something i think i might with spicy mustard wow yeah that's the

one thing maybe i'll you could become a mustard guy. It sounds very cool. This sounds like a great identity for me, a dad. That's a dad thing to do. Kind of a mustard guy? Yeah. I don't know, but I do like it. I think, you know. Can I say this?

We did an episode a couple years ago at this point where we went around Disneyland and tried all the hot dogs. And the effort here is just so like a hundred times more than disney because disney they would put different toppings but all the hot dogs are the exact same hot dog oh the what is the plate the disneyland like hollywood themed hot dog place award winners award winners excellent name i was disappointed yes yes jason's a defender, I feel. Well, I really like the film strip fries. And we don't.

Jason Ross. I don't understand that at all. I like those. Wait, you're pro film strip fries? I like the film strip fries. We didn't get it. I was let down by the hot, because it was also like, I mean, I also went there, this would have been like shortly after I got vaccinated.

Because I was like, all right, hot dog book. We've got to go to Disneyland stat. And I was looking forward to it because it looked like there was a pretty comprehensive menu there. But then when I went, it was just corn dogs and hot dogs. There was like the menu was diminished. Sometimes when the other corn dog places close, they'll bring the corndogs over to award wieners.

I have learned that. I know that. Yes. We gotta put them somewhere. When Corndog Castle is closed. Yes, it was closed when we went. We ate at Grand Californian and we ordered their special hot dog of the month. It was the same hot dog that was in every other spot in the park.

I got one really good hot dog at Disneyland before my hot dog era even. But it was like a cocoa hot dog. And it had like street corn on it. And it was like long. It had a toasted bun. It was good bun it was good I already don't remember what won was it the main street

I think we won with the one at Casey's Corner I think I voted for it because it was just smothered in fake cheese and neon relish and that sport pepper it was that one it was a limited time the ingredients or the toppings excuse me were what won it because the hot dog and the bun itself And that's sport pepper. It was that one. It was a limited time. The ingredients is what,

the ingredient or the toppings, excuse me, were what won it. Cause the hot dog and the bun itself was not much different than any other ones we had. Back to that original thing of like, can condiments elevate? You were re we're really leaning on that at Disneyland as opposed to, it feels like you could go really condiment minimal at the hot dog hall of

fame and still have a great experience which i think is i i haven't spent a lot of time in the park uh at universal in in years so i can't really speak to their current hot dog thing but but as a as a season pass holder here i think that the like the hot dogs are not doing much inside the park. No. In fact, multiple ones have. This is a recurring story on this saga. Got me sick. The in the park ones. Yeah.

The one of the ones. Pink's used to be in the park. And now I think it's just a generic in that central plaza. We still got Dodger dogs there. I forget what happened to the dot i think the dodger store is still there yeah well yeah i don't think there's dogs anymore at city well yeah i don't know if the dogs get you sick uh uh pink's got me sick uh and mel's like uh mel's diner i think they were both chili dogs and looking back i think like they were both probably the same dog i think it was bullshit yeah it was probably just um and like lying in bed like getting up to puke sick yeah no i'm not right i you i was a pukey kid i'm not was a pukey kid. I'm not really a pukey adult.

You're not a pukey man? Yeah. I would get so nervous as a kid. I would throw up. Because of the anxiety. Because of anxiety. Yeah. So hot dogs, don't put any of that blame on hot dogs.

Yeah, hot dogs weren't doing it. Well, as a child, no. But Universal Studios Hollywood, yeah, I don't know that food. Because they have that, I was excited about it. They had a hot dog stand in the Simpsons area. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, there's only two types of hot dogs, and they're the same hot dog. Right, yeah.

And the hot dog wasn't good. Yeah. Well, so this is really, it is filling a role. Because hot dogs are something you might want to expect to have at a theme park. But they're clearly not reliable at all. But all you got to do is go right outside to this nice spacious setting. Where they actually do it with quality. Curated. More types there than Disneyland has in the entire park.

I think that's the thing. In theme parks, it's the emphasis is on making a lot of them quickly, you know, to feed a lot of people. But this philosophy is still in CityWalk and places. At other places. But the Hot Dog Hall of Fame, it's a little more effort put in I was so I hope it stays that level of effort because I was sort of expecting because I by the time I went to Hot Dog Hall of Fame I was excited because I knew what it looked like but I was like I feel like we're going to be in for another award wieners situation because I was devastated by what the events that took place at award wieners yeah

you might assume I also feel like this one is like, if any listeners knew when we started, here's the things that are at CityWag. From the name, you might expect this to be like a disaster point for us. And then we all went to the Hot Dog Hall of Fame

and got sick. But it seems like not to just cut to the chase too much, I don't think anyone's had a bad experience here i think this is a reliable place to get elevated hot dogs right i feel like we're all pretty positive i think so uh i was there the time i ate there i was also alone uh thank you so much an ally an ally yeah um i i it was like. I was down with my dad and brother, and it was a night where we're all just like, parks are closed, everyone's different levels of hungry.

We all just split up. So I was just walking around CityWalk, and I was like, what do I eat? And I was like, oh, the Hot Talk Hall of Fame. And got a Chicago dog, liked it. Had my customary before bed Sunday from Toothsome. Customary. Even though Toothsome started that year.

No, I meant customary. Oh, Sunday in general. Sunday, yeah. To make something customary is quickly responsible. On the first time. No, not Toothsome in particular. I was time. On the first time. No, not to some in particular. I was just like. Hi, Tracy.

And it, yeah, it was filling. I think Chicago dogs are deceptive because a lot of it is. Hold on a second. What do you mean by that? Well, so it all tasted good, you know. Portillo's wise, you remember when we had Portillo's? We've had Portillo's a couple times. Yeah.

And I've usually had a dog there. Do you find it deceptive then? No, no, I like, or in terms of keeping you full, like the pickled stuff is like you get the kick of salt you know but it's not the most filling you know pickles and relish and that sort of thing you're saying that it looks like a large amount of food but once you eat it it's pretty manageable it's manageable and it's not necessarily you're going to be like yeah that's port pepper spice might fill you up a little yeah i feel yeah i guess the chicago dog Chicago dog markets itself as two meals in one.

And you're like, well, no it isn't. If so, it's a piece of shit salad on top of a really good hot dog. I like Portillo. Look, I was raised in Chicago. Portillo's, yeah. Do you like the big pickle? I like the big pickle slice on the hot dog

I like the big pickle I prefer the big pickle to the sport pepper but I also like I just am not a sport pepper guy I don't know I come down pretty hard on the Chicago dog I got booed at my own book release in Chicago

they're there for you when you still manage and the whole Q&A was just person after person being like so what was it what was wrong with it wow deep dish pizza and Chicago hot dogs like you were a wrestling heel

in Chicago I mean they did show up but it was to confront me I read your book Yeah. I mean, they did show up, but it was to confront me. I read your book. Are you upset about this, though? Very upset. I'm sorry. I'm very upset.

It's going to be a seething tension for the rest of the... What is the Chicago... I have no dog in this fight. I've liked Chicago dogs here and there. It's Vienna beef, poppy... It's basically the thing they have. Poppy seed bun. fight yeah uh is there like uh what i've liked chicago dogs here and there is vienna beef uh poppy so it's basically the thing they have uh poppy seed bun like that relish neon relish yeah but what's the why do you come down hard on it not to get a chicago our chicago audience is upset at you well no i feel like my reasoning is gonna make people even matter i think it's a fine hot

dog i don't i i don't buy the you know the whole two meals in one historical marketing yeah um and just that um people are so adamant that it's the best hot dog when it's demonstrably untrue if you go outside dodger stadium There's so many. Anyways. Oh, sure. Yeah. Wait. So then favorite general preparation for you. What is your personal ranking, number one? Ooh. I love... I mean, on my top five list is the carts outside any LA sports stadium.

Never inside. Is this... Yeah. Because I haven't done this in a long time, but boy, leaving a concert, I do love the smell of those carts that are sitting as bacon wrap. Is that generally,

I haven't done it forever, is that a reliable area? Those are pretty great. Yeah, and they take Venmo now. Wow. It's great. I got a great Danger Dog after going to WrestleMania last year

and it was just like one of the most satisfying because i was like i was so hungry but i'm like don't get it in the stadium wait you'll feel and it was incredible that's smart um that's really good i really i like a lot of uh southwestern hot dogs there's the the arizona prep which is on this menu is really really good and i like something that i don't think I guess it would technically be a New Jersey hot dog. Because I think that, and like New York and Chicago, I think, are too cocky about their hot dog prep. And like it's actually Tucson and Jersey that's holding it down.

And in Michigan as well. But yeah, it's everyone's favorite hot dog places in new jersey um and it's called rutt's hut and they have a hot dog called the ripper which is lightly deep fried oh wow they deep fry it for like five to ten seconds you can get different levels of deep fry there's whole lore attached to it but it gives like the perfect like little not not crunch but just like the perfect snap yeah as you're as you're riding into it um and and it's just like kind of a shithole on the side of the highway that like has the best hot dogs in the world i think that's the one did anthony bourdain talk about yeah yeah it's and it really is like hanging over the highway

it could the location would not be weirder there's a lot of wonderful food in new jersey that have been there for like 50 to 80 years it looks like a death trap but it might be one of the best things you've ever eaten yeah it's like's like, does, and again, we were traveling like shortly out of lockdown. So, but like, it did feel like, Oh,

this is where you would go if you just killed somebody. And then you would come to Rutz Hut and get. Wow. It is like a crooked building. It is strange looking. I don't know. Have you addressed the, have you talked about this before?

Have you ever had at Disney, a Ronto wrap? Yes. Yeah. We're all big fans of that. I was expecting to be a hater of the Ronto wrap, but I was pleasantly surprised. Okay.

Wow. A good serving size. Good serving size. That fills you for sure. I forget what the lore is, but I appreciated that they get, they attributed somewhere, there's like attributed lore to the Ronto Wrap.

Yeah, the Ronto is a character you can see in the movies, and you're eating it. And being cooked by a pod racer. And being cooked on the engine of a pod racer. Maybe the most successful part of Galaxy's Edge. It very well could be. I had one a week ago.

Oh, boy, I forgot how long it's been. I want to return to ago. Damn. Oh, it's been a boy. You're making me, I forgot how long it's been. I want to return to the, yeah, I think the Ronto Wrap might have been, I mean, I tried to like stay out of the corndog zone

because I feel like it's almost a whole different discussion. But like the corndogs are great. But the Ronto Wrap, I think took it for Disneyland. Above the corndog, interesting. Yeah, we left it out of the hot dog competition as we competition and corndogs because it felt like if we put

those in- That would be a whole, yeah. One of those is going to win. I like that the Hot Dog Hall of Fame also seems to subscribe to this. They're like, we're not fucking with corndogs. That's its own thing. Different thing. That's its own thing.

Different thing. This might be a good time to- Jimmy, you've referred to like whoever put this together uh you know did it well for this reason that reason and i'm it could to me it could not be a better answer of who put it together because it is it is one guy and it's a guy who we talked about recently and who's come up on the show here and there because uh this he's becoming a legend to me quickly. Steven Schussler. Steven Schussler is the inventor of the Rainforest Cafe.

He personally developed that concept and as we've discussed recently, in order to prove it, created a demo rainforest cafe, not just in some industrial space, in his suburban home. He turned his house next to other houses with neighbors into a fully functioning rainforest.

His house was so humid to prove the point that a rainforest inside a building would be a good idea yeah yeah yeah this is a guy this is a this is a practice what he preaches like a big swings guy i've learned a little i've sometimes we do an episode and i do the prep for and then i never think about it again steve shustler has stuck with me especially given we're going to talk about him a little more with this. I've watched some motivational speeches that he's done. What order do I go in? There's so much here.

Okay, so T-Rex Cafe is also him, if you're a T-Rex Cafe. This all makes sense. It all feels like a part of the same. Whimsical, weird premises, concepts. You don't need the premise to enjoy the place, but it sure makes it fun. Impossible to uninstall kind of. Oh, yeah.

You can't flip them easily. You can't do the 2020s blandify of these places. I went to the what's the huge, I was writing a story about malls and I went to this huge mall in Phoenix where there's a huge – The Scottsdale one? There's a massive one.

Yeah, yeah. Kind of right on the border. Yeah, yeah. There was a gigantic rainforest cafe inside and it was quiet and I went. I was talking to the waiter who's very candid. And I was just like, I'm like surprised this is still open. He's like, yeah, honestly, like it would be more expensive to uninstall it than to just like leave it here unsuccessfully. I was like, wow.

That's so sad. Oh, that's so cool. I love that. I read the story you're talking about and I love that malls now are stuff like that. And then a lot of stores that sell uh uh jerry um heath ledger joker yes it was i couldn't tell how much of that was just like being in arizona but it was all like yeah gigantic theme restaurants and then like

thing like stores that look like they could be cleaned out within 20 minutes that was all cosplay gear and Heath Ledger Joker. It's Heath Ledger Joker. It's Naruto in one piece. Yes, yeah. And probably some Scarface. And then maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed,

something where all of the Jokers are meeting. I think there's some model some they're playing poker yeah yeah i think maybe there's one where they're all in a car like taking a joy ride oh yeah i've seen that one it reminds me of the the image of paul walker driving brian the dog to heaven that's what the it's like the same angle of the car should It should be a standard mall shirt as well. I think about that. Oh, yeah, because Brian the dog died at some point. Unlike Paul Walker, he came back. And he came back, yeah.

He did come back, but yeah. So, there's so much extra Schussler lore, including even just about the Rainforest Cafe thing, which we're going to talk about. But I watched this long motivational speech that he gave where he talked about the making of it was so hard. I posted this on our Twitter, and it's worth playing on the show. This is an ad for the event that you can buy

where he'll come and motivate your company with his speech called 800-lb Gorilla. 800-lb Gorilla package includes 5,000 books, an inspirational speech, customized podcast on creativity, innovation, the five Ps, and the 11 commandments. A one-day personalized consultation where I actually go to your office and speak with your employees and your staff. A two-hour ideation and lunch. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation.

Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation.

Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. Ideation. package. Did he say autograph party? Autograph party. Yeah, he's got 5,000 books to sign. It's a party when you're signing?

This is promoting his book called It's a Jungle In There, Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Worn Insights, and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring, which has endorsements by both Lee Iacocca and at the time it was written, President-elect Donald Trump.

Wow. And he mentioned the five Ps, personality, product, persistence, people, and philanthropy. But the book also preaches the value of passion and caring for... Like, wait, you said five Ps and then immediately added a sixth P, but that is not one of the five Ps. No, not canonically a P. I mean, it's a P alphabetically,

but it's not officially one of his P's. This guy thinks outside the box, you know? Is it self-published, does it look like? I don't think he could publish it. I love an entrepreneurial self-published book oh yeah i never thought about this dimension because that implies that nobody's asking for it's like part of building their own mythology to even to just do it yourself my favorite i have one oh my god to mind immediately um it is the guy who has since passed uh the creator of one poyo uh the chicken restaurant it's just like a

rotisserie chicken chain and i for some reason he uh like bought the original mcdonald's on route 66 he really was into mcdonald's history he wanted to preserve it um so they're at that like location it's a weird mix of like mcdonald's stuff and then this guy's stuff including his book which i bought called albert okura the chicken man with a 50-year plan and it's got an incredible cover oh my god the guy with sunglasses and then just like got a regular shirt like shirt from the from the restaurant in front of 20 rotisserie chickens on fire. Sorry, can I stare at that again for a second? Oh my god.

I was just confused by the pattern. I didn't even know what I was looking at. Whoa, he's in front of a wall of chickens. Jeez, we got a lot to post. Sigourney Weaver, this, Rutzhut. Oh my god. Have you read it? Have you looked through it? Or just aware of it?

I've skimmed the chicken man with a 50-year plan. And it seemed like, you know, I don't know. I mean, he executed it. He was like, I will have a successful restaurant chain in 50 years, which is kind of like a reasonable-ish goal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an easygoing. Yeah, yeah. You still got time to have fun. He did it. See, yeah, yeah. That's an easy going. That's, yeah, yeah. You still got time

to have fun. He did it. See friends. Plan achieved. But I feel like they share some kind of common DNA. I think so. Well, in their graphic design,

I think. This guy makes so many crazy claims about the founding of Rainforest Cafe. He says that his neighbors demanded that he get a psychiatric evaluation.

Once there were the sheer volume of like that everything's vines and jungle and like a monkey. He has monkeys in the house now. And that a psychologist called him and like, your neighbors have paid for me to do this. And it's somehow, I forget him he waved it off somehow then he uh he all the money from rainforest cafe we addressed this was was it was put up by one of the most successful poker players of all time really named lyle berman and he claims in his speech that his father went under velvet ropes at a poker at the world series of poker when this guy went up to go to the bathroom his this guy's Schuessler's father went and sat in the guy's chair so that when he came back

a stranger was there and he's like what are you doing don't you see the security you're crazy you have to leave right now and he said no first you need to hear about my son's rainforest restaurant. I don't know if I believe this because how are you just walking up to the rainforest? And then it goes on and he says how this poker player, he had to get to the rainforest house 28 times or something. And that the final piece of it to get him to sign up, to sign off and do it was that he said, listen, Lyle, here's what I'm going to do. I'm getting a big sandwich board that i'm gonna wear in the sand and it's going to say lyle made me do it and then i'm gonna jump off a bridge that's what i'm gonna do if you don't give me the money for the rainforest

cafe and he said here's three million. I believe that. I believe that this man said, I will kill myself unless you give me the money for Rainforest Cafe. I do believe that. That makes sense to me. Just the tone of his speech and that sales pitch he makes. So you order this guy to your company and he'll tell you that story. Right.

And that's priceless. I can't tell. He brings 5,000 books. Do you? Regardless of how many people are there. I'm bringing 5,000 books. I've got plenty. This is an autograph party.

I ordered a million. Does that mean if you have the 800-pound gorilla package, have you purchased the books, or does he just bring them? It's a part of the package. Does he just bring them? Yeah, the presence of the books and the possibility to get them. But then the book is extra

and the autograph is extra. He provides the autograph party, but the autograph itself is an add-on. It makes sense. I'm not sure. Does he drive a U-Haul up to the party with all the books?

That's a lot of books. Yeah. 5,000 books? It does sound like, I mean mean this guy seems like a nice guy he seems like a benign version of this kind of uh very rich yeah i think so the the guys that we've talked about yeah this i think is a good 5 000 books does sound like the conservative publishing racket of like a best-selling book and they just buy it for all these insane conferences. He may have bought a million books

to send it up the charts and now he has to get rid of them. I love reading about like scams like that because then you're like, what the fuck is this? And you're like, oh, it's a liar. Like it's just like it's a liar lying

about the Rainforest Cafe.'s really it's no way that it became this brand that has major placement in every major city that did at one point and that it came out of a guy going i'm gonna kill myself i got a jungle house the psychiatrist calls me on the phone if that bridge is high enough, first off, the mechanics of a sandwich board, I feel like that sandwich board is flying off. It might just be a blur for photographers. What's this sign that is 20 feet from the body that broke apart and I can't read the text anymore?

Throw it in the garbage truck. God, my day is so much harder than normal. I was earlier here before we started recording saying sometimes maybe you don't want to like dig in and interview certain people, but maybe we want to interview this guy. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think the price of his guest appearance

is 5,000 books. You think he would charge us? But we're promoting him. We have an outlet. How much is it for you to be on the show? thousand bucks no five thousand books i need you to take i know there's three of you uh and only a couple heads of your network but i'm bringing 1 700 books off my hands and then i will do your podcast the fact that there is no music in that ad was making my head hurt you could hear him taking ragged breaths as it continues just put some music under it he's like that's like

the chris farley el nino sketch where he's just like yelling it was a wrestler it was his final sketch yeah that shows you it's a wrestling promo. So anyway, he also, now we know what his speeches are like and what they promise. And he gave an opening day speech at the opening of his newest concept, Hot Dog Hall of Fame. How amazing is it to now know this is who did it? So here, this might be a full minute or so, but I think it's worth it. How many here love hot dogs? No! No!

It seems like almost everyone here. Almost. Hot dogs is an American food, obviously. Word of love. It's something that we have a great deal of pride in. We've been experimenting with hot dogs for the last seven years. Seven years going all over the world eating some of the best hot dogs. I promise you that Hot Dog Hall of Fame here at Universal Studios will be the best hot dog experience

you've ever had. We're going to serve five different beers, nine different hot dogs, 12 different kinds of mustards. We're going to have one of the most exclusive mustard bars you've ever seen. One of the things that we're going to be known for is some of the little stuff. For instance, our two-foot hot dogs. I can imagine a two-foot hot dog. It's about that big. Two people can hook it and they'll eat it from both sides. We have special hot dog hats. We have all kinds of things for the family and for children. And paint your own wiener. Oh, bring that back.

We are the official home of Paint Your Own Wiener. You can buy these hot dogs inside and they get painted, they get collected, they get saved. I am the commissioner of Hot Dog Hall of Fame. The commissioner, eh? Wow. Wow, wow. This predates a certain Mr. Susser. Oh, yeah, really?

Wow. Maybe this guy's got a lawsuit on him. I think so, yeah. There is a surprising amount of crossover between hot dog celebrities and professional wrestling cadences. Yeah, yeah. This does feel like a like he's kind of issuing a threat to no one just it's confrontational but to what to that to like uh any other restaurant that doesn't do any of this to somebody wouldn't want to come in i feel challenged by that i think this has to be like the attitude you have to

like convince someone to give you millions of dollars. Yeah. There's just no way you're like, excuse me, could I have three million dollars? I have a rainforest idea for a restaurant. Like that's not happening. You have to come in aggressively and that makes either people scared, annoyed, or just like convinced

you know what you're doing. Or we'll give you three million dollars to stop talking to them. That's also true too. I've got poker games to play yeah stop badgering me and maybe it'll work god i a few okay that speech was great yeah it did feel like he was yelling at them yeah yeah um i i i'm okay he said he went he traveled worldwide for what he has already admitted is a very domestic event. Yeah. But he has traveled worldwide. And there's less mustards now. There were 12 mustards at Inception.

Yeah, that's heartbreaking to hear. I've never seen the collectible wieners either, or even hot dog hats. I was like, I surely would have gotten a hat if they had one. Well, they've also betrayed his original vision in another way, which is, so, you know, they've got the big screen. You can watch games there. Just this morning, texting a friend of the show, Kevin Tully, he said he went and just sat in the grandstands. He didn't even get a hot dog. Watched an entire baseball game there and said it was a wonderful, very pleasant time. So that's good.

They created this great environment to watch baseball games, but that's not what Steve wanted. He goes on in this interview to say he wanted the big screen at all times to be playing videos of people eating hot dogs. Oh, that's great. How are you going to find a long enough loop of that?

Make it? I guess so. It's got to be custom done from the ground up. Hire a famous director to travel the country for months. Or a collection. They should have made the- Every director makes their own little short. There was that run of New New York I love you Paris

Jetime they should make an anthology of just like hot dog Jetime God I would love that he maybe wanted this thing to be a little bit more of what I was saying at the start a little more hot dog centric versus baseball centric less sporty that's really good to know

I mean I wonder I mean I guess I know why they were like, we're not going to do that. But it's already, even still, we've lost some of this, but it's still like kind of an unusual, for just a counter restaurant, it's unusual and has weird gimmicks. And he wanted there to be twice as many gimmicks. Like the buy-in to be here is so much. God bless you, Steve. This is that rare businessman who is an eccentric creative. Which is not always the case.

Usually it's too practical the thinking for these type of guys. But no, this guy is an artist. I feel like in this guy, you know, if you go into Rainforest Cafe cafe now of course they're selling tillman for tito's very aggressive self-help sure yeah motivational book the now owner the now really ownership yeah now it's owned by landry's which owns bubba gump right and he's not a creative guy in this way no he just purchased no just mean numbers yeah but i feel

like his book i mean they're not my cup of tea those business motivation books i feel like his book is probably less like intent it's tilman ferdia this book starts with warning you that a paddle is coming for your ass and you must be aware of that at any given time uh And that is his five steps to life or whatever. But, I don't know, his book has death threats. And they sell it, they have it at the cash register.

There's a stack of them. A black and white, in the most colorful environment, what could stand out and get your attention? For us, it was being in the Schomburg Mall and seeing this black and white photo of the meanest man you've ever seen amidst all the friendly frogs and birds and whatever. God, that's...

It really jumped out. I would like to read it. I love... Business books are, like, so demented. Yeah. And the target audience, I don't think, recognizes that all of the time. Yeah. But if you're just like reading one for fun, yeah, like that, that self mythologizing, you're like,

how, how are you going to tell me this book would survive a fact check? Like it's. Yeah, yeah. And if you're putting it

out yourself, then nobody's ever. Exactly. Maybe God, these are books I should, I should read. We've never read

the paddle coming for your ass book. No, I tried to get, when we were talking about it initially when it came up, I tried to get it. When we were talking about it initially when it came up, it was on hold.

Oh, it was too in demand at the library in Burbank. There was too much demand. It was already out, so I could only see a sample, and that's how I found the paddle coming from your ass. I think you got a paddle coming from your ass if you don't put down your hard-earned money

and buy it. How do you expect to make money if you won't pay me money yeah my paddle story i'm sure that guy uh i'm sure that guy shows up on like cable news and was like no one wants to work anymore oh yeah 100 i'm sure he owns the uh houston rockets yeah well, in addition to Landry's restaurants. Well, I might have to, yeah. These are probably all good areas for episodes for us, these crazy books. I bet they're like,

I don't know if you've read anything in this genre, Jamie, but it seems like, I bet it's like so boring for 100 pages and then the craziest thing you've ever heard. And then that really starts to kick in. That was how I found The Chicken Man with a 50-Year Plan to be, where it's a very

generic upbringing, but then when he gets the chicken idea, you're like, whoa. He's really locking into business speak and real manifest destiny sort of talk about the chicken idea yeah yeah you can

get tilman for tea to shut up and listen for eight dollars thirty cents used on ebay wow shut up and listen so imagine you just had like you met cha-cha the frog you had like a tropical drink and you're walking through the gift shop and you're like oh I'm gonna get a panda for my nephew or niece and then you're like would I shut up and listen? Like why is it in the restaurant where there's a thunderstorm every

20-30 minutes? Wait, this has like a really good Goodreads rating. Wow, really? Yeah. Is this book awesome? It's got a 3.91 on Goodreads ratings. Wow, really? Yeah. Does this look awesome? It's got a 3.91 on Goodreads. That's solid. Oh, wow.

Scott, look at this. Tillman Fertitta, it's $6.99 on eBay. It's a copy of the magazine Wine Spectator. And Tillman, there he is, maybe in his house. It's a whole cover story on him. Damn. Tillman Fertitta with 600 plus restaurants. He's betting big on wine

wow what a legacy yeah well i don't know i've only had crap wine at his restaurant but i guess he saves it for himself have you ever read wine spectator magazine no i can't say i am curious who else is on the cover of wine spectator magazine i'll try to gather that here while maybe i need to these are all future episodes. Scott's subscription to Wine Spectator. Every self-help book. It's less goofy than Cigar Aficionado. I think so, yeah. Yeah.

It doesn't seem like, everyone on it is boring so far. Oh yeah, there's Wine, yeah, usually it's just a bottle. It's just a picture of a bottle. That sucks. I want some doofus. Getting their lips wet or red with the Cabernet. Here's just a person on the front just looking at wines.

It's not as exciting as Tillman. Could we do an episode? Would listeners be into an episode where we just review cigar aficionado cups? Because there's got to be a lot of good ones. Let's rank them. our aficionado cup we just like because there's got to be a lot of good ones yeah let's like rank them acroid uh jim belushi are on you know for sure they're on there every three months yeah i didn't know they were such aficionados oh yeah oh wait a minute we got a few bon jovi's been on oh yeah hampton hampton water oh he has Hampton water Oh my god And Carmelo Anthony

We got But that's a good cover Oh wow he's so happy to be drinking that wine I'm a spectator Let's get you on the cover of this Oh sure I like that he's not Carmelo Anthony is not drinking the wine

He is just spectating it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Can't drink to spectate. Why is that the name? Wine spectator. It's supposed to be called wine drinker, and that sounds bad. Let me ask, while we're talking about beverages, what do you think is the best beverage to accompany hot dogs?

Oh, good question. Ooh, I mean if you're going for booze, I do feel like a cheap light beer, you can't fail. Don't pair it with an IPA, don't mess around. Do you want anything that's gonna dominate the dog? Or like honestly, any soda. Any soda that's not fruity. Like no, I would discourage an orange soda with a hot dog.

Again, just a familiar flavor. I don't know. Like a Dr. Pepper or a Coke. Yeah, not water. I think it's so weird when you see someone like, I've got a hot dog and a water bottle. Like I not, it can't be water. It has to like not appear naturally in the world

in order to be an appropriate drink for the hot dog. I don't know. What's your preference? I don't know. I drink a lot of water and I'm only starting to drink more. I don't want to say I'm drinking more soda, but I'm a little more like, oh, if I'm having a burger and fries or I'm having pizza, you want soda with that.

It sounds like you're drinking more soda. She doesn't want to say it. I don't want to say the phrase I'm drinking more soda. You just don't want to say it out loud. I think if I drink more, I'm drinking more soda, but then I am cognizant of like, oh, I need to drink more soda. You just don't want to say it out loud. I think if I drink more, I'm drinking more soda, but then I am cognizant of like, oh, I need to drink more water the rest of the day to flush it.

I'd be disturbed if you said, I've been trying to drink more soda. That's where the problem is. I'm drinking more soda, but then it's just like, okay, that's my sugar for the day. I can't have ice cream or cookies or something oh that's heartbreaking jason i look i i'm you know what i hate to do this around this episode because i don't

want to get in a whole thing but the last city walk saga five years ago there's a long stretch where i just questioned you about how many times a month you're eating cookies and milk yes and i said like five and you said like five or six that. That's a lot of time. And can we just check in here five years later? How many times a month are you sitting down with a big glass of milk and dunking Oreos in it? Whole milk, by the way. Go hard or go home.

Well, look. This is important. Less because I've decreased my cookies and milk and increased my anxiety medication. Okay, okay. Those don't pair. Yeah, I feel like we usually keep oat milk or almond milk in the house. And I think I'm less likely to. Boo! I just need a number. I know need a number. I need a number, though.

You haven't said a number. Once or twice. Okay, once or twice is good. He's still in the game. He's still there. I have left my old self behind totally, but we all grow up at some point.

Growing up, I guess this is growing up means two times a month sitting down with a big glass and dunking. Sitting down with cookies and milk. Yeah, and wearing a propeller beanie, but not necessarily making a point to spin it. Right. No, no. Buying it for live shows at the beautiful Dynasty Typewriter, you know? Yes, I do.

Complimenting the beauty of theaters. That's the new Jason. Yeah, live theater. You look at the carpet, you see. Okay, actually, one more thing about Schussler. He, in his little interview, the rounds of press he was doing when this place opened, something that he said about the philosophy of this place.

He's talking about the mustard selection. And then he says, we're talking about his challenging nature he says and never ketchup never ever ever ketchup what's the room's feeling about that well that's technically that's the Chicago thing

they're very aggressive about that there I will say I don't completely agree with that and I do like ketchup sometimes on it it's always nice to spend time with an open-minded Chicagoan. I'm a little more progressive in that way, in my beliefs. I grew up with, I wasn't aware that ketchup was not allowed until I went to Chicago for the first time. That is actually a big part of why I got put off by the chicago dog bros it was so aggressive like there are places where they threaten to cut your hand off if you put ketchup on the hot like it's

really intense i'm pro i don't know yeah it seems like an odd thing to be i'm pro. I don't know. Yeah. Seems like an odd thing to be hard-lined about. I'm pro. Growing up, I was always doing ketchup mustard relish. Yeah. If I go to Costco, if I get the famous Costco hot dog soda combo, I think I'm relish mustard onions like the Boston dog here. I think it's fine without ketchup. I just get, I just am like, but it's not generally worse for it being there is it does he explain why no ketchup no 12 mustards no ketchup he just believes maybe in just that old yeah yeah feeling or whatever minnesota guy so i don't know how that factors

into this whole philosophy because i don't see that represented well there's milwaukee but i understand the ketchup so like especially if you put a lot on it or it's the like a specific ketchup like it can't overtake the taste of everything right it's a very like strong taste but i don't know it's fun to have ketchup mustard and relish on it i feel like yeah yeah yeah it makes me feel seven that's what it's supposed to be yeah it's ketchup is a childhood thing, I think. It's an infantilizing thing. I get like a fancy ketchup now to sort of like take the edge off. I'm like, this is adult ketchup.

Ketchup and white bread, though, is still like, you know, a silver pondness for the flavor combination. Ketchup and white bread? Like white bread or hot dog bun, you know? Oh, okay. Not just the two together. That's what I was asking. You're not just having a ketchup and white bread sandwich. know. Oh, okay. Not just the two together. That's what I was asking. You're not just having a ketchup and white bread sandwich. Oh, no, I'm not just having a ketchup. No, I don't live

in the Depression. Not anymore. Not anymore. Not anymore. Not since the time machine. Not since, yeah. Not since you got here. Yeah. In the time machine. Maybe one last question. You've sampled,

I know Steve talked a big game about his hot dog tour to get everything he needed to bring to this base, but I feel like it's very possible you've had more hot dogs in your travels. I'll say that I have.

I'll say that I have. I'm willing to bet that. I'm sorry if he ends up shouting at you in some later form for having said that. Shut up and listen. But if you's something missing from the Dog Hall of Fame that you've experienced in your travels, they cover a lot of ground, but what is not represented that should be? Gosh, I'd have to look at the menu.

I think that, honestly, the menu is surprisingly comprehensive. But that seems like that's Steve's whole thing. Like, you wouldn't think there would be so much rainforest at the Rainforest Cafe. You wouldn't think that there would be a million options. I think, honestly, that for vegetarian hot dog fans, there's not enough here. That's my main thing. They got one vegan field dog. Yeah.

Micro cilantro. This sounds like, I don't know, don't you want like still kind of basic? I feel like they overthought. That I think is a newer menu addition because I have an older menu and there's no vegan on there. Is that saying micro cilantro? Is it like micro plastics where it's so tiny

and they invade the blood brain barrier is penetrated by these micro cilantro's. What does that mean? I'm not sure. I've never had a complaint about the size of cilantro. Is that a vegan thing? They it's cilantro. I like cilantro. I've never had a complaint about the size of cilantro.

Is that a vegan thing? They can have cilantro. It's got to be micro. It's just got to be little. It's got to be little. Yeah, I feel like if at the Hot Dog Hall of Fame, if you could get any of the meat hot dogs with a good vegan alternative, it would be great.

I haven't tried enough of them. I'm not seeing... There's no L.A. street dog. There's no danger dog. There's no danger dog. And there's no... They have two Washington dogs. I don't know what Washington they're really referring to.

They have blue cheese dressing on this dog. I'm looking for the cream cheese dog in Washington State, which I don't believe is represented on this menu for some reason um but yeah the danger dog is missing the the cream cheese dog from the pacific northwest is missing and good vegan alternatives but like there's still like more hot did he say there were nine there's way way more now. They're doing the shrimp po' boy. They're like,

you know, and also, of course, I want all 12 mustards back. Yeah, yeah. Bring back all 12. We were impressed by six, but imagine 12. 12. I can't even conceive of 12 mustards. Jamie, after doing all this work, hot dog-based work,

how many days, if I said, here's $3 million, you were going to put together your own hot dog hall of fame, how fast do you think you could draw up the plans for your own version of this? I think pretty quickly menu-wise. The menu I could bring together in a couple of hours. But the vision, what would it look like yeah i uh i i would love a gosh a medieval times kind of hot dog thing i don't know i would want to combine the elements of chucky cheese that i like with a hot dog themed restaurant but every time that's been attempted it hasn't gone over very well like there's not really a lot of hot dog chains for that reason because there's yeah one of the i i wanted to write about more

in the book but it's just like almost impossible to learn about i happened to read a biography of mickey rooney 10 years ago which is the only reason i have this information wow here's some podcast we've been talking about mickey rooney recently yeah yeah he's i mean he's he's he really lived uh i i was i was working at a bookstore at the time i was just like reading this over the course of weeks um but it was in his bad investments era uh and and during the and i think there was just one, maybe two, they were not open for long, but it was called like Mickey Rooney's weenie world. No. And the special dish they would serve was like a, a circular hot dog, like an Ouroboros

style hot dog served on. A hot dog eating its own tail. Exactly. style hot dog served on the hot dog eating its own tail exactly uh and like put on kind of a cheeseburger bun like a donut style hot dog it wasn't successful it only survives in like a few newspaper clippings so i don't i think it would have been in the 70s like i've had a really hard time again because here's the thing some time we've been this, and we've, I think, fallen for this. There's something that helped inspire our celebrity-owned restaurant month. Right.

Sometimes you'll see something go around called Mickey Rooney's Potato Fantasy, but that is a parody, a very well-done parody. Yeah, you should know. It's a fake. So I'm shocked to now discover right next to that that Mickey Rooney's potato fantasy is real. I didn't know that. The sillier sounding one is real.

Whoa. Okay. I'm seeing there's been a new article written about it since I last checked. This is great. A meandering journey in search of a restaurant that may or may not exist. I mean, God, I hope it exists. Yes. No, wait.

Potato Fantasy. That's the fake one. Potato Fantasy is fake, but Weenie World seems to be. I mean, if it's in his No, wait. Potato Fantasy. That's the fake one. Potato Fantasy's fake, but Weenie World seems to be. I mean, if it's in his book, it's got to be. Right, but also, I wonder. Or maybe he made it up. Is that what people are speculating? I need to.

I own the Mickey Rudy book. I'll go back and check, because if I'm remembering correctly, there was a newspaper clipping printed in the book. That's the one Scott's got. That's what I'm looking at. And then there's his picture and it's a quote, High Long Island,

you're number one. The Mick wants you to come to his grand opening. And then, does anyone want to take a quick guess at what the themed French fries are called at Mickey Rooney's Weenie World? Oh boy.

It is Weenie World? It's very good. I love this answer. Anything about any pun he might turn it into. Small fries? Oh, that's good. That's very good. He wishes.

Yes. The answer is Mickey Rooney French fries. Free Mickey Rooney French fries with this Mickey Rooney French fries. Free Mickey Rooney French fries with this Mickey Rooney French fries. Mickey Rooney French fries. That's right up there with my favorite. I go there every week. My favorite bad menu item name

was at Universal. I don't know if it's still there, but it's at the Minions Cafe and it's just called Evil Mac and Cheese. And it's disgusting. Was that Hollywood? Was that at the Hollywood? Well, this is why,

because guests of this saga, Evan Susser and Van Robeshow, wrote the menu items for the one in Florida. So clearly they needed some professional comedy bits of funny people to get a little more clever than Evil Mac and Cheese. That was during the writer's strike. I'm like, maybe people were

taking a stand. Scabs were writing this. Yeah, right. Now I just want to spin it off with the Mickey Rooney's Weenie World. There was a tweet going around, is it real, where it's like the Property Brothers said Mickey Rooney kept trying to steal food on the set. Yeah, I saw that too. Of one of the celebrity remakes.

But then somebody said there was a picture of them with Leslie Jordan. Oh. I'm not sure. Actually, I just don't know. I didn't look into it too much. So, no, I like the idea. Anyway, that's a... Weenie World was very real. I'm looking looking into it too much, so. No, I like the idea. Wow. Anyway, that's a, so. Reworld was very real.

I'm looking at this. Okay, good. There's a picture of him at the opening. Oh, great. He's beaming. Oh, that makes me happy. That makes me really happy. I'm looking at it.

The picture is so small. His smile just like shouts through it somehow. He's a star. He's a star. He probably has a big star smile. He's the biggest star in the world. How did we miss this during Celebral Wear? Yeah, really?

Is this on the website Snack Stack? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, how did we miss that? Geez. I mean, we still have more. I mentioned in the article. That's exciting.

Oh, wow. You're in this article? Wow. I just thought, as Loftus mentioned before, I was like, what? Whoa. Damn. I love being a part of it. It's so nice to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

To be associated with the mixture, to have your name even in the same breath. Well, it's well-deserved. As I see, you've more than earned my earlier poll quote about you being one of America's leading hot dog voices. And this was so, it's saying a lot. A lot of these have been very fun. This might be the most fun I've had doing one of these. Jamie Loftus, he survived. Podcast The Ride, The City Walker, Orlando Saga, Multiverse of Madness.

Let's exit through the plug portal. Is there anything you'd like to plug? Besides this article that mentions you. Yeah, I'd like to plug? Besides this article that mentions you. Yeah, I'd like to plug this snack. I'm really looking forward to reading this whole thing. This writer did a very thorough investigation and confirmed the circular hot dog.

Wow. Wait, in your quote, it's a failed franchise of 52 hot dogs? There were 50? What? I don't remember what I said in the book. I'm assuming I had reason to do it. And a relish called McLish?

Yes. No way. I wish I had known about Mickey Ricci French fries. Not even Andy Hardy's. No. Where was this? Do we know where this was? This was in Jersey City.

Okay. Yeah, but there were multiple locations Does the audience want Celebrity 2? Let us know Just generally I would never know What to bring back

If you want more Celebrity I think we could do it Especially with this This makes me want to do this I want to do it tomorrow But anyway Plugs officially though Oh yeah

Read Raw Dog That feels like The thing to plug Yeah I need to pluck yeah um it's you need to i'm sold it's every it's everywhere i think i don't know i think it'll be i don't think it'll be back everywhere closer to hot dog season two what's hot dog season oh well i'm going on a there i it's my publisher has started being like well're going to put you on the road for a little bit during hot dog season. Whoa. I was like, all right, cool. Is that lined up with the paperback release, maybe?

Well, the paperback release is next year, but they're like, we're still going to send you out during the peak season. Wow. Yes. Great. So, like, you know, June into July, the summer. There's a great, I don't know if, hopefully this will have been announced by the time this episode comes out. But there's going to be like a 60 foot long Times Square hot dog sculpture opening in the spring. Oh my God. And all the hot dog heads are going out.

So I'll be there. So find me there. I'll be, right now the plan is I'll be giving a speech in front of the big hot dog. Damn. Wow. I can't wait. It shoots out, it also raises up every couple of hours and shoots out confetti. What?

I know. This is a throwback to like fun 90s, like the David Copperfield restaurant that never opened. Like this is some silly stuff. Wow. I won't believe it until I see it, but it is. They're, like, booking the hot dog. They're booking people to do stuff at the hot dog.

Geez. Wow. You've got a big summer ahead of you. We're back. If it all ends perfectly. Congratulations. Well learned. Oh, and wait a minute.

The Sector Stone. Oh, there it is. The Sector Stone is appearing. And I think I, Huh. It looks like a sandwich. But what's in it? It's hard to say. Wait a minute. Oh, it's got a little pink-style label of what's in it. Wow. This is called the Jason

Sheridan sandwich. And look what's in it. It's... Oh, okay. Ketchup, white bread, and anxiety medication. Oh, that ketchup really brings out the oomph of the Luxa Pro. Alright, well, that'll do it.

Jamie, thank you for being here. We're going to let you go so that we can check in and see where we're at at this point, if we're getting anywhere close to the finish line with the sector keeper. So, let's see if we can call to him. Boys, boys! Hey! It's good to hear from you. I mean, you were kind of keeping tabs on that episode, right? With Jamie, Hot Dog

Hall of Fame. That was really, that was a blast, I thought. That was wonderful, boys. Thank you. Oh, boys. Things are not good. How could they not? I mean, isn't that like, that's one of the last things we had to do. We've been doing this for more days now than the original. Like, we got to be close to the end, right? Yeah, we've covered everything. No, boys, the rift is stronger than ever. What? The worst part, it's because of me.

What? How can that be true? What did you do? That doesn't make sense. The entire multiverse is crumbling because of my actions many, many years ago, boys. What? Yeah, that's... Something you did. You don't do bad stuff. Yeah, sometimes it's good to be bad, but that's a cheeky thing you usually say.

Yeah, sometimes it feels good to be bad. Yeah, yeah. But this isn't one of those times? No, no, this is not feeling... Sometimes it feels bad to be bad. No, this time it feels bad to be bad. Yeah, yeah. But this isn't one of those times? No, no, this is not feeling... Sometimes it feels bad to be bad. No, this time it feels bad to be bad. Oh, no. This time it's bad to be... Okay, well, then what do we... Alright, so how do we fix it? Where do we go?

What do we... Just tell us where... If I tell you directly, the evil forces will find us. I can't guide you or the listeners, boys, to the next jump point. It's too dicey. It it's too dicey. It's cosmically dicey. Dicey?

So we have to do another episode, but we don't know where or what. No, it might be in front of you. Like Fassbender, Mr. Policeman, I gave you all the clues. Oh, it's like a podcast puzzle.

Okay. Let me think. I'm wracking my brain. Think, boys, think. Wait. Wait a minute. I have the... I'm looking at the logo for the show.

Aaron's logo for the multiverse. It's a great logo. Yes, Mr. Scott, look, yes. I don't think I've ever called you mr scott mr scott like i appreciate it feels very professional it's not my last name but that sounded cool wait a minute i'm looking okay yeah i'm in i'm zooming way in on the hemisphere dancer right playing with a very interesting story behind it of course yeah there's something I've never noticed in this. From afar, it looks like windows. But if you

look really closely, there's numbers. Zoom, zoom. I'm zooming. Yeah, I see. Okay, I'm looking at it too. Do you see it? Michael, you know this plane better than anyone. I do, but that's... Those aren't the official numbers of the plane.

The plane doesn't have that in real life. I would know about it but on the image it says is it an s and a 16 s16 oh my god what what is it jason we have to go back go back where what do you mean go we Wait S6 Hang on a second Is this the fucking The food court Sector that we never Did in the City Walk Original saga It was my fault You told us

You told us not to Hang on we can't do this we can't gang up on him I was just a boy He was just a boy and he's not going to fix anything. He was just a boy and he still is. Clearly he's wracked with regret over this whole thing. I'm just frustrated because at the time it seemed like a fun break after 19 days in a row. And now all it's doing is adding time to this.

So we have to... Well, you're not adding time if you know what I mean. I guess. I don you know what I mean. I guess. That's dense. I don't know if I do. Let me see if I can. And again, we'll try to do this while evading the evil forces. Yeah. We'll try to speak in code.

But hopefully, what I... Okay. So there's been new sectors every day of the saga. Yes. I guess tomorrow people can go on the main feed and hear an episode that covers city food or whatever. City food. The thing that we didn't do five and a half years ago. Yeah.

Yeah. So we'll do it. So that'll be all right. So that'll be up whatever midnight tonight, whatever. Yeah. Right. No. No.

No. No? No? The timeline can only be corrected in the exact spot where the original sin occurred. Oh, my God. Mr. Scott. I can't say anymore. Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott.

You don't... I know what he means. We have to go back. We have to go back. You keep saying that. We have to go back. That's right, back. You keep saying that. We have to go back. That's right, Mr. Jason. Yes.

You, hearing this, have to go back. Have to go back. Oh, they have to go back. This series so far has only moved forward. But in this case, the only way to hear tomorrow's sector is to go back. That's right. It's like I've always said, the end is in the beginning, and's sector is to go back. That's right. It's like I've always said, the end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end.

You're always saying that. You know, everything you need is there. I can't say anymore. I'm sorry. Wow. Okay. But it's all right. If we've gone back and fixed what the mistake was,

then in theory, they don't have to wait till tomorrow. Right now. You have. Everything. You have right now. Wow. And stay paired up. You're the ghost.

Forever. Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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