The Ben Mulroney Show - What is Olivia Chow selling now? And want a food idea, ask tripleboomdrew

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Guest: ANDREW Lekas  -   Tripleboomdrew on insta and youtube If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benjamin William Hastings, known for his powerful worship songs heard around the world, including so will I and gratitude. Share the wonder of Christmas with friends and family at Roy Thompson Hall. Tickets are on sale now at Salvationist.ca slash Christmas. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. It is Thursday, the 11th of December. Welcome to the show. Oh, 2025. We should point that out as well. We're coming to the end of the year and what a year it has been. And normally in the city of Toronto, December is a fairly green month. We might get a light dusting of snow every now and then. But by and large, at least in my neck of the woods, it's a green Christmas. And then maybe if we're lucky, we get something before New Year's. That's sort of how it happens in southern Ontario. That was what I was promised when I moved here.

and Mother Nature, by and large, has honored that pact until this year. This year, she decided she was going to start everything a little bit earlier, and yesterday, boy, did we get walloped. Let's welcome our crew to the show, Amy Siegel, our video producer. How are you? I'm good, you? Good day, Spargala. How are you?

I'm doing good. How are you guys? Well, and you know who's not here today again? Intrepid producer, Mike Droulet. You there? Yeah, I'm here. You sound good. So why are you to home?

I got the sick kid. Ah, you passed on the big germ energy. Well, that's what they say. I'm suggesting that she got it somewhere else. No, she didn't. Of course she didn't. She got it from you. Of course she did.

You passed it on. You didn't stop the spread. So we've got the big fever going on. We're taking it cautious. Yes, well, it's smart. Stay home. Take care of your daughter. I hope she's feeling better.

But all of us had to make our way home yesterday on the streets. And, I mean, it felt like it was middle of February. Yeah, it was scary. It was scary. And not just in the city of Toronto, 150 accidents, more than that, in the GTA, over 400 in southwestern Ontario. I mean, this was a big, big deal. Wow. Yeah, it got walloped.

There's more on the way, by the way. Not so much in Toronto, a little bit the GTA. Huge snow squalls off of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron could dump, oh my God, 50 cents. centimeters of snow in Midwestern Ontario. So that's, I guess, I guess it's great for skiing. Not so much for driving. Blue Mountain, by the way, is open. Yeah, I mean, I remember, like, Blue Mountain.

Yeah, wouldn't open until January. I know. I know. Well, good for them. They deserve it, you know, especially after the pandemic where they had years where they were closed. Good for them. Enjoy. And if you're a skier in Ontario, you got to really love skiing if you're skiing in southern Ontario.

Like the hills, they're not mountains. It's not a mountain. But listen, I appreciate it. People love it. Go for it. Enjoy. There is, did you guys see the video of the, of the salting truck, the plow? Oh my God.

Do you see this, Dave? There's a, there's a video of this guy who was trying to, he was plowing the road, but he was also, he had his, he had his, the dump truck part up. It was highway 11. It was on highway 11. So the, so the salt could fall out the back. And what was coming up on the highway? Oh, no.

An overpass. No. Yeah. And this one dude is. driving behind him, and he just knows it. He knows it's coming. He knows it because it's about 35 seconds of video before he gets anywhere near it. Now, frankly, maybe he should have gone around and, like, warn the guy.

And because he just, like, he just destroys his truck. Highway 11, you said? Highway 11. Yeah. Everybody's okay, though, right? Oh, no, that's what we were saying. Yeah, from, we haven't heard that he's not okay. So I think the assumption is he is okay.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. And he wasn't going super. fast, so if anything, it's... I thought he was stopping. No, he looked like he was accelerating into the bridge. Yeah. But, Amy, he did stop.

He did. Ultimately, yeah. You would think that when we'd have, like, in those trucks, there would be some kind of like alarm or beeping that goes up. Similar to, like, when you don't have your seatbelt on, it's like, ding, ding, or the back of your, the back of the gate is open? Or did he just mute that notification? I don't know.

Anyway, listen, we do hope he's okay And we hope everybody is driving safely Because the roads are not They're not clear yet And so everyone, please drive as safely as you can And if you do not have your winter tires yet, go get them I was told yesterday Because I asked my dad

Yeah If winter tires would help my car And he said no Oh, your dad's a liar So what do you mean help your car? What does that mean? Well, last year I got stuck Yeah, last year I got stuck in the alleyway

but it was like snow up to my knees. Yeah. Well, no, yeah, listen, what kind of car do you drive? Volkswagen, Tijuana. Okay. Oh, so it's a mini SUV. Yeah. Yeah.

So, look, it's not, snow tires are not going to get you out of three feet of snow. Okay. But I remember driving in all season tires for the longest time. And then one year, like early on in my life in Toronto, I was like, I think I'm going to get me some winter tires. And I could not believe the difference. Like, I couldn't believe. I was like, what have I been doing this whole time? What do they do?

They grip in a way that other tires don't. You just feel so much more secure on the road. I think you should just invest in some chains and just wrap them around the tire. Yeah, that would help. Especially with the ice, that would definitely help. Oh yeah, and that'll do wonders on the roads too. Black ice, you don't even care.

Keep going. Okay, so that video that I was just telling you about, that would have been the best viral video in the city of Toronto of the day. However, it got usurped by a commercial, if you will, with a star endorser in it. Do we have the audio of this one, Mike? Yes, we do. Let's listen to Mayor Chow selling dresses at a store called Delhi 6.

I'm here at Dally 6 in a beautiful, floating hair. I'm just shocking. Come on by. It's in the Buffalo. So it's, listen, I'm of two minds here. One, there's part of me that thinks it's cringe.

But then there's another part of me that thinks maybe she's really smart. Maybe she's connecting with a certain type of person. Maybe this sort of folksy, I'm just a regular person and I'm like the least cool person on social media.

Maybe that's endearing. The comments would suggest otherwise. Sure, but those people might not be the people she's trying to curry favor with. Like there is, come on, you have to admit, there is a part of it that's, listen, take all the stuff about Mayor Chow and her policies that you don't like. Take it out of it. Just look at it for what it is. Yeah, it's cute. It's cute.

It's cringy in a way like, oh, my crazy aunt just did something really awkward and I can't even look. but I can't look away either. So maybe she's a genius. Like on this one very specific front. Drolay, what do you think? I just think that she's got to stop doing these things. Whether or not they are productive or not, based on all the videos that she's done,

just because I don't know if you remember. Do you remember, oh, the taco party? Oh, yeah, can we listen that? Yeah. The salsa, the guacamole, and the different. and vegetable different salads and then different cheese

and then you have the chicken and then you have the shrimp and then you have the beef. You have soft taco and then corn taco and this kind of taco like yeah so I love having

Taco Park White People Taco Night That's one of my favorite songs ever Look she knows all the stuff That goes into a taco Like she gave us the whole list Does she work? No, she's very comprehensive, very fulsome list of all the accoutrements for a taco night.

But again, I go back to it. Maybe there's a method behind the hokeyness. Maybe there's a, I mean, politicians, when I get to a certain level, don't necessarily do things on accident. I think she's trying too hard. Unless she wants it to look like she's trying too hard. I mean, she went to Scarborough to go to a... Yeah, but who knows? Look, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to ascribe genius here.

I am maybe ascribing a little bit of strategy, though. No. You don't think so? No. You don't think so? Yeah, she was in the Dufferin Mall, which is in the west end of Toronto. Okay, so maybe not strategy. Okay, maybe not strategy.

But you know what? When I look at that, I am not going to look at that stuff and get angry. I'm going to look at that stuff with a big smile on my face and say, okay, that's our mayor. All right, we're going to take a quick break. Up next, what would happen if the police just started, you know, randomly checking to see if people out on bail were abiding by their conditions? Oh, this is a doozy. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd.

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Their values change and past performance may not be repeated. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thanks for spending a bit of your Thursday with us. Look, we've been doing this show for just over a year. And one of the most common themes that we take on is what feels like uncontrolled crime in our streets. Now, I know crime is down. But that doesn't mean it doesn't feel less safe than it did, say, 10 years ago. And the police themselves have come out and said as much they say they don't like that they arrest people only to see them walking out of the police station moments later because they were granted automatic bail under the least onerous conditions.

And so the Niagara Regional Police, well, they did a little exercise. They launched a new initiative to monitor people released on bail. in their area in St. Catharines and Thorold. And so what they did is they found 10 individuals in November and December and conducted compliance checks on these 10 individuals. I don't know if it was random or like the 10 most recent. I don't know what it was, but it was 10 people who were out on bail and had conditions linked to that bail.

And they wanted to see if they were in compliance. So they went and they checked on the 10. seven of those that they checked on were found to be violating the conditions of their release orders. Seven. Three of them were re-arrested and four of them they can't find.

So that tells you so many things. One, does it like if these guys are out on bail, they're going to do whatever the heck they want. And of the seven, the majority of them just disappeared. We can't find them. So, look, normally on a day like today this would make me scream this would get me angry i would be staring into

the camera demanding accountability you've heard me do that before you've heard me do that before if you're angry if you're upset you know what you can do you can call your mp you can call your mp you can write to the prime minister you can write to the justice ministers you can do all of those things i urge you to get involved let them know that this that this um hopefully aberration of 2025 is something that you do not want to see going into 2026 so yes we're angry we're shocked are we happy the cops are doing their job absolutely and that's we're going to we're going to end that on that note positive thank you to the cops for doing their job and we thank them for their service so i was really happy to learn that Nova Scotia and now Manitoba are selling the U.S. booze that they have, right?

Because they decide they were going to pull it off the shelves in solidarity with Canadians. Why would we sell their booze if they don't want anything from us? But the problem is, in a lot of cases, these provinces have already bought the booze. So we're just warehousing it. That comes at a cost. So there's an element of performance to not sell it. But Wab Canoe has decided he's going to follow the lead of Nova Scotia and he is going to sell that liquor for charity.

They're following Nova Scotia. They began temporarily selling their inventory with all the net profits going to different charities. I think this is a great idea. So Nova Scotia had $14 million in U.S. boo's inventory. and about four million of that went to feed Nova Scotia and other community groups. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. You know, if all of a sudden you found out that your favorite American booze was available

and you knew that the money that you were going to spend on it was going to go to a food bank or to some needy charity in the GTA, I think you'd jump at it, right? I think you'd jump at it. Well, we're sitting on about $80 million worth of U.S. U.S. booze here in the province of Ontario. And Doug Ford, who has been the most, and I say this in a positive way, emotional provincial leader we have in this U.S. Canada war. He took great umbrage to Donald Trump insulting us the way he did.

He was very hurt. And so he yanked that booze. He was asked if we might do the same thing in the province of Ontario. Would you like that idea, though? Again, I'll talk to the LCBO and I'll be able to get back to you. Do you know how much alcohol is in storage, American alcohol? Right off the top of my head, I don't. But it sends a clear message that, you know, until Donald Trump gets back and starts signing a deal,

stops going after our manufacturing, going after our companies, going after our communities, and families, we need to hit back at that guy. Simple. And I respect that. I get it. Like, this is going to cost us something. I mean, to warehouse $80 million worth of booze is not cheap, right? So the fact that we're not selling it.

we could sell it, be done with it, not buy any more. So I get that when people say, like, this is entirely performative. I think there's, I say yes, performative, but also symbolic, right? And the symbolism matters. The performance doesn't necessarily matter. Symbolism matters. And so not selling U.S. booze in protest kind of makes sense to me, but I can see both sides of it. And if we were to sell it for charity, I think that would be a great thing, a truly a great

thing. But let's talk about another big thing that we're waiting on is the Egglinton Cross Town LRT. When's it going to open? We just saw the Finch LRT open. And a lot of people were hoping end of this year, right? I don't think any level of government wants to turn the page on 2025 without the Cross Town LRT open. Because I don't think they want it written that it opened in 2026. I think they'd prefer that open in 2025. However, We've learned that Metro Links and Ontario's transportation ministry pushed to open the Eglinton Cross Town in late December, while the TTC insisted on early February due to unresolved technical issues. And look, considering the Finch LRT failures and the, I mean, how slow it is, maybe it's taking a little more time makes sense. Now, apparently, this involved very tense, high-level meetings between Premier Doug Ford,

Mayor Olivia Chow, Metro Links, and the TTC on December 5th, where apparently the TTC CEO, Mandip Lally, argued that rushing the line risk safety issues. Now, I don't think he's using the word rushing properly because at this point nothing is being rushed. But he did stipulate that there could be some safety problem. So Ford ultimately accepted the TTC position. And look, the government of Ontario also has another problem. They fear that if they don't do this right, if they don't stick the landing, then we could have another Ottawa LRT.

And the Ottawa LRT came out, it was disastrous. I don't know if you guys remember. I feel it was a couple of years ago where there were hundreds of people on the platforms waiting to get on. They were having like a debit problem. too many people, not enough, not enough trains. There was something, something pear-shaped about it. It just didn't, it did not open right. And so I don't think they want anything like that again.

Now, Ontario claims that the crosstown has undergone heavy testing. I don't think they claim it. I think we all understand that that's happened. Over 11,000 kilometers of weekly runs, snowstorm trials, long driver training periods. and everyone signed off but the same people who signed off on the Finch West LRT are the people who are going to be signing off

on this bad boy. So I guess we're sort of in a position where it's like damned if you do, damned if you don't. The fact that this Finch LRT opened to such I mean to such disappointment the fact that it takes 55 minutes

on some routes. The fact that it's averaging what like 11, somewhere between 11 and 15 kilometers an hour, that if that's what we're gearing up for with the Crosstown LRT, well, let's think about it. It took 15 years to do, and it goes 15 kilometers an hour. So one kilometer an hour per year of construction.

Maybe they should keep it closed for another five so that we could get it up to 20 kilometers an hour. I really, if that's what we're getting for the 15 years that we waited, I think heads should roll. I don't know whose heads. but some heads should roll because the whole point, again, I said it yesterday, the whole point of building these things, giving us the most up-to-date modern transit system that we can possibly have is about getting people out of their cars and onto public transit.

But if you're telling me it's going to take me an hour to do something on the TTC that it would take me 25 minutes to do in my car, the choice is clear. And it's going to be very clear to anybody who can make. that choice. So we got to get the speed up. Up next, triple boom Drew is with us and he's hungry to chat. At CAMH, we know how frustrating it can be trying to access care. We're working to build a future where the path to support is clear, and every step forward feels like progress, not another wrong turn.

Visit camh.ca to help us forge a better path for mental health care. Build, play, and display with the 3-1 megablocks preschool sets. The Build and Go race car revamps into a pickup truck and hot rod, and the build and enchant unicorn transforms into a puppy and Pegasus. Each easy-to-build set comes with rolling wheels, 26 blocks, and easy-to-read building steps, compatible with other megablocks sets for endless big building fun. Shop 3-1 megablocks at Walmart for ages 3-plus. Welcome back to the Ben Mulruni show and everything,

and I mean everything, is a competition for our time and our attention. and more social media is grabbing our attention away from other things because a lot of the content is compelling. A lot of it touches us directly. A lot of it matters to us. Sometimes it's the emotional stuff. Sometimes it's the funny stuff. And sometimes it's the informational stuff that we absolutely love. In my case, what I really love, the content that I go out there and look for besides all the fun breakdown of like superhero movies with my kids is restaurant reviews. I love restaurant reviews. I don't go to nearly as many restaurants as I used to. So I kind of live vicariously

through the people who go test out these new places and try this dish or that dish and give us their honest reviews. And one of the people that I follow is Triple Boom Drew on Instagram, Andrew Leckis. And he is, well, he's

from Montreal in Toronto. So he and I have a lot in common and he joins us now. Andrew, welcome to the show. Boom, Ben, boom. Thank you having me, man. This is my red carpet moment with Ben Mulroo? Just for a video, I'd be wearing my tucks right now. Oh, wow.

Hey, well, I'm pleased and honored to have you with us. Talk to me about how you, like, what was the Genesis when you decided this is something I want to do? Oh, well, you know what? I started a YouTube channel a couple of years ago. I was cooking. I was going to be a cooking hack on YouTube, trying to teach people how to cook, and then it was going well.

It stopped going well. And I was days away from giving up back in June. I said, this is a long road to go down. I saw a sandwich video online. I said, well, I like that kind of sandwich. Let me go and try this one. So I went and tried it out. I decided maybe I should film this one.

And I filmed it and I posted it on Instagram and then all of a sudden, boom, it started going through the roof. I'd never seen that happen before. So I said, let me go and try another spot. So I went and tried another sandwich spot. And boom, that one just went viral for me. Yeah. I'd never seen it happen before.

And then it's been growing for the last four or five months. I'm just, I've kind of taken aback at growth from a guy who was starting with one person. and I saw you started to follow my page. I was blown away. First thing I called up my mom and I said, Mom, that's all Rudy is watching. She said, no. Well, like I said, listen, we've got great food all over this city.

And one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show is because I have such great respect for restaurateurs because they're entrepreneurs and they bet on themselves and life has been really hard for them. And so anyone like yourself who puts a spotlight on them and helps them out, deserves to be helped out themselves. So glad to have you on the show. Were you always a foodie? Oh, I've been an eater all my life, apparently.

That's what I'm told. But I like going out to different places. I certainly had not been out to as many as I would have liked to over the past few years. But this is certainly taking me out all over the province right now. So I'm starting to explore more and more. Yeah. And how do you decide where you're going to go and how do you decide what you're going to eat? If I want to get a good review there, I want to go to what I'd like.

but I also like to go into something new, but it's also changed for me. I was starting to search out places back at end of June and July and August, but what's kind of been happening now is places are calling me up saying, hey, can you come out and see us? Can you come out and review our spot? And I do a little background check first to see if it's something that I'm going to like. And also, if it's a small mom and paw shop,

as I love helping those types of businesses out whenever I can. Yeah, no, no, absolutely. But what did you do, Andrew, before you decided to, like, try your hand at YouTube? Oh, I've been in the same mortgage brokering industry now for about 25 years. I started straight out of school. And this is kind of what propelled me to going to YouTube. I saw the real estate marketing in Canada really start to come down about three years ago after the bubble popped.

And I think I want to have something else and go after something that I'm passionate about. And food has always been part of it. So cooking now seems to have transformed into food reviews. I almost feel like I'm the new Guy Fieri going across Canada. And look, back in the day, if you ever wanted to do something like this, that, you had to find your way on the TV, right? And now you don't have to do that anymore. Now, with your phone, you can do exactly what you want to do,

and you can connect directly with people who absolutely want your content. And it's, like, the world has really changed on that front, hasn't it? Absolutely. There's no HR department. There's no app to sit in my resume, get rejected, and I like that is, hey, post something. And if people like it, they're going to watch it, they're going to follow it, they're going to share it, which I think is fantastic. It takes away all the barriers to entry here.

Well, tell me, there might be someone listening right now who has a dream to do something similar to what you're doing. Talk to me about the rigors of the work because, look, we see the three-minute video. But something tells me you've got to put a heck of a lot more time in than three minutes. Oh, my goodness. For every video, it could be eight hours of work. We're talking travel time, doing these types of reviews, editing the video. I've developed neck problems. I've got my chiropractor on my physial these days.

And that's no lie here. This is, this takes a lot of stress on the neck, the back from doing the editing. Even a three-minute video can take two, three, four, five hours to edit that thing. If we want to, you know, kind of get it as perfect as possible, it takes a hell of a lot of work to edit videos out there. I'm not using AI tools or anything like that. So if someone wants to get into it, I still say pick up the phone, hit record, and just start. Yeah, just start. And learn as you go and make the States.

That's okay. Exactly. Also, because then you can look back at how you started and realize how far you've come. I want people at home to have a listen to some of the work you have done. This is you reviewing the best chicken sovlaki in the city. That's chicken zuvlaki at Peters. Peter's right over there. He doesn't come on camera, though.

He's just legendary. Peters on Eglinton, or like I call it, Mount Olympus. How do I say it in Greek? Is this the best chicken suvlaki in the city? Who? Say that again? You need to talk about it, Zublaki, Subdietia. I just heard, eat a toe.

You said, eat a toe? Eat at Oh my gosh So how is your style evolved over the years? Because here's the thing that I would think. If you are a one-man show, right, then it all falls on you and you are, you constantly have to iterate.

You constantly have to tweak what you do. You constantly have to give people the same but something new because people's appetites, people's attention span. As I just said, there are so many different feeds that are competing for our attention, and you have to keep the people you have, and you have to draw new people in. And so you're fighting with millions of other feeds out there. So talk to me about how much time and attention and care and forethought

you've got to put into each video. Yes, great, great questions in there. It takes a lot of work on something like that, and I'm trying to evolve from just simply filling my face and slobbering on my shirt to I've got to entertain people more than only eat and show these great restaurants out there. Now, I rehearse nothing. I don't prepare any scripts. It's whatever's coming out. And a lot of, unfortunately, I'm a movie guy. So I've been watching movies like many for years. And there are quotes. I'm trying to throw in movie quotes wherever I can. I'm pulling out the Godfathers and Goodfellas and casinos of the world. And I'm trying to entertain and saying what's going to resonate with people. Do they like funny? Do they want to see just eating? Do they want to see

just recommendations on spots to go? It's always trying to figure out what's going to be the next little point that's going to trigger someone. And this one, this was a Peter's on Egglinton out there, I was going there for 30 years before any of these videos came up, but this one was Greek spot. I said, well, I had memories of trying to learn how to speak Greek. And it was a bad experience, trying to learn to speak Greek and Greek school back in the 80s. Well, all of a sudden last week when I was out there, I thought, hey, why don't we try and learn how to say this in Greek right here with my dad here and with Peter himself right there? Even with the two of them, I still couldn't get it out, but that's the thing of trying to relate it to the audience. What, what did people want to

see and what do they want to hear? And that was, that was a fun one, trying to figure that one out, just came to me out of nowhere. Let's try and learn how to speak Greek here. Who, um, who are your worst critics? Is it your family? Uh, some family were harsh at the beginning. I see that they're warming up to me a little bit more now as we're growing a little bit. That's kind of odd how that one happened. Uh, I've had some harsh critics from strangers and I don't give a, see, I got to check myself there. I said I wouldn't swear on the on the show. I don't care what those critics say, the harsh ones out there, they're always

the trolls. I don't care what they say at all. Good. I've dealt with a lot of stuff. I've dealt with death threats. That was not a fun time. Wait, hold it. You're a food reviewer. Who's giving you death threats? Oh, Ben. Like, this was ridiculous. I reviewed Chick-fil-A. I'd never, I wasn't even doing food reviews

at the time. Well, I just told Chick-fil-A. It's like, okay, I hear Chick-fil-A, check this, join out. I went out, I posted this video on Chick-fil-A. I said, There's nothing special. I don't get all with the hype at all. And next thing I knew, I guess this is when phone numbers, my phone numbers were still online or something. And I started getting phone calls from the U.S. I think it was Charleston. I think it was West Virginia, and my phone wouldn't stop ringing.

So I started to answer, and they said, you know, this triple boom, like, well, who is this? And they said, how can you not like Chick-fil-A? And they started saying, we're going to come to your house, we're going to take you. You're really kidding me? What? Or chick-friking. I didn't know. apparently Chick-fil-A is a religious cult in some parts of the way.

I'm just eating the chicken. What do I know else about the food, right? I just want to order the food. I didn't know it was a religious cult. All right. Hey, Andrew, stick around. We're going to talk to you on the other side of the break as well. I got lots more questions for you.

I got to know where the best different types of food are in the city, according to one of the best food reviewers out there. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulerney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and welcome back to Andrew Lekis. You don't know him necessarily as Andrew Leckis. He's Triple Boom Drew on Insta, on YouTube, on TikTok, and he's the guy who lets you know where you should spend your money to eat in this city, in this great food city of ours.

Andrew, welcome back to the show. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me, Ben. So you're a Montrealer. Are you still a Habs fan? Go Habs, go, baby. just because that's going to piss off all the guys in the chat. I'm saying, go have to go, Barney, tough look.

Okay, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Where is the best burger in town in your estimation? Oh, my gosh. This is a tough one because I'm going to upset some people and hurt the others. I've had two great burgers in the last two weeks. One just yesterday, I hit up Rudy's burgers in Burlington, I was in Dundas wine. I was blown away.

Yeah, Rudy's great. I was called the Big Rudy. The other one was about two weeks ago. The Queensway in Etobico was called the Mad Stacker. Okay. In crept burger and silly cheese steak, blown me away. Have you tried Elijah's Automatic? No.

You got to try Elijah's Automatic. That was started by the guy who started Burger's Priest and he sold Burger's Priest and he started a new burger joint in Etobico called Eliza's Automatic. It's a smash burger on a griddle. Okay. Yeah. And so it's like fire. like flame

flame grilled smash burger. It's delicious. Have you tried Atomic Burger? I've heard it, but I have not tried it. You got to try Atomic Burger.

And what about Burger Shack? Where does Burger Shack land on your list? Burger Shack, I don't think I've even heard of them. Burger Shack! It's an institution. You got to go. It's at Oriel Parkway and Egglington.

Oh, I wrote them all down. I wrote them all down. They've been there forever, and they are the nicest people in the world. And they also make a really good hot dog and a great putteen. Oh, best putteen in town. Oh, I had like a gourmet poutine at a place called the chicken cartel in Oakville, Ontario. Incredible.

It's a food truck. Oh, food truck. It's just incredible. I was amazed at that poutine because I love the Montreal Poutine as well. I had a smoke meat poutine. All fantastic. Out here, I had that one, the chicken cartel, Oakville. Phenomenal, phenomenal poutine.

And I'm going to ask you a best chicken sandwich, and I know you're not. not going to say Chick-fil-A. Best chicken sandwich. Oh, my gosh. That's another one. I'm really liking the THG hot chicken. THG? Where's that? Ph.G. They have one in Mississaug. Great story on Chef Aleem as well. Great story. If people check out his website, I didn't know. He was actually one of the first ones to text me and say, hey, would you want to come out to my shop and test out my stuff?

Aaron North Parkway and Mississauga and I believe he has his original location in Scarborough Interesting All right Oh and one last question

And then we'll get back to you Best Pizza Oh man I was hoping you were not gonna ask that one I'm staring right now I started collecting the pizza boxes I got about 65 boxes in front of me right now Wow

This is a mountain of this is so tough If we're going region by region I could go up to St. Catherine's Dyes pizza pies And the odd bar for Detroit style The Diet Pizza Pies blew me away, vodka pizza in St. Catharines. Hamilton is hidden gems and just a hot spot for pizza. Tony G's Chicago Deep Dish was fantastic.

Make our way out to Mrs. Saga, Port Credit Area. I think we've got Pizza Nostra, which was fantastic. Milano's FBI pizza. You've got QMP, the Queen Margarita Pizza, authentic Neapolitan wood-fired, chef Robb out there. That was fantastic pizza. Toronto, I'm getting to Max Pizza. I remember they had one called the Lemonhead.

I think it had a ricotta. and lemon on there, fantastic pizza. My God, there's so many. I'm looking at all of them. There's just too many in the name, but a lot of great ones. Yeah, and you're naming them all. I got to ask, like, do you have a workout regimen to counterbalance the food that you eat? Okay, great question right there.

So I have not missed getting the gym hard for, I think now it's at 163 days. Last time I wasn't in the gym with Coach Pek was July 1st. Wow. And this is proof positive that a person can not. outwork a bad diet. This is the strongest I've been in years. I actually believe this one. People aren't going to believe it. I've got all the photos and video from me. I used to compete. I used to be on stage in a speed own fitness competition. What? Yeah. Oh, man, we're weighing in at that point at 183 pounds, about six and a half, seven percent body fat. Now it's gone the opposite.

And so my brother, P.K., also my coach and trainer, he's got his place called the longevity path. They are not fond of what I'm doing, but they're supporting me. I'm saying, okay, you're going to do this. We've got to try and be great on the other days. You're not eating out. We've got to be near perfect on the days you're at home and you're not eating out. And we've got to keep up the workout regimen. And we've got to make sure we eliminate some spots.

And they don't like it when I eat the desserts. That's a problem with the sugars in the cart. I'll tell you what. I hit up this cheesecake spot. Speaking of that yesterday, I was just out in Burlington yesterday. Might have been the best cheesecake I've had ever. Layla's cheesecake. Really?

Great story on that young lady as well. I was blown away when I went in there. And it's amazing how social media works. I didn't know about her place, even though it's a fairly big page, but chef Danny out in Brampton, I think it was. Tonino's Italian restaurant, he says to me, after I've been in his plate, you've got to go and try out Layla's cheesecakes in Burlington. You won't be disappointed. I ate too many yesterday. North of 30 flavors.

I think I had seven cheesecakes. It was disgusting, Ben. But I'm doing the work, but he can't outwork the bad diet. It's impossible. Yeah, no, well, they say 70% of it. it is what you put in your body. The other 30% is the gym, right? So if you, if you fix your diet, then most of it will fall into place. But you are, listen, you've clearly committed, this is your path in life. You've got to walk this path. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you the

worst part about this is that I found out that the, um, the assistance and the reception staff at my doctor's office found my pages. So I said, please don't tell Doc about this because I can't BS my way through that physical anymore. How's your diet? Well, I can't say it's, it's a great, they're just going to pull up the videos and see I'm selling my face with it. Andrew, I got to ask, as we said, you know, you're, you always have to, you know, if you view yourself and what you do as a brand, then you always have to iterate. You always have to give people something new. Where do you want to take this, uh, this brand that you've created in the future? Oh my goodness. That's a great question there. I think I'd love to have a,

I'd love to have a van, almost like Bob and Doug McKenzie. I think of a strange brew, driving from coast to coast in Canada, reviewing all of these great Canadian spots and bringing some, we're talking from the East Coast, doing lobster, and going all the way out to the West Coast and saying, okay, these are the great spots we have in Canada. We've got such a great country, and we don't need to travel anywhere. I don't want to go political, but we don't need to travel anywhere else. We've got Canada right here with so many great spots. Yeah.

And why not uncover them? Can I make a recommendation to you? Because you got so many people who follow you and trust you that you should, host get-togethers where you'll bring 10 of your followers and they pay X amount of dollars for you to go to three or four or five different places of your choosing. For them to discover restaurants that they would otherwise

never have heard of. And you spend an afternoon just having one thing in three or four or five different places. That is a great idea. Yeah. That is a great idea. Yeah. And obviously I'm assuming there's merch. I do not have merch. This is, I'm a one-man show. Yeah, come on, man. My kids are always telling me, just get into drop shipping, dad.

If you want to make a million dollars, just get into drop shipping. I think they're full of it. But you can do it. You can get yourself a Shopify shop, and there you go. I love it. I'll tell you what, if I do the food tours like that, you're going to be the first one I bring out there. Yeah, I'd love to. You're a Montrealer, so I know you know smoke meat.

Oh, yeah. Is there great smoke meat in Toronto? Oh, well, Ben, here we go. I mean, I know that we've got pastrami, but I don't know that we got smoked meat. Oh, Ben, I am about to blow your mind with this one then. So you played the clip from Peters on Eglington, chicken soup lackey. But did you know he is the king, in my opinion, of Montreal smoked meat. Peters on Eglington, they pile it high and deep.

And he imports the smoked meat from Montreal, Lester's Deli. Oh, we're getting Montreal smoked meat in Toronto. Really? Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, well, I got to go. Oh, I think I might have seen. Is this restaurant, it looks like it's a throwback, restaurant. Looks like it's out of like the early 80s.

Oh, you got it. It's with the green. I think there's green in there. Yes. Yes. It's not changing the core and I don't want them to. So I remember that from your thing. From your Yeah, from your video. It's huge. It's almost obnoxiously huge sandwiches. They are and I'll tell you what. That was

again one of the first ones that I posted that video got that exact Montreal smoked meat. I didn't know. I didn't go back in for at least a month. My parents told me and they told them they sold out of his smoky. That's amazing. Andrew, I got to leave it there. But thank you so much for joining us.

Congratulations on all your success. If anyone wants to find you, it's Triple Boom, Drew, on Insta, on YouTube, all over the place. All the best to you, my friend. Thank you, Ben. Thank you. My name is Jordan, and I'd like to invite you to join me on the Canadian Gothic,

a podcast covering stories of Canadian crime, mystery, and the offbeat. The Canadian Gothic blends the spirit of late-night talk radio with the depth of a documentary film and applies that approach to both developing stories in historical cases. So if you're drawn to the dark, mysterious, and offbeat, search for and subscribe to the Canadian Gothic wherever you find podcasts. You were listening to Canadian Gothic. Thank you.