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An Interview and Food Draft with Zach from SnachwithZach
56 Plays1 year ago
Zach from SnachwithZach on Instagram and TikTok joins the boys to talk all about food and how he started his channel where he reviews and covers foods of all kinds. He breaks down which discontinued food he would bring back if he could, which restaurant he wishes was closer to where he lives, and gives some of his favorite deals in fast food. We wrap up the episode with a fast food draft that you will not want to miss!
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snachwithzach/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@snachwithzach?lang=en
Check out the Next Guy Up on Socials: https://linktr.ee/nextguyuppod
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Transcript
Meet Zach: The Foodie Influencer
00:00:01
Speaker
And welcome to the next guy podcast. This is your messing around Monday episode. And we have a very special episode today. We have a special guest with us who happens to have the same name as me. So that's not going to be confusing at all today. ah But we are welcoming Zach to the podcast um today. We are going to do some awesome interviews with him. ah He's going to shout out where he's from and things, but he has a pretty Spectacular TikTok and Instagram account, ah doing one of our favorite things, which is shouting out all of the the the new food items coming out. we If you've been listening to the pod, you know that we have a segment where we just talk about all the new food stuff coming out. And so we have the OG at that here with us today. We are very jealous of him and what he gets to do. And so we're really excited for you to be here with us, Zach. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.
00:00:58
Speaker
Well, let's just, uh, let's talk about this first. Um, you do have your intake talk and Instagram. Do you want to just quickly, uh, share some of those info with, uh, with, uh, with everyone out there? Yeah, absolutely. So my page is snack with Zach S N A C H W I T H Z A C H a little bit of branding, mainly because S N A C K was taken when I went to make the page. I was like, wait a second. I've always been the age sex. So I should just make that a little change. That's how we ended up with the name. yeah That's awesome. made all the difference. It did. It did. And I'm on tech talk, Instagram, Facebook. there is I do have a presence on Facebook. I just cross most everything from Instagram there. And then YouTube shorts as well for the most part. Oh, cool. Cool. Cool. That's awesome.
Fun Drafting and Mason's Appetizer Controversy
00:01:42
Speaker
And so we're, um We are excited to get to talk to you today. We, we have some interview questions we're going to do. We are going to do a giraffe later on. Um, I do feel like I'm at a disadvantage here. Like I am, I'm playing basketball with Michael Jordan or something, you know, um, I feel like you got it. and I still get all the insider knowledge. you You have a huge backlog of, of all the picks, but we're gonna, we're gonna draft some fast food items. Uh, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
00:02:11
Speaker
I'm so excited for that too. You have walked me through it because I was explained to you guys early before we started. I don't know if I necessarily know the rules of a draft anyway, so it should be fun for a lot of parties. I am disadvantaged in some areas. Keep that in mind. It's a lot of fun. We do it. We do do a lot of drafting on this pod, but I think it'll be, I think it'd be really fun when we, a couple of weeks ago we did like sit down restaurants. Uh, a draft where we say it was the same premise. Yeah. We both, we could did like sit down chain restaurants only, which was a lot of fun, pretty contentious, but mean we see most controversial also getting your opinion on this. So I think so. Well, Mason's not here screen up for a sixth episode ever alone. Truly we get, we were flooded with texts on both sides of the argument. So we were doing a similar activity, but get appetizer in there. And, um,
00:03:05
Speaker
Our friend Mason, who's the third host on this pod. He's not here today, by the way, if you're not gonna hear Mason's voice, he is on a trip. But he tried to pick the triple dipper from Chili's as his appetizer, which if you're familiar is like three appetizers in one. How do you feel about that?
00:03:23
Speaker
That's a good question. How do I feel about the triple dipper? The triple dipper, it is three. If you're gonna do one, you gotta do one. Otherwise, I feel like you can pull combos and all sorts of stuff. There we go. The purpose of having one, it's an excuse to not make one. I'm so glad you said that. Sorry, Mason.
Zach's Food Journey: From Boston to Beyond
00:03:42
Speaker
Rip Mason is not here. Rip's amazing. Yeah, we did rip him on that episode and we destroyed him. he He kept arguing with us. if We got text people back and forth. We're like, let him have the triple dipper. It's one thing. So I'm glad we settled that. this is we We have the expert opinion now. No more. yeah We're done. It will never be brought up. That's the last you'll hear of the triple dipper.
00:04:07
Speaker
It's a pick. I mean, it's a's about I was like, I mean, you gotta try to get it through, but you can't be mad whenever we're sitting here being like, you can't pick that. Okay. um So, so Zach, um we were talking about it before we got on, but why don't let's, let's go ahead and talk about it here. Um, there's a lot of regional restaurants in the US. Uh, where, where did you grow up or where are you from and what kind of regional restaurants did you have access to? Maybe you don't have any more. Which one do you miss the most maybe? So it's nice to actually be able to clarify this on the record because I feel like I've told the story in very small pieces and different parts because I have this series called First Time Tries where I try fast food places, casual restaurants, whatever that I've never been to before.
00:04:51
Speaker
and There are a lot of them and people are usually surprised because I do food news contents. They're like, well, how do you do this content if you've never been to XYZ Place? I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. and I told was telling you guys, I lived in Georgia for a while, about 10 years when I was growing up. Then I moved back to Boston. Boston has what I like to call very little fast food diversity. So a lot of the brands that people know are not available in the Northeast. So literally like a lot of places stop after Pennsylvania or New York and then New England just sort of exists. For example, like we've got two RBS in New Hampshire. They're not in Massachusetts. I don't think there are any from Vermont. I don't know if there are any in New Hampshire. No, I just said, that I said New Hampshire.
00:05:38
Speaker
not in Maine, but yeah, they're like two in New Hampshire. I think we lost our firehouse subs. We don't have like most of the stuff that people have. It's a big rip right there. Yeah. Well, though I tried firehouse subs when I was in Jersey. So when I travel around to all these places, that's where I try all the things that I haven't tried before. But Massachusetts has like horse stuff. So you got like Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's. We're now starting to get like a ton of canes, a ton of Dave's hot chicken. But We don't have most of the stuff that like you guys would have down in Tennessee or like West Coast, Cali, Texas, Georgia. um Yeah. it's That's that's sort of like the the bottom line is is Massachusetts doesn't have that much like no jack in the box and stuff. Most of the stuff that I like is not in the state that I live, which is sad, but it's OK. That's why I get to travel. That's very right.
00:06:28
Speaker
is Is that just like um the franchises making that decision of where they want, like regionally where they want the restaurants? Or I know Chick-fil-A is pretty particular about where they want the restaurant to be spread. Yeah. Similar with some of those other big channels, you think Boston would be a market where everyone would want to have the restaurant. Yeah. It's a good question. It really depends. I haven't really figured out why that is the case. Because like Jack in the Box, excuse me, Jack in the Box was in Massachusetts like 30 years ago. and a bunch of places I guess pulled out or there I don't know if it was a case of there not being enough interest. we are also i mean Every region has their own food culture too, but we're very oriented towards ah you know like seafood, coastal stuff. yeah New England cu cuisine is sort of specific, but that's not really an excuse because every region kind of has it. But I've never really asked
00:07:20
Speaker
I should ask the brands and be like, hey, why aren't you in this area? Because I mean, people would still eat it. There are plenty of fast food places all over Massachusetts. Vermont, less so, I think Vermont has fewer fast food places per capita than any other state. But the rest of the states, for the most part, like New Hampshire, Rhode Island, all that, you know they're there. The demand is there. So I think it's an untapped market. Yeah. I would like some people to come into the area. But you know, Yeah, the um I visited Boston. and I was um last year. I think it was last year. And the one that was there that I wasn't super familiar with, and this may be not be 100 percent fast food, but was the Boston Pizza restaurant.
00:08:03
Speaker
I think I know the one that you're referring to. Is that not a chain? Oh, maybe I'm way off on that. Oh, no, no, no. Because there are some there is one that I saw somewhere. I think at like a rest stop and I was like, This is it. Like this is the thing. And I think I think it's that one. But it also depends because some stuff could literally be like in Western Massachusetts or in Rhode Island or like somewhere that I don't go frequently, the place that you have to go to the next time you're back. And first of all, let me know when you're back because we can go together. Papa Gino's and uh, David Morton, I just reviewed it on bar stool. Seriously, Papa Gino's, if at that plays, they've had, they've had some tough times, but if Papa Gino's went out of business, it would be legitimately like a tragic loss for, for New England because it's so good.
Salem's Food Scene and Fast Food Musings
00:08:51
Speaker
Should have went there, huh? Well, what did you do on your trip? well what give walk yeah We should talk about what I did on the trip. yeah I used to be a seventh grade math teacher, so I was chaperoning seventh graders around. So I did not have a lot of leeway to do things that I wanted to do. um So I got to see the city. I mean, we had did a couple of tours and stuff. we um we walked They walked us around, it did a lot of historical stuff. So I did not do very many like cool things there just because I was responsible for about a hundred. so Yeah. so that well makes sense We have so much history here too. It was cool. I really liked the city. Yeah. I'm sure you guys did like the freedom trail, all that stuff. Did you guys go to Salem mass at all? We did. It was we we did a ghost tour at night, which was pretty cool. Nice. wow It was it was a pretty, it was a pretty cool experience. It's one of my favorite places in the world. But the reason why I bring up Salem, especially in relation to food, is because Salem has
00:09:48
Speaker
some of the best food in Massachusetts. And it is available all the time of year, not just October, but oh my God, the food scene in Mass is, in Salem in particular, is incredible. The rest of Massachusetts is all right, but yeah, next time. We were talking to some people and and said that that place is just like a madhouse for like two or three weeks in October. Yeah. It's just like like ah like tens of thousands of people just like flood into the city. It was like a post COVID thing too. is it was ah A lot of people went and it was always popular because I went in college all the time and then I moved to New York for a couple of years. so I moved back and all of a sudden it had exploded to the point where they were seeing like 100,000 people on a weekend and the city's not really built for that. You're not even on like a major highway. It's crazy, but good food there. That's very cool. Okay. That's interesting. That is good to know.
00:10:38
Speaker
So you you told us earlier, you lived down in Texas for a little bit, you lived up in New York City for a bit, lived in Georgia for a bit. um Is there one restaurant chain that you would, if you had to pick one to be like to to be put into Boston that you don't have, what would it be? Oh, this is easy. i Also, i just just to clarify, I did not live in Texas. I just traveled in Texas a lot. But that's that's not your your fault. i just I know the Texas people are going to be like, wait, where? And then everybody's going to ask me for recommendations. And I just want to circumvent. the pressure of the text is asking me for my opinion. I love them very much, but I had to make sure I avoid the local perspective. Otherwise, they'll get mad. But I can answer that super easily. Okay. It's Jack in the Box 100% because was too interesting I love Jack in the Box. and Maybe I was going to... i was I mean, I was... Yeah, maybe the best one out of the beard. I was going to Jack in the Box maybe like
00:11:32
Speaker
When I was in Texas, like every other day, California in the airports, I would hit Jack in the box. I think it's they they just do things super, super, super well. And I get like I said, they were here and now they're they're starting to expand the footprint again. So they just hit Florida. And I think they're hitting wherever they haven't been it closer to but north, but more like like middle North America. But they haven't expanded past PA again. And so I'm waiting for the Jack in the box and mass. but It's just like a good menu. Damn. Yeah.
00:12:04
Speaker
That's that is not where I thought you think I was going to pick. I thought you'd pick maybe like a what a burger or in and out. Those are kind of like two staples that everybody wishes were near them. um Jack in the box. I don't know. We we don't have one here in Cookville. We used to, um, when I first had moved here, we had one. Um, but I've been to one in Texas before I spent like a week out there at a conference and yeah it was good. It's good. It's good stuff, but I don't, it's just not on my radar. yeah So that was a, that was out of left field, but I liked it. I think that for the record, ah I really do love what a burger. I think that in terms of what I could see happening the most immediately, it would be Jack in the box because it's more.
00:12:49
Speaker
I mean, it was here at one point. I would love to see what a burger, what a burger does a great job. I'd also love to see something like Culver's. There there are so many places yeah like A and&W. I am a huge, huge fan of A n&W. I think it's super, super underrated. And the closest one is in Rhode Island, like two and a half hours from me. so Do you know how many of those there are? Because I've i've only seen one and it's in Gatlinburg, Kerry, Tennessee. So have you guys been? I've been and it's great. Yeah. I think can't beat a root beer float from the source itself. And that's funny they say that because I was on my giraffe list, but I had A&W twice. So I actually removed it in favor of something else. Spoiler alert. But I think at the top of my head, I think there's something around like.
00:13:35
Speaker
I want somebody to Google this in real time. I think there are 385 A&W's in the United States. That would be amazing. Can you fact check me on that? Yeah, yeah I got you. that yeah za's scott thanks exactly He's quick on the sticks. Because I have to know these numbers because when I'm organizing the roundups, that's where I go through all my fastest releases for anybody who doesn't know. i yeah Arrange things in order of the the size of the locations a lot to make sure that it's kind of spread out. So off the top of my head, I'm like, I know these are about like there's 80, 500, whatever this or that McDonald's has X, Y, Z. I think there's five hundred and six. Oh, shit, damn. ah There are 30 and 36 states. One of which is not Massachusetts. Mm hmm. OK, this this is already off the outline that we gave you. But do you think that people
00:14:27
Speaker
overvalue restaurants that they don't have immediate access to. Like if you have access right down the road that you kind of, it goes down in your evaluation of that restaurant. Because you you hear people in Tennessee are always talking about like in and out what a burger. Then you hear people that are elsewhere, I would give anything to have like a Chick-fil-A in my town, you know, or whatever it is. And enough do you think people just want what they what they don't have, you know what I mean? Well, you guys just got a word, not a word for
Zach's Food Content Creation and Influences
00:14:56
Speaker
words. You just got in and out, didn't you? Very close. Our first one getting built. Yeah. Because you get there's like a distribution center or is that in like Alabama? Is it in Tennessee that's getting the distribution center? I think it's Tennessee that someone has invested a lot of money for in and out to become like
00:15:13
Speaker
the first footprint of it is going to be in Tennessee in the south. um And it's actually in a town of Lebanon, which is, it's funny that that's where they're going to start just because like we know what Lebanon is. and it's ah It's like a failed, they used to have a huge mall area. It failed. It's all torn down. It's just, it's known as like like When you're traveling, it's like the halfway spot to Nashville. You're almost in Nashville. That's going to revive but the next city. And it's going to bring everything. Yeah. get a ton of traffic Yeah. It's like Route 66 and cars. Yeah, it's crazy because like Mount Julia is the next city right before you get to Nashville. So it's in between Lebanon and Nashville and Mount Julia has everything. It's like a mini Nashville. And so everyone thought, oh, that's where in and out is going to go. And then they announced it was going to Lebanon. And everybody's like, why?
00:16:04
Speaker
Tins, that's where your fast food career started as well well. Yeah. He was a cookout manager. I was the general manager for cookout for a long time. Were you really? dumb and i worked at yeah And I worked at the Lebanon one for oh dudes for a little bit. You probably have more knowledge about the stuff than I do. I've got a little bit, I've been in the food scene since I was about 16 working in restaurants. How many cookouts I love these days? Cause I did a series when I do the top tens where I go through like the stuff that people miss. I think cookout was on it. I should remember that.
00:16:36
Speaker
um They're growing. Cookout is ah is is still growing. They actually just launched Florida. and They're building their first one in Gainesville right now. This is why we do fact-fiction in real time because I don't know everything. Contrary to popular belief, they're like, oh, you must know about every single thing that ever happens. and I'm like, there is so much stuff to know about that yeah I cannot keep track. 359. Good for you, Cookout. It does look like it's grown since 2022 as well. Yeah, I feel like it's it's still expanding some I feel like because I the store I worked at Lebanon was one of the newer stores and it was like 205 store 205 so and that was I Don't remember 2020 and 2021 like height of COVID. I would have time to work in restaurants. Yeah, I
00:17:24
Speaker
It was booming. That's all there was, was webbing and cookout. Well, i got ah I lost my job in 2020 because i was working in I was waiting tables, I was working in the steakhouse. 2020 rolled around, I got laid off, and then I moved to New York, went into retail. But you guys survived.
00:17:43
Speaker
why Okay, so why don't we like to let that um transition us to our next question here? um How did you get started doing this kind of content? Is this is the job for you? How it like what piece of the um I don't know. um I know that you spend probably in a huge amount of time doing this stuff. So why don't you just ah how did you get started in the in the food biz? I got started in I mean, that could go back so long with this too. The first food review that I published was on YouTube in, I want to say maybe 2013.
00:18:20
Speaker
I did one of them and then I didn't do anything for literally, let's see if I was like 12 or 13. I don't know how time works anymore, so I'm just going to shoot numbers out and say that's probably right. But I didn't do one for maybe 15 years or like 13 years because I've been doing this for a couple of years. so I've always been a food person. We're a very big food house and we're not, I want to say, we're not like bougie about it, like We're not like food elitists, you know, like we eat a lot of good food, but also we eat everything under the sun. You know, we can have fast food all the time. We can go out and eat nice dinners all the time. You know, we're not stuck up about it. So we were always just kind of doing a lot of stuff. I was always cooking. I was always posting stuff on my Instagram to my friends. And in 2021 Van Loon, you guys familiar with Van Loon, the ice cream brand?
00:19:16
Speaker
na No, guys over here about that Kraft Mac and cheese ice cream flavor that dropped a while back. i I remember that being trending like, what are we doing in America, creating mac and cheese ice cream? Or the ranch ice cream, any of those. Yeah, I remember that one. So those are the results of those are the brain children of Van Loon. It's an ice cream company out of New York. And I was living in in New York at the time we had a Van Loon ice cream location down the street from the place that I was working.
00:19:47
Speaker
I heard about it and I was like, dude, that sounds crazy. This is the mac and cheese ice cream. So get on the street, grab a pint of it, whatever. And I am also a musician. I filmed a review of it just for the hell of it to vary up some content, posted it to my music page. And people were like, oh, damn, that's first of all gross. It's not going to be all really cool. And I was like, yeah, I agree with that. So I didn't really do much with it, but people were like, oh, you should you should create a food page, whatever. And I was like, yeah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. I ended up moving home from New York. just They raised my rent like 60%. It was a whole thing. That's nuts. Yeah, it was insane. And I was kind of keeping up to date with some stuff and the Old Bay goldfish dropped. Did you guys ever try those?
00:20:36
Speaker
Yes. I'm a big Old Bay guy. Yeah. They're like really good. And so I filmed a review of me eating those because again, people were kind of like, Hey, we want to see this. And I was like, Oh, this is cool. Everybody knows that I love goldfish. I had a finsta a couple of years ago where I literally would eat those giant boxes of goldfish. And my goal was to eat my body weight and goldfish when I was like 23. So people knew that I it's good I don't know if I ever hit it. I probably have in my lifetime, but I used to keep track of the amount of goldfish I ate. I'm psychotic about it. so Basically, I reviewed those Old Bay goldfish. I had posted to my music page and then I was like, you know what? I should just post these on TikTok for the hell of it. and I made the Snack with Zach page without telling it telling anybody I knew.
00:21:22
Speaker
Because I'd also as a musician I tried to get past like the friends of family bubble and reach people that I didn't know I'm very grateful for my friends and family But I was trying to get a bigger audience so I was like I'm gonna do tick-tock where I don't have anybody I know and I can just grow it organically and so Long story short posted that review started posting a bunch of other reviews and I was looking at two things mainly based off the van loon ice cream thing and the goldfish thing that was new and novel food releases hmm, so Basically, this is a really long-winded story. In December of 2022, after I'd started this page, a company was like, hey, we want to send you you know pickles. And I was like, OK, sweet. Well, if I have 50 followers and people are willing to send me pickles, what would it be like if I just kind of stuck with this every single day? So I decided to review food every single day. And somewhere along the long lines, like three months into that New Year's resolution for 2023,
00:22:18
Speaker
I was like, well, I'm creating these lists of new food releases, so why don't I just publish it? And that was the first ad that went viral, like super, super, super viral. And I really leaned into it. So I started doing the release roundups, the menu roundups every single week for the most part. And then from there, I pretty much just leaned into the food news thing and started doing it every single day. It does seem like you are intentionally pretty pretty positive about most of the things you review. Is that fair to say? It is not fair to say. And here's off here's why. i It's a great question for the record. Really good question.
00:23:00
Speaker
I feel like there is a lot of inauthenticity on social media, especially when it comes to food. And a lot of people will just off the rip, say that they love something for the sake of getting a brand deal, whatever, building a better rapport with the brands. I happen to like a lot of stuff, but I definitely don't go in with the air of being overly positive because I don't want to see people the wrong way. So I do my best to be objective when it comes to the reviews. For example, like literally this week I reviewed three things from McDonald's. I reviewed the McFlurry. I reviewed the Special Grid Garlic Sauce and the Smoky BLT Quarter Pounder. Big week for McDonald's reviews. The McFlurry I loved. The Special Grid Garlic Sauce I was not a big fan of. I thought it fell flat. And then the Quarter Pounder I could kind of take her to leave. It wasn't bad burger by any means. It just wasn't really my speed. So I've seen a lot of stuff where I feel like folks are just like, I love everything.
00:23:53
Speaker
Woohoo, this is great. Like, they love it so much or like when people overplay the reviews. They're like, mmm, like, oh, my God. And they're they're like having like a whole episode yeah yeah of how much they love the food. And I'm like, I'm like, I don't know if anything's really that good. I think the closest I ever got to that was when I went to A and&W for the first time. Life changing. do Yeah, I seriously love that place because I had I had chicken tenders. I've had a lot of good stuff from a lot of places, but I had the chicken tenders from A&W and the cheese curds from A&W. And I was like, These are some of the best items I've ever had from a fast food place ever. They were so good. So yeah, I try to keep my my vibe overall positive, but I try to make sure that I don't oversell anything because I want to make sure that people trust my opinion and don't think that I'm just trying to push them everything for the sake of being you know neutral.
00:24:43
Speaker
That does make ah that makes a lot of sense that it would not have you explain it like that. I do feel like I see people on the other side in my like click baity type ah brain is like it's sometimes I think like hating things gets like a ton of like clicks, you know, influencing. It's the worst thing i've ever tasted i can't believe that you know that can also be so i think it it's very good to just be honest about what you like it though i don't see any real value in being a really negative that's. My whole mindset is i feel like sometimes people will just go into bash for the sake of bashing and.
00:25:18
Speaker
A lot of times the brands will listen to and take that feedback real genuine feedback into accounts. if They hear a lot of things from people. you know I'm not somebody who just wants to get reactions for clicks. Although sometimes I think places do dumb shit and I do call them out. Even in the roundup, like if somebody discontinues something, I'm like, why would you discontinue this? like That's crazy. why Why are we doing this? so it's ah It's a healthy balance. That's very interesting. um Okay, this is one additional question now that I'm adding this in. Tins and I have been talking about the bear on this podcast a lot. but Are you familiar? I am familiar. I haven't watched it yet. Okay, do you um obviously you're here in this kind of fast food scene.
Diverse Food Preferences and Review Approach
00:26:01
Speaker
Do you do any in the in the fine dining or any of the more
00:26:05
Speaker
Or do you like going to those types of restaurants, the upscale type? I know youre what you lived in New York for a little bit. That's kind of what it has. Yeah, totally. i I like a range of food. There's a misconception, I think, with the content that I do because a lot of it isn't what people would consider fancy or anything like that. but
00:26:25
Speaker
I like a whole range of stuff and I try to cover a lot of content too that that covers the bases. Like I've talked about Maggiano's before if there's, or like PF Chang's, which isn't crazy, crazy fancy, but I try to cover bases for what's really popular for the most part. Like if Capitol Gorilla were like, Hey, we have a whole new menu of whatever, I would probably make a video about it. So try to make sure there's good coverage. I love food of all kinds. I love like the cheapest of the cheap, like street tacos, you know, that nobody even knows about to, I mean, Tons of fast food. It just tastes great. That's the whole point. It's really, really good to anything. One of my favorite restaurants in New York City is Jean Georges Nougatine in particular, which is by Columbus Circle. And I try to go there whenever I'm in New York. They have a really, really fantastic tuna tartare. I love sushi. I love oysters. i mean
00:27:16
Speaker
I'm not a massive steak guy these days. I used to be more of a steak person, but I like I like literally everything, man. There's there's very few things that I will like try or not try. And it's funny because I remember I posted something about like pizza toppings, like the top 10 pizza toppings, one of those stupid TikTok filters where you select it on the pick list. And I said that ah I said that cheese was the best topping for pizza. First of all, what do you guys think? What do you guys think is the best topping for pizza? Number one, only one.
00:27:48
Speaker
I'm going pepperoni. I think i'm I agree. That's valid. 100%. It's a classic. It's hard to beat a pepperoni pizza for me. Pepperoni, totally good, totally classic. I just happen to like cheese sometimes. And some guy was like, this man is a child. He has a taste buds of a toddler. And I was like, my man, I was eating calves brains at 12 years old. So I think I've earned the cheese pizza. That's awesome. if If I like cheese pizza, it's fun. It's cool. Everybody's tastes are different. I think people get so- Everyone likes cheese on their pizza. Just some people like more stuff added on me. A hundred percent. Everyone's gonna eat cheese pizza. Everything's cool. you know I'm a big of a big proponent of tastes are subjective. and People get so offended when you don't agree with their tastes with food for some reason. I'm like, guys, everybody's taste buds are different. If you like vanilla ice cream, you like chocolate ice cream, whatever, it's cool. we can all
00:28:38
Speaker
We can all live together. We can all be a society. It doesn't matter. It's not that deep. people Do you get that? Do you ever get that from the, um, that kind of talk from people who are in the more, I don't know, whenever I think of food critic, you think of like, my first thing is like ratatouille and the dude that comes in and is super snooty. yeah now do Do you ever get comments from people from that kind of community about the stuff that you do? Yeah, I think I see more stuff that talks about like, oh, you know, this food is poison. This is killing you. I'm like, guys, yeah I also think that everybody should should live according to to a decently balanced diet. And there are plenty of healthy things that you can have. I mean, although I saw somebody who
00:29:25
Speaker
i think I think she got Popeyes every single day on a calorie restrictive diet and she like lost weight. it was a like There are no rules to any of this. you know like I think these people think it take it too seriously and the reason why I do it and I talk about this stuff is because it makes people happy. like A lot of people get really excited about stuff and I didn't know that people got as excited about it as until I did the content. so yeah Yeah, there are a lot of people who look down on it and they're like, Oh, whatever. This is garbage. This is that this is I'm like, I'm like, let people live. Let people enjoy themselves. You know, it's life is crazy. Have a burger. Yeah, we love burgers on this on this podcast for sure.
00:30:09
Speaker
um Okay, you talked about some of ah Do you do most of the things that you review? Is it stuff that you're sent directly by the restaurants or getting a little the nitty-gritty? Do you do you ever like leak things that you're I'm sure that you don't because you want to keep a good relationship with these places I don't know. What what is that relationship between you and the restaurants that you're talking about? Yeah, it is a little tricky but I think that I have a lot of really positive relationships and I've worked with a lot of great brands most of the time. In terms of anything that happens to do with fast food for the most part, I usually seek it out myself.
00:30:46
Speaker
It's a lot easier when I do like grocery store snacks and things where people can send it easily. So this also goes back to the regionality thing too, is a lot of the places that I talk about for fast food, I don't just don't have in my area. But for the most part, I try and seek it out myself because there are also a whole bunch of FTC guidelines, et cetera, about receiving items. And for the most part, I don't want to Have anybody for some reason have to have to look into what I do too much to be like, Oh, well, he sent this. So obviously this is XYZ or it's sponsored or it's this or it's that. But I have started to say yes to more products now that I want to review because I don't want to spend the money myself.
00:31:27
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, if it's free, I mean, yeah, I'll review it. Yeah. And I tell people too, I just was climbing. I'm like, Hey, by the way, they sent this to me. Like we're going to do our best to be objective. And sure that's about as, as best as I could do, but usually the fast food stuff, I have to seek out myself anyway. So.
00:31:45
Speaker
So what do you typically do if there is if there's a big fast food thing and you don't have immediate access to it? You have to go out and ah do you make a trip? I wish. I sit in my room and I feel sad about the lack of access to these restaurants. But for the most part, everything that's really, really major and critical to cover, I can get to because it's like the biggest chains that we have. so Sure. OK. It's very interesting. That is pretty cool. Okay, so we've talked a lot about on this podcast. we We are big deal seekers. We love to use the apps to find the best ah value to bang for best bang for your buck. Tenz famously has got locked out of the Taco Bell app. for Are you still locked out?
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah, i watch I don't know. if yeah I don't know, man. I literally used it one morning to buy breakfast. And then the next morning, I went to do it again. And it just says, invalid payment, no matter what I've done. And when I tell you that I have exhausted every avenue of paying for this on this app, I added a credit card that me and my wife have that's just for emergencies. She would kill me if she knew that I tried to ah pay for talking about it. It's fine. she like far I think you just did yourself in with that one, man. um I got a PayPal debit card and loaded cash on it to to buy this Taco Bell on the app. I've done a Taco Bell gift card. Nothing will work. It just tells me invalid payment no matter what I do. And they've got good deals on the app. and i hit So finally someone emailed me back. That was a mistake on their part because now I just have some customer service reps email. And I have emailed this woman every day now for I think 44 days. Did you try pressing the power button? Nope.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah, restart. I've deleted the app. I've done everything. I guess the only step is to get a new phone or there's something in the back end from the, I don't know, coding data, something like that. That's, that's bugged out. That's, that is unfortunate. He's spending hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars on this. Talk about, you got to fix it. I'll hit something. I would literally, I will spend so much more money with them. If I could just use the app. I'm a big Taco Bell guy. That soundbite and just post it everywhere. I've done that and I have sent them that. This is not the first time this story has gone up. We're big advocates here. How long has this been happening for? Could you drop a copy? I do know somebody. I do know a guy. I don't know if I know the right guy, but how long has this been happening to you?
00:34:14
Speaker
for about nine months. Oh, that's almost a year. That's, that's tragic. Yeah. I try every morning. I try it every morning. I'm like, maybe today's the day might, it will finally work. I will
Fast Food Deals and Pricing Dynamics
00:34:27
Speaker
talk to some folks. I can't make any promises, but it would be, i hold listen, we're, we're just walking towards the right direction to get the right guy here on the job. seven steps away it would become familiar at least everybody' seven cent away in some sense i think is the philosophical thing so I could be like two or three steps away from the Taco Bell person that we got to talk junk. Yeah. but So we, we famously were huge fans of the, of the McPick two deal back in the day.
00:34:56
Speaker
If I could tell you how many McDoubles we bought with the McPick 2 deal, it would scare me, probably. but and I just know one time we had a competition for us to all have houses. We bought a lot of McPick 2's. This is why I'm all out of Fort Hoves. It's because of the McPick 2 deal. yeah That is accurate. And now the McDouble obviously is way more than that. four and off Back in the good old days. um We also are big fans of the the Chili's 3 for 10. It's great. you you is in respectable Do you have a deal that that's your go-to? what's your what's your What do you think is the best deal in in food right now? I think there are a lot of deals in food right now. And there's a lot of noise.
00:35:43
Speaker
because I know people want deal coverage too. My friend, Taylor, taylor eats does really, really great deal coverage. So she knows them like everything, which is really cool. I am notoriously an app user. so that's That's really like my big thing is the loyalty, loyalty apps for pretty much everything. That's what I stick to. There are just so many combos out there that exist that I'm i'm usually just looking for what I usually get in discounts on that. Whereas I less like bums. I don't even get the meals for the most part when I get stuff because I drink primarily water. So it's always like, oh, that I don't need to pay the extra 50 cents to get the coke.
00:36:24
Speaker
You know, but I just I think the apps are are good. And that's that's the whole thing. I think it's the biggest way to circumvent all the pricing because there's so many variances. People think that it's it's the brands for the most part setting the prices, but it's the franchisees that set most of the prices. And so if there's an uptrend, they're all trying to be competitive anyway, so they may undercut each other a little. But for the most part, it's the franchisees that are setting the prices, not so much the brands. So it's within their business rights to do that. So. you know and People are taking their frustration on on whoever but you know these guys aren't the ones that are necessarily jacking things up. I think that people are also seeing an opportunity and that's why we've seen such a big increase in fast food prices recently. I think there is some stuff that has to do with like supply chain materials but a lot of it is just up there for the sake of being up there. I did see a recent video about fast food pricing in the United States yeah and we were like number
00:37:15
Speaker
I don't know, like number 19 or something. first yeah you you adding and to see thing so Oh yeah. See, that i should have I miss, I miss order that list too, but I mean, 16 is, is a, you guys were like on the, like the higher end, right? Now the lower end. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of the southern states and then we were down there kind of in anger. It's expensive. Massachusetts was in the top 10. I'm pretty sure. Wow. Yeah, trembling. And it's wild. the The funny thing about that video, too, is seeing the prices just incrementally creep up from the start to the finish because they all vary. But seeing the Domino's pizza go from like $13 to like $19 was wild.
00:37:55
Speaker
or Hawaii. I feel so bad for Hawaii, but I mean, they also live on an island, man. So yeah, you can only feel so bad. Yeah. We probably have a great quality life outside of that because their weather is beautiful and it's a little paradise. Yeah, that is accurate. um I'm a big fan of the the Biggie Bag at Wendy's. Nice. That's been my go-to lately. I would frequent that. What do you get in it? Is this is a set is it a set list or is it like that? You have Here they have like a $5, $6, $7 option depending on what you want your main sandwich to be.
00:38:30
Speaker
I typically just go, I usually eating it for lunch. Like I just leave work and go pick it up. It's like five bucks. yeah And so it's a pretty easy lunch. It's like, ah I usually do the, uh, bacon junior cheeseburger with just the fries and then some spicy nuggets and a drink. And it's like five bucks. this That's a vibe. I mean, that's pretty good. it is it's all good you as screw and I'm enjoying seeing all of these brands get competitive with the deals again, because I think that they need to be and things have gotten a little out of hand. McDonald's has jumped in the, in the mix too, with their $5. I think got now. Sonic's is permanent. You know, it's not even like a, Hey, this is only for this month. It's really like, we're going to do this forever. We'll see how long it lasts, but yeah.
00:39:17
Speaker
I like that. I think it's cool. I think it makes me want to go there. If I'm like, you know, it gets five or six books and it's everything versus paying like nine or $10 for a combo meal. I love that. I mean, I went and got something from, I think I got the, like a 10 piece McNuggets when I was reviewing the special good garlic sauce and they had a 40% off, 40% off 10 pieces of nugs. They've spent like $3 on it, $3.40 or something. And I was like, sweet. deals baby deals i'm always i'm always a fan i love deals uh okay so now kind of your your bread and butter here are are some of these special items that come around um or new kind of novelty items is kind of how you phrase it um if you could bring back one item that to be a permanent item that's not in production anymore maybe it's only seasonal
00:40:06
Speaker
What would you pick? OK, one thing. So I have it off the top of my head because I'm also going to reverse you guys on this in a second. But I want to make sure that I have the actual ah the actual title of it right because. I'm just googling it real quick. to make sure that I can say it and people are like, that's not what that is. Yes. The Popsicle Jello Pudding Pops are the ones. Those to me are like the money. I miss those so much. I mean, we had those as a kid. And do you guys remember them? No. I want to look it up. Oh, you're missing out. I'm so sorry. They were amazing. It was like chocolate one. They had a vanilla one. They were money. And it's tragic.
00:40:53
Speaker
Okay, wait, maybe maybe I'm coming back around to it. They might as every time I see this. so its like it's It's like a pot. Okay, so it's a pot. It's like a frozen. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very interesting. That's what you would bring back? Yeah. What would you guys were back?
00:41:09
Speaker
I should have prepared for my own question. I know you should prepare for your question. I got it. Okay, I got it. um The Flamin' Hot Cheeto, the Balls, the Ashoins. I love those things. Those were, I feel like they were in my lunch all the time, like bring home ah From from home lunch. I always had to have those and everybody would want to trade with you I'm like nah, these are not for trade Oh snack trading with such a vibe unless you're gonna throw so unless you're gonna throw some Pokemon cards. I mean you're not getting these guys You better man. We gotta to make sure this is I'm gonna have to think about this. I don't have one on the top of my head I'll get back with you by the end of the podcast. It's okay. I have to think on it for a little bit There'll be our cherry on yeah. Yeah, I'll drop it at the end and
00:41:57
Speaker
ah That's very cool. um do Do we want to get to a draft? do we Zach, did you have anything else to add there? Anything else you want to throw in? Mix? Bring back Jello Pudding Puffs, 2024. Bring it back. Shout out. if if you I did feel like that's what we're using our plot all the time to do like, Oh, can you bring this back? And I'm like, I have no power whatsoever, but I will do my best. That's sort of the purpose as to why the talk 10 series exists. So when we get to discontinue stuff, I can be like, Hey, everybody wants this back, man. Like, come on. Like i people have spoken. Well, Mike, Mike, is one is that.
00:42:42
Speaker
I'm over-inflating my own ego with this, but I did one for fast food and also Taco Bell and the Mexmelt and the Caramel Apple and Panada were both on that list. And then a couple months later Taco Bell was like, Hey, we're going to bring these back. And I was like, wow, do you see my video? Because I did something on that. That would be, that it that's cool. I feel like you are kind of a voice for the people. I do my best. you know I try to really, really advocate for the actual customers as much as I do on behalf of the brands as well because I think that there's so much value in having positive relationships.
00:43:20
Speaker
between both of them because if you make people happy, like as a brand, you'll be really, really well off. And if you're somebody who enjoys like a cult discontinued item or want to see a tweak with whatever a brand did something that you didn't like, you know, if you want your fan favorites back, you want to have a good experience when you spend your money. So I totally get it a hundred percent. So I do my best to make sure that that people also feel like their voices are heard with stuff. So more to come on that in the future. Okay. who she love it Yeah, that's awesome. Do you, do you feel like a lot of brands are, are like, uh, out of touch with the people that they're selling food to a lot of times?
00:44:03
Speaker
That's, a again, a really good question. I don't think it's necessarily that brands are out of touch in the sense. I do think that sometimes they think that they know better than what people want, but also I think that a lot of times we as consumers are very stuck in our own ways too, whereas or Or in the sense that that a lot of times we'll be like, Oh, we don't want this new thing. We just want the old thing. But a lot of times the new thing is pretty damn good. We just also want the old thing as well. So I think that the the approach for brands in general needs to be, Hey, you you got to listen to your your people here because they they really are telling you what they want. And it's very easy. Fan service is like,
00:44:47
Speaker
the easiest marketing strategy in the world. so li and You can see in my comments or whoever's comments, like people are literally telling you straight up like what they want, what they do not want. But at the same time, I think that we as the customers also need to to like stretcher stretch our legs a little bit, stretch our wings, try some new stuff too. I think there's there's no harm in it. I i was thinking specifically about the the new Taco Bell, like the Cantina chicken thing. um when it's obviously ah a higher product, or like a higher caliber product, but also it's significantly pricier. And so they're trying to hit a different.
00:45:23
Speaker
Audio, like a market kind of. I don't know. Do you feel like that's been like a success? We think you'll see other places do something similar. Taco Bell is trying to do a lot more to get their brand recognized past the late night thing. And that's one of the reasons why the Cantina menu was created as well. And then they're doing a retirement home pop-up for millennials and Gen Zers in San Diego in August. ah Wow. Yeah, I saw your video right, like as we were sitting up to get on, I was like, I need, I bookmarked it. I was like, okay, I'm going to watch this afterwards. Cause I was like a retirement home for Taco Bell. Like, uh, sounds like I need to start shooting. They really, they really kill it with their events too. They, they always throw like a young in general KFC talk about, they do really, really fun events, but I, it it finally clicked for me.
00:46:09
Speaker
And I was doing the video and I saw the the takeaway bag and it said not, I think it said not just late night. Um, and I was like, Oh my God. I was like, yeah, they really, i it kind of made sense when they were launching the Cantina menu, but they really, really stressed in the press release that it was, it was for lunch. It was for daytime diners. So yeah it's, it's sort of like a mix, but Yeah, I think they've run a couple ads that are similar to that as well with like some celebrities of that lunchtime committee sort of. It's really funny strategy too because Jack in the box seems to be going in the opposite direction and they're like really huge competitors because I don't know if you guys knew this but Jack Jack in the box sells the most tacos out of any fast food place in America.
00:46:54
Speaker
apple that's that's mean Yeah, because of the tiny tacos as well because you literally you can't like like however many in in the box too But there I'd say they're the strongest sort of competing companies especially now that that jack-in-the-box has del taco, but Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that that Jack in the box is leaning
Fast Food Draft: Strategy and Picks
00:47:14
Speaker
into the late night stoner mentality. Russ Taco Bell is like, Hey, now we're for daytime. I'm like, this is like, it's like, it's like two ships kind of circling each other. I'm like, what's going to happen here? that thats or It's like a Venn diagram. It's getting closer and closer to each other. but Okay. All right. are Are you ready to draft? Hell yeah. Let's do it. Well, let's, say let's, let's hit a draft. Um,
00:47:40
Speaker
So just let's just do a quick one on how this is going to go. We do have six items, so so it may be a big draft. Sorry, that's my fault. But it's it's great. It's going to be good. la we ah So going to spin a wheel here in a second to determine the order. It's going to go snake draft. So whoever starts will go one, two, three, and then it will go backwards. Uh, three, two, one back to the front and then you'll have two picks from there. So it'll go on this night for me. We'll help you through it. If you need, I was going to need to hold my entire way. But if you're, if you're drafting third, then you have the third pick of the first round, but the first pick of the second, that makes sense. Okay. Um, we will be drafting six things in any order. So whatever strategy you would like, if you want, wherever you want to reach first is totally up to you. There's a lot of strategy there in the first couple of rounds. okay pressure sure
00:48:33
Speaker
Um, if you think you're going to overlap with other people's stuff. Um, so here's how I'm nervous. you made how nervous hearing you talk I don't know what you guys have hearing you with the A&W talk. I'm not sure that we will overlap very much. but That is totally fine. We love to hear about, I would, I'm going to check out A and&W pretty soon because it's not on my radar, but it should be. apparently late um Hashtag sponsor. I just, I love them so much. yeah I'll get down there and I'll tag you and and well you can tell me what what I should get. Okay, so we're going to be drafting one sandwich item, kind of as it as an entree potentially, one limited time item. So this is not available all year, or maybe it was only available for a short amount of time. Maybe it's seasonal. and I think that all of those things could qualify there. One side item.
00:49:24
Speaker
I think that's a pretty broad category as well. It could be anything not. um The entree, a dessert. We, Tenzin and I talked before, I think if you pick a dessert from one, let me just give an example. If you pick a a sonic blast flavor, all sonic blasts are now off the tape. Okay. So we can't just be picky. So um one drink. Can't all three have damn all of my eye all of my options for different flavors of sonic blast.
00:49:53
Speaker
I actually six on glass on here. Oh, that's awesome. He's about to smile. I think he's way deeper back than we do. One drink and then one wild card item that can be as far as I'm concerned, literally anything you want to put on there. Oh, I've got a sniper, the wild card. OK, so let's let's do it. Let's I'm going to spin my wheel that I have here. ah We will see whatever it is. It works sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't. So we're going to we're going to see how it goes today. Maybe we'll have a good day. Students. All right. I want to spin it. I want to show you guys what the wheel shows just to make sure that I'm not cheating here. Looks like I am going first overall. all Yes.
00:50:40
Speaker
You never want to go first. A lot of pressure on first. I like first. Let's get it. Or exactly lean into it. Second is going to be ah Zach and then I, and 10s will be third on the turn. So Zach, you won't have any back to back picks in this draft. I kind of like that second position that it's a little safe. Give you time between picks. Yeah. Okay. You ready? All right. First, first overall, I'm going somewhere that I, In my opinion is maybe the slimmest category available. And that is going to be the drink category. And I'll be taking, I know what Tenzis has on his list as a number one. That would be the Baja Blast. Baja Blast under drink. um That's maybe, I don't know if that's maybe a reach. I think Tenz would have taken it. I think that is the slimmest category. Yeah, oh damn. Natalia, you're gonna come up with one just on the fly.
00:51:39
Speaker
I only have two other options. So come with ga did you guys come with backups? because I'm scurried. If I run through my list and you guys pick something that is, I'm like diehard running risk. All right. I'm going to think on the fly. It's cool. Okay. That's exactly. You're up. Any, any, you can pick any category. Hmm.
00:52:05
Speaker
I'm thinking about this strategically.
00:52:09
Speaker
It's a lot of, a lot of strategy. it is like the thing yeah this I'm going to do dessert. Desserts for 500 Zach. Here we go. Okay. I'm going to do the Domino's Synestics.
00:52:22
Speaker
Nostalgic. So nostalgic. I remember again all the time when I was a kid, me and the boys were all Domino's at like 2 AM. Synestics every time. That's awesome. Those are good. Those are on my list. This is going to be like a personality draft here. This is usually great. Like a personality quiz, man. It's not with us. It's like Buzzfeed, but better. That's very cool. Okay. Senna sticks, dessert off the table. All right. Tens. All right. Um, I'm going to go limited time right here.
00:52:58
Speaker
And I'm willing to go with the Wendy's Orange Push-Up Frosty. ah This is very new, just kind of came in with it. I had a lot of them. ah i When I drive home from work, i right when I pull out of the parking lot, there's a Wendy's and I just so happened to pick my daughter up from school. I like to leave a little early, getting school on pretty, you know, pretty far up ahead and just chill there and eat orange frosty. So ah that was my, my snack of choice. So I went orange. I'm going to go orange, push up frosty really hyped that one up on a couple of weeks in a row. Yeah. But we talked about that a lot. We were, we were pretty sad when I was through the record. And you know, it's funny as I actually had it on my list, but I changed at the last minute.
00:53:39
Speaker
Wow. and was they yeah I love everything. That's the orange creamsicle dreamsicle, whatever. So a hundred percent respectable pick. Absolutely.
00:53:51
Speaker
All right. Well, I'm about to do, you know, we're just going to do it wildcard. I'm going to go wildcard here and I'm going to go the Dairy Queen s'mores blizzard. Oh, and good. in Cause that is, that's the best thing Dairy Queen offers any time of year. That is the best product in my opinion. That they've rolled out this year. I'm like, Oh God, I'm off in the freezer. are good Genius. Okay. It seems really double-dipped on the dessert and got frosties and blizzards. Okay. It's better than me now. That is a pretty good shot. Okay. Yeah. yeah za Back to you. We're going with the wildcard. I want to save it for laughs for dramatic effect, but I'm worried that somebody's going to take it. So the Egg McMuffin.
00:54:38
Speaker
Under wildcard. Under wildcard. Ooh. Okay. It's made it interesting. I didn't even think about breakfast and I don't know why. Well, um now I'm rethinking my whole draft. Well, I was i was struggling with it. I was really struggling with it. And then I was like, if there's one item that I could eat a million of, it's the egg McMuffin. I used to eat four of them when I was in like high school and I had a better stomach for it. Oh man. That's awesome. Okay. That was a good pick. So I think we could have we could have had another question on there about how you stay in shape whenever your job is literally. We can hit that after this if you want.
00:55:17
Speaker
Good boy. We tend to eat a lot and we we struggle there. so I do too. I've got two my two solutions. I'm in the gym almost every single day, making sure I'm doing legs and making sure I'm doing cardio, not every day. and Then I do intermittent fasting, so I eat from 12 PM to 9 PM. I feel like that has been a fantastic thing. I also drink this obnoxious in the water gallon of water that wadala water that's those are my secrets. Okay, you heard it here first. us yeah yeah What is your excuse? He reviews food for a living.
00:55:53
Speaker
Okay, interesting stuff. um
00:55:58
Speaker
classic stall tactics for my guys. You know what I'm going to do? That was good. Zach really gave me um some inspiration there and I think I'm going to ah we're going to use it. ah My wild card. I'm going to take the chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A.
00:56:16
Speaker
um It's one of my favorites. I will i can eat a lot of those and I will a lot of Saturday mornings, you know, it's a chicken biscuit time. Uh, it's one of my favorite things. It's very good. I think sandwich, uh, it's, it's a little bit unoriginal, but it's consistently one of my favorite fast food hamburgers. Uh, and I think it's the one I'm going to pick here. I'm just going to go ahead and and do it. I'm taking the Wendy's, uh, Baconator. classic. Yep. It's a classic. It's a lot of food. It's a lot of bacon. know a big burger kind of Just like what if we put a bunch of bacon and cheese on a burger? Our entire supply. Baconator. And you know, what they got me. I like the sound of baconator option as well that you can you can get them the smaller one if you don't want to commit to the full one. I think that's great options. Yeah, 100%. Okay. That's my two. So Zach, it's back to you.
00:57:11
Speaker
All right, we're going to go with the sandwich entree. I was torn between a couple of for this, but it is the what a burger patty melt. ah the patty. Okay. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about that one because we don't have, we don't have a water burger where maybe a lot of our listeners are from. So what do you like about it? It is like Texas toast, two patties, and you got a whole bunch of cheese on there. And it's super, super, super straightforward for folks who don't have a water burger, the Burger King patty melts, Burger King melts. I love, I think those are really, really great because I don't have a water burger up here. So the Burger King melts do a good job too, but yeah.
00:57:52
Speaker
Whataburger. OG. The OG Whataburger. Do they, Whataburger, I know that they exist in Texas. ah Wait, where is, is there one even close to you right now? I could be, I don't think I could be farther. I could be in Maine, but I could have a long ways to go before I'm close to a Whataburger again. They're, ah they've expanded. They've got, um this goes back to the fast food numbers. I think they've got like, 1600 whataburgers somewhere between a thousand and 2000 whataburgers. And so they're kind of clustered around Texas, but they are as far West as Las Vegas. I don't know how far East they are. Maybe Bama, but don't quote me on that. Okay. Very interesting. All right. I like that though. 10s. You got two.
00:58:44
Speaker
I got two. I'm going to go, I'm going to go side item here and I'm going to get the checkers and rallies fries. These are my favorite French fries. Um, I buy the frozen version of them all the time for at the house. We don't have a checkers here in cookville yet. Um, but they are, we have two being built. So I'm about to be one of their top customers. Pretty cool. Let me tell you checkers also massively underrated. I had their, like Baking Buford or something like that when I was doing my first time tries and it was incredible. I dread i had driven a little bit. So the the fries, I think I said the student the review, but I had driven for a bit to get closer to home. So like the fries were, the fries are solid. Like the season's really good, but I didn't have the fries like fresher, fresh, but the burger was fire.
00:59:32
Speaker
Yeah. And, and checkers makes no like, they're not trying to be healthy at all. There's not a, you can't find a vegetable on anything. Um, there's no lettuce, tomato chilling out on their burgers. It's, it's cheese and, and condiments. But I don't know. No, they're there. It's all grease bombs and they don't care. And their milkshakes are just all the, everything about checkers is awesome. I love checkers. It's one of my favorite places. I know there's some, and there's some in Nashville, right? Yeah. Yeah. There's so anytime I'm near one, I'm like, well, we're eating checkers. I don't care. Everybody else wants like I'm, I'm about to get our first one in Massachusetts. Actually, there was, I was on their website the other day and there was like an index location. I think that said that they were, they were either available in mass or they were coming soon in mass. And I was like, Oh, it's finally, people are finally realizing there's a market in Massachusetts.
01:00:29
Speaker
okay Hmm. All right. And then with my second pick, I'm going to go ahead and get drink and I'm going to go with the KFC sweet lightning oh Mountain Dew. Oh, I snipe you. yeah Let's go. That's the only thing I'll stop for at KFC. Uh, I'll have a craving for it once in a while. Whenever I would drive home from when I worked at Lebanon, uh, there's a KFC Taco Bell combo in a city about halfway between Lebanon and my house. And I would stop there and I'd be like, I'd order all Taco Bell stuff. But then I would be like, but can I get the sweet, uh, lightning Mountain Dew instead of Taco Bell product? And they're like, yeah, sure. do it
01:01:14
Speaker
But I was surprised yeah how much I liked it with the with the peach because I'm not really a big peach person. And when I tried the saucy nuggets, I was like, you know what? It's here. Everybody's ready to try it out. And I was like, dude, this is really good. I know. I know. It's awesome. OK. It's one of my favorites. It is, yes. Okay. Well, so that was, that was my drink. I know that whatever drink I have on this list is not going to get sniped this time. So that's good. You can save it now. yeah you're good I'm going to go with, ooh.
01:01:54
Speaker
Hmm. I got to think about it because then. Damn. Okay. We talked about A and&W. So let's do A and&W for the side. A&W cheese curds. And this is where you Zach, when you go there. Geez. Amazing. Amazing. We do have a Culver's here in Knoxville. So I have had Culver's cheese curds, which are very, I'm sure the Kurtaburger is on my list of things to try, but I just haven't gotten around to yet. I haven't tried that. I'm going to put on my list. So the cheese carrots at A&W. Those are them. Okay. I'm going to go get them soon. as you should Now I will make a TikTok. I'll tag you on it. Okay. So here we are. My list is is kind of crumbling at the seams as we speak. um I think I know where I'm going next.
01:02:49
Speaker
I think I'm gonna let me put this out to the people, with the experts out there, um, for limited time. How do we feel about Taco Bell nacho fries on that list? They pop up like when you Google eliminate time, but dude, they, I feel like they're at this restaurant all year round. Like every time I'm there, like it says nacho fries are back. I'm like, I thought they were already back. Cause I was just here a month ago and they were here. So what are we doing? So, or is that a no? I mean, you can pick them. you If you like them, you can pick them. You know where I stand, Zach. We've we viewed we've talked about. You shouldn't pick them. OK. Yeah. Are they going to be around for a long time? Is is this like insider knowledge? Oh, no. But I think theyre they are planning on bringing i making them permanent. They're not permanent yet. But I'm just telling you, you shouldn't pick them. You don't like them?
01:03:41
Speaker
I've never said that. I've never said that. I've never said that. I've never said that. I've never said that. Oh, so you have them on your list later? Is this what? Oh. I played the fifth. Okay. Oh, okay. The good either way. Okay. You know what? I've got, I've got to avoid them for that. I'll just, for the content. yeah have mother ask what to thing make me think here um Let's do. Oh man. I'm actually, I don't know if I have other picks to pick.
01:04:08
Speaker
Do what feels right to you, Zach. Don't let him let Zach stand in the way. I'll let this fall apart a little bit. Just go with your heart. Foul your heart. Okay. I'm going to do under dessert. o and Not dessert, actually. Shoot. This is a tragedy. Let's do dessert. From one cookout, people are going to say, I'm copying 10s, I'm not. The orange pushup milkshake from cookout. They're different round before the Wendy's have you ever had exact? I haven't had cookouts. So I gotta add it to my list. Oh oh and Yeah, you do I'm gonna do that right now just so just so I've officially I literally have a whole list of First-time tries that I have not been to yet and I'm checking them off as I make my put down frost free fire
01:04:59
Speaker
And it's where chicken quesadillas and hutch puppies are their top two items. You got to try both those. I'm going to ask you for a whole rundown for cookout. Yes. Oh, I got all the inside. It is there. Okay. Okay. It's right next to a pluckers and what else is on there? There are so many. I literally got like 50 places on here. It's in between Carvel and Carvel and in pluckers. Nice.
Secret Menu Items and Unique Food Experiences
01:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely hit me up when you go to cookout. Cause I, uh, I know all the secret menu items from my many years of working there. Oh, it's my turn again. Is it my turn again? It's my turn again. I'm stalling a little bit. Um, you know, swoie this is a problem. Um, is my list is getting short. And so I'm going to have to take a nacho fries david as my, I think I'm going to put it under my side. Actually, it's going to be for my side dish.
01:05:53
Speaker
I decided differently. There you go. yeah Very good. I really like the nacho fries. I think that was such an interesting menu item for them to add in. um Also shouting out the um the other potatoes from Taco Bell. The fiesta plate is also very good. Fiesta potatoes. Yeah, but nacho fries with a the thing that makes the nacho fries is the cheese dipping sauce, obviously. I think what what ah what a novel concept that came up with about how it's a Taco Bell. Who doesn't love cheese? With the fries. Yeah. So going off of that, this is actually the only one I had a backup for for some reason. And I feel bad doing double burgers, but who cares? The Shake Shack white truffle burger from last year was oo money. And so that is going to be my LTO.
01:06:45
Speaker
Oh, okay. Your Shake Shack. We don't, we don't have Shake Shack or much around here at all. This is why I'm coming to Boston. Coming to Boston to get Shake Shack. I've been to one in New York. I've been to one in Boston. Yeah. Taking Shake Shack and Wahlburgers for the vibes. I was gonna say Wahlburgers. Yeah. Wait, what's White Truffle? That's Boston's owner. White truffle. Yeah. White truffle. Can you break that one down a little bit? What's on that guy? That had caramelized onions, this whole white truffle sauce. And I think it was fontina for the cheese. What was that? Let's see. Shave. Break down that guy. That's a good one right there, isn't it? It was white truffle sauce. Hang on a second. That doesn't tell me. This is how this is February of last year. Damn. I mean, I'd eat that.
01:07:32
Speaker
Hmm. What cheese? did They use a specific cheese. I thought anyway, so it was basically like it was this, it was this burger that had crispy onions on it. It had like a whole white truffle sauce on it. And then it had like regular caramelized onions. I thought as well, huh, maybe I just don't remember the proper, oh no, it was really good. And I'm sticking with that. I'm sticking with that. faith I just remember biting into that thing and being like, wow. Cause I don't even like crispy onions or any of that stuff. Like the only onions I really like are pickled onions, but am I alone in that? Am I like a child? No, I like pickled onions. I don't like really like raw onion. So I'm there with you. I don't like a raw onion. It's like a texture thing. I think more so than anything. I don't know. Maybe not. It's like a flavor thing. But yeah. So I but had this crispy onions, and I was like, damn. This burger in general is a vibe. That sounds pretty ah sophisticated for a fast food burger. and that's yeah That's awesome. That's awesome.
01:08:29
Speaker
I'm sure I would. It's good.
01:08:34
Speaker
Okay, 10, your last two. Is it me? My last two? Okay. um I'm gonna throw this out there. This is a limited time item that I'm trying to pick for my sandwich. Is that allowed or is it vetoed? Under sandwich? it's still like It's still a vibe, you know? It's still a sandwich, it's a sandwich. All right. All right. I'm going to go, I'm going to go with the honey, uh, pepper, pimento cheese, Chick-fil-A sandwich. Left field pick. We thank you. I am not a pimento cheese person at all. Um, but this came out last summer. We actually did a review on the pod. Um, shout out. Yeah.
01:09:13
Speaker
And I, I loved it. I, I don't know. It's just something about it. It worked for me, especially the spicy version of it. Um, it was, it was fire. So I'm going to, I'm going to go with that as my sandwich pick. I'm very excited for it to be back in the next couple of weeks. Did you try the new Chick-fil-A sandwich? The, oh, it has a massively long name. It's the maple pepper bacon his chicken sandwich. Yeah. I haven't tried it. Yeah. It's it's okay.
01:09:45
Speaker
That's it. i was Yeah. No, it's just okay. It's just like any other chicken sandwich. with waterba sauce ba Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Okay. That's the, that's the, oh wait, I had one more. That's right. I got lost. I got lost in the snake there. I've got dessert left, right Zach? You have, you've already taken the blizzard and and the But that was, but that was my limited time and my wild card. We were taking three desserts. Tyler's about to hit us with a McFlurry.
01:10:14
Speaker
I'm the triple dessert guy. No, this one, this one's gonna, this one might surprise you. I'm going to say, I'm going to go to Bojangles and I'm going to take the bowberry biscuit is a buttermilk biscuit with blueberries and a cream cheese frosting. That's a good one. I haven't had it, but I'm, people were raving about that. Yeah. People like that a lot. It's very good. I'll go through there for breakfast and get like a bacon, egg and cheese and get one of those. Yeah, I don't know if it's really a dessert, but it's got cream cheese frost. It's got frosting on i i afess i think i'm okay with it. That's where they put it more than i heard anything else, honestly. Yeah. All right. I've got the drink left, right, Zach? Yes, that is true. This is my really left field pick, and I feel like it's going to piss some people off, but I'm just going to pick up for it. I like it. Let's do it.
01:11:04
Speaker
passion fruit green tea or black tea. I can't remember which one it is from like Gong Cha or like any literally any of the ah any of the like boba tea places with like no milk no sugar just by itself boba fire. I was gonna do I was gonna do the the sweet lightning but That's the only other thing I can come up with, because i'm I'm also not like a huge soda person. That goes to show you how much I like the sweet, light sweet lighting. But if I were to think of a drink that I could go to, I did also have the root beer float from AMW on there. But I didn't feel like that was really like a drink. I felt like that was more dessert. And I sure already had A&W and I already gone for Domino's. So my whole web of thinking there.
01:11:48
Speaker
It just crumbled around you. You should have picked the death tea from Panera. Oh my God, Panera. The charges were like $800. What was wild about that is that everybody afterwards, you had that incident happen with Panera, but then all the other brands were like, how about we do caffeinated refreshers? and then yeah Like Dunkin' people in, and we're both like, they're all sort of dead, but I was like, guys, did you not see what happened? Like, it was just a weird, weird decision, but respect to Panera for pulling it. I think they did the right thing. It was mind blowing to me that all the other brands were like, eh, whatever. Well, we'll just, we'll just do it. It's fine.
01:12:33
Speaker
Okay. well I like that. That is very interesting. Have you ever had Cheerwine before? No. Pretty familiar? What is that? Cheerwine is another cookout thing. Oh. Cookout is like the only restaurant, license I think, to sell it. It's it's like a regional drink. It's it's it's pretty small. time It's like a cherry ah flavored soda.
01:12:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's based out in North Carolina. I mean, you can buy it in bottles and stuff like that, but Cookout is the only restaurant that's licensed in the carrier. Speaking of so, it's because I was going to say that Cherry Vanilla Coke is maybe my favorite Coke of all time. Do you guys have a favorite Coca-Cola beverage? Coke flavored specifically. I'm a... Coke flavored. I'm a Coke Lime guy. Classic.
01:13:20
Speaker
And the, and the free from like 2005 with like the lime and the coconut and drink it all up. And it was right free in my head, guys. I, uh, I like the, okay. It does not cook product, but I like the strawberries and cream. Dr. Pepper, a lot vibe, a hundred percent. I does all those flavors, man. Good. So as much as your musicals, you're in like company with those. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Um, okay. Well, I've got, uh, my limited time is my last piece of the puzzle here. I'm going with a a limited time or a seasonal item that comes back around every year. I think if it's been coming around for as long as it has, it has to be, it's, it's kind of in the, I don't know. It's more than just say this was available for three months and now it's gone. It comes back every year. So I am picking the McDonald's Shamrock shake.
01:14:14
Speaker
Ooh, I don't think about it at all. And every year it comes back around. I'm like, Oh man, you like Shamar shake. It sounds pretty good. Um, and so that's mine. That's good. I do. I like those. Yeah. I do want to say I'm proud of all of us. None of us pick pumpkin spice, anything from Starbucks. Thank you guys. yeah Yeah, Mason would have been shoving that on our face. Fall season persons, the pumpkin spice flavors I am down with, but damn, I don't know if if you guys have seen the stuff that I posted recently, but we've already entered pumpkin spice season and I'm like, guys, it's hundred last year and now it's like it's like two weeks earlier than it was last year. And I'm like,
01:14:53
Speaker
Even I, like, I love fall. I like live for fall. And I'm like, really? We're doing, we're doing like the middle of July here. The fourth is like last week. yeah I saw pumpkin spice Oreos at Walmart the other day. So but yeah, I was like, come on, man. What do we do? I actually didn't know about that. I'm going to steal that for this week. Pumpkin spice Oreos are back.
01:15:15
Speaker
Man, we could have done a whole just like limited time Oreos draft probably. Next time. Oreos do have a lot in their inventory. That would be chaotic. If you guys ever want to do an Oreo draft. There's some weird ones back there. Yeah. We talked about the Sour Patch Kids flavor Oreo. That was an interesting one. What did you guys think? It was not. I i kind of, it just looked like they were weirdly like, I was like, I kind of like it, but I didn't. it was just like i don't I couldn't really figure out like how to rate them. like i I was going to do a TikTok and then I ate it and I was like, I don't know what to say. It's just weird, it's but it's like a so weird that I kind of liked it, but i'm not gonna I wouldn't pick them on purpose. I think that's the camp I'm into. My dad, I think, ate the entire thing. and I was like, hey, man, I hate wasting food, so go out for it. Go for it, yeah.
01:16:10
Speaker
Well, Zach, we appreciate your time. We will keep you really longer than we already have. But man, it was awesome going to talk to you today. we It's been a an honor to talk to you about food and some things you're definitely obviously passionate about. I appreciate the work you're doing. I mean, I think it's a very cool thing that you do. like um you know, advocating for people who who like what they like, you know? And so I don't want to pretend like it's like some noble thing or whatever, but it's very cool. At the very least, it's a very cool thing. And at the most, it's a very cool kind of yeah and in the most non noble thing ever. I'm sorry, Zach, but you can't get off the hook. What item would you bring back? Shoot. Um, boy, I was on about, okay, hang on. Shoot. Okay.
01:16:56
Speaker
okay What am I going to pick? Just in, just outside of podcast stuff. it It's very fun to put Zach on the spot. Um, he does not, he does not like this at all. You can do any of the sodas. There are so many sodas. Oh, there are a lot of sodas. Okay. This, I did see this on one of your previous videos. So I'm just going to, I'm going to do it here. Um, the surge soda. I saw that on your site that we, that used to be around bad people. want to remember drink a lot Like I said, the fan service, that's the way to do it. I do remember drinking more of those than I probably should have. Um, and I always remember thinking, man, I'm going to get so jacked up, like drinking, like I'm going to be able to energy boost. And now looking back, um I can see him so much more caffeine now that I used to do back then, but at least you're not Joel. So that'd be crazy.
01:17:51
Speaker
Those were rough. Okay, so Zach, do you want to um do you want shout out your socials one more time? Tell everybody where they can find you now that we wrapped up.
Zach's Social Media and Food News
01:18:00
Speaker
If you are interested in seeing my content, I talk about food news pretty much every single day. That is Snack with Zach, S-N-A-C-H-W-I-T-H-Z-A-C-H on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, whatever your preferred platform is, I'm probably there in some capacity. And thank you guys too for having me. If there's anything I can ever do, let me know. And ah Tyler, I'm also going to see if we can get that Taco Bell thing sorted now.
01:18:23
Speaker
Yeah so been awesome but song We love to have you on again, man. It was it a lot fun All right. Thanks, man. That'll do it for episode today Be sure to be back with us on Friday and we hope you guys have a great week. See ya