Best restaurants and food in Alaska

Jennie and Jay discuss the best restaurants in Alaska, both their own favorites as well as the answers our first year of podcast guests have given to their favorite restaurant in their place.

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Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:06

Welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie flaming, I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska travel and life and Alaska. My occasional co host and full time husband, Jay and I are committed to keeping the Alaska uncovered podcast ad free. To do that we need your help. If you're enjoying the podcast, we invite you to contribute toward tip jar, which is the first link in the show notes. We are so grateful for our listeners, and we wouldn't be here without you. Thank you and enjoy the show.

Unknown: 0:52

Do you want to know the very best restaurants in Alaska? That's what we're talking about today. We're back today, Jay and I are talking about our favorite restaurants, and the favorite restaurants of our guests in the first year of the podcast. Hey, Jay, it's been a while, like four months since our last episode. That was just the two of us. Can you believe also that we've been doing this for a year? No.

R. Jay F: 1:22

Short answer. It's kind of wild actually, uh, went quicker than I thought it would or this is gonna be episode 50. Something. Yeah. 50, which is pretty crazy. To me. It went easy and fast. Yeah. Yeah. It's been really fun. Casting is a pretty good. It's a pretty good fit for us. Yeah, as a couple.

Unknown: 1:41

I agree. It's been really closely together. Well, true. But you know, you've been a big part of it, then some of its behind the scenes. So I'm kind of I'm behind the scenes guy. And also a face made for radio, you know? Yeah. I just want to say, since we just did the cold open, I just want to give a shout out to our listeners in Fairbanks and congratulate them on surviving the last two weeks of the cold open of the year. 2024. Yeah, it's been if you don't follow the weather in Alaska from wherever you are. in Fairbanks. Well, in much of Alaska. It's been a very cold and snowy winter. But in particular, we're recording this mid February and late January, early February. It was very cold in Fairbanks, it officially hit 50 below for the first time in seven years. Yeah, so I remember 56 below. That's the coldest I ever remember. 62 below for me. But yeah, I lived there longer than I my friend Adam said that it is zero today. And you know if if you're thinking like in your mind, it's cold when water starts to freeze. That's the difference between that temperature and 85 degrees. Yeah, so yeah. They're warmed up a lot. And it's still zero. Yeah, but anyway, you've made it. Congratulations, Bourbon congratulate which, like two or three? Yeah. Ideally, we're big in Fairbanks. Yes. Yes, that's correct. Okay, so, um, today, we thought we'd talk about restaurants and food to celebrate our one year anniversary. Because one of the things if you've been listening for a while, you know that we ask pretty much all of our guests is for their favorite restaurant or favorite food in their town and channel. I also both very much like food. And so yeah, so that's why we're talking about this episode, today. And also, because you'll be listening to this in February that will give you time to plan your trip around your preferred food options, which I highly recommend. Yeah. Which is worth anywhere on Earth. Definitely worth it. Yeah. Okay. So, Jay, what's your favorite food moment from the pod or like a place you learned about from one of our guests in the last year? Well, I'm gonna call out. Well, first of all, I want to call out how much better food is in Alaska today than when I first moved there in the early 90s. Oh, yeah, for sure. There's just so much good. High quality food, prepared in interesting ways. inexpensive food. I mean, actually, food costs have gone down relative to like, general costs of life. countrywide. When I first moved there, the food was outrageously expensive. And today it's it's still outrageously expensive, but maybe more, maybe more comparable to other places. Expensive expensive food like Seattle. Yes. So I think it's it's kind of interesting and one of the I I'm kind of perplexed by why that is, except that I think, you know, like Everyone's fresh produce has to come by air. If you're eating a salad right now, most places in the United States or Europe, yes, it's not fresh produce that was grown in your neighborhood. So it came from somewhere. And I think that the global network for food has improved. But also I don't know, it's just like people. Tourism has brought a lot of more interest. And I think people are just more into food. I agree. But when I first moved there, the food was pretty rough. And what people were really excited about was any chain restaurant. I mean, when McDonald's opened an airport were in Fairbanks, it was a big deal. Yeah. And, you know, I think that is, I mean, that's kind of also true of any event in Seattle, the arrival of a new chain restaurant is a big deal, because we have a lot of people from elsewhere and they're happy to welcome their fast food from home or whatever. But you know, I just think that's really an I don't know, I just wanted to call that out because a lot of the places that were my favorites when I lived there, as a college student, and in my 20s and 30s I have revisited and been like, oh, man, they're now remembered by like, it's not that they've changed is that the bar has risen. Yeah, yeah, that's really true. So I'm gonna say that before we started doing the podcast, I would have called out my favorite restaurants in Alaska as being I mean, I just spaced out the name of the one in Juneau that's near the Douglas bridge. Island pub. No, the it's on the Junos side though. Airplane themed Oh, the hangar hangar. Yeah, hangar. The hangar was one of my favorites when I lived in Juneau. And I always loved in snow city in Anchorage is for especially for breakfast. Yep. And in I think in Fairbanks, I had probably there were a couple of greasy spoon. Breakfast places. I'm gonna leave his holdouts from my own personal Well, one of them is no longer there. Which, which one Saturdays seems closed? What? Yeah, that was my home out. Okay, nevermind. Sorry. It was it was okay to tell people about it. It was a tiny little restaurant. It was great. Anyway, but on the pod learn about you know, a couple of restaurants that I don't know. I don't think they existed back then. Anyway, I know they didn't. But one of them was John's bistro in Fairbanks, which Jamie and I were recording live in October last October. in Fairbanks, Alaska Travel Industry Conference. They're really fun and interesting. And I learned a lot about food in Alaska at that, because those folks are very into food. But the jazz bistro was a suggestion. We got there. And Johnny, you'd been there before? No, I hadn't. But I was I was the one that was like, oh, we gotta check this out. Because of amazing, tiny little place. Live jazz music. Cuban food made by Cuban expatriate Yep. Superb. Yeah. Highly recommended. It's an evening. Yeah. It's gonna take a while doing anything else. That is your evening. Normal. You want to do anything else? You'd be happy with it? No. Yeah. And yeah, so that was like, actually kind of mind blowing to me. Yeah, that was one of the best salmon dishes that I've ever had anywhere. Yeah. And it was cool. How he it's Cuban food, but it has just that hint of Alaskan. Yep. Choice. Lots of like local food and stuff like that. Yeah, that was really cool. Did anything and I have not yet been out to Alaska Dutch Harbor. But I was actually just like, really surprised. I thought that this might be when we hit a guest that didn't have a good answer for like, it's here. And Catherine from visiting Alaska. just dumped on us a whole bunch of places. I was like, I want to try these and I know not anticipate that. Yeah. So those are in my future. Shout out to Katherine for the massive on Alaska inspiration, including I had never in my life and living in Alaska being associated working, whatever. Never been like, oh, man, I really gotta go out there. And I want to go there now. And that's crazy. You I'm not sure I wanted to take the flight to get out there. But now it'd be worth it. I know. I think it'd be worth it. And I know we're talking about food, but I will just say not only awesome places to eat, but also just so much interesting, like hiking and history and yeah, you know, I yeah, I was we got to do that. We've got that honor to do. Yeah. So what about you? What what I mean, you already knew absolutely everything. As far as I could tell you no, no, Alaska. No, no, no, that's not true. So, oh, I'm going to I'm also going to call it this. I did not learn about all The pod I learned about this from a very well versed spouse of mine, Jenny, that my current favorite restaurant in the whole state of Alaska is Easter ham pizza. Oh, yeah. At the Birmingham Airport. It's in the general aviation side of Yes. Oh, the airport. And that is amazing. I would have lived there if that was there when? Yeah, when we lived there. It wasn't there yet. It was. It was great. Absolutely wonderful. Yep. Anyway, so what about you? What places? Did you get any surprises from the podcast? Have you gone to some of the places you've heard about? Well, I'm recording. Yes. I mean, there's always surprises. It's restaurants. I mean, there's Think about how many restaurants we haven't been to in Seattle. You know, many, or how many we haven't been to in Fairbanks. We lived there. Or, you know, Skagway, we did go to every restaurant that was there. We lived there. Absolutely. No question about it. Small Town. Been everywhere. But many times, but that's not true in bigger towns. So I think there's a couple things. Um, I had not been to some of the other anchorage restaurants that are owned by the same person that owns snow city, which Jay mentioned earlier has been an awesome breakfast restaurant. It's really wonderful. It's downtown. But there's usually a really long wait. And so in 2023, I went to South restaurant a couple of times for the first time. It's in the neighborhood of South Anchorage. So that makes sense. Um, I had breakfast there. I had dinner there. It was awesome. And I also had breakfast at the Spinarak Roadhouse, which I had been to many other times, but not for breakfast, and it was great. So those would be a few things. There were some other places I went to for the first time, but they weren't necessarily ones I learned about on the pod. I think. The other thing is, this year, I got to go on the Juno food tour. There's a there is a podcast episode about that from last summer. So if you're a foodie, you got to listen to that one with MIDI. And so I went to some new places in Juneau like I hadn't been to Tracy's Crab Shack before. Yeah. So I think those, those would be a couple of my favorites that I learned about. Yeah. So, Jay, what do you feel like in general, for people going to Alaska for the first time, you know, we talked about how there is some really great food, anything in particular you think people should get or avoid? Regardless, we're not talking about specific restaurants here. We're talking about, you know, genres. Food. Well, first of all, I think most ethnic food in Alaska is surprisingly good. Yep. And there's a lot of East Asian Southeast Asian inspired food. Yeah. Very, very, very good. I don't know I eat food. Korean food. Yep. Especially Korean and Thai. I would say my personal take, and someone out there can correct me. And I'd love to hear back. I don't think Mexican food is reliably good in Alaska. I agree. There's a there's some taco chains that are pretty decent, but kind of in an American taco fashion, but like, real good Mexican food? I don't I don't really think it's there. Again, you know, prove me wrong kids. That I won't argue with you about that. I agree with that. I have a two border rule about most of you, which is that if it's crossed, you know, if it's crossed more than two borders. From its origin, I'm suspicious. Yeah. Which, by the way, is part of the reason why I would say that food from all over Asia is amazing. Right? It's one it's a big ocean, but just one border. It's you Alaska to British Columbia, which has amazing food from all over Asia and most of the West Coast, but for sure, Seattle. So I would say I would agree with you that Alaska has kind of falls into that category as well. Mostly, I think, as a thing to like, avoid or maybe a surprise, like I think a lot of folks go to Alaska expecting it to be very seafood oriented, the whole state. Yeah, it's kind of in that it's sort of true, but it's worth pointing out that Fairbanks. is a minimum of a six hour drive from the nearest saltwater. And that's Anchorage, which has no fishing industry. Yeah. And that, that I think that's maybe I wouldn't hesitate to get seafood any place in Alaska, because I think Alaskans don't tolerate bad seafood. Yeah. There used to be a sizzler steak in Fairbanks when I lived there. That was before my time. And it was hysterical. No one would order anything. They went there for the steak, you know, and all the seafood, of course, was frozen and delivered on a truck, right? Yeah, but nobody would go for it. And in particular, people used to ridicule the snow crab. Because they'd be like, you know, I'm not gonna bother with that. Now, the world of crab has changed a lot since then. But back then, there was a place in town that you could get, you know, King Crab halves, for about the price of their snow crab dinner, and people don't yet know. Not gonna happen. But, so I think it is kind of worth thinking about that, like, when you go to Alaska, don't necessarily be like super focused on getting seafood, or if you're not a seafood eater, expecting that it's gonna be Yeah, everywhere. Because everywhere that there are tourists in particular, there will always be seafood restaurants and in southeast Alaska, tons of seafood. Yep. You know, and the Kenai Peninsula on the cape? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there is, but like in the interior? knots, not necessarily so much. And I wouldn't really focus on that. I mean, you think I think get better for it. So I would say that, that just thinking about Alaska as a seafood place isn't the right approach. Maybe? Yeah. What about you? Um, well, I agree with everything that you said. I think pizza is always a pretty good button in Alaska. So I would add that to the list. And you can get pizza a lot of places. So if you have a picky eater, hopefully they like pizza. Yes. Um, so that I think is the other thing that I would say, I know, you're gonna laugh at me when I say this. But I agree with you about Mexican food, there are much better places to have Mexican food than Alaska, even outside of Mexico. So yes, um, another one is salads. So salads in Alaska are usually pretty bad. So I'll tell you, in my experience, four places you can get a good salad, if you care about that. And if you don't care about that, after a week in Alaska, you might find yourself caring about a little more. Anyway. Um, and I would love if there was a place with an amazing salad that's not on this very short list I'm about to give you then I would love to hear about it. Okay, so, Glacier brew house and 49th state brewing in Anchorage. 49th. State is also in hilly near Denali. Both of those restaurants have amazing salads. East ramp pizza in Fairbanks has amazing salads, and big Delta brewing. Not the like tap room, but the restaurant also has amazing salad. So other than that, it's a little, that's a little bit of a tough call. So send me your solid recommendations. Right. Um, yeah, I think so. I think those are my kids. And I agree with you about seafood. Like, of course, you'll find lots of amazing seafood in Alaska. But don't limit yourself just to that, unless you are completely a seafood fanatic, then you should just take advantage of that, especially if you're absolutely Nebraska. Right. Right. I think I think I love what you said that sometimes people who don't like seafood, which is quite a few people actually will be like, will I be able to eat without seafood? And I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, you'll have lots of options. So yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think it's also worth just pointing out that that most places that seafood is going to have been frozen at sea and brought so the distance doesn't really make that much of a difference. Yeah, it's just more about whether there's like the culture is really focused in that town on amazing seafood or not. And if there's local seafood available, which there is in a lot of eons like Homer and Right, right, right, right. Right. And even Anchorage, that's it sometimes Fairbanks, but you're right, it's not as easy to get there. Right. You know, yeah. And you know, another thing I want to I'm interested if you agree with me on this, but I want to say that I think folks shouldn't I know a lot of travelers are really focused on online reviews. And I want to tell I would say personally that people should take it with a grain of salt. And the reason is partly that when I've looked at reviews, I've restaurants I know are very, very good. I've seen a lot of bad reviews from and I think one of the things that happens. I think visitors are such prize by the often the bad reviews are about the time it took, for example, I saw someone who gave Charles Bistro, like, one star review, because they had to have a thing planned later in the evening. And it was took so long to get their meal. They couldn't make it to that. And I think so, I have often heard you warning folks that that things will take longer than you think they will. Yes. And if you but if you exclude those, because that's not really that's fairly universal. Yep. It's in the whole state, in the whole industry to some degree. If you exclude that, and sometimes unrealistic expectations, yeah. Like folks who give a restaurant in, you know, Kotzebue one star, because their salad was just Iceberg lettuce, like, you know, things like that, that are maybe an expectation that isn't going to be realized, yeah, there, if you remove those, you find something often a little different. And so I just think it's worth I mean, I'm not saying you shouldn't pay attention to those, but don't use that as your only guide, ask locals. You know, trust what other people tell you, but don't necessarily just jump right on the like top rated things on TripAdvisor, or I totally agree with that. I just feel like there are some places I've seen that are just wonderful restaurants that I see have gotten kind of put treated poorly. And on the other hand, if there's like a very specific comment that talks about the hygiene or something. Yeah, you could pay attention to that. Completely. Yes. But yeah, yeah. I, I'm glad that you brought that up, because I think that's really important. And if you want an excellent food recommendation, if you're in a cruise ship port in southeast Alaska, ask and you're taking a tour, ask your guide for what their favorite places to go are. If you're taking an Uber or a lift in Fairbanks or Anchorage, if you're taking an Uber lift, it will be in Fairbanks, Anchorage, because they're not gonna happen anywhere else. Because that's a great place to ask your driver like hey, you know, where's what's your favorite pizza in town? Or I'm looking for a great Thai restaurant, do you have a favorite? That's a great way to go. Or the, if you're staying in a vacation rental like verbo or Airbnb, ask you send your host a message, ask them for their favorites. A lot of people will offer that without you asking. But you can also ask folks at your hotel and link if your hotel has a restaurant. And you ask the people at the front desk for their favorite restaurants. They'll give you a real answer there. They're not gonna say, oh, only our restaurant, you know, they might recommend their restaurant if it's a good one. Like for example, pikes landing which is next door to Pikes waterfront Lodge is an awesome restaurant is super popular with locals and visitors. So and it's the only restaurant you can walk to from there. But yeah, you can you can trust local people in their recommendation. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing I think. Don't Don't blow off. Also, if you ask you to please and they recommend the in house hotel restaurant. That doesn't it's not necessarily just a corporate policy. Yeah, there are there are quite a few hotel restaurants in Alaska that are among the best in the suite. Yep. And, and lovella Bistro and Fairbanks is like pikes the restaurant predates the hotel. Yeah. by a longshot, actually. And so like the it's an incident institution. I learned that when I was in New Orleans actually working on an oil spill, and I blew off a recommendation several people had given me in a hotel about the hotel restaurant, and I found out later that it's like, one of the pets like New Orleans restaurants in the Yeah. And I was like, Oh man, I totally blew that off. Because I was like, Oh, they're just giving me the corporate policy, you know, on that and so yeah, that's a really good, that's a good piece of advice. Um, yeah, I think that's all I want to say about that. Thank you for bringing that up. Okay. Should we do the hot takes and favorites. Oh, before we go to the specific towns, okay, let's let's start up. Okay. So I bit of a hot take, but I am going to tell you out there listening that I think that Fairbanks and Juneau are the two best food cities in Alaska. Now. I've never been to a place in Alaska that doesn't have some good food. And Anchorage, of course is a bigger city. And it has a lot of great restaurants but I feel like Fairbanks and Juneau are the best because of the variety that they have of really good and interesting food. In pretty small towns, Juno is much smaller than Fairbanks. But both of them really kind of shine. So we'll talk more about those in detail. You know, we have lots of episodes of this podcast that have covered both Fairbanks and Juneau. And every single time that Jay and I have had a guest on this podcast, we have asked them for their favorite restaurants. So another way to get some good local recommendations is to find you know, what if you haven't listened to if you haven't listened to all 50 episodes and counting, shame on you. Yeah. You can always go back and listen to all the Fairbanks ones and you know, get everyone's suggestions for that. So sorry, I'm giggling because our dog Stewart is in the next room and he is sleeping. And it's adorable. I'm just I don't, I can't hear it, if you can hear it in the mic. It's amazing. Yeah. And by the way, one thing that Jay and I have laughed about a few times since we've been doing this. So like I mentioned, we have quite a few episodes about Fairbanks. And we have more planned. I don't think we've had a guest who has been from Fairbanks or the Fairbanks area, who hasn't mentioned Thai food as a favorite. And to me, this is natural again, I moved to Fairbanks when I was 17. And I think Thai food there as being like a complete standard. And of course, why wouldn't you think Fairbanks Alaska right next to the North Pole in America would be a superb time for us. But it's legit true. And now I get it. But it's weird. And I don't think even since we moved away, I don't think we've ever been there without having Thai food. And why would you miss them? You also have very good Thai food in Seattle. So it's not like it's something we can't get elsewhere. But anyway. Okay, so, Jay, do you have any fear or anything else you want to say about that? Well, first of all, I would like to thank you for snubbing anchorage as the Fairbanks defender. It's also great to do an episode just about fixing anchorage has a lot of good restaurants. It's coming and some real some real classics and last winter uses a classic Alaskan restaurant Compiz it took me some really great places. But you know if you haven't caught on to this before, I'm I'm Fairbanks. I'm defensive of Fairbanks. And a lot of a lot of folks in Anchorage like to think the rest of the state is a backwater. And it's just not true. And it's not true. And no matter what they think. However, and I think per capita, though, I think it's legitimately true. I think Judo per capita has got to be right at this point. Yeah, there's superb seafood and you know, there are some superb there's a couple of at least there used to be a couple of good bakeries in Juneau, and it's all walking distance in downtown which is pretty cool, because that's not the case in any other of the other places. Yeah, I would squeeze Sitka in there as like a very close one as to Dark Horse. Yeah, there are many excellent restaurants in Sitka, but I still give Fairbanks and Juneau the edge and yeah, it's true. But anchorage anchorage does have lots of great restaurants. I think I would kind of expect that in a city of 300,000. Yes, it's unexpected. I would not expect it in those other two towns. Yeah. If I didn't know. Yeah. And I think that's, that's a really good way to put that actually, is that. Yeah, I think that that makes a lot of sense. I actually, I'm gonna throw out there as a dark horse that I am surprised and most folks won't get a chance to believe. I kind of love Homer. Yeah, Homer has great restaurants. And actually Seward too, but yeah, they both kind of have a surprising quantity. Now. Just uh, you know, they're they're they're tiny towns with a couple of good restaurants. But yeah, really good. Yeah. I think if I ran barbecue, yeah, and Seward sincere. It's one of my biggest surprises in the state of like, This is amazing. Also in Seward, resurrection coffeehouse. Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite coffee shops in the world. Yeah. And that would come to my surprise so those places have some and everywhere has their Delta Junction used to be a place without a whole lot going on but brewing is Yeah, really good brew pub. But again, that's that's the kind of the place Yeah, yeah. For diner. Yeah. Which the buffet if you're driving the Alaska Highway, you want to have two wheels and delta one on the way in and one on the way out. And there's toke you know, which wears what restaurant do you eat out and talk Jenny? Well, you Eat fast Eddie's obviously everyone needs to fast at these luxury tour fast. Eddie's driving a semi truck fast at ease. Yep. Driving a Subaru from Florida. You fast fast Eddie's Yeah. And I'll tell you what if you've been on the road for five or six days eating your own food out of cans fast Eddie's is delicious. Yes. Totally agree. It's legit a great a great place. Okay. Okay. Anything else you want to say before we take a break and then talk about specific spots? No, let's do it. I guess I kind of I broke ahead a little bit. That's okay. Okay, I don't follow the I don't always follow the script very well, why I'm occasional co host. Okay, let's get a break. Hi, everyone. Jennie here, I just wanted to let you know about a couple of the other ways that I can help you with planning your trip to Alaska besides this podcast. One of them is my Alaska travel planners, which are digital documents where you can keep track of everything for your trip in one place. Stay organized, and share it with your travel companions. And I have different ones for different types of trips. So those digital planners along with my pre made itineraries, which are five of my absolute favorite all time, Alaska itineraries. All of that is in my online shop. So if you want to grab that, that is at shop dot ordinary dash adventures.com. And if you're looking for a little more personal help, or perhaps you're a little further along in the process, and you need some help deciding between a couple different tours, or locations, or something like that, or maybe you're at the beginning, and you just need the basics, have your itinerary figured out. That is what my 30 minute zoom planning sessions are all about. And that is your time to use however you want. It's super fun. We can talk about whatever you need help with. And I'm really good at helping you in a short time. Get through the decisions you need to make. And then finally, if you want me to do it all for you. I can do that too. And you'll find all the links for these in the show notes right below the tip jar. All right, back to the show. And we're back. I'm still I'm still messing up the plan. Okay, that's fine. You mess it up. Everybody's back from intermission. Welcome back from intermission. Yeah. Jenny, what's next on our plan? Well, we were going to talk about the three biggest cities sort of in Alaska. And some of the best food options there. Right. And, you know, I already kind of started doing that a little Yeah, that's okay. I think we can carry on this is a conversational episode. And in case anyone thinks it any of any of these ideas are in any way sponsored, or new, organized or used to, like, get some sort of favor for someone if it's not clear by this point. That is absolutely with any of our episodes, but definitely not yes, one. This is a We are a free podcast, and we are ad free and we are bias free because nobody's paying it. Well, we're not completely bias free because I'm biased. But yeah, yeah. We're biased by ourselves. And I'm also biased by our guests because I love our guests. I know that's what's made this podcast so fun. Okay, so since I was kind of picking on Anchorage, yeah, let's start with Anchorage. Okay. What's your what are your top hit points on Anchorage? I think we should just throw out there a couple of places that are the standards that you will hear grantees. Yes. Snow city. Before news this was this two pizza. Absolutely great pizza. Do you expect it to wait a long? Long Wait, yeah, but it's great. Absolutely great worth it. But it's you know, it's gonna be your evening. Yep. Any other like standards we should throw out there? Those are the ones like if you Google best places to eat in Anchorage, like you'll probably find those ones. I'm actually once I have to tell you, when we were there just a year or so ago, I looked for best restaurant near me. And it said Olive Garden. I don't think I knew there wasn't. I was like, Wait, there's an olive garden here to go next. Maybe there's I hope that could be that someone named a restaurant also have salt. I'm guessing if I was an Italian restaurant, or I might just name it all of garden near me. Yes. Oh, maybe that's what it was. Yeah. Okay. We'll have to investigate that before next trip. Anyway, okay. I'm on top. I'm on top. Yeah, no, it's cool. Um, if you haven't listeners gathered this by this point, Jay also has ADHD tools. And then I need tools to stay on track when I'm with him. Um, okay, so, okay, so those are great spots for me in general with Anchorage, it depends a lot on why you're there and where you're staying. What I would recommend, but um, I think, you know, mooses tooth is really like, well known and the pizza is fantastic. You can also go to the beer tooth grill with the movie theater, you can get the soda theater pop, right? Yeah. You also can get muses tooth to go and then not have to wait quite as forever. So those are some options, I think. Um, so if you're staying downtown, oh, first of all other good pizza options. So hearth is a great pizza place I've ever been there. Where is it? Stamp yachts? wood fired? No, it's not downtown. It's near. Where are you? I used to be, that will help our listeners. But yeah, you know, and one thing about Anchorage, too, is to know that Anchorage is extremely distributed. And so like when people talk about the best places in town in Anchorage, they can be within about a 20 mile range really, that people are talking about as the greater Anchorage. Yeah. So you kind of if you're looking for a restaurant recommendation, you might need to tell folks if you mean, I'm staying downtown. Is there a great restaurant there? Because it could be that it's like a $50 taxi ride to get your Yeah, yep, yep. So um, I would say, Oh, another place for pizza downtown is flat top pizza, which I just went to for the first time this summer. I think it's pretty new. And it was great. It was a great spot. I went there for lunch, when I was there with my guests on a ship day and it was great. So other things downtown. I really love the midnight sun cafe for like a quick breakfast sandwich and good coffee. It's kind of across the street from the mall. It's very small, but they have great food. And there's a couple of James Beard nominees in Anchorage that that were just announced like a week or two ago. And I haven't been to either of these El Toro bistro and whiskey and ramen. I believe they're both downtown. But I am looking forward to to checking those out. I think anchorage also has excellent Thai food. Any food from anywhere in Asia is going to be really good in Anchorage pizza is going to be good and Anchorage. Seafood is going to be good in Anchorage there. There are lots of great restaurants. So again, I think it depends on kind of what you're looking for. And you can totally ask a local for what you're looking for. And they'll help you find it. Just, I just have to, again, I'm I'm on a tangent, but I just remember there is a pizza restaurant on the Seward highway called Costa Vita. And if you look at their name, it's like a it's like a road stop. And it's it's actually it's it's near. Is it the one in Girdwood it's on the turnoff to go? Yeah, yeah. Coast pizza sign is kind of funny looking at it's because it used to be a taco shop. And they rearranged taco to make tacos to make coasts. Which is the most Alaskan. They're like, how can we name this pizza restaurant in such a way that we can reuse the tacos? And it's like, it's brilliant. I absolutely love it anyway. Also, I like their pizza. But it's all like walk in joint. Yeah, if you get that if you're driving with ice cream shop next door, which is called the ice cream shop the ice cream. So speaking of ice cream, wild scoops is another who plays for eighth grade. There's a couple locations, but it's like, very good ice cream with local ingredients. And I also want to say for folks who maybe are coming from different regimes, Alaska, like other places on the outskirts of saltation, but like places that have especially pleased to have rugged weather. Don't judge it by the look, if you look at it, yeah. If you look at the place on Google Maps and street imagery, or you drive by and you're like, oh, I don't know. I don't know about that. You know, don't don't blow it off. There are like I was reminded of that when we just were up and tuck tuck in, in Northwest Territories. Yes. And you know, it's when blasted everyplace looks like it's a complete and you go inside and it's like warm and friendly. And you know, yeah, and that can be true in Alaska to some places are really beautiful, really recently played, done. Places are often quite lovely outside or have good. But if you look at it, you're like, I don't know that place. Looks like it's an industrial park. Like it might be. Yeah, it might be awesome. Yeah. And part of this is just the weather is really difficult. It's, you know, outdoor stuff gets beat up a lot by wind and weather and freezing and whatever and stuff so, so yeah, just keep that under buys me things like that don't necessarily aren't a reliable indicator. Yeah especially in Alaska Yep. Yeah totally agree with that. I think let's leave anchorage for their for their for now because we are going to do a whole episode about anchorage food in the summer so want to throw in? I'm not sure you've ever been there but I want to throw in just before we leave. Leave anchorage my personal favorite, which is club Paris. Yeah, I haven't been I know that it's it's a it is a local traditional favorite. They have pictures of it from the big earthquake. It's been there forever. Yeah. And they have a baseball cut sirloin steak. Super herb. Little hole in the wall place steak restaurant. It's a steak restaurant. Yeah, basically. Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's kind of a bar with a steak problem. Ya know, no comparisons. Like if you want to get a touch of what anchorage was like, during like, the pipeline, and pre pipeline days. That's the place to go. It is long predates any kind of tourism. Yeah. And it's a good place to get like, authentic local flavors. Yeah. Superb. Yep. And, you know, I'm glad that you brought up club Paris because it's a steak restaurant. And that reminds me of a common question people have, which is will I be able to eat anything in Alaska on various types of special diets, right, whether that's gluten free, or vegetarian or vegan, dairy free, things like that. And wow, that is something that has really, really changed in the last 20 years, like apps tremendously. I would say. If you're in Anchorage, or Fairbanks or Juneau or on a cruise ship, you're not going to have a problem with any of those things that I just mentioned. However, in smaller places, that might be a little more challenging. So it would be worth doing some research, but you can definitely find very good vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and dairy free food though. The one thing I would say about gluten free my experience in Alaska in general, is that compared to a big urban area in the US, or probably even in Europe, there aren't as many places that have a gluten free option for things that would otherwise have gluten, right. So like gluten free pastries, or pizza crust or sandwich bread. It's not that they don't exist, but it's much harder to find. Absolutely. So. So I would think in terms of if you're gluten free, I would think in terms of things stay away from things that typically don't have gluten anyway, and you'll have lots of options, but that's one thing that's different. Okay. Fairbanks, okay. Okay, Thai food. Yeah, I cannot recommend Thai food. Yes. There's some really great Thai restaurants. There's a lot of them. Yes. Do you have a favorite J? Oh, man. I mean, Thai house. I'm partial to Thai house a lot of people grass new lemongrass is really good to lemongrass is also great. My house is another one of those places. It's like in the building that the school district is in and downtown. Enough it doesn't look like much. Yeah. Very, very good. Lemongrass is also one of my favorites when we lived on that side of town. I read that, but there's a there they're all good. I haven't been to a bad Thai restaurant there. I mean, they're not there. And they're surprisingly they all have their own specialties too. So yeah, highly recommend any Thai restaurant there I think we both know that Fairbanks is kind of a go to place for diner restaurants. I mean, they're no fast Eddie's or anything but you know, not quite nobody can compete with fast No, I think there's there's a lot of there's a tradition there again, looking back to the time before our current stage of it lots of lots of tourism and and easier food transportation stuff of diner food because it's could be easily transported. And so but folks there really like if there's a steak it's gonna be good. Yeah. And there's gonna be places like fries and deep fried foods are really good. Anything in Fairbanks that is made with blueberries. Good. Yeah, yeah, they're almost always local. Yes. Like hot licks, which I'll level blueberries. And this isn't Fairbanks, but we gotta call out the blueberry soda made by 49 state brewing, right? It's pretty. Yeah, it's the brand is frontier soda, but it's made by Oh my god. It's The Best Sound I've ever had in my life. It's so delicious it is. And I'll ask him to do blueberries really, really well. So if you see something a bit, especially in Fairbanks, because Fairbanks is essentially a wash and blueberries in summertime, yeah. So anything that's in that's doing blueberries. So, you know, since we left, which last time I lived in Fairbanks was 2006. I think. And since then, like craft beer, yeah. has become a thing. Yes. And all over the state, obviously. Yep. But a couple of really good brew houses in Anchorage for the United States. Yep. Really, really sure very house. And the Fairbanks has got quite a few to and they're reliably good places for food. I do not like a lot of the Northwest style beers like IPAs. And that's not as pronounced there as it is in the Pacific Northwest, which I like that you tend to get a good variety of, but it's good stuff. It's quite Yeah. And one thing about Fairbanks specifically, is they're typically taprooms. So they might have a food truck, but they don't. I can't think of a brewery in Fairbanks that has like a full kitchen except for silver Gulch, which has been open kind of inconsistently since the pandemic. So yeah, let me know if you can do something. Yeah, I was thinking of the lake because there's hoodoo. Berberine and lat 65 and black spruce. And those are all wonderful, but they all are. Tap rooms without food. Right? Yeah, I was just thinking, how I'm trying to remember the name of the place that was I'm gonna like embarrass myself if I start just like naming directions like I would, Jenny if we weren't on. Well, think of it. It's over on the other side of Johansson and but the whatever anyway, yeah. Um. But yeah, so also hoarfrost distilling, which isn't there are several good distilleries in Fairbanks also. But hoarfrost is. is awesome. They have lots of really cool, cranberry concoctions and cranberry like blueberry is everywhere generally speaking in interior Alaska and things with cranberry will be delicious. Don't always think it was banks Ale House. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that's like a full but I don't know that they're actually brew anything. I'm not really sure. But they have a full it's a full restaurant, and they have a cool theme and they have Alaskan beer and stuff like that. The The one other thing? Well, a couple other things I was gonna mention about Fairbanks, like some of the favorite things depend a little bit on the time of year. So like, for example, Fairbanks has several restaurants, especially pikes landing in the pump house that are right next to the river. And if it's a sunny summer day, you can just hang out there and have some food or drinks. And that's a really great atmosphere. The pump house also the pump house is an excellent restaurant. But I especially love brunch there. It's really, especially in the winter, when it's like, you know, cooled and maybe snowing and maybe you stayed up until like 3am Looking for the Aurora and you roll out about at 10 And you're like, why people stay up till three? Well, there was right reasons. But anyway, also Yeah, and that's a good, good thing to bring up too. Is Fairbanks, a place with a very short summer has superb outdoor dining way better than Seattle, which where you can eat outdoors all year long if you wanted to. Yeah, and the brain freeze season here is longer than it is. Yeah. But I think because they celebrate summer in such a big way. Everywhere. Lots and any restaurant on the river that has a that has a riverfront deck. Go there. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And then I was just gonna mention to Jade and I both talked about jazz bistro earlier. Lovells is another great kind of more fine dining restaurant that's downtown. That is another Yeah. That is another really great option. Okay, so the last thing I feel like maybe we need a food episode about Fairbanks Plater, I don't know. A few months maybe we'll far north tie we got the tie right. I reviewed your one hour review. I'm wondering I just wanted to mention if you have ever watched the show, diners, drive ins and dives there are several Fairbanks restaurants that have been on that show really Yeah, I'm one of them is pagoda in North Pole, which I'm going to just personally say and I've talked this summer I asked a couple of friends in Fairbanks like it's a good restaurant but it to me it is a pretty normal Chinese restaurant. Um, so but you know, it's famous so there's that. Another one is Big Daddy's BBQ which is in downtown Fairbanks and it I am a born and raised see Autolite so I'm not allowed to judge barbecue. I'm not allowed to have an opinion about it. I like it. But I'm basing this review more on my guests on my tour who have been from places like St. Louis and Texas, and Tennessee who really loved it and thought it was fantastic. So and you liked big daddies. But oh, you're from a sort of a Cal State? Yeah. Well, you know, Wyoming, Montana takes their beef. Seriously. Yes. Yeah. But maybe not a barbecue steak. Barbecue. But yeah, I found it very, very good. And again, another place. The outside is not what it's about. Nope. It's a concrete building that's painted orange. Don't worry about that. Just go in there. It's amazing. It's huge, too. So it's a place where if things are busy, they can there's just a lot of table. It's slow, but it's worth it. And you know, big daddies and firebrand barbecue are, I'd say the best barbecue in Alaska, which doesn't have a ton of barbecue, but those ones are really top notch. Absolutely. And I'm basing this on people from barbecue states, not just my own opinion. Okay. What's next Jay? Should we get to shall be had on south to do you know, do you know the Alaska capital? Do you know? Um, do you know is an amazing food city. We already have an episode about food in Juneau with Michi. More from Juneau food tours from last summer. So go back and find that one. If you like food, and you're going to Juno, not only is that an amazing tour, it's so fun. There's only when I did the tour last summer, I think there were six of us, five of us on the tour. There are some times more people than that, but not more than like eight or 10. Right. So it's a pretty small group. Um, so I don't want to give away all of Mudgee secrets that we talked about in that episode. But I would say again, we were talking about the James Beard nominees or award winners recently. So in bocca al lupo, which is an Italian restaurant in Juneau, won an award this year, so that's pretty awesome. And so did a mulga distilling, which is a wonderful place in downtown Juneau, they, it's a distillery. They also do quite a bit with local rhubarb. So like my friend who lives there, when I went there with her this past summer, she brought an entire bag full of rhubarb that she treated in for at least part of the summers worth of drinks at a maga so that's a fun place. Um, the fish all the seafood of all kinds is amazing. And you know, definitely don't miss Dave's deckhand tacos, which is a food truck. The hanger Jay talked about earlier, the hanger is awesome. I'm gonna ask, What's your opinion on the Red Dog? It's very tourist oriented. It's near the cruise ship terminal. Yeah, I don't think I've ever eaten there. I've been there but I don't think I've eaten food there. So I'm just wondering about it. You know? It's weird in Alaska to sometimes the like, touristy place everyone goes. is legit the best place? Yeah. Like Tracy's Crab Shack is that in Juno's so do not not go to Tracy's because there's lots of tourists there. Like right, don't miss it. It's fantastic. And if you don't want to spend the money for crab, which is very expensive, what I would suggest is getting the crab bisque that comes with or the crab cakes which are much more affordable and are both amazing. Yeah, that's a good example of something you know, we've had people on this podcast to have worked professionally in the fishing industry and they're like nobody's better than tricks. So yeah, definitely want to do on that topic just because we were just talking about touristy places and what and, and I haven't given you any chance to think about this. So I'm gonna put you on the spot right now and ask you. What's your opinion on the salmon bakes? Every town in Alaska to my knowledge has the same day Gino has one. Skagway has one Fairbanks has one. I don't know if there's one in Anchorage. Haines has one sometime. Yeah. What's your take on there is one in Juneau anymore? Actually. It's close. But I'm not totally like out towards the ferry. I don't know if Yeah, that's good. Me on. I am not trying to dodge the question. But this has been my experience with them is that they are can be amazing and sometimes are not quite prepared for the volume that's involved. So both my personal experience and that of my guests on tour over a couple of decades is that it might be awesome. And sometimes it's not. So I know that isn't every state Reading answer but that is I just I just Googled because my computer is up in here and the Gold Creek salmon bank is indeed still operate what is okay yeah. So if you're not familiar with this it's a common to her told us sold on ships and on group tours and and independently to people and generally you'll like Delson buses to big hotels. And you'll there'll be like two seedings and or one or whatever. And you will go through a line with like paper plates and you'll get some salmon and some side dishes. Usually a grilled salmon. like sort of a classic salmon with garlic and lemon or something like that kind of a whirl. Sometimes it's got more of a native Alaskan flavor to it to like alders or something and sometimes it's less so. And often they'll be like sourdough bread or corn bread or something like that. And then there'll be like, picnic tables. Yep. Hands often these bowls serve several 100 people at a time. I feel like they're often a bit of a disappointment. In some of them are really good. I mean, the Skagway salmon big had entertainment and people loved it. Yeah, I never I never remember people being upset about it. Yeah, some of the other ones. I've I've definitely seen folks who were pretty disappointed in it. Yeah, same. So I think it's worth thinking about, but I would I would think about one thing is awesome is that they do provide almost always there's transportation somehow included in the in the thing? Yes. And they often has some form of entertainment. But I wouldn't necessarily jump to that right away. Often there's a more smaller, more independent local option that might be better. Yeah. One exception to that now that I'm thinking about it is the cabin night dinner theater in Denali. Which is a it's not just salmon, but it is a salmon bake dinner with a show. And I've you know, people really love that. And the food is very consistently good. It's at Denali Park village, which is about six or seven miles south of the entrance. And if you're staying there, it's a complete no brainer. And I'm just realizing that when we had an episode where we talked about it with Robin, which was just about in January, we didn't really talk about cabin night. So yeah, it's great. And it's consistently really legitimate question. I feel like they're kind of hit and miss and like, it's definitely a thing. You you if you're going to be in Alaska for all you should do on you know, Oh, definitely. It's, you know, it's a kind of experience. And if you're going to Denali cabin night is a really good that's a good one. Yeah, yeah. So I would also say if you're going to pick one and the liar is liars, Ville and Skyway, right, yeah, I don't know if they still have salmon, but yeah, salmon bait, but I bet they do. Right. But yeah, that one was always great. Oh, I just looked at Yeah, it says it's the wires go Gold Rush and salmon bake. Like bread, but it is yeah. Anyway, we can leave Juneau as written because there's just so much there. And you have it pretty well covered. But again, yeah, surprisingly, city with a lot of good food. Yes. I also want to throw I'm gonna throw out here because we're talking about genome on the coast too. Don't be afraid. Don't ever feel like you're getting, like if you eat on the ship that you're like, like you're doing something wrong. Like, oh, yeah, the ship. You know, when I'll just tell you I've lived in many communities in Alaska, where getting on the ship to eat was the best possible thing you could do. And that's partly because they were very tired of what we had locally. But the ships have fresher food than most of the towns do. And they always have superb chefs. Absolutely superb chefs, every ship I've ever been on has superb. Yeah, chefs and food. And so don't be afraid. Like if you're like, oh, you know, it's gonna be too tight knit don't feel bad about eating on your ship. Like, I've never, I don't know if there's, I've not I have not been on all the cruise lines or companies or anything. But yeah. We're talking a lot about the local food. And I think you should take every advantage. But if you don't, if that doesn't work out for you, like you're not, you know, totally agree with that. You're not You're not like me, and we haven't even talked about crucial. Oh, yeah. I'm just saying that like that legitimately in you know, it's not an option. So I think sometimes folks feel early, like, oh, no, I didn't have enough time to get you know, my tumor was too tight. I didn't get a chance to eat in town. And I'm like, missing out on all the great places that Jenny and Jay told me to go and like Yeah, I mean, cruise. Ship food is amazing. Yeah. So don't don't feel like you missed, you know, like you said, anyway, yeah. Okay. We haven't even talked about all the other cruise ports but we do have episodes about most of those in which we talked about food. And as part of the episodes so Right, yeah, okay, I think all of them except Citko, which has great food. But anyway, we have an episode about sick kids. We've hit the big three the top three cities in Alaska. So now's your chance for off the beaten track options. Do you want to you want to throw out any? Not in a big towns? Yeah, I used to just kind of throw out a few. Does that sound okay? Because then just given to me, I was like, we haven't even talked about all the Greek food in Alaska. I mean, like, I'm already starting, we're getting really close to the end. And I'm already like, other things that we think we're about. But we're good morning to the number where an hour almost exactly an hour again, this point and we're so it's fine. We're still just, this is why we asked people about it and every single episode. Yeah. Okay. So I am going to say number one, so you're asking me about, like places that aren't in a big tent outside of those places. Sort of really good. Yeah. Yeah. Off the beaten path. Okay. Surprises. places it like, are remarkable for where they're at. or Yes, yeah. Okay. So, top top hit has got that falls into that category has got to be the Orange Thai food. Sorry to bring up Thai food again, but I'm not kidding. There's good Thai food. Yeah, the Orange Thai food truck at the grizzly bear across the street from Denali Park village near Denali National Park. Now, yes, okay. Actually, you can, you can see, I mean, you just walk across the river and you're in the park right there. There's several trails. I eat this Thai food truck, at least once every time I'm in Denali, which is, as you know, a few times every summer because I stay at the village. Usually, usually, the groups that I'm traveling that I'm leading are staying there. So at the Thai food truck you can get not only is the food amazing, the portions are huge. Almost everything is between 20 and $23.02. People can easily share it or like I'll eat half of it and have the other half for lunch the next day. And this is a place where hot dogs cost$15. So it's really a bargain. The food is amazing. Yeah, that's all we want to say about that. So you got to do that one. I think a few other places. You know, I mentioned we haven't had an episode about Sitka yet, which we will we just haven't yet. I'm sick has another place with a James Beard Award winner or nominee, which is the restaurant called I'm not sure if they pronounce it be a K or beak. It's B eak. It's a really good restaurant. It's small. But the food is just incredible. I don't. I've eaten there a couple of times and everything that I had along with everyone that I traveled with, like loved it. So yeah, so that is a great but also there's another fish, like fish food truck in Sitka called ash Mo's. And that was a place to remember their smoked salmon mac and cheese. I do. Yeah. And they also had fish tacos. Anyway. Um, I mean, thinking about places, a few places I was gonna mention, we've already talked about like big Delta Berberine and firebrand and Homer. Um, okay, I'm gonna mention three others, and then hold me to that. Okay, and three. Okay, so one is the Denali Breen brewpub. And tell Kena it's kind of a fun, it's a really fun place. It's family friendly. They have, they have vegetarian food, they have vegan food, they have a variety of different things. It's good bar food. Tokina is a super funky town that if you have the chance to add it to your itinerary I'd highly recommend and this is a place where you're you're very likely to see people who just finished their current their climb, or their field climb on Denali have lots of local fishing guides and claiming guides and tourists and all kinds of people are there. It's, it's great. So recommend that it's very kid friendly to Jose. And not only do I mean that it's a brewpub that kids can go to but also they have a lot of kid friendly food. Yeah, so even a kid is gonna find something they like they're the other to another one. A Cooper Landing brewing. Oh, yeah, I was waiting. We've been to a few times. Yeah, it's a brewery. But they have lots of outdoor seating. It's not really it's in Cooper Landing, which isn't really a town. It's more like an area to intersection on the Yeah. Flow with a lot of law. Churches and that sort of thing. But they also have food. They used to have a food truck and then they moved it inside. But you can get food there, too. And then finally, this is a really deep cut that is most people are not going to be able to get to, but that's what we're talking about with other places. Right? Okay, this one, this is obscure. This is the 33 Mile Road House on the Haines highway. How far isn't Jenny? Well, it's 33 miles from Hanes J. Um, I would say if you're traveling the Alaska Highway, it's a significant detour. But if you're going down to Haines or Skagway, you know, it's it's awesome. I went there for the first time when I was 18, driving three on the tree, ancient pickup truck for the first time, my friend, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend that Mountain Highway for your first time driving a new vehicle, but anyway, um, it's kind of a classic Alaskan Roadhouse. You know, everything is made from scratch by hand, you know, burgers, that kind of stuff. It's a little piece of America of Americana. Oh, is Ghana. Alas, Ghana, is that the word? Works, right? Yeah, I was recently reminded of the 33 Mile Road House by somebody in Haines and I was like, yes, that place is awesome. That's cool. I know, somebody either use and there still is occasionally, a bicycle race from Haines junction to Hanes. Yeah, yep. And I know somebody who basically just bailed out and just went drink. Yeah, I think it'd be really tempting. Yeah, it's like, you know, this isn't fun anymore. I'm gonna go have a basket of fries. Yeah. Do you want to add anything to that? You're like, Oh, dude, what about the? Well, nevermind, I add you're in. You're off the beaten track. I'm gonna throw a couple out there. Where do you talk about fat daddies. We talked about fat studies. And actually faster these is a, I think is a good example of what I would call situational food. Which is, yeah, food that is memorable and amazing, but partly just because of what and where you're at, like, I think fast that is, again, usually when you're eating a fast day is you've been driving for a very long time. And it's amazing to sit down and have a drink brought to you with like a coke on ice and someone to make food for you and bring it to you. And it's hot. And it's like amazing. And I don't know if I just went and ate there right now. If it would be as good as anything. But, ya know, it's like, and there's several places in Alaska, I would call situational food. Chair five and Alyeska. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great restaurant. Yeah. We didn't even talk about to talk about Girdwood. We'll get to do a good one. Yeah, there's great food in Girdwood girl. It's kind of a ski ski village basically. Yeah. And Alyeska resort. But there's a lot of restaurants there. But cheer five it's like the one of the more unassuming, maybe again, from the outside. Yep. Great place. been there forever. Yeah, really good food. And but like, you know, I'm always eating there after I've been doing something. Kind of epic. Yeah. So I would put that in that category as well. Braeburn Lodge, which is cheating because it's in Yukon in Yukon, but it's Yukon and Alaska are you know, kissing cousins? Yes. Similar kind of thing. You know, long drive in the middle of nowhere and all sudden, there's this place as amazing. Giant cinnamon rolls and coffee and like, oh, yeah, that's, that's the thing. So I think sometimes you might hear recommendations for things. And when you get there, you might be kind of like, but it's it's situational. It's like, yeah, that's the like, after the epic day of skiing or after you've been, you know, on the road or whatever. Yeah, that's so let's see. Is there anything else I want to throw out there? Yeah, nothing else pops straight into mind, I think. Yeah, I think I think we could wrap it with that. Considering we're over an hour anyway. Yes, I think I think we should leave it there even though I could keep talking about it started bubbling all the way till dinner potential. I am hungry and it is. I will just say it's 251 for noon. Yes, sir. I'm already think I'm legit hungry. So this podcast was recorded at 251. Yeah, that's correct. Yes. Okay, well, let's leave it there. Let's leave it there. And and thank you for sharing this last year of the last category of podcasts was me. Thank you for sharing it with me, Jay. And thanks, Max. And thank you, Max, for being our awesome producer. Yes. And also just want to thank all All of our amazing guests and amazing listeners, because without you, this would not be anything. Yeah, really, if you want to support us further financially in any way you can go to shop dot ordinary dash adventures.com where we sell some products, you can go to ordinary dash adventures.com. And take a look at the vast quantity of incredibly informational material that my wife Jenny has prepared that are so highly recommended. And also, I have listened to her give private one on one guidance to many, many, many people are going to visit Alaska and I can tell you that it is a super value. So if you are think about going to Alaska, and you're a little overwhelmed, do not hesitate to book a one on one travel coaching session with her. I'd love to meet you. It'd be really fun. Well, you have met you I would love fun because now at this point, most people who hire me have listened to the podcast and so it really is fun to me. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, Jay, here's to your to yeah, thanks for a great first year, everyone. I think we've still got more to talk about. Yeah. Thanks for listening. See you next week. Bye.