Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
Three buddies sitting around a table debating the best of everything and discussing what is on their minds
Three Guys Around a Table and The Best Of…
Culinary Nostalgia: Remembering Beloved Restaurants and Roasting Overrated Chains
When three friends—a lawyer, an engineer, and a school superintendent—gather to talk about restaurants, the conversation quickly becomes a time capsule of American dining culture. Their casual banter reveals not just personal preferences, but how restaurants become woven into the fabric of our memories and relationships.
From the mysterious staying power of nearly empty Bojangles locations to the celebrated Texas Roadhouse (which receives unanimous praise as the best non-premium steakhouse chain), the trio explores what makes certain restaurants succeed while others fade away. The discussion takes a nostalgic turn when reminiscing about vanished favorites like Jerry's Restaurant with its legendary hot fudge cake, the Rax roast beef chain, and Ponderosa Steakhouse with its "pewter plate on the little wooden tray."
Perhaps most fascinating are their surprising verdicts on popular chains. Applebee's receives a death sentence as a concept whose time has passed, while one friend boldly declares Chick-fil-A overrated—citing insufficiently crispy fries and chicken with an odd pickle-brine flavor. Meanwhile, specific food experiences stand out across decades: Long John Silver's crumbs mixed into coleslaw, the onion loaf at Damon's, and breakfast biscuits at Hardee's remain touchstones worth revisiting.
The conversation reveals something universal: how restaurants become more than just places to eat. They're markers of time, containers for memories, and shared cultural touchpoints. Whether you're nodding along with their assessments or vehemently disagreeing, you'll find yourself mentally adding to their list with your own cherished restaurant memories.
What restaurant do you miss the most? Or which popular chain do you think is completely overrated? Join the conversation and share your own culinary memories and hot takes!
three guys around a table and by three guys.
Speaker 3:We're talking about three friends a lawyer, an engineer and a school superintendent and just like our personalities, our opinions vary and we certainly don't always agree. Whether we're discussing the best of, or giving our tips and tricks of, things in everyday life, you're sure to learn something if you stick around, well, well. Well, it's been a long time, boys, and tonight we don't have to worry about college football, college basketball.
Speaker 2:I never worry about college football.
Speaker 3:Wrestling.
Speaker 2:I definitely don't worry about wrestling, no.
Speaker 1:I just am entertained by wrestling.
Speaker 3:We are on to other topics.
Speaker 1:Baseball. It is let's go, baseball, baseball, let's go, let's go for all our listeners.
Speaker 3:We've got something else going for us tonight, not baseball. Let's talk restaurants. Let's talk food.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about something we haven't con.
Speaker 3:You know, we have a common factor with all of our listeners. I'm down with that let's talk about some of these restaurants that are do you like food? I enjoy food, me too I enjoy my food, I do. But let's talk about restaurants that we think are overrated. Some are underrated.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:Even throw a few out there that I don't know how are still in existence. Just something to talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good, I'm down, I'm ready for one. That's how it's still in existence.
Speaker 3:This is kind of like what we did back in the day around the kitchen table. You know before the start, so go ahead.
Speaker 1:You start off, Go ahead One that I don't can't believe still in business Bojangles.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, that's valid Hardee's yeah Now wait a minute now.
Speaker 3:Now Hardee's breakfast is okay, you're coming hard and fast. That's what I to Hardee's. I've not eaten at Hardee's in 10 years, but I have to tell you, if I woke up this morning and wanted a breakfast sandwich, I would 100% go to Hardee's.
Speaker 1:I bet you'd be a Sonic man.
Speaker 2:I eat Sonic breakfast burritos for dinner. That's for dinner. You mentioned two restaurants.
Speaker 1:Let's do Bojangles first.
Speaker 2:You mentioned two that both have fantastic biscuits. I just want to say I agree with that and I enjoy.
Speaker 1:How often do you go to bojangles? Right, uh, it's, it's extraordinarily rare so I can tell you I've not been to bojangles in 2025.
Speaker 3:I can tell you that right I probably go about once a year. When it first opened here in town, I went a bunch. Here's what I'd say about it cameron loves him. Some bojangles, I love bojangles, I love the chicken, I love the fries and I love actually think it's pretty good, I do too, but here's the problem, and maybe it's just this one the service is terrible at this location, that's true, and that's why I don't go to it, but there's nobody ever there. No, no and look.
Speaker 2:Think is obviously it's a North Carolina chain? I think Is that right Somewhere in the Carolinas? It's really big there and we're in KFC land Cane's world. I mean we got all these different chicken places.
Speaker 3:Well, I have to do a fun fact, do you know why Bojangles came to Kentucky? Colonel Sanders, no General Sanders, no General Sanders. A victim of Franklin County Public Schools. Is their chief financial officer Really A guy from Frankfort, kentucky. I didn't know that Last name, jordan. He had a brother. It's either John or Sean. John or Sean Jordan, one of the two, I think it's John Jordan. Does he still have the job? He's a CFO.
Speaker 2:They're struggling right now and that the job is a cfo and they're struggling right, and that's why bojangles came here. Well, there you go fun fact I like bojangles, but it's never. I mean, if you, if you go at lunchtime and you're like man, I want a quarter pounder from mcdonald's, whatever. And you see the line, both lines is you know forever go over to bojangles, you can get right through because no one's ever.
Speaker 3:But the problem is there's nobody there. But then you sit at the drive-thru window for 20 minutes waiting on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just never eat there, yeah, ever.
Speaker 3:Now let's go back to where you went Hardee's. After that, hardee's the only time I'd ever eat Hardee's. I've never had a burger from Hardee's. I have, I had good and friend of mine schneider says it's the best burger period but he also worked at hardy's back when he was in high school. But he says the best burger. He said you got to get the burger. He said I tried it. I think I did. I don't remember it.
Speaker 3:I prefer carl carl jr's carl jr well but breakfast sandwiches though they got it because they carry country ham biscuits those biscuits.
Speaker 1:I like that and I like honestly, I like their steak biscuits. But it's another place that I never go to. I can tell you I've never been there in 2025.
Speaker 2:Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. You know who?
Speaker 3:goes there, If you go by there right now. I guarantee you there's nobody in the parking lot. I never see anybody going to Hardee's. When's the last time you sat around going? You know what, kerry, I think tonight? Yep Boy, I'd like to have it. Let's go to Hardee's Never, never happens.
Speaker 2:You know, in all honesty, one of the things they have that's pretty good there and you wouldn't think it is their chicken tenders, their hand-breaded chicken tenders, do you know I remember when they came out with them, do you?
Speaker 1:know it's probably been 20 years ago now. 25 years ago, and I think I've mentioned you to before they used to have fried chicken and it was legit fried chicken yep yep, I mean, that was.
Speaker 2:That was what I got there when hardy's was big now a big, a big thing in uh, in the great state of ohio, is the oh yeah, io the hot ham and cheese sandwich, and hardy's still has a hot ham and cheese sandwich.
Speaker 3:Now let me tell you this when I was a wee lad of 16 years old, when I worked in lawrenceburg, we would often go to hardy's for lunch, because there's only like three restaurants did you drive the escalade when you went there? No, this was back in the way, back in the 1900s.
Speaker 2:That vehicle was too large to go to hardy's.
Speaker 1:He generally drove the vintage corvette 63 right his second car yes generally speaking, I speaking.
Speaker 3:I was in the-.
Speaker 1:Now, did that car stay at your house or at the extra house? Mommy dear, shall I drive the?
Speaker 3:Rolls today. Generally speaking, I was in the 1981 Dodge pickup truck. That was the business I worked for.
Speaker 2:So that was so the business vehicle.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, okay, that that was the business vehicle. Yes.
Speaker 2:That's what he just said.
Speaker 1:When he had to slum in Lawrenceburg he drove the servant car.
Speaker 2:Anyhow.
Speaker 3:We would go there for lunch. Do you remember when they came out with their version of the Arby's roast beef? Are we talking about Arby's now Hardee's?
Speaker 2:No, hardee's roast beef sandwich was better. I was a Rax. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I love Rax.
Speaker 3:But Hardee's roast beef sandwich was better than Arby's. Wasn't as good as Rax I love.
Speaker 1:Rax Interesting All right, so I picked two.
Speaker 2:What's two that you all think can, no, no, there are still a couple of locations. Yes, harlan kentucky has a racks and and you, you know you gotta hunt for them. Oh yeah, but um, that's one. And they still have the salad bar too. That kind of blends. Two topics here let's go ahead that's fine. I'd love it if it were to come back because you know, back in the day racks, you could get a great roast beef sandwich, a baked potato oh yeah, yeah, I mean it was some good eating.
Speaker 3:Milkshake. It's good. I've never eaten a milkshake, though. Rack's is good really. Yeah, yeah, when I go to Harlan, which I go to frequently, for some reason I love going to Rack's. There used to be one in Moorhead but it's since closed. We had one in P. We didn't have one around here.
Speaker 1:No, it was very unique. So are you going to go with restaurants you wish were still around? It's kind of a potpourri.
Speaker 2:I'll do a little bit of so, by the way, the Racks in Waverly, ohio, where I grew up. It became a Even better, by the way, a.
Speaker 1:Tim.
Speaker 2:Hortons, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You moved on to the overrated Sorry, the most underrated place in the world.
Speaker 3:Did you say you had a Rax in Pikeville or Paintsville Pikeville. Was it Big Rax or were they Little Rax there?
Speaker 1:don't recall, but there were a bunch, you know. You know a restaurant. Look, there's a restaurant. You and I loved that. We I wish was still around more there and there's only one tilted kilt. How did you know? You know what's funny, but I've never been there.
Speaker 3:Logan loves it. Hey, there's only one. What's it jerry's?
Speaker 1:ah, there you go steak and eggs baby awesome.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, there was a jerry's in uh elizabethtown when we moved over there. I mean, you know just, it only went out a couple years before I moved here off the west kentucky parkway yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's good stuff I mean breakfast and dinner was good they had a, uh, a statue of the blues brothers. Oh, oh yeah, jake.
Speaker 1:Aniel, I remember getting it. Breakfast was always pancakes or something like that I remember getting the spaghetti and it had like this yeah, the spaghetti was awesome, and the hot fudge cake oh listen, their hot fudge cake is millions better than Frisch's Now, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:if I'm not mistaken, there may still be a Jerry's in Radcliffe.
Speaker 1:There's one in Paris. There is one in Paris and I think we should go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, let's go the last one to just close was on Preston Highway in Louisville, okay.
Speaker 1:There is one in Paris.
Speaker 3:Okay, I know exactly where it is and the menu is very similar to what you remember.
Speaker 2:That's the one when my brother was going to Berea. My mom and I would drive down to see him play baseball. We'd leave at the crack of dawn, if not before, and we'd roll into Paris and we always stopped at Jerry's and got breakfast. Awesome, that's pretty awesome To see him play.
Speaker 3:So we used to go to the one on the way to Cave Run. We used to go to the one on the way to cave run we used to stop at the one in mount sterling, of course you guys know my tie-in to jerry's. Yeah, but mom had I don't know whatever happened to it had some of the old plates from jerry's, the old real heavy white plates with the little yeah brown edges around it and um, when, uh, when we were living in middlesbrough and she was pregnant with me, they would uh, that's the vacation residence they would always bring over
Speaker 2:one of them right mom, uh, she couldn't gain weight.
Speaker 3:They were always bringing over plates of spaghetti jerry spaghetti for her to eat that sauce was amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, uh, my grandmother, we had one in packville in prestonburg, oh, next to the racks, no oh okay, I do love jerry's though, but it's good calling jerry's, that is good. I've been thinking about this one. I love me some restaurants. I got one, I don't know how it's open. I don't know how it's open, let's hear it Applebee's. It's got to be over soon. It's got to be on the way out. I've not been to Apple Well, another restaurant I've not visited in 2025.
Speaker 3:Listen 30 years ago. It was awesome, yeah, it was the place to go.
Speaker 2:Riblets, come on now. Riblet basket, the unlimited riblets, let's go. I still have no idea what a riblet is. It's good.
Speaker 3:You don't know where they come off, those little animals, the riblet basket and the chicken tender basket was phenomenal the honey mustard.
Speaker 2:but now I'm like who goes there?
Speaker 1:And their appetizers used to be really good, oh yeah, it's got to be on the way. Who goes there anymore? Not me, I mean, that's not one place I go.
Speaker 3:Mmm, that sounds good.
Speaker 2:Here's another one of those restaurants that used to be really, really popular and there's still maybe a few left. I know there's one in Central City Kentucky and that is Ponderosa.
Speaker 1:Those Kentucky and that is Ponderosa. Those were good. I like Ponderosa. There used to be one in Moorhead. Is it still open? No, it's gone. You know it's right there on that exit.
Speaker 3:It's gone as well. Yeah, you know what I like about Ponderosa. You could go gorge the pewter plate on the little wooden tray, oh yeah, and steak fries boys.
Speaker 1:Steak fries. You can just go there and gorge.
Speaker 3:Now, I was only allowed to really get one thing on the menu, and that was the hamburger steak.
Speaker 1:Hey, he was only allowed to get the caviar.
Speaker 3:The hamburger steak. And let me tell you, will you?
Speaker 2:make my son the lobster thermidor, please, and just for the record hamburger steak is a hamburger patty.
Speaker 3:That's it, I've had it, but it was so good with those steak fries. Smother that thing in anyone, wear it out. And then this out of the bar.
Speaker 1:That's a good one. Ponderosa, golden Corral, similar Sizzler Sizzler, western, sizzler, western Sizzler's here in town. It was a grease mall we had one in Prestonburg.
Speaker 3:My grandparents love Western.
Speaker 2:Sizzler, my dad, so any others that we want to talk about before we talk about it.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you one that I think there's only one left of this one too, and I went to it Reagan's senior year, because they played a baseball tournament there. Druthers, oh, campbellsville, oh yeah, campbellsville, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Druthers was legit. Okay, so here in town. This is before you knuckleheads moved here Druthers used to be. You know where Advanced Auto Parts is on the east side, East side.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That used to be, before that, the old building that was there. They tore it down. There used to be a TCBY there. Before it was TCBY it was Druthers, before Druthers it was called, and I think they all did this.
Speaker 1:I don't know friendlies dairy queen. Dairy queen was good dairy queen still exists, oh no, dairy queen sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry dairy princess no, no, no, no, no, no, fairy fairy oh, stop, um, um, um queen bee aunt bee, I'll come back to it, hold on.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, I can't believe this, uh it's not.
Speaker 1:It's not dairy queen, it's uh it's not dairyairy Queen.
Speaker 2:It's not Dairy Queen Hold on, it's not Dairy King. It's called Orange Julius.
Speaker 3:I'll come back to it. Oh my God, I can't believe I forgot this.
Speaker 2:While you're trying to think of that, Friendly's also was a restaurant kind of similar to Druthers and and um I.
Speaker 3:There was a friendlies in chillicothe ohio that we used to go to offer a special meal right for, yeah, I've ate at a friendlies before burger queen burger queen little burger little queen yeah, yeah, yeah oh so, anyhow, druthers is great and the one in campbellsville still has the same type menu.
Speaker 1:Yep well, I got. I got a funny story about friendlies. Okay, I do too. Let's hear yours, and then I'll tell them okay, mine.
Speaker 2:I was a kid and my brother and I and my mom went to Friendly's and ordered spaghetti Back in the early 90s.
Speaker 1:And I was hammering that I didn't know they had restaurants there. Did you say I gotta use the restroom? I think I did.
Speaker 2:Mommy, mommy. No that's what you would have said.
Speaker 3:Shut up, mama, I gotta poo.
Speaker 1:I need the butler to come and wipe me honey. So I did.
Speaker 2:I did, and they were like do you want them to take your food? I'm like no, no, no, no. So I did then what I would not do today, and that was I went to the restroom and dropped anchor and I was just a little guy and I took care of business. I came out and I felt refreshed and I killed the rest of my spaghetti baby so you're saying you made room?
Speaker 1:I did, oh good so that's a story.
Speaker 3:My story, my story about friendlies is not that good. Yeah, is it not friendly?
Speaker 1:not friendly. Janie and I moved to Washington DC.
Speaker 3:This was after Georgetown College.
Speaker 1:It's when I was going to Georgetown College in Washington DC. Gotcha and her parents helped us move up there and they were getting ready to leave to go back to Kentucky and we were going to stay at Georgetown College in Washington DC and we were eating at a friendlies before they were leaving. We in Washington DC, and we were eating at a Friendly's before they were leaving. We were eating breakfast. Nice, janie had a tick of a meltdown.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Like in the bathroom for an hour because her parents were getting her to leave.
Speaker 2:She was going to be 13 hours away from them Things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah that happens I was like this is a good start.
Speaker 3:This is a good start, right.
Speaker 2:I've never been to a friendlies. They're not bad, yeah, and they great dessert bags, ice cream and yeah, do you know what I used to like?
Speaker 3:that's very similar to that. Remember perkins?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, yeah, perkins it's the first breakfast I ate as a married couple was at a perkins. Get the one outside of pigeon forge, yep I know we're talking.
Speaker 2:I think carrie and I ate there too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep, twin berry syrup was the syrup best syrup they had for. Uh, okay, I got one for you.
Speaker 2:I got one for you, fudruckers, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1:I don't care for it, oh, chris loves it there's one in pigeon forger gatlinburg and he goes every time multiple times sometimes I do and love it.
Speaker 2:I've never thought they were great, love it yeah, I, I, I enjoy the toppings, like if you get there at 11 o'clock or whatever but then by about 11, 20. When it's sweating down, but you have to understand. It looks like a war zone.
Speaker 3:I don't use anything from the toppings bar. I like the burger. I think the burger's great, but I love the steak fries. That's the other thing. You eat a plain burger at Fuddruckers. No, no, no, I load it up with cheeses. I'll put like five cheeses and some sautéed onions and bacon. Camembert.
Speaker 2:Mommy will they cut me?
Speaker 1:some fresh lettuce, so I got one for you, that's making a comeback Now. It may have been terrible when I was growing up, but in retrospect I can't wait for it to come back. I think I know where you're going with this Chi-Chi's.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love Chi-Chi's Me a fan. Yes, como me llama es su wunderbar the funny story about Chi-Chi's is Mexican buffet, all you can eat.
Speaker 1:I never saw a buffet there. Oh yeah, there was one.
Speaker 3:Oh, I didn't know that Back in the day. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:So first time I heard chips and salsa was there Now when I I was there with my oldest cousin, roy oh, and Craig oh, and my cousin Roy's an accountant auditor. He likes to get his money's worth.
Speaker 3:He would fill up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and purge and he would go discharge and it was puke and rally.
Speaker 3:And he'd go back and let's go again.
Speaker 2:So he got his money's worth, but I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1:And we'd be having some beers and Wow, but Chi Chi's legit. It was beers. And and wow, but chi chi's legit, it was. My recollection is it's legit, yeah it was really good.
Speaker 2:Comeback it was really good and I always kept it so simple. There they would have the like trace tacos or whatever three tacos, two or three tacos fantastic, but here's the problem.
Speaker 1:But now it's making a comeback.
Speaker 3:I understand, but here's the problem when we were going to chi chi's, all you had was taco bell typically in the mall and chi chi's.
Speaker 1:You didn't have all these mexican restaurants we have a gazillion and a new one coming bring. Joe. Johnny carino's is turning into agaves. Yeah, but the thing about it.
Speaker 3:We didn't have all these others. So the question is is chi chi's, like you said? Is it that good? How does it compare to what we're used to eating?
Speaker 1:because back then it was either taco bell or it was. Yeah, I'm willing, I'm willing to try. Oh yeah, okay, overrated over. Tell me an overrated restaurant and I've got one that I gotta be controversial.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you you go first. No, you go tgi fridays. If it's not gone already, it needs to be I got a popular restaurant that I.
Speaker 2:There's one thing at tgi fridays I love and that's that the jack daniels whiskey barbecue sauce stuff. Oh, I never liked it. I'm trying to never like it. I can drink I've.
Speaker 1:I've got a restaurant that's popular. That I personally think is overrated. Okay, now, you guys may disagree. I think chick-fil-a is overrated, okay. Well, I'm not a huge chick-fil-a fan. I like chick-fil-a, but I'll tell you what I think their fries are not crispy enough.
Speaker 2:They weren't done enough. This weekend, carrie and I went through there and it wasn't very good, my kids will eat chick-fil-a every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hallie will eat it every day. I just don't like it. I don't think their nuggets are big enough. That's small and I don't. I guess it's where they marinate it in pickle juice. I just don't care for it.
Speaker 3:So the strips taste weird. Okay, the strips taste weird because you can taste the pickle in it, you can taste the brine. I think the nuggets are good.
Speaker 1:I like the nuggets better than the tenders or the big chicken sandwich.
Speaker 2:I can dip anything in polynesian sauce and chick-fil-a sauce. Hallie loves the polynesian sauce.
Speaker 1:I don't ever eat any sauces.
Speaker 3:The only sauce I use is either honey, mustard or barbecue, but I will tell you here, lately I've been getting just the salad from there with the grilled chicken. Yep, it's excellent. And that creamy salsa is the dressing. I get that avocado ranch, which is really high in fat, but it's very good.
Speaker 2:I just I don't love it.
Speaker 1:I mean, chick-fil-a is not a restaurant that I'm like. You know what I'm like?
Speaker 3:I'm Chick-fil-A, I'm the same way when it was in the mall. It was a, it was a place, it was a cool. You know, we're gonna go to chick-fil-a. Oh my god, it's so cool.
Speaker 1:And now it's everywhere and you're like, it's just not a place that I'm like yeah, that's where I want to go, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3:So I thought that might be a little controversial oh, no, no, no do you know where the very first standalone chick-fil-a I ever saw in my life was atlanta georgia no, I've been to that one, though let me guess, hold on, hold on beverly hills malibu, tuscaloosa, alabama.
Speaker 3:Same thing. Yeah, in 1997, in march of 97, I was in birmingham working and uh took an evening to go to tuscaloosa to see some guys. Yes, to go see some guys in tuscaloosa and I saw a chick-fil-a. I'm like, oh my god, there's a, and this is cell phones.
Speaker 1:I didn't have cameras or any of that crap I was was like oh my God, it's a standalone Chick-fil-A, so what's an overrated restaurant you got? I've got one that I think is underrated. I've got one that I still miss.
Speaker 2:Okay well, let me jump back real quick for something. Because there's one that just came in my mind that was in the Eastgate Mall and the East gate mall and, uh, the East gate mall back in the day was awesome, Okay, and there was a Chick-fil-A in the East gate mall across from the East. From the Chick-fil-A was a Charlie chance. Charlie chance was a fast food Chinese place that had the best chicken they had. They were called chicken chance and it was fried chicken on a stick.
Speaker 1:I don't know that you could say that.
Speaker 2:Chicken.
Speaker 1:Chans.
Speaker 3:Was it like live chickens hanging up by strings?
Speaker 2:I've never heard of this place. Yeah, charlie Chans, you have to Google it Chicken Chans?
Speaker 1:That sounds a bit racist Chicken Chans.
Speaker 2:It was a stick with fried chicken on it, why'd you make?
Speaker 3:that noise man? That's terrible.
Speaker 2:It was amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I never heard of it. All right.
Speaker 3:I got one that I missed. All right, let's do it, maxinermas.
Speaker 2:You know there's still a Maxinermas in Columbus Downtown.
Speaker 1:Maxinermas was good.
Speaker 2:The original Maxinermas is in German Village in Columbus and it's still there, it's really good, but when I go to German Village I'm not going to Max and Irma's, I'm going to Schmidt's, that's right.
Speaker 3:But Max and Irma's, the fried cheese and the garbage burger everything about Max and Irma's is great. I used to get.
Speaker 2:I was a big spaghetti fan.
Speaker 3:I used to get the spaghetti there and they would bring out little trays of like a little cheese and little peppers and little things that you can put on the spaghetti max and armistice I've never had.
Speaker 2:I love max and armistice. Oh, all right, what you got underrated, underrated, what a burger I have never had, 100 million percent what a burger is I mean the best underrated?
Speaker 1:okay, I mean, it's breakfast is great, the bob's great.
Speaker 3:Never had it, oh the honey chicken sandwich for breakfast the little uh stick potato things for breakfast, the little hash browns and then their burgers and then they have this spicy ketchup. That's legit did you ever order that on amazon? Yeah, I did too good, it's so good, what a burger is oh I I.
Speaker 1:That's a restaurant I wished we had around here.
Speaker 2:Underrated. Yeah, texas Roadhouse, texas Roadhouse, all day, all night For a chain steak place.
Speaker 1:That's not a prime steak place.
Speaker 3:The best.
Speaker 1:I'd rather go to it than Outback, I'd rather go to it than Cattleman's. I'd rather go to it than any of those places.
Speaker 2:There are times Logan.
Speaker 1:This is sacrilegious, logan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, takes roadhouse better, kills it there is sacrilegious, especially when they're trying to pick a new pope. Now it's. It's sacrilegious for me to say but there are times when I would rather go to texas roadhouse than a super fancy steak place.
Speaker 1:Mainly, because, the the price the roadhouse for the price. The Vitasas Roadhouse for the price is legit. The steaks If you can throw peanut shells on the floor. I'm there. I am there. That's why I like Five Guys.
Speaker 3:The bread to start right. Yeah, their salads are phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything there is.
Speaker 3:I've never had a bad meal there, and have you ever had a bad steak there Ever?
Speaker 1:had a bad cut of meat. I've had one that Reagan ordered when we were in Akron Ohio playing in a baseball tournament and we swapped. It was black and blue.
Speaker 2:I like that, though, but I was fine with it. I was like yeah, I'm good, just switch it around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was like and mine was medium rare. So Reagan's, like I, was like I'll swap with you, it's no big deal, but that one was probably a little under. But that one was probably a little under. But I've probably had a hundred and it's only one.
Speaker 2:Here's another one of these.
Speaker 3:And where is Texas Roadhouse headquartered? Louisville, Kentucky? Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:Yep, I knew that one, so it's right by Ruth's Chris.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is In the shadows of it, fun fact.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this is still accurate, but I had a client who owned some texas roadhouses and you know it's. This has probably been five, six years ago. Where is the number one texas roadhouse in the united states? The number one volume? Wise volume. Texas roadhouse in the united states, georgetown, kentucky no bowling green, kentucky, ashland. Is it really Ashland Kentucky?
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:And if you don't have Texas Roadhouse where you are listening to this and we don't. And to our friends in New South Wales and to our friends in Ukraine who are listening to this, and Paris, france. We have listeners from all over the world.
Speaker 3:You need to go to texas roadhouse it is not like a logan's, it's not like it's not like any of those places it is phenomenal I can always go there oh, yeah, absolutely overrated and underrated still, what do you?
Speaker 1:all right, look what do you think about, what's your opinion on five guys.
Speaker 2:I adore five guys it is way too expensive. That's my only issue with it, but that's the only issue the food's great.
Speaker 1:Yep, don't get a small fry you don't need any more than that. Yep food's great, yep it's fresh but expensive burgers.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'll take now three guys it's 100 bucks.
Speaker 2:Fantastic business model.
Speaker 1:By the way, I love the burgers I would prefer it not to be well done, uh huh yeah, but that's the only way they'll cook them. You can't get it any other way. Yep, I love it, but I love the burgers. I would prefer it not to be. Well done, uh-huh. Yeah, but that's the only way they'll cook them. You can't get it any other way.
Speaker 2:Yep, I love it, but love it. Limited menu Hamburger, cheeseburger, hot dog.
Speaker 1:Grilled cheese? And have you ever seen anybody get a hot dog? No, never, never. Why would you yeah?
Speaker 3:Gr. Get a hot dog. Yeah, it better be an ogle dog. Let's go. You know what's great about five guys too, is I love jalapenos on a burger and they put fresh cut jalapenos not cooked, not grilled so you're still getting the full heat.
Speaker 2:That's a burger just like mom couldn't make since, since my uh gallbladder has left my body, no, more jalapenos it's uh Five guys. Has got to be a very rare treat for me, oh boy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those Cajun fries. Oh, I think that's great. The peanuts.
Speaker 2:Uh you know, just sit there.
Speaker 1:If a restaurant's got peanuts, that you just throw, I mean the shells, you. Whatever I'm down, you tell me a bad restaurant. It's got peanuts.
Speaker 3:You can eat at, and they have the coke machine, the, yeah, whatever, yeah, yeah and, by the way, what's your go-to coke at the coke machine?
Speaker 2:cherry coke zero.
Speaker 1:Back in the day, that was bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think I would go with Coke Zero with vanilla.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I can see that.
Speaker 2:So let's see Overrated, underrated, any others we want to bring in. You know.
Speaker 1:Rax was a good call. Yeah, rax was legit. And you know, look, you all will agree with me on this. I think this place is underrated two times a year. Long John Silver's oh yes, long John Silver's couple times a year. Couple times a year. I'm totally down.
Speaker 2:I want the crumbs and coleslaw and I want to mix them together Crumbs in my coleslaw.
Speaker 3:I just want the chicken and tartar sauce. I just want the chicken tenders and tartar sauce. That's it. That's me.
Speaker 1:I don't want any fish. I want the chicken planks and tartar sauce.
Speaker 3:I like those battered fried fries too, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean not often Well, and they have new fries now. And it's getting harder and harder to come by.
Speaker 2:They have new fries now. They don't do the fried better, they're waffle fries now.
Speaker 3:That's a hard pass.
Speaker 2:I just get double coleslaw and crumbs.
Speaker 1:And I put the crumbs in the coleslaw.
Speaker 2:I just went to crumbs. You ever have coleslaw when they get a little crunch.
Speaker 3:You know what? What do you think about PF Chang's?
Speaker 2:I used to really, really like it and I think it's gone downhill. I still love it.
Speaker 1:I've only ate there twice. And you know me, you, you guys, it's not your kind of, it's not my kind of food I still love it.
Speaker 3:I think it's fantastic. I could never find anything there. I'd like to chang spicy chicken with extra spice to it out of this world problem is their price. They've almost priced themselves out.
Speaker 2:What about this one, as one that's going away and used to just be the place to go red lobster it's gone, I mean it's on its way out yeah, it's on its way all right.
Speaker 1:Here's the truth. I have not ate there in 30 years I haven't been one in 30 years, but you know what they had some daggone good biscuits yes so I was in e-town for a meeting last summer yep, and we're gonna take this guy for lunch.
Speaker 3:I know right where that one is and he goes. I'm like, where do you want to go? What do you got in E-Town? I said we got a lot, you know you name it. I think they got everything here and he goes. I really want some seafood. And I said you're in Elizabethtown, kentucky.
Speaker 3:He's a great little seafood place, a very dear friend of mine lived in Bel Air, maryland, and he always said you never get seafood if you're more than three hours from any coast. Yeah, but I said so, elizabeth, denny's fine, they got a red lobster, he goes. Yeah, let's go to Red Lobster.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and I got to be honest with you.
Speaker 3:It was great.
Speaker 1:I had the three-way shrimp. You know, scampi fried coconut. It was great. How many ways was it? Three, three? I've? I've known it's great, but I'm like, why am I here? I've not ate at a red lobster, it's seriously in 25, 30 years apparently that was my mom's favorite place.
Speaker 2:She got the same thing every time. What'd she get?
Speaker 3:the broiled fisherman's platter well, I remember uh, I took my mom there several times. That's why she wanted to go. When I was a kid, we used to go to Kingfish in Louisville all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh, Kingfish. That's where they bring in the fish overnight.
Speaker 2:Oysters, rockefeller.
Speaker 1:The lobster was caught this morning and we brought it straight in Anyhow.
Speaker 3:All right, so one more. I think Outback has kind of jumped the shark per se too. Outback used to be great. Had a thing going. The Victoria's Filet was great. It's gone.
Speaker 1:Their Bloomin' Onion was awesome. Yeah, and now Another one. I've not been doing years. I mean, there's just some of these I just don't go to anymore.
Speaker 2:One just popped in my mind. I'm sorry this is one that's, I think, gone away completely. There may be one or two still left, but it was so legit because of one thing, on one thing only, and that was the onion loaf at damon's oh yeah great ribs.
Speaker 1:Ribs, but an onion loaf. It was a. It was a loaf of bread awesome, just incredible well, and you know, you know there's. There's one other one that we used to have here in Frankfurt. That's not here anymore that I liked one thing on it. It's weird. I like the potato soup, the O'Charlie's potato soup.
Speaker 2:Oh shit.
Speaker 3:Their rolls were good too. I never liked O'Charlie's.
Speaker 2:Did you?
Speaker 1:ever have the soup. That was the only thing I liked. Their prime rib was terrible.
Speaker 3:My granddaddy loved it. It was like a leather shoe. Yeah, it was terrible.
Speaker 2:The chicken tenders were okay, but I mean chicken tenders.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right right. I forgot about O'Charlie's, Are they all?
Speaker 2:gone? I don't know. It's like Ruby Tuesday. I love the salad bar.
Speaker 1:Sal there used to be? Did they still have one in Georgetown?
Speaker 2:No Gone, because those croutons on the salad bar. I could just pick up the thing of croutons and just dump them on there.
Speaker 1:Who's got the best salad bar right now?
Speaker 2:The only one I know of is Cattleman's.
Speaker 3:Cattleman's is terrible. They don't even have spinach on it. You've got to have raw spinach on a salad bar. It's not worth having. Who else? Well, I don't know anybody that does?
Speaker 1:Oh, Trump Tower's got one. Then you know it's good. Janie had it for lunch. Oh, you know what?
Speaker 2:I would say the Brazilian Steakhouse.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I found a Coke Texas Day Brazil.
Speaker 2:Texas Day, brazil. Yeah, that's Alabama's.
Speaker 1:That place overrated because they stopped bringing me food, exactly, they stopped bringing you bacon.
Speaker 3:You asked for a bowl of bacon. What's wrong with that? Do you guys ever remember a restaurant called the Fifth Quarter?
Speaker 1:No, look there was one in Lexington, one in Louisville. Of course there were. They were in the 40502, I'm sure, Nicholasville Road. We weren't allowed to be there.
Speaker 3:Listen the Fifth Quarter. I was, it was off of Preston Highway in Louisville and I will tell you this. I was there with Denny Crum, their salad bar was huge, but what was so good about it is they had pewter plates.
Speaker 1:Was it huge or?
Speaker 3:huge.
Speaker 2:Huge. You know, back then we called our friend Cassius, not Mohamed.
Speaker 3:The plates were pewter and they were frozen. So when you picked them up they were frosted over. So when you were getting stuff out of the salad.
Speaker 1:It kept it really cold. Okay, all right, I like the mug. I'm gonna throw one more than it's.
Speaker 2:You boys then you guys are frosty mugs are good. You guys will 100 know this one and I was a huge fan of it because we would go to it when we would go see my brother in brie, and that was cliff hagins love.
Speaker 3:It used to be one here in town.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, oh, fantastic there used to be one in.
Speaker 3:Hazard, really? Yeah, there used to be one right here in Franklin Square, I think there still might be.
Speaker 2:No, there was a few years ago Gone Ah shame.
Speaker 3:They're all gone. Well, because we lost ours here too. There used to be one there in Franklin Square.
Speaker 2:Well this has been fun. So now, what is was where good damons was oh yeah yeah, lima had a great day really absolutely yep, it was unbelievable they sold the mega onion loaf right, not just the little one.
Speaker 3:No, unfortunately I wouldn't double decker, I wouldn't go in there back then well, you, you definitely wouldn't, go there now either you say it was an upper decker, yeah, it was.
