Food, Friends, and Life's Simple Joys

Food brings people together like nothing else. That simple truth became the heart of our conversation as we explored how shared meals create our most meaningful connections.

Our hosts discovered that seemingly trivial preferences—from diagonal versus square sandwich cuts to the controversial pineapple-on-pizza debate—actually reveal deeper truths about identity and belonging. These food debates aren't just about taste; they're about the memories attached to each bite.

The conversation traveled across America through beloved regional specialties. From Detroit-style pizza with cheese that melts down the crust's edges to Chicago deep dish with its upside-down construction, each style represented more than flavor—it embodied cherished memories of place and family. When one host described Pizza Hut outings with his parents or another recalled his father bringing home Capri's Italian Bakery pizza after work, we witnessed how food becomes intertwined with our most significant relationships.

Hot dogs sparked surprisingly passionate discourse, with Chicago-style dogs (absolutely no ketchup!) showcasing elaborate regional rules that would be foreign to someone raised on simpler preparations. Polish sausages with sauerkraut, Coney Islands with chili, and various approaches to condiment application all carried strong associations with specific places and formative experiences.

What emerged most clearly throughout our food journey was that the most meaningful aspect wasn't the food itself but the shared experience of enjoying it together. As one host described his dinner club that has gathered for 27 years, visiting everything from expensive restaurants to neighborhood dives, we realized the quality of companionship always outshines even the finest cuisine.

Join us for this bridge episode connecting our first and second seasons, where we discover that whether you're sharing fancy steaks or simple sandwiches, it's who sits across the table that truly matters. Subscribe now to catch our upcoming episodes where we'll continue exploring the connections that make life meaningful.

Transcript

Casey's Tea and Coffee Discoveries

Speaker 1 1:02

So I went down to my sister's and I hadn't, I didn't, so I went down there. I don't know if you, if you have been down there, but every like 30 minutes there's a town and in the town there's a Casey's, so you can get a Casey's tea every 30 minutes. Every 30 minutes and about every hour. I had to stop and go to the bathroom because I was drinking like an extra large Casey's tea, sure, so I think I had four or five cases of these. So I get down there and I'm drinking a lot of water and I'm not drinking a whole lot of tea. I start getting these headaches. I'm like what the heck? I've got headaches. Well, I think it might have been a little bit of caffeine deficiency.

Speaker 1 1:56

So my sister started making coffee in the morning. Well, she does make coffee in the morning, I love the smell of coffee too, but started drinking it. Do you drink it black? I, yes, I hate anything sweet in coffee, tea, anything like that. But I went to scooters. Have you ever had scooters? We, we have a keurig yeah so I bought some k-cups oh.

Speaker 1 2:24

Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh, that stuff smells so good. It does smell delicious and I will drink a cup. I'll put it back under the Keurig and on the dregs it'll make a pretty good cup, a second time too. So I get two cups out of one. Okay, because it's not cheap stuff. No, it's not. Yeah, no, I still. We still have it. We went back to the grinds.

Speaker 2 2:47

We still have the grinds and the filter and I just do it that way. So even if I don't drink it that day, I make it for Becky. That's the first thing I do in the morning. I let the dogs out and put the coffee on so it fills up the house with the smell in the morning. Take a shower that just smells.

Speaker 1 3:03

so good it really does.

Speaker 3 3:05

I drink about a cup every day. Well, not every day, Like I didn't have a cup today, but probably three or four times a week I'll drink it.

Speaker 2 3:11

See, I still can't do it straight black. I haven't found one yet that I like that I don't have to put something in it.

Speaker 1 3:19

The morning blend and the regular scooters taste a little bit to me like dark chocolate.

Speaker 2 3:27

It's supposed to it little bit to me, like dark chocolate I'm supposed to. I'm never going to.

Speaker 1 3:30

It's supposed to taste like dark chocolate.

Speaker 2 3:32

I'm not going to Starbucks ever in my life. Why I just won't Starbucks either? I took Canada to Starbucks, the biggest one in Chicago and it's probably the only time I'll ever step my foot in one again.

Speaker 3 3:42

Too much money, I can't handle it. There's a place down by bomb cars, oh, the White Pine. Yeah, that's a pretty good place.

Speaker 2 3:50

The girls went there and told me about it.

Speaker 1 3:54

It's Fruity Pebbles or whatever they got one, I don't know. Fruity Pebbles, oh yeah, there's all sorts, there was one the other day that it's the oh, we should record.

Speaker 3 4:02

Yeah, we are recording. We're good. Oh, we are yeah.

Speaker 2 4:04

There's a. I forgot what ballpark it was at. Oh, it was because it was at the All-Star game. Where is it at this year? Last night, when was it?

Speaker 1 4:13

I don't know, but that was a pretty good.

Speaker 2 4:15

All-Star, wasn't it? I haven't been following it I wasn't either. So who won that? I saw it was like a corn dog, but it was fried. The coating was hot.

Speaker 1 4:39

Flamin' Cheetos and Fruity Pebbles and they were talking raves about it.

Speaker 2 4:41

They loved it. People were just talking raves about the thing and I'm like oh yeah, that doesn't sound good.

Speaker 1 4:47

That does not sound good at all. First of all, isn't that what kids get sick on? Is those hot fruit, hot Cheetos.

Speaker 2 4:53

Well, no, that was that hot chip challenge thing that they were getting sick on. Yes, that stuff.

Speaker 3 4:59

I'm not a big corndog guy.

Speaker 2 5:01

Yeah, I haven't had. The last corndog I had was brought Well, I shouldn't say the last one. The last good one was probably when I was a kid and we used to get them at the Monroe County fair, south of Detroit, right before the Ohio border, that farm community right above the border there, Great, great promise, yeah, yeah, the promise land. I'm not going to tell you what my dad called it. Um, that's a God's country, They's country. They had the best corn dogs and they had that corn and they would roast that corn and you'd buy it and they'd husk it. It was the Marine stand, the Marines did it and they'd husk it and they would just dump it in the thing of drawn butter and then they'd hand it to you oh, it's good stuff, Good stuff. Roast the corn, Roasted corn on the cob oh yeah, it was good stuff and dump it in butter. Just dip it like an ice cream cone, dipping it in the thing.

Speaker 1 5:58

So it wasn't a corn dog.

Speaker 2 6:00

No, no, no. The corn dogs were good, but so was the roasted corn. Sorry if I put that together, oh yeah. Oh, I'm picturing.

Speaker 1 6:11

Yeah, no, I got there, but it took me a little bit communication.

Speaker 2 6:14

You know what?

Speaker 1 6:15

we haven't been together in a while we have.

Speaker 2 6:16

I've not really been, you know, communicating very well, apparently. Well, you know, but you know, there's this other, first of all, a little bit of a history lesson. Okay, so you've all heard of this thing called Hawaiian pizza.

Speaker 1 6:31

Yes, sure.

Speaker 2 6:31

Okay.

Speaker 1 6:33

Hey, did you know my mom was Hawaiian.

Speaker 2 6:36

I did know that. Okay, so you should know the answer to this then. Okay, where was Hawaiian pizza invented?

Speaker 1 6:41

Not in Hawaii.

Speaker 3 6:44

I have no idea, canada, canada, canada Like 1962 or something.

Speaker 1 6:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:49

The ham and pineapple Hawaiian pizza was in Canada, of all places, but you know there's not too many people in the world, chuck and you guys we've talked about this before that I don't like that word hate, you know, sure, but I can picture the guy that invented that and I have a lot of feelings against that young man. I'm just saying it's, it's, it's an abomination. It's an abomination All over a pizza topping.

Speaker 1 7:17

Does pineapple belong on pizza? Absolutely not.

Speaker 2 7:21

Oh man I don't know about that.

Speaker 1 7:23

Was it? Was it pineapple and Canadian bacon?

Speaker 2 7:26

Originally it was just ham Ham. You know that pineapple and ham Because they used to serve ham like that too. I mean, I'm Lutheran, right, grew up.

Speaker 1 7:34

Lutheran. Oh yeah, they put ham. You put pineapple on ham all the time.

Speaker 2 7:38

Yeah, which that was kind of a deal. But to put it on pizza, that is just, it's just not right.

Speaker 3 7:46

So I am going to respectfully disagree with the conclusion you've made about pineapple on pizza. It was a game changer for me whenever I first tried it, like when I first started thinking I'm a big pepperoni, just a pepperoni, pizza and cheese guy. Right, I love pepperoni and cheese on pizza. That's about it. But when I first thought of this pineapple I was against it, but then I tried it.

Speaker 2 8:13

Were you still living in Ohio at the time? I'm like, oh my goodness, no, were you still?

Speaker 3 8:17

living. Where were you? I cannot remember where I was whenever I had pineapple on pizza.

Speaker 2 8:21

Well, then it wasn't that life changing You're acting like this was an epiphany.

Speaker 3 8:24

I'm also. It's like been a while. You know what I mean. It's probably been 15, 20 years. So were you here in Council Bluffs? No, I think I was actually in Kansas City, maybe.

Speaker 1 8:33

Oh, or.

Speaker 3 8:34

Springfield, maybe Springfield, missouri. That's a good place to be, but it was. I don't know that I would ever choose it, but you have chosen it, but you would eat it in your mind, chuck, you have chosen, I have, I've had it before and it's not that bad.

Speaker 1 8:53

I would much rather have something else, but I do like vegetables on my pizza.

Speaker 2 8:59

Oh, I mean, I'm all about everything else, just there's no place, I mean, and I'm not going to say I'm not going to be one of those people that oh it's terrible. And I'm not going to say I'm not going to be one of those people that oh it's terrible, and I, you know like I haven't tried it, I've tried it you have tried it.

Speaker 2 9:09

I've tried it several different times in different places and realizing that you know, I grew up in the place where now it's kind of coming back into vogue, but the Detroit pizza, that's kind of now like another buzz phrase.

Speaker 3 9:23

What is Detroit pizza?

Speaker 2 9:29

their buzz phrase. What is Detroit pizza? Where it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a thicker crust, but the the cheese goes all the way to the edge and then melts down as it bakes into the crust.

Speaker 1 9:34

Okay, so it's kind of a wraparound.

Speaker 2 9:36

It's like a pan pizza if you want to say but but the edges? It's not like a Chicago deep dish where it's crust and then the pie Right it's, it's a thicker, fluffy crust. It's not thin crust, it's thick crust, okay, but it's real fluffy and the stuff is there, but the cheese bubbles over the side and goes down into. It's kind of baked in. It's not cheese stuffed, it's not cheese stuffed, it's just outer cheese. It's just there over the top. Yeah, yeah, like you don't see in in detroit pizza, you don't really see. Like when it comes out to you in the pan, you don't really see the crust, the you don't really see. Like when it comes out to you in the pan, you don't really see the crust, the edge.

Speaker 1 10:08

The cheese is kind of over it. You don't see the edge.

Speaker 2 10:10

Like it's maybe brown because it's, you know, getting charred on the end. Really good. But then of course, obviously Chicago deep dish, which is a whole different story. That's a game changer.

Speaker 1 10:19

That's delicious. It's a game changer. Yeah, does cauliflower belong on a pizza crust?

Favorite Pizza Places and Memories

Speaker 2 10:27

So if you were one who was watching carbs, you were going to do it. I can work with a cauliflower crust.

Speaker 1 10:34

I can work with that I can. It's not again.

Speaker 2 10:36

It's not my favorite but again, I think it's all in how you prepare it and how you do it. Now, obviously, in my house we do a lot of gluten-free, right, like we do a lot of that.

Speaker 2 10:46

There's one that we just we just actually just tried it yesterday. It was called the Urban Slice and it was a mix to make the crust and it was actually pretty good, like some of the stuff they're doing now. You can't necessarily 100% tell. Tell the difference. Like the pasta's 100% better than it used to. Now, gluten-free bread never. Still not good. Sorry, becky, it's awful. It's just like cardboard. I can't handle it. Did you ever make beer bread? I used to all the time and Becky did too, before she went down that road, but I love that. I just bought some sourdough for me. I have a separate cupboard so there's no cross-contam with the gluten because I have to Right. And I just bought some sourdough the other day which I hadn't had in a while, but it was sourdough like an everything.

Speaker 1 11:30

Bagel sourdough, oh my gosh and Becky has a gluten allergy.

Speaker 2 11:36

She has celiac. So that's, you know, I like we have to. It's not just a choice. I mean she needs to do it and there's some. There's some things that happen with it. But I'll tell you, we've been to Chicago and had deep dish pizza, where they make it gluten-free there as well. Now I will say that I did not eat gluten-free that day. She did, but I did not, but actually it was pretty good. But here in town we'll do Pizza King. They do gluten-free. A lot of the places now will have it, but really they're all using the same frozen 10-inch gluten-free crust, right, right, so that there's no cross-contamination with them making it. Now there's some restaurants that'll do it, but otherwise you know, what about another one?

Speaker 1 12:18

What about another one? Any other food?

Speaker 2 12:21

Which is like a sandwich. Right, sandwich, did you say sandwich, I love sandwich.

Speaker 1 12:26

Is that a Michigan thing? Sand sandwich? Did you say sandwich I love? Is that, uh, a michigan thing sandwich? I don't really know where I got that from. It's just kind of a thing that might be a peterson you're gonna make a sandwich.

Speaker 2 12:35

Right and it's, there are you. Are you cutting it in half? First of all, absolutely okay, depends depends on what.

Speaker 1 12:44

It depends on what kind of sandwich it is so what kind?

Speaker 2 12:48

of sandwich would you cut and which?

Speaker 1 12:49

would you not? Yes, well, a blt certainly, and a blt is cut diagonal.

Speaker 2 12:56

Okay, we're not getting that far yet. No, no, you just said which one is getting cut first. So which sandwich is not getting cut?

Speaker 1 13:03

I don't cut ham sandwiches? You don't, okay. Okay, you just eat the whole thing. I just eat the whole thing. What about PB&J? I don't cut those either.

Speaker 2 13:10

Okay.

Speaker 1 13:11

But you got to put peanut butter on both sides of the bread. So you got two slices of bread. You put it on the top of each slice, okay. And then you put peanut butter or you put jelly in the middle so that the jelly doesn't soak through the bread.

Speaker 2 13:27

Okay, all right, so we got two separate conversations there, which I'll address the PB&J thing in just a moment, because it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 13:35

I'm just going to self-report. It is not ridiculous?

Speaker 2 13:37

But anything that a sandwich that I'm going to eat, I'm going to cut it and it has to be diagonal. I do not do the halfway square thing. I don't like that. I'm not a big halfway square, I am a diagonal cut sandwich person. If I'm going to cut it, I'm going to cut it diagonal, because and there's a very specific reason- I know, can I guess Go ahead?

Speaker 3 14:00

You like to eat from a point?

Speaker 2 14:01

It's easier to eat it, because if I'm eating the other way, if I'm going this way, some of it's going to get over here. It's a mess To me, it's a mess Diagonal. You can eat from a point and there's always going to be enough that I don't have to open my mouth like the pig that I am to do it.

Speaker 1 14:15

You know what I'm saying. I cut roast beef in half. I like roast beef cut in half and diagonal. I like diagonal cut, I do.

Speaker 2 14:26

Because that's a big, that's another, that's another food. One is how do you cut it? Like, if I go to a sandwich place which I really haven't been to one in a while, but I would, all of the ones that, actually, to be honest with you now I'm trying to think of it the best place to have? Have you ever had a Cuban sandwich before? Like a Cuban?

Speaker 3 14:46

Yes, down in.

Speaker 2 14:46

Florida. So there's a great place down in Naples that we go to. It's called Rumba, because our daughter lives down there, off the top of my head now that I'm thinking. It's a little different bread, though it's not like it's oval, right, you know, it's like longer. So them cutting that in half isn't a problem, because if they did it diagonal it wouldn't work, but the way that that bread is. But that's one of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life. Like literally yeah, it's super good.

Speaker 1 15:13

And you're right, cubans, cut diagonal is the best way.

Speaker 2 15:17

So I would say now, backing off to the other topic that he started talking about too, was the PB&J Very particular, because I don't eat PB&J very often. Right, like, if ever. Right, I'm just not that guy.

Speaker 1 15:32

I'm not a big PB&J fan either.

Speaker 2 15:34

I don't eat white bread.

Speaker 3 15:36

Oh, it's got to be on white bread. For me it does. Hold on, hold on.

Speaker 2 15:40

I don't eat white bread, kind of like period.

Speaker 3 15:42

Okay.

Speaker 2 15:42

Like the sourdough. You can call it white bread, but it's really not. It's sourdough, right, but white bread I don't generally eat. It's always whole wheat or a whole grain. I like a lot of depth to my, you know, like a rye. He had a seeded rye Like oh, I love that kind of bread, but if I'm doing a PBJ, white bread has got to be toasted. Oh, okay. Okay, I do not put peanut butter on both pieces.

Speaker 1 16:08

Well, if it's toasted, you don't need peanut butter on both pieces.

Speaker 2 16:10

It's raspberry preserves crunchy peanut butter together, diagonal glass of milk which I never drink milk. And it has to have an ice cube in the milk. That's a very purposeful meal it is.

Speaker 3 16:27

That's why I rarely eat it, because it's too much dang work, so I follow the logic of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich if it's toasted, doesn't matter yeah, it makes sense that the jelly doesn't toast through, because I or doesn't doesn't soak through, um, so that makes sense to me. But, um, my pb and j's I gotta have pb&J and it's like a quarter-inch thick.

Speaker 2 16:53

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 16:54

It's a quarter-inch thick on the one side.

Speaker 2 16:55

We're in it to win it.

Speaker 3 16:56

Yeah, absolutely, I mean literally. It doesn't have to be toasted, but I like jelly on the other side.

Speaker 2 17:02

Do you?

Speaker 3 17:02

have a specific flavor of jelly Grape.

Speaker 2 17:05

Absolutely grape jelly.

Speaker 3 17:07

Can't do it.

Speaker 2 17:07

I'll do strawberry too, reminds me of communion wine back in the Lutheran church. Only David can handle it. But, and then I like the tall, tell me it's not in the squeeze bottle. No, please not. Okay, good, thank you, please not.

Speaker 3 17:19

But it doesn't have to. I mean, I like the glass of milk. You know, got to have a good tall glass of milk, but my see, my milk. And then here's one more thing. I need that ice cube though, because it's got to be cold, super cold. The other thing for me when I eat a PB&J is I love just regular Lay's salty chips.

Speaker 2 17:36

That's a good I could. I could see that.

Speaker 3 17:37

Yeah, so I mean, that's my PB&J.

Speaker 2 17:40

And that's good because, you know, in the house I can bring home regular salted Lay's, regular chips, and those are gluten free. So it's good, yeah, and you know.

Speaker 3 17:49

Ella likes those too. Getting back to the pizza thing, okay, I have not ever had as much emotional responses to the question of do you like pineapple on your pizza as I have had. I mean, I didn't expect that there was going to be that type of emotional response to people whenever I asked them about it. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I was sitting in the basement of our church the other day and I asked people what their opinion was about pineapple on pizza and right there there were two diametrically opposed opinions of what was expected to be on their pizza.

Speaker 2 18:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:32

It is a very, very particular taste that I think that you know. It's kind of like anchovies, right, like a lot of people, if you're Italian or if you have grown up around pizza your whole life. And you go, anchovies was always a big thing on pizza, sure, and you go, anchovies was always a big thing on pizza, sure. Um, I don't dislike anchovies on pizza, but it's also not on the top of my go-to list.

Speaker 2 18:57

If I was going to order pizza, to do it, true, and and living in, and I was kind of like you, I think when I grew up it was more of just a pepperoni cheese thing. But when I went to Chicago in college and got there, I was really opened up more to the Italian sausage part of it Super good, and then, like black olive, throwing some, I mean I can do mushroom, I mean I like it all. I like all of it on there now, like I can do, and not even a deluxe, you know which is just like the peppers and the onions, like I'll do the whole thing, yeah, like which is really really, really good. It's a whole meal, it's everything. You got everything.

Speaker 3 19:31

So when you guys we jump back to pizza, john, okay. So when you guys think of the favorite place that you got to go back for pizza, whether it's your hometown, or whether it's in Chicago for you, luke, or wherever where's like the best pizza that you've ever had Wow, this, wherever where's like the best pizza that you've ever had.

Speaker 2 19:57

Wow, this is like asking me about my movies.

Speaker 3 19:58

Remember how that went, sure, so you got like a list of 25.

Speaker 2 20:00

Yeah, and then I, you know, put it back on something else and I, I throw ties in there and I can get them both out there. You'd have to think a little bit yeah, I mean like if it was just like, historically, like the one that brings the best warmth to me, right was, was capri italian bakery in dearborn, michigan, which was detroit style pizza, but it was italian, but it was, it was a take and bake like what's the one here, papa?

Speaker 2 20:24

murphy's, which I've never had I've never had that mur Murphy's, but this was.

Speaker 2 20:28

Capri's Italian Bakery and it was near Ford Motor Company where my dad worked, and it was kind of like once every I don't want to know if it was a month or maybe three, four weeks he would go and it was a sheet. So you know, you got a full sheet right and it was on an aluminum pan and it was taken back and he'd stop after work and grab it. Come home mom would throw it in the oven, we'd go outside and cut the grass or whatever and then come in and we had pizza for dinner, so good. But you know, that's one of those things where it's kind of like, okay, it was your family, you were all together and you know.

Speaker 2 20:57

So that's kind of part of it right, I remember as a kid thinking, yeah, this is, this is great so that was like the experience but I will say I will say that, um, lately again here coming to Omaha area, very different in trying to find Chicago deep dish pizza. Sure, a couple places. Dalvo's is one Yep Good, good place, not the greatest as far as deep dish goes, but it's pretty good.

Speaker 2 21:30

But then we found and it's a chain, and if you would have asked me when I lived in Chicago, this probably wouldn't have been it. But there's a Rosati's in Omaha and it's so good, very, very, very good. There's one in Des Moines. Giordano's is a big one. Is that in Chicago? In Chicago, but there's also one in Iowa City. So that's when you hear Mike and I talk about that, when we're going to Iowa City. It's very good.

Speaker 2 21:54

It's down on the pier, isn't it? Navy Pier? Well, they're all over the place in Chicago, they're everywhere, so that was a good one. But really, if I'm in Chicago, the one that I like the most is Pizzeria Uno.

Speaker 1 22:06

And they do the one. I think I told you about that with the sausage patty.

Speaker 2 22:10

So their sausage is the bottom, so they don't have a crust. Oh no, it's still deep dish. It's still the deep dish with the sauce on the top, but the bottom it's one patty on the bottom. It's super good.

Speaker 3 22:21

Interesting. What about you, John?

Speaker 1 22:24

Okay, so the pizza growing up that we had and it really depends on the place you get this pizza, but we grew up getting pizza at Pizza Hut and I really liked Pizza Hut and I liked the oven, the way they cooked it, the way it came out the way it was. Just and it probably was who I was with, Cause it was with family or with friends and you'd go over and have pizza, so it was a great place to have pizza.

Speaker 3 23:04

I think the Pizza Hut from like when we were growing up back in the eighties.

Speaker 1 23:08

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:09

Compared to the Pizza Hut in 2025. Maybe a lot different.

Speaker 1 23:14

I think it's a lot different? Yeah, it is. In my opinion it is, and it depends on the oven.

Speaker 2 23:20

The one here just closed, did it.

Speaker 1 23:21

Yeah, the one over here, yeah. Unbelievable. Just closed. What about yours? Here in town? Best pizza that I have and I like thin crust, so I like to go to gosh.

Speaker 3 23:40

I can't remember the name of the place is it the place that you bought the pizza for the office that day? Orsi's.

Speaker 1 23:45

Orsi's is good that's a little bit different too, because their crust is different, and they do a thin crust.

Speaker 2 23:53

They do a thin crust but I've had it and I don't like it as much, but they're so that pizza crust at Orsi's is kind of like Detroit pizza. It's a little fluffy.

Speaker 1 24:01

La Casa. La Casa pizza is really thin and that's Really one of the few places that I like Pepperoni on my pizza, do you like?

Speaker 2 24:11

crispy, so like the crispy thin crust or kind of in the middle. This isn't really crispy crust Okay.

Speaker 1 24:17

But it's thin, but it's.

Speaker 2 24:18

It's thin but it's not Because that's the other part. It's like some people like thin, like you said, but they want it crispy. Yeah, I like thin and crispy If I like thin and crispy If I like thin.

Speaker 1 24:28

I'm going to have it crispy, I don't want it flimsy. Yeah, I made a breakfast pizza, that was awesome, but anyway, go ahead.

Speaker 3 24:37

What's yours? My three are all from Dayton, ohio, of course. There you go. When I go back to Dayton I try to get some pizza if my diet allows. So there's three places. One of them is Joe's pizzeria right on airway avenue in dayton, and again it's probably the more of an what I would call an original crust, which sounds kind of like maybe your detroit style I think original is a little bit.

Speaker 2 25:00

It's somewhere between thin and that, yeah, but it's delicious and they put tons of cheese and pepperoni.

Speaker 3 25:06

Their deluxe is excellent as well. And then there's um, there's Marion's Pizza, which is on Schroyer Avenue in Dayton, and they I mean it's a great experience to go into this place the meat. Whenever you order deluxe, the meat is so finely crumpled that it is. Yes, that's what I love about La Casse and they cut it into squares like maybe two inch squares and it is yes, that's what I love about La Crosse and they cut it into squares like maybe two-inch squares, and it is just phenomenal, and yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 25:36

You just opened another one. Triangles or squares, squares, squares, absolutely.

Speaker 3 25:41

It's a big one Depends. It's a big one, yeah.

Speaker 2 25:45

You can't eat deep dish pizza in Chicago in squares, it's got to be in triangles. So it does depend On the type?

Speaker 3 25:52

It does depend. And I guess the third type and you may have heard of this one, luke you ever heard of Casano's Pizza?

Speaker 2 25:56

Yeah, I've heard. I've never had it, but I've heard of it.

Speaker 3 25:58

Casano's Pizza originated in Dayton, ohio, vic Casano, and it's up on Smithville Avenue in my neighborhood and, again, it's a square cut pizza. I think all three of those actually are square cut pizza, something that explains a little bit that could be um.

Speaker 1 26:13

The cost is square cut it's good, is it yeah?

Speaker 3 26:16

so I mean those.

Speaker 1 26:17

Those are the three vicasano and and la casa on their, on their crust, the, the hamburger pizza the hamburger is so, yeah, fried yeah it's just like individual little. It's awesome.

Speaker 3 26:32

And I think if I had to pick between the three it would be Marion's. My dad, who just passed, as you guys probably remember, we would go to Marion's all the time, you know, whenever we went, and all the Kaiser, you know, peeps would show up.

Speaker 2 26:49

There was another one that I just thought of after you were saying it and it was a buddy of mine that I went to high school with and he opened Sportsman's Pizzeria it was called, and it was on 4th Street and it was in Lincoln Park, lincoln Park, wyandotte. And John, you struck the bell when you said breakfast pizza. He was at his church. You know, get donuts in the morning and all this other stuff. He's like well, I'm you know. So he started developing a breakfast pizza.

Speaker 2 27:17

So this is like in probably in the mid nineties, late nineties, somewhere in there, and he started kind of doing bringing them into his Bible class in the morning and people were like raving on it, like hey, this is pretty good, you know, like he was trying some different stuff. And so then he would open up, started off like on just Sunday mornings going in and making breakfast pizza, and then it kind of branched out from there and did his thing. But very good pizza, same thing, probably like what you would call traditional crust, not super thin, not super thick, just a nice middle ground always cutting triangles, you know whatever.

Speaker 2 27:49

It was good. But sportsman pizzeria was really good too. I haven't had it in a long time.

Speaker 1 27:53

But next one, pizza, kind of brings you back to your childhood.

Speaker 3 27:58

Sure Brings you back to good stuff. Yeah, what's your next one, luke?

Speaker 2 28:03

Ketchup on hot dogs.

Speaker 1 28:05

Ooh yeah, I like ketchup on hot dogs. Everything is wrong with America.

Speaker 2 28:09

It's just wrong.

Speaker 1 28:10

Ketchup on hot dogs is wrong. You know what some people think. What's that Mustard on hot dogs is wrong.

Speaker 3 28:17

There are some people that think that so for me it's ketchup and mustard, and here's how it's got to work for me.

Speaker 2 28:25

They made twist ice cream for you too, didn't they? Absolutely.

Speaker 3 28:28

Absolutely. I like twist ice cream.

Speaker 1 28:33

Hey, did you ever do the twist ice cream? And then what I would do is get all the chocolate around the vanilla, so it was kind of like a chocolate ice cream. I got a joke about that I know you do.

Speaker 2 28:46

Let's not hear it. We aren't going to hear that. We'll wait for the break. Yes, that was awesome.

Speaker 3 28:51

It might be a season two. Here's my thing with hot dogs. I got to take the hot dog out of the bun and then I put the mustard and the ketchup at the base of the bun, put the hot dog back in the bun and then eat it. That way, that's the way I got to have my hot dog. Wow, I don't like it on top because it just squirts out. It gets all over my mouth. Yeah, I don't like it.

Speaker 1 29:13

Oh, okay, that's the way I got to do it. I like ketchup and mustard, and sometimes they have sweet relish. I hate sweet relish.

Speaker 3 29:23

I'm not a big relish fan.

Speaker 1 29:25

I will do dill. I like dill, I like dill. Relish. Will not do sweet relish.

Speaker 2 29:31

Coney Islands.

Speaker 3 29:33

Coney Islands. Is that with onions and chili? I love onions.

Speaker 1 29:37

And you know, the best hot dog I had was at Iowa State football games and they'd have the onions in a cup and it was like Raw onions, Raw yes. Yes, but they were minced, minced and they were in like a. It was the sauce from the onion that yeah okay, oh, it's so good. I love that.

Speaker 2 30:03

Yeah, so like like a chicago dog. So I keep talking about pizza and then. So you got a Chicago dog right. Poppy seed roll, first of all.

Speaker 1 30:11

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 30:12

All right. So you got the dog, you got mustard, you got a dill spear on the dog, on the dog.

Speaker 1 30:18

Okay, I can relish, all right.

Speaker 2 30:20

Now some of them will use. There's a Chicago relish that kind of almost looks looks. It's very bright green, it's almost like neon. You'll see it, some of them have that Celery salt, two tomato wedges, some onions, sport peppers, if you want them.

Speaker 1 30:38

So good, never, never seen or heard of such a thing, kind of like probably about the same probably like the consistency of like a banana pepper.

Speaker 2 30:50

Okay, or what's the ones that are in, like an antipasto salad. What are those called? Oh yeah, those peppers. Oh, yeah, like you get at the Italian restaurant Kind of like that. They're like sport peppers like that Very, very good Celery salt on the top.

Speaker 3 31:06

No, ketchup, I don't even know what that looks like. Mustard, never even heard of it. Mustard, oh mustard, is that Chicago-specific? That's a.

Speaker 2 31:12

Chicago dog, yeah, that's awesome, but probably my favorite as far as it's not a hot dog. But when you're talking about onions Now, I like Coney dogs, so Coney's are different. Again, it's like geographical wherever. Wherever you go, kind of how it is because some of them, like that chili sauce, has meat in it. Sometimes it doesn't.

Speaker 2 31:30

It just kind of depends Meat or beans, both it just depends, but it's usually ground up fine, right, so it's not like a big old bean, right right, right, like you're not taking my chili or your chili. I mean, you could, you could, which is still good, but not on that.

Speaker 1 31:45

But but it's chili sauce, right, and sometimes it does have beans. Sometimes it doesn't have beans, correct.

Speaker 2 31:51

Again, it's geographical, but it was always. It was 99 cent conies growing up. Same thing on Saturdays down at the corner from our house. My dad would go get them and it was. It was chili raw onions like the little, like chopped little ones and mustard. That was what it was Awesome. But my favorite one is a Polish Polish sausage with mustard and onions and sauerkraut.

Speaker 3 32:18

Yes, I was hoping someone would bring up sauerkraut.

Speaker 2 32:21

So good, it's, so delicious. Not even a Polish sausage. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 32:26

You know what? I don't even like the bun with Polish sausage. I like just sauerkraut, because we did that a lot when I was growing up.

Speaker 2 32:35

My mom would put that in a roaster Sauerkraut with Polish sausage, so with the bun, and eating it like that wasn't until I was in college and was in Chicago.

Speaker 1 32:44

Unbelievable, though the best with Polish sausage. I had an aunt that would make potato dumplings and the potato dumplings in sauerkraut and put a little bacon in the sauerkraut.

Speaker 3 33:00

I haven't had dinner yet.

Speaker 1 33:01

That was awesome. That was incredible. So it sounds like a lot of it has to do with who you eat with 100%. Do you have other like ideas about who you eat with and how that creates the ambiance?

Speaker 3 33:21

I don don't know. It's kind of interesting for me, john, when you say that, because, like when you talk about coney dogs, I was immediately taken back to um a and w root beer stand on woodland avenue there you go in dayton ohio it was one of my first jobs and we would make it this they had footlong, footlong coney's. Yeah and uh, I'm like I never had one of these before.

Speaker 2 33:41

In those little boats?

Speaker 3 33:42

Yeah, some dude did it for me and I had my first coney dog at work, that's good stuff and we never had one at home Onion rings. I don't remember.

Speaker 1 33:53

A&W had the best onion rings yeah.

Speaker 2 33:56

And it's kind of funny because mine growing up with that was I knew that there was A&W places. They weren't as. In Michigan we had Dog and Suds, it was called.

Speaker 3 34:06

It was root beer, we had a Dog, and Suds yep.

Speaker 2 34:07

Kind of the same deal like a pull-up, like a Sonic.

Speaker 3 34:09

Dog and Suds are right down the street.

French Fries, Salt, and Cooking Methods

Speaker 2 34:11

Yeah, kind of the same thing, so it was the same deal, kind of like Sonic is Right, yeah, it's not fire like that.

Speaker 3 34:19

Loaded. Tots aren't bad, though, but anyway.

Speaker 2 34:21

Yeah, french fries.

Speaker 1 34:24

So, crinkle cut what are the Canadian French fries called Canadian Because they put like stuff on their French fries, like gravy or something.

Speaker 2 34:34

Oh, like poutine. Oh, that's a whole other thing. Ooh, man, I'm hungry. What is p? A whole other thing, man, I'm hungry. You never had poutine before. Oh my gosh Chuck.

Speaker 1 34:43

That just doesn't sound right.

Speaker 2 34:46

Well, I'll tell you what A load of french fries, which are potatoes, right, right, okay, cheese curds.

Speaker 3 34:54

Okay.

Speaker 2 34:55

And gravy over the top, like a mashed potato, like white gravy or brown gravy. People use everything. A little bit every you know. But most of the time when you've seen it it's usually brown, but with the cheese curds, and then you eat, it's like. It's kind of like like if you've got nachos with French fries. Like it's, it's, it's, it's good.

Speaker 1 35:18

Because you were close to Canada, right? I never that.

Speaker 2 35:20

I've never had that until like within the last five years. Really, yeah, I didn't even know it existed. I can't remember, never heard of it, it's good. I've made it at home before a few times. It's good, but I've been out. I don't remember the first time I had it. It was within the last 10 years, for sure it was here, so on fries or straight cut. Well, that's what I was asking originally.

Speaker 3 35:38

I've crinkle cut all the way 100%.

Speaker 2 35:41

I would lean toward that. Again, it's about how it's cooked.

Speaker 1 35:44

Yeah, it depends If it's right.

Speaker 2 35:46

It's got to be the right crisp. It can't be too crunchy and it can't be floppy. If I'm holding that thing out and it's like I like steak fries too.

Speaker 1 35:54

I do like steak fries. Like wedges, like potato wedges, yeah like potato wedges or thicker cut, but they have to be crispy.

Speaker 2 36:04

I don't like fries, so literally when you go, so you're at home. Okay, we can't go out to eat every day, right, right, we don't make bank like that right Right. So when you go and you have crinkle cut fries, you get a bag of Raitas or whatever you get right? Is it 35.?

Speaker 1 36:22

He wants 35 french fries.

Speaker 3 36:23

That's what he just 35 french fries.

Speaker 2 36:24

So if you get a bag of oritis, you throw them on. How do?

Speaker 3 36:26

you cook them in the air bag of oritis air fryer. Whatever you do, air fryer.

Speaker 2 36:30

Air fryer, that's good.

Speaker 3 36:31

Yeah, you do, I would probably do air fryer, but I may throw them on a cookie sheet in the oven, okay cookie sheet on the oven isn't bad, but when you do that, what's what's the last five minutes of the thing in the cookie sheet in the oven?

Speaker 2 36:41

okay, cookie sheet on the oven isn't bad, but when you do that, what's what's the last five minutes of the thing in the cookie sheet in the oven? That's what I do.

Speaker 3 36:45

I broil at the last few all to get them real crisp a little, yeah, but you got to be careful because you don't do it too much.

Speaker 2 36:51

Right, you know?

Speaker 3 36:51

sure, but um yeah, that's where my that's where ketchup comes in for me, french fries, yeah, not on a hot dog. So if if my French fries are cooked right, crinkle cuts are cooked right, I don't eat ketchup with them. It's just salt, just salt Pepper, no pepper.

Speaker 1 37:06

Do you use Not on my fries, oh Seasoned salt.

Speaker 3 37:10

No, just regular table salt.

Speaker 2 37:11

Okay, yeah, all right, favorite salt.

Speaker 3 37:16

So it depends on what I'm eating. Morton, go ahead. It would be like if I'm cooking a steak, I got some of that sea salt that my wife buys and I sprinkle a little bit on that, but if it's like French fries, it's just a normal thing.

Speaker 1 37:28

Table salt.

Speaker 3 37:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 37:29

I'm going to tell you Morton table salt. I go to a store here in the Bluffs to buy a specific salt. Seriously no.

Speaker 3 37:39

We are learning a little bit about Mr Peterson today.

Speaker 2 37:40

I don't buy anything else at the store, because everything else at the store is too much money. But it's the only place in town that has it At least that I found and it's called real salt and it's not. It's kind of like a mix between like a pink Himalayan sea salt kind of thing and they make a coarse one.

Speaker 2 37:58

They also make a fine one, but it's the best tasting salt. I'm a big salt guy. I love salt. Yeah, me too. Okay, I do too. Which is good, but it's bad, right Can be it's so good.

Speaker 1 38:09

Well, actually salt's pretty good for you.

Speaker 2 38:11

Well, yeah, anything is good for you if you don't excess it like. I do Anyway it's just one of those things where this salt and I think we kind of found it by accident. It was just one of those things Because a lot of times when I smoke a pork butt and I make pulled pork, I do the rub, I don't put sauce on it. We'll put sauce out and people can sauce it themselves if they want to.

Speaker 2 38:35

I don't sauce pretty much anything but at that last second, after I shred real salt on the top, I think it just pops.

Speaker 1 38:47

My wife would love not having the sauce she hates. Lynn hates sauce on her stuff.

Speaker 2 38:53

I don't use it. Often Once in a while I might on something, but it's kind of like I guess I was always raised with that kind of thing about like if you got a steak and somebody's using steaks, what it's not good enough by it must be a crappy steak.

Speaker 3 39:05

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 39:06

Like I think I kind of always have that in my head, especially when I cook it.

Food Is About Who You Share It With

Speaker 3 39:09

Yeah, it's like if it's not good enough by itself, I got to put ketchup on it or something, or that's a five briskets this summer so far, and um none of them did I use any type of sauce on it.

Speaker 2 39:21

It was always my rub you don't, you don't, you don't need it. If you're doing it right, you don't need it.

Speaker 1 39:25

So go back to the people that you hang out with. So so we have and this started 27 years ago we have about 10 couples that we get together every other month and we go out to different places and we go to and we've invited different people to our we call it a dinner club. It's an awesome thing, and we have gone to some of the biggest dives that you've ever seen and we've gone to some of the most expensive restaurants that you've ever seen, and we've gone to some of the most expensive restaurants that you've ever seen. And it's about the people that you hang out with and about the people that you have supper with that make the food for me. I like eating food.

Speaker 2 40:17

Isn't that kind of life?

Speaker 1 40:18

Like literally, it's about the people you hang out with Now.

Speaker 2 40:21

Could I sit here in my garage? By the way, we're back at the garage bar. We're here, Right? We haven't been here in a while.

Speaker 1 40:27

And we love being here.

Speaker 2 40:29

by the way, there's been a little bit of a facelift and we're getting a little different things.

Speaker 2 40:35

We're getting a could sit here and talk with myself, which would probably raise a few eyebrows, but the idea is that we love hanging out with each other and that makes no matter what we're talking about that much better. We've talked about this from the start of season one, all the way through. About it's the people you surround yourself with, it's those connections you make with people. It's about all these things and no matter what you're doing. Okay, actually, I was talking about this today.

Speaker 2 41:02

Somebody was asking about golfing, and Chuck and I you've talked about this before I'm not a golfer. I go golfing, but I'm not a golfer. Yeah, it frustrates me, it's all ends of the earth. It frustrates me, sure, because I'm not that good, but you know what you go out with your friends, you have a good time. It makes it enjoyable. You could have the worst round of golf in your life, but your story later is not going to be it was the worst round of golf. It was that. Hey, I was with my buddies and we had a good time. So I think your supper club it's the same thing you go, and maybe the food wasn't the greatest.

Speaker 1 41:37

Maybe it was. Or the service wasn't the greatest or something, anything, but we spent a lot of time with the people that we like being with, and we spent a lot of time with the people we enjoy Cheers. That's that right there. That's the main thing about food, right, and I think that's a big thing.

Speaker 2 41:56

And that's a common thread, I think for a lot of that, and I think it's important that we always think about that and remember about those connections with it. It might be food, it might be something else, but you know what? Surround yourself with the people and it's there.

Speaker 1 42:12

You might cut your sandwich diagonally or in half, or you might cut your pizza in a diagonal piece or a square piece, but it's who you share that pizza and that sandwich with. That really makes the difference 100%.

Speaker 3 42:32

As I was thinking about, we've had quite a few gatherings at my house this year this summer, and whether I'm cooking on the blackstone or I'm smoking, meat has been with family and friends you know, each of those pizza places that you guys mentioned has been with family. I think I don't know the amount of times that I've ordered casano's pizza with my buddy, duke raymond, when he was growing up so the, the fact that we're talking about food and even as we're in this space here, it builds relationships right.

Speaker 2 43:03

And I think that it's one of those things where, obviously, we have a get-together. It's not like I'm not going to put ketchup out if I have hot dogs on the grill.

Speaker 1 43:11

Sure.

Speaker 2 43:11

You know I'm not going to have any, but you know what People are like I don't care what you put on your hot dog, I care less. It might spurn a conversation.

Speaker 3 43:25

You know when I'm drinking.

Speaker 2 43:26

probably the only times I drink old-fashioned is when Luke makes them for me. That's all right. John had an old-fashioned today and I'll have to say they are pretty good.

Speaker 1 43:32

Well, you know.

Speaker 2 43:32

I didn't have one today, but I've just been drinking a little corn head lager today. So good times. Hey, this was kind of one of those bridge episodes where we're bridging into episode I'm sorry, season two. We finished up season one.

Speaker 1 43:48

We're getting close.

Speaker 2 43:49

And everybody has talked about. You know, hey, when are you guys dropping another episode? You know things have been, you know questions coming up and are you guys still doing it and all that kind of thing. So we still are.

Speaker 1 44:00

We took a Are you?

Speaker 2 44:01

guys still doing it and all that kind of thing. So we still are. Summer's been busy. We've been taking some time off to spend some much-needed time with family and relaxation and doing some stuff, sometimes staying silent, sometimes talking more than others. I was on the talking more part, you were on the silent part.

Speaker 1 44:15

I did go on a silent retreat. Yeah, that's why I said that.

Speaker 2 44:20

I can't even fathom what that would be like. Me neither I can appreciate it, though I appreciate the idea because you know, my wife generally sets me straight when I question things which is good because it kind of centers you a little bit, sure, but it's good to ask questions. She's like you go out and you sit in a deer, blind, and you're silent. I'm like, yeah, I just don't do it for three days. I can't handle that. I mean, what am I going to do?

Speaker 3 44:44

I could sit in a deer blind for three days.

Speaker 2 44:47

I don't think I could. I'd probably fall out Three days. I think it'd be a little wild Because hopefully I'd see something before that time, but still.

Speaker 3 45:01

But yeah, this is a bridge episode from season one to season two and we're going to get back at it. We'll probably have one more episode in August, we'll do an episode in August and then we'll get back more to a more regular schedule in September.

Speaker 2 45:10

Because, you know, during football season we have all sorts of time to give away All kinds of time I do. Oh boy, don't you? Oh, no, no, but we'll make time for you guys.

Speaker 1 45:20

All right, absolutely. All I do is announce, so it's okay yeah.

Speaker 3 45:26

All right guys. Well, look forward to hanging out. Peace out, guys.

Speaker 2 45:30

Hang out, see you, love you.