DMV, Diners & Dogs

What happens when car rides become safe spaces for authentic human connection? A chance encounter with a 25-year-old restaurant worker sparks a fascinating exploration of how we treat others when we think no one's watching.

The conversation begins with reflections on community changes in the DMV area, particularly the vertical development of Rockville and the Pike & Rose neighborhood. We discover how places like the now-closed Bark Social created unexpected community bonds—where even a giant Bernese Mountain Dog's ill-timed "bathroom break" becomes a memorable shared experience that brings strangers together through laughter.

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About: Foundation Digital Media | Kuna Video

Transcript

Introductions and Local Connections

Speaker 1 0:10

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk Conversations in Motion, a podcast where we create unfiltered talk space that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers, while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver, John Fondas, and we're cruising the streets of Washington DC. Buckle up, let's drive. Hello. Hey, how are you Good, how are you? Are you from this area originally?

Speaker 2 0:41

I'm actually from Akron Ohio originally.

Speaker 1 0:43

Oh, wow, okay.

Speaker 2 0:44

But I moved there when I was about eight, away from there when I was about eight to here, so I've lived the vast majority of my life in here. I'm 25, so I've lived like a lot more of my life in the. Maryland area. But, yeah, generally, like you know, Rockville-ish, like Potomac, Rockville, Bethesda-ish.

Speaker 1 1:00

But slowly. You see the turnover and development things.

Speaker 2 1:05

Yeah, no for sure, and I've lived here long enough to kind of know like Rockville has definitely like completely changed in the past like 20 years.

Speaker 1 1:12

Oh my God. Yeah, it's really insane to watch it happen, which I have, you know, like I've, and there's no more room, so everything goes vertical.

Speaker 2 1:19

Mm-hmm, exactly, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 1:22

Pike and Rose is a great example of that.

Speaker 2 1:24

I I am for sure Pike and Rose is a great example of that. I actually so I work in restaurants right now and I used to work in Pike and. Rose. Yeah, yeah, no, I used to work at Nada in Pike and Rose, I don't know if you ever knew of it. It was like a tackle place there.

Community Changes at Pike and Rose

Speaker 2 1:32

But Pike and Rose is a very interesting place to work, for sure, because I got to know so many people, like I know so many people around here, everyone else in the service industry, in bike and rose, which there's a lot of, because there's so many restaurants, um, and then you also, like you know, I just know so many people from like being my customers and everything like that, and then also like having neighbors and stuff.

Speaker 1 1:52

So this area is weird because it's very densely populated, but many people know so many people yeah, yeah it is very um familiar for being so populated, I used to come down quite a bit with my dog to bark social oh yeah, and when that place closed. People lost their fucking mind. Man, I just. It really took away a really nice energy to the whole little area absolutely, absolutely, yeah, no, I've been to bark social a few times um actually a lot of people in the neighborhood met because of their dogs.

Speaker 2 2:24

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 2:25

Yeah, I mean it's just you know the vibe was. You know you go in there, you can have a beer or whatever. Let the dogs do their thing. But afterwards we just walk around and people are just in a generally good mood when you see just dogs and people just hanging out. Yeah, for sure and then, um, I don't know what happened, but hopefully they'll put something back there.

Speaker 2 2:49

Similar yeah, I don't know what they're gonna do with that um, and I I don't know exactly I think like park social as a general company or something like, went bankrupt um or something like that yeah, I think that's just an unfortunate thing, but I think that it'd be interesting if they put something similar there, though, because it was, I feel like, popular enough there was a need for sure exactly like you're saying. It created such like an interesting community environment yeah, um, and then yeah, there's so many like shops and restaurants or anything.

Speaker 1 3:17

It is a lovely little place to walk around for sure I think there probably is data that the developers can look at that goes wait, wait a second. There are less people spending and doing things here because of it. Yeah, even if it's a fraction, it's still enough to make someone go wait a second.

Speaker 2 3:35

Yeah, I'm sure it's a significant, you know fraction of it, because I mean, like I said, I've been there several times, like someone just with my friends, you know, who had dogs, or you know, I think, one time time like none of us had a dog, we're all just like let's just chill with some dogs, like yeah. So yeah, no, it's definitely it was unfortunate to see it go out, but there's a lot of cool.

Speaker 1 3:54

I have a giant bernice mountain dog I was wondering yeah, he's like 130 pounds. He's gigantic and he's so cute.

Speaker 2 4:03

Yeah, my mom, who I live with, has a bull mastiff, um, and he's like he's a and he's so cute, very friendly. Yeah, my mom, who I live with, has a bull mastiff and he's like he's a little bit squatty but he looks like he lifts weights, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 4:10

He's like he's buff.

Speaker 2 4:12

And he's a little bit chunky. So, yeah, he's a good chunk of dog and unfortunately we met so many people with dogs around the neighborhood because he used to be friendly with dogs. But for some reason in the past like few years, he's just gotten like a lot more mean with dogs, so that's weird, that's been unfortunate.

Dogs and Neighborhood Interactions

Speaker 1 4:27

Yeah, you got to keep them socialized. Yeah, I was there and there was like three girls it was like you know, uh, girls night right and they were just kicking back and enjoying the energy. And my dog walks up to them and they were just like gushing right like oh my god, and blah, blah, blah, those gentle giants get us.

Speaker 1 4:49

And then he turns around and then fires like a giant diarrhea dump, like right in front of them. It was the funniest thing because, like two of them were just dying with laughter but one of them was absolutely like mortified and upset and I was just cracking up I was laughing too, and he wasn't sick. It's just you know, nervousness or whatever, so funny yeah the timing of that is particularly comedic. If you could have snapped a photo at that instant, it would have been like a Pulitzer, for sure.

Speaker 2 5:28

Yeah, one of those funny animal photos.

Speaker 1 5:30

Yeah, that is funny.

Speaker 2 5:34

And, like I said, working there is definitely a whole different vibe because, you know, I get to be like on the other side of people having those good nights and being a server is just like that. You know you're like, you're the person I mean similar to how you might feel as an Uber, like you're just the you know chill one driving people around while they're having like whatever fun they're having, you know, throughout that night.

Speaker 2 5:53

So I'm sure you get a glimpse of this as well but, you're like part of their fun nightitas deep at my job and I'm like serving it to them and I'm like talking about shots. They're like, oh, you should do it. I'm like, I mean I'm working, but you know you all have fun.

Speaker 1 6:10

There is this really strange dynamic with the podcast and you know it started as an accident In the real world. I run a production company and that's where the idea came from. It was from a client project, and so when I went out and did it, I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I know what I'm doing, but I just wanted to get out of my comfort zone, right, yeah, not jumping out of airplanes anytime soon.

Speaker 2 6:32

Yeah, there's different levels of comfort zones.

Speaker 1 6:35

Next best thing? Yeah, but there's like 22 episodes now and it's got like over a thousand downloads in a short amount of time, which is yay for me, right. Yeah, Um but there's this dynamic where it's just like this safe space for people and, like you said, all of a sudden it goes from. I'm not just driving you someplace, but it's, you know, pun intended, it's a vehicle for talk space therapy, and that's a lot of it what it turns into yeah some good, some bad, some, you know whatever, but I mean I used to be a bartender and uh

Speaker 2 7:12

I'm a server only now, but um when I was bartending. Oh my gosh, I mean especially when you're a sitting duck, like say, if you only have like one or two customers um at the bar just you back there. I mean yeah you were just caught like you're just sitting there and I mean there's really nothing else you can do, because you can like clean some glass and stuff behind the bar, but otherwise like you're right there, so you have to talk to the engagement, right yeah you're, you're forced to talk to them and, of course, like a lot of the times they're going to want to talk to you.

Speaker 2 7:38

So it's like so there's definitely something like. It just came to like eat and have a drink or whatever, and like don't aren't super talkative, but you're absolutely gonna have those people that just start like pouring a lot of their life out, like I've had customers from both serving and bartending, like I like know too much information about these people, like very quickly you know, like they just start pouring their life out in a funny way yeah and it's always interesting for me, though, like I I'm I love observing human beings in that way like I love listening.

Speaker 2 8:02

I feel like you you know your podcast such as jess you do as well like I, love just sort of observing humans being humans.

Speaker 1 8:08

I think it's very fascinating and that's why like the service industry is very I don't know.

Speaker 2 8:11

It's a very interesting place for me to be because I get to just sort of like absorb and learn so much from people there is value there for sure.

Speaker 1 8:17

Yeah, my, my son is home from college for the summer and he's he's working as a server at a restaurant. It's like a dive bar kind of place, so it's fun.

Service Industry Experiences

Speaker 2 8:28

It's unlike anything you'll ever experience If you haven't been a server, if you haven't been in the service industry. You truly just and I think you can get close with other jobs. You can get close with other jobs, like at merchant stores, like even being a newber. There's other times you get close, but other times you like get close but specifically waiting tables or like being a bartender.

Speaker 1 8:45

It is unlike anything you will ever experience. Yeah, it's a good life skill.

Speaker 2 8:47

I think for sure. Oh, I absolutely agree. I mean, I think that I joked with my family that, like I don't think you should have to, like you know, serve a certain term in the military.

Speaker 2 8:55

You should just serve a certain term in the service industry, like because that will teach you how to treat other people in society like if you would have to do a year working at, like a store or a restaurant. Like we would have a different level of like civility towards each other. Because sometimes I will go up to a table and, like, before I can even introduce myself or say welcome or anything like that, they say diet coke, like as if I'm not also another human being. That that gets me quite a bit, because I get it. I know that you're just like in your space, but I just can't imagine like another human being coming up to me and like talking, and like I'm at a restaurant I'm expecting to have a server that might introduce themselves. Well, like I shut up and listen to the server and say like hi, how are you? I interact with them because they're just a person like they're in that job, but they're a person like even at times I'm just interrupted and treated as like a very, very background character.

Speaker 1 9:47

It shows you a lot. It it does, and you know it's very similar. When you do this and I know I have no expectation of anything- yeah because you know people. They have their lives. They're having good days and bad days. Some people are introverted, they don't want to talk or whatever. But every now and then you run across those types of people and I can feel the energy immediately and it's not so much. You know I'm decompressing, or I have to take a call or I'm texting.

Speaker 2 10:17

It's just like. It's like you're beneath me.

Speaker 1 10:20

You're an insect.

Speaker 2 10:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1 10:22

Just drive and I'm like, and so there's an exercise there which part of the magic of the podcast, if you ever get a chance to listen to it, you'll figure it out. It's called Rideshare Road Talk.

Speaker 2 10:34

Rideshare Road Talk yeah.

Speaker 1 10:49

Is it on like apple podcast? It's on. It's on all the platform. I've got a qr code. If that's helpful, oh, neat, um, but it's like. I think the sentiment is you never truly know who you walk by on a day-to-day basis, what they're going through, what their lives are like, what they've done, who they are successes, failures, like everyone. Has that narrative right and it's a fascinating story.

The Podcast Journey and Human Stories

Speaker 1 11:03

It just needs to be presented in a way that's engaging absolutely and so it's no different than watching netflix or a piece of music or a piece of art is your last episode called beyond grief finding strength and loss.

Speaker 1 11:18

Yeah, dude, that's you oh my god, man, this, that lady picked her up from dinner in dc, asked her how her night was going, mom's birthday congrats. No, she killed herself a year ago after we had an argument. Oh my gosh, yeah, oxygen sucked out of the car. Yeah, I can imagine, but she wanted to talk and that's what we did for like a half an hour. It was amazing. It was amazing, wow, that kind of shit. And then there's one called Susan's Husband is an Asshole. Mm-hmm, it's hysterical.

Speaker 2 11:50

Really. No, it's a fascinating idea for a podcast. I think it's absolutely brilliant that you're done. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, no, that's brilliant. Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 12:05

I think that, like, like I said, I almost wish I could wear you know, like a mic during serving, because I think that in itself would be very interesting, just like here how a lot of those interactions go because I also think it'd be very eye-opening for so many people.

Speaker 2 12:10

I think that they would hear that back and think oh my gosh, like do I ever like talk to somebody like that? Because I think you don't even realize you're doing it. And I think if people were to ever hear that back in a way that you never do cause of course these like aren't ever recorded conversations in a way that is even a little bit more easier in a car, cause you know you have cash cab, yeah, there's things that have been like in a car.

Speaker 1 12:29

That's one thing.

Speaker 2 12:33

But like in a busy restaurant. That'd be so interesting if you could hear back those conversations and hear the way people ask for things or, like I said, like how they treat their server.

Speaker 1 12:42

And the restaurant thing is tough right, because there's. There's look, I do this for a living like in the production world reality TV. There's nothing real about it, there's always a level of production that creates a filter, of course, whether that filter is a camera or whatever.

Speaker 2 12:59

it is Just a microphone, knowing you're recorded. Yeah.

Speaker 1 13:01

Yeah, here you know, in DC it's a one party consent. So, as stupid as the law is, if I'm the one that sets up the microphone, that's considered the consent and I technically don't have to tell you that it's that I'm recording. I don't do that because I don't see the value prop in doing that, because it doesn't affect the outcome really at all. But there's no cameras, it's just a wireless microphone.

Speaker 2 13:29

Yeah, and I think, if anything, people might still say the same thing. But also, who knows, I think that could be a people feel comfortable in a way, like in just the car, like one-on-one and I think they might even say things they weren't even expecting to say.

Speaker 1 13:45

Oh oh, for sure, I mean. And that's the other thing. There's no pretense, right? It's not like I walked up to you in a bar and be like hey what? Are you doing yeah?

Speaker 2 13:54

can I get you for my tiktok like right and so?

Speaker 1 13:57

there is a certain kind of safe space and if I'm doing my job I'm kind of disarming and conversational. And then usually that spawns a good conversation, which is usually all I'm after.

Speaker 2 14:09

I mean, yeah, you listen to any good podcast or even see any good interview and you'll see, like the interview the interviewer like has has to have a certain demeanor in order to have a actually good interview, because otherwise you'll end up with something combative or just, like you know, a conversation that doesn't go anywhere, because even if you disagree or, you know, have some sort of discourse that would be challenging you can't just like abandon that, because right you know you disagree, you have to have that demeanor that like, welcomes them to disagree and it's like questions them as to why they think that, rather than like shutting down that, point entirely no, the audacity of people is definitely something you that you learn in any sort of service to them yeah, because

How We Judge Character

Speaker 2 14:47

when they see you as any level of beneath themselves. There's a certain nature that comes out in in people and it's I. I love to like see this in like friends or friends. If I remember on a first date with somebody, the way that they treat wait staff is so telling of who I think people are as a person, so that's like a key thing to pay attention to in people because, like I said, anyone that you see is sort of like beneath you.

Speaker 2 15:13

Yeah, it changes the game when it comes to how oh for sure.

Speaker 1 15:16

General customs yeah for sure. I use golf golf as the same kind of barometer. I can figure you out in 15 minutes if I play golf with you.

Speaker 2 15:25

Whether or not.

Speaker 1 15:26

I'm going to do business with you.

Speaker 2 15:28

I would say most sports. Actually, I think sports are another thing that brings out a certain side of somebody that you can then evaluate from there I will lightly agree, but there's something about the dynamic of golf that exposes you on every level.

Speaker 1 15:40

Okay, yeah. Not just competitiveness but courtesy and respect and integrity and honesty. I can see that I'm not much for golf Self-control.

Speaker 2 15:50

For instance, I could even play someone in basketball and I think that I would like, by the way, that they played in every like you know minuscule way, like that they played in every like you know, minuscule way, like I could tell, like you know how, just like you know if they play defensively, if they play like you know how much space they give you, how much they're in your space, like there's so much to say for, like you know. And then if they're just a good sport, like I think that any sort of sport in that way and like.

Speaker 2 16:11

I said just the ones I'm more um familiar with you know uh are what come to my mind, but yeah, I think that that's another like specific instance that shows different sides. Yeah, yeah, it's that one.

Speaker 1 16:27

Okay, sorry, yeah, thank you so much. Absolutely lovely chatting with you absolutely no, thank you.

Speaker 2 16:32

Thank you and have a wonderful time with your podcast I have it like saved on my phone excellent.

Speaker 1 16:35

I'm very curious to listen to it. I think it's a brilliant idea for excellent, so I can like it. I think it's a brilliant idea for a podcast Excellent.

Speaker 2 16:40

I can like rate it or whatever.

Speaker 1 16:41

Oh yeah, rate your podcast For sure, for sure. See you Bye now. Thank you for listening to this episode of Rideshare Road Talk. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd the podcast on your favorite listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive.