Austin All Day
Austin All Day
Adam Richman - The Food That Built America (Ep.197)
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Recorded at Austin All Day Studio follow @austinalldaypodcast
Well, welcome to the Austin All Day podcast. Adam Rachman, a man in my book who needs no introduction.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04Nice. We've seen you. Yeah, we've seen you floating around for years now at this point. Um I think I was talking about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're talking about fish food.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, like a good old batch of nutritional yeast on there.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, my family enjoyed embarrassing me at my cousin's uh recent uh uh sixth birthday. Shout out to my beautiful little cousin Claire. Uh they were they were messing with me and they were asking Alexa facts about me. Like I was like, please stop. And they were literally like, and so it was, you know, it came out because you know, kids are like sponges. And my little cousin actually uttered the phrase, wow, 48 is still not married. And I realized my aunt told on herself, so like Alexa had receipts because basically apparently they wanted to know how old I was to see what, you know, poor Bastion's still not married. And um they said, uh, you know, how old is Adam Richmond? She's like, we could just ask Alexa, right?
SPEAKER_04No, that's that's not all true. Not all true. I would uh predict that that's not the last time that'll happen with your family now, because that would be a fun game.
SPEAKER_02It's and it's just it's fun to watch Adam like curl into himself and become like a withdrawn recluse. But no, I mean look, at the end of the day, you know, I've I've been like the show and tell thing from my cousins, which is the best feeling in the world. Because not not like because A, I remember having something dope to bring into show and tell was like the coolest anyway. Um, my dad and I were like we dug models and I loved dinosaurs, and I had like done like a like a it was like in a bottle of like a dinosaur battle in a bottle. I remember I was like the pimp that day. Like I was I was like drinking South Beach. I was like, yeah, that's right. That's a triceratops in that bottle, bitch.
SPEAKER_05And that's yeah, go ahead, Troy. Oh, you said South Beach, right? Is that where you grew up?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn, okay, nice.
SPEAKER_04So the cousin's still in Brooklyn, family's still there?
SPEAKER_02Um, my cousin Blake moved to Colorado, and my cousin Heather uh is out on Long Island, where she grew up. And I'm my mom's in Brooklyn, and I just moved north of the city to an area called Westchester because I fell in love with gardening during the pandemic and like growing and like I make the bomb pickles, gentlemen. When I see y'all, when I see y'all on a blood, I don't put like kind of preservatives, so I don't know how those ship. I mean, they're pickled, so uh one would think they're preserved, but we could exchange info. I'd love oh yeah, because you know, the fermentation is so good for you, and I'm blessed to have like chef friends that have given me different recipes, but also because you know, we filmed Modern Marvels and Adam Eats the 80s in so much of Pennsylvania. There is so many, uh, excuse me, I'm sorry, that is excuse me, the that is a backup alarm for I guess because I had the the power thing, and I because I didn't I I wanted to log on, and it was like, bitch, come on, you had something. But anyway, yeah, so I just like what was really cool was as good as all the chef recipes were to meet these like moms and these random little Amish farm stands and find out how they do their pickles and then to start doing it. So yeah, I'm adoring for some.
SPEAKER_04So, what do you like about a pickle if if we may indulge a little in this kind of thing?
SPEAKER_02It varies, it varies. By the way, where are y'all located right now? Where are y'all actually physically?
SPEAKER_05So I'm in South, yeah. South, I'm in South Austin and well, sure, south too. Yeah, I'm more like central downtown, but yeah, south central downtown.
SPEAKER_02This is a fact that I hope you listeners know. Uh, I would thought I had a copy in here. I'm not that arrogant, but I had if I could find a copy of my first book, I'm fairly certain I had one in my file cabinet. But anyway, the second sentence of the first chapter of the book I wrote was I fucking love Austin, Texas. Yeah, and I fell ass over tea kettle in love with that city to a profound, profound degree. And so I actually do know where South Austin is, and you know, um, I still have not floated the river, much to my chagrin. So fun. Worst fest in New Braunfels is so high on my list. But my favorite thing, uh, my friend Amber is a really prolific food writer and traveler, and she's just got a great personality. And she and I ended up in Austin together right around the same time. Um, when I was like, listen, I'm gonna take you to Casino El Camino, and they have these green chili cheese fries that that are like heroin. It's just like schedule one archive for me. It's just like chilled shot of dripping springs, uh shiner pot and the green chili cheese fries at Casino El Camino, and then it's like I got my feet under me, and like I've been, you know, your city is just so damn magnificent, and I'm sure it sucks because you get so many people moving there and well, oh my gosh, it's been like that for a long time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, we're used to it by now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I was almost one of them. One of the things I did was I signed up for the list right after I filmed Man vs. Food Austin, dead ass for Bluffs at Balconas. And I wish, and I was getting the emails for everyone who was just coming up, and boy, do I feel like a shithel not buying there and not doing that back in 2009-2010. But I just I felt I guess you know what I think it's just like the best of it. My pop really loved like cowboy culture and country western music, and my first concert with the Statler brothers, and nice, but you know, it was such a different vibe. People don't know this, so obviously they air man versus food in very different orders than we would shoot it. So we shot the pilot in Memphis, they aired Amarillo first because of the auspicious nature of the 72-ounce steak challenge, the Big Texan. But we shot the order was Columbus, Austin, Amarillo, Chicago, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'm fairly certain that's correct. And while we had a kick-ass time in Amarillo, Route 66 roller derby girls were fantastic. Everyone at the Big Texan was awesome. Um, like local newscasters wanted to take it, it was just so thoughtful. But like all of us, it was hysterical. All of us to a man on that crew said we can see ourselves moving there, and independent of that conversation, like made inroads. Like, I went back so many times. I was so glad we shot the commercial for season two of Man vs. Food in Austin, and they were like, listen, if we can get this shot done, and it was me dousing myself in milk, like like Jennifer Beals and Flashdance, just like just super perverse. I'm so glad this is recorded and people don't have to actually visually see me doing what I just yeah, I'm seeing everything in Put Square. That's a sad image. But I got a free day in Austin, so I got to go to Barton Springs Pool for the first time with the baby's, and the other thing is because the art scene is so fucking excuse my language, but so vibrant that like I go to swim in Barton Springs, which took my breath away, and then I hear like blank verse. I went to Yale School of Drama, I have a master's uh in acting from Yale Drama School, so I hear I'm like, wait, I think I know what play that and I look and there's a company doing it in sort of Spanglish version of um it was either I think it was Comedy of Errors and or or Twelfth Night, and it was so cool, and it was free, just out on the lawn. All the food trucks were fire. Met my friends for purple margaritas at Baby A's. It's like chicken chicken boom boom enchiladas. Like you guys live in the garden of Eden. I'm so jealous.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, I mean, you you've got it covered, like a good trip here, Casino El Camino. We'll get the the random picture of that on social media and people like, guess where I'm at. And like that's kind of a hidden gem, but if you know, you know, got killer burgers there.
SPEAKER_02Great bird.
SPEAKER_05I went there last week, actually. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And obviously the fine dining scene is so vibrant. My friend Yoshi uh Kai is is yeah, absolutely, yeah, brilliant. And um, obviously he's a character, yeah. Man, he's got the illest tattoos, Yoshi.
SPEAKER_05He was the one I mean, he looks the part, he plays the part, like he's just so so cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, have you seen his tattoos? He's got rice up one forearm, the sushi knife up the other one, and his finger's got the fish hook when he does this for the fish. I have not seen that, and he and I were like, I'm a big vinyl record collector, and I'm into that power pop glam pop shit. And so, you know, Yoshi, for those of you who don't know, I mean, just rock star, like gl like yeah, Tokyo punk rock star, like yes, you know what I'm saying, and and his his food's amazing. I met him at um Charleston Food and Wine breaking down the biggest goddamn tuna I've ever seen and making hand rolls individually from the belly of this giant, beautiful bluefin tuna. And um, but again, and then I I was trying to think my manager sent me to it. It was a magnificent, it's like kind of more upscale, more modern, like Latin, specifically Mexican food. I'm trying to recall the name of it, it's super popular now.
SPEAKER_04Uh de Miguel is it? Suerte, suerte, yeah, yeah, yeah, it would have been a good one. Yeah, fantastic, fantastic.
SPEAKER_02And there was even the little taquerillas. I I will admit, sort of a few times in my life I took a scooter because I was pretty far away from everything, and I would rather walk if there was a time, but I said, Oh, screw it, it's kind of fun. I'm really bad on the scooters, so it was really funny to get like a between how bad I am and the hater rate I got. People go, You should walk. And then I remember when I got there, there was a little taqueria that had popped up on like a Yelp search years ago on the way to wherever I was in Swerte. It was uh probably pulling up on my phone, but I heard a quote there that I wrote it down because I was like, I need to put this in a movie, but it was this one dude eating with two girls, and he was just dripping like ghetto fab, just fantastic. And he was like, you know, girls out here talking like they want crab legs, which y'all should be talking about is y'all want crab claws. And I was like, uh-huh, okay. Some 4D chess right there. That's how you that's how you can separate, that's how you can separate the wheat from the chaff.
SPEAKER_04So stopping at a taqueria on the where on the way to Suerte. That's how you know you're trying to cram it all in, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and by all is your ass into your jeans.
SPEAKER_04But we have had so many places like um Suerte and then Nixta. I don't know if you heard of them.
SPEAKER_02No, but yeah, yeah. He does it, it's Nikstamal, the name, correct?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yes, and he's uh he's gotten all these awards, and there's all these places that have popped up, and it's been like it's obviously been since like oh nine when you were talking about that was like a really cool time, but like all the way up until now, these it's just like we get a lot of people moving here, but it doesn't really matter because it continually gets cooler and cooler, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, except when that dude with the chicken tried to fucking assault me because I wouldn't buy him a milkshake.
SPEAKER_04You might get more of that. So is that real?
SPEAKER_02That's a thing that occurred, yeah. I sure did. There was a dude with a chicken. He wanted a milkshake because I took a picture of him with his chicken. He's like, then delete the picture. I was like, No, he said, give me your phone. I said, I'll give you my phone, shove it up your ass, and the chicken with it.
SPEAKER_04Because we have uh some you know homeless kind of people here, and it's I've heard some odd stories going on there, but yeah, I mean it is what it is, but you know, brother just wanted to see some bets, you know.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, got I haven't been to it, no, I really want to go to one of the soccer games where the best. And you know, and I just think you know, I had two friends from drama school, year behind me. One of them is a brilliant actor that you've probably seen if you watch Fabulous, was it Marvelous Mrs. Mazel? Um my classmate Leroy McClain, who's year below me, uh, play shy Baldwin. He's also a new sex in the city reboot. But he and a guy named Ryan King, who we used to joke and they call Walt Disney's the Ryan King, were both from Round Rock. And it was funny because I I always just sort of looped it in with Austin and always just thought they had really profoundly cool music sensibilities and knew some of the more Texas and Oklahoma Middle East centric bands that I came to know through doing doing my show. It's like, you know, when I I did a play and I had an apprenticeship at the Guffie Theater in Minnesota, and suddenly you're learning more about the replacements, and you're learning more about semisonic, and you're learning more about all the acts that are coming. Like obviously, Prince and whoever else he launched out of Paisley Park. So obviously with Austin, Gary Clark, and like this incredible artist, and plus just even like random people you've never heard of that just haven't gotten seen yet, but just crush. Like oh yeah, I remember one year I was there, it was like Satan was smiling, it was uh St. Patrick's Day coincided with the first day of South by. It was just it was like, Oh, this is what it was like when Dionysus was alive. I got it now. Now I get it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you know, but in a good way every year, every year the South by parties are crazy because of St. Patty's Day.
SPEAKER_02So nuts, nuts. Is um Mighty Cone still um operating? I heard they moved off of South Congress because they built all that stuff. There's no more fields, like across where Güero and Tip Top Candy Shop. There's that really dope western store where we all got like shirts or boots or something. I don't remember. Um Allen's boots or that might be it, like an older place. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05There's a mighty cone kind of off of kind of like by Barton Springs there. If there's a food truck right there by and they might still be there. Last time I was there, they were still there. I'm not sure, but they were wonderful.
SPEAKER_02They were wonderful. I can't recommend their stuff enough. They were apparently they are the food truck. I want to say the restaurant is something, it's not woodshed, it's something like that. And like it's like a well-known restaurant, but it's uh I can't, but it's like a fine dining restaurant, and this is their like fun project on the side. But I remember um an ex-girlfriend's brother who lived there sent us down to um, I want to say it was like maybe Soco and Riverside. It was called Tacos al Pastor. There's a truck, I think it had like Ren and Stimpy spray painted on it. Those tacos were ha ha ha higher. Oh my god, I crushed an endorphin. I had just seen like Gogo Bordello play downtown, and then I was dressed. I mean, it's I didn't do any kind of word eye makeup, but I was Kim Jong Ellen. It was like just picking the last. What's that place on on South Congress says? Oh, they're not junk man's daughter. What's the name of the place? Um, Lucy in Disguise.
SPEAKER_05Lucy in Disguise, it closed down. What? Troy moved it. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, it's closed on Congress.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, holy oh, man. The day after Halloween, the return line looked like the exit is from Egypt. It was a DMV. And I had gotten a Kim Jong il costume because it was what was left. And I just like put a bunch of big old gold chains and dookie ropes, and I wore my like mirrored Air Force ones and my girl at the time, uh, dressed like uh she had like there was a he had like a woman's communist military outfit, and I took a hotel towel and I rolled it up and I coiled that sucker around my leg, like just a big anaconda. And I just walked around.
SPEAKER_04That's a good costume.
SPEAKER_02It was, dude. I lit up Sixth Street. They were like, this guy's out of his mind, it's in perfectamente. But you know, the thing that I really love is a lot of my friends that have relocated, you know, my cousin relocated to Boulder, and I had a lot of friends from New York, naturally, of course, but relocate to Austin and to Round Rock and to um even areas like not far from dripping springs. And yeah, I I I personally I get it, and I've talked about it even with my mom. I mean, a city that's so environmentally conscious, a city that's so arts conscious, a city that has such a mobilized populace that to be, and I'm not shitting on anyone's politics, but to remain both the capital and in many ways this very defined blue spot and a very red state, yeah, where people can find a home and a voice and a means of expression that for people who haven't been, who reduce it down to oh my god, I saw my favorite influencer, like South by, and she was getting like the shocker from Young Gravy, you know what I'm saying? Versus I don't know just how much history there is, and just when you leave this, when you leave the city, I mean driving in the city tests your soul to the limit. I get it. I wrote about like I get it, but when you leave the nature, the outlying stuff you have access to in that part of Texas is magnificent because you can get to more or less anything you have, virtually every terrestrial environment smooshed together there. That's uh like I I mean I can rah some ice about that, but I just look like shit and burnt orange. I do yellow and burnt orange. I look like I have an iron deficiency, and it's it's always broken my heart. I mean, I went to a school in the UAA. I mean, I like everything. No, no, I'm saying like clashes. No, I look, I look horrendous in that color. I look, I look awful. Like, I don't know, like just everyone's skin tone like favors something else. I had a shirt about your color, like a yellow one that I got at like some comic store, um, because of my last name, and it said Richie Rich. And it had this cool like applique on it, but because it was yellow, like I looked unwell. I look deeply, deeply unwell. I mean, I'm not saying I'm winning any beauty contest, but that one we're concerned about your your your your blood levels, my G.
SPEAKER_05Like you don't it's important to be aware of what colors work best on you, you know.
SPEAKER_02Especially when you live a lifetime in front of camera. Like some people are like, Oh, well, you know, Adam Richmond, you know, you look the same, you know, more salt in the beer, this that the third, and maybe your cheeks a little chubby or whatever, and they're true. I I don't know how I can't lose that shit, but whatever. Um, but yeah, I mean, then other people are like, You look sad, tired, and old. Thank you. And I deserve that because I'm telling you that these are good chicken wings.
SPEAKER_05Was that your niece that said that?
SPEAKER_02Uh, if only, if only no, I because then I could take it from family, and this is the truth. They they did like some subway signs for one of my shows, and I still regret not actually seeing it. My mom wanted to take us one night. I was like, Nah, I should have gone. You were right. Uh, but the the thing is, um my boys from Brooklyn are like, What are you doing? I'm like taking these pictures for this thing. And my buddy Pete, who I grew up with in Brooklyn, and this is a deeply educated man from Columbia Business who runs a headphone. He's like, Let me tell you something. If I see your face on the side of a bus or a subway station, I'm drawing a giant dick right on your forehead. And I like, I hugged him and I said, You know what? Like, because the truth is A, and that's your friends that are always gonna keep you honest, and your friends that are always gonna tell you the truth and never let you get too big for your britches. And also, I comforted myself with the fact that if I ever see myself with a giant dick on my forehead, I'd be like, let's pee.
SPEAKER_04No, that's how. So, how long you know have you been behind the camera, or so to speak? Like, I mean, like in the spotlight, like at least a decade, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Man vs. Food uh started December of 2008 when the move to History Channel was about four years ago, and it's been outstanding. I really because I was a History Channel junkie, yeah, and and it was one of those. I mean, yeah, look, travel channel, I will always, you know, love, respect, be grateful for. You know, obviously, there's no there's nothing without man versus food, there's nothing without that. And that was that was Pat Young and um Matt Butler and Charlie Parsons taking a flyer on tomato ketchup. Like I found out years later, the show was actually intended for the guy who hosted uh human weapon, I think it was called. But you know, I worked with them. I've obviously done plenty of shows at the Food Network, and they've always been very generous uh as far as I go. Um, but yeah, moved to history like four years ago. And you know, I've been also very fortunate. Man vs food is in 38 countries, so I've been able to do shows exclusively in England. I'm a big soccer guy, people know that. I mean, you see, I got Clint Jameson here, I got Zidane right here. Um, in addition to all the crap you can't see behind the camera, and uh I had a show about um food and football all over the world with uh Facebook watching Copa 90 and did a show on ITV. So yeah, I've been I've been doing uh a bunch of stuff, but like history is uh it's just crazy. It's crazy to like see my face on television and then see that yellow and red H come up. I'm like, wait, what? Like because like you know, watching like a videotape of some stupid shit I did with my friends or like a video that I made that oh I look so smart, you know what I mean? Versus like professional, got it, got it.
SPEAKER_04You know, you look um really happy, I think. I think I when I'm watching clips of um what you're doing now, or you know, on the food that built America, it seems so well, it's so entertaining, right? Like it's so there's so much to explore. Well, you're welcome, uh, but it seems like you're genuinely interested in it, right?
SPEAKER_02Like I am such a dork for it, and literally people have my family and my friends were like, someone will come up and say something, and then it's like don't get them started. And because one thing leads to another, right? Like, how like you start it's it this is a true conversation that occurred between me and the man who's in your hotel room telling you what movies there are, the very handsome and very generous Mario Lopez. I got to film a couple segments with Access Hollywood recently, and he and Kit are delightful, like no bullshit, delightful people. And um he was like, Yeah, we we didn't have he said he has first Pop Tart recently because they couldn't really afford him in his house growing up. Toasters people forget were extraordinarily expensive. We take toasters for granted. For us, the newest invention for the house is more or less like the air fryer, you know. Now people are selling sous vide machines Target, it doesn't make sense, but you know, like immersion cookers at Target. What? What are you talking about? But then you you know, to speak to people, and then it's like, yeah, well, bread wasn't originally sliced, and bread wasn't even originally white, and it wasn't that it wasn't originally found in a supermarket, right? Like you'd go to a provisions place, you'd fill it a slip, and you'd hand it to a grocer who would fill your order. If you wanted fish, you go to fish market. You want cheese, you go to you know, a dairy. You want yogurt, you go to a dairy. You wanted to go to you know, get meat, you get a go to a butcher. The idea of bringing it all in one place was an invention. And that's that's truthfully, like, that's why maybe I'm so happy because I get to get a better appreciation of the edible world around me. And I live and work in the food space, and like to be fair, that was it, like with Mario and Kit. To be like it started talking about Pop Tarts and toasters and then ego waffles, and he's like, But why is it called ego? I don't get it. And I was like, the interesting thing was the guy originally did not have an egg business, he had this thing that was like a mayonnaise, and he had shortening and things that were egg fortified, and he called his waffle the frothel, but frothel is a goddamn stupid ass name, and normally waffles were only you had to have a waffle iron, so you had to make batter and make a mess and clean this thing, and you had to have this massive electrical implement that you know was for one purpose and one purpose only, or it took up place. Suddenly a toaster could produce breakfast, and so then the conversation went from there to peanut butter and then peanut. So you start with the bread, and then suddenly you're talking about like, and also, did you happen to know that one of the guys who created Peter Pan, but he got screwed over by his partners and the government, he pivoted and created Skippy. Same person, oh yeah, oh yeah, or the fact that GIF got taken to Congress because they don't actually contain enough uh what's the word, peanuts in their peanut butter. It's so much, yeah. So there's a difference between that's the one thing that I also really dig is really understanding some of these buzzwords and understanding how new they are. So hydrogenation, we always see the bad things about hydrogenated fats, but by the addition of this hydrogen, it allows oils to stay in a cream sort of state at room temperature, but it's just not great for us. And so, you know, you have a fully hydrogenated project product like a peanut butter, where you can assimilate the idea is it's a homogenizing process, so it's a way of assimilating the peanut oil into the peanut grit, and that's why you get that cream. So there's two different ways there's part there's partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated oils. And GIF has gif is delicious because it's got sugar and it's fully hydrogenated, like margarine, it's oil, but hydrogenated to remain in that way at that temperature, and so now they've found different ways of holding fats at that temperature that state longer, but it's it's kind of a crazy thing. And this season on Food That Built America, like I dig that we actually get a little bit to 30,000 feet, like the shopping cart. People take that shit for granted all the time. And I'm I'm one of those people, bro. I'm not I'm not any like some vaunted like scholar. And when they kind of said, here's and that's what I love what History Channel does. And I don't know how they handle other people, but they know I am a research dork, and I actually know a lot of this shit already. But they go, so we want to cover the supermarket, we're gonna cover the supermarket, the non-centralized supermarket. So remember, supermarkets used to be in the center of town. The idea of a market with a huge parking lot and a massive market, that was we owe that to you know, King Cullen and and and these incredible other, because that never would have existed. There were always in town this idea of a massive clearinghouse where you could get stationery and you could get housewares and you could get plates and garbage bags and bread. And Kroger put a bakery in his grocery store. And the guy from Piggly Wiggly took a basket and welded it to part of a rolling chair, and he couldn't get people to do it. Men felt it was effeminate, and moms who had been tired of pushing around in a carriage, didn't want to push around another fucking basket. So what he did was he hired models to walk around the store, male and female models, to sexy it up. And he put ads like, look at the convenience you have, suddenly having it, and there's all this espionage with the kid who built the nesting carts where one goes inside the other, because they used to have to be disassembled at night and this whole thing. Oh, and it's just and even the UPC code, like we take that for granted, but again, that gave us the power of self-checkout and expedited standard checkout because normally it would be again. Our generation really knows nothing about this. It had been get your groceries, you go to the register, grocer's register has uh, you know, the cashier has a booklet and then look up there, maybe a scale of limes. Limes are this, this, enter it. Now they scan it, and it was all created by someone who had been a Boy Scout and loved the Morse code. And he was in a beach, uh, it was in Miami Beach, and he was drawing dots and dashes in the sand, and then he suddenly raked his fingers down, and the bars became thick lines, the dots became thin lines, and he said, Oh my god, it's a code that can be read from any direction. That's cool, and with the advent of laser, and the very first thing that was ever checked out with UPC was a pack of, I believe, Wrigley gum or doubling gum. And the idea was that it was so small, like they tried a radial code, but those don't print something about printing a circle, they never print evenly, but printing a line always does. And so they showed that with mirrors and lasers, they didn't get hot. You could do it, you could expedite, checkout, and it's so cool. Like, and now, yeah, I'm a total pain in the ass when I go out because this season we got spirits, so we do Smyrnoff, we do Cuervo, we do sporting goods, and people like wire sporting goods and food that built America. Um, Wilson, Rawlings all had ties to slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses have a deep abundance of leather.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yes, okay, that makes sense. So, has the spirits one aired? Because I I I mean, like I was doing a little like digging around, and I heard you talk about like tequila, like it's just like interesting. It's in the name, the food that built America, right? And it's we're kind of young in the grand scheme of things without quite so like it was talking about like after prohibition got flooded with tequila. And I was like, Oh, interesting. Like it's like a never-ending, you know, you can keep going and going and going.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that's the thing. Again, people are like, Well, it's booze, what did it do? But you don't realize how okay. So, if I told you like the Moscow mule, we've probably already had one, and it's a delicious combination. And for those of you who don't know, it's vodka, sometimes a bit of simple syrup, ginger beer, lime, often served in a copper mug. So good. Copper mug, delicious, refreshing. Here's the thing: you have a man trying to sell Sniganoff in the middle of the Cold War, he's trying to sell Russian spirit, nobody wants it, no one knows anything about it, it doesn't have a clean association, right? So he's trying to mess around. He knows a guy who has a very famous bar in Hollywood that makes their own ginger beer, has a very good mixologist. The dude who owns this, this Hollywood guy, he's also recently uh married or dating or stupping this actress who's also heir to a copper fortune. She inherited inherits all this copper mining and copper processing, knows no idea what she wants to do with it. This is an adjunct thing at this time because he goes to this place like, oh, let's do something with your ginger beer and this spirit. And they mess around with lime and this, that, and the other. If we could find a vessel to keep it cool, the thermos had been built. So the idea of a double-walled, like metal thing to insulate something makes sense to manufacturers and fabricators. What should it be made of? I know copper, and all of a sudden, all three of them see a profit, even the bartender, because he named the mule, right? So he licenses that the guy with smear enough, the lady with the copper, and the guy with the ginger beer, all profit. And what he started doing was he bought an intimatic camera when it was brand new. He would go to the bars and he would take a picture of the bartender and go, Oh my god, he said, I'll get you, I'll give you another one where you can pose. You can take that one home to your wife if you serve this drink. I said, I'll give you one to put up on the wall if you hold the drink. And people were so excited to get a picture of themselves right away.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02They did it, and he starts spreading the word. And I'm like, and it's crazy to know, like the mob was bringing tequila in, prohibition ends, and you can't press a button to get whiskey. It takes a while to distill and age and process whiskey to make it into whiskey. But Cuervo just had bottles on deck, and the interesting thing was it was run by a woman at that time, she was the prescient mind behind it, and nobody expected her uh to be able to run. Sorry about that. No one expected her to be able to run a uh tequila distillery. So, like, that's the thing, too. It's not just ultimately like about the foods or that which we consume, but it's also kind of about these people, the way the world changed, like you know, the Totino story and how she was so poor that she would wait until school ended. Uh Rosal Rosalie behind the woman behind the Totino and Gino's brand. And she was ultimately, I think, one of the first female food executives in the United States, but she used to wait till school ended, go back to her schoolyard to find orange peels and eat the leftover pulp from orange peels on the ground. And she went on to become this multi-millionaire. So it ends up really being the story of our country through the prism of food. And like, here's a bunch of random food shit. But to be fair, the random food stuff you'll learn is extraordinarily cool.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, nice. What uh what do you drink when you go out? What's what's your choice of drink?
SPEAKER_02Oh, that is a great question. I guess it depends. Like, um, my friend uh chef Chris O is a great Korean chef out in LA. So, like out with him, tons of soju, um, you know, probably like a beer, like to chase. And then if we go out, there'll probably be tequila. I I guess unless it's like a very because I I collect bourbon and I want to enjoy it. I like before a meal, I'm a fan of like a greyhounder a Paloma. Um I generally try to keep if it's like a long night, try to keep it to clear, clear spirits if I can. So if I'm shooting anything, it's tequila. Drinking a spirit, it tends to be vodka. But you know, I collect bourbon, I love whiskey. I do like, I do like Jameson, a shot of Jamie and some Guinness. I always have, I always will. Um I'm like I'm not like that much of a style. I love, believe it or not, Yingling. Uh Yingling light as I watch my girlish figure. Uh, I have that in the fridge. And but I'm a Guinness whore. And then I got to film with Jim Cook for Adam Eats the 80s, um, at um Sam Adams. And not only is he a legend, but he gave me all kinds of these like rare Sam Adams that like I'm rationing in my fridge, and like the utopias and these worms that are in these bottles with corks and stuff. So I really like that. Um I don't know what it is. I'm not with the exception of a good ice cold martini, I'm not super big on straight up drinks. I like rocks, always have, always will. Have y'all been to PDT in New York ever? It's uh a speakeasy that's hidden through a phone booth in the in uh east side, lower east side.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's not is is it really that hidden? I mean, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You go into a hot dog restaurant, you go in your if there's a reservation, but you go into a hot dog restaurant, you go into the phone booth, you pick up the phone, no shit, and then you go in. No parties are four and more, no standing, no whatever. And so uh they have an excellent cocktail menu. The mixologist is a guy that I actually know, and I'm not saying this to give him a dick flute solo, he's very talented, his name is Jeff Bell, and uh they have uh it's a bacon wash old fashioned, and they get rendered bacon fat in Benton's bacon, and they I don't know if you know how to uh bacon wash a spirit, but basically you render bacon fat, you mix it with the spirit, you let it come to temperature, and the fat kind of comes through the spirit like a raft, and ultimately you chill it when all the fat coalesces on top, you scrape it off, and then when the spirit comes back to temperature, it will um it will have that flavor. And they do a bacon old fashioned with just one fat cube and a bit of orange rind, and it's it's the way to end the night there. But the it, you know, I love those places where you can talk to a mixologist and go, I don't know, I usually drink this, but you know what? I'm like, I don't really like rum. And they're that they usually love that. They're like, Oh, can I can I make you a rum drink you might like? And suddenly I'm trying stuff that I never had before. And I love yo, I went to a bar called the Walsley in it's a restaurant. No, excuse me, it's called the Delaware in in London, and they made a Sazerac, but they made it with cognac, and that was so good. I felt things in my loins. Highly recommend it. If you're going to a good bar that can make a Sazerac and they're willing to make it with cognac, holy schmole. I was like, the whole new world, the Latin style. I was like, what is that? Nice.
SPEAKER_04Well, well, what's funny? You mentioned the mule, and you mentioned also the photo with the mule. And if you were here physically with us, when our guests leave, they go home with uh ranch rider spirits. And Troy takes a picture and it prints out, and so it doesn't have to be whatever that was to still be kind of cool to get your picture made and have a cool drink to go home with, right? Oh, yes, yeah, it never loses its interest. But uh ranch rider spirits, I don't know if you've had an opportunity to try those guys, but those are our official beverage here on the podcast.
SPEAKER_02And what do they make exactly?
SPEAKER_04So like with sugar, yeah, no sugar, no shit. That's the kind of shit.
SPEAKER_02And but so what is the what what kind of spirits do they make?
SPEAKER_04So they got ranch water, so you've got your nose, your tequila, your sparkling water, little salt, little lime, and so that's their first beverage. But they came onto the scene and like they were flooded with all the like ranch waters and the all all that kind of ranch waters, is that cut water does one? And well, a lot of people do them now, so it's kind of it's funny because when they came on the scene, all these other people did too, but it's actually vodka and it's actually a real spirit, so you're not gonna find it's a new text that you're they probably do. They're they're definitely looking rapidly right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure you can find some, but if we exchange pickles, we'll send you some. Yeah, we could see, yeah, we could send you some.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, they're super pervy and I love it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, for everyone.
SPEAKER_02Remember, when you exchange pickles with someone, you exchange pickles with everyone they've ever exchanged pickles with before.
SPEAKER_05That's true.
SPEAKER_02Little tip for Uncle Adam. There you go.
SPEAKER_04That's going on in a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_02Look it up for you, fellas. But it's Ranch Rider. I will look them up before.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Ranch Rider is a good one. Shout out to them. They just printed their 10 millionth can. Yes. So pretty cool. Um, yeah, great, great flavor stuff. You know, here in Texas, we can't get them at a regular grocery store because we still sell all our liquor and liquor stores here. So we don't have that convenience there, but yeah, you can get them in any liquor store here in Texas.
SPEAKER_02So where where was the place? Where was I? Was it in Ohio where they have there's certain beer at like 7 Eleven that is a certain ABV, but like the stuff that's higher ABV, it has to be warm. So you can't drink it there. You have to take it home. Audrey, I'm gonna remember which thing was a brave man. One one warm beer is like swallowing like 12 bagels to me.
SPEAKER_04Oh, well, the really high ABV beers, like some of those are are actually good warm. It's almost like a like a stout, not so bad one.
SPEAKER_02I guess I can see that. Like I've cooked with stout, like brazen short ribs with Guinness and like oyster sauce. Yeah, is is fire. Like, um with that. And like people use it, it's really good. What you do is you get a short rib, put it on a bed of onions, salt, like kosher salt, black pepper, like at room temperature. Don't do it ice cold. Let it sit, but like fresh cracked pepper, let it rest. Uh, like you can use yellow onion or whatever. That shall it's garlic on. The bed underneath it, throw in some aromatics, you know, some herbs, and then do I my combination I like is a Guinness, oyster sauce, splash or two of black coffee, and then those I'm liking this. Let that let that braise down. And then when the braising liquid's getting really jammy, I could even sometimes I'll put in like sliced sweet potatoes or carrots and run some honey over that, and then I'll keep braising and let that caramelize and all that shit. It's just icky gooey fantasticness. And the thing is sometimes the onions are just you sacrifice them to just keep the short because then you can take the short rib out if you really want to sear it, or it could just be full of fall apart tender, and you could even take all those veggies if you don't want to eat them and blend them and make a sick root vegetable mash or whatever. Yeah, super good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Always use them just red wine for uh short ribs. So that like that whole conversation there, yeah.
SPEAKER_02No, but yeah, like again, and that's there's a great place I went to in Portland, Maine, that was called Street and Company. And I really like the fact that they have as an ethos, I think it like said on their website, less is more preparation, maintains essence, olive oil, shallot, salt, flame. You know what I mean? That there's a kind of elemental nature of it. And I remember going somewhere in the Philippines, and the guy was like getting nervous right before we filmed, and like the guy's dish was fucking fantastic. There's a type of Filipino dish called salpicao, and he was making it with ostrich and like slivered garlic, and he would braise it in milk, and he was like, I don't know if our stuff is like fancy enough for television. And I was like, dude, you're like next, next. Because I've been to places, I was in Vietnam, and there was a place that did these shrimp with just steaming them in and coconut water, and that's it. And it was just the most exquisite with just a little bit of like keffer lime leaf in the water, and it was just the most fragrant, perfect thing. You didn't need to add all the stuff to it. You go to Argentina, it's a good coat of steak, it's cooked well, salt, really good olive oil, really good roasted vegetables, and chefs with very good temperature control. So you could do your short ribs realistically with red wine or with just their natural juices, I'm sure. I mean, it's probably more fun to braise the fuck out of those things, though. And then you can use them when they're done to fill anything from ravioli to egg rolls. Have you ever done that? Like you mix it with a cripota and then you can pipe it into something or even make like enchiladas with it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I've done we'll do tacos with leftover short ribs if there ever is any, just because it's so easy just to wrap anything in the world in a tortilla and just throw it, throwing your mouth.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I do a lot of empanadas like that. Anything leftover, I'm like, let's make some empanadas out of it, you know.
SPEAKER_02Sorry that this is turning into ASMR for so many of your listeners.
SPEAKER_04Couldn't hear anything.
SPEAKER_02The we have but we have the ice filter on. You're good, you're good, dude. What is one thing that people don't do in Austin that you wish they would when they come?
SPEAKER_05Well, use turning signals with what was that? I said used turning signals.
SPEAKER_02No, that's what they don't do that you would that they that you wish they would. All right, fair enough. I'll take the I mean I do, but because I'm an erotic Jew, and it's like, no, no, I used my signal. I got pulled over today for flipping the guy off that turned unmarked, it was an unmarked cop car. Yeah, I was trying to get to a doctor's appointment, and this guy, right? I signaled to go into the right lane. He did not, he did not. I looked at him, I didn't even do anything, and he goes like this. So he goes like that. Like, like, what do you want? Like that in his mirror. So I went, I flip him the bird, and then I admit, and I don't know if this was the bridge too far. I gave him the off and the fling my jizz at you hand. The spite my friend calls the spider-man, so it's the bird, followed by a jerk, jerk splat, like it was a good Peter Parker, like a rap. Next thing I know, there was a huh, and then I saw the cherries and berries in his oh my god. So I looked immediately, I'm sober as a judge, pull over. You know, I looked at my speed. I never broke the speed limit. He gets over, and I'm like, I'm heading to a doctor's appointment. You cut me off. I you you waved at me, I gave you the finger. You know, you're giving so you know, this could have gone any number away. Someone else could have gotten out of their car, had a weapon, had to da da da da da. And I was like, but I wouldn't have pulled over if you weren't an officer of the law. How about broken the law? Exactly. Yes, you know what I mean. Did you think? Yeah, like yeah, that was it. He's saying, calm down. I was like, Can I go?
SPEAKER_05Right. He's like, I wasn't gonna pull you over until you jizzed on me, man.
SPEAKER_02And then that really but even though he just felt some kind of way about getting the finger, and he wanted to sit there and just sit there and go, no, no, no, no, no, I have the power. And the thing is, if I didn't genuinely have a doctor's appointment, then I would have honestly said, May I have your badge number? If he said, Well, I'd say I'd like to know that you pulled me over because I'd like to see the statute that says, you know, thou shalt not flip a bird to a guy who looks like Paul Blart. You know, I got very lucky that Beefsteak Charlie let me go. But Beefsteak Charlie, for those of you who uh only know a world with the internet, was a restaurant that served you beer, wine, sangria with steak and unlimited popcorn shrimp. Are you guys familiar with this? Probably it may have been, I think it was Chicago and all points east. And it was a guy who had the middle part like the dude on the Pringle scan, and he had the little curly silent movie mustache, and he wore a vest and he had the bartender armbands. It broken the beefsteak Charlie's. That's the only way I learned about sangria in Brooklyn, which is really tragic because we have a huge Latin community, but still, yeah.
SPEAKER_05By the way, to bring that back. Oh, yeah, I've seen that commercial before. Yeah, I've seen the commercial, yeah.
SPEAKER_02If I can make a recommendation for you guys to watch on YouTube, if you're like, I want to take a tour inside Adam Richmond's brain and the references he's made for the past 20 years. There is a uh a collection of commercials that are from the New York area specifically in the 70s and 80s. I highly recommend uh beautiful Mount Airy Lodge. Um, excuse me, a crazy eddy, of course, their prices are insane. Um, Action Park, Raceway Park. Oh my word, the Children's Aid Society. Let me tell you, I actually low-key, so I started DJing right before the pandemic. I did my first gig in Miami and then the world went to shit. So I did a few through IG and then IG stopped it. Unless you only quest love and uh D nice were allowed to DJ. No one else can play music, but um, I really fell in love with it and I play I play quite a bit of music. The guitars are I just moved into this this place, but the guitars are in the corner of the room.
SPEAKER_04Oh sweet.
SPEAKER_02So like I've been playing you know music for a hot minute. I think I'm gonna have to take that children's aid society and do some SoundCloud shit to it. I'm telling you, this song is about the Children's Aid Society. Malto Benet.
SPEAKER_01I'm such an ass.
SPEAKER_02It's a banger. No, but no, honestly, other than using um turns. Oh no, I guess I guess you guys are great champions of a city that I love in advance of this, you know, you guys were very low key about it. Like you guys are the opposite of like someone said, like, if someone were a vegan and didn't crossfit, which one would they tell you about first?
SPEAKER_01And like in Austin, you know, very much it's like the years are like Gary Clark before he was like I used to see him all the time on 6G, like you don't even know, like it is those guys exist, those guys exist.
SPEAKER_02I only have three tattoos, so I'm like a choir boy, you know, and so I'm asking what is something is it something that people should eat or place that they should go or a show that they should watch?
SPEAKER_04It's so hard to recommend like a place to eat because and you can do that right all day long. And there were not we could obviously come up with a list, but I think and there's something I want to ask you about if you've done when you're here what's that is Buckeys.
SPEAKER_02I know I've never I've never I've never done a Bucky's.
SPEAKER_04Well, okay, Troy, maybe this will end us our sponsorship. No, we we uh love Bucky's, and Buckeys is something that I would strongly urge you to look into. What is it? And it's it's a it's a gas station. So okay and it all right, and it's it's it's was built on the idea that when you're traveling and you need to hit the head, you they're all dirty and nasty. So Bucky's is immaculate and you can eat off the floor in any Bucky's you go to, and any and and it's true, and so not beyond the you know, it's taken off from just that you can take a nice clean dump or urinate, you know, to the fact that they have awesome snacks and they have barbecue there, and it's really it's a it's a it's a circle of life.
SPEAKER_02Can I take the barbecue into the bathroom and just totally centipede that shit? No, I'm just saying like eat and eventually fill whilst evacuating. It's just sort of like it's the circle.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I'm sure somebody, if they decided to just live at Buckeys, could do very well.
SPEAKER_02I've not so there's multiple, there's multiple buckies.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, oh yes, there are. So and it's like it's very, I don't know like how good of a recommendation this is, but it's so cool, and people don't know, and you and you gotta go. I mean, like I have it's yeah.
SPEAKER_05If you come down to go to like uh we like if you would go on a floating experience here, hit buckies before you go floating, you know, it's it's a great, great world. Get some gear, you can even get like random pool floaties if you want to like you know, what's the best thing to float?
SPEAKER_02What's the best thing to float? I saw those big black tubes, no?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's that's usually it the black tubes.
SPEAKER_02And then you tie them all together, right?
SPEAKER_05Like a giant flotilla, isn't that the cooler? I mean, you know, I mean, growing up in college, maybe we had like a beer bong and a gravity bong along with us on the uh on the trip.
SPEAKER_02But is a raft like a bitch made move? Like you have to be in a tube, like if you're in an actual raft, are you like uh you're okay, you're good.
SPEAKER_05It really depends on the water level if they're if they do the rafts because it needs to be a little bit higher. But like when we would go in college, we would do a raft and there'd be like 10 tubes with a raft. Yeah, we'd we yeah, and so like yeah, it's kind of back and forth. Yeah, exactly. You'd go hang out by yourself a little bit, but like, yeah, tubing is one of the best things to do in the like this area, New Brompols in the hill country. It's like just amazing.
SPEAKER_02So I mean that that was something big, like you know. I have a few moments, like I've not won an Emmy, I don't know if I'll ever will. It'd be cool to do, but like we'll see. And I have my things from like that. I won, you know, this like the awards and con the cable fax awards and the coptos. But like, I will tell you this, man. Like getting named to the the Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame and my mom being able to see that with like the rabbi who performed my bar mitzvah, he and I were inducted the same year, but being able to write the foreword to the Salt Lick book was huge. Because the truth of the matter is, I share zero cultural touchstone with Scott Roberts with people from everywhere from Fredericksburg to where we were in Driftwood to um where is Kreitz is in what town? Kreitz Market. That's in um Lockhart. Lockhart, yeah. And I know that they're affiliated with Hill Country here in New York. And what I'm saying is when you respect an art form like I do barbecue, and where you've been able to champion it and like celebrate people that are legends within that space, from Charlie Virgos in Memphis to Myron Mixon to Ed Mitchell to whomever, Buddy Merritt and Cabot uh and Cabot at Mean Pig Barbecue and JR and Lacianego JRs and so on. Then I think that to have a place with like the reputation and the quality of Salt Lick go, you know what? We're gonna get a Brooklyn Jew to write like because we we feel he gets it. That's like such to me, such an honor. Like, and I still haven't been to Franklin's, I still haven't been to La Barbecue. I know that uh my boy Warren G is the biggest fan of La Barbecue.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, have you been?
SPEAKER_02I'm sure you gentlemen have been to both. Is the line at Franklin's w worth worth it? Is the juice worth to squeeze?
SPEAKER_05I would say because it it can like waste a day for you because you wait in line and then you eat a pound of barbecue and drink some beers and your day is over.
SPEAKER_02But that's a good day. Yeah, that's a that's a good day.
SPEAKER_05That's a good day. So if you have time to like, you know, in the city and you do have time to do that for a full day, plan that for one day. If not, you can do the to-go orders and it's just as good. You don't get the full experience. But there's a lot of people to do like barbecue tours where they might get like three or four barbecue restaurants in one day. So you don't really have time to wait that long if you're going to certain joints around town. But the barbecue game is just insane here. There's just so much.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yes, it's very strong right now. And and and to tie in, you because you keep like you mentioning some of these things, like the salt lake, that's amazing. And that's like it's very cliche to recommend going to the salt lake for because it's like such a well-known place, and that's that's like the place you would say. But the reason I always want people to go somewhere like that is because half of what makes Austin so incredible is driving south into the hill country, because it's not just the city and the river and the nightlife that's happening there, it's the beautiful hill country. And Salt Lick gives you all of that. You get to go see this wonderful scenery. They have a vineyard there, you know. You can pick up the book, you know, you can have a bite, you have one of the bite to eat out. So it's like, and and that's like, yeah, it's of course everybody hears the salt lake, but like, yeah, go somewhere like the salt lake because it's off the beaten path, so to speak.
SPEAKER_02I also think they do things in a very unique way, and also people forget like Scott is half Okinawan. It's M. Scott Roberts, the M is Masa, that is his name. And so his whole joke is my mom's Okinawan, my dad's in Texas, that's why I look how I look and talk how I talk. And his whole thing is they use like wet pecan shells to keep the fire at bay, great smoke, but then they put the sausage on top so that drips down and that hits the fire, sending up smoke, and they're turkey. I mean, just it's so good. Now, granted, again, I've not eaten at these other places, and I'm not saying, and then this is the other thing, right? Like, I'm a competitive son of a bitch, but I I genuinely hope all y'all make it. I hope everyone listening to this makes it. I'm not trying to like outmaneuver any of y'all, like that's the issue.
SPEAKER_04Like, I just think high tides float all boats, and like if you can that's uh that's a very welcoming thing in Austin, also, is that like that's you know, there's all these cool things, but like everybody is supportive of everybody here. So beautiful. That's that's one thing that really sticks out. When people start a new yeah, they start a new endeavor, everybody's gonna back them. Nobody's like it's not like cutthroat like you would expect.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, you know, I mean that was the thing I loved. I did a thing, you know, I'm always in London because I'm an anglophile, I sponsor a soccer team, I'm a shareholder in another another soccer team and shit. And I love it there. I just love it there. Love it, love it, love it. I was living there when the pandemic broke out actually in Camden. Um, but I had done something with a sauce company up in Manchester. Man, what a great city, what a great vibrant food community. We're like New Hampshire, Manchester, and and no, I beg your pardon.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02Okay, Manchestering London, okay. But yeah, but I was just drawing the parallel because London can be ferocious in terms of cost, ferocious in terms of competition, snobbery, exclusivity, racial bias, neighborhood access, and so on. But Manchester, I guess maybe because of both, you know, it's it's the gloomy north, it's north in it. You know, it's definitely it's north, not what hanging that what they go, that you know, it's like petty, well, that's the Jamie Tart accent from the Ted Lasso is a Mancunian one. It's like it's called Empathy, like that sort of there was a great commercial they did for ESPNFC where they were comparing fans of United and Manchester City, and this, and they're basically these guys of the exact same life, but they're like, I'd hate to think what life would be like if I were born a red, I'd hate to think like what it would be if I were born a blue, and they're like the same shit. They're like, wouldn't have such a fit bird, and they're like, they're on the bus with the same girl, they're like, wouldn't have such a fit, but and then they're both like, my name's Becky. But in Manchester, though, I met like a bunch of like young kids that had started microbreweries in their college dorm and really made something of themselves and got a space and got placement at different restaurants. How there's a place, gentlemen, I wish this for your taste buds. There's a place called Northern Soul Grilled Cheese. And uh, first of all, run by the loveliest human ever. But you know, do you know? Are you guys? I mean, you're in the music city of our nation, but Northern Soul, there's a bunch of like Motown era artists that never made it here, and they were all released in England, and they had massive success there. And the the music, the music itself is known as Northern Soul, and that's all they play. And they actually formulated, excuse me, their bread to have virtually no air bubbles in it, and it's like the smoothest thing, and they use this cheese blend and they use all local products. This is a long-winded way of saying that the the way I love Austin for its sense of community and warmth and genuineness, I so too found in Manchester. Oh, cool! And uh, like, and there's crazy places too. You know, I won't I won't say who this restaurant owner was like, Oh, I love you, I love you. So glad you're here. You want some cocaine? I'm good, bro. Never had it, never will. I'm like seven up with that shit. Like, but it was just like, wow, I'm good.
SPEAKER_04Right, that's the forward owner, right?
SPEAKER_02But you know, that's that's it's also like this familiar thing. I mean, ultimately, like, I don't know, isn't that the best thing? Like, so for example, I remember when I came back to film at Casino El Camino, there had been a chef named Puppy when I was there, and he was gone. And the the chef at the time was, I think, in a band, but he had massive Zach Volta of from his hair. Is okay, so I forget his name.
SPEAKER_04Starving Wolves.
SPEAKER_02What's his name?
SPEAKER_04Zach Volta.
SPEAKER_02Starving is called Starving Wolves. What kind of music do they play?
SPEAKER_05It's like punk punk rock, yeah. Punk rock hardcore, maybe or something, like hard punk, kind of I would say. Like, yeah, it's it's it's good. It's really also this the lead singer's David Rodriguez, who's a buddy of mine too. He's also lead singer for the casualties. Um, so but yeah, super good, super nice crew, super cool guys.
SPEAKER_02Is it is it among the up-and-coming musician set? I wonder, is it cutthroat or is it supportive? Like, is it like Nashville, which I heard can be very, very, very cutthroat. You know, for you know, I'm sure that it it varies from person to person and place to place.
SPEAKER_04But I no, that's an interesting. I I have a former chef who started uh he used to be a luthier, now he's working at an Austin guitar house and he's really plugged in in the in the community. And I mean, Troy's wife is in a band, the psychedelic shark. And I mean, it would be very interesting to almost I think I would need to start a pod and get bands in and and learn more to answer that because I don't I don't necessarily know. I play guitar and stuff, but I'm not out there playing in bands and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Like Gary Go ahead, please. No, please. You're saying like Gary Clark?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, like you know, he came up and and I just don't know what it was like for him. Like, is it like opening a food truck where everybody's gonna come check it out and support it and give you tips and tricks, or are they like, you know, trying to bury you because they want to get noticed first? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I mean the thing. That's kind of awesome is I feel you used to hear all these stories about like how bands would form on the Sunset Strip, how kiss started out of like a magazine ad. But I always felt in Austin, especially around South by, where you could see like every little bookstore down every little alleyway becomes a venue, right? To some extent, you know, like they take like a giant construction spool. It's the way I felt about Spoleto in um Charleston, like giant construction spool, they throw a fabric over it, it becomes a stage. They have two lights, they have PA system, a couple mics, here you go. And I think that there's something wildly beautiful about the ability to discover art in a city. And Austin has been one of those places I've truly been able to. And I'm not just saying like, because people can say, well, you could walk around the Winwood walls of Miami, and that's very, very true. But I've never walked around Miami personally and seen random dance performances or random live music, like not buskers. I'm talking about like a proper performance, whereas all over New York, all over Austin to an extent New Orleans, but that you can find certain things where it's a true performance, not like buskers trying with like, you know, their trumpet case open playing stuff, but you can walk and then suddenly there's like a random choir singing in one of those squares or a trio playing at a at an art gallery or on a pier somewhere. And I think it's just a very special thing when you have a city that's so creative and so accepting, and uh and that that suburbia is as engaged with that which goes on in the city, like round rock 45 minutes out, could easily be detached, you know, and and then to see people make that commute and you go there and it's vibrant, and people are still creating. I mean, yeah, like crave those donuts, like Tyler.
SPEAKER_01Oh, here's something you might not know about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, those little eggs, yeah, magnificent sons of bitches. Because I low key wanna, I mean, can we just save it and we'll put it out here first? I want to, and you know what? I will fly to Austin so we can make it together. Dead ass. I want to make a bread pudding using round rock donuts. I've always wanted to do it. I said those would be if you did like a good, like not like some nasty peppery, overpriced bullshit like papi to me. I'm not a papy fan, but some of those good warm bourbons, some of those blantons or you know, and get a few basil Hayden and make a nice cinnamon vanilla bourbon bread pudding with round rock donuts. And actually, I'd like to do it with they had some of those awesome jalapeno jalapeno cheese sausages that they would wrap in dough. But even if you could make well, oh I had oh my god, I went to um God, what was the place on Secret East that we went to where they did the kolachi? Oh god, it's right downtown. Oh man, is it called Underdog or something?
SPEAKER_01Um Batch or Batch is newer.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I have to see. It was it's it's the place I went to on Secret Eats. Oh my god, I am so sorry to the owner if he ever hears this. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04We'll we'll tag it in a post if we if we were.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you. I want to say I think his name is Matt. Again, I'm sorry if that's not right, but it's downtown, and they had all kinds of delicious gourmet hot dogs, and they had like waffle, like really good comfort stuff, a larger venue. Frank, yes, yes, and it's downtown-ish, Frank, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's not there anymore, but yeah, I've is Moonshine still there. Moonshine, I believe, is still there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, moonshine was in my first book. Haas was the the chef, and their peanut butter, their peanut butter pie or peanut butter cheesecake, top five desserts, maybe worldwide, definitely nationwide. And they used to have the devil crab backs, those things were with the Tabasco butter, those things were those things went crazy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, which is a spot.
SPEAKER_02So, and it's also that you know that that building is a deeply historic building. It's it's one of the original Sunday houses where like people from farms could come in and they would offload their goods to sell, and they'd sleep up top, either in their wagon or sleep up on the Sunday, and then they'd come home. And um, it was really a very fascinating thing. And it's a really the way I mean, I don't know. I just love it. I just and I love being the dickhead that when I take someone there for the first time, I get to go, it's pronounced Guadalupe. Brayos.
SPEAKER_04Well, you've got it, you've got it down. I mean, you've you've got a lot of tips and tricks here. The uh Brown Rock Donuts.
SPEAKER_02Oh, no, mine are mine are limited. I that's why you guys have to be my sensei. I'll be out there standing your floor and waxing the cars and learning the ways. Because, you know, honestly, it's a place that I'm not ruling out living. You know, I'm renting where I am now. My building in Brooklyn had gotten sold and been through some really, like as I'm sure most people have in the past couple of years, some extremely, extremely dark times personally, and just time for a change. And I think, you know, a move is sometimes a very good, very good uh way to and like like I say, you know, the move to History Channel was just this beautiful new chapter. And like I was very blessed because it started with season one of Food That Built America, and they took a flyer on me, and all of a sudden I'm hosting Modern Marvels, like a show that like I would sit there and binge. Like I remember my roommates and I in college, just like my my roommate Seth Linder would be crushing two tuna sandwiches and Tato skins. Seth, you know, I'm not bullshitting you with his awesome dog Zeus, and we'd be sitting there and I would eat some pasta, and I'm just God, you know, and you'd sit in there watching something about this earth drill, like this pneumatic drill, something that if it came up in your science class, you couldn't give two tugs of a dead dog's dick, and then you're like, oh, modern suddenly it's modern marbles with Adam Richmond in it, which I was saying, though, so you know what I mean, and doing these shows and doing fast history and doing Adam Eats the 80s, and it sort of shows like this transition period. The reason I say it is like Austin, every time I go there, I leave with a smile, I and it's not nothing to do. People be like, Well, if I went out and I gallivant, it's not Vegas, and that's I think the misconception because people see people partying, you know, at South by or going out in the you know, the dirty six or whatever. But like for me, it's just there's a kind of I find Austin very much like Charleston in that it's one of those cities that when I get there, it so has me in its thrall, like in its hold, in its spell that locals laugh at how like I rap, even I'm sure people will hear me saying what I'm saying now, be like, relax. But it's the truth, I can't articulate it. There's just a lot like I walk past random shows of people's garages and neighborhoods I parked in and just sort of sit at the end of the driveway. And people are like, Come on, you want to watch, want to be here? Don't know literally, pardon my expression, don't know me from Adam. But just again, I had an ex that uh lived in Houston, her brother lived in Austin. We parked in whatever neighborhood he lived in, and I remember I have been, I knew I felt comfortable in that neighborhood. I got exploring there one other time, and like I say, just some people, I guess their friends were doing a show in the garage, and that's this vibe. It's it's um it's just a really magical, magical place, man. I just I hope it becomes more affordable, but I also hope for your sake it it doesn't so it keeps keeps it the way y'all y'all are happy when people like me start moving in going, I'm gonna open the Jewish deli.
SPEAKER_04That would be awesome. Please do it.
SPEAKER_05We need more Jewish deliberate.
SPEAKER_02Is there is there one already in Austin? Is there a Jewish deli?
SPEAKER_05Not one that I could think of. There's I mean, there's places that do some bagels and kind of do like some small setup, but not like a traditional like corned beef, corned beef, pastrami, that kind of shit.
SPEAKER_02Is there anything like that?
SPEAKER_05There's people that do like specials and stuff like that. Like some of the barbecue spots will do that.
SPEAKER_02Uh, but like there's no like straight deli spot, no, like rye and corned beef and pastrami. There's nothing like that.
SPEAKER_05Um, like there's some smaller shops, but nothing that's like true deli, like New York deli style.
SPEAKER_02Oh shit. We might there may be a bomb.
SPEAKER_05There may be some in the future.
SPEAKER_04Uh no, that would be very welcomed. I mean, that would, and I think that would be very well here.
SPEAKER_02But like if I like just just call it Jew owed and just roll the dice, just see how it does Jew'd. Just Jew hungry.
SPEAKER_04Jew hungry. There you go. I like that. You want to eat?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's funny. The truth is, I actually um my friend Kate Burr and I are starting to film uh food like about like like a little tiny series about sort of quote unquote Jewish foods. But the thing is, here's the thing, right? I tell everybody anybody can make a food show that's a hit in New York, Chicago, Austin, or LA. But the real hit shows hit in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They hit in in Amarillo, they hit in the communities that may not be seen as cosmopolitan, but have a beautifully diverse populace. But if you only play to the big cities, you miss and disrespect the heartland, you're fucked. So that's why I don't want to do like if you do a show about like like quote unquote Jewish dishes, the Jewish people like so what? But if you do one that non-Jewish, non-white, non-whatever people, non-American people can watch, then you have something. And so we were like talking about doing shows like where it's about the vegetables or about poultry and not about Hanukkah. It's you know, it's its own thing. So I don't know. I'm now thinking like shalom y'all might be uh that might be the the oh my god, oh my god, I'm literally writing it down right now, and I am going to okay. I'm I'm we have a time date stamp. It is 5 15. Okay, we got it right here. Oh snap, boys.
SPEAKER_01Nice, nice, all right.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be called what do you think about the Oive Corral?
SPEAKER_01The Oive Corral.
SPEAKER_02It's pretty fucking terrible. But I think that if I do like a Jewish deli, oh my gosh, what neighborhood should I do it in if I were to do it in Austin? If I were to do a Jewish deli in Austin, what is there a Jewish neighborhood in Austin?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What what neighborhood is it?
SPEAKER_05I think that's um the Jewish neighborhoods off of Windsor, if I'm not mistaken, kind of in that area, kind of off of Mopak in that kind of northwest area.
SPEAKER_04There's a whole that would be good. If that's where that's at, it would be that would be good setup over there. I selfishly always just say set it up south, but what area south?
SPEAKER_02What area south should I be in?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm like north San Antonio South. No, I'm at um I am literally where Austin meets Manchack. So I'm at the but I like being here. But all these, like we're talking about round rock or driftwood. I think when people are moving here, which like again, I don't mind, um, is that that's kind of like the spots people should be looking at because what this city has become is it's a little congested. There's a lot of people here. You go out, you kind of get away. You know, if you're in Lockhart or Driftwood or Dripping Springs or Round Rock or any of these places, that's the move, in my opinion. I mean, if you can get a spot downtown, that's great. But like then you got to make arrangements to go to these wonderful spots.
SPEAKER_02So if that place, that area that you mentioned by Mopek with a Jewish neighborhood, that's a bit out of the way.
SPEAKER_05No, uh, it's right in the heart of it. From downtown, it's right there. It just depends on go ahead. Uh like whether, like, you know, I would say the transportation is serious in the city is kind of weird because there's not a like a lot of neighborhoods where you would just walk all the time, right? So I think if you're starting a restaurant in Austin, that's something to think about. If you want to be in a populated area that people are just going to walk to versus having to drive, because everybody drives in this city, like normally. I mean, we have public transportation, but a lot, it's just like safer to take a car and like bike riding has got kind of sketched too, with all the influx of like, you know, out-of-towners coming in. And so that's what I would think. So if you're if you're trying to open a restaurant, if you try to open it somewhere of like South Congress where there's shops, there's culture, there's music, there's everywhere, or like on Lamar, which is another populated street, that's kind of becoming more walkable now, uh, because you know, there's just so much traffic everywhere. Um, that's kind of what I think about is uh, you know, Congress is really expensive. Obviously, it's like the premier street, but if you have a restaurant that hits there, I mean you're in the you know center of downtown where you can see the capital, and you know, there's a 10-minute walk to 6th Street. So there's something about that, I think, as well.
SPEAKER_02Um have you been to a place by Lamar and Ben White? It's called um Casa Azul, I think it's called. I've heard of that. Oh, yeah. Azul tequila. I haven't been there, but I know it's incredible. Incredible. Oh, nice, cool, all right, incredible, great mariachi, great food. It's from a very specific region in central Mexico that's the center of all the trade routes, and so there's everything the cabrito, the the pesco and papillado is amazing. They do cochine pipe, they do pasoli on the weekends, and um really, really and the relleno is very, very good. I he said he's never seen it anywhere like that, other than your mom's kitchen, but very good, very unusual, but very delicious.
unknownNice.
SPEAKER_05I guess that could fall a nerve. Sorry, go ahead, Troy. Oh, yeah, I would say I'm gonna try that. Um, I'm I'm a mariachi myself, too, so I'm all about that.
SPEAKER_02Really? Can I tell you? I I did mariachi work for a little minute. I did my my my uh specialty was árboles de la barranca. And I um I have footage of me in the Garibaldi in Mexico City. My friend was like bullshit, and I sang with this mariachi band to prove that I knew árboles de la Barranca, and then nice he didn't believe that I could do the grito, the little cry at the end, and I was like, Oh yeah, I can fucking do it, bro.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, oh you know what makes a grito even better is when you got a little tequila in your belly, and you just you know, you're you're just feeling good, and it comes out. My wife has heard me sing mariachi so many times, and her grito has gotten has developed so much now. Where when she does it, you know, she's white woman. Uh, when when she does it, like Mexicans will turn and look at her like after she does it, because they're like, Who just did that fantastic grito? And it's my wife, and it's it's so hilarious, and she has her tune as well. Uh yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02From from where in Mexico?
SPEAKER_05Um, so I my my family comes from the part that was kind of like acquired by uh Texas, that Mexico and Texas area. And so some of my dad's family is uh more Spanish German, um, and then my mom's family kind of in that area. So, but my last name is Cardona, but I mean, yeah. Are you by language? That's where I'm from. I am not, but I can sing in Spanish very well. And very and and several other languages as well. I've done I've been singing my whole life, but um no, I've I've I've done a lot of singing in different languages, but never had time to really learn one. So but I understand a lot of Spanish and kind of speak Spanish with my grandparents and things like that.
SPEAKER_02So where do you do where do you do the mariachi stuff?
SPEAKER_05Um, so there is a there's a group in town here in Austin at Casa Maria's, and they play every Friday night, and they're called uh Mariachi's Castros. And um, yeah, and I just met them uh it was it was a few years ago, long story short. It's like I was there for my birthday at this other restaurant, Matsel Rancho, which you gotta try here. Okay. Matzel Rancho when you come. It's been there for 60 years, it's fantastic. Um, you got to get a TKO margarita too.
SPEAKER_02Wait, wait, which is the one? Cosm it was that cosmic taco would have been, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, um, yeah. And so I met him and I told my wife, hey, I'm gonna sing with the mariachis tonight. And she was like, You are? And I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna give them some money and I'm just gonna sing with them. It was my birthday too, and I hadn't really performed mariachi since I was like 12 or something at the time. And I was just like, Let's do it, and I did it, and now we're like really good friends, and they'll like have like a special thing and be like, Hey, will you come out and sing for my family? Or like, you know, they'll be like, Yeah, just they're really special people. Um, and and it's kind of revitalized music in my life and creativity at a time when I need it at most.
SPEAKER_02So love that. Yeah, no, I I think uh, like I said, when I went into Asul Tequila and they were doing a version of who let the dogs out, I was like, What the fuck? And um, you know, and like let me tell you, it's a it's a I was a little more in shape when I was doing it. Like those pants make you make some some decisions, homie. Like with the botones on the side or whatever else. But like, I'll tell you this, just doing it like without the hat on, without the hat on. If the hat was like drop back, you're walking around there like a fucking Torreador with that short short jacket and those light pants with the botones and heels, heels like Elizabeth Taylor, boy. And I I had to wear a dance belt to like, and it's not like oh my clunk is so big, but literally it was just like I needed to sort of find like some storage because those like I'm telling you, you could tell I was Jewish, like to a degree. I was I was doing the silence of the lambs, and that's that maybe that helped the grito.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, maybe that's how you get higher.
SPEAKER_02I remember we did we did árboles de la barranca, and uh there was a song, I think Los Lobos recorded it called Carabina 3030, and like yeah, it was just so funny because you had this Jew and a South American guy and Puerto Rican guy, and we're árboles, and so funny.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome. Heck yeah, yeah, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to go over there specifically and take some photos because we have a segment on here which is like what are what where are your favorite spots to eat in Austin? And I think maybe that might be one of them because you started going into it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, I would say I saw tequila. I still go to one in a million, I still love everyone at Driftwood, I loved my meal at Suerte, I love Jesus. I mean, I remember going late night to uh what's it called? Whataburger?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um you know, I I love Tip Top Candy Shop. I I had a great meal at Güero, actually. I love Baby A's. Um there's that dude who makes is it called Best Worst on Sixth Street? Um yeah, I've been there before. The little cart, that bar in the youth hostel, which now is not as secret as it used to be.
SPEAKER_05Native hostel.
SPEAKER_02Is that what is that what it's it's it's like the firehouse hostel, I think it's called.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure. But they had um a really, really delicious sandwich with boucheron cheese. Like they made it with like all their charcuterie stuff that was really tasty. You know, I love Casino El Camino, like forever in a day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you've mentioned some good ones already.
SPEAKER_02Easy tiger, the bakery, right? Isn't that called Easy Tiger?
SPEAKER_04They've been they've been doing really well. Yeah, they opened up quite a few spots because there was just the one on Sixth Street, but they've opened up a few more locations and yeah, they they've been doing well, they're killing it.
SPEAKER_02Um, so yeah, those are those are some of my favorites, but I know I really do need to try Franklin's and I really want to go to La Barbecue. Big time.
SPEAKER_04If you're yeah, go ahead. Well, if you're ever down, we'll throw you some ranch riders. You can go to Franklin's and make a day of it.
SPEAKER_02How long, how long is the line on average? Two hours, three hours?
SPEAKER_05Uh, it just depends on the day. It's better to go during the week for sure. But I mean, during the weekend, people get there as early as like 5 a.m. and it opens at eleven.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, it there's definitely some flux, but the weekends, it's also I think depends on the time of year. Um yeah. But if you're I mean, if you're planning on possibly coming here. I mean, Ju you'll make it happen eventually. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I just picture me like all drunk and fucked up, and they're like just the first one online. People just walking around me passed out. I'm just like there, passed out now.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, if you don't know how we could take you there, take you to an FC game. The stadium is beautiful. I got so fun.
SPEAKER_02I look good in green too, man. That's the problem. And I love, you know, I respect NYCFC. I'm a big Yankee fan. And Red Bulls have always been fantastically kind to me. But like your boy looks good in green, and that Yeti logo is strong. It's like a cool sponsor. I was like, damn. Yeah, maybe I can come out. Can I come out with my drum?
SPEAKER_01Be like, all right, all right. We're gonna go. Go play some drums. Yes. I enjoyed the drive myself, and I'm like, okay, she has like that. That all works.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was hoping, but he didn't see with that fucking that green suit playing the drums. I was like, man, talk about living the dream. He had that green green lights out not too long ago. And I just loved he would like go on the show and just kind of go into a high liloquy. He's like, so I was having all this good luck. It's like he's like the hot, semi-lucid version of Gary Bucey.
SPEAKER_01I was, you know, I'm I'm fine, I'm not having all this success and I'm having this big chance and all these green lights. Some of these green lights, some of these red lights.
SPEAKER_02I was like, whatever you say, man. I'm I'm hypnotized, not me. I bought, I bought it, I bought it. I'll I'll take 12. You know what I mean? Whatever, whatever it is. Yes, yes. Oh god, you were so good in the what's it called? Time to time to time to kill. Yeah, that was his Grisher one, right?
SPEAKER_04Very seductive voice. I mean, the that book, that green lights book. I guess if you listen in audio, he's he's I mean, like you're just listening to him, right? The whole time.
SPEAKER_02He does this.
SPEAKER_04I are you even listening?
SPEAKER_02It's just just I use the com app for sleep stories, and he has one there. And I think it may have been something different. I think it was called Blue and Gold, but blue and gold may be a different story. But I had this joke of a friend of mine, and it may have been something different, but I was like, what would the blue and gold story with Matthew McConaughey be like?
SPEAKER_01And we just started laughing, going like something more in the cow. I know it's Hollywood.
SPEAKER_02I felt like I'm already asleep just hearing myself do it. People are like, this is shitty, like Adam Richmond screwed up the podcast anyway, but now I'm asleep. Now I'm tired.
SPEAKER_04I love it, love it. When was the last time you were here?
SPEAKER_02Too long ago. I'm coming to Dallas for work in May, but I need to I need to extend. But um I think the last time I was the last time may have been when I when I went to Swarte. I can't remember when that trip was.
SPEAKER_04It's too long a Swarte is that's you know, relatively new.
SPEAKER_05I mean, yeah, it's within the past couple of five years ago, probably, because they just hit their fifth anniversary this past week, Swarte.
SPEAKER_02Let me tell you, I'll I'll look for in my photos and search by Austin Tejas. And um yeah, and you'll have to tell us. So you said you're going to Dallas September of 2019.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, that's like yesterday. It's right before the shit hit the fan.
SPEAKER_02There's the picture of Yoshi doing showing his thing. Yep. It was actually yeah, right, right, right before. Because yeah, then I'm looking. Yeah, and what I what I love that that's how my awesome, like that's the great thing. Like I met the exception of Yoshi, met everyone that evening, and it was the best night, and it's the best night, you know. You go from having, you know, I've never tried Espalo, never been to these restaurants, so good, and then you see like guys like that, yeah. Like I don't know what it's about, middle of six, chilling.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I know it's awesome. Have you been to Justine's uh ever?
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, that was a good recommendation.
SPEAKER_04That would be the one recommendation I would say if you were gonna come to like someone like yourself, yeah. Justine's brushing or what kind of place is it?
SPEAKER_05French, French inspired, yeah. And it stays open late till like 2 or 3 a.m. on the weekends, and so like you can just go, you know, have some drinks before and then head over there late night and just you know spend a couple of hours dining, and it's just such a cool experience, great food. Uh super French.
SPEAKER_04So super French, and just take a look at their Instagram. I mean, you'll kind of get uh here's crazy idea.
SPEAKER_02Here's Crazy Chicken Man, by the way.
SPEAKER_05You're not even supposed to have that photo, you know what?
SPEAKER_02Fuck that guy. I'm gonna hold it up for you. This is the only thing that's gonna be in the zoom from now on. I'm gonna sit here twisting my body just to make sure I get his bitch ass in focus. That's right. He went at me, and I was like, All right, but I'm just gonna call the cops. That was it. And then they and the funny thing was he was so pissed because the cops came, and not only were they like this because they've dealt with it before, they were fans. So then he saw them take a picture with me. The boy was he salty, he was crazy. Oh my god, I said you best get on with that chicken ass. I'm gonna shove that chicken up your asshole. And seriously, he like he followed me to whatever hotel. Oh, look, here, here, look what this is so interesting. I had written this, must have been an IG story. Austinites, okay. Austin, this man is crazy and unstable.
SPEAKER_04Avoid, but I'll bet you uh wouldn't it be funny if he's like a fan of the cast? He's like, wait a minute. Not anymore. You said um you're coming to Dallas. Was is that for the history channel?
SPEAKER_02For work, no, uh well, related to we're with our uh with our network with um okay with Spectrum, yeah. But um I just yeah that I'm um it's the coolest, like it just I the the awareness of the brand of that channel is just so amazing. Like we were filming Modern Marvels in Pennsylvania during COVID, and we had a a shelter in place because of a potential COVID scare at a place we had uh been to and where we were going, ironically enough. And so we had to just cool our jets and we were by Gettysburg. And the thing is, you go there, and all of a sudden I meet this dude, and he's got a history channel hat on, and I'm like, oh, I'm the host of Modern Marvels, and suddenly you have credibility and you're right there, and that's why. So this season I have four. So right now we we finished season two of Toys That Built America, but I have Food That Built America or Sundays, 9 8 Central, and then I've went with Peyton Manning on Monday nights that are 10 8 Central called uh 10 9th Central called The Greatest of All Time, and then coming up later this year is the Rebels That Built America. That's the next one.
SPEAKER_04That's not the cool one.
SPEAKER_02That's really cool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the um so that that's cool. The other thing I don't want to forget to mention here, and I'll obviously link it in the episode description. Um, because we're pretty far into this, is that you you're doing a podcast now also called um what Meals That Made Me.
SPEAKER_02The Meals That Made. Yeah, with Complex, with Complex and Lexus. Yeah, the um well, first, you know, uh first we feast is the food arm of Complex. So they do obviously the most famous thing they do is hot ones with my buddy Sean Evans, uh, with the wings and the interview with you know, we love we've got a riff on that here at uh a place. It's a brilliant model, and Sean is an exceptional, exceptional interviewer. And then um I would say um what else would they know?
SPEAKER_04I mean, there's food burger, the burger first, the burger show, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02That's the brilliant Justin Balwas, so or bolus, excuse me. So he and Chris Schoenberger together um worked with Lexus uh to create some kind of podcast version of the first show that popped for them, which were the 10 dishes that made my career. And so in the podcast, which you can get on Spotify or your Apple Podcast, depending on where you get podcasts, it uh what's really cool is it's not just chefs. So it ranges from Andrew Zimmern and Chef Esther Choi from Mock Bar and Miss You in New York to E40 to Ghetto Gastro, and you're really getting like a broad range of culinary experiences, and it's like the dishes that have shaped who you are, as opposed to I got famous for this taco, so therefore this taco. Although that's kind of there, but it could range from that to mom spaghetti, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04I love that. I love I always love hearing about what like what people ate when they were growing up, or absolutely enjoying doing the podcast so much.
SPEAKER_02I've you know, I've wanted to do one for a long time, talk too goddamn much anyway, but like I've never really known, and this will sound very silly, how to do one, like the editing, where you upload, how you upload what kind of file. Like, I've never it's always seemed really daunting to me. And so it was really nice having experts hold my hand and having producers that can edit and shape and add nuance um that I simply don't don't understand. I mean the other thing is as you guys know, it's consistency, and like I'm struggling with that on social. So once I get consistent with one, I think I might like to try my hand at the other. The other thing is, as I'm sure you know, it's probably very hard to stand out in the podcast space. Like, I don't even know if I yeah, if I did it when I get a listener, like I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's like the ongoing everybody has a podcast now. Like, you know, the and then if it's a a podcaster has like seven podcasts, you know, like set like Burt Chryscher, for example, or somebody that's the homie, right? They've got all these different things going on, but you know, it it's difficult to stand out, but it's also real fun and real real. I mean, like, I I love doing this podcast, I think we have tons of fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, is it hard to edit? Like when you're like rapping with someone like me for an hour, 40 minutes, it's got to be like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no, no. You've got no, yeah, we've been going for a good minute here, but you know, I learned a long time ago when I was editing, because I'll ended up, I'll end up editing these, that I would be going this meticulous editing process. And I realized that like all I was doing was cutting myself out because I was like, sound like an idiot there, you sound like an idiot there. And I was like, I was like, well, back off, let it be organic, let it come out. So a lot of our podcast is like, you know, unless there's something, yeah, it's it's once we one take a lot of it goes out there. We do a little things here at the beginning, but you know, we don't go too crazy with like cutting things out because if I do, you won't hear me speaking the entire time because I think I sound like an idiot every time I open my mouth. Or used to.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad that you because it's the truth. We all have that critical voice, and that the hardest part of self-love is to tell that thing to shut the F up and to just sort of love yourself. So I I applaud you for having the temerity to to do it, right? Everyone's a critic, but it's the man in the arena that's actually the hero. So I give you nothing but props.
SPEAKER_04Well, well, thanks for that. You know, there's something I got I gotta say to you, and is that you know, when you start talking about the stuff that you're doing with the food that built America and you're digging it, like you say you start going, they can't turn you off. I think that's really I mean, it's also interesting. I feel like that thank you. That should be a podcast too. I mean, like, because it's totally good.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's it's funny, and they they they do a food that built America podcast, and I think it's so odd that I'm not involved with it. I'm not shitting on you, history. Oh, really? I didn't even know that there was one until I saw a commercial. I don't know who's on it, I don't know anything about it, and I'm too butthurt to listen to it because no, it's fine. I've always um I have two very strong ideas for podcasts, in my opinion. Um, one of which, so I've been blessed to work with a couple veterans' charities, and in particular, I used to be chairman of the board of the Armed Forces Foundation, uh, co-chairman with Pat Lafrida, and then later Amberell, but I um started working with Clear Path for Veterans out of Syracuse, and they have this hall where you get all these vets who come in for a meal and to hang out not like a VFW because these guys can get skills and take classes and yoga and meditation, agriculture, what have you. And I always wanted to do a podcast like about those guys and like group it by different things, but I think that there's a lot of stories that should not be lost to the ether of time, you know what I mean? And and uh so I I have that idea, and then also, like I say, I am the craziest repository of cool facts and interesting stories, I think, and I feel other people would like them. And I think that even if it's just this installation is some other random, cool shit you didn't know, you know what I'm saying? And like, for example, like one of the things I'm always very like turned on by is the fact that Leonardo da Vinci was, you know, he used real models for people that he painted. And so when he was doing The Last Supper, he was looking for someone to play Jesus, and in his journals he talked about finding this young peasant boy, and he had just this purity and this love and this radiant warmth and light love that radiated from him, and he used this shepherd as this farm, you know, boy, whatever, as the model for Jesus, and he had gone on years and years later, and he was looking for someone for Judas, and he would go to prisons and stuff, and he had gone to this incredibly fetid dungeon prison years later, and he saw this guy, and apparently he wrote in his journals that the sin was etched on his face, and he had this man sit for Judas, and the guy was laughing towards the end, and he said, What's funny? He said, Surprised you didn't recognize me. You painted me three years ago as Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, that is so when I'm saying shit like that.
SPEAKER_02I believe in between going, this brought to you by Windex, want that street free shine.
SPEAKER_04That is a crazy story.
SPEAKER_02Do you see what I mean? And so there's little things like that, and then I'm also into random shit, so super into like the Lincoln assassination. And yeah, and so I think that there's just like you know, I listen to podcasts while I'm driving, while I'm on the train, while I'm feeling something, while I'm working out. And I think that if it's just something that's kind of cool and told in an engaging manner, fuck it. Let's let it roll.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, I think well, you've got um, you know, I don't know what kind of contracts you have, but like you could, you know, kind of put your podcast into like, oh, it's about this. Like, I thought it would be cool to interview busters in New Orleans and just like hear what they're doing and get a little performance, but like that's what it would be. And here we focus on chefs, but like, I mean, like, you can have a lot of stuff going on. You could just have the Adam Richman podcast and like talk about whatever in the hell.
SPEAKER_02That's that's that's really where I think it's gonna have to lie. But time will tell. I have a I have a deli to open in Austin.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. And then and then we'll, you know, Austin all day talking about this deli. Well, we'll we can we can get that going for sure.
SPEAKER_02Done and done, baby. Let's get it going.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I think it's been fabulous to have you on here. I love to be here.
SPEAKER_02Thanks so much for all the time. You guys are very generous. Yeah, absolutely for teaching us things today.
SPEAKER_05I think you know, with the podcast you're saying is like your delivery is great, you know, like they're super educating, informative, but also very entertaining. Um, so yeah, I think that's part of it too, is like anybody can spout off information, but the way you um the way you present it is really awesome. And I think you know, we're we're honored to have honored to have you here today.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, when you're in town, definitely give us a shout.
SPEAKER_02And uh please, please, we'll have the powers that be link us so there can be a pickle and alcohol exchange.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, my favorite and then and then buckies and all these little trips we're talking about to make them all coming.
SPEAKER_02You got it, it's a deal. It's a deal, gentlemen.
SPEAKER_04All right, Adam. Thank you. Yeah, very good.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna do a screenshot. Here you go. One, two, and three. Got it, cool. All right, take care of it. All right, gentlemen, you guys be good. Yeah, have a wonderful day. Bye, bye, right.