Podcast is Back!
And In-N-Out customers continue to innovate
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New episode: Bagels with David Page
The creator of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives gives us some hot Food Network goss, and the Internation Bagel Bakers Union is discussed.
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More Food Reading:
DON’T PANIC but there’s a new Girl Scout cookie.
Friend of Smart Mouth Max Falkowitz on how (and this is my read on the thesis) the government is keeping the alcohol industry from being eco-friendly.
A review of the new Margaritaville in Times Square turns into an essay on workers’ rights and equality in leisure access. I loved this piece a lot.
“During one Sunday night shift, a customer started to film me, for example, as he ranted about the terrible service he said he’d received. His Postmates order had been batched with another delivery, and the app requires the driver to wait for both orders to be ready. The customer impatiently came to pick up his food himself and threw a fit when I was unable to refund him (because he had paid through the app).”
You know the phrase “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid,” and that it comes from the Jonestown Massacre. It’s always interested me that it probably wasn’t Kool-Aid that was used in the murders - though there were a couple Kool-Aid packets at the compound, there were a lot more empty Flavor Aid (then styled “Fla-Vor-Aid”) envelopes. Obviously not the most important detail about the horrible event, but just a note about language and communication and false beliefs.
(It’s SO GOOD.)
It was brought to my attention by Tess Lynch that one off-menu option at In-N-Out (land of off-menu options) is “McDonald’s style.” Which sometimes you can order by simply saying “McDonald’s style,” apparently, but other times must be requested by specifying “ketchup, mustard, onions, pickles.”
It’s good enough but there’s a problem: In-N-Out pickles are too big. I had no idea so much of the McD’s flavor came down to the tiny pickles. And, honestly, the reconstituted onions.
The experiment did lead to me realize that I essentially order Mickey D’s at Five Guys: cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard, pickles … and tomato. (I’m a wild one.) Looks like we gotta hand it to them.
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This newsletter is edited by Katherine Spiers, host of the podcast Smart Mouth.
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