#148. 'The Menu'
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
The main event is Mark Mylod's The Menu (2022), starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, and both Sonny and Vic love it. Sonny delivers an extended "big boy review" arguing the film is less like The Hunt than a darkly comic, In Bruges-style satire of the movie industry — investors ruining art, toxic fan culture, a Me Too subplot, and abusive working conditions — and singles out John Leguizamo's "Dr. Sunshine" scene as the funniest thing in the movie, with Fiennes's deadpan delivery making him wish the actor did more comedy. Vic, drawing on his real-life fine-dining obsession (Eleven Madison Park, chef-madness lore from Bernard Loiseau to Vatel, and technical consultant Dominic Crenn of Atelier Crenn), reads the film instead as a scathing indictment of El Bulli-style molecular-gastronomy restaurants and admits he recognized himself uncomfortably in the sycophantic critic and foodie characters onscreen; he scores it a Quadrant plot A, duration A+, violence/action A, and sex/nudity B, landing on an overall B+ (docked, per JVL, because Anya Taylor-Joy never takes her top off). The episode opens with Vic's long-awaited return and an extensive, gross-out post-surgery debrief on his "Gabriel tooth" saga — a cadaver bone graft, a second unremovable "alien tooth" fused to his skull, a benign-neoplasm biopsy scare, ten pounds lost on a liquid diet, and a bloody-nose recovery-room wake-up — before the trio moves into Sonny's contrarian case for rooting hard for the men's World Cup team (and pointedly against the women's), a tangent about a South Korean speed-skating revenge goal celebration, and quick box office notes on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's steep second-weekend drop. As a bonus stinger, the three run an impromptu "best highway rest stop" business draft (Vic: Dunkin' Donuts, Popeyes, and the travel mart; Sonny: Burger King, Auntie Anne's, and Krispy Kreme; JVL: Starbucks, Wendy's, and TCBY), and JVL closes with a shaggy-dog story about coaching his daughter's middle-school basketball team through a chaotic first game.
From the show notes
Vic returns! We get an update on the Gabriel tooth. There's a draft! (A post will go up with a poll 90 minutes from now; vote for your best lineup there.) And the guys talk The Menu .
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Welcome to Hawthorne Here we are family We harvest, we ferment, we gel We gel? We gel. He's not just a chef, he's a storyteller. The game is trying to guess what the overarching theme of the entire meal is going to be. You won't know until the end. Who are you? I am Margot. Why do you care? I have to know if you're with us or with them.
Vic00:00:43Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends. And don't forget about the Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. The holidays are just around the corner. Gentlemen, how have you been? And what did I miss?
JVL00:01:09Victorino, the entire lower half of your face is hidden by the microphone. And I assume it's like a Phantom of the Opera kind of thing.
Vic00:01:18It's there to, don't look at me, I made you. You look normal. You look great. I can lift my lip up if you want to see. No, no, don't do that. Don't do that. How are you, buddy? Uh, I'm, I'm doing, I am doing just fine. Uh, uh, the stitches removed, uh, two weeks ago, I guess. No, last week, last Monday, I think. I can't even remember anymore. And, uh, they were doing, they were like, he just decided to cut them out, even though they were dissolvable, just because after a while, they're just hurting you. And they, and they, you know, I mean, there's like, they smell terrible. I mean, let's get them out of there. So they just, he cut them out. That felt great. It didn't feel anything at all. And in fact, uh, um, I, I have no sensation in my two front teeth. In fact, it's, uh, it's just like, it feels like he said, does it feel like wood? That's what they say it is. Cause you know, they suffer the nerves above it in order to do the thing. But anyway, let's just say, uh, uh, thank you to, uh, uh, everybody who has been, uh, uh, sending your, their thoughts and prayers, uh, my way. Uh, it was exactly a month ago.
Sonny00:02:30Wait, I, I, I have a question. I have a question here. I want to, I want to look back to something. So they sever the nerve there and that's forever. I don't know. You're never going to get the sensation back in those two teeth.
Vic00:02:42Well, it's just the teeth here. I mean, what sensation am I going to get pain? I don't need that. Well, you would, you need to know if there's like bite into ice now, food or something jammed in there. I don't know. The most important thing is taste. I was my greatest fears, taste and smell, but that was, uh, that was all there. And in fact, uh, didn't really get into the pain meds. I, uh, I just stuck to Advil and Tylenol and you know how I am JVL like, uh,
JVL00:03:09Save that and sell it on the dark web. I hope you filled those prescriptions. Nonetheless.
Vic00:03:15Uh, I have, I have prescriptions, but I, I really just stuck with Tylenol and Advil. You know, I'll do a half a tablet a day.
JVL00:03:23What I'm saying is, did you fill the prescriptions that you have the, you have the pills at home?
Vic00:03:28I think I stopped about four days in. He really numbed up the front part of, of my face for a while. So that was one thing, but I will say this, uh, there's, uh, the most nervous or anxious you get, I think is in the waiting room of the hospital because everybody's there waiting to go in for their various operations.
JVL00:03:46It's like, knock me the fuck out right now, please. Don't make me sit here.
Vic00:03:49Right now. No, I'm sitting there. Kate's trying to have a conversation with me and I'm just, every time the door opens and they call out a person's name, I'm like, this is it, this is it. No. And then finally they call you. And they point to like this giant screen where you can follow your patient number. Right. And so you can see their progress, like in an airport, you know, and how you're going through delay, things like that. Uh, and they took me in and then, you know, make sure I use the bathroom and then had me wear the gown and nothing else. Just wear the gown. It's freezing in there. And, uh, and then they, uh, nothing, nothing, just gown.
JVL00:04:28So when you turn around.
Vic00:04:30I actually didn't mind the access. Uh, so, uh, um, they had a problem getting the, uh, the, uh, the IV and because of course I hadn't had anything to drink since like 10 PM, like no one, nothing. Uh, and of course, so that as a result, it's so hard to get the blood out. She's like, ah, it's not really working here. Let's try another place. They go through the arm.
JVL00:04:52Your blood is like gravy naturally. That's the problem.
Vic00:04:54Yeah. Like naturally it is already like gravy. And so they went in through, I can't, obviously we don't have. Video, but they just went in. They initially went through the hand that didn't work. And then they had to stick another one on the side of the wrist, uh, and then get that going. And then you get, then all you feel is chills because it's so cold. The, uh, I told you, did you ask for the blanket? I had blanket. I had blanket. I had blanket. Uh, and then, uh, and then fine. And then the doctor comes in and then he goes through the, okay, this is going to be great. Blah, blah, blah. We're doing this thing going through with Kate. I could do this, do this. Okay. And then he's got him. He's got another doctor. There are two surgeons. And then the anesthesiologist comes in the shame and very serious. Hmm. Yes. Two doctors, the anesthesiologist and a shaman. Yes. You know, funny. He was, he looked like, um, he reminded me of, uh, Mola Ram from a temple of doom. It was a very serious Indian fellow. Minus the headdress, of course. But the way he spoke was like this, a very proper English. And, and he just said, you know, ask me a bunch of questions. And then finally he says, okay, well, this is going to be great. Well, this is going to happen. And then, you know, uh, you'll be on a respirator and, uh, we're going to have you intubated. So we have to stick the tube through your nose. You know, what a big wall because they're operating in my, I didn't know that. Oh, I didn't realize that they have. And he goes, oh, and then anyway, and he says, you know, but then when you're able to afterwards, when you're able to breathe on your own, we'll remove the tube, but you won't remember that. I'm like, I hope not. You know, I hope it's not like that Hayden Christensen movie or that Hayden Christensen movie. Sonny, what was it called? They have to look into it. Our listeners revenge of the Jedi, where he goes, the last Jedi revenge of the Seth. He goes, he goes under, but there's like 5%. He says there's like a 5%. There's statistically 5% chance that there are patients who are still awake when they're supposed to be under, you know, that would. And it's like, it's 5%. Oh, it's such a small percentage. It's not, it's not, it's not a small percentage. If there are 20 people in the way,
JVL00:06:57waiting room with you, that means that one of them is going to be awake for all of it.
Vic00:07:02Yeah. I'll give you 1%, 1% of like one out of a hundred. So, uh, and then another nurse comes in and she goes, okay. And then she injects something into the IV and she says, I brought the tequila. She says, and she could sit in. I didn't feel anything different. Um, and then at which point they're like, okay, we're ready. Let's go. And they had to wear it. I had to wear a shower cap and the whole thing. And they're like, let's go. And they pushed me aside. Kate's all tearing up. I'm like, it's fine. And then, uh, and then, uh, and then, uh, what I do remember, what I do remember is, uh, uh, saying how much they were talking about alcohol, like, Oh, like tequila and a sack. I prefer a martini. And then the nurses, Oh, I love martinis. And I'm like, Oh yeah. I said something like, you know, they're like women's breasts. You know, one is not enough and three is too many. And then we push me into
JVL00:07:49the OR and everybody, you said that to them. And I'm like, you, you did the me too. Yeah. Martini is like women's breasts. Yeah.
Vic00:07:56Right before that. And so, and so, uh, and then I go in, so I'm feeling still like nothing's like different, but I'm seeing everybody there. And there's a lot of people in the room and they ginormous lights above you. And then they have you scoot over from the, um, the gurney into the, the operating table. It's narrow. Yeah. It's a very narrow table. I'm like, this is weird. And then they put a mask over me and they just said, breathe deeply, just breathe deeply. Keep on breathing, keep on breathing. I'm looking around. And then all of a sudden it's terrifying, by the way, what this all sounds terrifying. Well, it's weird because I, I, I, you know, they did, they took my blood pressure before I went in. It was like through the roof, you know? I mean, it was like really high, but they're like, I'm not gonna flag it. I think it's normal. And then, uh, you go in and I just remember seeing all the lights and the people, and then they're doing stuff and you know, they've got a lot of instruments.
JVL00:08:55You didn't look around, did you? You don't wanna see the implements that are on the trays.
Vic00:09:00I did. I did. It was like hostile. And then they put the mask, they put the mask on and like, and jigsaw pops out. Yeah, no, after, after like three deep breaths, I figured it would be like, because I had this before. I don't know what, you know, Sonny had this experience if, when, if you've ever gone under, but it's like, you know, where, oh, the room's getting dark. No, it just went lights out. No. But that was you as well.
Sonny00:09:25Oh yeah, no, when I, I, I've gotten. For what? What did you have? I've gotten anesthesia, general anesthetic twice now, once for tonsils, got my tonsils out. Oh, sure. And the second time was for a shoulder surgery. I had a pretty, pretty invasive shoulder surgery. And both times it was, it was like, like, all right, we're going to put the mask on. You're going to count back from 10. And I got to like eight. They didn't even do a countdown. Was done, was like. Yeah. And, and then the next thing I like, remember, I'm, I'm waking up in some room in agonizing pain. Oh. Like, you know, just why, why, why, why.
JVL00:10:03I had no pain. I just. It's a victim you woke up and you were like, what was that? And I'm right there, I don't know. No, that's right there.
Vic00:10:10Exactly. Yeah. That's, that's how I normally like to wake up anyway. That's what I prefer. But I feel like it was about a three or four seconds.
JVL00:10:17Someone left a hot, left a hot dog next to your mouth.
Vic00:10:21That was, I'm not supposed to be, I'm not supposed to be dreaming what's happening. Anyway. Uh, and it was like, but it was like three or four seconds of just deep, like deep, dark sleep. And all of a sudden you just wake up and you're in the recovery room. They immediately can tell when you're up because immediately the nurse is like, don't worry, everything's fine. It's over. You're just recovering now. Everything's done. Everything's set. And you look around and there are other patients all waking up. It's like the scene in awakenings where everybody starts waking up at the same time. It's weird. It's weird. And you hear the other nurses saying, don't worry, a lot of old people there. And then, um. And then they said, OK, you know, we'll let your wife know, you know, but you feel so groggy. I wanted to go back to sleep so badly, but I knew that Kate's waiting as I need to go. And I remember leaning in. It's OK, I think I'm ready. I lean over and then blood starts just coming right out of my nose and it's just all over the place. Torrance. Yeah, yeah. And it was like and it was like, you know, but it was like all over the place. But I'm not like because of the drugs, I'm just like, oh, oh, well, you're like in a way. It was I was like a little help, please. I was all over my clothes, you know. Oh, OK. So they do that. And then a guy came in a wheelchair, wheeled me out and then that was it.
Sonny00:11:32Went home and then so it was outpatient. So you went home.
Vic00:11:36I went home after I think they were done in an hour and a half. They were pretty good. He said he had two surgeries that day and I was the first one. And it is crazy. And then I get back and then got upstairs and then conked right out. And then and then it was a. Liquid and soft food diet for the next week. I lost almost ten pounds in one week. It is an amazing diet. All you had to do is have now a drive, but all you got in brain surgery. Yes, that's right. No, I really need to go back for more surgery because it really worked. I couldn't. But it's like applesauce pudding and soup. And I'm so done. I don't want soup ever again.
Sonny00:12:19How how many days was it before you went back to the Palm? That's a good question.
Vic00:12:24I was just there. Oh, I was just there on Friday. Well, you said I know we were.
Sonny00:12:30You sent me a text message. I did. Hi to all my friends who I never get to see anymore. That's right. I was there with some of my friends. But so that wasn't the first time. That wasn't the first time you went back, was it? I think it was because the last time was with you when you were in town.
Vic00:12:46So that was it. But it wasn't the first time I've had hard food. I mean, you know, after a while you force yourself like I'm just going to take a potato chip and let it melt. In my mouth, like like a Eucharist or something, you know, just let it melt.
JVL00:12:58You know, Pringles are good for those. Yeah. Pringles will literally just melt. Lays. Lays the body of Christ.
Vic00:13:04There were some there were some few times where you're like, you know, you're overzealous with the brushing. All of a sudden your mouth starts bleeding, but that's bound to happen. But anyway, went back, did the follow up and and saw the the CAT scan. It's all gone. And he saw where he posted a draft. Give me the post-op report.
JVL00:13:24Oh, yes. What do they do in there when they were in there? They put a bone graft in.
Vic00:13:30Oh, yeah. Filled it way up and was deep. I saw the photo in the scan. It's deep. It's way up there.
JVL00:13:35Where did they get the bone? Is it synthetic bone? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's cadaver bone. It's cadaver bone. But they usually get it from inmates. You've got seven different people right now in your in your mouth. Yes, I have.
Sonny00:13:49You took out a Gabriel. You took out a Gabriel and you put in a, you know, Dante.
Vic00:13:54All right. So Gabriel was all you like. Yeah. Well, they were asking about the people were asking, oh, do you get to keep the tooth? I know the tooth went to biopsy along with the rest of the cysts to make sure that it wasn't anything worse. And then you get the lab result back and you click it on. And that's the only time that I was really sort of like sweating bullets is when you see the long report. And it's all this very complicated medical jargon about the integer is, you know, says the description of it. And then the bottom line conclusion is benign neoplasm. And I'm like, OK, that's good. And then, um, yes. And benign really is the key word. And then and then the doctor explained, he said, we took it out and it is your typical cyst. So, you know, come back in a couple of years. We'll take a photo to make sure everything's fine. But I'm sure it will be. We should let you know. And look, if you look at the scan, when we remove the tooth. There was another tooth behind it, but it had but it had it was it was so like welded to the bone that it would be more trouble than it's worth to remove it.
Sonny00:15:09Fick wakes up without without his entire top jaw.
Vic00:15:12Yeah, well, and it removes the second the second tooth. So there was a tooth behind that tooth. The weirdest part, he said it was the DNA did not match.
JVL00:15:22Alien tooth. I, you know, I don't question me. So if they found another tooth and they can't remove that one, should they have just left this one and not put you through all of this? If you're going to have a foreign object stuck in your head, then why not just have two of them? Well, they had to clear out.
Vic00:15:45It was good that they cleared out the cyst. And so, yeah, well, I mean, because it gets the cyst was getting bigger and bigger over the years. So, I mean, if not now, the the layer that just continues to erode behind my nose, it would take several more years. But it would not be pleasant for that to finally for my teeth to start falling out or whatever.
JVL00:16:06So they couldn't get in there with a Dremel tool to just get that that one that's on the bone. Is that bone tooth not growing?
Vic00:16:14Is it? No. And according to looking at the photo, it's like welded to the to the bone. It's just weird. So anyway, all done. And feeling my old self except for gaining the weight back. So that was it. Feeling a little queasy over here. I'm glad you made it through, buddy. Thank you. Thank you. How are you guys?
Sonny00:16:42I didn't didn't have my face sawed off so they could take out an alien tooth. Yeah. And then find another tooth behind it and just be like, oh, fuck it. We're gonna leave it in there.
Vic00:16:52Yeah. So I'm pretty good. I've got 16 minutes of the show. That's what people want.
Sonny00:16:57I'm glad we got I'm glad we got some content out of it.
Vic00:17:00There you go. What's going on?
JVL00:17:03Write off your whole deductible.
?00:17:05Yes.
Sonny00:17:06Yeah. Yeah. You can write off. You can write off everything that you spent on this on this surgery because it's part of the show now. Because it's a lot. Show history. Yeah. For our fabulously popular podcast. I'm good. I'm good. I was pulling back the curtain slightly. We're taping on a Monday because of, you know, Thanksgiving weekend and all that.
Vic00:17:24Which means that I think we're putting this up maybe for Wednesday for Thanksgiving travel
Sonny00:17:29enjoyment. Yeah. It's probably a good idea. We should probably put it up on Wednesday.
Vic00:17:33I'll do that.
Sonny00:17:34People on the road. I'll have to have to put out. I'll have to put out the preview post tomorrow. Then we'll get. Sorry. Now I'm now I'm working, rejiggering my whole schedule in my head anyway, and things things are good. Things are good with me. I was I said it's as I said, it's Monday. So I watched the United States play in the World Cup and I am. I am. You know, I understand. I know that, like, there's a whole right wing soccer's gay. We hate we we love America and we hate soccer thing that people people do. And I just want to say that I'm very much pro soccer and I'm pro America playing in the World Cup.
Vic00:18:15So I was very I was very well, I mean, you're going to play. You want them to win?
Sonny00:18:18Well, I want them to. I want them to win the World Cup because here's the thing. Here's what.
JVL00:18:22Here's what I don't. Really? You want women to win the Women's World Cup?
Sonny00:18:26Yeah. Well, no. See, but so let me I want I want to I want to I want to I want to go through.
Vic00:18:30There is no there is no Women's World Cup right now, right?
Sonny00:18:33It's just a men's world. I want to go through my thought process on this is very important to understand what I'm what I'm what I mean when I when I'm talking about here. So the reason one of the reasons I really like the World Cup is because it is it is a great deal of fun for me to imagine the United States winning the World Cup and how angry it would make. The rest of the world and just how sad and depressed it would make the rest of the world because like nobody nobody in America really cares about the World Cup. They you know, there's like five percent the five percent of people who love soccer and are really into it.
JVL00:19:05Whatever they they they love it and it would be like us winning a gold medal at the Olympics in luge. People would be like, yeah, great for five seconds and then exactly.
Sonny00:19:14And then and then we go we'd go about our day and we go but the rest of the world lives and dies by my one of my all time favorite World Cup memories was when we when we when we beat Ghana in the last hour we beat we we came from behind I think and beat Ghana in like stoppage time in the first first game of the 2014 games. Maybe I can't remember. It doesn't matter. But the thing I the thing I remember thinking was literally there are literally power outages in Ghana because so many people are watching their TVs right now and they're they're they're living and dying by this. This means everything to them and we've ripped their hearts out at the last second and nobody in America cared at all and the whole country was miserable. We beat them and we won and we're like, okay, that's fine. That's fine. And that's what I that's what I love about the world. That's the that's the ideal for me in the World Cup is us winning the whole thing. Everybody in America is spending like you say about 10 minutes being like, oh, yeah, nice. We want that. That's nice. That's nice that we won the World Cup and then going about our business while the rest of the world just sits there and fumes like right it's the Americans and then and then
Vic00:20:20we just like French by the way, was that was that a French beer?
Sonny00:20:23I don't know. Just general European mainland accent continental whatever and a like for instance today we were playing Wales. I don't know how Wales I don't understand how Wales gets a team and how Scotland gets a team and how England all get it.
JVL00:20:39They should just be one team should they be one super team, right?
Sonny00:20:43It should just be GB should just be United Kingdom should just be the United Kingdom. They should get Ireland to just for kicks, but the but the but the but the that was Sonny
Vic00:20:54Bunch.
Sonny00:20:55You said that but my my my point here is I don't I don't get they'd be like us sending Texas to the World Cup. You know, Texas is playing squaring off against Germany or whatever like what you're just one just send one team send one team anyway, I was sitting there thinking about how great it would be if America won because we were up one to nothing with like 12 minutes left and then we committed the worst penalty in the world just just an awful penalty that resulted in Wales getting a penalty kick and I was sitting there thinking God just imagine how pissed off all of the Welsh will be if we save this if we if we save if our keeper saves this and really sticks it to the Welsh they'll be so mad. They'll just be sitting there banging their fists on the ground and so mad and and we almost the keeper got a hand on it. He almost saved it, but the the kick was too strong. Anyway, we ended up so what I'm one to one very very disappointed Sonny. What happens now that so the way so right now they're in the round-robin part of the tournament. Where they each each each team each team is in a group of four and the two teams that get the most points go on to the knockout rounds.
JVL00:22:03You get because it's one point for a tie also one point for a tie three for a win zero for
Sonny00:22:08a loss and then a goal differential if you're tied in the points where we were in the same group as England and so our group our group is England Wales Iran in the United States. Yeah, and in theory everybody should be in Iran. So but I we we had a very good chance of going into the second game, which is against England's going to be a very tough game. That's a tough game. We had a very good chance of going in with three points. Instead we come out with one disappointing effort frankly disappointing effort. We look great in the first half. I was shocked at how good we looked in the first half just moving the ball controlling possession. Are you hopeful we might be able to advance or no, I think I mean, I I think we are favored to get to the knockout rounds. I would I would say that and we for the first again for the first half of this game, we looked at we looked like a team that could they could make a run into this and then the second half was just awful just awful dogshit play the whole time. Frankly, we we deserve to lose the fact that they only tied it is is kind of a miracle. But the but anyway, that's that's you know, I I'm pro soccer because it makes me happy to think of how sad it makes the rest of the world every time America does well, but that's not true.
Vic00:23:24That's a very sunny bunch take JBL.
Sonny00:23:27You mentioned the women's team and I have the exact opposite because the problem with the women's team is that we're favored to win every year. We're like the we're like the world favorite. So if we lose, then it's an embarrassment. It's a shame upon America for for us to send it a women's team to the right. And so you root for them, right?
JVL00:23:43The expectations are out there with your Megan Rapinoe jersey. Absolutely not.
Sonny00:23:47I want nothing to do with it. I want I want nothing to do with it.
JVL00:23:50Women's soccer does nothing to do with it.
Sonny00:23:52Absolutely not. There are there are women's sports I tolerate, but women's soccer, not among them, not among them.
JVL00:24:00Let me tell you one of the saddest things I've ever seen. A few a few years ago when we played South Korea in the World Cup and the South Koreans, they did this goal celebration after scoring against the Americans. It was this elaborate thing that they clearly choreographed together that to all look like they were speed skating. And, you know, in an interview afterwards, the team captain explains to reporters that they did this to get revenge on America for a loss in some Olympic speed skating event like two years prior.
Vic00:24:41And this is one of those, you know, like sometimes what I'm talking about, the way that Princeton
JVL00:24:47thinks that they're they're really competing with Yale and Yale barely knows that Princeton exists like Yale is just like Yale Harvard. It was like, you know, like, I am so sorry that you guys are hung up on a speed skating event. If we had known it was that important to you, we would have just let you win that. We don't nobody in America remembers that we won a gold medal in this.
Sonny00:25:07Absolutely not.
JVL00:25:08For all I know, Apollo Antonono doesn't even remember that he won a gold medal in that. He's forgotten. He's just like, yeah, I got a pile of medals over there. I don't know.
Vic00:25:15You don't hear this entire country is so wrapped up over this inconsequential thing.
JVL00:25:20It's pathetic. Yeah, that's right.
Vic00:25:22They're all pathetic. But the women's world. Cup is a different year, right? It's like, oh, yeah, they do it. They do it every two years to then other two years.
Sonny00:25:29Yeah, they do it the same years as the Olympics, I think, which causes that problem.
Vic00:25:35JVL, what's going on?
JVL00:25:38You know, I got some stuff that we can talk about later. I have just while we were while we were on air, I had a little bit of magic happening with me and I came up with something that we should be doing for this show. But of course, now. We can't unless we think we can do it on the on the fly and on the fly draft. For this Thanksgiving. Where we are drafting. Each of us picking three businesses for the perfect rest stop. So you you you are it's like Sim City where you are creating a rest stop and you get three retail type, you know, either stuff or food that you can we just assume the bathrooms, right? And so what what would make the best rest stop? What are the essential businesses, right? I know there are people who would go Earl Sandwich with them with a second round pick. I myself think that that's a garbage pick. Some frou-frou people would would go for Pret a Mange, which there is one at the Maryland. No, I haven't seen it. Oh, I'm sorry, Chesapeake house. Chesapeake house has Pret a Mange. No, true truth.
Vic00:26:58There are some people.
JVL00:26:59Sure, let's do it. Let's do it right now. One of them is on this podcast right now who would probably waste their first pick on a Roy Rogers. I'm looking at you, Victorino.
Vic00:27:10No, I you know, I haven't been you know, the fried chicken is not bad. The fried chicken is very salty.
JVL00:27:18So I don't know. Do we think we can do this? Do we think if we pause, pause the recording and just think for like a minute and a half about what we would pick for our three? And we just go bam, bam, bam, snake draft real quick. We could do that because that's a pretty good Thanksgiving week draft.
Vic00:27:35Yeah, you want it? Yeah. Can you is it too much of a pain? I'm doing it right. I can do it right now on this.
Sonny00:27:41I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to turn the recording off. I'll just let it run. I don't even know. I don't even know what's what are at.
Vic00:27:51No, that's true, because Sonny's Sonny's he's out there. It's you probably have some good ones out there, Sonny. Yeah, I bet you. I bet you do.
Sonny00:27:59We don't have rest stops in Texas. We have towns. You just go to a town.
Vic00:28:07All right. Are you putting me are you going to pipe in music while we're doing this or no?
Sonny00:28:11Yeah, I'll put it in the broken elevator music. All right. I'm ready. I've got three. I.
JVL00:28:22You've got to have more than three in case somebody takes one of yours, you got to have.
Sonny00:28:27I'm just going to I'm just going to name restaurants. I don't I don't I literally have no idea what an average New Jersey rest stop is like. So.
Vic00:28:41All right. All right.
JVL00:28:43All right. Who wants to? What is our draft order going to be? I say Vic, as he is, the recovering person gets to choose. Do you want to go for the first or third? Oh,
Vic00:28:53I'll go first. All right. All right. Vic, you're talking about a successful.
Sonny00:29:04Yeah. All right. I'll go second. That's fine. Vic Sonny JBL. OK.
Vic00:29:10So you're saying I'm managing a I'm like SimCity style. SimCity style. You are building your own rest stop.
Sonny00:29:19I'm sorry. Let me I want a point of clarification here. Are we trying to build the most successful rest stop? Yes. Or are we trying to build the one that most appeals to us personally?
JVL00:29:29Oh, that's a good question. You're trying to build the best rest stop, the best as the as will be voted on by the people. And you got to pick things that are plausible rest. You can't say I would like a Brooks Brothers, right? So this isn't like Sky Mall, you know, or the mall at the airport. It's got to be something that could plus. Look, it doesn't have to be in, I would say, for instance, you could say Shake Shack, right? Even though there are no shakes.
Vic00:29:55No, there's no Shake Shack at a rest stop. I'm being realistic.
JVL00:30:00Something plausible, realistic. OK, that's not plausible. OK.
Vic00:30:04All right. Victorino, you're going first. Yeah. Yeah. I think the first day I wanted to go with something for lunch. But of course, a lot of people think about like mornings and things like that. People get on the road early. So I would go with Dunkin Donuts first. Oh, coffee. People with donuts, people. There's a long line. And some people will turn their nose at Starbucks because it's like, you know what, I'm not going to the fancy place. I want like the people's coffee and donut and they make a donuts. And a lot of people love it. I guarantee you, you got a Dunkin Donuts just like at the airport line. Miles long, a mile long line for that.
JVL00:30:45Dunkin Donuts. Great breakfast. The five star absolute blue chip first pick. It has to be right because. There are going to be three categories here, right? You're going to have a caffeine category, a food category, and then a wild card. And Dunkin Donuts really get you both the caffeine. It's the best of the caffeine and gets a little bit of food, too. And you get you get you get gives you everything more than just a black coffee.
Vic00:31:12You can get all sorts of fancy coffee drinks there now. And breakfast is great. And it's not just sweet, but savory. Love it. Plus, you'll make a killing if your rest stop is like on the mass turn pike. Sonny.
Sonny00:31:26I have no idea. I have no idea what to pick here. I don't understand what I'm looking for. And so I'll just I'll go with what I go to when I stop at a rest stop. Where do I go to eat? You know where I go? I go to Burger King. I just go to the Burger King. Could be a Wendy's, could be a McDonald's. Doesn't matter. Burger King. That's the generic fast food burger place. That's all.
Vic00:31:53I want I'll give I'll give you the Burger King, Sonny, because I like it only. And I'm the only one in my family that really wants to go to a Burger King because I don't see them anymore around here.
Sonny00:32:04Never see them. I there's one down the street from a terrible happened.
Vic00:32:07It's just gone. Yeah. I mean, again, an unmistakable flame broil. It's a very distinct.
Sonny00:32:14It's very, very flavor burger. Flame broil. Yeah, you got it.
Vic00:32:18It's flame broil plus onion rings. Does your rest stop offer Burger King onion rings? Or is it like the express?
Sonny00:32:24Of course it has onion rings.
JVL00:32:26I'm not a savage full full burger thing. Full burger. Full burger. I always say I think that's a reach with the number two pick. I don't like it. All right.
Vic00:32:35So I take Starbucks double whopper with cheese, by the way, because my fear is that if I get a car accident, something terrible happens. At least I will have had the double whopper with cheese.
JVL00:32:46So with the third pick, I'm going to take Starbucks because you got to have a caffeine unit and Starbucks is really the best I don't want to Pete who wants Pete. No. And then, you know, so I was thinking what I wanted to do for my full.
Vic00:33:01Always have business.
JVL00:33:02And there are a couple. Chick-fil-A is a great idea, except that it's closed on Sunday and you put a Chick-fil-A and a rest stop.
Vic00:33:10It's like one seventh of the of the days that you can't use.
JVL00:33:14That's no good. Also, I haven't seen a Chick-fil-A at a restaurant. I thought about going five guys. But the problem is five guys can be a little bit slow to get you your. Food and. Well, that's generally better. Oh, they'll call the number out.
Vic00:33:28And you know how it is like at a rest stop, a bus. Every every kid on a bus will want to go there and it's disaster.
JVL00:33:34You need to have to have. OK, Wendy's is because you know what? Wendy's got some interesting things going on right now. I got a mozzarella burger the other day or a pizza, but I don't know what it was called. It was basically a burger with marinara sauce and mozzarella sticks on top of it and a. Garlicky garlic bread bun. And it was delicious is too strong a word, but it was eatable. We're we're we what are we talking about?
Vic00:34:04Which Wendy's? Which place? Oh, Wendy's, Wendy's. Yeah. Yeah. So I take one that I haven't been able to enjoy one.
Sonny00:34:11All right, that snakes back to me. I'm going to I'm going to go I'm going to go a little bit. I'm going to go a little bit. You got kids in the car with you. You know, you never know. You never know what to do with the kids. They're going to want all sorts. You give them give them an Auntie Annie's pretzel.
JVL00:34:26Oh, shut up. Right up. That's so right. I don't know. When is the last time you guys had an Auntie Annie's pretzel?
Sonny00:34:34Oh, last this year at some point, because there's one in the mall. Same, but not because I went there. I needed my kids to shut up. So I got I got him a giant pretzel and I gave each of them half. Oh, no, it's not. It's not because it's not because I went there, but yes, no, it's the.
Vic00:34:51But my kids. Went with my like nieces to like the mall up in Jersey and they got the pretzel bites and I tried it. It's yeah, it's good.
JVL00:35:03Yeah, I, I had forgotten how good it was because you know, I thought about it. It's terrible. It's good. But you're like, oh, it's like $6 for a pretzel. And so you think about it and then you say, no, they're pretty good. Okay, Victorino, you get to.
Vic00:35:18Oh, this is exciting. Okay. I want something savory. Now I'm talking about a real meal and something that I would go to where I would go Popeyes and they have the Popeyes up in it's either Chesapeake or Maryland. It's not they're not allowed to have both. So it's one or Chesapeake. It's Chesapeake. There you go. Chesapeake and and you get to have plain and spicy. And of course you have the if it's the full menu, then you get the fried chicken sandwich with each, you know, is a very hot thing these days. The spicy, the spicy chicken sandwich. And people can't get enough of that. People kill for that. So all right. And then the and then the third, you know, okay. All right. And then my and then my my my final pick then is I don't know how to describe it. It's the mini mart, the travel mart.
JVL00:36:10Yep. Yes, the travel mart. Because that's your catchall. The travel mart is everything. Yeah. Right. You want a bottle of diet, including charger. I need to get a charger thing, a newspaper, a charger, a stuffed and water, a New Jersey Turnpike sweatshirt.
Vic00:36:25Right. I have everything. The travel t shirt. I want to get the jersey t shirt. Yeah.
Sonny00:36:31I've never once gone. I've never once gone in one of those stores. I walk past those stores right on the way to the bathroom. And I look askance at anyone I see in there. I will not.
Vic00:36:39There's always people. They got to get a Snickers bar.
Sonny00:36:42So I will not be having I will not be having a travel mart at the Sonny Bunch stop. My third choice. My third choice. And I looked it up. These are these are in rest stops. So this counts. Krispy Kreme. That's Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme.
JVL00:37:00Greater sign Dunkin Donuts.
Sonny00:37:03Not even Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme Donuts. Like ten greater signs Dunkin Donuts. It Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme coffee. Also greater sign Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Vic00:37:14Krispy Kreme coffee is good.
Sonny00:37:15I still prefer to get the hot Krispy Kreme. Oh, it is when they have to make it hot anymore.
Vic00:37:22It's fake.
JVL00:37:22Oh, every Krispy Kreme used to make their own donuts. And then like 25 now, it was like 15 years ago, they stopped and they went. They got rid of that and they went to centralized distribution. And when they did that, the. Yeah, that was hot. Became like, you know, microwaving the donut. Very sad, very sad.
Vic00:37:41Plus, Krispy Kreme is a great donut, except for it just melts in your mouth so fast and it's gone.
Sonny00:37:47Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Vic00:37:48But I need something with more like dough, which is. Dunkin Donuts more dense, I need something dense.
Sonny00:37:56You can't you can't eat ten Dunkin Donuts, but you could easily you could house a dozen, you know, Krispy Kremes. Yeah, well, without without any I like sometimes I think about sometimes I wonder to myself. How many could you how many of these could I eat? If I was really if I was really challenging myself, I bet I bet. You know, like in in one in like a one 30 minute go, I bet I could eat two dozen. Yeah, I bet I could eat two dozen without too much trouble.
Vic00:38:25Yeah, I think that after the third one, my diabetes would kick in. I mean, I die. My pancreas would just explode.
Sonny00:38:33And my my my blood sugar would like I would I would just like I would like have.
Vic00:38:38Yeah, even for you, even for you. No, if I had more than two or three, I'd have to I just go to the Krispy Kreme with my dialysis machine.
Sonny00:38:46The other the other the other thing, the other food item that I often wonder this about is Chick-fil-A nuggets. I would. If I wonder if I was like really if I was really in a like competitive eating mode, how many Chick-fil-A nuggets could I eat? How many? I bet I bet it's 100. I bet I could eat 100 Chick-fil-A nuggets without much trouble at all. I might be 200. I don't know. I don't know. That's that's that's good. I did.
JVL00:39:12All right. With my last pick, I I had I had two things that were that were really attracting me. One was famous, famous cookies, because it'd be nice. Sure. Right. But I never saw a stand for it. Sometimes they would also have a little container of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. Remember those right now? Oh, yes.
Vic00:39:34I do remember that.
JVL00:39:36It's all. Then I started thinking, maybe I want to go really off the grid and do one of those terrorist kiosks where they sell like knockoff Nintendo games and perfume and and scarves, because that's a totally normal thing for people to sell at rest stops. And I'm sure that all. All that perfume there is legit. Those are not. Yeah, fall it off the truck. You're just buying Christian Dior for ten dollars at a rest stop. Why do they sell that at rest stops, Victorino? That's an interesting. It's got watches. Yeah. All sorts of things there. It's Invicta. Only Invicta watches. And here's so. But here's what I'm really going to do. I'm going to go with something. It's a hot day. You're driving. You're driving down the eastern seaboard. It's ninety five degrees in the shade. He wants something cool. What you want is the country's best yogurt.
Vic00:40:28OK.
JVL00:40:29Also, you're in a DeLorean and you traveled back to 1985. Yes. The answer, JBL, is yes. And the retro the retro attraction of being able to get TCBY at the same place you can get Starbucks and Wendy's. It's going to put me over the top.
Vic00:40:47The country's best. I noticed nobody opted for like the dip and dot stand. That's it. Nobody wanted the worst.
JVL00:40:54The worst.
Sonny00:40:56All right. That's all right.
JVL00:40:57So we got to tell you about my girls basketball game after the show. If you want.
Sonny00:41:01We got we got a lineup here. All right. So Vic Vic's Vic's place is Dunkin Donuts, Popeyes and the Travel Mart.
Guest00:41:10All right.
Sonny00:41:12Sonny's joint is a Burger King and an Auntie Annie's and a Krispy Kreme. And JBL's got Starbucks, Wendy's and TCBY.
Vic00:41:21OK.
Sonny00:41:22I think that's. We got one. We each have it. I don't think it's got a caffeine. We get. I'm surprised nobody went with the best pizza that you could pizza.
JVL00:41:31Sparrow. Sparrow.
Sonny00:41:34How does Sparrow.
JVL00:41:35At least you didn't say at least you didn't say Familia La Familia. The problem to the problem niche because you can only do it for really dinner.
Sonny00:41:44Yeah. But also like you can't you can't drive and eat pizza. Yeah.
Vic00:41:47Well, you can't drive and have lasagna.
Sonny00:41:51Yeah. Well, I mean, the bluff. Familia is a family out. If you don't is an infamia.
Vic00:41:55That's all I'm going to say. OK, well, great collection, guys. It's quite a menu. We have speaking of menus over the weekend. Oh, the menu came in second place with nine million behind a movie that I have not seen called Black Panther Wakanda Forever. And that was on top with 67.3. And in third place, apparently, is something called The Chosen. Season three episodes one and two. What with eight point two million. What does that mean? That's not I don't I assume that's not a reference to the book. By Jesus stuff.
Sonny00:42:34Yeah, it's a it's a fathom events thing.
JVL00:42:36It's like a it's a big Catholic, big Catholic show. The other chosen because no, I don't think it's I don't even know if it's Christian. I think it's Catholic. Like I think it's like Mary Magdalene. I don't think the Protestants are into Mary Magdalene.
Vic00:42:49No, no, no, no, they're not into Mary.
JVL00:42:51Yeah, no, this is. It's an explicitly any Mary version of it. No, no. This has like the real Mary and Mary Magdalene. Yeah, this is a Catholic thing.
Vic00:43:00I thought I thought season three into fathom. The Chaim Potok book, the chosen, you know, that was like required reading in high school. OK, so box out really quick box office. How is Black Panther doing, Sonny?
Sonny00:43:14I mean, it dropped 63 percent, which is probably which, frankly, a hair better than I thought it would do. But it's still pretty. Pretty big drop.
Vic00:43:23I assume none of you liked it.
Sonny00:43:26No, we all. Very bad. We all. You know who liked it down on the show?
JVL00:43:30Lauren.
Sonny00:43:30Calls Paul's fiance. Loved it.
JVL00:43:33Really? Your Lauren Crookston thought it was great.
Sonny00:43:36Oh, well, that's why.
JVL00:43:38Because it showed young girls succeeding in STEM.
Vic00:43:45Speaking of, I like that video music video he sent us. OK, anyway, anyway. Moving right along, as you mentioned this week, we're talking about the movie The Menu starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor. We're having a real Anya Taylor-Joy moment here. She's in every fucking movie. Every movie. She is. And directed by Mark Millaud.
JVL00:44:11I saw some trailer for something that she's doing like voiceover work in an animated movie. I don't know if it's like the Super Barney Brothers movie or something. You know, Strike While the Iron is Hot. Is that the movie? Is that the phrase? Yeah.
Sonny00:44:23She's in everything. You got to do it. She's in The Northman. The Northman. Last Night in Soho.
Vic00:44:28Oh.
Sonny00:44:28This.
Vic00:44:29Okay. Anya Taylor-Joy, you got to love her. So, Sonny, how about a big boy review of The Menu?
Sonny00:44:34All right. So, The Menu is a bit like, it's being sold to folks as a bit like The Hunt by way of Pig, right? It's like you, the trailer really emphasizes the sequence where the people working in the kitchen of this high-end restaurant where 12 rich people have come to eat a $1,250 per person prefix menu from a celebrity chef who's played, again, played by Ralph Fiennes. And the trailers have all really highlighted the sequence where the kitchen staff hunts them throughout the island, you know, so you've got 45 seconds to get away. We're going to chase you down and catch you. But it is not really, that is not really, that is a very, that's a very brief section of the film. This is not the hunt. This is, it's a, it's a very different sort of thing. So again, the setup here, 12 rich people go to the restaurant Hawthorne to dine on a very, very nice, very expensive meal prepared by celebrity chef Julian Slovic, I think is his name, who is played by Ralph Fiennes. The audience surrogate here is a couple, played by Nicholas Holt and Anya Taylor joy. Uh, Nicholas Holt is like a foodie. He's, you know, one of these Instagram nerds. He wants to take pictures of his food, put it on, put it on the, uh, put it on Instagram, uh, and she is clearly there as I feel like it's fairly obvious early on that she is a, an escort.
Vic00:46:11Um, and, oh, I didn't figure that out until later. You didn't pick up on that at all. Not until, um, until the evidence, the evidence came out. Right.
Sonny00:46:20Yeah. So, uh. Uh, the, the other people at this, the other people at this dining, uh, experience are kind of a, a, you know, a, a stereotypical group of fancy food diners. We've got the finance bros who were, you know, just there to make it a status symbol, you know, they work for the angel investor, right. They work for the angel investor who has, who kept the restaurant afloat during COVID. Um, there's a, there's a magazine restaurant critic there with her editor, who is this like sycophantic toady. It's very funny. Um, uh, a, a wealthy older couple, uh, and then a, uh, a, a washed up movie star was played by John Leguizamo and, uh, they are, they have all been brought there for a reason, uh, and the reason is that, uh, the celebrity chef wants to kill them. He wants, he is tired of them. He wants to kill all of them. Um, and the reasons why he wants to do that are, uh, all very specific and very funny, uh, or, you know, maybe not funny, funny might be the wrong word, but, uh, Funny for you, but it's very dumb.
Vic00:47:22It's very dark.
Sonny00:47:23It's very dark. It's very darkly comic. This is, uh, this is, this is in the, this is in the vein of like in Bruges or something like that. It's a very darkly comic film. Um, uh, but the, but it is, it is funny, right? Vic? Yeah.
Vic00:47:35There were, there were parts where I, I laughed out loud, but okay. But we left, I think we left at different parts, but for me as a foodie, it was really quiet, but continue on.
Sonny00:47:45The food stuff, the food stuff is fascinating because like they, well, anyway, I want to talk to you a little bit about that, uh, because it's, it's not really my world, but I know enough of it to, to kind of see what was ridiculous. The, the, the part that made me laugh out loud was when, uh, John Leguizamo, John Leguizamo, the chef is explaining why John Leguizamo was there. And I, I laughed, I laughed so uncomfortably loudly in the theater that I think people were like a little bit weirded out because I was just, I was, I was like doubled over.
Vic00:48:15I assume that you were the only one laughing at that or at least the loudest.
Sonny00:48:19No, I mean, other people, other people in the theater were chuckling, they were like, ha ha. And I was just like, I was like, I literally was like falling out of my chair.
JVL00:48:28Uh, the, anyway, um, uh, what was funny about it? You have to tell the joke.
Sonny00:48:35It was just, it's hard, it's hard to tell the joke, but the, the, it's, it's hard to set it all up, but the, the, the short version is there's a, there's one of the courses of the meal is a, um, is a taco or a burrito and, uh, on the tortilla is everybody has printed out like an image of their crimes. The thing that they have done that has made the chef want to kill them. And on, on John Leguizamo's, uh, taco tortilla is just an image of him from a terrible movie, like Dr. Clown or something.
Vic00:49:06Dr. Sunshine, right?
Sonny00:49:07Dr. Sunshine or saying, and, and, and, and Leguizamo's like, ah, the movie was terrible. I don't know why this is not here, but all right. And then later in the film, uh, Ray Fiennes is explaining to him in this like total deadpan, straight faced, serious way. on my one free day, on my Sunday, the day I have to myself, I went to go see Dr. Sunshine or whatever in the theater and it was the worst movie I've ever seen. And you've abandoned your craft. You have thrown your art in the trash and you have really embarrassed it. And it was, again, it's hard.
Vic00:49:42It was two hours you can't get back. It's the feeling.
Sonny00:49:46Ralph Fiennes is just the look on his face. He should do more comedy because he's very, very funny. He's really good in In Bruges. He's really good in Hail Caesar. He should do more comedy. It's funny without being funny.
Vic00:49:59Like, he's not like...
Sonny00:49:59Again, I was dying in the theater. I was just like, just the look on his face. So this is not a movie about food. It is actually a movie about the movie industry. This is a movie that is about the... the deleterious effects of all sorts of facets of the movie business from investors coming in and fucking up what the artists are trying to do to... I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought here. To the awful effects of fan culture to the complete lack of taste of the audience and the consumers to the frustrations that... that the people within the industry themselves have with the terrible working conditions and blah blah. There's like, there's even a Me Too sequence in the film where...
JVL00:50:57Yeah, yeah.
Sonny00:50:58Fiennes is... It is revealed that Fiennes hit on one of his waitresses or one of his sous chefs and she... rejected him and then he like started freezing her out and treating her badly and blah blah. Again, it's, this is like, you could go step by step and draw like a... a very, a very clear map, like even the line where... So one of, one of the things in this movie is, uh, there's this, this guy, the angel investor who gets killed by, by the chef. Um, but the finance bros are like, he kept you afloat when you had to close during COVID. And Ray Fiennes is like, yes, but he demanded substitutions. Even though I, you know, I make it very clear that there are no substitutions in my restaurant. It, it is, it's like, it is somebody, it is somebody yelling about Jason Kalar, uh, putting HBO Max movies or putting, putting all the movies on HBO Max instead of... Um, uh, you know, saving them for theatrical. It is a, like, it is, again, it's like finance fuckery and all that. I, I love this a great deal. The foodie stuff is great. Um, the kind of, uh, criticism of this and the, the, the Nicholas Holt character who is, uh, who we find out knows that he is there to die and still brought somebody with him anyway. Um, uh, is this like kind of the apotheosis of... Of, like, terrible fan culture and, like, how they're, they're willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to...
Vic00:52:24But because Anya Taylor- Experience their stuff. Because Anya Taylor-Joy is a last-minute substitution because the girlfriend dumps him. She throws a wrench into Ralph Fiennes' plan that everybody there deserves to die because they are terrible people. And so he has to figure out how to square this and what to do with her in the process. Yeah. Yeah.
Sonny00:52:43Anyway, I, I, I found the movie very entertaining. I, I enjoyed it a great deal. Uh, Vic... Vic, what did you, what did you make of the menu?
Vic00:52:52I, I really liked this movie. Uh, I didn't think about the movie industry at all. I thought about it directly as an indictment of certain restaurants like El Bulli and Alinea and Eleven Madison Park that are so over the top. And, um, if you think about, uh, for example, his whole reasoning is that the better that the, the higher end, the, the more refined the dining became, the more... demanding he needed, the ingredients were, and the more expensive it was to afford, uh, to, he'd have to raise the prices every time because he needed more and more high-end ingredients, uh, which leads to, um, the only people able to afford his restaurants, uh, are these very detestable, you know, assholes. And, um, that's the assumption is that when you're at that price point that they're all bad people. Um, and then he couldn't get out himself out of that.
JVL00:53:46Some of them just work for magazines with really big expenses. Expense accounts.
Vic00:53:50I don't believe me when I would say bad people, Tyler, Tyler, the foodie wannabe who wants to be loved by the chef and the magazine editor with the, uh, who comes with the restaurant, uh, reviewer, who's basically like Ruth Reichel. Um, I was like, I feel like I'm one of these three. This is too, uh, this is too comfortable. This is too close. I really feel uncomfortable. Like, oh, I can see myself, but I really try to think of myself as not being over the top with like. There's something that Tyler says that he wouldn't want to kill you.
JVL00:54:22He'd want to be your friend.
Vic00:54:24Well, that's, that's how we want to be is I saw, I want to be his friend, but I mean, so, but there's this larger point about, um, and this is, this is also what the Nicholas Holt character wants. He wants to be friends with the chef and it's so, it's so cringe as the kids say, it's so cringe. Cause he's talking about the Paco jet. Oh, you use the pocket. It's like, ah, you know, just throwing things out. And I think to myself, man, I hope I never, ever sounded like that. And, uh, it reminded me. So, okay, I'm going to get ahead of myself here and we're running out of time, but I would say, first of all, this was like a, a parody of chef's table on Netflix, which I do watch and they break it up by scenes of the menu and what they're serving. And I laughed very hard when the, you know, they break up the moose Bush in the first course, second course in throughout the movie. And when they got to, uh, Tyler and how Ray fines forces him to cook. So you're, you know, it's such a big, you know, you're, you, you know, you know, so much, why don't you cook for us? And it's horrendous bullshit. Yeah. And then, and then the course is called Tyler's bullshit, you know, and it's just, you know, undercooked lamb and this whole, and you saw the way he was cutting, you know, and, and Ray fine says, Oh, this is a very interesting, uh, you know, a dicing technique we've never seen before, you know, because the guy's a fraud, right? He's a fraud. Um, the interesting thing also about the movie is the chef as the technical consultant was Dominic Crenn. And, um, she runs a very high end restaurant in San Francisco, Atelier Crenn. She's the only woman. Uh, in the United, she's only American woman to have three Michelin stars and she's very interesting and very much like her gut. You could see how like a dark version of her would be this, because if you go to Atelier Crenn, for example, her menu is not a straightforward menu. It's a poem, right? Because she says, she's not, you know, I'm not serving a menu. I'm telling a story. She says, and this is, this is this, this is. It's Hawthorne and it's so ridiculously pretentious, although Dominic Crenn seems very nice, but, um, you can see how it, it, it can, you know, go, uh, take a dark turn and she says she wants to trigger memories and different things. And, and, and it just reminded me of Anthony Bourdain who said that, you know, we got to this point where now we pay chefs, you know, to, to feed us what they want, you know, versus what we want. And I was thinking about, I'd been to 11 Madison park and it was ridiculous. Lee over to the top where every course there's a story I don't want to, you know what I mean? And I just want good, I want a great food. I'll pay for great food and drink, but I just want to be there with people. I want to catch up with and see how they're doing. But a lot of people now go, I mean, that's the entertainment. You don't go to the meal before a show. The meal is the show, right? Uh, so that was my other thought. And then the other thing is, um, chefs going insane. Uh, and that's a real thing. The only difference. Uh, one of the things you have to accept going into this is that basically he's a Jim Jones cult leader. They all live on this Island and everybody, all the workers have been all, cause they all live on the Island. They never leave the Island. They have now all the entire, you know, the line cooks, they're all there. They all have to believe in him and they're all willing to die. Everyone's dying tonight and they're ready to commit suicide. So once you get through that, I mean, that's obviously a stretch, but do chefs go crazy? Sure. Right. Um, Bernard Loiseau, uh, was a French chef who committed suicide. There was a story about it because he thought he didn't get the star rating that he wanted to, but it was misreported and he did, but it was too late. And I don't know if that's true or not. Um, Michelle Richard, my old friend, a late chef told me he was just, you know, he was very depressed. He was not well, so it's, uh, everything else is incidental, but that goes all the way back to, you know, Vettel, right. Vettel, who was the chef to Louis the 14th and he. Fell on his sword because the fish, uh, dish was late, you know, but that's in the seventh, the 17th century. But anyway, so there's a whole history of this. And so when I'm looking at this, you know, um, Slovak is along the lines of these chefs. And, uh, the only difference is these other chefs never killed anybody else. You know what I mean? It was themselves that they just killed themselves. Um, but you know, Eric repair, who is a great chef in, in, in New York, uh, he apprenticed under Joel Robuchon, and he was insane. Uh, he, you had to create a dish where your plate had like a hundred red dots and every plate had to say, I have the same exact number of dots on every plate. And that's nuts. And so what, what repair started to do was he would hide food in like cupboards. Like, so he'd make them ahead of time and then serve them, you know, because you can't keep up with the speed of that. I mean, it's one thing to do it and you have all the time to do it. You know, and in the world, but if it's happening all at once, you know, and so that worked until finally at one point, I think, um, Robuchon was like opening up some random closet to look for like gloves and there's a plated dish sitting there and they just flips the fuck out, you know, so that's it, but these people do go crazy, I thought about it and I loved the ending by the way of this movie, which is where Anya Taylor-Joy finds the way out. She knows she got to understand by going into where, uh, Slovik lives, the old clips of where he was a young, happy chef and she says to him, you don't, you don't cook with love, you cook with obsession, right, and there's a difference in chefs or you're supposed to cook with love and, uh, and, and then she says, you know, what I really would like is, uh, I'm not satisfied with this meal, what I really like is a cheeseburger and you see, and, and she had seen a clip of him, a newspaper clipping where he was young and he was this hamburger cook and it got to him and for that short moment in the movie at the end, when he makes this double cheeseburger and she, he's like, okay, fine, I'll do that for you, um, you know, how would you like it done, medium, how, what kind of cheese, and she says American and everybody looks down on American cheese, but as Slovik knows, that's the best cheese for a cheeseburger and he says it, he goes, that's the best kind of cheese and he just takes his time and it's so, I mean, it's gastroporn, but I loved it and, uh, and well, I don't want to give the
Sonny01:00:48ending away, but anyway, she, what did you, what did you think of the actual, the, the for real dishes they were making, the, the like, it's so like, like anything
Vic01:00:57related to molecular gastronomy at this point is so, you know, I, for me, I consider it passe, so I'm like, I'm so done with it, I don't want, and anything that's deconstructed and so the ending was so perfect because I can't tell you how many restaurants I've been to where, uh, the dessert is a too clever by half s'more that is now deconstructed. S'more or with a container in a, in a bowl and the smoke comes out and now you're, you're smelling like the smoke and you know, they're all trying to do this thing, so I thought it was so fitting that that was the ending dessert is the s'more, except for the, the guests are the s'mores, human s'mores. It was very dark, so dark, but I thought it was great. And it was so refreshingly different from everything else I've seen in a long time.
JVL01:01:44Do the quadrants.
Vic01:01:46Oh yeah. Uh, uh, plot is an a, I, I had a couple of questions, Sonny. And, uh, one of them was, um, what's the, what's up with the Coast Guard dude?
Sonny01:01:58Like, well, he works for the, he's, he, he's one of the, one of the sous chefs.
Vic01:02:02So when she, when she calls the shortwave radio uses the short, well,
Sonny01:02:06he was, it was a, it was a, it was a trap. It was, he knew, he knew that one of them would, would, would betray.
Vic01:02:13All right. I don't think the wife of the philandering old man, the, the Harvey Weinstein type character, right, clearly. Um, I don't think she deserved to go unless her crime is her sin is obliviousness to gluttony or whatever.
Sonny01:02:27Well, I mean, how might I like, so, you know, the, the, the weird thing about this movie is that, uh, is that all of the class stuff is a total red herring. It is this, it's not really a movie about class, uh, eat the rich type stuff, right? It, it, that, that is like, I mean, like for instance, John, like was almost assistant, right? They, they, and they, and they, how do they, how do they, how do they explain why she gets, well, did you, did you, where did you go to school? Brown? Did you graduate with any debt? No. All right. You died too. Like that it was, it's like very casually dealt with. Um, uh, and, and again, it's, it's like kind of a Dodge. It's a way to, to, to explain why all this is going on.
Vic01:03:11Uh, duration is an eight plus. That was an hour 47, according to, uh, the good, good runtime action. Violence is an a. It was very creative way to go knives. I mean, it's, uh, it's, uh, it was very original, particularly the ending. Um, although I couldn't, I don't know. I mean, he's right. I mean, uh, the chef is the chef is right. That he surprised that they didn't try to over whelmed them. Cause he thinks they could have, although the kitchen has kitchen has the knives,
Sonny01:03:38you know, well, and also there, there were a lot of people in that kitchen.
Vic01:03:42There's some big guys like enforcers. Okay. Uh, sex nudity is enough. So that brings it down to a B plus. But I thought it was, uh, still an excellent.
JVL01:03:50Movie that Anya Taylor-Joy doesn't take her top off in.
Vic01:03:54Well, that's just what I'm saying. It's this, uh, yeah. So, uh, it's no Northman, uh, in that sense, but it was great. And I, you know, um, I'd say the kitchen at 11 Madison park was similar where there's a lot of yes, chef. Yes, chef. That's all you hear. If you go to another restaurant, like Daniel, uh, balloons, he'll just order it. And then they repeat the order and the whole purpose. So that of course is just so you can't say, oh, I didn't hear you ordered that. So everything goes through, but it is so orderly and, and still and terrifying. And, and, and, and Thomas Keller's kitchen at per se is like, you know, uh, Kate, we did a tour, uh, Kate and I went into the kitchen with Thomas Keller and she left. And she said that was like, you know, OCD overload is what she's called it because everything is so measured precisely the distance between utensils. It's crazy, but these, how these are, how these, uh, chefs get. Okay.
Sonny01:04:49That said, have you watched, have you, have you watched the bear?
Vic01:04:53No, I saw a clip of it. It looked really interesting. And then I read a, uh, a column on it in the journal because they talked about a flashback involving John Bernthal. I said, that sounds great. I just haven't, I have to, where's that at? I think you would like that. FX.
Sonny01:05:08I think you would like it. It's on, it's on FX. It's a FX on Hulu. Okay. So, all right.
Vic01:05:12Good. Okay. Uh, spirit of the week, corrections, shout outs, nothing we're good. All right. That's a long one today. Sorry about that. And that's all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Matus. Again, to be sure to subscribe to us on Patrion, just go to subbeacon.com. We're there. Tell your friends until next time. JVL. You mentioned a basketball game.
JVL01:05:44Yeah. I had my first, uh, seventh and eighth grade girls basketball. Yeah.
Vic01:05:48Oh, right.
JVL01:05:49You were a coach in, uh, 32 minutes of game time. We managed to, uh, hang, uh, hang at 22 points up on the board. How we got 22 points is a mystery. And, uh, I don't know if you guys remember, but we started this adventure with me thinking about all the schemes I wanted to run now, you know, I was going to run full court pressure and a one, three, one. Trapping zone defense and flex motion offense. And, uh, after two practices, my squad was unable to run a single offensive set, which isn't bad. What's bad is that they were unable to even get into the proper starting formation for any of the offensive sets. And, uh, we then. They're overwhelmed.
Vic01:06:48They're overwhelmed. There's a lot of things going on.
JVL01:06:52We had a timeout and I was trying to get them back on point for their two, three zone, just a simple two, three zone. Everybody can do a two, three zone, right? You're born knowing how to play a two, three zone. So I'm sitting there with my little clipboard and I'm diagramming it and I finished two minutes, a little two minute set piece in which I feel as though I have given the girl. A really solid foundation on what they should be doing with this thing, which we have practiced already on the court for their two, three zone. And I say, all right, we got it. And one of my girls says to me, I'm sorry. Is this an offense or a defense?
Sonny01:07:41Uh, I'm sure it's fine.
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