This episode unfurls with the delectable musings of our special guest from Epic Eats - a connoisseur of the culinary arts based in St. Louis who isn't afraid to throw himself into the hottest of foods... and we ate the hottest of chicken on the podcast. With Epic Eats, we ladle out tales from our shared past in retail (seriously, we used to work together) and how a fiery love for food carved out new paths during the pandemic.
Strap on your aprons and ready your taste buds as we venture into the saucy debate over condiments and the perilous journey of scaling the Scoville scale at Chuck's Hot Chicken. Our conversation simmers with insights on the craft of food critiquing and the responsibility we carry when our online opinions can make or break a meal. Yelp elites, beware - we're dishing out thoughts on the power your reviews hold, all while ensuring our own critiques stay as constructive as the feedback we dish to kitchens across the city.
In our final course, we slice into the innovation (or lack thereof) in the St. Louis food scene, serving up raw, honest talk about the branding and recognition hurdles that local eateries vault over. We cheer on events like Wing Ding and those audacious enough to drizzle new flavors into the St. Louis melting pot. So, whether you're here for the foodie chat, the nostalgia of our employment history together, or just craving some good ol' St. Louis eats talk, tune in and savor this flavorful episode - and don't forget to subscribe and follow for a taste of our next adventure.
This episode unfurls with the delectable musings of our special guest from Epic Eats - a connoisseur of the culinary arts based in St. Louis who isn't afraid to throw himself into the hottest of foods... and we ate the hottest of chicken on the podcast. With Epic Eats, we ladle out tales from our shared past in retail (seriously, we used to work together) and how a fiery love for food carved out new paths during the pandemic.
Strap on your aprons and ready your taste buds as we venture into the saucy debate over condiments and the perilous journey of scaling the Scoville scale at Chuck's Hot Chicken. Our conversation simmers with insights on the craft of food critiquing and the responsibility we carry when our online opinions can make or break a meal. Yelp elites, beware - we're dishing out thoughts on the power your reviews hold, all while ensuring our own critiques stay as constructive as the feedback we dish to kitchens across the city.
In our final course, we slice into the innovation (or lack thereof) in the St. Louis food scene, serving up raw, honest talk about the branding and recognition hurdles that local eateries vault over. We cheer on events like Wing Ding and those audacious enough to drizzle new flavors into the St. Louis melting pot. So, whether you're here for the foodie chat, the nostalgia of our employment history together, or just craving some good ol' St. Louis eats talk, tune in and savor this flavorful episode - and don't forget to subscribe and follow for a taste of our next adventure.
Really hope y'all didn't think I was kidding. I'm literally by a river for Riverside chats. There's actually Otter over there. Welcome to Riverside chats, powered by Riversidefm. Today we're going to talk about how there was an internet cellular outage for like a good chunk of the morning this week and a lot of people didn't know what to do. People were stuck in SOS mode and people just had no service.
Speaker 1:
He kind of makes me think. If social media in the internet completely disappeared, what would you do? How would you pivot into another job field and what would that exactly be? I kind of want to like I'd be a chef or something you know I would. I would start making food, and I think food's on my mind because this week's guest is Epic Eats STL, who is a food creator here in St Louis who documents the real experiences and the real, actual things that happen when he goes to restaurants. I'm excited for you to see this because it's also a different style, because we went to go eat spicy food and it's in a car and it's a different format for the podcast.
Speaker 1:
I like being experimental with this thing. I want to have fun with the podcast, I want to go crazy with it and I want to bring you guys something that's not just the same as everyone else. Everyone's starting a podcast nowadays and I can do stuff like this because the partners like Riversidefm, which is an amazing software that I've used to record with my buddy Luke, who's actually in LA. That's going to be next week's episode. Like, if the internet gets buggy and like I'm seeing Blitchy and the audio is like doing that weird thing where it like stretches out syllables and stuff, you don't have to worry about that because everything is recorded locally. You don't have to do podcasts on there, like you don't have to just be a podcast. You can be somebody that's doing interviews, you can be somebody that's doing conferences, you can have panel speak, you can do meetings. You can do all these things and have a way to document this stuff.
Speaker 1:
With that said, let's get into today's episode with Epic Eats STO. Today, I am joined by Epic Eats. Shh shh shh. I hate whenever navigation talks. It's just like it's too obnoxious, it's something that doesn't need to happen. Right, like just shut up.
Speaker 2:
Like when you try to listen to the music, the music goes down when they start talking. Like bro, I'm in the middle of a nice verse.
Speaker 1:
I hate when the beat drops and then the GPS voice is like turn left onto Pants Highway Boulevard. I'm like, bro, can you shut up? Oh, my God, okay. So first of all tell the people, as we're on the way to this place, who are you?
Speaker 2:
Yes, Like I said, I'm Epic Eats STL, ig food vlogger whatever you want to call it, but reviewer, food reviewer.
Speaker 1:
You're also an award-winning vlogger. Oh, an award-winning vlogger. Look at that. Look at that. You know two award-winning vloggers in a Tesla. You and I actually go way back. Yeah, we actually go way back, way back. I've known you longer than any other creator in the city. This is true. That's because we used to work together at Arapahstal Arapahstal At the Mills Mall, bro.
Speaker 2:
That was crazy the days at the Mills Mall man.
Speaker 1:
Do you have any like crazy stories from whenever we worked there, because I know one right off the top of my head. What's that? I think I might have told you this, but there was one time it was like during Black Friday or something and there was this old guy with, I think, his granddaughter or like his like great niece or some crap, and he was asking me, because I was on fitting rooms that day, he was like yo, so is there like an open fitting room? And I'm like no, they're all occupied. I'll let you know. Whenever one opens up, like I have like a list in my head of like who who's supposed to be going in next? So then he looks around, like after I say this to him, he looks around, he grabs a purse off the purse rack and he just throws it in the fitting room and then the girl inside shrieks and then he just like walks away, puts down the clothes and just walks out. Okay, abandoned his great niece or whatever Interesting.
Speaker 2:
Do you remember this? No, I don't Actually. Nah, I'll say the worst thing. I found a tampon, really One of the closing rooms. Yeah, Was it used?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it was used. Oh wow, Not the seasoned tampon, bro. Yeah, that was nasty Are you serious Uh huh Nasty bro. In the fitting room Uh huh, you know fitting rooms. People just believe in shit. They just don't care, they don't and I don't. Sometimes it's like you find bags and stuff, though, and I'm like how do you walk out and just like not realize that you don't have things with you, Right? I'm not the type to like forget my phone, my wallet, my keys. I like do a mental check of everything.
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm, cause you got me. It's the mills man, that's true.
Speaker 1:
But like even the mills. You think the people got to be a little smarter than that you would think.
Speaker 2:
People don't build a malls. No more man. Thanks, it's a Facts. Amazon shopping online.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean online shopping kind of killed them all, but like also, like there are so many deals online, like I feel like they kind of did it to themselves because they used to be like oh yeah, we got this online exclusive. It's like for what, what made you start creating content around food? And like why, why? Well, like what sparked that?
Speaker 2:
I mean, I mean I would say 2021, covid started, okay. I mean cause before that? I mean I'm just a regular guy eating like Wendy's McDonald's, you know.
Speaker 1:
He's going to.
Speaker 2:
Applebee's, but 2020 started you ready for this. Okay, like a spaceship. Isn't that crazy? That's nice.
Speaker 1:
Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it just knocks the damn thing off rotation.
Speaker 2:
Hey, I'm like nice, I like that.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to try to sell you on a Tesla during this podcast. I'm not getting on. Tessie Do you hear how quiet it is, though.
Speaker 2:
I still can hear stuff, yeah Well that's cause like physics and shit outside. Yeah, but I still can hear it Ain't no space up in this money. What are you talking about? They got bigger ones. Man, you can keep your Tessie.
Speaker 1:
What you know. It'd be nice if I could, but this is a rental, which actually leads us to today's sponsor, Hertz. Hertz is the one that was responsible for allowing me to have this Tesla. For a week, I've been doing a YouTube video on it, actually trying to decide if it's worth buying or renting an EV in St Louis. And yeah, you just got to go watch the video Like it'll be linked in the show notes in the description. You'll be able to go find it. The renting process was super easy, super seamless and I mean overall, the support has been amazing from them. So I got to give a shout out to today's sponsor for allowing me to share this with Epic Eats. Where did the name Epic Eats come from? Cause you started making this content during the panorama Right. Where did Epic Eats come from?
Speaker 2:
Ah man, so I had a name before. I forgot what the name was before. It was something like I don't even remember, actually, but with Epic Eats I didn't want to put my. I saw a lot of content creators put their name in their title, yeah, so I was like you know, I didn't want to put my name on it because I don't want it to be focused on me. I don't want whatever I create. Oh, his name is this. Oh he, I wanted the you know the content to be about what I'm posting the food the restaurant.
Speaker 1:
So you were in this for the food to get the cloud, not you, right?
Speaker 2:
Cause you know, like I said, I saw a lot of creators having their name on there, so I was like let me see. So I picked Epic, cause I know it's, you know it's different than Epic Eats. Okay, okay, not that you know, not that over.
Speaker 1:
It's not like a super crazy, extravagant story.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's like you just want the food to be the focus and like I started off, I started off when I was making my you know photo, when I was doing photos, yeah, and videos, well, mainly I did photos. At the beginning I was just posting that. Nobody knew who I was posting it.
Speaker 2:
But then that's when I caught up with Brad and STL and even you, you know you guys started was doing blogs yeah, a lot of them back then and I was like and then you guys and Chris, you know, maybe you start doing that you know and. Brad and talking, you know, saying like put your face out there more. And so once I started doing that, I was like okay, I see what it is, I see what it is Logging.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's like once you start doing it, you get hooked pretty easy Because then, like, it's like a creative outlet and, on top of it being a creative outlet, it's just fun and the perks that come with it are pretty cool, I would say.
Speaker 2:
But yeah, yeah, the reason I started back in 2020, the reason was because I saw a lot of restaurants failing or not getting a lot of business because of COVID. So so I was like what can I do to just support, you know, get my two sisters to the community.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And I always wanted to do something with food and you know, posting it and stuff, yeah yeah. So my wife just said, hey, just go ahead and start the page and you know, just go from there. And so, yeah, so I, after that point I stopped eating like change stuff.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I mean I go to like Wendy's here and there but anything else is local.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so you've been primarily focused on local. So kind of tell the people where you're taking me today or, I guess, where I'm taking us.
Speaker 2:
So where the Tessie is taking us.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, where the Tessie is taking us, if this person wants to get over.
Speaker 2:
We're going to Chugs Hot Chicken. You know I came here lots of times, love the chicken tenders. I would say if I had the pig, these are the best tenders out of St Louis oh wow, that's a pretty strong, strong word. I'm sticking to it. I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 1:
Well, I mean, you're no stranger to spice because you and I both were in the chicken out fryer fest yes, and for those that are unfamiliar, it's a take on fire fest, which you know failed. But this was a success. And there's like two different challenges. One is a spice challenge, where they come up with this. What did they call it? Like a, like a.
Speaker 1:
Ghost Reaper sauce or Hellfire sauce, which is like Ghost Pepper, carolina Reaper, like a bunch of stuff mixed together and you had to eat like a certain number of tenders within a certain time period and then from there you have to like sit and bask in it Like five minutes. Yeah, it was crazy. No drinking, no, nothing, but you were a two-time champion, two-time champion.
Speaker 2:
Like you, won twice.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the first year I was kind of like okay, this guy is actually crazy and like delusional, because he just like went through this with no problem, didn't even break his sweat. The second year you did it again. So like, have you always been able to tolerate spicy food like that?
Speaker 2:
Honestly no.
Speaker 1:
Honestly when I went into.
Speaker 2:
The first time it was two. You know the two competitions. It was the spice and then the quantity round. I knew when I wouldn't be able to eat like 20 tenders in like two, five minutes or whatever.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, those people were crazy, Crazy they were like making paper mache.
Speaker 2:
I knew how he did that, bro, but I knew I couldn't survive eating a whole bunch of tenders in under a couple of minutes. So I was like I'm gonna just try my hand at some hot. And so, yeah, I tried it. And once I started eating it I realized I mean, it's not really that hot to me.
Speaker 1:
That's crazy.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was crazy, I don't know. But um, yeah, just I just bashed it. But then the second, this past one I thought it was gonna be a different sauce, yeah, so when I started eating it it was the same sauce. I said, oh man, this child's play. So, yeah, I guess I can tolerate hot.
Speaker 1:
So you just kind of like built up the tolerance for it.
Speaker 2:
But I didn't, though I didn't even practice another before, it just happened. Yeah, just happened Like you just discovered it.
Speaker 1:
You were like oh wow, I can actually do this for real, for real, okay. So would you have any advice for people like me that aren't hitting like those peppers and eating them like their potato chips? Do you have any advice for people to like help them tolerate the heat when they do spicy food? Uh, nope, okay, well, I tried. Well, there was like. I remember there was somebody that told me like ketchup was too spicy for them and I'm like, yeah, you actually have problems. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:
I just don't know where with that. Maybe, maybe it's the acidity in the tomatoes, but I don't think it's that.
Speaker 1:
But like, if you can't handle ketchup, what do you like? What do you eat stuff with? Is it true? What do you eat stuff with? I mean I don't like ketchup though. Okay then, what condiment do you use if you're not going to Thank you? Oh my God, I finally feel seen. Everybody talks to me like I'm crazy for barbecue sauce.
Speaker 2:
No, barbecue sauce is the best condiment.
Speaker 1:
It's yes.
Speaker 2:
Yes, it's the best sauce Any variation of it Seriously.
Speaker 1:
Like you got hot barbecue, you got sweet honey barbecue. Like there's so many ways that you can apply this to what you eat, but no barbecue sauce is so weird. Ooh, we're about to pull up to this place and what we're going to do is we're going to get some food. It's going to be great. We're going to sample this in the tessie and it's going to be. It's going to be a blast.
Speaker 2:
It's going to be a blast. Yeah, I came here once before and I did a review on them. So if you go to my page you would see one of the top videos is Chuck's hot chicken and I rated it. But yeah, man, I love this spot, man. So what level? It goes from zero to six, where you think you can handle.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to be honest, I was just casual, I wasn't even seeking out this information. I just got on Reddit and I'm in the St Louis sub Reddit and the first post on my homepage was Chuck's hot chicken. Level six is crazy, like I'm not even kidding. It was like a post that, oh, is on the left. Okay, well then, let me get over. Oh, I see it. I see it. There it is. We have secured the bag. Apparently. I'm going to need this. Am I going to need this? Not right now. Okay, I'll keep it over here.
Speaker 1:
We have gloves as a disclaimer for this, this food. So whenever we walked into this place immediately Orlando, I bring out there's a. There's a scale from one to six, five and six being off menu. Beware, there's a buyer's warning. I walked in and said, yeah, let's try level four, and he looked at me like I'm a punk. So naturally, I'm going to put myself through some shit on camera and let's see how capable I am as an interviewer. If not, you know if I could do this, hot ones, I'm coming for your job, but if not, I mean, I'm wearing gloves. Right, this man handed me gloves to do this. So is there like a procedure to like. Why the gloves? What's what's the deal with that with spicy food?
Speaker 2:
I mean, you want the spiciest stuff on your finger and being on your fingers all day.
Speaker 1:
So like what happens if like you rub, you rub your eyes or something what you mean. What happens if, like, you eat the spicy food, you're like, damn, that's good, and then you like wipe your nose or something. Is that a problem?
Speaker 2:
You're going to be messed up.
Speaker 1:
What do you mean? I'm just look, some people don't know that. Okay, I know that. I know, like you got to wash your hands, don't touch your eyes, don't touch anything when eating spicy food. But you know you're the spice king, so, like technically, you outrank me with the spice knowledge, all right, hey, you know I just eat. You know he's being humble about it.
Speaker 2:
All right, he's a two time winner. I don't say I'm the spice king and then I just eat.
Speaker 1:
Apparently, level one is like the beginner. There's a level zero, but level one is like the warmup. Those ones look nice.
Speaker 2:
What did they call this kind of video? A mukbang, a mukbang? Yeah, is that what they call this? Mukbang, mukbang. Whatever you call it, you want some ranch or no?
Speaker 1:
No, I'm good, I don't like ranch. Am I going to need ranch? Will that help?
Speaker 2:
You don't like ranch. I don't like ranch. You a blue cheese person.
Speaker 1:
Sure, I got to have a kick on the ranch. That's a good changer, yo, that's so that's far ain't it.
Speaker 2:
I told you. That's why I said chucks pretenders. It's my top, I'm going to be going back.
Speaker 1:
That's a good portion. Generous, definitely a good portion. Oh, that's a good fry. So how do you go about judging these places? Like you're sitting here eating a fry, do you let go without fry and then fry with sauce?
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
You know you got to taste the main thing first and then try it with the sauce.
Speaker 1:
So you know what, from creator to creator, if there is a place that you don't like, what do you do? No, because I know what I do. Like I have a procedure for that, but like I think there's a misconception that, like I don't know that people will bash you on social media and like talk smack about you, but like, especially whenever we're St Louis focused, people like we try to build the community up and we try to do Good. So what do you do in a situation where you go to a restaurant and you're actually not a fan of the food?
Speaker 2:
now it depends. So with me, if I go to a restaurant and Completely don't like anything I got there, I won't post it. Okay, which I mean People would. But I would write a review on Yelp. Yeah, what are we review? Are you a helper? Yes, I am what are you?
Speaker 1:
Yelp elite.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
What the heck? Okay, we'll get in there that in a minute.
Speaker 2:
Um, but if I go to a restaurant and which I might start switching that up too, because a lot of people want to know, like if you had a bad experience and what it is and stuff like that, but with that it's not like I'm going on here trying to bash the restaurant, it's certain way. It's a certain way to say something that is bad or didn't taste good, then Saying, oh, this mug is trash, this restaurant, don't come here. No, because at the end of the day, we try to support, you know, local businesses, and it is disrespectful to trash somebody. Restaurant. Um, but if I go to a restaurant and I like certain dishes but I don't like certain other dishes, I would put that all in the video. You know, I would say I love this dish, um, but if, uh, I'm not a fan of something, I'd be like, you know, but I wasn't a fan of this. This was kind of too salty for me. This spice wasn't really hot to me, even though it said it was hot. That's every spice to him, though.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, bro's about to eat. Level five and not even sweat.
Speaker 2:
But uh, yeah. So, um, I want to be. I don't want to say if I, if I had a dish and I didn't like it myself In the restaurant, I'm not going to put it out there. Oh, this this, this wing or something was good even though I didn't like it. Um, I would be transparent and say, yo, it wasn't for me, you know.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
Um, that way, I mean, the restaurant is still see, okay, maybe we can switch them up, maybe here and there, but if they don't, they don't, you know. But I just want to be transparent With that aspect. But as far as, like, I never went to a restaurant that I was completely Flabbergasted, that was disgusting. I haven't either.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I haven't been to like a restaurant or an experience that I've been like.
Speaker 2:
The whole, thing, the whole thing is like, non, like there's no redeeming this.
Speaker 1:
Like I've never been to that right.
Speaker 1:
I haven't either um but I find it interesting though, because, with what we do, there's a lot of power and responsibility that comes with it, because people pay attention to what we post and people pay attention to what we say. So Mm-hmm it's. It's almost strange, though, because, like, there is a level of like you want to be honest and straightforward with people, but, at the same time, like you don't want to be harming another business, because this is how somebody you know pays their mortgage fees, their kids. Like this is crucial. So, typically, if I'm like not a fan of an experience or not a fan of something, I I like to try to talk to the business about it.
Speaker 1:
Hey, so I had this experience. I wasn't that big on it, or I had this dish and it wasn't that great, or you know, I like to be blunt and honest about that stuff, because that helps people improve, and I mean I would hope that people would do the same, like with my content also. Like, if they don't vibe with a certain piece of content or they're not like, oh, that was kind of a flop. Like I would rather somebody be honest with me and transparent instead of like, oh, everything is great, everything is perfect. It's like. Like, not everything's gonna be perfect.
Speaker 2:
Do you have?
Speaker 1:
questions ready in case I'm incapable of yeah, oh my god, you can smell it.
Speaker 2:
It just smells like death does ranch help? No.
Speaker 1:
Oh, oh. I'm smelling colors. Now you smell in colors. I'm smelling colors and I am tasting sounds. I feel the reverb on my taste buds. You're gonna eat this whole thing. Yeah, what? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. The heat gives you hiccups. I'll be real, though. I was expecting it to hit harder. I was expecting I'm gonna be sobbing. Oh, I know was like don't get me wrong, I'm feeling it. Mm-hmm, you see the tears I.
Speaker 2:
Got to do. He's got tears, yeah, right there. What, all right. So, dante, what got you started in your creation? Why did you start doing?
Speaker 1:
blogs. Why did I start making blogs? Mm-hmm, started as a hobby and then I was like I went from being like a content consumer to a content creator Because I just I thought I could do it. I don't know, I just wanted to do something different than like what I was creatively used to. Also, because I used to draw, I used to like make comics. I used to. I mean, graphic design was my major, so I wanted to take a stab at something different.
Speaker 1:
That's whenever vlogs kind of came about, because I was I used to watch Casey Neistat a lot. So I was like I could probably do something similar to this, but like in my little college town. And then when I moved back here to st Louis, that's whenever I was like, okay, st Louis doesn't have this, why don't I be the first? Answer me honestly, how many Many youtubers that are making content about st Louis Do you know? Of Not none. So I saw an opportunity and I was like, let me take it. Let me, let me shoot my shot, excuse me, let me try this. And it was great. I found a good level of success with it, you know. But like I don't know, it was cool, like just uplifting the city and showcasing what life really is like here, because a lot of people have a lot of misconceptions that are skewed about st Louis. So I was like yeah, they're like if you step outside, you die, right.
Speaker 2:
I'm like no, Are you gonna finish out center?
Speaker 1:
Look, man, I'm not trying to figure out how autopilot works. To get back, I'm like so you see what two bikes did to me? You see how greasy my the outside of my.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's a problem, but as far as the st Louis food scene, what do you see like?
Speaker 1:
Some of the problems are with the food scene. Yeah, oh, I would say I think that we have not been Challenged enough and I think that we're so stuck in traditions and like what most people consider good, that like, if you think about, like alcohol and stuff right.
Speaker 1:
There's got to be more to st Louis than forehands, schlafly and univita. Okay, there's got to be more to the city than that. So I think what we need is we need more people to like More alcohol. Well, we just well like that's just an example of like brands, you know, and then like what about a with a rope? There needs to be more talk about it then.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, a lot of people don't like. But it's like, it's a good Whisky brand like bourbon.
Speaker 1:
Well then, I love, I love to try it, because I do like whiskey and bourbon. Yeah, I always buy them bottles, bro, oh my god. Well, the reason I bring up that example is because the very premise of like how that is structured Applies to food as well. It applies to like pretty much everything we have in st Louis. Like I know that we're more than like three things Like whenever wings we're more like st Louis style pizza, like, okay, we get like there's dog town emos, and like what is it, mama luchillas? There's got to be more. There's got to be more. I think that's that's.
Speaker 1:
My biggest problem with the st Louis food scene is the lack of diversity and also the lack of, I think, accountability, because we need to be a city of Innovation. We're in such a great spot because all these other cities are, they're known for their thing, and st Louis we have yet to get that thing and I think that's a huge like, that's a huge Opportunity in a great place to be in. But I think we need to make more progress to finding out what that is and like Developing our city's identity, because right now, like whenever I go to other cities, like I can't even really say like what I think that's that's another thing is like we're so short-sighted into like I want to be the best in st Louis, but it's like why don't you want to be the best in the nation right, or at the very minimum, the best in the Midwest? You know like we're complacent, chef JR rated test Excellent.
Speaker 2:
Like I took a food critic there from out of town there. Oh, you did, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that they had there is he came in from out of town and like Well, a lot. I got a lot of backlash for that episode, I'll be honest, because because a lot of people were like oh well, why are you entertaining somebody that's talking smack on st Louis and I'm like you know, Some could see it as talking smack but at the same time the dude has some points Like and it's it's shocking to me that somebody that was here for a couple days Can so easily identify the city's weaknesses.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean when I saw it. Some of the stuff he said wasn't wrong is how he said it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah it's about delivery.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, what he said. Some of the stuff I agree with what he said, but it's just how he came off how he said it. Yeah, there's a way to send that message right, there's a way to say some certain things, and the way he was saying it was kind of disrespectful a little bit.
Speaker 1:
I agree, we did Wingding this year, yeah, and Wingding is. It's a charity event that UCP Heartland puts on, which every year is great, and it's an organization you should definitely support. The. The Wingding is essentially all these restaurants that are local, some chains also coming together.
Speaker 1:
We blindly judge wings and we just kind of rate based on like appearance, taste and like what was the other one?
Speaker 1:
Like uniqueness or something Uh-huh, it was something like that. So like there were three little categories that we would rate these rings and I just remember like I was in the traditional Buffalo category and there were maybe three wings that actually challenged what you know a typical wing is, and like I know I was in the traditional category, but that doesn't mean like you need to be so by the book. That was my big thing is like that all these wings, they're just the same. And like there were a couple that really pushed the boundaries, like one of them was like a spicy parmesan, which I was like that's different, that's different. And honestly, like I know I talk about like chicken out in high point, all them, but like I Respect the hell out of them because they are constantly doing new, different things Like they're experimenting with, like you know, like, for example, a burger. They're like what if we throw like five out-of-pocket toppings on this thing and see how it does?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but it's a. It's the one thing to be creative, another thing to be like Look, yeah, I never said it was healthy.
Speaker 1:
Like I hear you trying to hit your macros, don't go for this shit. But I'm saying, like it's it. We need, like that, a mindset of like I see this thing, I Want to take this to the next level. I want to do something that isn't this. I want to turn this into something that has the essence of this, but it's something different.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but more healthy.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we that's. Another thing is we need more healthy food here. We need more healthy food here, like, please, crazy bulls and wraps. I adore, but there's other that we need more. That's what.
Speaker 2:
I'm saying We'll need a lot. We need another fried food. Spite. Won't need no more of that.
Speaker 1:
We don't. We have plenty of that. We have wings.
Speaker 2:
We have a lot of dessert places chicken tenders.
Speaker 1:
We have a lot of chicken tenders. No, I'll be honest. This though I would. Yeah, this is.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, I was saying this is one of the best, this is the best chicken tenders.
Speaker 1:
This is. There was somebody that posted on reddit I was talking about that but they were from like the what was the east or west coast? But it's like Now they have a story to tell because of something like this. They were like, oh yeah, I thought it was just gonna be another place and they walked in, got to level six and died not literally, but like they ran over. It's a.
Speaker 2:
There's war greens or something.
Speaker 1:
Is that a wall greens right there? There's a wall greens right there and got some milk because they walked in on cocky and now St Louis has left an impression on them.
Speaker 2:
They're forever gonna know this as like oh, that was the place that actually was past my spice tolerance right, the one place is here, but not to not to Go straight away from what you was, what you just talking about, but going back to rated test kitchen man. Oh yeah, we got a huge tangent right. Rated test kitchen man it was. It was so unique man. It was protein, it was veggies, it wasn't heavy, oh.
Speaker 2:
Yeah and that's what I loved man actually have the it was. It was a nice balance, you know, and it was it was different. Creative, you know, at the box, an ordinary, you know that's what St Louis needs more of.
Speaker 1:
I agree, um, like show Joie, like he's a beast, like yeah, he really is like we need just innovative chefs, I mean that's. I mean Darius said the same thing is like we need we need the essence and spirit of this guy, Like we need more. We need like five J R's yeah, which I Agree we need. We need more innovation in the food scene. And I'm not saying that like Everybody else's trash.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, like this isn't a knock on every like there's no shade being thrown here, but that it's still holds weight to say that like we could use more of that Mm-hmm, and there's been more popping up every now and then. But we need more, we need more. I think that's the biggest complaint I have about the same those food seems we just need more. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:
We need more, and there are people in this city that are ready for something new. They're itching for something new. It's just a matter of like. You just got to do it. You got to be the person to make that happen. So I don't know. That's my two cents on on the whole St Louis food scene. But Orlando, thank you for being on the pod, thank you for being in the testy, where this was a different format, but then again, this is a. This is not my degree and we like to challenge the norm here, so we're gonna do different sit on a podcast. So, thank you, I would take your hand, but you got. Oh, I still got the gloves on, you got level five.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
We'll do that.
Speaker 1:
So if you're new around here, hit that subscribe button, follow, rate the podcast in the show notes. You'll be able to find epic eats on all platforms that you are on, which is what Instagram and YouTube.
Speaker 2:
Instagram, tick, tock, tick tock, that's another one, so you'll be able to find all of his stuff. So that's about all I got.
Speaker 1:
I didn't even throw a degree in this episode. It got spared for what, you're right, I did throw at the beginning. So that's where we're gonna wrap up, okay, peace.