Nimesh Patel

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Senses Working Overtime with David Cross" Featuring Nimesh Patel

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Senses Working Overtime with David Cross, host David Cross welcomes comedian and professional talker Nimesh Patel. The conversation meanders through various topics, including Nimesh's journey in comedy, his cultural experiences, family dynamics, and personal anecdotes about food and life in New York City and beyond. The informal and humorous style allows listeners to gain deep insights into Nimesh's life and perspectives.

---

1. Journey into Comedy

Early Beginnings and Breakthrough

Nimesh shares his initial foray into comedy, recounting how encouragement from Shonali Bomick, a pivotal figure in the comedy scene, led to his first paid gig.

• [03:21] Nimesh Patel: "She's probably one of the first. She is the reason I got my first paid comedy gig."

David Cross interjects with references to shared connections and mutual acquaintances, highlighting the tight-knit nature of the comedy community.

• [06:25] David Cross: "I did."

Connection with Shonali Bomick

Their conversation delves into the strong bond Nimesh formed with Shonali, underscoring her influence and their longstanding friendship.

• [06:43] Nimesh Patel: "Shonali's mom will text me at least once or twice a year, checking in."

David reminisces about their shared history, including attending Shonali's wedding in New Orleans.

• [07:14] David Cross: "You can see where Sonali gets her... her whole unquenchable spirit."

---

2. Cultural and Family Background

Immigrant Family Dynamics

Nimesh opens up about his immigrant parents from India, detailing their challenges and cultural influences on his upbringing.

• [04:26] Nimesh Patel: "I’m an OG Parsippany head. My parents moved there in '83 maybe. They've been there forever."

He discusses the early presence of Indian communities in Parsippany and the pride it brings him.

• [04:45] Nimesh Patel: "Among the first Indian people to be there, which is a cool little feather in our cap."

Parental Influence and Personal Struggles

Nimesh reflects on his role as the first child and the pressures it entailed, contrasting it with his sister's more outgoing and accomplished nature.

• [48:35] Nimesh Patel: "My sister is too. She's texting me to make sure you remember mom and dad's anniversary."

He explores themes of emotional repression learned from his family, discussing how therapy has helped him address these issues.

• [49:44] Nimesh Patel: "When I talk to my therapist, it’s always like, I feel one thing, and then I feel bad that I feel that way."

David empathizes, relating to similar communication gaps in his own family.

• [51:08] David Cross: "Well, it's good that you're seeing a therapist... "

---

3. Personal Life and Parenting

Balancing Family and Career

Nimesh discusses his recent move to Downtown Brooklyn to accommodate his growing family, emphasizing the benefits of living in a high-rise with amenities like an in-building gym.

• [65:45] Nimesh Patel: "We got a gym in the building... it’s just like two seconds upstairs, two seconds downstairs."

He shares challenges related to limited space and his aspirations to move to a more spacious home to better support his daughter.

• [66:46] Nimesh Patel: "I'm trying to work my ass off to get us a bigger spot."

Parenting Philosophies

The conversation shifts to parenting, with both hosts reflecting on their approaches. Nimesh highlights his efforts to nurture his daughter's understanding of money and financial literacy.

• [60:12] David Cross: "Well, she's grown up around a lot of lesbian couples in love... "

Nimesh concurs, discussing the importance of diverse role models and supportive environments for his daughter.

---

4. Culinary Adventures and Food Culture

Indian Cuisine and Local Favorites

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing favorite Indian restaurants and unique culinary experiences in New York City and London. Nimesh enthusiastically shares his top picks, providing listeners with insider recommendations.

• [33:17] Nimesh Patel: "Gymkhana is the best, probably Indian... Some of the best Indian food I've ever had."

David responds with his own experiences, mentioning renowned spots like Verdi Mart in the French Quarter, London’s Borough Market, and various establishments across New York.

• [31:18] David Cross: "I can tell you the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had in my life... Borough Market in London."

Memorable Food Experiences

They reminisce about past food adventures, such as the infamous "Fat Mouth" sandwich from Jimmy's on Easton Avenue and exotic dishes like dosa and unique pizza variants from Indian fusion restaurants.

• [25:08] Nimesh Patel: "Jimmy's had fat sandwiches... I never had a turkey sandwich that tasted that good."

• [76:14] Nimesh Patel: "Their pasta dishes, their dosa onion rings are incredible."

---

5. Reflections on Moving and Living in Major Cities

Living in New York City

Nimesh discusses the practical aspects of living in New York City, such as dealing with space constraints and the advantages of amenities provided in high-rise buildings.

• [63:46] David Cross: "Where are you now?"

• [65:33] Nimesh Patel: "We got a gym in the building... "

Comparisons with Other Cities

David shares his experiences living in various New York neighborhoods, contrasting maintenance responsibilities with the benefits of having building superintendents.

• [64:25] David Cross: "I live in a brownstone... dealing with everything yourself."

Nimesh adds his perspective on maintaining a balance between urban living convenience and the desire for more space.

---

6. Brief Political Discussion

Trade Tensions with Canada

Towards the end of the episode, the conversation briefly touches on current political tensions between the U.S. and Canada, with David expressing frustration over trade wars and protective economic policies.

• [67:35] David Cross: "They’re like, why are you up our... What are you doing?"

Nimesh responds by reflecting on his observations and the impact of the Trump administration's policies on international relations.

• [70:19] Nimesh Patel: "I don’t know the long game of this guy, nor do I understand."

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7. Closing Remarks

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

As the episode winds down, both hosts share final recommendations and thoughts. Nimesh emphasizes the importance of authentic culinary experiences, while David wraps up by encouraging listeners to explore the multitude of food options discussed.

• [74:07] Nimesh Patel: "I'll check out Lasordids."

• [78:29] David Cross: "Check it out...Chicken Chettinada and all that."

Interactive Q&A

In a light-hearted conclusion, David poses a question from his daughter to Nimesh, fostering a playful exchange that underscores the podcast’s personable and relatable nature.

• [73:07] David Cross: "Why does water put fire out?"

• [73:31] Nimesh Patel: "Water deprives the fire of oxygen..."

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Notable Quotes

• [03:21] Nimesh Patel: "She's probably one of the first. She is the reason I got my first paid comedy gig."

• [04:45] Nimesh Patel: "Among the first Indian people to be there, which is a cool little feather in our cap."

• [06:43] Nimesh Patel: "Shonali's mom will text me at least once or twice a year, checking in."

• [49:44] Nimesh Patel: "When I talk to my therapist, it’s always like, I feel one thing, and then I feel bad that I feel that way."

• [65:45] Nimesh Patel: "We got a gym in the building... it’s just like two seconds upstairs, two seconds downstairs."

• [25:08] Nimesh Patel: "Jimmy's had fat sandwiches... I never had a turkey sandwich that tasted that good."

• [33:17] Nimesh Patel: "Gymkhana is the best, probably Indian... Some of the best Indian food I've ever had."

• [73:07] Nimesh Patel: "Water deprives the fire of oxygen, and because fire needs oxygen to continue its chemical process of combustion..."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Senses Working Overtime with David Cross offers a rich tapestry of conversations that highlight Nimesh Patel's multifaceted life as a comedian, cultural enthusiast, and devoted family man. Through humorous exchanges and heartfelt stories, listeners are invited to explore the intersections of comedy, culture, and personal growth alongside David and Nimesh.

Transcript

[Nimesh Patel]

This is a headgum podcast.

[David Cross]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the Same premium wireless for 15amonth Plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of 45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] seat wherever you'd like. And I. Okay. You got water?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes, sir.

[David Cross]

Do you want anything, David? Yeah, can I get a cold brew with whatever milk or milk? Any milk. Any milk is fine. Yes, thanks. And I'm going to throw this to the fridge.

[Nimesh Patel]

Chris, may I have one of those too?

[David Cross]

You want C?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, that'd be sick. Thank you very much.

[David Cross]

It's five bucks. I'll get the little I got you.

[Nimesh Patel]

Thanks, man.

[David Cross]

Okay. I didn't expect you to be here so quickly.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, I'm. Yeah, I got a flight later so I'm trying.

[David Cross]

Oh, okay. Sure, sure. Do you have a heart out.

[Nimesh Patel]

No, no, I'm good, I'm good. My flight's at 7, but my whole timeline is compressed. Yeah, you know.

[David Cross]

Where are you going?

[Nimesh Patel]

La.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

My wife's friend is getting married in on Friday so we just lined up a few. I lined up a few stand up shows before.

[David Cross]

Sorry to hear that.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Is it a good friend?

[Nimesh Patel]

It's one of her good friends. Yeah.

[David Cross]

How about you?

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh no, I barely know her.

[David Cross]

And so you have to go?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Cross]

All right. I mean do you know anybody who's gonna be there?

[Nimesh Patel]

No, just my wife. I think we'll have a few. I know like a few friends in passing.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

But no one crazy. But it'll be a few hours so I'm not. I'm not too.

[David Cross]

Where are they getting married?

[Nimesh Patel]

Downtown LA somewhere.

[David Cross]

Oh, the Union Station. I've been to two weddings there.

[Nimesh Patel]

No idea where it is.

[David Cross]

The train station does like private events and stuff and I've been to a couple weddings.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's n. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking. I mean we're going to be there for a few days and hanging out with some friends beforehand. And I got a bunch of shows lined up so it'll be a quick time.

[David Cross]

And there's also there's a ton of like homeless encampments downtown too. Like especially in like the toy district.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

So if you want to. Yeah, it's like check them out, maybe do some drop in sets, you know.

[Nimesh Patel]

You ever nodded off? I have one of those lined up too.

[David Cross]

Okay. Let me put my phone on my buzz.

[Nimesh Patel]

Are you still friends with the Shonali Bomick by any chance?

[David Cross]

Yeah, you know Shonali, of course.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's. I feel like she's a secret handshake in comedy.

[David Cross]

Oh, she's. Yeah, she's very well connected. Yeah, she. I'm very good friends with her and Jasper and. Yeah. Do you go. How far back do you go there?

[Nimesh Patel]

She's probably one of the first. She. She is the reason I got my first paid comedy gig.

[David Cross]

No kidding.

[Nimesh Patel]

You know Marcellus.

[David Cross]

Yep.

[Nimesh Patel]

So thank you for having me, Marcellus. I was doing. I was doing this open mic.

[David Cross]

So. Wait, I'm sorry to interrupt, but are you from New York? Are you?

[Nimesh Patel]

I'm from Jersey.

[David Cross]

From Jersey. Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Cross]

Tri state area.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Like 40 minutes out. 45 minutes.

[David Cross]

Parsippany has a great furniture, cheapy furniture warehouse type place.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh really?

[David Cross]

Right. Yeah. Off of whatever that is.

[Nimesh Patel]

46.

[David Cross]

Yeah, I guess. And then what's it called? I don't remember. But they have. It's like a step above home goods. But they have like really big area rugs that are literally 90% less than like a fancy big rug. But they look fancy. And so, yeah, Parsippany has a lot of hidden treasures.

[Nimesh Patel]

We, I mean, yeah, we go back. I mean I'm. I'm an OG Parsippany head. Like we were there before all the other Indians moved in. Like I think my, my parents moved there. 83 maybe. So they've been there forever.

[David Cross]

Well, not that long.

[Nimesh Patel]

The 50s or whatever. But like among the first, among the first Indian people to be there, which is a cool little feather in our cap.

[David Cross]

So I, I'm sorry I interrupted you. So you know Marcellus.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes. I was doing, I was doing the open mic, you know, like lounge, karma lounge or whatever. I think it's gone now, but downstairs used to have this open mic and it would be music, poetry, comedy, all that kind of stuff. And I went on a whim and I did like these, these really stupid jokes about carrots. And I don't know, it was like one of these. I had really prided myself on reading, writing like a very circular joke about carrots and mashed potatoes and all this stuff. And as I was leaving after I did. I think I did well. But as I was leaving, this guy taps Me on the shoulders. Like, hey, man, you're really funny. I was like, okay, thank you. Here's my card. My friend runs a show, and this is when Shonali and Chelsea and Heather Andrea ran Variety Shack.

[David Cross]

Variety Shack, Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. And she was like. I was like. He was like, my friend runs the show. I was like, okay. And I took his card and I messaged him. He linked me with Shonali. Shonali came to see me at a bar.

[David Cross]

So this. This must have been a while back. They haven't done Variety Shack since.

[Nimesh Patel]

This was probably decade. 12 years ago. Yeah, 12, 13 years ago.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

And I did Sonali. Sonali saw me at this open mic at the Duplex. And then she was like, you're really funny. And she booked me on Variety Shack. From Variety Shack, I did Bobby Tisdale show underneath the bookstore in Greenpoint. And that was my first paid gig. Shonali and I became very fast friends. I might have seen you. Did you go to her wedding in New Orleans?

[David Cross]

I did.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. I likely saw you there.

[David Cross]

Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, we were both at the same wedding. Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. I was on the streets and we were.

[David Cross]

Yeah, it was great.

[Nimesh Patel]

It was a great time. But, yes, I know Shonali forever.

[David Cross]

So did you know her? Her dad passed away recently, but did you know her folks?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Because they're awesome. They're.

[Nimesh Patel]

I met them both. Shonali's mom will text me.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

At least once or twice a year, checking in. And whenever I go to Nashville, I make sure that she comes to the shows.

[David Cross]

Oh, man, that's great. Yeah, she's great.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. And the uncle was also, like, the nicest guy.

[David Cross]

Oh, the best. You can see where Sonali.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Gets her, like, her whole unquenchable. That's not the right word. You can't extinguish unextinguishable spirit.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah.

[David Cross]

You know. Yeah. Because they. So she was in a band called Ultra Baby Fat in Atlanta. I know her from Atlanta going way, way, way, way, way back. And when I first went out on the road, I had them open up for me, the band, and we would do music venues, and it was just, you know, they'd play for 45 minutes, and I go as long as I could till I had a pee. And then I, you know. So, I mean, yeah, I go way, way back.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. I remember her telling me that you guys met in Atlanta and that she would be opening on the road. And then I forget how she landed in New York. Maybe it was her law job. That kind of brought her here.

[David Cross]

Yeah. Well, I think. I think it's a. You know, you just gravitate. Some people in. In this business gravitate towards New York.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

You know, especially from Atlanta, and she had a bunch of friends here and stuff, and I think her relationship had just ended with Ronnie. I don't know.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, we crossed paths, and now I just texted her the other day because she sent her new album one machine at a time, like the songbook and all that kind of stuff to. To our house with a little gift for my kids. So I just texted her the other day and.

[David Cross]

How many kids do you have?

[Nimesh Patel]

Just one.

[David Cross]

Just one. How old?

[Nimesh Patel]

Five months.

[David Cross]

Oh, brand new.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah, She's. She's.

[David Cross]

So you're. You're getting. You're leaving to L. A.

[Nimesh Patel]

Well, she's coming.

[David Cross]

Okay. That's not a good idea.

[Nimesh Patel]

We already. We already flew. We already flew to San Antonio when she was, like, three months old. And that was. I think of it as. It wasn't that bad, but my wife was like. It was a disaster. But. But, like, I feel like I have a good sense of time from just being on stage all the time and, like, knowing what 20 minutes feels like and what, 30, whatever.

[David Cross]

Oh, that's a good skill.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. And it felt like. It felt like she was crying forever, but in my internal clock, it felt like it was an aggregate of like, 20min.

[David Cross]

That's not bad.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, but it just.

[David Cross]

It. It. You are. So. There's not a lot you can do, and you know that there is at least one person, and. And you're going, those people. But you still feel like there's somebody going, God, shut that baby up.

[Nimesh Patel]

You know? Yeah. But luckily, everyone around us was super nice.

[David Cross]

Yeah, they should be. And, you know, we were all that kid once, and. And, you know, it's a tough situation. The parents. It's not. There's not a whole lot you can do.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

You know. You know, especially three months. Five months.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, three months. She was. She was, like, a bit crazy. Now she's a lot calmer.

[David Cross]

She settled down.

[Nimesh Patel]

She settled down a bit. Plus, we're also flying, like, right around our bedtime, and we're gonna get the airport super early, and hopefully she's, like, close to being asleep by the time we get on the plane. Bottle fall asleep on my wife and.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, we'll be all right.

[David Cross]

I hope you just got. Sometimes you got to deal with that. Your inner internal ear pressure thing.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah, we'll give her the bottle. So she can chew on it. But that little muffs on, hopefully.

[David Cross]

And. And a little dribble of whiskey.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[David Cross]

You know, keep her out. Red wine, not too much. You don't want to go red wine. That's not. No, no, don't get hungover, you know, well, it's just there's too much sugar in it, you know? So you want to go whiskey. Tequila, if you're. Are you watching her? Wait. I'm sure she's not getting too chunky. Yeah. So then maybe tequila.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay, good to know.

[David Cross]

And just. You're gonna have to find out prior to traveling if she's blanco Rosada.

[Nimesh Patel]

You know, she's probably fancy.

[David Cross]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

She's a fancy girl.

[David Cross]

What style she likes. I don't like the smoky tequila. And my wife loves, you know, LaFroy, you know, whiskey and peaty smoky stuff. And I just. I like the blanco. I like the smooth.

[Nimesh Patel]

So not a vodka for the baby. I mean, you want them to feel something.

[David Cross]

I mean, I just culturally would rather her have tequila than vodka. That's just my. And not for my kid. For your kid. And is your wife Indian?

[Nimesh Patel]

No.

[David Cross]

Okay, so half.

[Nimesh Patel]

Half Indian, half white.

[David Cross]

Okay, so maybe there's no, there's. Is there an Indian liqueur? Like a hard liquor that's.

[Nimesh Patel]

We're on the. Come up in the whiskey scene.

[David Cross]

Oh, well, that doesn't count.

[Nimesh Patel]

No, no. Why not?

[David Cross]

Because that's already been established.

[Nimesh Patel]

And we're also coming up. There's a lot of Indian gins.

[David Cross]

Okay, well, that makes sense. The English came out. Right, right, right, right.

[Nimesh Patel]

So there's. There's like colonial gin. There's British Raj gin. I don't like any of that.

[David Cross]

Colonial gin.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, it's really bad.

[David Cross]

Was slavery gin already taken? Yeah, the colonial gin.

[Nimesh Patel]

British. British Raj gin is the one that bothers me the most. It's like, why would you name. Like, this is not a good name for your gin. Like, what do you. This is not something to be proud of.

[David Cross]

Vichy government gin.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Stupid sellout gin.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Maybe we'll give her some gin.

[David Cross]

All right.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, get her some.

[David Cross]

Well, it's gins of. That was the first hard liquor that I started drinking when I was a teenager. Only because I was way into the who and the who had a couple songs where they mentioned gin. They would drink gin.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, really?

[David Cross]

Yeah. So I drank gin.

[Nimesh Patel]

My first one. My first was Johnnie Walker Black. Cause my dad would drink it, but he would have a little pint in the garage. Cause my mom did not Allow him to bring it into the house. So if we saw dad go to the garage before bed or after dinner or whatever it was, we know what he was doing.

[David Cross]

Did your mom know what he was doing?

[Nimesh Patel]

I mean, it was not like a secret.

[David Cross]

So he couldn't bring the liquor. He could drink and then enter. He could transport the liquor in his stomach, but he couldn't transport it in a glass bottle.

[Nimesh Patel]

There was no, like, no liquor cabinet or anything like that. It was no place we drink. We're gonna have alcohol in the house. It was. You keep that. You keep your vices in the. In the garage.

[David Cross]

So that. So was it a strict household?

[Nimesh Patel]

It wasn't strict in the sense of, like, I wasn't allowed to play or part. No grounding or anything like that. But when it came to alcohol, I was keeping the garage. And I mean, granted, I was 8, 9 years old when I became, like, cognizant of. Of alcohol being a thing. And. But it wasn't until high school that I was like, I want to try that. And it was.

[David Cross]

How did it go down?

[Nimesh Patel]

We had Johnny walk. I. My parents left the house and.

[David Cross]

Do you have siblings?

[Nimesh Patel]

I have a younger sister.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

She's four years younger. The better person by far. But I was like, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna take some whiskey, and I bought orange juice.

[David Cross]

Whiskey, orange juice, sure.

[Nimesh Patel]

So I had Johnnie Walker Black in a glass bottle of orange juice, and I poured it in. And how much.

[David Cross]

Did you have any idea of the portion?

[Nimesh Patel]

No, it wasn't. It wasn't like, half and half or anything. It was probably like, just this much whiskey.

[David Cross]

A little bit.

[Nimesh Patel]

Enough to, like, smell and taste, but not enough to get you completely blacked out or anything like that. But I brought it to school.

[David Cross]

How old are you?

[Nimesh Patel]

I'm probably a freshman or sophomore in high school, so whatever that is. 13, 14 years old.

[David Cross]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Nimesh Patel]

And I brought it to school, and I took, like, one little sip, and I was like. And I also chickened out. I was like, I don't want to be drunk before class.

[David Cross]

Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

I gave it to a friend of mine. My friend drank it. He had a great day.

[David Cross]

Great day.

[Nimesh Patel]

But I'm sure. I'm sure.

[David Cross]

Where is he now, though? In the toy district in L. A.

[Nimesh Patel]

He's doing okay. I hope he's doing all right by. That's a fond memory for me, because I remember being like, oh, I'm going to sneak some whiskey. And, like, what an awful thing to do to taint Johnnie Walker. Black with orange juice. Like, that's not. That's. Was whiskey and orange juice not supposed to mix together, But Johnnie Walker Black is like, of the regular drinking. Whiskey is like a slightly higher end version. I'm taking my dad's stash and it's.

[David Cross]

Did your dad notice at all?

[Nimesh Patel]

If they notice? They didn't say anything.

[David Cross]

They would have said something.

[Nimesh Patel]

I feel like they would have said something. Yeah, maybe. Maybe I'm just not remembering that they said something like, where is the whiskey? But also, like, if my dad was going to say something to me, it would probably be implying that it would be bad because then my mom would be like, if you. If you have whiskey in the house, this would have never happened.

[David Cross]

Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

So my dad was like, I don't want to harm. No foul situation kind of thing. And I only took it once, so it's not like it was a consistent pattern of stealing whiskey.

[David Cross]

And then what was your next drink and when was your next drink?

[Nimesh Patel]

Probably my senior year. I was like, super straight edge. Like, almost annoyingly straight edge in high school because, like, my cousins and friends were all drinking and getting high and all that. And I was, no, I'm gonna be a nerd and study and all that kind of stuff. But once I got into college, my senior year, then I started partying. And I think one of the first.

[David Cross]

Drinks I had was, wait, I'm sorry, senior year in high school. Because you had already been accepted to college.

[Nimesh Patel]

My senior year in high school, once I got accepted into college, I was like, all right, now you can go party. And I think I took Corona and a shot of Bacardi, and you would put the shot of Bacardi into the Corona.

[David Cross]

Ew.

[Nimesh Patel]

And then flip it and then drink it.

[David Cross]

That doesn't sound good.

[Nimesh Patel]

It was awesome. I got so drunk.

[David Cross]

A lot of times, there's other ways to get drunk. I mean, that's not.

[Nimesh Patel]

Listen, I don't. I don't. This is all my Rutgers University cousins. I went to nyu, but we would. That's how we would drink before we go to, like, Indian parties. Those are. Those are.

[David Cross]

Can you walk me through a typical Indian party? So as everybody probably knows, Because I won't shut up about it, I grew up really poor. I had no money, and I mean, no money. And then when I did get a little bit of money at my bar mitzvah, my dad took it all. But to be fair, he did pay me back when I was 19, sort of when I needed it for something else. Anyway, I've talked about this in my standup about how I resent my daughter because she's rich and it's important to me. Money. Your relationship with money. One's relationship with money. My relationship with money. Her relationship with money is important. And so I want to talk to you about Acorns early, which is a smart money app and debit card for kids that helps them learn the value of money. Acorns early chores tracker helps kids learn the value of a dollar. You just set up the chores in the app, set a payment amount and tick the chores off when it's done. Acorns early lets parents pay allowances automatically. Kids can spend what they earn with their very own debit card and this helps them learn a sense of independence. And you get customizable card designs, whatever, but simple parental controls deliver, you know, peace of mind for the parents. And you get real time notifications when your kids spend. Set your kids spending limits and instantly block lost or stolen cards. How much money you giving these kids block a card? Okay, head to acorns early.com senses or download the Acorns early app to help your kids grow their money skills today. It is so important. I am telling you. It's, it's. I mean what you invest now in their financial literary skills is just going to pay off. I promise. Acorns early card is issued by Community Federal Savings Bank Member FDIC pursuant to license by MasterCard International. There we go. TNCs apply. Monthly subscription fee starting from $5 per month unless canceled. Let me repeat that again. Monthly subscription fee starting from $5 per month unless you cancel it. Do you want to cancel? You gotta be proactive and cancel it. All right. Acorns Early. Running a business is hard work. Building your website shouldn't be with wix. You can express your ideas, give direction, then leave the heavy lifting to AI. From site creation to branded content and images. Have fun with the details, customize what you want the way you want and manage your whole business from a centralized dashboard with expert AI tools. Build, scale and enjoy the incredible results. You can do it all yourself on wix.

[Nimesh Patel]

Typical Indian party. All right, it's. We're in Rutgers, New Brunswick Club Platinum. It's a Friday or something. It's. It's Friday.

[David Cross]

A cut above Club Gold. Yeah, step behind Club diamond.

[Nimesh Patel]

But Club Platinum on Church Street. The intersection of Church is. I forget the. The actual street it's on. It'll be a Friday or Saturday night, depending on what when. Five Star Entertainment. That was the name of the. The party promoter, Don Ro.

[David Cross]

The name of it's this. Every trite club, Platinum five star entertainment.

[Nimesh Patel]

Don Raj. Don't forget Don Raj, Don Raj, he was a party promoter. It will be like we were pregame from like 10 to 11 o' clock on Eastern Avenue at my cousin's apartment.

[David Cross]

Oh, this is a late night.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[David Cross]

Oh, you're not out until 11.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, we're, we're.

[David Cross]

You're not hitting the club till 11.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, we're getting toasted first. Because drinks are expensive and they're likely not to. We all had fake IDs when I was like, when I was 18, I was 26. I had all my cousins, pass backs and the DJs. The bouncers did not care at all. Like, yeah, sure, you're 28, whatever the hell it is. We would pull up 11 o' clock. You've never seen so many Camrys and Honda Accords. Like every, every Indian person in tri state area is coming. And we try to cut the line because the line would be stupid. We'd all be in express shirts. The whole like rainbow was represented. We would have. We had a bottle of Curve cologne in the car. We all wear the Curve. This is all fact. And we pull up and my cousin Encore would likely know one of the promoters. It'd be four or five of us and we'd see what the, the stamp was to let you back in. Yeah, yeah. If you like went out to smoke a cigarette, we see what that was.

[David Cross]

Is this in the licking days of transfer?

[Nimesh Patel]

Exactly. Licking days. So one of us would go in.

[David Cross]

Yep.

[Nimesh Patel]

Get the stamp, come back out and we'd all.

[David Cross]

Everyone. I can't believe. I mean, this is like universal that they haven't figured out. I guess they have now. I don't know. I haven't been to a club in, I don't think ever. But you know, I've been to plenty of the things where you just get the. You know, you were in Jersey and I was in Atlanta. It was the same thing everywhere. Saskatchewan, they do it, you know, one.

[Nimesh Patel]

Enterprising guy licked the wrist and somehow that spread like wildfire. You could save $7 if you just lick your cousin's wrist and put it. So we would do that.

[David Cross]

Wait, you don't have to lick their wrist.

[Nimesh Patel]

I misspoke. I misspoke. So we get in and we would try to look cool, like try to eye down all the other 19 year olds posing as 25 year olds, go straight to the bar. And then things would get hazy, you know, we'd see like what girls Were dancing, who was looking at who try to talk to girls. Most of the time just end up sloppy as hell. I remember one party. I remember one party. It was Kevin Little. Was. Was singing, was like performing. Kevin Little was, you know, Kevin Little.

[David Cross]

Chris, who's Kevin Little?

[Nimesh Patel]

Was it Turn Me On? Turn Me On? Yeah, you know, you know the song?

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

How old are you?

[David Cross]

36.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay, so, yeah, same, right? Around the same age. But that's a. That was like. I wouldn't classify as dance hall, soft dance hall music, but it was like the song that summer. And I remember going to that party and that was one party where I kind of like blacked out. Because we were. I think we had gotten a table or like, like somehow we're in like the VIP bottle service. Definitely not like bottle service, but we had somehow finagled our way into like the quote unquote VIP section near Kevin Little. We thought we were so fucking cool. Um, I got blacked out at that event for sure. And then it'd be like two or three o' clock. We all leave.

[David Cross]

Was there a place you all ate afterwards?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, we go to Jimmy's. Jimmy's on Easton Avenue. They had fat sandwiches. It's now. It's now closed. But this was in the grease truck days. Grease trucks were just a set of trucks that served like ridiculous combinations of food within two pieces of bread. But Jimmy's was like a sit down. Not sit down, but you could sit there. It was like maybe six, ten tables.

[David Cross]

So it's like a food truck, but it's got seating outside or.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, those are the grease trucks.

[David Cross]

But if I've never heard that term.

[Nimesh Patel]

Before, you know her grease trucks. Oh, okay. I'm not sure if they still exist near Rutgers, but it was a Rutgers thing. It was written up in a bunch of.

[David Cross]

But wait, so just to be clear, like, are we talking about food trucks that we know of today? Like a. Yeah, big ass food truck. But you call them grease trucks.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, but it would be in a giant parking lot.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Like with other.

[David Cross]

With other four or five of them.

[Nimesh Patel]

But Jimmy's had a storefront, so you could go in and there'd be a line and all that. But we went there enough times to be like, yo, Jimmy. Hopefully cut a little bit. But it would be. I would get the fat mouth. The fat mouth was chicken fingers, jalapeno poppers, French fries, lettuce, tomato, onions. Because you need a vegetable. Mozzarella sticks, mayo, lettuce.

[David Cross]

In a sandwich.

[Nimesh Patel]

In a sandwich. And when you're Drunk and Kevin Little's blaring in your head like there's nothing better than a fat mouth.

[David Cross]

That sounds disgusting.

[Nimesh Patel]

It was so good, honest. I went back on, I performed it.

[David Cross]

I mean I would take the tomato out, then I'd eat it, then it'd be delightful.

[Nimesh Patel]

That's bad for your kidneys. When I was in New Brunswick, I did Stress factory in New Brunswick in December and Jimmy's is closed, but they still have places that sell that sandwiches. I ordered a fat mouth type to the, to the green room and man, it brought me back. It was so good. It was so good, man, it was so good. I could. I don't know how I used to eat a whole one of those. I took like two bites, like that's enough. But man, what a sandwich.

[David Cross]

Well, if we're gonna talk sandwiches, uh huh. There's a. Have you ever played New Orleans?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes sir, Twice.

[David Cross]

Okay, so in the. Oh gosh, I think it's northwest part of the French Quarter. Like as you're. As you're leaving the French Quarter, there's a place called Verdi Mart.

[Nimesh Patel]

Verdi?

[David Cross]

Yeah, Verdi, like green in whatever language. Verdi Mart. And it's just, it's a tiny bodega type place. You go to the back and they make these sandwiches and the Po boys are great and the standard stuff, it's all great. But they have a sandwich called all that Jazz. And I will get that delivered to the green room and I will order extras and take it back on the plane with me, even if I've got Carry on and it's just stinking the whole thing up. But it is the best sandwich I've ever had.

[Nimesh Patel]

What's in it?

[David Cross]

I don't know. It's like, you know, meats and egg and cheese and sauce and all kinds of shit. And I sadly don't know, but it's like the best bite of. It's just a perfect sandwich.

[Nimesh Patel]

I'll have to go.

[David Cross]

All that jazz. That's Verity Martin.

[Nimesh Patel]

Verity Mart.

[David Cross]

Yeah, French Quarter. And then. But in Boston, when I was doing the equivalent at the same age of what you were doing, there was a place, I don't know if it's there anymore in Cambridge, a Mass Ave. Called hi Fi Pizza. And they had subs and they had something called the Meat Bomb. And it was every fucking meat. They had everything. So it was that they put on pizzas, right? So it's bacon, pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, whatever shit they had. And then with cheese and they would just give it to you and you know, 19 year old drunken. You'd be like, this is great sausage. But you know, crumbly sausage and link sausage and hot dog. Just everything. The meat bomb, all the shit that.

[Nimesh Patel]

They couldn't sell on the pizzas, I guess.

[David Cross]

And it was expensive too. I mean in a comparative sense. But so you know, you'd eat half and then save half and then cut that half in half. So you'd have to try to get three meals out of it.

[Nimesh Patel]

I find it amazing how sandwiches have such a grip on so many people in the sense. Like I don't. There's meals I don't remember having. But like I still remember the sandwich I would eat every Thursday after high school at Bangiola's on Littleton Road that was attached to the gas station because Mr. Kim made it. Like I've never, to this day I've never had a turkey sandwich that tasted that good. I don't know what he was doing. Sesame, Sesame roll. Sesame hero.

[David Cross]

Yeah. When you get a sandwich, right, it's great, it's perfect. And how many times have you had like the comparable. Like a godmother, you know, which is all the Italian cold cuts and.

[Nimesh Patel]

I.

[David Cross]

Think some cheese and then you know, lettuce to make shredded lettuce, tomato oil and vinegar. It's like the standard.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

If the Godfather and the godmother and they're all over, you know, you can. It's not like regional thing and then like the best one I've ever had is at Bay Cities, Delhi in Los Angeles and. And then you go to get the same thing and it'll be called the same thing and it's just not even close to as good. And. And so you remember those sandwiches. I can tell you the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had in my life. And I doubt anything will ever come close. And it's. It's in Borough Market in London.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay.

[David Cross]

Which is this old, you know, hundreds year, hundred year, hundreds years old, you know, with food stalls and all kinds of stuff. And there's this place that make. It only does two things. It does raclette. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. It's like it's where you take this big block of this specific. I think it's a Swiss type of cheese. Not Swiss cheese, but I think it's made anyway. And it's on this kind of. It's like a loaf of bread shape.

[Nimesh Patel]

I know what you're talking about.

[David Cross]

And then it's like on this press and then it heats up and you scrape it off on the potatoes. Okay. So that's. They have that, and then they have this. The only other thing they do is, like, this toasty. It's on. You know, everything's artisanal. And, you know, this bread comes from this baker down the street. And this cheese is made by our, you know, dairy farm. And it's just a simple grilled cheese sandwich. It's. It's insane.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's called. What's it?

[David Cross]

I don't know, but I'll. I'll look it up.

[Nimesh Patel]

I'm going to London in June, so.

[David Cross]

Dude, you have to go to Borough Market.

[Nimesh Patel]

Borough Market. Okay.

[David Cross]

And. And there's. They have. It's hard to go wrong there. But I will give you the name of this, and you'll see a big line.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay.

[David Cross]

Because it's. You can't go in. It's literally. That's the size of, you know, two of these chairs put together. Maybe those are best, but eight feet deep, maybe. And. And somebody. There'll be a big line. They'll give you a little ticket. You either got the raclette or the. The sandwich. And it's one of the very few things. I will wait in line for a. Wait in line for Franklin's Barbecue in Austin.

[Nimesh Patel]

In Austin. Y.

[David Cross]

And I will wait in line for that grilled cheese sandwich.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay. I'll have to go.

[David Cross]

It's great. And have you been to London before?

[Nimesh Patel]

I've been in London a few times. The one place I always go to in London is Gymkhana. You big fan of Indian food?

[David Cross]

Yeah. Well, London's got amazing Indian.

[Nimesh Patel]

Gymkhana is the best, probably Indian. Some of the best Indian food I've ever had.

[David Cross]

Where is it? Jimkhana. How do you spell it?

[Nimesh Patel]

J Y, G Y, M, K, H A, N, A. Jim Khana. Okay. It's a. Like a fancier establishment, but not like you can't get in kind of place.

[David Cross]

It's not in Brick Lane or where all the.

[Nimesh Patel]

No, no, no. It's curry. I want to say it's near the. It's in Marylebone, I want to say.

[David Cross]

Oh, Marylebone. That's. That's a fancy area.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Cross]

Okay. So it's. So it's. It's. Yeah, so it's fancy.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's nice.

[David Cross]

Yeah. But Kim Khana got it, man. Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Like, it's traditional north Indian, Punjabi kind of Indian food, but it's just like the best version of it all, you.

[David Cross]

Know, like, your butter chicken is Southern Indian. More seafood.

[Nimesh Patel]

Southern Indian is more seafood. Tomato, spicier, North India is more tomato based. If you're gonna make a generalization about it.

[David Cross]

But I'm not racist.

[Nimesh Patel]

No, no. If you wanna say it like that. No, it's.

[David Cross]

You wanna generalize about. There's a billion people's culture.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's hard, it's hard to categorize because you'll get like North Indian seafood takes. Or you'll get like a south. South Indian take on chicken tikka masala or something. But Gymkhana just does the best version of all the traditional things like tandoori chicken. It's the best you've ever had.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

Best butter chicken you've ever had.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

And I make it a point to go there. Like I try to get a reservation before, as early as I can before the trip.

[David Cross]

Maybe I'll try because my wife and daughter are going to come over. I'm there in a couple weeks. I leave Thursday for Oslo. But I carved a week around my London show to coincide with my daughter's. It's New York City spring break or whatever they call it. So my wife, who also loves London and we, you know, spent a lot of time there.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

And daughter are gonna come and we're there for a week.

[Nimesh Patel]

So check out Gymkhana.

[David Cross]

I will.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's incredible. I haven't gone to Deshum yet, which is like the other.

[David Cross]

I love Deshum, but it's. It's really buzzy and. But you have to get the. You have to go with a bunch of people and you have to get the whatever they're famous for, like their, you know, 24 hour cooked lamb thing and they bring it in and it's sort of like pulled like pulled pork type of thing where you just. You get tongs and you know, everybody sits around and it's fucking amazing.

[Nimesh Patel]

My friends love it. But the friends that have gone to both. I like. Gymkhan is better.

[David Cross]

Deshum is like. They just had the one spot and then it just blew up and now they've got like five different. And it's a bit clubby and scene story. You know what I mean? But it. The. I haven't been since I went to the. The first one shortly after it opened. But it's. It's really good.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh yeah. I. I will try to go when I'm out there. If I, if I have the time to do two Indian spots. I'm only there for two nights.

[David Cross]

Oh.

[Nimesh Patel]

Before I fly to my friend's bachelor party. But I'm waiting for Deshum to open in New York. Hopefully there. I think there's rumblings that it's going to happen.

[David Cross]

Oh, really? But it seems kind of a no brainer.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but right now. Have you been to Damaka yet?

[David Cross]

No, I haven't, but, man.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, that's my favorite Indian restaurant on the planet.

[David Cross]

Those. Those folks who opened up Damaka fairly recently opened up a place in Park Slope.

[Nimesh Patel]

Masala Walla.

[David Cross]

Masala Walla. Have you eaten there?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Is it good?

[Nimesh Patel]

It's good, but it's not. It's not my favorite. Each one of the restaurants, Sema Masala Walla, Ada and the Maca, like, are different variants and Rowdy Roost are just different variants of Indian cuisine. And the maca is probably. They have like, this is our north Indian thing. This is south India. This is our Mumbai. This is because there's a billion people. So they have from all the different regions. Masala wallah is, I think. I'm not even sure what specific region they're. They're pulling from the inspiration, but it's not my favorite. But it is good of. Of all of them, the maka is my favorite. Sema is second, Ada's third. And then Masala walla is fourth. And then Rowdy Rooster is just like. I've had it twice only to. To have my white friends who go there, like, cry over their spice levels.

[David Cross]

You know, Oh, I can't do the. There used to be. It might still be there on sixth in the East Village. You know what used to be like, you know, Indian Row.

[Nimesh Patel]

Curry lane.

[David Cross]

Yeah, curry. I mean, but now it's not really like that. But there was this place that opened up and it was, you know, they were the first ones to have the. The challenge. Right. If you can eat, it starts with a P. What's the dish? That's super spicy paneer. No, no, no, no. It was like a ph. Is there a word with the that starts with ph in Hindi?

[Nimesh Patel]

I'm not sure.

[David Cross]

Maybe. I don't know. But it was. It's not pho. That's the Vietnamese soup. It's okay. It doesn't matter. But so there was this thing and you, you know, they had the people on the wall and you get a T shirt and whatever it is, and you know, you get toms it. And I went with John Benjamin and we're like, let's do that challenge. We were gonna split this and it was excruciating. I probably had. We didn't even. The two of us did not finish half of the dish. And I probably had. I'm Gonna say five or six bites. And I felt it for the next day and a half. The brutal is terrible.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

And I don't know why you would do that to yourself.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. It's like, who are you proving anything to? Like, my friend. We went to Rowdy Rooster. Radarussa has five spice levels, right? Like, one is good. I can go up to three, four, and five. They're just like, are you sure, dude? Are you sure? And my. My friend had before, and he's. I just blood red sweating.

[David Cross]

Oh. That's the other thing is because I. I got no pear. And so when I eat just in the. When I get into the. Okay, that spicy level, which is maybe three, you know, where it's like, that's, you know, not just a little heat, but that's a lot of heat. I mean, I just start pouring.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

And, you know, if I were to go to four or even a couple bites of five, I'd just be drenched. Your body is saying, you're raining from my head.

[Nimesh Patel]

You are being poisoned. You need to stop whatever it is you're doing. The maca used to be like that. The maca. Because the chef is like. Chef is a purist, and Chintan is a purist, and he's just like, all the food that you would get in India, like, you can't say, can you make it mild? Can you make it medium? Can you make it spicy? It's just like, one consistent spice level. And when it first opened, it was a slightly higher level of spice than where it's at now. But that was just like, this is what we eat. This is how spicy is supposed to be. And you would just see people, like, you know, trying to power through the meal. I got it. Even me, I was like, this is hot.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

And my wife is like, this is. I'm like, yeah, but this is what it is. It wasn't, like, painful, but it was spicy enough to be, like, registering and also not.

[David Cross]

It stops becoming enjoyable.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, it remained enjoyable. Like, the. I. I swear that the paneer at Paneer met here. The maca is like, the best paneer I've ever had.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

Man. I can't say enough about it. Like, my friends have the one small piece of celebrity that I have. I can get into a lot of Indian restaurants. And so we've been to all of them.

[David Cross]

That is a small slice.

[Nimesh Patel]

We've been to all of them. And Bungalow is great. Samo is awesome. Kanye Kumari has. It can hold its own. But the maka is just like, yeah.

[David Cross]

I Mean, I've heard about it and anytime I pass by, it's just slamming.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Cross]

I'm gonna keep talking. Go ahead. I'm gonna look up these.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, it's gonna bother you, the ph thing.

[David Cross]

Well, that I'm not gonna get, but I mean, as soon as we're done, tape. But I want to make sure I've got the. Because I. I said the wrong title of a book. Oh. Verte Mart V E R T I M A R T E is the deli in New Orleans. And I'll give you. Oh, all that jazz. Oh. I'm going to tell you what it is. Ready? Oh, wow. This is exciting. This is what it looks like.

[Nimesh Patel]

That looks painful. But a medley you got on a plane.

[David Cross]

A medley. Oh, yeah, yeah. Grilled ham, turkey and shrimp. Swiss and American cheese. Grilled mushrooms, tomatoes on French bread with our. Wow. Sauce.

[Nimesh Patel]

Ham and shrimp.

[David Cross]

I'm telling you, man. I am telling you. It's fucking good.

[Nimesh Patel]

It must have a nice bathroom.

[David Cross]

No, I mean, there's no bathroom. It's just like it's back in the. And now I'm going to look up grilled. I want to get these things right for everybody. Grilled cheese, London burrow Burro market. Here we go. Kappa casein dairy. This is it. So this is all K a P P a C a S E I N dairy. And they. It's just a tiny little thing.

[Nimesh Patel]

I'll text myself right now.

[David Cross]

Here's the rich, melty goodness of high quality cheese. Every bite is warm, satisfying, and packed with flavor. Simple, yet expertly crafted. And so here's some pictures of the. So that's what the thing looks like. It doesn't look like that looks really good. That looks standard. Yeah. But you can see how small it is. It's this place.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. It looks like just outside.

[David Cross]

Yeah. There's no place to. It's just. It's just the. And look, that's where the guy makes the sound. That's.

[Nimesh Patel]

It looks awesome.

[David Cross]

Yeah, it's really good. And it is worth the wait in line for sure.

[Nimesh Patel]

Florence has a few places like that. That's just like a hole in the wall spot, but lines out the door. They actually opened one in. In Soho. Now actually in West Village.

[David Cross]

A sandwich place.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Del Antico. I think that's the name of it.

[David Cross]

Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

Very good sandwiches out of Florence. The line's like, always out the door. Fresh meat, like the bread is always perfect.

[David Cross]

What kind of sandwiches is Florence known for?

[Nimesh Patel]

I mean, I would always get like the do some kind of like, not baba ganoush, but like pureed eggplant with mozzarella cheese just on a piece of. I don't say focaccia bread, but it might be. And then some kind. I don't even know what the. The cream that. That kind of pistachio cream or something.

[David Cross]

Oh, yeah, yeah. What they. When. Mortadella.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, man, it's just killer.

[David Cross]

I got another sandwich for you.

[Nimesh Patel]

Here we go.

[David Cross]

All right. When you go to la. Okay. So this is. I mean, it is now jumped into my top 10.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay.

[David Cross]

It's. It's actually, it's right down the street from the Headgum studio in la, where I'll go like twice a year to, you know, bang out a bunch of these podcasts with LA folks. And it's called Lasordas.

[Nimesh Patel]

Lasordas.

[David Cross]

But it's. It's like so like, Tommy Lasorda.

[Nimesh Patel]

Sounds familiar.

[David Cross]

It's on Sunset. Dude, the mortadella sandwich with the burrata pistachio cream on their homemade bread is fucking insane.

[Nimesh Patel]

Lasordas.

[David Cross]

It's on Sunset. Wait, here we go.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, Shonala just texted me.

[David Cross]

Tell her what you're doing. Lasordas. So it's like Lasorda, but it's la, A, capital L, A and then capital S, O, R, T, E, D, S. This is it, Tiny. There's no place to sit down. You just order. Go to a window and order it and. Yeah, trust me on this one, man. The Mortadello sandwich is ridiculous. Is this it?

[Nimesh Patel]

Charlie says hi and asks, why haven't I been on your podcast yet?

[David Cross]

Tell her I was waiting to interview you and I wanted to start the podcast by talking about somebody that no one else knows for 10 minutes. And now that's established, people are going to know who Sonali Bomick is. They can Google her, of course. And also she tell her all this and kind of like my sister, maybe it's a Southern thing, I don't know, but is basically the mayor of wherever she goes. She knows everybody, everybody loves her. And like, whenever I go to back home in Atlanta and my sister still lives there and everybody's still there, but, I mean, everywhere we go, Wendy will know somebody or somebody will know Wendy. And I'll meet people in Sacramento like, oh, yeah, I know your sister. I mean, she's really very extroverted and social and stuff.

[Nimesh Patel]

Sounds like my sister.

[David Cross]

Now, earlier you said your sister is better than you in every way. How is that?

[Nimesh Patel]

She's, like, very congenial. Everyone loves her. She's super smart, very accomplished. Just, like.

[David Cross]

What does she do?

[Nimesh Patel]

She's an attorney.

[David Cross]

Does Shenali know her?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, Sonali knows her too.

[David Cross]

Okay. Of course.

[Nimesh Patel]

Like, they're probably faster friends than.

[David Cross]

Than they're the same, but it's like they're the same person.

[Nimesh Patel]

Spider man, you know, it's.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

Like, just outgoing, loved by everybody. Nice, like, intentional with everything that they do. Really inquisitive and curious and, like, empathetic. Just everything.

[David Cross]

Yeah. All good stuff.

[Nimesh Patel]

Everything you'd want a person to be.

[David Cross]

You know, everything you'd want a Republican to be.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. There it is. And also just a. Just super, super supportive. A rock in every single way.

[David Cross]

Yeah. There's three kids in my family, and the middle sister, Wendy, is the glue of the family, for sure.

[Nimesh Patel]

My sister is too. She's, like, texting me, make sure you remember mom and dad's anniversary, all that kind of stuff. And I'm very, I think, first child. First child of. And son and son of immigrants in the sense, like, I'm, like, not standoffish, but I'm very much, like. I'm bad at showing how much I love my parents, whereas my sister's just, like, on top of everything.

[David Cross]

What do you think that is?

[Nimesh Patel]

I don't know.

[David Cross]

I mean, do you think it has something to do with firstborn versus second born?

[Nimesh Patel]

I think it's a lot. It's definitely a lot to do with how much pressure I was. That was put on me as a kid.

[David Cross]

Was it, like, typical, Typical, like, you.

[Nimesh Patel]

Got to be a doctor kind of thing?

[David Cross]

Right. You gotta study and all that nonsense.

[Nimesh Patel]

I'm sure there's also tons of, like, PTSD from all other stuff, like my. My uncle and aunt and how I was raised in that regard. But when it comes to.

[David Cross]

Wait, what do you mean?

[Nimesh Patel]

I just witnessed a lot of stuff I probably shouldn't have.

[David Cross]

Like what?

[Nimesh Patel]

Just violence?

[David Cross]

Oh, yeah, yeah. But, like, man on woman violence.

[Nimesh Patel]

Correct.

[David Cross]

Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

Which is weird because no one's a cop in my family, but it was.

[David Cross]

I don't want to let that slide. That took, like, a second and a half to register.

[Nimesh Patel]

But what's it called? Like, with my immediate family, it was. I think it was always just, like, a lot of poor communication of love. You know, the love languages are all messed up. Whereas my sister somehow kind of bubbled above that and became this, like, very strong, smart, sensitive person. Whereas I'm, in my own regards, like, working on those things. But she is the.

[David Cross]

So you're. You're. You. You think it's a Combination of being naturally repressed and also learned repression.

[Nimesh Patel]

I think that's a fair. I think that's a fair way to think about it. I think when I talk to my therapist, it's always like, I feel one thing, and then I feel bad that I feel that way. And it's just like, oh, you were probably in your life, you were taught to, if you feel angry, it's probably not a good emotion to feel, or if you feel sad, it's not a good emotion to feel. So that's learned behavior. And because of that, everything else is impacted by that. That feeling that you need to kind of repress your emotions. And I would take pride in my ability to be stoic in a lot of situations, but really it wasn't stoicism, and it's like full embodiment. It was more just like I was just like, no, I'm not supposed to be mad, so I'm not kind of thing. But that.

[David Cross]

Well, it's good that you're seeing a therapist, that they've observed that, you know, you can know that at least.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. It takes. It took a while for that to kind of be peeled back.

[David Cross]

But. And, and what about your wife? What is she? What's her personality?

[Nimesh Patel]

She's hard on her sleeve.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

You know how she's feeling.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

At all times. And she's just like a very simple as reductive, but just very clear about how she's feeling and communicating how she's feeling and quite sensitive, too. And so it's like, if I'm feeling something or beginning to feel something and I don't know it yet, she'll be like, are you okay? Like, what's going on?

[David Cross]

Yeah. I have a extremely similar situation with my wife, who is very. I mean, for me, I don't want to say she's too open and verbal and quick to do all that stuff, because that's not. It's. It's. It's. It's. I think she's doing the right thing the right way, but it's. It's not something that I do that I'm. That comes easily to me or I am comfortable with her. She's very open, like her mom is, you know, counselor and stuff. And. And, you know, they had a talking stick that they would, you know, that I've been a part of where you can't talk unless you're holding the talking stick, can't interrupt. And, you know, and I come from a much different situation. And that's why I asked, because I think there Are some similarities there?

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, yeah, for sure. My wife is very clear on how she's feeling and very communicative how she's feeling, whereas I'm.

[David Cross]

Yeah. And they have to bring. They have to dig it out of you, coax it out. Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

It takes me.

[David Cross]

There's a lot of. The word fine is used a lot.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah, it's. And I think a lot of that also comes from. My parents are also. My dad is definitely that way. Nothing's wrong, everything's fine. You know, like, I didn't. It's never been communicated in my family to this day, but I'm sure my dad has some kind of trauma from running a liquor store and like being robbed and all that kind of stuff, but it's never been spoken about. It's just kind of. Oh, he's going to the garage.

[David Cross]

Yeah, there you go.

[Nimesh Patel]

Have a sip of whiskey.

[David Cross]

Let's. Let's bring it back around to the Johnnie Walker Black.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's this therapist. We got it. I remember, I remember. I remember when I started therapy, telling my dad like, hey, you should probably go to therapy. He's like, I'll talk when I need to talk. Like, all right. That's what it is. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So why don't you talk to anybody?

[David Cross]

Yeah, that's a, that's a. That generation, probably culturally, you know, and. And they're. They're first generation. Yeah. Or your first generation.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, they. They came. My dad came and from India in 79, I think, and my mom arrived in.

[David Cross]

Were they. Were they married?

[Nimesh Patel]

No.

[David Cross]

So they didn't know each other until they met each other.

[Nimesh Patel]

Until here. My mom got married super young when she was 22, and that she got divorced, I think, when she was like 25, I want to say 26.

[David Cross]

Is there a lot of divorce in India?

[Nimesh Patel]

I don't know. I don't know if there's a lot of divorce in India, but I do know that at least from my parents situation, that divorce was, Is. Was a lot very taboo.

[David Cross]

Yeah, that's. I guess that's why I asked. It doesn't seem like culturally it's got that old school. You don't get divorced.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

My mom's situation is at least older generations.

[Nimesh Patel]

I guess my mom's situation is kind of crazy. I don't know what the correct tense is, but like she was married almost like sight unseen kind of thing.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

When my, when her older sister got married, my mom, I think, came back to India for the wedding. And I should know this because she told me this story not even too long ago, and my grandpa heard her dad was like, oh, so you're getting married? And this is. We've already kind of talked about this.

[David Cross]

Oh, my God.

[Nimesh Patel]

Was like, okay. Like, almost.

[David Cross]

That's her first mistake.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. I think it was like the same day as my aunt's wedding. And that's. It was nuts. It's a crazy thing. My grandpa. My grandpa, for, you know, all his positives, was also, like, a very traditional guy. He was a Brahmin priest, which in, I guess meant something like in terms of the caste system or whatever, you know, and my mom's, like, darker skin. So that was always, like, played on my mom's emotions and with my grandma and grandpa with her and how they treated her. And so they. My biological parents, my mom and dad, my mom and father, they got married, I guess, when they were. My mom's like, 22, 23. And then I was born in 86. And I think my mom got divorced shortly thereafter. And then she remarried a few years later to my dad, who the only father figure I've actually known. And that was. It's a wedding anniversary very soon. So whatever.

[David Cross]

A long time.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah. 35 years they've been together. So. Yeah. I think they. I would call that one. What year is that? I don't even know. I know, 90 or something. Right.

[David Cross]

The gift, I think, for 35 is. I think it's sag paneer.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

They've got plans in Indian. In. In the Indian. Yeah. Custom. You get sacked paneer.

[Nimesh Patel]

We had our anniversary dinner last night. They came over to hang out with the kid and all that kind of stuff. So my dad had a giant burrito. It's like. This is a big burrito. Yeah. That's how they do it here in New York City.

[David Cross]

Another sandwich. Ish thing.

[Nimesh Patel]

And my mom had some. Some Mexican salad of some sort. And a day full of playing with. With their first grandkid.

[David Cross]

Nice.

[Nimesh Patel]

But, yeah, no, I don't. I don't think divorce is definitely not a open thing.

[David Cross]

Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

In the Indian community. At least in my Indian community. And it's not. I don't think. I think on this next tour that I'm going on, I'm gonna start talking about it because the right families, obviously, now, as a. As a family man, it's starting to play a lot in my.

[David Cross]

Sure.

[Nimesh Patel]

In my head.

[David Cross]

Right. You've got about two and a half years, maybe three before you're gonna have to answer those questions to. Is it a son or Daughter.

[Nimesh Patel]

Daughter.

[David Cross]

Daughter. I was so hoping that my daughter was gay, but I don't think she is. I was just thinking how much easier life would be for her, you know, being in New York. Not if we were in, you know, Kansas. No. But being here in Brooklyn, like, I was just. Because also I'm very. I don't know if you've thought about this, but I know what shitty people boys can be and, and men and just, you know, I don't want her to go through that stuff.

[Nimesh Patel]

She's how old?

[David Cross]

Eight.

[Nimesh Patel]

Eight years old. Okay.

[David Cross]

I don't, I don't. I was hoping she might be gay, but I don't think she is.

[Nimesh Patel]

I don't know if nature or nurture plays a bigger role, but if you can nurture it, I'm definitely trying with my daughter at a very early age.

[David Cross]

Well, she's grown up around a lot of lesbian couples in love. A lot of. You know, my sister's gay and we have several good friends who are gay and they come and they crash at the house and stuff. So it's not anything that's abnormal or weird or whatever. And, and not that. That was a conscious effort. Like, I would. Yeah. I mean, I also, as a. As a male dad, you know, just being like when she gets to that age, like I'm gonna be. I don't like it.

[Nimesh Patel]

You'd be a hawk, huh? Yeah, I got it.

[David Cross]

I don't. Because guys are shitty.

[Nimesh Patel]

No. Yeah. We can be bad people.

[David Cross]

People. Single minded liars.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Users.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. You've got, you've got a few years. You can still.

[David Cross]

No, no. Yeah. It's gonna. We. You know.

[Nimesh Patel]

You're not sending her to an all girls school.

[David Cross]

No, no, she just goes to public school down the street. It's great. It's awesome. No, In Clinton Hill.

[Nimesh Patel]

Got it. Okay.

[David Cross]

And her school is great and she's doing really well and it's very diverse. Like, there's just one thing I've learned from the New York City school system is holidays that I didn't know really existed because there'll be a day off on a Tuesday, a random Tuesday or Wednesday somewhere. So they get, you know, lunar, Chinese, New Year off and they got Diwali and Ed L. Whatever, the Egyptian or Egyptian. What the fuck's wrong with me? Eladia. I don't, I can't remember. But it's. It's. I don't know, a Persian holiday. I don't know what it is, but it's like there are all these random things. Like it. When I was growing up, it was just, you know, Christmas and Yom Kippur were not holidays. They were. You would have an excuse if you were Jewish because you had to go to temple.

[Nimesh Patel]

Right.

[David Cross]

But it wasn't like here, you get it off, you know, but you also get, you know, you know, Chinese folks and, you know, there's a Persian holiday and then there's, you know.

[Nimesh Patel]

Is it Nowruzz?

[David Cross]

What is it Nuruz? No.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay.

[David Cross]

It's. There's one that starts with A. E that I'm like, Eid. Is that.

[Nimesh Patel]

It is Eid. Eid is a. Is a Muslim holiday.

[David Cross]

That's it then.

[Nimesh Patel]

Okay.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

I think that's the start of Ramadan or the end of Ramadan.

[David Cross]

Yeah. So all these. Do you just. So I've learned I didn't do a good job of retaining it, but you're like, oh, there's no school on Thursday. Why? You know, there's an Irish kid who has to sign whatever it is. There's a girl from South Sudan. And so the whole city takes it off.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Hell yeah, I'm with it. I'm looking forward to that. I used to live near Clinton Hill. I lived in Fort Greene for a little bit. Regrettably moved to downtown.

[David Cross]

Where are you now?

[Nimesh Patel]

Downtown Brooklyn.

[David Cross]

What made you move down there?

[Nimesh Patel]

Well, when we had our kid, I was going through sleep deprivation and we were in this like very nice house, but there was a few flaws with it and I was just fed up and I made an irrational sleep deprived decision to be like, let's get the hell out of here and move to like a high rise and.

[David Cross]

Oh, I see.

[Nimesh Patel]

And all that.

[David Cross]

Well, I will say this. I. I live in a brownstone. And before that, the last, I don't know, every place I lived in New York, except for the first year I was here, was varying degrees of apartment building where there was big building and there's somebody to take your mail and there's somebody to fix. There's a super. And owning my house is a. I mean, it is non stop pain in the ass stuff and there's nobody to call. You just have to figure it out and do it yourself. Everything, literally anything that happens. The only thing we didn't have to worry about was when the, like several years ago the pipes froze. There was that crazy polar vortex thing and there was like somebody doing construction and they didn't, they didn't turn the water off or something. The pipes burst and flooded a bunch of houses. And, you know, they took care of everything because they were Liable, obviously. And outside of that, everything has been like, you got to deal with everything.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, I mean we were, we were very fortunate in the house that we lived in, you know, but I didn't, I didn't realize how fortunate we were until leaving it, you know, but what.

[David Cross]

I'm saying is with the, with now that you have a new kid, it's being in a building, it's going to be just that you can call a super and go, hey, you know, can. That's going to be. That's worth. Yeah, yeah, that's worth a lot.

[Nimesh Patel]

There's, there's a lot of positives to where we're at. You know, we got a gym in the building is like was. Is life changing for us in the sense like the other gym outside of the house with a 15 minute walk, 15 minute walk back. So time wise away from a kid and all that, it's just like a lot that, that half hour adds up every day, plus the gym time itself. Whereas now it's just like two seconds upstairs, two seconds downstairs. But I'll never give up space again. You know, we went down in size and like, you know, she, my daughter just started like army crawling. There's only so many times you could like make her do a lap from here to there and then from here back before you're like, right, I gotta get a bigger house. Like, I need, I need more space immediately. I don't know what I gotta do.

[David Cross]

Wait till she's gotta run around.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, I don't know what lottery I gotta win, but I'm just, I'm trying to work my ass off to get us a bigger spot, so.

[David Cross]

But your wife's an attorney, right?

[Nimesh Patel]

No, my wife works in real estate. My sister's an attorney.

[David Cross]

Oh, sister's an attorney. Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

My wife is a real estate agent in the city. She's been off for a few months obviously now, but hopefully going back to work pretty soon.

[David Cross]

There's money in that?

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, no, for sure. But it's gonna be a lot more money since I get us a bigger spot than where we're at so that my daughter can have some space or like bite the bullet.

[David Cross]

Yeah, you got a little time.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, bite the bullet and move to some suburb. But I'm trying to avoid that at all costs.

[David Cross]

What about Queens?

[Nimesh Patel]

My wife is averse to Astoria or like I want to move to. If we move to a house, we go like Forest Hills. But that's also like insanely expensive.

[David Cross]

Right, right.

[Nimesh Patel]

Everything, everything's just crazy expensive.

[David Cross]

Well, it's going to get way cheaper now that Trump's president. You know, you'll pay less for eggs.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[David Cross]

That's all we eat, as I understand it.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah. That's how terrorists work.

[David Cross]

Yeah. I was just, I just got back from Canada last night and you know, I did two weeks there and they are understandably like pissed off and they, I mean, it's, it's a strong vibe. And I went all, you know, from the east all the way west and, and you know, they're just like, not at like me individually or you or anybody, you know, but they're like, what the fuck? What are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?

[Nimesh Patel]

Did you get a sense of a strong anti Indian sentiment?

[David Cross]

Not at all, no.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, okay. Because from all the stuff I see on Reddit, there's a lot of anti Indian immigrant angst going on in Canada. Okay. No, no. Okay.

[David Cross]

I mean, I think maybe if there was. It's completely supplanted by the, by Trump and tariffs and I mean there, it's, it's completely, I mean, it's a trade war. The second word is war, you know, and, and they, and people are like, we didn't ask for this. You know, we've been friends, we've had an open border. We've been friends for 150 years. But you're going to decimate our communities. And the friendliness is over. We still like the people, but your country and you know, they're booing the national, national anthem and they've got this thing, elbows up. Which is a phrase meaning like in hockey to, to start to fight.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

And so there's like T shirts and things. Elbows up. And Canada is not for sale. And like a lot, there's a strong, very strong sentiment because, you know, any there, it's like this unnecessary thing where, where they're like, why are you up our. I mean, okay, you're gonna up your economy, but why are you fucking up our economy?

[Nimesh Patel]

You know, it's, it's, I don't know. I don't know the long game of this guy, nor do I understand.

[David Cross]

I mean, it's based on like 19th century economics.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes.

[David Cross]

The tariffs stop for. I mean, there's, there's, it's, it's. He keeps citing William McKinley.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

The president, the last president who had tariffs, like the world was a completely different place and operated in a much different way in the late 1800s. I mean, it's. And also, let's not forget, he is a phenomenally accomplished bad businessman. He has bankrupted companies, casinos, airlines, his fucking steak thing. He was successfully sued and had to settle because of his Donald Trump University, because it was a scam. And his businesses, even his real estate business, I mean, until he became president, and then it was all, you know, graft and stuff. But he's a. He's a failed over and, oh, Trump cologne, Trump board game, Trump Bibles, Trump. I mean, he's a failed businessman. And then he's going to apply that to what was the strongest economy on the planet in history when he took office a second time. I'm gonna say that again. The strongest economy in history in this country when he took office.

[Nimesh Patel]

Right. And now it's. Now we're fighting Canada.

[David Cross]

And we're fighting Canada.

[Nimesh Patel]

Right?

[David Cross]

Nimesh.

[Nimesh Patel]

Nimesh.

[David Cross]

Nimesh.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes, sir.

[David Cross]

All right, I fucked it up twice now.

[Nimesh Patel]

It's all good. I don't care.

[David Cross]

Oh, because I was going to put the accent on Esh. Nimesh.

[Nimesh Patel]

So it's Nimesh.

[David Cross]

Nemesh.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Do you mind if you change the spelling of your word to N E E instead of N?

[Nimesh Patel]

I. I'll do that for you, David.

[David Cross]

Okay, thank you. Daveed I N. That'd be what?

[Nimesh Patel]

I'll do that for you, David.

[David Cross]

Okay, well, that's in Hebrew. All right. You just made a lot of people speak Spanish and a lot of Jews who are not paying very close attention. Go. Okay. I end every podcast with a question from my daughter, and you can feel free to answer this in any way you choose. All right. Why does water put fire out?

[Nimesh Patel]

Water deprives the fire of oxygen, and because fire needs oxygen to continue its chemical process of combustion, and water blocks that oxygen consumes it, and by doing so, puts the fire out, I believe.

[David Cross]

All right, so you're going to qualify it at the end there.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes, I hope. I hope that's right. Is it? I don't know. Chris, can we look that up?

[David Cross]

That sounds sorta.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

I mean, scares the fire. It's a bully. Water is a bully.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Fire hates swimmin. That's why.

[David Cross]

All right, Naimesh, thank you so much for coming down.

[Nimesh Patel]

Thank you very much for having me.

[David Cross]

Have a good time in London.

[Nimesh Patel]

Thank you.

[David Cross]

And la.

[Nimesh Patel]

Thank you very much. I'll check out Lasordids. Oh, if you go. When you go to next, you go. Next time you go to la, you gotta go to Pida Palace.

[David Cross]

Oh, I've been there.

[Nimesh Patel]

Oh, I love it.

[David Cross]

They have. That's right down the street from La Sordid. It's they had one of the, like, just such a good idea. And I want to try to make it my own. I don't know how, but they have a lime chutney, which is one of my favorite things. I fucking love lime chutney. And I will just. It's one of those, like, kind of spicy things that I'll just eat and eat and eat because it's, like, addictive. They have a lime chutney aioli. And it is. It's just the flavor. There's no texture to it outside of aioli. You know, it's like that kind of creamy, saucy thing, but it's the flavor of that spicy lime. And I fucking. I would just. Yeah. So PJ Palace.

[Nimesh Patel]

PJ palace, phenomenal concept. Incredible execution of a Indian American bar fusion food. They got like.

[David Cross]

It's weird. It's. It's a bit sports bar Y, which is weird.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the guy is a big sports head of ish. Is the owner chef.

[David Cross]

The. The. It. It doesn't go quite well. Yeah, it doesn't concept.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. It's kind of weird how they did it, but people go. I think last time I went was last April, May. They're playing the F1 race.

[David Cross]

Yeah, it was packed when I was there. I just. I just gotta. Grabbed a seat at the bar.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, it's always. But it's. It's so good. They're. They're Malai. I know some Malay, maybe. It's. But whatever. Their. Their pasta dishes, their. Their dosa onion rings are incredible.

[David Cross]

Dosa onion rings.

[Nimesh Patel]

So shit. Yeah, they're fucking banging.

[David Cross]

Have you eaten at the dosa cart in Washington Square Park?

[Nimesh Patel]

When I. When I went to nyu, we.

[David Cross]

Oh, yeah, that. That guy's great.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah. Yeah.

[David Cross]

And there's a dose of place on. If you lived in Fort Greene, there's.

[Nimesh Patel]

One on Royale, I think it's called. Yeah, go there. But bringing back to Shonali. When my wife and I, few years ago, we started doing like, the food crawls and we would go, you know, try different foods at different. Like just like have an app here, an app there that get drunk and all that. And Shonali joined us for one of the first ones and we went to. I think she recommended it, this South Indian dosa SPA on like 21st, like right near here. I forget the name of it in my phone somewhere. But incredible variety of doses, like every single kind, because they use different grains or different mills of different grains to make their doses.

[David Cross]

Oh, you mean the actual. The dose of. Not the filling, but the actual dose.

[Nimesh Patel]

The texture and the flavor.

[David Cross]

I've only really had the standard.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah, no, there's a lot.

[David Cross]

Oh, wow.

[Nimesh Patel]

And the fillings are also incredible.

[David Cross]

Yeah.

[Nimesh Patel]

But Shonali recommended this one that we went to and it was. It's all vegetarian food.

[David Cross]

Right.

[Nimesh Patel]

I highly recommend. It's right around here. So the 20th in Lex or 23rd in Lex.

[David Cross]

Okay, cool.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

Oh, gosh. What were you saying? Dosa. Not to keep bringing it back to. Oh, have you eaten at Omar's on Vanderbilt?

[Nimesh Patel]

No.

[David Cross]

No. Okay.

[Nimesh Patel]

Never even heard of it.

[David Cross]

It's a Indian. Supposed to be good. It doesn't look like it's going to be that good. And they have Indian pizzas and. I don't know, I was just curious.

[Nimesh Patel]

No, I've never been there. My go to order spot is India Table. It's on Court street in I guess Cobble Hill area. But that's like Goan Indian food.

[David Cross]

And Goan. Is that southern Goa?

[Nimesh Patel]

No, Goa is North west island off of India. They used to be colonized by the Portuguese, so they got like Portuguese influence in their food. But it's. It's so good. Yeah, it's really good.

[David Cross]

Okay, check it out. Go Go is usually seafood, right?

[Nimesh Patel]

Yeah.

[David Cross]

You have like Goa going shrimp.

[Nimesh Patel]

I think they have like, they have a lot of lamb dishes from what I recall. But I always get the chicken stuff. Stuff. Chicken Chettinada and all that. But yeah, check it out.

[David Cross]

Nimesh.

[Nimesh Patel]

Yes, sir.

[David Cross]

Patel.

[Nimesh Patel]

David Cross.

[David Cross]

Thank you.

[Nimesh Patel]

Thank you very much.

[David Cross]

Man Sense is Working Overtime is a Headgum podcast created and hosted by me, David Cross. The show is edited by Katie Skelton and engineered by Nicole Lyons with supervising producer Emma Foley. Thanks to Demi Druchin for our show art and Mark Rivers for our theme song. For more podcasts by headgum, visit headgum.com or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe we'll read it on a future episode. I'm not gonna do that. Thanks for listening.

[Nimesh Patel]

That was a Hitgum podcast.

[David Cross]

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[Nimesh Patel]

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[David Cross]

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