Cracker Barrel Drama & Late-Night Waffle Wars

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show: "Cracker Barrel Drama & Late-Night Waffle Wars"

Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Chef Andrew Gruel & Lauren Gruel
Episode Focus: A humorous, insightful exploration of current trends in food culture, branding controversies (especially Cracker Barrel), late-night diner drama, and the fate of independent restaurants in America.

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers a lively blend of personal anecdotes and cultural commentary as the hosts dissect the ongoing "Cracker Barrel rebranding saga," discuss viral late-night diner fights, and reminisce about the iconic status of American diners. With plenty of humor, nostalgia, and practical cooking advice, Andrew and Lauren Gruel keep the tone light while raising pointed questions about the corporatization of food culture and the loss of local flavor in America’s restaurant industry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. School Picture Day Mayhem

• Andrew and Lauren start with a candid and comedic recap of their morning—school picture day chaos with their three boys.
  • Clothes and hygiene negotiations with kids (“…getting ready with three younger boys in the morning is like, it’s basically a search for underwear.” — Andrew, 03:07).
  • Syrup disasters and encouragement of making funny faces for future nostalgia.
  • Relatable parenting humor sets a playful tone for the episode.

2. Cracker Barrel Rebranding Controversy

• Background Recap: Cracker Barrel’s rebrand—a new logo, simplified interiors, and the removal of the iconic rocking-chair figure—sparked customer backlash.
  • “They took out Mr. Cracker Barrel…I forget his name from the logo itself. The guy that was sitting on the rocking chair.” — Andrew, 05:47
• Brand Dilution & Corporate Influence:
  • The Gruels argue the real problem is the watering down of legacy brands under corporate ownership, not outdated logos (“…watering down brands that have history and legacy and trying to make them more anodyne and really vanilla.” — Andrew, 06:14).
  • Loss of unique, homey restaurant touches in favor of a uniform, bland aesthetic across locations.
• Quality vs. Branding:
  • Andrew notes that customers ultimately care about the food, not brand aesthetics.
  • “I have never not gone to a restaurant because I didn’t like the logo or the interior design…If I’m getting good food for the price, that’s it.” — Andrew, 11:00
  • Cracker Barrel and similar chains now pre-make much of their food offsite, sacrificing flavor for cost savings.
• Outcome: The design firm was ousted, but Andrew criticizes the millions spent on superficial fixes while food quality remains neglected.

3. Domino’s and the Risk of Over-Modernization

• New branding and jingles (with musician “Shaboozi”) spark questions—why change what’s iconic?
  • “I like when brands don’t refresh their branding. I like when they become iconic...” — Andrew, 13:11
• The hosts reminisce about memorable food jingles and the lost art of catchy commercials ("I want my baby back ribs…” — Andrew, 13:56).

4. Viral Lifestyle Trends: Subtitles and Selective Hearing

• Lauren admits her conversion to always watching TV with subtitles, once thought to be only for old people.
  • “I am the person now that needs closed caption…at all times.” — Lauren, 15:14
• Andrew jokes about selective hearing and viral stories of extreme avoidance in marriage.
• Fun aside: Lauren uses Spanish subtitles as a language learning tool (“That’s very academic of you.” — Andrew, 16:40).

5. Late-Night Diner Fights: Whataburger and Waffle House Brawls

• Viral video out of San Antonio: a brawl at Whataburger at 3 a.m. over a mixed-up order.
  • “If you’re at a Whataburger at 3 am, you know, you just had a long night of partying.” — Lauren, 17:48
• Discussion of Waffle House’s reputation as the “MMA Thunderdome” of late-night food.
  • “Waffle House employees, they, like, they would throw down with the customers.” — Andrew, 18:51
• Lauren admits she doesn’t care much for Waffle House waffles, prompting a comparison of national breakfast chains.

6. The Disappearance of Classic American Diners

• Reflections on the decline of the independent diner and the corporatization of breakfast culture.
  • “What’s happened to the diner?…we’ve lost in America…the good old corner diner.” — Andrew, 20:09
• Andrew shares memories from his time working at Denny’s and in New Jersey diners.
• Loss of freshly made, varied local food as chains switch to mass-produced, “bagged” eggs and standardized menus.
• Reasons for the rise of chains (marketing, consistency, location advantages) versus the struggles of mom-and-pop eateries.

7. Policy and Community Solutions

• Andrew, a city councilman, advocates for policy changes that would incentivize and aid independent restaurant owners, such as easier permitting and better location access.

8. Sharpen Your Skills: Cooking Hack of the Week

• Lauren’s Tip: Quick-peeling garlic or shallots—microwave for 10 seconds to easily remove the skin.
  • “Just a starter coat.” — Andrew, 27:06
  • Explains the science: internal moisture turns to steam, loosening the skin without cooking the garlic.

9. Relatable Cooking & Social Anecdotes

• Hosts share relatable stories about dinner parties as “the chef” guests, and the simple pleasures of being cooked for by friends.
  • “If someone is cooking for me, the food is already 10 out of 10.” — Andrew, 29:06
• Lighthearted banter about ChatGPT-written love notes and awkward Halloween costumes.

10. 86 List: Pet Peeves and Things to “Send Back”

• Lauren’s Pick: Overuse of AI in media, especially videos that are hard to distinguish as real or fake.
  • “I can’t tell if it’s real or not.” — Lauren, 31:12

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Rebranding:
  • “You could have gone on Fiverr and spent $90 to get an Indian designer to create [the new Cracker Barrel logo].” — Andrew, 09:45
• On Copacked Food:
  • “You lose the flavor of the food and you lose that home-cooked [feeling]. They spent millions on the logo…but didn’t fix the food.” — Andrew, 11:26
• Nostalgic Commercial Jingles:
  • “I want my baby back ribs.” — Andrew, 13:56
• On the Death of the Diner:
  • “What’s happened now with diners…all the eggs are bagged, they’re treated with citric acid…nobody’s poaching their eggs fresh.” — Andrew, 21:41
• On Cooking for Chefs:
  • “If someone is cooking for me, the food is already 10 out of 10.” — Andrew, 29:06

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• School Picture Day & Waffles: 02:35–04:48
• Cracker Barrel Brand Saga: 05:20–12:45
• Domino’s Branding/Jingles: 12:45–14:26
• Lifestyle: Subtitles & Selective Hearing: 14:52–17:16
• Whataburger Brawl & Waffle House Fights: 17:19–20:03
• Diner Culture & Industry Insights: 20:03–26:18
• Sharpen Your Skills (Garlic Tip): 26:34–27:28
• Cooking Tales & Dinner Parties: 28:34–29:31
• 86 List (AI Content Overload): 30:31–31:59

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Tone and Style

The hosts are informal, witty, and invite audience participation. Food is the backdrop for social critique, pop-culture nostalgia, and family stories. Even in heavier moments (brand corporatization, loss of independent restaurants), humor prevails, and practical advice keeps things engaging.

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For Further Interaction

Listeners are encouraged to share “86” items and follow Andrew and Lauren on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. The episode ends on a personal note about finding joy in the simple act of sharing a meal, whether at home or on the road.

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(This summary excludes advertisements and non-content portions, focusing only on the substance of the hosts’ conversation.)

Transcript

[Lauren Gruel]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Andrew Gruel]

Limu Keymoo and Doug.

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Here we have the Limu emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Andrew Gruel]

Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

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Cut the camera. They see us.

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Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty.

[Andrew Gruel]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

[Liberty Mutual Legal Disclaimer]

Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates.

[Andrew Gruel]

Excludes Massachusetts.

[Liberty Mutual Legal Disclaimer]

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[Andrew Gruel]

And we're back for another episode of American Gravy. Get ready, get your bibs. It is on.

[Lauren Gruel]

It is getting messy.

[Andrew Gruel]

It is. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to American Gravy, where this is where food meets fun. Flavor meets the absurd. Of course. And I'm Chef Andrew Gruel.

[Lauren Gruel]

And I'm Lauren Gruel.

[Andrew Gruel]

And today we're gonna be diving into some of the funniest, strangest, and most mouth watering food stories making the rounds this week.

[Lauren Gruel]

All right, babe.

[Andrew Gruel]

But, Lauren, you know what? Let's face it, food news has gone off rails a little bit.

[Lauren Gruel]

It always is off the rails.

[Andrew Gruel]

So we're gonna bring it back to the. We're gonna bring it back to Reality today, bringing it back to. So I gotta throw in there, right? I always start off, see, I can't stick to script. But it's kids picture day today at our kids school.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh boy.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. And you know, it's funny, whenever I hear kids picture day, I remember when I would have the photos and it was like the laser beams in the background.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, yeah, they were so fun.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. But they don't have that nowadays.

[Lauren Gruel]

They don't have it. But also, let's just go back to our boys who refuse to wear nice clothes. They want to wear the same thing that has like holes in it. It's like stained.

[Andrew Gruel]

The only way we can compromise with the kids nowadays is we'll be like, all right, you got to pick your clothes out the night before so that you're ready in the morning. Because getting ready with three younger boys in the morning is like, it's basically a search for underwear.

[Lauren Gruel]

They. They never know where anything is.

[Andrew Gruel]

They don't want to wear underwear, which is disgusting.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay. They don't know where anything is. They wanna wear the same outfit.

[Andrew Gruel]

So I've told them you can wear what you're gonna take a shower at night or bath or whatever you do, you know, spray down. And I spray em in the backyard with a hose many times. And then just whatever you're gonna wear to school. Cause they're kids, you know, they don't stink when they sleep. Just wear those clothes to bed or at least like the shirt or part of it and be ready.

[Lauren Gruel]

We gotta be like 50% there.

[Andrew Gruel]

So now that they've interpreted that as like, I can wear my pajamas to school. So it's school picture day and they look like they're homeless kids.

[Lauren Gruel]

No, my fav. Our youngest, he likes his hair like. What's his name from Dumb and Dumber? Lloyd. Is it Lloyd?

[Andrew Gruel]

Oh, gosh. Lloyd Dobbler.

[Lauren Gruel]

He. I don't know why he wants it right in front of his face. And I was trying to comb it to the side, you know, put some gel in it, make it look somewhat presentable. He freaked out, rubbed his hair. So now it's like half to the side, half in front of his face. These pictures are going to be something to look forward to.

[Andrew Gruel]

And I made some waffles this morning. So the other son got syrup on his hands and put that in his hair. So he's sticking straight up. It's great.

[Lauren Gruel]

And there's some dribbles of syrup on his T shirt as well.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. So I can't wait to see what comes out on these pictures. But I told the kids. Cause they're young, and I told them. I said, you know what? You're gonna look at these pictures when you're older, and they're gonna be kind of funny. So just make the craziest face you possibly can. Like, I don't care how quirky it is, how silly it is. Cross your eyes.

[Lauren Gruel]

I love the kids. They all go through, like, this awkward smile stage, too.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, exactly.

[Lauren Gruel]

So I'm so excited. I think our youngest will have that this year.

[Andrew Gruel]

Well, I gave them a couple little tips and tricks, just so you know, so you might be surprised. And you're gonna say, who told you to do that? When they say, dad, I might be. In a time. The outcome is yet to be determined there. All right, well, moving into the first main food line this week, I'm gonna take a little deep dive. I know this is old, and we talked about it in the past, but there's been some evidence that's come about in regards to the Dun, Dun, Dun. The Cracker Barrel saga.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, my gosh. That was so weird.

[Andrew Gruel]

It wasn't weird. It was Right.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, it was right. Right. In which way?

[Andrew Gruel]

Well, first of all, so for those of you who don't remember, because this was two or three weeks ago, and we move at the speed of lightning, is the Cracker Barrel rebranded? Not just their. But, you know, they kind of did, like, a new brand book, and then obviously, their interior design at the restaurants. People love Cracker Barrel. It's a legacy brand. It's really representative of that. Kind of like deep south home cooking. And they took out Mr. Cracker Barrel. I forget his name from the logo itself. The guy that was sitting on the rocking chair. Yeah.

[Lauren Gruel]

There was no need to do that.

[Andrew Gruel]

They didn't like that. So they brought in this outside branding company, and they spent millions of dollars, as I had suggested at the time, and to redo the brand. And there was a huge uproar, and everybody was mad about it, and it kind became the cultural talking point. You know, it was, like, bigger than that. And it was. And we won't get into any of that. But I think that, for me, when I looked at the Cracker Barrel story, it was indicative of a problem that we've seen across foodservice and generally retail brands overall over the past 10 or 15 years, and that's watering down brands that have history and legacy and trying to make them more anodyne and really vanilla.

[Lauren Gruel]

Right, right. Didn't they do that with Ms. Jemima.

[Andrew Gruel]

The syrup well, that was a racial subject. Oh, that was, yeah. They wanted to remove Aunt Jemima specifically from bottle because they thought that that was racist. And we don't need to touch on that just because I don't like that, like all that fake syrup to begin with. So I wasn't a. I wasn't a part of their target market. It's really just high fructose corn syrup and caramel color. Just get the real maple syrup. But I digress. So. So now it's funny, you've seen like a little bit of this cleanup, right? It was like, oh, the CEO needs to get fired. And she was the CEO. She was like some, you know, kind of like hot city CEO. I don't mean hot like physically hot. I mean like the hot thing that was taking this kind of southern, more country style brand and trying to make it more chic.

[Lauren Gruel]

Chic?

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, like Gen X Y. They had done all these Cracker Barrel pop ups in New York City as part of their like brand activation where they had TikTok influencers come in and they set up, I don't know if you know this, they set up mini cracker barrels like in Union Square or in the general Times Square area and did like these crazy, quirky. Which was part of your 86 from last week was like all these food influencers being crazy.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, gosh, okay. I did not know that they did that, by the way.

[Andrew Gruel]

To me, that was like representative of this, this kind of modern mindset that has really plagued a lot of our food. What I said at the time was, here's what's gone down with Cracker Barrel. They were bought out by a big private equity firm 10 or 15 years ago, which we know for a fact. They've decreased the quality of their food. They've tried to create branding that's more standardized across like a national audience because functional, the way in which you can get your franchisees or your multi unit operators, I don't think that they're a franchise concept, but just generally speaking, multi unit operators to stick to this brand book, everything has to be cut, copy and paste. So when you walk into a Cracker Barrel in Virginia, it's the same Cracker Barrel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And the way in which a lot of those firms try and get you to do that and to standardize those protocols and procedures is really. By watering down the brand. Yeah, And I don't like that approach. When we owned a multi unit franchise group, we had restaurants across 13 or 14 different locations. We allowed a lot of the Local market franchisees to kind of add their own flavor, personality. The seafood was different in each market. We had our basic format of menu items, but then beyond that, there was obviously like local specialties. And that applied to design and development for the stores as well. So now Cracker Barrel is cleaning up and they've fired the brand. The advertising agency or the branding agency. I don't recall the name of it, but yeah.

[Lauren Gruel]

So they fired the design company, which is interesting.

[Andrew Gruel]

Well. Cause somebody had to. There needed to be a scalp. Like, somebody had to go.

[Lauren Gruel]

Somebody had to take the phone and.

[Andrew Gruel]

It wasn't gonna be the CEO, which I think, like, at the end of the day, it all rolls up to the CEO. So, like, you need to take responsibility and you need to go out there and make a statement. They clearly don't understand the Cracker Barrel customer. But here was my thing, the brand itself. And by that, the brand. And I know a brand encompasses more than just the logo, but we superficially think of a brand as just the logo. It was something that I could have gone on fiverr and spent $90 to get like an Indian designer to create.

[Lauren Gruel]

How much do you think they spent on that redesign?

[Andrew Gruel]

I would suggest a million dollars plus.

[Lauren Gruel]

Jeez.

[Andrew Gruel]

And it's part of a brand package. So they all. They obviously, you know, they. That becomes applicable to the interior design of the store, which once again, they got rid of all the tchotchkes that were around the restaurant. Like, you walk in and it' it's kind of this homey feel like you want to feel like you're walking into grandma's dining room. But they got rid of all that and they basically replaced it with just basic home goods style tables. And they got rid of all the stuff that was on the walls, what have you, the clutter, although I think it was artful clutter.

[Lauren Gruel]

Have we been to a Cracker Barrel?

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, in Albuquerque. When we went and opened the Albuquerque stores, I was hitting the Cracker Barrels out there.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, I thought it was Roadhouse, but.

[Andrew Gruel]

That'S a good question, because I'll transition to the bigger problem that nobody's talking about with Cracker Barrel. And the point that I made is that it's the food, right at the end of the day, why we go out to eat at restaurants is cost, convenience, and the food, the quality, the quality to price ratio. And I have never not gone to a restaurant because I didn't like the logo or the interior design. And nor have I ever gone to a restaurant in the casual dining setting because I Like the way it looked and feel. If I'm getting good food for the price, that's it. Right? Like that's why I'm gonna go there. And would you agree with that?

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah, I don't think I've ever gone to anywhere really, even like a regular store, like a clothing store, because of the, the logo.

[Andrew Gruel]

Well, you don't eat the clothes.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, I know that but like you don't. It's not like a draw to like come in.

[Andrew Gruel]

Edible clothing is I think a topic for another episode.

[Lauren Gruel]

That's a difference. Prosciutto pants, that's a different store.

[Andrew Gruel]

So what Cracker Bell has done is they've co packed over the years. And it's not just Cracker Barrel. This is so many of these brands and what they do is that as costs go up in the restaurant industry, you then have to start producing your food off site because that decreases the units of labor that you need in the store. And then you can buy all of those co packed sauces and rice dishes and like pre prepared foods that are no longer made on site. You can buy them at bulk using these economies of scale and it brings the prices down. But then you lose the flavor of the food and you lose that home cooked. That's what's happened over 10 years. They spent millions of dollars on the logo, the branding, the design, the superficial element, but they didn't fix the food. And I think that that is the problem altogether and we're going to weave that into some future stories. So they fired the design firm. In conclusion, in addition to the fact that they put out a ton of press releases that we read in industry pubs, publications saying that all of the negative response was due to bots.

[Lauren Gruel]

Very interesting that that's what they blamed it on, but.

[Andrew Gruel]

And they didn't have much data to prove that. Like that was the headline that I read in Nation's Restaurant News. But it wasn't, it wasn't like there was no data to support that. So I think it was the people speaking. And thank you all for speaking. Let's keep talking about it.

[Lauren Gruel]

Speaking of rebranding, you know, Domino's Pizza boxes can look a little bit different shortly.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, once again, same thing. Like Domino's has put out a ton of press about the fact that they're redesigning their brand, their log, their pizza boxes. Something that they haven't done in 13 years.

[Lauren Gruel]

13. But we all know Domino's Pizza Boxes. Like that's Domino's. Why are they trying to change something that's good?

[Andrew Gruel]

I Like when brands don't refresh their branding. I like when they become iconic versus doing a throwback, where it's like, oh, we're going back to our 1980s design. A lot of the soda brands do that.

[Lauren Gruel]

And they're coming up with a catchy jingle.

[Andrew Gruel]

Oh, they are. They brought on a musician to do. What's the name of the musician? Is it like, Chenoodle?

[Lauren Gruel]

Shaboozy.

[Andrew Gruel]

Shaboozi. Shaboozi Shoeboo.

[Lauren Gruel]

Would you like to. Would you like to share the jingle? Since I clearly have a horrible singing voice.

[Andrew Gruel]

I don't. I don't know what the jingle is, but I'm not, nor do I want. I think it's like, Domino, get your pizza.

[Lauren Gruel]

Ooh.

[Andrew Gruel]

There were two jingles. What are the most memorable jingles? You know, from food?

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, gosh, I don't know.

[Andrew Gruel]

I want my baby back ribs.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh, baby back ribs.

[Andrew Gruel]

That's a great one. And then. Do you remember Hootie and the Blowfish Tender chicken cheddar ranch sandwich? I want my tender, tender, crisp chicken Cheddar ranch. Where the French fries taste like weeds. It was Hoodie and the Blowfish.

[Lauren Gruel]

No, I don't remember.

[Andrew Gruel]

Gets rid all day. Okay, for those of you who have heard this, please make a comment when we post this episode, because I'm just.

[Lauren Gruel]

Gonna go on YouTube after this and check it out.

[Andrew Gruel]

There's some really cool jingles. I miss those. I miss the good old TV jingles. When you'd walk around all day at school and you had, like, a food commercial in your head.

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't. I don't know food commercials, but I have other type of commercials in my head.

[Andrew Gruel]

Like.

[Lauren Gruel]

Like, oh, my gosh, why can't I think of anything on the spot? Anyway, I'll come up with one later.

[Andrew Gruel]

I want my double mint doublemint. Come on and double it. Double mint, double fresh.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay. Did you watch a lot of TV growing up?

[Andrew Gruel]

I watched commercials. I was really into commercials, which is surprising that I'm not in advertising, but whatever, so be it. What's going on in the world of lifestyle these days, Lauren?

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay, so here's the thing. I used to think subtitles were for old people. I. Every time I would go to, you know, somebody's house and their parents had the TV on, there were subtitles, and I could not pay attention to what was on the TV because I was constantly reading the subtitles. I was like, who would put subtitles on the tv? This is so stupid. I am the person now that needs closed caption Close.

[Andrew Gruel]

The word.

[Lauren Gruel]

I need it on at all times. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's an age thing, but I cannot watch TV or a movie without closed captioning.

[Andrew Gruel]

I love having the subtitles because I don't know what's happened. And I'm not that old. I'm 45, but I can't hear anything.

[Lauren Gruel]

You can't. Which is kind of.

[Andrew Gruel]

Sometimes it's selective.

[Lauren Gruel]

Actually, I think it's selective hearing.

[Andrew Gruel]

Do you remember the story of the guy this, like, went viral who pretended for 25 years he was deaf so he didn't have to talk to his wife? How did it.

[Lauren Gruel]

First of all, that takes so much commitment.

[Andrew Gruel]

That's amazing.

[Lauren Gruel]

But did he talk to anybody or he just didn't talk? Did he have, like, guy friends on the side that knew he could hear?

[Andrew Gruel]

I have a feeling he had, like, a cadre of people that were in on it. Like, maybe he'd do poker night and he could talk and get it all out. But then otherwise at home, he was just like. She was yell at him.

[Lauren Gruel]

Why would you be married to somebody you don't want to talk to?

[Andrew Gruel]

I don't know. I have really bad hearing problems, so it might happen to us. What? I'm getting a look right now.

[Lauren Gruel]

Wow.

[Andrew Gruel]

I'm not saying no.

[Lauren Gruel]

I'm just saying he's going to pretend that he has hearing issues and we'll never speak. I guess we can't do the show together. What? Yeah. Okay.

[Andrew Gruel]

I love subtitles. I read them all the time. And it's actually the way in which we can get our kids to start, like, practicing reading. We'll just turn the TV and put it on and be like, Read the subtitles.

[Lauren Gruel]

You know what I was doing because I really want to learn Spanish. I was putting the subtitles in Spanish, but, like, listening to it in English so I could see what they were saying.

[Andrew Gruel]

My God, that's very academic of you.

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah.

[Andrew Gruel]

Hola. La fiesta nos parlos feos.

[Lauren Gruel]

Here we go. With his one liner zingers.

[Andrew Gruel]

That's a good one. So last week it was, pat, lookout. You have a chicken on your roof in German. And this week. This party's not for the ugly people.

[Lauren Gruel]

I thought. What? Say it again.

[Andrew Gruel]

La fiesta no us parlos fayos. Ah.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay. Gotcha.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. See? So don't worry. You're invited. It's okay.

[Lauren Gruel]

Wow. Thanks.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, I know. All right. So that was kind of a funny story. I remember that. We talked about that on Gutfeld a While back. And it was. There was some pretty good jokes in there. I'm not a comedian, though, so I.

[Lauren Gruel]

Can'T read the subtitles.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, it was like the subtitle thing.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, what was funny about it?

[Andrew Gruel]

This story has gone. Well, the story has been going viral now for a while, so. So it's.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, I guess younger and younger people are also using closed captioning.

[Andrew Gruel]

They are. Which is good. What the fork.

[Lauren Gruel]

What the fork? Ange, what is going on?

[Andrew Gruel]

What is. Yeah, well, I want to know. There's been a lot of crazy food stories this week, but one of them caught my eye, actually. It caught your eye or your eyes?

[Lauren Gruel]

My eyeballs.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. So why don't you tell us about this one?

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay, first of all, this isn't like new. This isn't a new thing. But a huge fight broke out at a San Antonio whataburger just after 3am which is bad news in general. Like, if you're at A Whataburger at 3:00am, you know, you just had a long night of partying. Right? You're not just.

[Andrew Gruel]

Or you're working a night shift.

[Lauren Gruel]

I doubt. I doubt that. So anyway, a huge fight breaks out because there was a mix up in the. In an order. Like somebody took the wrong order and there ended up being a brawl inside this whataburger at 3:00am I understand that.

[Andrew Gruel]

And let me tell you why. Not the actual fight itself, but don't you hate when you go somewhere and it's like really crowded and everybody's hovering around the pickup area and then somebody takes your order and you're just like, livid because then you got to go back up and you got to reorder and then they got to push it through and you wait for another 20 or 30 minutes.

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't think it takes that long. But at the same time, I'm sure these people, if they were in the right state of mind, it probably wouldn't have broken out.

[Andrew Gruel]

It wouldn't have broken out in a brawl. But I think people who get into fights at fast food restaurants or Waffle Houses. Waffle House is like the MMA Thunderdome of fights in restaurants.

[Lauren Gruel]

Waffle House.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. And there were all those videos that were going viral. Like, I remember it was like last year or the year before. It was. It was primarily during the pandemic because Waffle House remained open. So it was the place to be. It's the public square. And the Waffle House employees, they, like, they would throw down with the customers. With the customers? Yeah, with each other. No with the customers. I remember there was somebody who like threw a chair and then this lady came, the Flo, you know, the counter waitress. She just. She like caught the chair with one hand and then she took some like 19 year old drunk kid out with the top of a chair and a syrup bottle.

[Lauren Gruel]

Never let me go to a Waffle House.

[Andrew Gruel]

I. Do you like Waffle House?

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't think so.

[Andrew Gruel]

You ever been to a Waffle House?

[Lauren Gruel]

I think I went once and I didn't like the waffles.

[Andrew Gruel]

I'll take a Waffle House. I'll take Waffle House over the over IHOP any day.

[Lauren Gruel]

Hmm.

[Andrew Gruel]

Although there's an ihopping near us. Where would you go if you wanted like. So Waffle House, ihop, Denny's, Snooze. What's the other one?

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't think there is any morning watch or morning watch.

[Andrew Gruel]

Oh, first watch, first watch, morning watch, whatever.

[Lauren Gruel]

I actually like first watch. We've only been to one in New Jersey, though. There's not any in California.

[Andrew Gruel]

That was Florida. We were in Florida.

[Lauren Gruel]

Florida. I'm sorry, is there a lot of.

[Andrew Gruel]

People in New Jersey or from in Florida? From New Jersey.

[Lauren Gruel]

Sorry. Yeah.

[Andrew Gruel]

What's happened to the diner? Like, that's one thing that we've lost in America is like the good old corner diner.

[Lauren Gruel]

I love Denny. When I was growing up, oh my gosh. Denny's was like my place to go.

[Andrew Gruel]

I worked at a Denny's. Do you know that?

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah.

[Andrew Gruel]

When I was 18 years old, I worked at a Denny's. I worked the overnight shift. And at the time we actually were cracking all of our own eggs. And I was cracking eggs 2am when the bar would get out and everybody would come in there. And it was just like Moons Over Miami after Della Dinger. After Moons Over Miami.

[Lauren Gruel]

Grand Slam.

[Andrew Gruel]

Oh, the All American Grand Slam. I'd wake up in cold sweats thinking about the All American Grand Slam. Cause I could never get the hash browns right on the flat top.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, now you're great at hash browns.

[Andrew Gruel]

Oh, I'm the hash brown king. I'm the breakfast king. So in the restaurant industry, a lot of people don't know this. Is that when you work through like a hotel system or like a corporate restaurant group where it's high quality, you always start off on the egg station. So like before, when I did my apprenticeship up in Oregon at Mount Hood, like before you could get to the fine dining dinner stage of working, you had to. Well, you start off in the dish pit, then you go to banquets and then you go to egg cookery, right? And the reason why egg cooking is because for breakfast, people want their food in tem minutes or less. Eggs can cook very, very quickly. And the process of flipping omelets and flipping eggs and cooking eggs just teaches you how to control your station. Make sure your mise en place is all in its place, which is like your ingredients, your station is clean. And I loved egg cooking.

[Lauren Gruel]

Did you?

[Andrew Gruel]

You're jamming out, right? Like you got 10 omelets on the board, two over easy eggs, six over medium eggs, frittatas, lots of love. They used to say I was frittata your foot. Maybe she's fat tatted. And that was it. Like egg cooking was the. You had to pass through egg cookery. How many of my egg chefs are out there? See, oh, there's a lot of them listening. There's a lot. We have a live studio audience here. But what's happened now with diners and with a lot of these corporate breakfast chains is that all the eggs are bagged, they're treated with citric acid, they're low quality eggs. They're cooked in these kind of egg contraptions where you just pour them in and press 2 minutes and then they're done. Nobody's poaching their eggs fresh. New Jersey is the home of the diner. That's where I grew up, right? And the good old school New Jersey diner still exists, especially off Route 22. 202, 206, you name it. Turnpike got a few time to eat diner, Felix, number nine, you name it. The Greeks ran the diner system over there. So we need to bring that back cross country.

[Lauren Gruel]

I know. I can't even think of like a good diner like here in California, at least. You know, I grew up here. All I could think of is Denny's, ihop. That's really it. That's really all that we had. Or Mimi's Cafe. Is that considered a diner?

[Andrew Gruel]

I don't know, but they're closing or they've closed a lot of them. The reason why the diner has lost its luster, if you will, is because people don't go out to eat for breakfast every single day. So brunch, like, you'll have this crazy Sunday brunch, you know, you'll do like 10 or $15,000 in sales. And then like on a Monday morning, maybe you've got the local bridge club that comes and has like a cup of coffee and they split a cinnamon bun five ways.

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah, that's true, that's true.

[Andrew Gruel]

But we need to bring back the breakfast meeting. Not the Starbucks meeting, not the let's go grab a cup of coffee and sit for two hours. But like the hearty breakfast meeting, we.

[Lauren Gruel]

Don'T even go out to breakfast.

[Andrew Gruel]

No. I went out to breakfast with Casey a couple months back, who's another my co. City councilman, Huntington Beach. We went to the hangout on the corner. They had a great breakfast, but it was, it was actually pretty full, but it was everybody just like, you know, indulging in all you can drink coffee.

[Lauren Gruel]

Refills, little mimosas in there.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah. But that brings me to a bigger point, and this is one thing I wanted to talk about and bring up today is that like the death of the independent restaurant. A lot of people complain that they don't have that like Main street restaurant, that one of a kind restaurant, that Applebee's and Chili's are taking over every rest stop and taking over every street corner in, in some of these Main street areas, which is 100% true. And the reason behind that is just the cost of doing business. So when you've got a multi unit restaurant group, you can kind of, you can bring a lot of those costs up into a, you know, like a corporate line item or you can share those costs across a much bigger swath of restaurants. But what we need to do, looking at California, New York, New Jersey, Florida's done a pretty good job of keeping the restaurant economy strong. But what we need to do is we need to really dig into the costs that are burying these restaurants. And cities need to actually start to incentivize bringing in small single unit mom and pop operators into their main streets as opposed to these large multi unit chains that are everywhere.

[Lauren Gruel]

But also, why do you think people tend to go to these chains instead of the mom and pop?

[Andrew Gruel]

I feel like because they're, they're. Well, first of all, they market a of ton, right. Because they have the money to market a ton by virtue of the number of locations. That in and of itself is marketing. The existence of a restaurant is a billboard for a restaurant elsewhere. So that's number one. Number two, consistency. I think people just feel like, oh, okay, I'm getting.

[Lauren Gruel]

They know what they're gonna get.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, I know what I'm gonna get. It's consistent and they really stand out. Right. They have better locations. Right. A lot of them have drive throughs, they've got corner lots, they got freestanding buildings. So they're just in better locations. Right. And that's the key. I implore everybody to always look through and try and find what the local restaurant is to go and support that restaurant. And in many cases, you might pay a little bit more at those restaurants, but you're typically getting scratch made food that is also much higher quality. But these are those types of public private partnerships that I'm talking about where it's like cities can basically create tax incentives and build out incentives and permanent incentives. And we're doing that in Huntington Beach. What are ways in which which we can get more of these small independent mom and pops in and highlight them, whether that's making the permitting process a lot easier. Getting some of the pocket listings. Because when you have a really good location, and one of the cliches in a restaurant industry is location, location, location, a lot of times those are listings that never go to market and they go right to the corporate representative who takes it before it can go out on the market to get one of those good locations.

[Lauren Gruel]

That's all good information, honey.

[Andrew Gruel]

It is great information. Because if you build it, they will come like it's a culinary scavenger hunt. We've talked a lot about food, which is great, but I think it's time that we give some information out to our listeners here during our Sharpen youn Skills segment. So do we have any cooking tips today, my love?

[Lauren Gruel]

I have one. And this is funny because if you watch our cooking show, the one we have on video, it's on YouTube.

[Andrew Gruel]

American Gravy. It's on Brave plus as well. Yes.

[Lauren Gruel]

Andrew always makes me peel the garlic.

[Andrew Gruel]

That's true.

[Lauren Gruel]

Always. Cause he hates when his hands smell like garlic. Anyway, I have a good tip on that.

[Andrew Gruel]

Okay, shoot.

[Lauren Gruel]

So did you know you can get your garlic or like your shallots, stick them in the microwave for 10 seconds and the outer. What do you want to call it? A little jacket?

[Andrew Gruel]

Little jacket. Little garlic jacket.

[Lauren Gruel]

It peels off.

[Andrew Gruel]

Just a starter coat.

[Lauren Gruel]

It peels off faster.

[Andrew Gruel]

It peels right off.

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah.

[Andrew Gruel]

Cause the moisture inside the clove of garlic or the shallot itself, it steams a little bit because that's where the water is. So it actually steams the jacket off in that 10 seconds. But it doesn't cook the allium product itself.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay. Is it just called the skin?

[Andrew Gruel]

It is the skin.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay.

[Andrew Gruel]

It is the skin.

[Lauren Gruel]

I like the jacket, though.

[Andrew Gruel]

I like jacket.

[Lauren Gruel]

It sounds cuter.

[Andrew Gruel]

I'd love a garlic jacket.

[Lauren Gruel]

No, you wouldn't.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, why not? What are you gonna be for Halloween this year? Speaking of garlic?

[Lauren Gruel]

What a witch. Oh, my gosh.

[Andrew Gruel]

Witches aren't afraid of garlic. You're thinking of a vampire.

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't know. Cause last year. No. Was it last year or two years ago?

[Andrew Gruel]

I don't know. I don't know what you're gonna say.

[Lauren Gruel]

So remember we went to the Halloween party, and I was so excited. I was like, oh, I'm finally gonna dress up. I dressed up as Uma Thurman in. What's that movie?

[Andrew Gruel]

Pulp Fiction.

[Lauren Gruel]

Pulp Fiction. I got the wig. I got the red lipstick, the fake cigarette. I was so excited.

[Andrew Gruel]

I got the beauty mark.

[Lauren Gruel]

Then we get to the party. Not one single adult is dressed up.

[Andrew Gruel]

It is true. So we played it off like she could.

[Liberty Mutual Legal Disclaimer]

She.

[Andrew Gruel]

She left the wig on, got rid of the beauty mark and the fake cigarette. She's like, oh, this is what I happen to be wearing today. She's like, I'm going for this Uma Thurman thing.

[Lauren Gruel]

I'm kind of nervous.

[Andrew Gruel]

So we did show up at the party, and nobody was dressed but you guys ready for this? You weren't even dressed. Lauren's wasn't bad. No, that's not true. Don't you remember? I had the inflatable dinosaur costume on. So that was very awkward for our social group.

[Lauren Gruel]

Yeah. Well, we're not invited back to that party.

[Andrew Gruel]

We're not invited back because the tail of my dinosaur thing dropped every knocked.

[Lauren Gruel]

Everywhere all the jello shit that they parented.

[Andrew Gruel]

It did. Yeah. Lauren and I don't have many friends, so that's why you're my best friend. We're pretty awkward in social settings especially. Cause everyone's always like, oh, my gosh, what do you think of the food? You're the chef.

[Lauren Gruel]

And you know what? I find that funny. When we go to people's houses, they are so intimidated to have us eat their food. They're like, oh, gosh, I hope it's okay. And we're like, what? Like, we are not picky at all.

[Andrew Gruel]

If someone is cooking for me, the food is already 10 out of 10. Like, that's what people need to realize. Do not be intimidated cooking for chefs or restaurant people, because we're used to providing food for other people.

[Lauren Gruel]

Exactly. We are used to being the ones providing it. We're doing the events. We're doing all this stuff. And I love when we don't have to do anything.

[Andrew Gruel]

The only thing I'm ever gonna judge is the ratio of milk to cereal in a cereal bowl, so.

[Lauren Gruel]

Well, I don't think we're eating cereal at anyone's houses.

[Andrew Gruel]

No, but that's my point is that I'm used to just eating cereal. So although I cut back.

[Lauren Gruel]

I cook you dinner.

[Andrew Gruel]

You do? Lauren is the chef at home. She cooks us great dinner. Although last night I threw a little sausage, a little chicken sausage stew together.

[Lauren Gruel]

It was very delicious.

[Andrew Gruel]

Kids love it. Kids loved it. You want to know what I did? I pan seared a bunch of sausage, and I threw my chicken breast in the pan, and then I threw some beef stock in there and a little bit of that tomato stuff you had leftover. Then I turned the heat off, right. And I let the steam finish cooking everything, turned the heat back on, pulled the protein out. But then I threw the sausage was left in the pan with the chicken juices and the beef stock. So then the chicken was sitting on a plate, resting, just, you know, hanging out, having a cigarette. And I brought the pan back up to, like, a medium high heat, and I threw a big old chunk of butter in there, mounted the sauce at the end. That's called monte au beurre in French cooking. And then pulled the sauce together, poured it over the chicken with the sausage, and bingo. Bongo. Oh, yeah, that was it. So let's 86 something today.

[Lauren Gruel]

Okay.

[Andrew Gruel]

What do you hate? What do you want to see go Hate?

[Lauren Gruel]

I don't hate, and I don't want to see go. But the overuse of AI. Because I'm getting to the age now where I can't really tell what's. What's AI like, you're getting to the age.

[Andrew Gruel]

She's listening to closed captioning. She's going to bed at 6pm I'm.

[Lauren Gruel]

Only 37, by the way. Yeah, but I don't know what that is. Okay, so, like, I'll watch a video, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. And then our oldest son will be like, mom, that's AI. I have some stuff too, so I'm not against AI. I think it's great. I love it. Using chat GPT. I'm not gonna lie, you know, I think that's nice to have. But, like, these videos are, like, driving me insane because I can't tell if it's real or not.

[Andrew Gruel]

I totally agree that. I was looking at something with the kids last night, and it was like a tornado. And then the tornado picked the guy up and, like, threw him around, and he landed on a roof and broke through the roof. And then he was in the basement of the house. This is how quickly it happened. I thought it was real.

[Lauren Gruel]

And then our kids, I was like.

[Andrew Gruel]

Look at that tornado. That's unbelievable. Yeah, like, dad, you're an idiot.

[Lauren Gruel]

I saw a similar video where the tornado picked up the family dog and took it. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And then it took me a second and I was like, oh my gosh. This is AI.

[Andrew Gruel]

You know how I know that Lauren loves ChatGPT is cause I'll get these love notes from her or she'll be like. And she'll write to me. She'll be like, I've been pontificating about the romance in our lives and I think we need to transcend this moment. And I'm like, oh my God, she's chatgpt.

[Lauren Gruel]

In our life, I've never chatgpt a friggin love note to you. I will tell you that. They come from here. And what I'm doing right now is I'm holding my heart.

[Andrew Gruel]

She's pointing to her butt.

[Lauren Gruel]

Oh my God, I'm gonna kick your butt. Speaking of butts, I'm gonna kick yours.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, that is right. So you know, wow. We went through a lot today, but Cracker Barrel restaurant overview, you name it, 86 it. We're still looking for the 86 it items from all of our listeners. So you know the place to find us is on X. I'm gruel.

[Lauren Gruel]

I'm @Laurengruel or Instagram. Laurengruel. I'm more active on my Instagram. You're more active on your ex?

[Andrew Gruel]

Yes, I am more active on my ex as well as very, very active on my Facebook messenger.

[Lauren Gruel]

That's weird.

[Andrew Gruel]

I'm actually not. I don't know why I was trying to come up with something funny there.

[Lauren Gruel]

All right, well, on that note. On that note.

[Andrew Gruel]

Yeah, on that note, we're gonna be wrapping it up here, so make sure you hit us with your stories. Thank you for all the sandwich recommendations that everybody gave us last week. We've had 11 sandwiches today alone. I'm excited about my 12th. All right, and see you later.

[Lauren Gruel]

Bye.

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What.

[Lauren Gruel]

Kind of man would let this happen to his family?

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[Lauren Gruel]

On a story about the Murdochs, their.

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[Lauren Gruel]

This is an iHeart podcast.