December 11, 2025 • 36 mins
With beef prices soaring this past year and many consumers considering affordability when going out to eat, many diners are skimping on entrees, ordering appetizers instead. According to Buyers Edge Platform, appetizer sales across the U.S. this year surged 20% through August. Sales of entrees were flat versus past growth, averaging around 3%. When going out to eat, are you also skipping the entrees and sticking with just apps? Listeners called in with their game plan now for dining out!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBSY, Boston's met Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let me just take a moment here very quickly to
remind all of you that the thirteenth annual Night Side
Charity Combine. We have our lineup completed, so those of
you who are even sending in the last couple of
days requests to be included. We've advertised it for a
couple of weeks and you know it's a first come,
(00:31):
first served deal. So we will profile about twenty charities
for you on Tuesday night, less than two weeks from now,
on the twenty third of December. That is my last broadcast,
our last broadcast for the year. I will be back
after New Year's obviously, but I like to end the
(00:52):
year my broadcast year in those last couple of hours
from ten to twelve with about twenty great charities. Give
you an opportunity to find out what great charitable work
is being done in and around your community. Maybe you
might want to get involved as a volunteer, maybe you
might want to get involved as a contributor. There will
be a plenty of different type charities, big charities, small charities,
(01:16):
charities you've never heard of before, charities you're very familiar with.
All of them will be five oh one ce threes
or the equivalent mean everyone, meaning every one of them
are legitimate charities that would could use some help and
some assistance. So we will put together that. If you're
one of the charities that have been in contact with,
(01:37):
we will contact you late next week, probably Wednesday, Thursday
or Friday, and we will give you your slot. You
will be told when. It's all by telephone. In the
old days, before I started working remotely, we would meet
in a studio, whether it was at soldiers Field WBZ
(02:01):
Radio studios on soldiers Field Road, whether it was in
Medford at the iHeartRadio studios. But for the last few
years I've been working remotely, so it's all through the
ease of a telephone. And you'll have about four minutes
in which we will ask you about your mission and
who you serve and what you do and what help
you need and all of that, and it goes like clockwork.
(02:22):
It's like landing twenty planes at Logan Airport. So if
we will give you a window on which we want
you to be ready, and we would ask you to
be there with your phone on and when Rob tells
you you're a minute away, turn the phone down because,
as all of our callers know, we have a ten
second delay here on Night Side. We have a ten
(02:42):
second delay in order for everybody to behave themselves and
not use bad words all of that. But the issue
that we have with everyone is what I'm saying right
now will not be broadcast over the air for ten seconds.
(03:05):
And that is so that if anybody calls up and
sometimes utters a bad word, we keep our FCC license.
So anyway, enough said on that, Okay, I want to week.
Last night, we talked for three hours last night about
a subject that really took off, and that was the
(03:26):
cannabis cafes which are coming to Massachusetts. And as we
predicted last night, that vote was taken today by the
Cannabis Commission here in Massachusetts and they have authorized the
creation of regulations and you will very soon see cannabis
(03:47):
cafes or locations where you'll be able to go and
purchase marijuana, marijuana based products, and you'll be able to
partake of those products. Currently, you can go to a
dispensary and you can purchase the product and you can
go home and utilize it in the privacy of your
home alone with friends, family, or whatever. But now you'll
(04:08):
be able to go out to commercial establishments, which is
another step. And we'd spent three hours last night. So
one of the topics that we were going to talk
about last night, and I think it's an interesting topic
and I hope you will as well, is has the
increase in a lot of costs associated with COVID. There
(04:32):
has been inflation that was roaring during much of the
four years of President Biden, and all of those inflationary
pressures have not been tamped down as yet. Some have.
Gasoline prices are down, which is good. Hopefully home heating
oil prices will also be down, because when gas prices
(04:56):
go down, home heating oil prices can go down. One
thing that really probably hasn't gone down are some food items.
There are some food items that went up, and the
businesses that sell those food items in grocery stores have
kept those items, in my opinion, up unfairly. The only
(05:19):
way to deal with that is to not to buy
the items. I've told I think all of you that
when I shop at whether it's Roach Brothers or Market
Basket or Shaws, those are the three grocery stores that
I go to for different reasons. Shaws is convenient, Roach
Brothers has some very good quality products that I seek,
(05:42):
and market Basket is the most reasonable, the most efficient,
the most consumer friendly. I wish I had a market
Basket as close to me were that I could walk to.
I would spend all my time at market Basket, with
some exceptions in terms of Roach brother But putting that aside,
there are items that I used to buy and items
(06:03):
that I liked. I had the discipline I'm not. On
principle the prices of some items should go down. They haven't,
and on principle I can afford the extra dollar or so.
But on principle I have said no now. James Rojas
yesterday found a story that apparently diners across the country
(06:27):
as well as here in New England, have been flocking
to what they call happy hours, not happy hours, but
happy hours, a period of time when there are apps
at special prices, appetizers that's the short for apps. Also,
there are a lot of people who like to go
out to eat. One way in which you can save
(06:49):
money is not to go out to eat, because going
out to eat is in of itself expensive, that beer
that can be in your refrigerator. When you think about it,
you can get a case of very decent beer for
about a dollar or less for a beer if you
go to a store, if you go to a restaurant,
(07:12):
what's that beer going to cost you? At least eight
bucks in all probability, and maybe in some cases a
little more, maybe a little less, but for the most part,
it is a multiple of what you buy if you
go to a liquor store and bring home a case
of beer and put any refriserator. Same way with a
glass of wine. You buy a fine bottle of wine
for ten or twelve dollars, we have three or four
(07:33):
glasses of wine. Out of that cost you, you know, two, three,
four dollars a glass. Tops you try doing that at
a restaurant, that same glass of wine is going to
be fourteen or sixteen dollars. It's a multiple of what
you would pay at home. But another way in which
people are starting to try to continue to go to
(07:53):
restaurants and save some money is what James Rojas was
reporting about yesterday. So let's first of all, play one
of James's stories from yesterday again. We were going to
do this story yesterday, but we were overwhelmed by the
amount of people who are interested in the cannabis cafes
the arrival of cannabis cafes on both sides of the
(08:14):
argument yesterday. By the way, so let's go to cut
a please.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Rob Ian and Michael have no problem spending over one
hundred dollars here at South Street Diner.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
What aren't we any today?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
My work gave us one hundred dollars just for travel
and fair we got a spread today.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But this high dollar dining experience appears to be on
the decline, as a recent study found more people are
buying appetizers over pricier entrees, a twenty percent increase this year.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
Some friends that are a little more budget conscious to.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Order appetizers or like share it with their partner, even
though it may not be the best bang for you
about but more just like going out with friends and
like trying to spend the least a mount as possible.
Restaurants may start leaning into this direction, offering more sereble
menu options and bundles at South Street. James Rojas WBZ
Boston Snooze Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I Know South Street Diner A hundred bucks at South
street and a diner, kind of a fancy diner. I
get that, but that's a lot. Look. One of the
ways I'd love to know if you have changed your
dining habits. Meaning now, there are some people who go
out every weekend, there are some people who go out
(09:26):
once a weekend, once a month, and there are some
who might go out only on special occasions. It doesn't matter,
but I would love to know, irrespective of whether you
are a weekly a diner, you know, a restaurant visitor,
if you are somebody who goes out more than once
a week, there are some people out there who are
(09:48):
able to go out three or four nights a week. Okay,
that's fine. My question is have you changed your ordering habits?
Are you the type of person who was saying, look,
look the entree prices have gone up at my favorite restaurant.
I still want to go to my favorite restaurant, but
instead of paying for two entrees, if you're going out
(10:10):
with your spouse or your partner, we might order one
entree and one app. And the app is probably going
to be less expensive than a full entree. Uh and
and and you know, save a little bit. There's other
ways to save and still enjoy dining experience. If you
(10:31):
live close to the restaurant that you're gonna go to,
die go to dine at, you're gonna have a glass
of wine before you go. Uh. And or if your
choices like mine would be a light beer, have a
light beer at home. And particular, if you're going somewhere
this casually casual, and then you order water with you drink,
(10:52):
you have eliminated the bar bill. It's another way. Or
as James Rojas's person is talking about, they'll order an
app and one entree, split an app, split an entree. Okay,
so instead of having again, depending upon where you go,
I recently were at an Olive Garden, one of my
favorite restaurants. The entrees have got a little more expensive there,
(11:14):
but you can't beat Olive Garden in terms of the
humongous salad and the bread sticks. Most restaurants now, particularly
the fancier restaurants, if you'd like to have some bread
with your meal, you have to ask at a minimum,
and in most cases it's going to cost you. But
that's a choice. That's a choice. So I'm going to
(11:34):
just open up the phone lines. The general question is
has your restaurant dining experience, and we're not talking You
don't have to be talking about the top tier, most
expensive restaurants in Boston in the back Bay, the restaurants
(11:54):
where you're going to spend two hundred dollars for two
at a minimum, maybe more. Now I'm talking about wherever
you go, what's your favorite restaurant, and if it's reasonably priced,
what can you get there? Give us an idea. There
are ways, there are ways to still enjoy yourself, and
I think eventually some of these prices are going to
(12:16):
come down. I hope.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Some restaurants are never going to come back down because
they have enough clientele who will walk in through the
door every Friday, every Saturday, or for that matter, every
night of the week, and they will order the top
of the the top of the line items on the menu.
Not me, maybe not you, But there's enough people out
there so that the expensive restaurants will always stay. I
(12:41):
think the restaurants that always seem to go away are
the ones that you find, which are the small, little
restaurants where you get a really decent meal at a
decent price. That's the one that disappears. That's the frustration
anyway six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. And and if
you have a favorite restaurant that you'd like to share
(13:02):
with us, and you're willing to risk sharing the restaurant,
love to hear from you on this one, because we're
always looking for new restaurants to go to. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
And if restaurants have generally become too expensive, I'd love
(13:23):
to know what are you doing. I mean, obviously, the
the least expensive way to eat is to is to
cook at home. It's as simple as that. But most
of us, I think, enjoy going out to a restaurant
on occasion. And whatever the occasion is, or how frequent
that occasion is, it's up to all of us. You
(13:44):
have the numbers, I got the microphone. I'd love to
share it with you. Give us a call. Coming back
on Night Side.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you
bas Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
All right, So we're talking about guiding and of course
dining as it applies to the economy. Let me start
it off with Tim in Woulbern see what his dining
habits have changed or if they stayed the same, tim
welcome next on nightside.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
That's to take my car dan, mine have changed. I
go to the Cafe Estra Drill in Burlington. I've been
going there a couple of years every Saturday. I have
this lady friend that I go out with.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's let me let me ask you. I'm not familiar.
That is that a high end place? I mean, you're
dropping some money at a place like that. It sounds
pretty expensive, it is.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
But what I get? I get an order of mass
potatoes and one Budweiser beer. It cost me twelve dollars. Really,
the girl a ten dollar tip? Twelve bucks?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Okay, I'm near every Saturday and see my friend Givanna.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Now what is your friend? She's not ordering hopefully just
mashed potatoes, so she.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yes, she does.
Speaker 7 (14:56):
I just get an order of massed potatoes in one
Budweiser in a bottle, no glass.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Right, that's what you are about? What? What? What does
your companion get? What does she normally order?
Speaker 7 (15:08):
I'm near, always alone because I go out with us, So.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You pay for yours and she pays for hers. What's
going on?
Speaker 7 (15:16):
I go there alone. I'm alone, I'm single. She works there.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh she works there. Oh, I get it. I thought
she was your date there. I'm sorry, Tim, Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
So she works the right every now and then I
do bring a date, but I go out with her
now and then she's a she's a real nice girl.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh okay, Well that's good to know. Well that's great, Tim,
Not only that you you found you found a place
where you're comfortable and you're not spending a lot of money.
That's not that's a great idea.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Maybe maybe building The building is one of the nicest
buildings other than in the people are great. From A
to Z, it's great. Also. The last time I talked
with you, right, you sent me a tote day and
I got it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Excellent, excellent, it's good quality. I hope, I hope you
use it. I don't know you. You you know you
you get thrown over your shoulder when you're going to
the gym or something, to put your gym stuff in there,
you'll be all set.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
How about this. I was at maca basset and moving
today and I had it over my shoulder. I brought
about seven things. It looks like a bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You bet you. It's a nice it's a good quality
tote bag, and it's got it's canvas, and it's a
heavy duty canvas. So look, I'm delighted that you're out there.
Thanks Tim. Always great to hear your voice. We will
talk before Christmas. But if in the unlikely event we
don't marry Christmas, same to you.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
All right, Thank you Tim. Appreciate it. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine thirty. One of
the ways that I think it's important when we talk
about the economy is to bring it home. We can
I can bring on some great economists on here, and
we can talk about all sorts of issues. Uh, you
know what the did yesterday. But a lot of people
(17:02):
glaze over at that when when you talk about the
economy you talk about. What I like to talk about
is the rubber where the rubber meets the road. And
for me, it's always a grocery store because grocery prices.
Some prices are up, some prices are down. I was
delighted a week or so ago that the egg prices
(17:23):
at Shaws, where I where I can where I will
buy items like that to ninety nine. I remember a
couple of well not a couple of weeks, a couple
of months ago. They were much more expensive than that.
So egg prices they're down, most most prices are, I
think are coming down. In terms of grocery stores. I've
(17:47):
noticed that milk prices have come down a little bit.
Like to see them come down more. Anything that deals
with chocolate, chocolate syrup, chocolate chip cookies, Oreo cookies, Hershey's
chocolate chocolate prices have gone up, So we can talk
about that, but I'd like to focus on your your
(18:09):
dining experiences. That's what I would like to focus on.
Six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty six
one seven, nine, three one ten thirty. James Rojas was
out talking about it yesterday and apparently there is a
trend where some people are pushing back from the table.
They're not doing an appetizer in an entree for for
(18:33):
everybody they're they're they're maybe splitting one entree or they're
having split one entree and split an appetizer. So love
to know what your experience is. No shame in that
at all. And I don't care if you're going to
the most expensive or the least expensive I'd love to know.
I'd also love to know. I'm not an officionado of
(18:55):
McDonald's and Taco bell in places like that. It's just
not my style. Okay, I'm not working out when I
was working and moving around. Yeah, those are the restaurants
you take advantage of. I'm more of an olive garden guy.
I like that style restaurant where it may not be
(19:19):
the top of the line restaurant, but the food's pretty decent.
Six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty six
one seven nine. Don't make me work too hard on this.
All of you have had dining experiences. I'd love to
know if there's a trend joined the conversation coming back
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Radio, So we're talking about your dining habits. I'm not
talking about dining at home. I'm talking about dining at
whatever restaurants you normally go to. You might go to
expensive restaurants, you might go to middle of the road restaurants,
or you might go to restaurants that are very reasonable.
(20:02):
The restaurant experience can be just as good at a
middle of the road or an olive Garden. Then it
can be at a high end restaurant. Sometimes it's even
more relaxing. Let me go to Jack and Newton see
what he has to say. Jacks, have your dining experience
has changed over the last few years or are you
back to where you were pre covid.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Well, it's really prophetic about what you're saying, because just
yesterday I was at Madriano is little literaly right behind
the park Plaza.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Love maggianos I do have. I wish I got them
more often. It's a great Italian restaurant.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
A wonderful Italian restaurant. But the prices, you know, or
you know, thirty seven dollars, forty seven dollars for so
I got an appetizer for only it was sixteen dollars
while attacks ends up closer to aten. There was three
meat balls of waygoul way gu you know beef.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, that's that's expensive.
Speaker 7 (21:02):
That's expensive.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's good beef.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yeah. I had three meals out of the meat bows.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So what did you do get him to go?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Yeah, to go?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Good for you? Good for you? So it might so?
So yeah, how much did what was it? Twenty five bucks?
By time you had tax and tip and all that.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
No, six seven seventeen dollars and thirty seventeen dollars and
thirty cents, so you would.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You were talking with three meals. It was about six
dollars a meal. You went home and you boiled some
spaghetti apasta on that.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah, good for you, jack.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
That's that's that's that's a that's a great example of
using your head. A lot of people get intimidated they
go into a restaurant. Now I haven't been in Manchiano's
in a couple of years, but I used to like
it a lot. I'll like it a little less if
the prices have gone up and have stayed up. But
this is there's a bunch of restaurants you can walk
(21:59):
in and if you're there with some other person and
you're picking up the tab, you can get to three
feet two get a hundred dollars pretty easily. Because if
there's one drink and a couple of entrees, and who knows,
if there's a small dessert, you're over ding ding ding
ding ding. You're over one hundred dollars before you know it.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
Well, I tell you, I know, if you're with your
girlfriend or whatever, Yeah, do that. You can't go in
and just have an appetizer to go.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
No, no, absolutely no, we get that. Okay, we get that.
But it's just when you you know, we were at
an olive garden, as they say, a couple of weeks
ago with my wife, our son, and grandson and it
was just perfect, you know, I mean, it's it's it's
(22:50):
the place you want to bring a you know, a
three and a half year old, because they're always going
to make noise. You're gotta make sure that nothing gets
knocked over on the day.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
But I bet your advertiser wasn't much less than eighteen seventeen,
sixteen dollars anyway. And Margiano's as a place now you're
not you're not going to bring a three year ow.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah right, well they were. I'll tell you the the
olive garden entrees were up. All of them were over
twenty twenty twenty one. But again, you get so much
salad there, and they if.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Dono is a high class place, only sixteen so many dollars,
even less if it's a if it's pickles or something else,
really achieved, could be a little as twelve dollars for well,
look with it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
With three three meatballs and then whatever you had to
spend it. That that's you did well.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Meatballs. I don't know if you ever had way to be,
but it's so tender.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yep, that's high end, tigh end. Jack, you did well.
You did well. I'm happy for uh. And uh? What
what is your favorite restaurant? If you and I were
going out to dinner some night? What and and uh?
I said to you, Jack, let's go to your favorite restaurant.
I got to pick up the tab. Where would you
(24:12):
want to go?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Well, I'd like O'Hara's.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And I like O'Haras, And O'Haras is a good middle.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
Of the road restaurant. I like it a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, but that's that's still middle of the road. We
used to go there a lot. We had some friends
who used to enjoy that. That was one of their
favorite restaurants. I don't want to lose restaurants like that.
Those are the restaurants, uh, family owned restaurants. I hope
O'Haras is still a family owned restaurant where you can
win and you walk out, and you you go in
(24:43):
there on a Saturday night or a Sunday night, and
you say, okay, that was well worth whatever it was.
Great call, great call. Thanks Jack. We'll talk soon. Okay,
thank you, Thanks buddy. Yeah, I'd love to know what
your favorite restaurant is, particularly if it's a re simply
price restaurant. I mean, if they're gonna tell me you
you want to pick some restaurant that Uh yeah, there's
(25:06):
there's a restaurant downtown at the top of Beacon Hill
called Moo m oh oh, and there a couple of times. Uh,
pretty expensive, lovely, don't get me wrong, high end. Uh,
you are going to order even if you order an
app and one entree, it's going to cost you. Let
me go next to CG and Cambridge CG as your
(25:29):
dining experience has changed in the last couple of years.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
No, we have some great guys that know where to
eat and at good prices. We went there was seven
of us went over to wind Thrip.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
We all live all all around Greater Boston, so we
have to drive there and we meet it one spot
locally and end up maybe two cars or two three cars.
And we went to a place. It used to be
called Rassinis. It's changed hands, but it was the cooks
(26:04):
that worked at that restaurant are still there and they're
now owners of the restaurant, so the food is just
as good as it was. The guy that opened it
opened it at like forty years ago and he hit
his late seventies and he retired, so he sold it
to his cooks and the food was fabulous. We give
(26:26):
exceptionally good tips. Who were there for like two hours.
There's seven of us, and we always give a ten
dollars tip per person, and we did a fabulous They
did a fabulous job. They had one meal that I love,
especially if you're the right tide to see. It's a
shrimp scampy. I had six large pieces of shrimp. The
(26:49):
food was cooked perfectly, The gallic bread was toasted perfectly.
We all got our food at the same tang. It
was all distributed at the same time to seven people
with seven different meals. And because the three cooks cooked
able food together and thought it all over at the
same time, they treated us wonderfully.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
We didn't have any drinks, any alcohol of beer when
we go to eat, we don't so as we're driving,
absolutely and we can all afford, you know, like once
a month we do that and then another time of
the month, we go to one of our friend's houses.
He's hit a basement that looks like a nightclub, and
(27:31):
his family don't even use it anymore because it's his
family is so large, it's not used enough. So we
go to his house once once a month and he
cooks for us.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
So no, So the restaurant before we leave. The restaurant,
you said it was Raffines in Winthrop.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
In Winthrop, it's no longer in Raffinies. It's it's changed
names that I can't recall the name right.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well, that's okay. People will know where it is if
they're up in the right.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Across this right across the three from Winsorth Peach.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh, yeah, no, I know exactly. I know exactly where
you're talking about. Well, that's a good one. And uh
and it sounds to me like how much were you
paying for entrees there? Roughly on average?
Speaker 4 (28:16):
Oh? You know, everything was mixed together. Like when I
had the firm scampia, they offered me saling and I
want to have salad. I did have the toasted garlic bread. Yeah,
and I was one of the most expensive meals. It
came to twenty nine dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Okay, so that's what I'm saying. So you're talking about
twenty twenty five dollars entrees, depending upon which of my
tall less.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Some of them were less than that. Okay, to the
seven people, four of them took half of their meal
home with them. The meals. The amount of food that
you grow up was more than you could eat.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's always a great sign of a restaurant. Trust beyond that. Yeah, CJ,
I pretty good seaching absolutely that you know what, And
I'm sure that there's some people who are listening tonight
who know exactly where you talking about and what happens
is sometimes even with a good restaurant, you forget about
it until you mentioned and you say, you know, why
haven't I gone there lately? So yeah, I'm with you.
(29:09):
I'm totally with you.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I think the name of the news, the new name
of the rest of it is Della Paraiso.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, if I can spell Raffini's, I can't spell della Farraiso.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
So time even remember, right, CG.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Thank you much man. Always great to hear your voice. Thanks,
great suggestion.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
All right, holiday and Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Merry Christmas to you as well. Thanks CJ. CG. We're
going to take a very quick break here, and I
got wide open lines, which always bugs me. So look,
we're talking about something anybody can talk about. I'd love
to know what your dining experiences have been lately. Have
you changed your dining experiences and perhaps have gone to
(29:53):
less uh pretentious, less expensive restaurants as a consequence of
what's going on with no shame in that. How do
you maximize your money at restaurants these days? And the
piece that we played from James Rojas earlier, people are
now ordering as opposed to two entrees. Some people have said, well,
(30:18):
we'll do one entree, maybe split that and we'll split
an app. Uh. It's probably good for your waistline and
it's probably good for your wallet. But i'd love to
know what your favorite restaurant is. We can change topics
at eleven, but this is something that that I committed
to yesterday and I'm doing it now. And if you
don't want to call that, your choice, but i'd love
(30:39):
to hear a suggestion or two from you. Six one, seven, two,
five thirty, six seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. Last night,
people couldn't get through because the lines were so hot
on the cannabis cafes. Look, this is an opportunity. Feel
free to join the conversation. Be right back here on
night Side. Right after that, you have the numbers.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The way night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio,
we got.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The phone lines going a little bit. I thank you
very much, folks. Let us go to George and Westwood. George,
you were next on Nightside. Has your dining practices changed?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Not at all, Dan, not pre pandemic, not post pandemic.
First of all, I just want to clarify something by McDonald's. Dan.
I'm a Greek immigrant. I came to this country when
I was nine with my parents, Dante. I had to
eat my mother's cooking twenty four five, So growing up
(31:40):
for me, McDonald's was gourmet food.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I've got you.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Said, AFC.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Please understand that.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
No, I totally get it. Look, I remember when I
was young and the nineteen cent Hamburgers were a treat.
Trust me on that. Okay, Yeah, I thought it was
great because you were eating out. No.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
No, I was always a Bertucci guy, but food caality
went down, so I stopped at for a bit over
a year.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
You know, let me say, Bertucci's has had big problems. Uh,
I just I'm fearful we're going to lose Bertucci's. I
know that they've reorganized and all of that. There's one
in West Roxbury that we avail ourselves of every once
in a while. But it used to be it used
to be better. I don't know why why they let
(32:28):
it go away. I don't know if the bean counters
came in and decided to it's not what it used
to be. Yeah, go right ahead. I didn't mean.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Only the bread is the same. Only the bread is
the same with Bertucci's. Nothing else but Uh, in the summertime,
we were down the Cape and Mashby. We either go
to epic Oyster and Falmouth or to Shippers in Yarmouth.
Or if we go to mashb commerce, who might go
to the Greek restaurant or twenty Italian restaurant or even
(32:58):
the Japanese restaurant. When I'm up in Westwood, Uh, basically
we only go out on the holidays with a family.
And let me tell you, Dan, we we read about
this in the Times, read about it in the Globe,
about family, you know, having political discussions. Well it happened
this It happened this Thanksgiving with me, Dan, uh, we
(33:20):
Trump supporters, we talk in a civilized matter, but the
liberal stuff barking like animals. It happened to me this
Thanksgiving with an in law. Well guess what, Dan, this Christmas,
we're going out to a restaurant with my family, Okay,
And all I can say is I don't even look
at the prices.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, yeah, who was that? You had the argument? Was
it a cousin twice removed? Or was a.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Cousin's wife and he did not put and he did
not put her in place a cousin's wife, Dan, Okay,
George did not put her in place.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
We'll talk about political battles that I'm going and I'm
gonna want you to call in, but we'll let her
off the hook for tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Okay, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Going back to foods Okay, like I said, you know,
like I say, the.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Good Lord bless me, Dan. So basically, sometimes the wine
hits two or three hundred dollars, it is what it is, Dan,
You know, but I don't go I don't go out
that often. That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
You gotta adjust. And guess what if we all adjusted,
the prices would come down.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
It's a simple and one last thing. Then about a
couple of months ago, I started doing fasting water only
in coffee only, black coffee only fasting. I do that.
I do that twice. I'm up now, Dan, either three
or four days. Okay. There's two things special things about
that versus kittosis, when you start burning fat because you'ren't
(34:48):
having no cops to burn. And the second thing is
a prophagy, when your cells revitalize, the good cells eat
the bad cells out of the body. And then that
adds life. It has years to your life. It has
years to your life.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Excellent, George, excellent.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Good And I lost seventeen pounds. I'll fine the last
two months, man, good for you.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Keep it off. Now, keep it off. Okay, that's right.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Well I will I put some back on when I
study it again. But the graph slow. Let's the graph
goes down. It just goes down.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
You go to the right direct. George, Thank you much,
my friend. We'll talk again. Call more off and I
love to call. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yes, sir, all right, Well how.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Much we got here? Rob? How much time? Okay, I'm
not thirty seconds. I'm not going to cram a call.
I'm going to make a deal here. Joel, Maureen Warren,
and Ali stay right there. I will get to all
of you right after the news at the top of
the hour. I thank you for calling in, and we'll
stick with this subject and maybe we might get another
(35:52):
hour out of it. But Joel, Maureen Warren and Ali,
you guys stay there. I appreciate your call, and we'll
be back on night Side right after this
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBSY, Boston's met Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let me just take a moment here very quickly to
remind all of you that the thirteenth annual Night Side
Charity Combine. We have our lineup completed, so those of
you who are even sending in the last couple of
days requests to be included. We've advertised it for a
couple of weeks and you know it's a first come,
(00:31):
first served deal. So we will profile about twenty charities
for you on Tuesday night, less than two weeks from now,
on the twenty third of December. That is my last broadcast,
our last broadcast for the year. I will be back
after New Year's obviously, but I like to end the
(00:52):
year my broadcast year in those last couple of hours
from ten to twelve with about twenty great charities. Give
you an opportunity to find out what great charitable work
is being done in and around your community. Maybe you
might want to get involved as a volunteer, maybe you
might want to get involved as a contributor. There will
be a plenty of different type charities, big charities, small charities,
(01:16):
charities you've never heard of before, charities you're very familiar with.
All of them will be five oh one ce threes
or the equivalent mean everyone, meaning every one of them
are legitimate charities that would could use some help and
some assistance. So we will put together that. If you're
one of the charities that have been in contact with,
(01:37):
we will contact you late next week, probably Wednesday, Thursday
or Friday, and we will give you your slot. You
will be told when. It's all by telephone. In the
old days, before I started working remotely, we would meet
in a studio, whether it was at soldiers Field WBZ
(02:01):
Radio studios on soldiers Field Road, whether it was in
Medford at the iHeartRadio studios. But for the last few
years I've been working remotely, so it's all through the
ease of a telephone. And you'll have about four minutes
in which we will ask you about your mission and
who you serve and what you do and what help
you need and all of that, and it goes like clockwork.
(02:22):
It's like landing twenty planes at Logan Airport. So if
we will give you a window on which we want
you to be ready, and we would ask you to
be there with your phone on and when Rob tells
you you're a minute away, turn the phone down because,
as all of our callers know, we have a ten
second delay here on Night Side. We have a ten
(02:42):
second delay in order for everybody to behave themselves and
not use bad words all of that. But the issue
that we have with everyone is what I'm saying right
now will not be broadcast over the air for ten seconds.
(03:05):
And that is so that if anybody calls up and
sometimes utters a bad word, we keep our FCC license.
So anyway, enough said on that, Okay, I want to week.
Last night, we talked for three hours last night about
a subject that really took off, and that was the
(03:26):
cannabis cafes which are coming to Massachusetts. And as we
predicted last night, that vote was taken today by the
Cannabis Commission here in Massachusetts and they have authorized the
creation of regulations and you will very soon see cannabis
(03:47):
cafes or locations where you'll be able to go and
purchase marijuana, marijuana based products, and you'll be able to
partake of those products. Currently, you can go to a
dispensary and you can purchase the product and you can
go home and utilize it in the privacy of your
home alone with friends, family, or whatever. But now you'll
(04:08):
be able to go out to commercial establishments, which is
another step. And we'd spent three hours last night. So
one of the topics that we were going to talk
about last night, and I think it's an interesting topic
and I hope you will as well, is has the
increase in a lot of costs associated with COVID. There
(04:32):
has been inflation that was roaring during much of the
four years of President Biden, and all of those inflationary
pressures have not been tamped down as yet. Some have.
Gasoline prices are down, which is good. Hopefully home heating
oil prices will also be down, because when gas prices
(04:56):
go down, home heating oil prices can go down. One
thing that really probably hasn't gone down are some food items.
There are some food items that went up, and the
businesses that sell those food items in grocery stores have
kept those items, in my opinion, up unfairly. The only
(05:19):
way to deal with that is to not to buy
the items. I've told I think all of you that
when I shop at whether it's Roach Brothers or Market
Basket or Shaws, those are the three grocery stores that
I go to for different reasons. Shaws is convenient, Roach
Brothers has some very good quality products that I seek,
(05:42):
and market Basket is the most reasonable, the most efficient,
the most consumer friendly. I wish I had a market
Basket as close to me were that I could walk to.
I would spend all my time at market Basket, with
some exceptions in terms of Roach brother But putting that aside,
there are items that I used to buy and items
(06:03):
that I liked. I had the discipline I'm not. On
principle the prices of some items should go down. They haven't,
and on principle I can afford the extra dollar or so.
But on principle I have said no now. James Rojas
yesterday found a story that apparently diners across the country
(06:27):
as well as here in New England, have been flocking
to what they call happy hours, not happy hours, but
happy hours, a period of time when there are apps
at special prices, appetizers that's the short for apps. Also,
there are a lot of people who like to go
out to eat. One way in which you can save
(06:49):
money is not to go out to eat, because going
out to eat is in of itself expensive, that beer
that can be in your refrigerator. When you think about it,
you can get a case of very decent beer for
about a dollar or less for a beer if you
go to a store, if you go to a restaurant,
(07:12):
what's that beer going to cost you? At least eight
bucks in all probability, and maybe in some cases a
little more, maybe a little less, but for the most part,
it is a multiple of what you buy if you
go to a liquor store and bring home a case
of beer and put any refriserator. Same way with a
glass of wine. You buy a fine bottle of wine
for ten or twelve dollars, we have three or four
(07:33):
glasses of wine. Out of that cost you, you know, two, three,
four dollars a glass. Tops you try doing that at
a restaurant, that same glass of wine is going to
be fourteen or sixteen dollars. It's a multiple of what
you would pay at home. But another way in which
people are starting to try to continue to go to
(07:53):
restaurants and save some money is what James Rojas was
reporting about yesterday. So let's first of all, play one
of James's stories from yesterday again. We were going to
do this story yesterday, but we were overwhelmed by the
amount of people who are interested in the cannabis cafes
the arrival of cannabis cafes on both sides of the
(08:14):
argument yesterday. By the way, so let's go to cut
a please.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Rob Ian and Michael have no problem spending over one
hundred dollars here at South Street Diner.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
What aren't we any today?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
My work gave us one hundred dollars just for travel
and fair we got a spread today.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But this high dollar dining experience appears to be on
the decline, as a recent study found more people are
buying appetizers over pricier entrees, a twenty percent increase this year.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
Some friends that are a little more budget conscious to.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Order appetizers or like share it with their partner, even
though it may not be the best bang for you
about but more just like going out with friends and
like trying to spend the least a mount as possible.
Restaurants may start leaning into this direction, offering more sereble
menu options and bundles at South Street. James Rojas WBZ
Boston Snooze Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I Know South Street Diner A hundred bucks at South
street and a diner, kind of a fancy diner. I
get that, but that's a lot. Look. One of the
ways I'd love to know if you have changed your
dining habits. Meaning now, there are some people who go
out every weekend, there are some people who go out
(09:26):
once a weekend, once a month, and there are some
who might go out only on special occasions. It doesn't matter,
but I would love to know, irrespective of whether you
are a weekly a diner, you know, a restaurant visitor,
if you are somebody who goes out more than once
a week, there are some people out there who are
(09:48):
able to go out three or four nights a week. Okay,
that's fine. My question is have you changed your ordering habits?
Are you the type of person who was saying, look,
look the entree prices have gone up at my favorite restaurant.
I still want to go to my favorite restaurant, but
instead of paying for two entrees, if you're going out
(10:10):
with your spouse or your partner, we might order one
entree and one app. And the app is probably going
to be less expensive than a full entree. Uh and
and and you know, save a little bit. There's other
ways to save and still enjoy dining experience. If you
(10:31):
live close to the restaurant that you're gonna go to,
die go to dine at, you're gonna have a glass
of wine before you go. Uh. And or if your
choices like mine would be a light beer, have a
light beer at home. And particular, if you're going somewhere
this casually casual, and then you order water with you drink,
(10:52):
you have eliminated the bar bill. It's another way. Or
as James Rojas's person is talking about, they'll order an
app and one entree, split an app, split an entree. Okay,
so instead of having again, depending upon where you go,
I recently were at an Olive Garden, one of my
favorite restaurants. The entrees have got a little more expensive there,
(11:14):
but you can't beat Olive Garden in terms of the
humongous salad and the bread sticks. Most restaurants now, particularly
the fancier restaurants, if you'd like to have some bread
with your meal, you have to ask at a minimum,
and in most cases it's going to cost you. But
that's a choice. That's a choice. So I'm going to
(11:34):
just open up the phone lines. The general question is
has your restaurant dining experience, and we're not talking You
don't have to be talking about the top tier, most
expensive restaurants in Boston in the back Bay, the restaurants
(11:54):
where you're going to spend two hundred dollars for two
at a minimum, maybe more. Now I'm talking about wherever
you go, what's your favorite restaurant, and if it's reasonably priced,
what can you get there? Give us an idea. There
are ways, there are ways to still enjoy yourself, and
I think eventually some of these prices are going to
(12:16):
come down. I hope.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Some restaurants are never going to come back down because
they have enough clientele who will walk in through the
door every Friday, every Saturday, or for that matter, every
night of the week, and they will order the top
of the the top of the line items on the menu.
Not me, maybe not you, But there's enough people out
there so that the expensive restaurants will always stay. I
(12:41):
think the restaurants that always seem to go away are
the ones that you find, which are the small, little
restaurants where you get a really decent meal at a
decent price. That's the one that disappears. That's the frustration
anyway six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
one seven nine three one ten thirty. And and if
you have a favorite restaurant that you'd like to share
(13:02):
with us, and you're willing to risk sharing the restaurant,
love to hear from you on this one, because we're
always looking for new restaurants to go to. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
And if restaurants have generally become too expensive, I'd love
(13:23):
to know what are you doing. I mean, obviously, the
the least expensive way to eat is to is to
cook at home. It's as simple as that. But most
of us, I think, enjoy going out to a restaurant
on occasion. And whatever the occasion is, or how frequent
that occasion is, it's up to all of us. You
(13:44):
have the numbers, I got the microphone. I'd love to
share it with you. Give us a call. Coming back
on Night Side.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you
bas Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
All right, So we're talking about guiding and of course
dining as it applies to the economy. Let me start
it off with Tim in Woulbern see what his dining
habits have changed or if they stayed the same, tim
welcome next on nightside.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
That's to take my car dan, mine have changed. I
go to the Cafe Estra Drill in Burlington. I've been
going there a couple of years every Saturday. I have
this lady friend that I go out with.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's let me let me ask you. I'm not familiar.
That is that a high end place? I mean, you're
dropping some money at a place like that. It sounds
pretty expensive, it is.
Speaker 7 (14:34):
But what I get? I get an order of mass
potatoes and one Budweiser beer. It cost me twelve dollars. Really,
the girl a ten dollar tip? Twelve bucks?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Okay, I'm near every Saturday and see my friend Givanna.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Now what is your friend? She's not ordering hopefully just
mashed potatoes, so she.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yes, she does.
Speaker 7 (14:56):
I just get an order of massed potatoes in one
Budweiser in a bottle, no glass.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Right, that's what you are about? What? What? What does
your companion get? What does she normally order?
Speaker 7 (15:08):
I'm near, always alone because I go out with us, So.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
You pay for yours and she pays for hers. What's
going on?
Speaker 7 (15:16):
I go there alone. I'm alone, I'm single. She works there.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh she works there. Oh, I get it. I thought
she was your date there. I'm sorry, Tim, Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
So she works the right every now and then I
do bring a date, but I go out with her
now and then she's a she's a real nice girl.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Oh okay, Well that's good to know. Well that's great, Tim,
Not only that you you found you found a place
where you're comfortable and you're not spending a lot of money.
That's not that's a great idea.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Maybe maybe building The building is one of the nicest
buildings other than in the people are great. From A
to Z, it's great. Also. The last time I talked
with you, right, you sent me a tote day and
I got it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Excellent, excellent, it's good quality. I hope, I hope you
use it. I don't know you. You you know you
you get thrown over your shoulder when you're going to
the gym or something, to put your gym stuff in there,
you'll be all set.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
How about this. I was at maca basset and moving
today and I had it over my shoulder. I brought
about seven things. It looks like a bucks.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You bet you. It's a nice it's a good quality
tote bag, and it's got it's canvas, and it's a
heavy duty canvas. So look, I'm delighted that you're out there.
Thanks Tim. Always great to hear your voice. We will
talk before Christmas. But if in the unlikely event we
don't marry Christmas, same to you.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
All right, Thank you Tim. Appreciate it. Six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine thirty. One of
the ways that I think it's important when we talk
about the economy is to bring it home. We can
I can bring on some great economists on here, and
we can talk about all sorts of issues. Uh, you
know what the did yesterday. But a lot of people
(17:02):
glaze over at that when when you talk about the
economy you talk about. What I like to talk about
is the rubber where the rubber meets the road. And
for me, it's always a grocery store because grocery prices.
Some prices are up, some prices are down. I was
delighted a week or so ago that the egg prices
(17:23):
at Shaws, where I where I can where I will
buy items like that to ninety nine. I remember a
couple of well not a couple of weeks, a couple
of months ago. They were much more expensive than that.
So egg prices they're down, most most prices are, I
think are coming down. In terms of grocery stores. I've
(17:47):
noticed that milk prices have come down a little bit.
Like to see them come down more. Anything that deals
with chocolate, chocolate syrup, chocolate chip cookies, Oreo cookies, Hershey's
chocolate chocolate prices have gone up, So we can talk
about that, but I'd like to focus on your your
(18:09):
dining experiences. That's what I would like to focus on.
Six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty six
one seven, nine, three one ten thirty. James Rojas was
out talking about it yesterday and apparently there is a
trend where some people are pushing back from the table.
They're not doing an appetizer in an entree for for
(18:33):
everybody they're they're they're maybe splitting one entree or they're
having split one entree and split an appetizer. So love
to know what your experience is. No shame in that
at all. And I don't care if you're going to
the most expensive or the least expensive I'd love to know.
I'd also love to know. I'm not an officionado of
(18:55):
McDonald's and Taco bell in places like that. It's just
not my style. Okay, I'm not working out when I
was working and moving around. Yeah, those are the restaurants
you take advantage of. I'm more of an olive garden guy.
I like that style restaurant where it may not be
(19:19):
the top of the line restaurant, but the food's pretty decent.
Six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty six
one seven nine. Don't make me work too hard on this.
All of you have had dining experiences. I'd love to
know if there's a trend joined the conversation coming back
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Radio, So we're talking about your dining habits. I'm not
talking about dining at home. I'm talking about dining at
whatever restaurants you normally go to. You might go to
expensive restaurants, you might go to middle of the road restaurants,
or you might go to restaurants that are very reasonable.
(20:02):
The restaurant experience can be just as good at a
middle of the road or an olive Garden. Then it
can be at a high end restaurant. Sometimes it's even
more relaxing. Let me go to Jack and Newton see
what he has to say. Jacks, have your dining experience
has changed over the last few years or are you
back to where you were pre covid.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
Well, it's really prophetic about what you're saying, because just
yesterday I was at Madriano is little literaly right behind
the park Plaza.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Love maggianos I do have. I wish I got them
more often. It's a great Italian restaurant.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
A wonderful Italian restaurant. But the prices, you know, or
you know, thirty seven dollars, forty seven dollars for so
I got an appetizer for only it was sixteen dollars
while attacks ends up closer to aten. There was three
meat balls of waygoul way gu you know beef.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, that's that's expensive.
Speaker 7 (21:02):
That's expensive.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's good beef.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yeah. I had three meals out of the meat bows.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So what did you do get him to go?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Yeah, to go?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Good for you? Good for you? So it might so?
So yeah, how much did what was it? Twenty five bucks?
By time you had tax and tip and all that.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
No, six seven seventeen dollars and thirty seventeen dollars and
thirty cents, so you would.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You were talking with three meals. It was about six
dollars a meal. You went home and you boiled some
spaghetti apasta on that.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Yeah, good for you, jack.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
That's that's that's that's a that's a great example of
using your head. A lot of people get intimidated they
go into a restaurant. Now I haven't been in Manchiano's
in a couple of years, but I used to like
it a lot. I'll like it a little less if
the prices have gone up and have stayed up. But
this is there's a bunch of restaurants you can walk
(21:59):
in and if you're there with some other person and
you're picking up the tab, you can get to three
feet two get a hundred dollars pretty easily. Because if
there's one drink and a couple of entrees, and who knows,
if there's a small dessert, you're over ding ding ding
ding ding. You're over one hundred dollars before you know it.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
Well, I tell you, I know, if you're with your
girlfriend or whatever, Yeah, do that. You can't go in
and just have an appetizer to go.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
No, no, absolutely no, we get that. Okay, we get that.
But it's just when you you know, we were at
an olive garden, as they say, a couple of weeks
ago with my wife, our son, and grandson and it
was just perfect, you know, I mean, it's it's it's
(22:50):
the place you want to bring a you know, a
three and a half year old, because they're always going
to make noise. You're gotta make sure that nothing gets
knocked over on the day.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
But I bet your advertiser wasn't much less than eighteen seventeen,
sixteen dollars anyway. And Margiano's as a place now you're
not you're not going to bring a three year ow.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah right, well they were. I'll tell you the the
olive garden entrees were up. All of them were over
twenty twenty twenty one. But again, you get so much
salad there, and they if.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Dono is a high class place, only sixteen so many dollars,
even less if it's a if it's pickles or something else,
really achieved, could be a little as twelve dollars for well,
look with it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
With three three meatballs and then whatever you had to
spend it. That that's you did well.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Meatballs. I don't know if you ever had way to be,
but it's so tender.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yep, that's high end, tigh end. Jack, you did well.
You did well. I'm happy for uh. And uh? What
what is your favorite restaurant? If you and I were
going out to dinner some night? What and and uh?
I said to you, Jack, let's go to your favorite restaurant.
I got to pick up the tab. Where would you
(24:12):
want to go?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Well, I'd like O'Hara's.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
And I like O'Haras, And O'Haras is a good middle.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
Of the road restaurant. I like it a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, but that's that's still middle of the road. We
used to go there a lot. We had some friends
who used to enjoy that. That was one of their
favorite restaurants. I don't want to lose restaurants like that.
Those are the restaurants, uh, family owned restaurants. I hope
O'Haras is still a family owned restaurant where you can
win and you walk out, and you you go in
(24:43):
there on a Saturday night or a Sunday night, and
you say, okay, that was well worth whatever it was.
Great call, great call. Thanks Jack. We'll talk soon. Okay,
thank you, Thanks buddy. Yeah, I'd love to know what
your favorite restaurant is, particularly if it's a re simply
price restaurant. I mean, if they're gonna tell me you
you want to pick some restaurant that Uh yeah, there's
(25:06):
there's a restaurant downtown at the top of Beacon Hill
called Moo m oh oh, and there a couple of times. Uh,
pretty expensive, lovely, don't get me wrong, high end. Uh,
you are going to order even if you order an
app and one entree, it's going to cost you. Let
me go next to CG and Cambridge CG as your
(25:29):
dining experience has changed in the last couple of years.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
No, we have some great guys that know where to
eat and at good prices. We went there was seven
of us went over to wind Thrip.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
We all live all all around Greater Boston, so we
have to drive there and we meet it one spot
locally and end up maybe two cars or two three cars.
And we went to a place. It used to be
called Rassinis. It's changed hands, but it was the cooks
(26:04):
that worked at that restaurant are still there and they're
now owners of the restaurant, so the food is just
as good as it was. The guy that opened it
opened it at like forty years ago and he hit
his late seventies and he retired, so he sold it
to his cooks and the food was fabulous. We give
(26:26):
exceptionally good tips. Who were there for like two hours.
There's seven of us, and we always give a ten
dollars tip per person, and we did a fabulous They
did a fabulous job. They had one meal that I love,
especially if you're the right tide to see. It's a
shrimp scampy. I had six large pieces of shrimp. The
(26:49):
food was cooked perfectly, The gallic bread was toasted perfectly.
We all got our food at the same tang. It
was all distributed at the same time to seven people
with seven different meals. And because the three cooks cooked
able food together and thought it all over at the
same time, they treated us wonderfully.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
We didn't have any drinks, any alcohol of beer when
we go to eat, we don't so as we're driving,
absolutely and we can all afford, you know, like once
a month we do that and then another time of
the month, we go to one of our friend's houses.
He's hit a basement that looks like a nightclub, and
(27:31):
his family don't even use it anymore because it's his
family is so large, it's not used enough. So we
go to his house once once a month and he
cooks for us.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
So no, So the restaurant before we leave. The restaurant,
you said it was Raffines in Winthrop.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
In Winthrop, it's no longer in Raffinies. It's it's changed
names that I can't recall the name right.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well, that's okay. People will know where it is if
they're up in the right.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Across this right across the three from Winsorth Peach.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh, yeah, no, I know exactly. I know exactly where
you're talking about. Well, that's a good one. And uh
and it sounds to me like how much were you
paying for entrees there? Roughly on average?
Speaker 4 (28:16):
Oh? You know, everything was mixed together. Like when I
had the firm scampia, they offered me saling and I
want to have salad. I did have the toasted garlic bread. Yeah,
and I was one of the most expensive meals. It
came to twenty nine dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Okay, so that's what I'm saying. So you're talking about
twenty twenty five dollars entrees, depending upon which of my
tall less.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Some of them were less than that. Okay, to the
seven people, four of them took half of their meal
home with them. The meals. The amount of food that
you grow up was more than you could eat.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's always a great sign of a restaurant. Trust beyond that. Yeah, CJ,
I pretty good seaching absolutely that you know what, And
I'm sure that there's some people who are listening tonight
who know exactly where you talking about and what happens
is sometimes even with a good restaurant, you forget about
it until you mentioned and you say, you know, why
haven't I gone there lately? So yeah, I'm with you.
(29:09):
I'm totally with you.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I think the name of the news, the new name
of the rest of it is Della Paraiso.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, if I can spell Raffini's, I can't spell della Farraiso.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
So time even remember, right, CG.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Thank you much man. Always great to hear your voice. Thanks,
great suggestion.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
All right, holiday and Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Merry Christmas to you as well. Thanks CJ. CG. We're
going to take a very quick break here, and I
got wide open lines, which always bugs me. So look,
we're talking about something anybody can talk about. I'd love
to know what your dining experiences have been lately. Have
you changed your dining experiences and perhaps have gone to
(29:53):
less uh pretentious, less expensive restaurants as a consequence of
what's going on with no shame in that. How do
you maximize your money at restaurants these days? And the
piece that we played from James Rojas earlier, people are
now ordering as opposed to two entrees. Some people have said, well,
(30:18):
we'll do one entree, maybe split that and we'll split
an app. Uh. It's probably good for your waistline and
it's probably good for your wallet. But i'd love to
know what your favorite restaurant is. We can change topics
at eleven, but this is something that that I committed
to yesterday and I'm doing it now. And if you
don't want to call that, your choice, but i'd love
(30:39):
to hear a suggestion or two from you. Six one, seven, two,
five thirty, six seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. Last night,
people couldn't get through because the lines were so hot
on the cannabis cafes. Look, this is an opportunity. Feel
free to join the conversation. Be right back here on
night Side. Right after that, you have the numbers.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The way night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio,
we got.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The phone lines going a little bit. I thank you
very much, folks. Let us go to George and Westwood. George,
you were next on Nightside. Has your dining practices changed?
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Not at all, Dan, not pre pandemic, not post pandemic.
First of all, I just want to clarify something by McDonald's. Dan.
I'm a Greek immigrant. I came to this country when
I was nine with my parents, Dante. I had to
eat my mother's cooking twenty four five, So growing up
(31:40):
for me, McDonald's was gourmet food.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, I've got you.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Said, AFC.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Please understand that.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
No, I totally get it. Look, I remember when I
was young and the nineteen cent Hamburgers were a treat.
Trust me on that. Okay, Yeah, I thought it was
great because you were eating out. No.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
No, I was always a Bertucci guy, but food caality
went down, so I stopped at for a bit over
a year.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
You know, let me say, Bertucci's has had big problems. Uh,
I just I'm fearful we're going to lose Bertucci's. I
know that they've reorganized and all of that. There's one
in West Roxbury that we avail ourselves of every once
in a while. But it used to be it used
to be better. I don't know why why they let
(32:28):
it go away. I don't know if the bean counters
came in and decided to it's not what it used
to be. Yeah, go right ahead. I didn't mean.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Only the bread is the same. Only the bread is
the same with Bertucci's. Nothing else but Uh, in the summertime,
we were down the Cape and Mashby. We either go
to epic Oyster and Falmouth or to Shippers in Yarmouth.
Or if we go to mashb commerce, who might go
to the Greek restaurant or twenty Italian restaurant or even
(32:58):
the Japanese restaurant. When I'm up in Westwood, Uh, basically
we only go out on the holidays with a family.
And let me tell you, Dan, we we read about
this in the Times, read about it in the Globe,
about family, you know, having political discussions. Well it happened
this It happened this Thanksgiving with me, Dan, uh, we
(33:20):
Trump supporters, we talk in a civilized matter, but the
liberal stuff barking like animals. It happened to me this
Thanksgiving with an in law. Well guess what, Dan, this Christmas,
we're going out to a restaurant with my family, Okay,
And all I can say is I don't even look
at the prices.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, yeah, who was that? You had the argument? Was
it a cousin twice removed? Or was a.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Cousin's wife and he did not put and he did
not put her in place a cousin's wife, Dan, Okay,
George did not put her in place.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
We'll talk about political battles that I'm going and I'm
gonna want you to call in, but we'll let her
off the hook for tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Okay, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Going back to foods Okay, like I said, you know,
like I say, the.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Good Lord bless me, Dan. So basically, sometimes the wine
hits two or three hundred dollars, it is what it is, Dan,
You know, but I don't go I don't go out
that often. That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
You gotta adjust. And guess what if we all adjusted,
the prices would come down.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
It's a simple and one last thing. Then about a
couple of months ago, I started doing fasting water only
in coffee only, black coffee only fasting. I do that.
I do that twice. I'm up now, Dan, either three
or four days. Okay. There's two things special things about
that versus kittosis, when you start burning fat because you'ren't
(34:48):
having no cops to burn. And the second thing is
a prophagy, when your cells revitalize, the good cells eat
the bad cells out of the body. And then that
adds life. It has years to your life. It has
years to your life.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Excellent, George, excellent.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Good And I lost seventeen pounds. I'll fine the last
two months, man, good for you.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Keep it off. Now, keep it off. Okay, that's right.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Well I will I put some back on when I
study it again. But the graph slow. Let's the graph
goes down. It just goes down.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
You go to the right direct. George, Thank you much,
my friend. We'll talk again. Call more off and I
love to call. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yes, sir, all right, Well how.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Much we got here? Rob? How much time? Okay, I'm
not thirty seconds. I'm not going to cram a call.
I'm going to make a deal here. Joel, Maureen Warren,
and Ali stay right there. I will get to all
of you right after the news at the top of
the hour. I thank you for calling in, and we'll
stick with this subject and maybe we might get another
(35:52):
hour out of it. But Joel, Maureen Warren and Ali,
you guys stay there. I appreciate your call, and we'll
be back on night Side right after this
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