Wicked Bites Radio Show: Sunday, November 10, 2024

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well, welcome and everybody. This is Gone Whitley and this
is Wicked Bites Radio on this gorgeous Sunday morning here
for the next two hours. We're gonna open up the
phone lines in just a second because I want you
to help me out on the program. Last week, we
were talking with a caller and we were talking about
chain restaurants a little bit, and I realized I have
not done the Best and Worst Chain Restaurants show and

(00:33):
probably a couple of years, and I wanted to get
a quick pulse on on what people were thinking about them.
I mean, I'm not a huge person that goes out
to the chain restaurants. I do enjoy them at times, you know,
when again an opportunity, I always go out to an
independent restaurant. But there are some great chain restaurants out there.

(00:53):
I know Friday's announced that they were gonna basically close
a lot of their stores, Wendy's being another type of
a chain, a fast food chain, so they were closing
down a lot of their locations as well. We all
know about you know, other great chains out there that
that had great names in the past that have slowly

(01:13):
windled and died slowly. I mean it. So I just
want to find out from you on the program today
which chains now are are really you know, really hitting off.
So that's our topic for today's program. A right, and
again we're going to open up the phone lines in
just a second. It's going to be best in worst
chain restaurants. If you don't have a worse chain restaurant,

(01:35):
that's fine. If we've got a best chain restaurant, of course,
that's what we're looking for on today's program. And I'd
love to hear from you which which one's your favorite?
I remember in the past the one that always took
And this is what really sparked off the interest of
doing the show. Last week, we were talking with a
caller and we were talking a little bit about a

(01:55):
chain restaurant and we mentioned Applebe's. Applebee's used to get
a lot of negative comments when we did this type
of a show, and they always was sort of that
particular franchise chain that always won like the worst, right,
But this particular callers said he actually really enjoys it.
So again, it's everybody's opinion. Everybody makes it different. This

(02:17):
is everybody's dining experience when you go out to these
changes a little different as well. But I thought i'd
open up the phone lines this morning and talk a
little bit about that and let you tell us some
of your favorite places. So that's all to come today
on Wicked Bites Radio till twelve noon. Before we even
get to the phone calls today, let me tell you
today's show is brought to you by Boston Salad and
Prepared Foods. They make those great side dishes out there

(02:40):
and you can find them at some of the top
delis throughout New England. They came out with a blueberry
crisp just not too long ago, and you can find
that a market basket for me. You heat up in
the microwave right because it's individual portions and put a
little bit of Anella ice cream on top. Just let
that melt right on it, right, And that's like dying
and going to heaven, isn't it. They also have that

(03:01):
apple christ they came out with last year and they're
working on another one and we'll tell you about that
in the next week or so. And that's where it desserts.
They do a lot of great side dishes out there
as well, available but market basket, big y, a whole
bunch of specialty markets. To find a location here, you
just go to their website, Boston Salad dot com. All right. Also,
Northeastern Fence and Supply Company, My good buddy Mike Payne

(03:22):
makes this program possible as well as the television show
Wickabites TV on Nessen Saturday mornings at eight thirty Sunday
nights at ten p m. On Mike Payne. Northeastern Fence
and Supply Company in Saugust. They make fencing for your kids,
dogs and ugly neighbors. Also, I got to tell you,
speaking of the television show, we were out filming the
other day at a place that I've seen a lot

(03:47):
of reviews going both both ways, and I got to
tell you I really, actually really enjoyed my dining experience.
It was at Bosa Coastal Italian Bosa Coastal Attack and
right there in Haveral. It's a brand new restaurant and
a brand new building that Salapoly built that has apartments

(04:08):
and stuff right in the downtown section of Haveril. It's
right on the Merrimack River. And I tell you, I
thought the food is really pretty good when we were
in there. They do different items as well. I mean,
of course, they have entrees and stuff that you would
expect to define. They had a new one that they
were working on and they just got out and it
was basically a pizza sandwich that they make with their

(04:31):
own pizza dough and their oven. They got an oven
that it's like six hundred and fifty degrees so it
heats it on up. They did a fantastic job with that,
and I know they've got a Sunday brunch going on today.
And they also do pizzas because it's part of the
Holy Company Salapoli's company. Of course he owned sales rest
South pizzas, right, but this is more of an elevated
pizza at his restaurant there, and I thought it was

(04:56):
really good. They did one for me and I forgot
the name of it. It was a little bit spicy,
but it was so good. It was a cheese pizza,
probably an individual size a portion is what it would be.
And they used the cupping pepperoni. Now I love those
cup and pepperoni. It's not like those flat ones. The
cup and pepperoni actually going to catch all that flavoring

(05:17):
in those pockets, right, And I found myself just eating
the pepperonis, you know, off the top of the pizza,
and they had a little bit of like Mike's honey
hot sauce on top of that, so you had some
great flavor with it. So they do a great job.
Beautiful view too of the river. That whole area in
Haveral where they fixed up the downtown area where lines

(05:40):
of the water is just absolutely gorgeous. And I know
that they're going to bring in igloos soon so you
can dine outside. We're gonna feature them on the television
show coming up in just a couple of weeks on
wik of Bites TV, so look forward to that. But again,
I enjoyed my dining experience there. I thought the atmosphere
was really nice, and they have some really creative cocktails
there as well well. And they've been open, I would

(06:02):
say probably less than a year, and it's I think
it's gonna do really well in the downtown Haverol area.
All right, that's called Bosa Coastal Italian. It's all Mary Max.
I don't have the exact address, but that's that main
street where all the restaurants are well, I consider it
the main street and that's just a great place to

(06:24):
go out and dine, all right, Bosa Italian coast to
coastal which again is right there in Havero. Al Right,
I'm gonna open up the phone lines right now. I
am looking and for your favorite or least favorite chain restaurant.
And it could be anywhere in America. I mean, sometimes
we don't have some of the chains up here, you

(06:45):
know that would do like around the country, like Red Lobster.
I know they announced they were closing a lot of
locations as well. And I have to say, years ago
on this show, the Red Lobster would get a lot
of you pans, right because we got such great fresh
seafood up here.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
And I went to one about five six years ago
down in the Orlando area, and I thought it was
actually pretty good. I was. I was rather surprised, though
the atmosphere is really nice. I thought the food quality
was much better. But you know, I know they have
struggled a little bit, but I think a lot of
their struggles are with which is with their value of
their real estate. And they broke off their company into

(07:25):
like a restaurant and real estate, basically made into two companies,
and they could realize they can make more money by
selling or leasing out that space, So I think that's
why a lot of those have closed down. Another popular
one I have been to in a long long time.
And if you want like great Italian, of course you
got you got what Caravas. I think they're They're excellent.

(07:51):
I'm sorry Olive Garden. All of Garden is what I
meant to say, all of a sudden, you know you
had a mind the Little Brain Freeze. I love their
breadsticks and their salad, but I haven't been there in
a long time, so I love to hear from you
what's out there I'm seeing up on our Facebook page.
Rudolph just chimed in right there. He's the first one
to comment about this, and he says the favorite one

(08:11):
for him is Longhorn Steakhouse. You know, I got to say,
and I got to give you kudos with that one too.
I do think Longhorn does a really good job with
their steaks, and their atmosphere is really nice. And what
I like about Longhorn is you go in there and
you get a steak and it comes with everything, it
comes with the sides. And I know during the summer

(08:31):
they had the streetcorn was one of the sides. I
love that I did discover the hard way, you know,
because I remember I went to a Longhorn, I said, boy,
I really like the steak, and then I went back
to another one and I ordered what I thought was
the same steak, and I didn't like it as much.
And about six months goes by, I go back to
another one, and I realized I should have ordered the

(08:54):
Cowboy Rabbi, which is served on the bone much more flavor.
It was just really a good piece, and I don't
I think it was like thirty four dollars for a
complete meal for a stake, and the steak was probably
twelve ounces, maybe even larger than that, and it came
with two sides. And I think their salad there, I
always get their salad with ranch dressing, and I tried

(09:16):
to get there when it's in season. When they're doing it,
they're the street corn, because I think that's excellent and
for the price, I don't think you can beat it
for the atmosphere at all. So I think they do
a pretty good job out there. But for the rest
of you, I want to find out from you, what's
your favorite or least favorite. If you don't have a
least favorite. That's okay, chain restaurant. All right, eight eight
eight four three four sixty four sixty four is our

(09:38):
number fore you to call on today's program. That's eight
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four. Todd's
going to take your name in address because someone's gonna
win a did a gift card on us and we'll
get dine on us. Are calling in, we'll just pick
them at random as well on the program today. All right,
we'll do that every hour of the show as well.

(09:58):
All right, here's the number call and the best time
to call right now is right early in the morning,
right as the show gets started. As the lines and
the show gets going, the lines will get tied up.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Eight eight eight four three four the sixty four sixty
four is the number. That's eight eight eight four three
four sixty four sixty four, right, And I'm seeing up
online And says Texas Roadhouse. That's another good one. I
love their bread, right, their bread is hard to beat there,
And Peter says, Caraba has it all over all of garden.

(10:28):
You know, I don't remember my experience that Caraba has
been some time. So I had the brain freeze because
I think of two Italian restaurants, right, but I remember
Caraba has had the They always has those plants on
top of the roof, which I always liked. Longhorn is
a good pick, cording to Peter as well, and I
don't forget their strawberry short cake dessert. All right, all right,

(10:49):
that sounds great, all right, so I want to find
out from you, all right, eight eight eight four three
four sixty four sixty four is our number. That's eight
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four. All right.
As Todd screening some of the phone calls that are
coming in, let me quickly tell you we have our
Kevin Cohen show at the China Blossome this afternoon at

(11:10):
one o'clock. That show is completely sold out. I announced
a new one quietly the other day for December eighth.
That's a Sunday afternoon. It's already fifty percent sold out.
So if you're interested in going to Kevin Cohen in December,
great for family, great for groups. The best way to
do it is go to Event Pride and just type

(11:30):
in Kevin Cohen co A N and audio tickets that
way for December eighth. All right, Because you can't get
in today is completely sold out and north Shore Spirits
dot com is his website address as well. All right,
premiere on Broadway. I had Corin on just the other
day on the Wikibiites at Night show here on WRKO
on Saturday nights from five to six pm. We're talking

(11:52):
about their Sunday brunch that's going on right now. You
know they make their own donuts during their Sunday brunch. Yeah. Yeah,
I love this place and the atmosphere is so cool.
The whole family we got involved into this. Karin's father
really did a phenomenal job to designing the restaurant because
he's a builder, but he's also a painter. Yeah, and

(12:13):
I don't even think Karin even realized that until they
opened up the restaurant. He did a lot of the
artwork that you'll see in the restaurant, and I'm telling
you it's really good work that he has done. The
colors said, he basically take a lot of music celebrities
right around the world, and he would have like portraits
of them in the restaurant. This is a great restaurant

(12:33):
whether you're going there for a Sunday brunch and they
get their own drinks there as well to highlight a
Sunday brunch, or you go in there for dinner and
have their chicken parmers around. You can't beat that. Or
they're famous, and I want to say world famous. It's
that good there are in Cheney is excellent. They got
a little bit of cheese in the middle of it,
and it's their grandmother's recipe. It's just fantastic. Premiere on

(12:54):
Broadway that's the name of the restaurant, and a daylight today.
I'm sure with those they have these large garage glass
windows that line in the front of the restaurant. That
beautiful sunshine is going to just float right on end
today all right. Premiere on Broadway and they're located at
five seventeen Broadway in Somerville. Premiere on Broadway. Another great

(13:15):
restaurant for you to go out and try is Bill
Brady's Place. It's located at thirty seven Mechanic Street in
downtown Lemon Store. This is a great steakhouse. If well,
they're much more than steakhouse, but I consider them that's
what I would go in there for because they dry
age their own steaks right there. So whether you want
to go and get one of those tomahawk steaks. They

(13:35):
have that right, and they're so tender and so good.
They cut it right there in front of you. You
can even get like a dry age, soy learned at Ribbi's.
They dry age them there as well. But it is
a restaurant that has a menu that changes all the time,
and the atmosphere is just gorgeous. One of my favorite
spots in all of New England to go and one
of the best restaurant tours you're gonna find. Chef owner

(13:57):
two Bill Brady all right, Brady's Restaurant and a thirty
seven thirty seven Mechanic Street in downtown Lemonster all right,
all right, Wicked Bytes TV up on Facebook. That's where
we're streaming the show live right now. If you're watching
me on Facebook, you'll chime in let me know your
favorite or least favorite chain restaurant would appreciate that, or
at least where you're basically watching the live stream of

(14:17):
the radio show. Love to hear that as well too,
all right, Karen writes in too, Cheesecake Factory is her pick.
So they've got some great choices already. Up on our
Wicked Bytes TV page up on Facebook for the rest
of you, got some lines open for you right now
looking for your favorite or least favorite chain restaurant. Eight
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four is

(14:39):
our number. We'll kick things off this morning by going
to Catherine and she's calling us from Franklin. Hey, Katherlin,
welcome to Wig of Bites. Hi, good morning, good morning,
love your show, Thank you very much. What is if
I had to ask you, what's your favorite chain restaurant?

Speaker 3 (15:01):
I have to go waffle house?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, well, there's not a lot of waffle houses up here.
There's there's a few of them.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
Tell me why not many?

Speaker 3 (15:10):
You don't have to go south, but it's worth it.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
The last one I went to was coming out of
Fort Myers, I believe, and now Sarah Soda. Coming out
of Sarahsota, going to the airport, I stopped at a
waffle house. That was the last time, and I think
the first time I ever went to one. Basically I
would call it like a greasy spoon diner.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
Right, Yeah, it's like going back in time.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, yep. What are some of the items that you
like over there?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I have to go to classic waffle Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, I guess if you'd named the waffle house exactly,
that's that's that's probably what I would go with. Oh,
I didn't realize that.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
Yes, I have a nice selfie in front of the
waffle house in Florida with the Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well I again, it is going back in the time, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, all right, I'm eight months pregnant and now I
really want to go to Florida and get waffle house.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Yeah, it happen.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Sounds like you're craving that. I don't know if I
would uber it up that far, it would cost you
a pretty hefty price tag and it would be ice
cold by the time.

Speaker 7 (16:21):
It gets here.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
Yeah, pizza you were talking about earlier and Haver Hill
sounds good.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, I'm telling you that cupping pepperoni. Ye, all restaurants
that serve pizza should use the cup and pepperoni, you know,
because it kind of curls up just a little bit,
and that's why it forms that cup, and it is
so good when it catches that that hot honey sauce. Oh,
it's just I can forget the pizza and just eat
the And I'm not a huge pepperoni lover, but the

(16:48):
cup and Pepperoni. That's a different story.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
I know the feeling.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yep. All right, Cathy, thank you very much for your
phone call, and good luck in the next month. All right, thanks,
bye bye. Peter writes in on Wicked Bites TV on Facebook.
He says The Longhorn is owned by the Darden Restaurants
along with Ruth Chris Olive Garden Eddiev's Capitol Grille. They
they're kicking past their kicking past the coverage, Okay, I

(17:17):
guess I yeah, but I'll tell you they do a
really good job at the Longhorn. All right, Let's go
to Carolyn and Revere next. Hey Carolyn, welcome the Wickabites.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Hey, longtime listeners.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
So glad I got through.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Welcome, Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 8 (17:33):
Well.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
I actually have two Okay. I like the Friendly Toast.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, that's sort of a local chain up here, and
they do a really good job.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
They do they do and it's very kitchy, you know,
the atmosphere, and.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Foot's great accessible, you get parking.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah. The first one I went to, and I don't
know which one you go to, I was the one
in the Burlington Mall and I thought that was really good.
And I don't know all of them open later because
they they did and they had like ramen. They had
a Ramen noodle with State tips. I thought it was
just excellent. But I don't know if all their locations open.

(18:17):
Exuse me.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
The original one I went to was in Kendall Square
in Cambridge. Yeah, yep, and then later they expanded to
the malls.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, yeah, the malls. There's one in North Andover that's
over by Mary Mack College. I went there one time
for like a really like a late breakfast. Basically, I'm
somebody that got breakfast even at night. I mean I
love pancakes and stuff like that, and I think they
do a good job and they have great drinks there
as well, great nice atmosphere they do.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yes, So the other one is the Yardhouse.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
You know, I hate to say this. I've never been
to the yard House. I've walked by, and every time
I think about going, there's such a line that I
never you know, it's such a it can never get in.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, they have one at the Copley Mall, you know,
in the Copley Marriott, and then also up in the
Lynnfield Marketplace.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
That's the one that I've walked by is the Linfield
Marketplace one. It's always packed, as some friends that always
go there and they get the packed Yeah, they get
that yard beer basically it serves in a large glass. Yeah.
What are some of the items you get at the
yard House? What do you like over there?

Speaker 3 (19:28):
I tend to go for the burgers, yeah, because that's
not something I would make at home, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, you know, I agree. I think some of the
restaurants do a it's such a great job with their
burgers because they'll kick it up more than we could
do at home.

Speaker 7 (19:45):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'll definitely have to try the yard House and their burgers.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, you're definitely should.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
All right, and a beer, you do. I thank you
very much, Carolyn for your phone call. All right. Eight
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four is
a number. A Fleepo is located in the North End
of Boston right there I called the Gateway, the Boston's
historic North End. They're opened seven days a week for
lunch and dinner. That's we're gonna find Felipo for out Aroli.
One of my favorite dishes over there, and I talk
about it all the time. It's that good. Matter of fact,

(20:12):
I was just thinking about putting together our holiday party
and I always used Felipo's in Boston. I mean last
year we struggled to get it. That was that I
would say last year was that rebound from COVID year
where all the restaurants and seemed like everybody was booked
out from people that haven't done the holiday parties in
the last couple of years. I couldn't find times, and

(20:33):
they're of course located by the TV garden. So the
problem you have there is you don't want to do
it on game nights or when there's a concert going on,
and that limited down the times that we could get there,
and we just couldn't make it last year because they
were all the dates were booked out. But I'm telling you,
this is a beautiful restaurant. Beautifully your pointed in that
back room could accommodate about twenty folks, that's what we

(20:54):
normally do. Upstairs, I got a huge function room that
could go up to like two hundred and forty people,
but downstairs open for lunch and dinner. And it is
a great, great restaurant. I know you're gonna love it.
I want you to go in and try it and
say hi to Fleetbo for out. Rollie, get that Boston Garden.
The Boston Garden is veal parmesan with a thin layer

(21:15):
of egg plant on top. And boy, it is out
of this world. And I gotta say, in addition to that,
what makes it so special? After? For dessert, they have
their own terra masoon and I love the way they
serve it. All right, it's Fleepo's two A's be Cosway
Street in Boston's historic North End. All right, let's go
back to the phone calls. Let's go to Charles in

(21:35):
Wilmington next. Hey, Charles, welcome the Wicked Bites. Hi, how
are you excellent? Charles?

Speaker 7 (21:42):
Hello?

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Can you hear me? Charles?

Speaker 7 (21:45):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (21:46):
I can hear you perfectly.

Speaker 7 (21:48):
Okay, great. So I clod your show a few times before.
And I'm not really a big chain restaurant person, but
just a couple of things. One one chain that I
loved and they made it come back here up in
the Northeast is Popeye's Chicken. I just love their chicken.

(22:08):
I think it's really really good. And then secondly pizza.
You know, we lived here in matthew A lot of
great pizzas, but if you look over a chain, I
think Papa Genals is the best. On the downside, I
don't know how people go to Dominoes myself, but that's that.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
And then.

Speaker 7 (22:35):
For steaks, I like twenty years ago, fifteen twenty years
ago at the Outback Steakhouse was absolutely jammed everywhere. Yeah,
and then all of a sudden it went down. The
struggle to come back. But you know, I think, you know,
like like Longhorns is better, but I'm saying, like it's

(22:57):
just weird that they just And then also on the downside,
the Japanese, like you know, the the Kobe State Suttles,
you know, you go the tough job, no matter which
one did you go to.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
I get white.

Speaker 7 (23:11):
People want to go there because they can bring a
big family and friends and talk. But the food is
always just you know, uh, just vidioca. And when these
I used to like, but I am going there in
five six years because they've gone down, and finally the
Chief Sakee Factory just everything's just okay. But those are

(23:32):
my thoughts.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
No, I kind of agree with you there. I thought
the Outback Steakhost at one time you were absolutely right
I thought that was a phenomenal restaurant, especially up here,
and I think I think the experience that we had,
especially in the first ten years of that franchise kind
of spreading throughout the nation is it was owned by

(23:54):
a lot of local folks in the Boston area and
they ran it as a local restaurant. I remember the
first one I went to as the one in Peabody,
and they were very instrumental making sure they got out
into the community, and I thought they they eventually, I
think became they grew their their marketplace to like thirteen
locations at one time, and they were very instrumental in

(24:17):
making sure that the customer service was there. They ran,
like like I said, as a local restaurant, and then
they sold it back to the corporation. I know they
were like number one a gift ctivket sales throughout the
nation at one time this region, and it just seemed
to fall off. And I don't know if that's indicative,

(24:38):
you know, to all of them. I remember the last
one I went to, I had to be five years ago,
and it was a Mathillon. I just and that's no
longer there. I had a terrible experience there because There
was about eight of us, including my dad and myself,
and we were all there for a family dinner, my
dad and myself. We didn't We never got our meals.

(25:00):
They and I and the manager came over and I
overheard the way they're saying they don't have their meals yet,
you know. And and the manager comes over like twenty
minutes later, we still don't have our meals, and she says, oh,
this is the first I'm hearing about it, and I'm like, huh,
I overheard everything. So that was my last experience with

(25:20):
an outback I do. I know people do love them,
but to me, they've lost that shine.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Look you want to hear a quick story expand on that.

Speaker 7 (25:31):
About twelve years ago, my wife and I went to
the elt Back in Burlington, Yep. And we went in
and we went to dinner and I ordered the largest
stink that they have, let's get what.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
The name of it was.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
And it came to the table and my wife's like,
oh my God, like you swell down. I go smell
what she goes It stinks rot, and I'm like, God's
my soul. He looked at us and said, oh, yeah,
it's probably right. He goes, we don't.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's too bad, but you know, I don't know.
Maybe they can rebound when they get a little bit
stronger too, and you know, change some things. I know
that Fridays at one point they had problems with their
chain and they were losing market share, and they designed

(26:22):
their own like test kitchens and started to fix their menus.
But that was like fifteen years ago, and you know,
maybe you got to do it every ten to fifteen
years just to keep current. Charles I had said, I'm
a little bit late for a break here. I got
to get into a break here with WRKO. We'll come
back with more phone calls. We're looking for your favorite
or least favorite chain restaurants. On today's program. The number
to call is eight eight eight four three four sixty

(26:45):
four sixty four. That's eight eight eight four three four
sixty four sixty four. Also online Wick abytes TV, on
Facebook Peter Wrights, and he says, speaking of Sarasota Airport,
there's a yard house at the University Mall, which is
right almost right across the street from where I kind
of stay when I go down in January to play golf.
So I'll definitely visit it. All right, let me take

(27:07):
a break here, we'll come back with more. You're listening
to a Wicked Bites Radio. Yeah, and this is Scott
quick Ley. You're listening to Wicked Bites Radio on this
Sunday morning, and we're looking for the best and well,
I guess worst franchise restaurant. And if you hear a

(27:27):
place called in that you think is the best or
at least favorite, I mean you could call in second
down on that if you would like. But I would
love to know. Eight eight eight four three four sixty
four sixty four is our number. That's eight eight eight
four three four sixty four sixty four. And again, we
used to do this show. We've done it in the past.
It's been several years since we've done this program. So

(27:49):
I love to find out what's what's hot out there
and that that's an answer you're you're sitting on it
right now. So again, I'm somebody that really loves going
to these independ a restaurants, but chain restaurants, you know,
they yeah, they have their value as well. So this
is what we're trying to find out in today's program.
What's the best? Right? Eight eight eight four three four

(28:10):
sixty four sixty four. We're going to jump over to
Lowell next and we talk with Sean Sewan. Welcome the
Wicked Bites. It's jo Oh, I'm sorry, well welcome.

Speaker 6 (28:22):
Yeah. We used to go to the ninety nine all
the time and get the steak tips and the cheese
and the crackings, but not the wild We used to
go on a private it's a sect to going in.
So we stepped over to the Texas Roadhouse, which I liked,
and I love to have bread there. In fact, I eat.

Speaker 7 (28:41):
Too much of it.

Speaker 6 (28:43):
I usually out to take you know.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, that's probably the biggest problem I have too, is it.
Bread is just so so good, you know, especially when
it's it's it's warm. I would get like they're like
a pole pork. I don't know they still have it.
It's been a little bit since I've been to the
Texas Roadhouse. They would have like a pulled pork and
I would make take their bread and make that into

(29:06):
a little sandwich and and that was just fantastic. The
sweetness of that. It was just excellent.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Yeah, we go to the one in Mathuan there, the Texashouse,
it's between we go out on the Fridays, it's either
there all the long hun and I guess and over
Turksbury lying there and I get to pour the house
and uh yeah, I'm a mistake, man. I gotta have
my bottles of Budweiser, not the light the regular top

(29:35):
wines as you can't take that, the Budweisers and the bottle. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, And I think there and there the atmosphere at
the Long Orange is they do a nice job all around.
I think it's it's it's not it's it's one of
my favorites right now.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
Yeah, the one in Turksbury there that they get everybody
from rathi Onis, which is right down the street. So
if you don't told you at the right time, you've
got to be outside for a long time and I'll
wait to get in.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, but it's worth it. I mean, if if there
were lines, I always know I go to the one
I've been to, the one in Tewkesbury, and the one
I normally go to is the one in Haverol and
it's right there on the plastyle line. And there are
a lot of times that parking lot is full and
it's a fairly large restaurant. Yep.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
I don't know. I just like the ninety nine. I
don't know, yeh tis they're almost like that, you know.
I mean I used to go, we go there and
get sick of it.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah. Do they still I don't know if they still
have it, the ninety nine restaurant, they would have the
turkey tips. I thought those are those were excellent. I
don't know if they still have that on their menu.
But I think the ninety nine has a great value,
and that's one thing that's not out there anymore. You
get a good meal at a pretty good value. I
wasn't a big fan of their lobster roles last season,

(31:05):
so I don't know if they made some changes to it.
But other than that, I think the nine nine is
a great choice. Yeah, all right, John, thank you for
your phone call. All right? Eight four three four sixty
four sixty four. Got some open lines right now looking
for you your favorite or least favorite restaurant. Just like
Christopher rode In on Wickedbyites TV on Facebook, he says

(31:27):
Chili's is the worst. I have not been to a
Chili's in a long time, and I want to say
the last time I was there, probably at least five
six years ago, and I remember having a not a
great experience. I just don't remember what it was, but
I don't think I was thrilled with the But that
was such a long time ago, and I always say,

(31:47):
wouldn't you know go to a place over for long
periods of time. There's so many changes that can be
made to make your dining experience different. So it's worth
everyone in a while going back to see if there
have been changed. I haven't been back there yet, so
I want to know from you. What's your favorite franchise
restaurant on today's program? Eight eight eight four three four

(32:10):
sixty four sixty four. Is that I've got some open
lines for the first time this morning, right eight eight
eight four three four sixty four sixty four is our number.
The Phoenician Restaurant. They're located in hero on Route one ten,
just off of Route four ninety five, and that's we're
gonna find Bassam. I think this place is fantastic if
you love Prime Rib, I don't think you can find

(32:30):
a finer place. People come probably drive an hour or
more and they do it on a weekly basis to
come up to the Phoenician Restaurant in hayro it's that good.
Now they have two cuts of prime room. And they
don't do it just on a Friday and Saturday night.
They do it every night that they're open. I mean
they take it seriously.

Speaker 7 (32:47):
There.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
They have the Queen cut, which is more than enough. Right,
you know, I have a big appetite and I've never
been able to finish that because it comes with two sides.
I always get their handcut French fries. I don't know
how they do the handcuf French fries, but I'll telling
you it's just sensational the way they do it. And
I remember talking to the sharers who owned Bishops, which

(33:11):
is basically the whole menu, and the staff. A lot
of their staff came over the do open up the
Phoenician when they retired years and years ago, and the
be sharers were telling me about how they basically got
the fries, the handcut the fries, but how they stored
them and how they did them to make them different,

(33:32):
and boy, they are so so good. I'm somebody that
likes French fries, but like a bite here and a
bite there, theirs are just like, how are you going
to stop eating the whole bowl because you got the
prime rib sitting next year, right, and if you don't
like prime rip, my wife's favorite over there is they're
baked stuff shrimp. They asked the walnut stuff and that
the Phoenician is favored famous for. And it's so good,

(33:53):
it is so good. Sometimes you'll get the shrimp I'll
get I'll get the prime ribbon and we'll share, we'll
make our own turf. Yeah. The Phoenician Restaurant Route one
ten twelve Oupha Street in haverl Definitely go in and
say hi to Psalm for us. I come on, folks,
got some open lines right now. Eight eight eight four
three four sixty four sixty four is remember that's eight

(34:15):
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four. Another
phenomenal restaurant I want to send you out to. This
is one I put a category on the television show,
you know, because I've seen so many restaurants. I'm in
a couple of hundred new restaurants every single year, right,
and I have my own category where like, boy, this

(34:37):
place surprised me, and sometimes it could surprise me for
different reasons. Right, it could be the food, it could
be the atmosphere. It could be the history. Something I
wasn't expecting, something that just really caught me by surprise.
Mcmorgan's Irish pub and restaurant are Route one and Sharon,
about a mile from the stadium. Is one of those

(34:58):
places that my mind, I know, they got a huge
outdoor patio and I don't know about sitting out there
today although the sun is shining, but it's incredible just
to see their outdoor patio, how large it is. It's
sort of like an L shaped that wraps around the building,
but when you walk in, it's two stories inside the

(35:19):
opening and they have a large bar that lines at
a custom made bar. Of course it's Irish pub right
and every inch and I mean every square inch of
the wall and the ceilings they're covered by authentic memobilia
from Ireland and fin bar Griff and the owner, he
told me that he personally selected just about all the

(35:40):
items in there, and some he paid like two thousand
dollars apiece for and he says it's funny, you know,
you negotiate with people over in Ireland and they're asking, well,
what are you going to use it for? I'm not
going to sell it to you unless you're going to
you know less it's used correctly. But that's what you're
gonna expect at Big Morgan's Irish Pub and Sharon. I
think that it's just sensational. They got a Sunday brunch

(36:02):
that goes on today. But their food it's Irish cuisine
but with a really heavy influence of American cuisine. So
you could get your burgers and your fish and chips,
and you could get your rubens and all that type
of stuff. But you know, one thing you're gonna get
is just great, great food. Their seafood cast role it's
haddock scallop shrimp, and they use a little bit of

(36:23):
white wine and of course the cracker crumbs that they
put on top, it's just excellent. It's served with the
vegetables and rice. So this is the place I want
you to go out and experience it for yourself. Take
some time walk around the restaurant because you've gotta love it.
All right. It's called mcmrgan's Irish Pub and Restaurant.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Again.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's located in Sharon on Root one, just a mile
from the stadium. All right, let me see online, Peter
writes in he says absolute favorite local chain is One
ten Grill and Aviva Kachina. Yeah. I was at the
One ten Grill not too long ago, but I heard
they closed that location and just recently. I love that location.

(37:03):
I love the atmosphere and everything, but I know they
had more parking issues because of where it was located.
Even though it was in the downtown area, the central Party,
it was just hard to get people park there. But
they got some great restaurants out there, the One ten
Grille and the atmosphere I think is just sensational, especially
the outdoor patio they'll keep going all year, along with
the fireplaces. Gorgeous. All right, the phone calls to go,

(37:25):
Let's go to Lonnie and hang them next. Hey, Lonnie,
good morning, Scott, Good morning.

Speaker 7 (37:30):
Hi.

Speaker 9 (37:31):
I have a very nice local chain restaurant that I
go to frequently. Okay, and that's the Chateau Okay Tree.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
This Chateau and Brain Tree. Yeah, they got several locations
all here I think in New England, and all large
locations too.

Speaker 9 (37:49):
Yes, they've been in business a long time now. I
really enjoyed that they do off for an early very dinner,
which I like because it includes an church entre. You
can get super salad and your coffee or tea are included.
So I think it's good, and I think it's consistently good.

(38:09):
And I just love their Italian wedding soup. I think
they do a good job with that.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, I'd love Italian wedding soup. That's that's one of
my favorites. My mother loves it too.

Speaker 9 (38:22):
So now we have to take to the Chateau making it.
It doesn't come out as good as some of the
restaurants to do it. Yeah with it.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yeah, they just give it that little extra. I don't
know what it is. Or maybe it's the fact that
you didn't have to make and you could just sit
down and really enjoy It's true too, that's probably what
it is, Lonnie.

Speaker 9 (38:41):
Yes, I think so.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
All right, So that's a big praise, a big shout
out for the Chateau restaurants. Yes, all right, Linne, thank
you for your phone call. Eight eight eight four three
four sixty four sixty four is whatever? That's eight eight
eight four three four sixty four sixty four your best
or least favorite chain with restaurants on today's program, Let

(39:04):
me take quick break here. We're going to come back
with more of the program and your phone calls as
well at eight four three four sixty four sixty four.

Speaker 8 (39:17):
The Northeastern fence might keep things in, but Scott Whitley's
letting out all the delicious secrets. This is wicked bites,
the juiciest food talk this side of the fence.

Speaker 5 (39:28):
It's an Italian compound in the Merrimack Valley Alfresca's Restaurante
and its newest edition, the Market Alfresca a boutique specialty
grocery store with all kinds of fresh vegetables, seafood, a
meat market, full deli, Neapolitan style pizzas, Italian specialty items,
and many of the dishes from the restaurant available here

(39:49):
to go. It's your Italian one stop shop. Alfresca's grew
thirty eight in Toooksbury.

Speaker 10 (39:54):
WO to the Rabbioli.

Speaker 7 (39:56):
All right, here we go.

Speaker 10 (39:57):
Coliseum Restaurant. You guys heard of that, right, You've heard
of my friend enable A Tedesca. You know, I was
just noticing here. The Coliseum Restaurant is, in fact, the
only restaurant in the United States to have received an
award called the best Italian chef and Restaurant in the World,
and it is located not Nittley, but in Salem, New Hampshire.

(40:20):
It's called the Coliseum Restaurant Route twenty eight. That's in
the Breckinridge Shopping Plaza in Salem, New Hampshire. The chef
Anebela Tedsca. So if you are looking for a great
Italian food Neapolitan food, go and visit the Coliseum Restaurant
Route twenty eight, Breckenridge Shopping Center in Salem, New Hampshire,
nible A Tedsca's place.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
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Speaker 11 (41:42):
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(42:03):
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Speaker 8 (42:08):
With Wicked Bites with Scott Whitley. We're not afraid to
get our hands dirty as long as it's with delicious food.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Welcome back, everybody, This is good whiley and this is
Wicked Bites Radio. On this Sunday morning. We just had
a call reminded me of I saw this on the
news just the other day, that ground Round there's gonna
be a new location opening up adventure. I don't know
when or anything like that. I'm gonna see if I
could find that out and maybe do it on the

(42:38):
Wicked Bites at Night show next Saturday night from five
to six pm. But you remember the old groun Round
right the matter of fact, JJ Grimsby. That used to
be an old ground round, that location in Stoneham. I
was up in Maine two years ago and I saw

(42:58):
the sigh saying ground Round. So they've had one up there,
and I don't know too much about it. And I
know it is the ground Round because I remember their
artwork logo and I'm like, boy, that's their wording, that's
their everything, And that was up in Maine. So now
I guess it's a family from what I understand. But
I got to find out a lot more about it.

(43:21):
That purchased the rights to it, and they're going to
open up at least four ground Rounds, but I kind
of miss them. I don't know if they'll do what
they used to do. Remember you go to the ground round,
there's peanuts everywhere. And I was talking to my wife
about it just the other day and we went out

(43:41):
for dinner and we were talking about matter of fact,
we went to T Bones and in Salem, New Hampshire
yesterday and we were sitting in there, we were talking
about this, and I'm like, you know, T Bones is
sort of at one time I would have put that
into that category. I think T Bones is kind of
elevated a lot more now they're food items and stuff.

(44:04):
But the ground round, you would you have the peanuts
and there would be peanut shells like all over the restaurant.
And I didn't know if they would be able to
do that again that same experience. I you know, this
is going back twenty years ago. I don't remember when
the last when did JJ Grimsby become JJ Grimsby right
instolling them. I that was a long time ago. And

(44:26):
when it was the ground round, there were peanut shells everywhere,
all over the floor. Probably today you can't do that,
you know, with the health codes. And and I was
thinking like, well, there are peanut allergies, but Texas Roadhouse
they have peanuts everywhere, but they don't you know, basically
throw the shells when you're done, like they used to
do with the Ground Round. So that'll be interesting to

(44:47):
see they'll come back. I mean it was just a
casual dining spot, burgers and comfort food.

Speaker 7 (44:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
I thought it was pretty good. So I'd be interesting
and I'd be interested to see it and how things
come around, you know, with it. And I'm just seeing
online right now. Christopher writes about the Ground Round. They
had great nachos and he we mention his peanut shells everywhere.
Just the peanut shells were just all over the place.

(45:21):
They really were. But that sort of made the experience
at the Ground Round for me, especially when I was
I had to be a kid. I mean, that's how
far back we go with the Ground Round, and that's
something you kind of really remember because it was so
different and so unique. So I'm going to see if
I could find somebody that could tell me about their

(45:42):
plans what's going to happen. We'll do that on the
Saturday night show here on WRKL and next Saturday night
from five to six pm. Fingers crossed they could find somebody.
I got to make a whole bunch of phone calls
to see if I get a lead on who these
folks are and find out what they're going to do,
what the atmosphere is going to be like. So I
love love to know about that. All right, and we'll see.

(46:06):
I mean, if you have some thoughts or you remember
ground Round, yeah, by all means calling on today's program
as well. All right, Dom Sausage Company, you have the
Patriots are playing today and the official steak tip of
the New England Patriot is what you had Dom's Sausage
steak Tips. They are so so good. The bottom Chelli family,

(46:27):
they spent I don't even know how much now, it
used to be one hundred thousand dollars. I know they
re model their entire specialty market from Florida ceiling and
I had a feeling they probably invested even more money
into their steak tips. There's nothing like it. They have
one piece of equipment that tenderizes the steak tip and
with like little needles, and then the other one kind

(46:49):
of injects their flavoring into it. I love and absolutely
love their original steak tip. That's one of my favorite
seasonings period period and I put up against any restaurant
and you can make it at home in a frying pan.
I'd still put up against restaurants. It's that good. Another
one of my favorites now over there is the Siracha

(47:10):
steak tip. That's the Rochester steak tip is just absolutely
out of this world good. So if you want something
a little bit different again to got the game going
on today at one o'clock right, and if you have
friends over maybe just want to satisfy yourself, head over
to Dom Sausage Company and mald It's especially shop. They're
open seven days a week, nice and early in the morning.

(47:31):
I always say, get one pack for the day that
you're cooking and buy another pack. Throw it in your
freezer because it's vacuum sealed, it will last for a
long time. And then whenever you want a pot of gold,
you know where to go the freezer right. It's especially
on a cold winter you got a snowstorm in the
are you know, get those steak tips ready, right, and
that's the way to do it. You know where to go, right,
Dom Sausage Company ten Riverside Parking, malt And you could

(47:53):
also find their steak tips and a lot of specialty
markets throughout New England. I would just just search their
name up on the internet. Final location near you. One
you try it, you'll be hooked. And I promise you
that that could be a problem. You're gonna be hooked
on how good they are dom SOAS's company ten Riverside
Park in Maulon. All right, let me take a quick
break here. We'll come back on the other side with

(48:14):
more phone calls. Another hour to go here on the
restaurant program. A quick reminder of the television show. He
got an encore presentation tonight at ten pm on Nesson.
That's the new England Sports Network ten pm. Our normal
hours is Saturday mornings at eight thirty Sunday nights at
ten pm. And I know they eric during the week,
but I know those two times that never really change.
All right, break here for the news. We'll be back
with the second hour Wicked Bites right after the news. Well,

(48:45):
welcome back to the second hour of Wicked Byites Radio
on this Sunday morning. My name is Scott Whitley, taking
your phone calls till twelve noon, and today's topic is
kind of branched off of a caller we had last
week on the radios show. And I realize we haven't
done this show in a long long time. And that's
best and worst franchise restaurant. And I remember years ago

(49:08):
Applebee's would always take the worst spot, you know, they
would always take the bottom spot. Today I haven't seen
as much as that, so which is good to know.
You know that maybe they've improved. I don't know, but
they're still in business. I mean a lot of places
have disappeared quite a bit. So that's our topic today,
best and worst franchise restaurants. I hope you can help

(49:28):
me out. If you don't have a least favorite one,
that's fine. I mean, let me know your favorite one,
even if it gets mentioned here on the show. Just
second that endorsement. All right, here's the number to call.
And again, Todd's gonna take your name and address off air,
because every hour we do award a dinner gift card,
and I got one right here from the first hour.
We're going to award that. It's to the Tack Room

(49:50):
in Lincoln, Massachusetts. And I think this restaurant's extra special.
We're gonna I'll tell you who the winner is in
just a second, and again we'll do it all over again,
have another winner and I'll not sense the top of
the hour. Here is the number to call franchise restaurant.
Which one's your favorite? Eight eight eight four three four
sixty four sixty four. That's eight eight eight four three
four sixty four sixty four, all right, So I would

(50:16):
I would encourage you to call in right now, you know,
and you know, let's get people out there and finding
out which ones are good and bad? All right? Eight
eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four is
our number and our winner last hour to the tack Room.
This is located in Lincoln, mass And I normally try
to find something that's kind of close for people to

(50:37):
go to, and this one, it's probably about twenty minutes
twenty five minutes outside of Revere, but I the winner
is from Revere. But I want them to go to
this restaurant experience it the item I want them to try.
And you may think I'm crazy. It is so good
and it's a duck grilled cheese. That duck. The moistness

(50:59):
from the duck is just fantastic. And Todd, who was
the winner?

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Was it? Caroline?

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Caroline and from Revere, So congratulations. I definitely go on
and try that duck grilled cheese. The last time I
was at the tack Room, I actually brought one home
and I had it the next day and heated up perfectly.
I saw this morning that America's number one sandwich is
the grilled cheese, right, so this would be elevating that
to the next level. And they're the only ones I
know that that do it. They got a little bit

(51:25):
of cranberry in there. It's excellent, all right, all right?
Eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four is
our number best and worse franchise restaurants is the topic. Also,
we streamed the show live up on Facebook wicket Bites
TV on Facebook and just a quick look at some
of the action going there. Frankie on one of our
local celebrities. You see him in some movies. He shouts,

(51:47):
I says, hello, Scott. The ground Round opening in Shrewsbury,
mass in January one of Frankie's favorites. And you know what,
I just did a little bit of a research on
that and to find out more about it. Basically, this
couple purchased the rights and the trademarks and all that
to the Ground Round out in the Midwest, and they
had four locations and they have decided to take it

(52:11):
back home because it was all founded here in the
Boston area and the chain is started back in nineteen
sixty nine and eventually it filed for bankruptcy in two
thousand and four, So that's probably when two thousand and

(52:32):
four is probably when JJ Grimsby in the Stoneham location
kind of got going. You know, it took went from
one to the next because the owner at that time
owned the ground Round. He owned that the rights to
it and changing into the Great J. J. Grimsky kind
of kept the same similar theme. So there's gonna be
a new location. They're renovating it now. The ground run

(52:54):
has also had to return in January. So oh, it
was the old Oh I know exactly where it is.
It was an old Chinese restaurant on Root nine in Shrewsbury.
So that's a good size location. So that's going to
be opening up and I have a feel they're going
to open up more in this area. And they're also
talking about the popcorn, and I forgot about the popcorn
because that was one of their big things people knew

(53:15):
about there as well as the popcorn. All right, let's
see we also got I saw another I'm trying to
find one, and just disappeared on me. I had somebody
writing up on Facebook about a pizza shop in a
gas station. For some reason, it has now disappeared off

(53:36):
my feed of the radio show Wicked Bytes TV on Facebook.
I'll find that. I'll read it for you in just
a few moments. All right, eight eight four three four
sixty four sixty four is our number. We're going to
get back to the phone calls first. This portion of
Wicked Bites is brought to you by Northeastern Fence and
Supplied Company. They are located in Saugust. They have six

(53:57):
acres of inventory there. My good buddy, my pain. All right,
Northeastern Fence and Supply Company. We'll kick off this hour.
We'll go to Manchester, New Hampshire. We're gonna talk with Frank. Frank,
welcome the Wicked Bites.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Hey Goodborn, and how are you doing today?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Excellent?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Hey, Tea Bones is I mean, it's not for him,
it's chain, but Tea Bones is always really good, pretty consistent.
Of course, this time of the year. They have their
hot soup in the bar lifetimes.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I was at their location in Salem, New Hampshire yesterday
last night, and my wife had their French onion soup
and she was in she was craving French onion soup,
so we had to go there and it didn't disappoint.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
No, the French eigen soup is really good.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yeah. You can get shrimp in a basket there. Sometimes
it be assworts. I don't think it's on the menu anymore,
but I think they'll still do it for you.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Yeah, it looked like they changed a lot of their
menu over the last couple of months. I know that
they had some great burgers there as well. They have
some steak items there. I had I I only had
an appetizer since I've been on this diet, and I
had their Korean there's a barbecue Korean lettuce wrap. Uh.

(55:11):
And I thought it was pretty good, pretty tasty.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
I've heard good about it. I haven't had it, but
I've seen it. It looks good.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Yeah, it filled me up. It was really good.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Yeah. They have a lot of good different items that
you can get. You can pretty much make anyone happy
there and get cooling the kids.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Oh yeah, well, and that's what you want to do,
make the kids happy, right, And I noticed one thing.
Their clientele goes some kids right on up. I mean
they really catered everybody, they.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Do, and then they usually pretty busy most of the time.
Proper is just as good too, yep.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Which is one of their their their chain or their
family or restaurants. They also own Cactus Jacks, so there's
there's a couple of Jacks as well. I don't know
how how many t bones that they have, uh, but
their their their chef, chef to Cole. It's been there
for many years and she's done a great job with
their menu, always keeping it you know current. I would

(56:07):
at one time I would have put it into the
category of like a ninety nine years ago, but it's
it has risen above that over the last decade or so.
And now they're celebrating forty years too, which kind of
surprised me. It's been around that long.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Oh I know it. Yeah, that's again. The food's very
consistent there.

Speaker 12 (56:29):
So yep, which is nice yep.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Matter of fact, Yeah, yesterday we had a problem where
our food took forever to arrive and it was just
one of those perfect storm type of things. When we
got it, we sat down in the bar, we grabbed
the table in the bar and the restaurant went from
half full to a waiting line in like two seconds.
And yeah, the manager came over a couple of times.

(56:53):
That very nice. I'd say, I understand your food's not here,
blah blah blah blah blah. I mean we didn't even
complain or thing like that. Is there anything I could
get you? Can I get you some pretzels or another
appetizer or a cup of chili or something like that.
So he was very good too, not that we care.
I mean we're just sitting there anyways in the you know,
watching the televisions and you're just talking anyways. Uh, we

(57:16):
didn't take it. We didn't take them up on his offer.
Although it was nice to see that their customer service
is really great too.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
That that helps a lot. A lot of restaurants have
lost side.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Of that, yes, yep.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Fortunately yep. And it's hard to because a short on
help a lot of them.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
That is probably the number one problem at a lot
of restaurants, say either their short staff in the front,
which they did not appear to be yesterday, or they're
short staff in the back. It just it's just a
problem that's run rampant over the last three years in
the industry, and I I don't know how they're going
to fix it, but they're there. It's tough, you know,

(57:56):
coming up with those solutions to get more, more and
more people to work in the restaurant business. Because I
think in Massachusetts and I would assume it's the same
in New Hampshire. It's like the restaurant industry is like
the first or second largest basically employer in the state.
That's how many people work in the business. I started off.
My first job was washing dishes at the Hungry Traveler

(58:18):
in Salisbury. That was the way back in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Yeah, me too, It was earlier than that.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, Well, it took about four years from my hands
to return because back then your hands are pretty much
soaked the entire time. It used to be one hundred
and fifty degrees back back then. You know, when you're
watching those dishes, it's so humid. Yeah, but there's nothing
like it, right, and a great way to start, you know,
you know your world experience, working working hard, you know,

(58:46):
And I did that every summer for about three years.
You know, when I was I was probably I was
probably four. Whenever I was able to work fourteen sixteen.
I think we were able to work a little earlier
back then. Used to ride my there right to do it.
But it's it is a great job, and I think
more and more people will slowly get back into it,

(59:07):
uh to the business. So that's what I'm hoping to
and will smooth things out a lot too. But Cactus
makes good money. Yeah, well they make very good money too,
and but they work hard. They really do work hard.

Speaker 7 (59:22):
I do.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
I bless them because you know, sometimes they take the
brunt of some stuff too. I don't know how they
can do it, always putting on a smile because ninety
nine point nine percent of their customers could be fantastic.
You get that one grumpy person and it just makes
it day miserable. I don't I don't know how they
do it, but I appreciate them for everything that they do.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
I do too. My head goes off to them.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Like, yep, you're right, Frank, I Frank, thank you very
much for your phone call. His recommendation is for t
bones And I know they got a location the one
I was at yesterday, and that kind of funny was
there yesterday, right? I was at the one in Salem,
New Hampshire. I know this that I think they got
one up in Manchester. They got a couple of them.
They also in Cactus Jack's Copper Door. But just just

(01:00:05):
you have great restaurants, a great restaurant group up there
so far. To me, my favorite right now, personal favorite
is Longhorns'. That's what I think. That's where I kind
of go for a couple of reasons. One, I think
the atmosphere is nice. I think the price points really
reasonable for what you get, and the quality is pretty good.

(01:00:27):
So that's my favorite. Another good, very popular one that
gets a lot of recommendation, has for years now is
the Texas Roadhouse. One that's been falling away, of course,
is the Outback Steakhouse that has been kind of dwindling
a little bit. We know that TGI Fridays is going
to be closing a lot of their locations or filing

(01:00:49):
for protection, so I assume a lot we'll close. I
even heard Wendy's, which I like their burgers. If you're
talking fast food, I think their burgers are pretty good.
They were going to close one hundred and thirty locations,
so a lot of them are saying and they just
never recovered from COVID. I don't know if that's the case,

(01:01:11):
or maybe they just didn't change fast enough because the
things had to change. So I don't know, so we'll
find out. But you know, the chain restaurants, there's still
a lot of them out there. I think they're they're good.
I mean, I haven't been to the Olive Garden in
many years, but I always remember that being a pretty
popular one. I always see the lines outside waiting, so

(01:01:34):
they must still be very good. But I'd love to
hear from you. What's your favorite or least favorite chain restaurant?
All right, franchise restaurant. It could be a local chain
like the t Bones group, or it could be a
national chain, So what is your favorite. As matter of fact,
if you are reminisce about the Old Ground Round, I
love to talk about that as well. Eight eight eight
four three four sixty four sixty four is that number?

(01:01:58):
That's eight eight eight four three for sixty four sixty four. Again,
Todd's gonna take your name and address off air, because
at the end of this hour I will be awarding
a dinner gift card to one of the callers at
random on this hour, just like we did last hour
and that could be you. So first time callers are
welcome on the program. If you're driving around, we'll try
to get you on the right away. Okay, eight eight

(01:02:18):
eight four three four sixty four sixty four is our number. Right.
Let me see the China Blossom in North Endover. They're
on Route one twenty five in North Endover. They open
up at twelve noon today. They have that all you
can each Chinese buffet. Their lunch buffet starts at twelve
noon and they have the dinner bafe after that. We
will be there. The Wicked Bites team will be there

(01:02:38):
at one pm this afternoon to an event that's sold out.
It's been sold out for quite a while. We just
added another one on December eighth. Our psychic medium Kevin
Cohen is in town Back and doing a show there.
We sold that show out probably about a week and
a half and it's gonna be a great show. I mean,
Kevin is just a talents or in incredible and this

(01:03:00):
is the first time we've done a show with Kevin
since the book which just recently came out about his
life and his abilities. So I have a feeling he'll
bring that up there as well. So if you're thinking
about and want to come to the December eighth Kevin
Cohen show, you have to order tickets. It's already halfway
sold out. I just soft announced it matter. I don't

(01:03:21):
even know if I even put out an email to anybody,
and it's it's it's already about fifty percent maybe a
little less than that, but it's close to fifty percent
sold out for December eighth, and we haven't even mentioned it,
all right. It's great for families and for friends. China
Boston rout won twenty five in North Andover. That's what
we'll be today. Great place with Chinese food. By the way,
they could take out there. Of course, they got the buffet,

(01:03:41):
they got everything happening in there. My ties, yeah, they're
my ties. Got to watch out for those. They sneak
up on you, all right. And they do comedy shows
there on Saturday nights as well. I big shout out
to the folks over at Boston Sound and Prepared foods
Adrian and the crew over there. Last week, we had
a caller on the radio show that talked about picking
up their blueberry Chrisit Market basket the other day and
how much. They loved it. Yeah, Blueberry Chris and that

(01:04:05):
goes to me hand in hand with the Apple Chris
kick or around with either one and Boston Sound and
Prepared Foods. They make that individual portions you can find
it and a lot of specialty markets. I know they're
probably in one hundred plus specialty markets throughout New England.
Boston Salad and Prepared Foods, but not every specialty market
or butcher shop will carry all of their products, so

(01:04:26):
they make they have an extensive list. But some of
my favorites include their cranberry walnut chicken salad that is
so good. And I know I was up in Maine
about a month and a half ago golfing and for lunch,
I had a cranberry walnut chicken salad wrap and yeah,

(01:04:47):
they used Boston Salad's product. It was so good. I
had it the next day when I played golf there
as well. They also do an Asian sesame noodle, They
do total leenies, they do a whole bunch of other
stuff like that. It's really a product that you should
get and try. Boston Salad and Prepare Foods. To find
a location near you, just go to the website bostonsalad
dot com. Now, if you're in the mood and you're

(01:05:08):
looking for a great baker, Josie's Bakery is that place
in Wilmington. They're looking a one twenty nine in Wilmittam
that Crossroads shopping plaza and it's owned and operated by
Rick Lowe, who also owns Tremezzo Restaurant in that same plaza.
And Tremezzo gets that are desserts right from Josie's Bakery.

(01:05:30):
That's how good it is, right, because you want your
dining experience to be something extra special, and when you're
finishing off with desserts, you want to make sure that's good.
That's why they have their own bakery. Yeah, and a
lot of people go to the restaurant, they have dinner,
and then they walk over to the bakery and then
have their desserts there. You're gonna love it, from cakes
to cookies and cupcakes. You will think it's fantastic, just

(01:05:53):
like I do. It's hard to drive by without stopping
right because my stomach starts wrong with Josie's Bakery. I
get it's in that Crossroad shopping plaza in Wilmington. Say
had to Rick low for us it's an old school
bakery but with a modern twist. There really is only
the finest of ingredients and that's why they are so special.
Josie's Bakery in that Crossroad shopping plaza in Wilmington. All right,

(01:06:16):
let's get back to the phone calls on this Sunday morning,
and we're going to head over to Framingham and we're
going to talk with Rob next. Hey, Rob, welcome the
Wicked Bites.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Good morning, how are you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
I'm doing excellent, Rob, enjoy the.

Speaker 12 (01:06:31):
Show a bunch. I wanted to go slightly off topic apologize.
I was listening to last week's show and I wasn't
wasn't able to get through. But your last callers spoke
about customer service.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Yes, yep.

Speaker 12 (01:06:46):
We My wife and I recently went out to dinner
at a place we haven't been in one hundred years,
the Old Mill restaurant in Westminster, Quintessentral, New England. It
was absolutely beautiful. Our server was outstanding, not old enough
to be old school, but boy, she had it she

(01:07:06):
had it down.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Pat.

Speaker 12 (01:07:08):
I want to say your name was Meg. I could
be wrong, but I wanted to go a little off
course on the appetizer. She made something work for me.
Just just a tremendous job, so friendly, so good, so responsive,
from the front of the house all the way to her.

(01:07:30):
She was outstanding. So she has to be mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
Oh that's good to hear in the Old Mill restaurant.
I tried to feature them on the television, so I
just I couldn't get them to really respond. They're just
so busy all the time. Talk about it gorgeous. It's
an old mill, and yeah, I think it dates back
two three hundred years and it is New England in

(01:07:57):
a nutshell if you ask.

Speaker 12 (01:07:59):
Me, absolutely is absolutely is. I don't know whether the
foliage was peak or not, but the foliage was gorgeous.
It looked like falling New England.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah, I was gott I was going to say that, Jarvis,
that if you went a couple of weeks ago when
foliage was at its peak there, with the facts that
it sits right there on the water with all those trees,
it must have been absolutely gorgeous. And it's just so
different and so unique that people need to experience it.
I really wish we were able to pull off a

(01:08:29):
filming there, but I think the best time to do
it is when the Weather's nice because they got that
the old wooden bridge outside too. That kind of leads
into the restaurant, and it's just it's such a unique
dining spot.

Speaker 12 (01:08:41):
It really is a great spot. Like I said, don't
get there a lot. This happened to be an anniversary dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
So what'd you get?

Speaker 12 (01:08:49):
We put it back on the list.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
What'd you get when you were there?

Speaker 6 (01:08:54):
Uh?

Speaker 12 (01:08:54):
Well, my appetizer, Like I said, I wanted to go
off script. So I was able to do like a
shrimp ravioli and an alfredo sauce that we shared, and
Meg made that happen for us. Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable, perfect
for an appetizer. And of course I had to go

(01:09:15):
with prime Rib. I had my heart set on Prime
Rib at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
So, yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Hardy going wrong. Yeah, that's it's hard to go wrong
with a with a primary I like like mine like
medium rare. Yeah, and my my wife likes her as
like like Philistilla used to say that it could get well,
she likes it that rare. To me, now, I like
just a little bit little, a little more paint rare.

Speaker 12 (01:09:38):
I won't be sad if you go on the rare side.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Yeah, but it's just so good, so we.

Speaker 12 (01:09:43):
Can always we can always run it back under the
under the under the broiler for a jiffy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
That's right.

Speaker 7 (01:09:48):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
About a year year ago, I was at the Phoenician
restaurant in Harol and I couldn't finish. I just couldn't
finish my prime rib and I ended up bringing it
home home and I'm like, how is this going to
heat up? Right? I mean, it's gonna be just all
dried out. They give me a little Oju sauce in
a little cup and I put it in the pan.

(01:10:09):
I kind of burned one side and flipped over burned
the other side. I poured the Oju sauce on top.
It came right back to life. I mean I was.
I was really surprised how well it held up that,
you know, the next day, so I just never thought
that would be the case.

Speaker 12 (01:10:25):
I came home with a delicious cup of o ju
that they made up for my mic to go bag
and my half a prime rib because I couldn't finish.
Now that I was had gorged myself and some nice
mashed potato that I dropped in a pan and turned
into a pan fried potato in the morning. Oh, it
was a wonderful breakfast.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
It sounds it the Old Mill, which is right there
in Westminster, Massachusetts. It's on State Road sixty nine, State
Road East or Extension maybe in Westminster. It looks like
it opened up with the building itself in seventeen sixty one,
because that's part of the name, the seventeen sixty one

(01:11:08):
Old Mill. It's a restaurant, beautiful spot, restaurant and Cracker
Barrel pub. I don't really know again that has anything
to do with the Cracker Barrel.

Speaker 12 (01:11:20):
I believe that's the name of their downstairs.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
They've got a downstairs pub.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
All right, okay, bar bar Simson appropriate, got it, all right, Rob,
thank you very much for your phone call. Great recommendation.
And it just looks like a gorgeous, gorgeous spot, especially
being here in the Ringland. I don't think you could
find anything finer than the Old Mill Restaurant in Westminster.
All right, let me take a quick break here for
the news. We'll come back on the other side with that.
We still got another half hour to go on today's program.

(01:11:45):
Looking for your favorite or at least favorite chain restaurant
on today's program eight eight four three four sixty four
sixty four. If you were dialing and couldn't get in
a little while ago, get some open lines for the
first time. All right, here's the I'm gonna call a
fourth three four sixty four sixty four and again Todd
to go. Take your name and a dress because we'll

(01:12:05):
enter you into our our gift card giveaway that we'll
be doing at the end of this hour, and it
could be you. We pick it at random. Eight eight
four three four sixty four sixty four is the number.
My name is Scott Whitley and this is Wicked Bytes Radio. Yeah,

(01:12:27):
and this is Scott Whitley. You're listening to Wicked Bites
Radio on a Sunday morning. We're here every single Sunday morning.
We have been for about getting close to fifty years
at this point. It's whore I father myself right here.
Sunday Morning is on WRK O and bosson ten to
twelve noon. This is where we let you be the
food critic to praise or zing from pizza tug or may.
That's how the show has worked for all these many years.

(01:12:48):
And it's still going strong, which is which is always great,
but it's thanks to folks just like yourself out there
that you know that they call in and participate on
the program every single week and tell us about great
dieting spots because sometimes, you know, things pop up, things
change so drastically and so fast that there's no one

(01:13:10):
person that could keep up on the industry. I remember
hating this restaurant. I went there like three or four times.
It's never liked it and never went back. And then
somebody told me you got to go here, it's great,
and I'm like, I'm tried it three times. How many
more times you want me to try it? Right? You go, Oh,
it's under new ownership and management.

Speaker 7 (01:13:30):
NI.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
Let's say I went back and it was it was
pretty good. So that that's what happens. And that was
in my own hometown years ago. And I'm like, that's
that's how hard it is to keep up on all this.
So with your help, we have been doing that for many,
many years. I today we're looking for best at worst
franchise restaurants on today's program. I haven't done this show
in several years. Used we used to pack up the

(01:13:52):
phone lines with this program because everybody would have an
opinion of it. And I know most of us like
to go to the independent places out there, the individual
owned places, but there is a spot for franchise restaurants.
And some of these franchises, you know, split off, the
chains are split off and with their local owners as well.
So we're looking and to find out what your favorite

(01:14:15):
place is and or at least favorite. Eight eight eight
four three four sixty four sixty four is our number.
We actually have open lines, which is kind of surprising
me right now. So if you've been trying to get in,
you know, by all means, let me know your favorite
or least favorite chain restaurant eight eight eight four three
four sixty four sixty four. And as always, you know,

(01:14:37):
just like we had a college just a few moments ago,
talked about the Old Mill in Westminster. We have open lines.
You can always praise or z inc for pizza to gourmet.
So if you've got a restaurant you want to give
a shout out to, just like our last caller Rob
did and talked about the wait staff at the Old
Mill restaurant, By all means, call in. Let me know
about your favorite places as well. All right, here's the
numbing to call again. Open lines right now eight eight

(01:14:59):
eight fo three four sixty four sixty four. And Todd's
going to enter you into our our dinner contest or
a gift card giveaway that we'll do at the end
of this hour, so that could be you got good chances,
good good odds of winning right now, So get some
open lines, all right. Eight eight eight four three four
sixty four sixty four. Again, first time callers are welcome.
Best and worst franchise restaurants. That's our topic, all right.

(01:15:21):
I was looking at our Facebook page wikabytes TV facebook
page a little while ago, and I went to go
read this review from Mike and it disappeared on me.
It just disappeared right as I was reading it. Probably
somebody was typing in a review. It just knocked off.
I couldn't find it. I just found it. And Mike says,
Scott just went to a good Slice. I just he

(01:15:43):
just He says, if you want a good slice of
pizza and more, there's a place called The Slice. It's
in Wakefield at a gas station. It's phenomenal. Yeah, And
I will agree with you, Mike. I have been there
years ago and it's right. Had a I don't know
if it's a prime gas station, but it really does

(01:16:06):
a great job with their pizzas and their sandwiches and
the subs there, and I don't think you would expect
it there. Yeah, it's a little bit of a surprise,
but it really does well. It really does. And we've
had calls about it and we featured on the TV
show but years ago, and it's done really, really well.

(01:16:27):
So it's called The Slice. It's in Wakefield at a
gas station. Yeah, because that's what I love about this show.
It's not always about these gourmet restaurants, because yeah, they
have their place, but I always love those little hole
in the wall places and The Slice is what I
would put that into as a category. All right, I

(01:16:48):
think you're gonna love it. Also earlier this week I
mentioned in the first hour, but I'll mention it again.
Lee and I had an opportunity to film at Bosa
Coastal Italian and have right there on the river Merrimack River.
They opened up probably less than a year ago. It's
in that brand new building that Salapoli built and this
is part of the poly family restaurants that he has

(01:17:09):
in there. And I really enjoyed my dining experience We
were there filming prior to the restaurant opening up, and
I don't have their hours. I know they do a
Sunday brunch or a weekend brunch, but they they opened
up at four o'clock when we were there on Thursday.
I think we're there Thursday, and by four point fifteen,

(01:17:31):
more than half of that restaurant was already crowded, and
I thought that was kind of early. The food they'll run,
you know, the gamut, it's more Italian fair. They also
have some new items that they have now that are different.
They do a sandwich and they use a pizza dough

(01:17:51):
to wrap it all in. It's pretty good. I really
enjoyed that, and I love their pizzas there as well,
because yeah, you could get an Italian meal, because I mean,
that's what you go and therefore great ranks. Yeah. But
Sal of course is the person behind Sal's pizza. He
has his his pizza oven and there's sort of that
iglu shaped one that's about six hundred and fifty degrees.

(01:18:13):
It heats it up. They're pizzas, but it's more of
an elevated I guess is the correct word pizza than
you know, than the Sal's pizzas, so they're they're like
individual size. The one that I loved and they had
a couple. They had a white clam pizza and I
tried that one. They had another one which was like

(01:18:34):
a butternut squash. I don't know exactly what was in it,
but that cup and pepperoni one. Wow, absolutely hands down
my favorite because I was picking up and picking off
all those cupping pepperonis. That's trying to behave and stay
on my diet. Yeah, I'm probably the only one I
know thanks to the folks over that transition a weight

(01:18:55):
loss in Sell, New Hampshire. Yeah, I've been working doing
this program probably going on almost close to almost close
to like three or four weeks right now, and I've
lost twenty pounds in that period of time. And they
have a whole bunch of meal replacements which is fantastic,
like over six hundred meal replacements, some from local restaurants,

(01:19:17):
and I'm gonna have to have some of the restaurants
that they prepare some of their food for them, So
basically you have six hundred different meal options. And I
had grape leaves the other day for lunch. They were excellent.
The food's really fantastic. You're eating all the time, that's
the one thing, and you're never really hungry. And then

(01:19:38):
I went on vacation for ten days. All you can eat,
all you could drink, right, And I learned from them
because they have dietitianists, they have behavioral specialists, because it's
a doctor regulated program. How to eat properly, you know,
and it's really with portion sizes, and that's the thing
and eating frequently. I wanted vacation, and I didn't deprive myself.

(01:20:03):
I probably had. You know, when you have all you
could drink, you know, and you're doing nothing, you probably
have four or five in a day. Right. And I
went with the mud slides, all the pinicle. I want
the good stuff, right. I lost two pounds while on vacation. Yeah,
I walked every day, but that really helped me, you know,
figure it all out, you know. And so I'm going
in for my my way in tomorrow morning. So let's see,

(01:20:27):
I'm back. I've been back for a week now. I
want to see how well I was able to continue
that weight loss. I still want to lose maybe another
ten more pounds and that's it for me right now,
Never somebody that want to be really really skinny, but
I want to be healthy. I Transition Medical Weight Loss.
They're located in Sale, New Hampshire, and I'll be there
tomorrow right around eleven o'clock, get my way in and
pick up my food for the week. And I love

(01:20:48):
their snacks, so boy, their snacks are great. Like I
had one, it was a chocolate peanut butter candy bar.
Basically that was my snack, you know. So I'm eeting
like five times a day, so you're never really hungry.
And they even get you those weight loss medications to
really help you out and lose all those cravings. If
you would like to do it, they could explain that

(01:21:09):
the benefits of all that and and help you lose weight.
I mean, that's what it's all about. Transition Medical Weight Loss, Salem,
New Hampshire. All right, we're gonna get back to the
phone calls right now. We're looking for your favorite at
least favorite chain restaurant wherever they may be here in
the nation, because a lot of people are listening to
us on the smart speakers out there, which is always great.

(01:21:31):
At eight eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four.
That's eight eight eight four three four sixty four sixty four.
And again, Todd's gonna take your name and address off
air because we do awards some dinner justo Vegas, and
it could be you, you know, so who knows. I
would love to know your favorite chain restaurant eight eight

(01:21:52):
eight four three four sixty four sixty four. All right,
speaking of smart speakers, and people could listen to us
all over the pace place, we're gonna t with Peter,
who's calling us from Florida right now. Well, I have
a feeling it's a little bit warmer there than it
is here today. Hey, Peter, welcome to the Wickabites.

Speaker 4 (01:22:08):
Hey, Scott, can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
I could hear you perfectly, Peter.

Speaker 4 (01:22:11):
Perfect No, look at seventy three. So it's kind of
a little bit warmer down here.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
Yeah, I feel bad. You're gonna have to wear a
jacket this afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:22:22):
Brother, No golf today, No golf, no kayaking today.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
I played golf yesterday morning in a windstorm at about
forty degrees with three layers on and gloves, So I
think I could handled the seventy three degrees right now.

Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
That's good? Hey, did you just touch on for two
Cheese a little earlier.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:22:45):
Yeah, man, that's when they started to expand that was
my favorite chain in my whole life. That place would
cross them and then they just fell apart.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
Yeah, they kind of turned them into a little bit
more of a grill, I guess atmosphere. And I don't
know if that was the their downfall. Uh. And I
I still think they're very good. I I don't go
there that often. I haven't been there in a matter
of fact, in quite a while. But I always thought
they were pretty good. I love their soups there there

(01:23:16):
their sausage soup. But it was, oh yeah, excellent.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
But you know, remember I worked in Orlando. We talked before.
I worked in Orlando in a very high end restaurant.
But we are we are ground zero us in Las Vegas.
They try every single down there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
Yeah right, yep, So you know.

Speaker 4 (01:23:37):
Everything from that yard house she talked about, that's another
dart and property.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
Yeah, you got the bone Fish down there.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
There's so many of the Yeah, bone Fish is very good.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
Yeah, I I haven't been I have not been to
the bone Fish. I've driven by a million of them
when I'm in Florida. But I hear great things about it. Darden,
that Darden rest Group does a really a great job.
They got some really solid restaurants in their portfolio. The
Bonefish is out back though ah okay, didn't realize that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
Didn't realize bone Fish out that it's out that Bonefish
and something else I can't remember. But you know, these
things they're starting to consolidate like everybody else. You know,
you go look at it and you go, wow, Let's
owns Del Frisco's, Anne Morton's and you know, just Abe
and Louise, you know what I mean, just stuff like that.
So they're really started. My business is starting to really consolidate.

(01:24:35):
But you know, these I was what prompted the call,
really was when you had to wait for dinner the
other day and I think it was you said last night.
And really, I'll be quick, but I'll tell you what
I just see it, And that the guy who called

(01:24:56):
about Meg that amazing server. They're few and far between
now there's some you know, professional servers like me are
kind of hard to find people. You know, it's kind
of a bag of bonds job. We just move around
so much. But you know what happens is that these
managers don't really handle pinch It's very simple. They don't

(01:25:16):
handle pinch points well because there's maybe one or two
managers and they actually need three. And the host is
the hosts are the least experienced person at the podium
and the whole restaurant. They're just starting to learn business.
They don't want to get intimidated. They want people if
they don't want people in their faith, where's my table?

(01:25:38):
There's tables empty. Why aren't you seating me? So they
can't time it with the kitchen and they just flood
the restaurant. Yeah, just like you know, because how much
grief are you going to take for twelve or fifteen
or eighteen bucks an hour or twenty five for that matter,
no matter what they need. Yeah, you know, everybody's chasing

(01:25:58):
for that thirty six to sixty check, so.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
Right, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
Yeah, it's a tough tough business to be in. And
and I know a lot of servers, and you know,
bless I bless a lot of them. I'm a great
and a lot of them have more patience than I would,
you know at times, because sometimes times people come in
there and they give you attitude for no reason too.
And I don't know. Some of them deal with it perfectly.
And or if there's a problem. I always say, if

(01:26:27):
there's a problem in a restaurant, a good server could
could solve and make that problem just go away. A
bad one will avoid you and won't say anything, and
then it's kind of festers inside. So it's always great
to find those great servers and for restaurants. You want
to hold on with that for that, with them, for

(01:26:48):
dear life.

Speaker 4 (01:26:50):
Yeah. We're all psychologists, man, Yeah, yep, we're all immature psychologists.
When I started in the business at the Park Plaza hotel,
in the bar was my first job in the business,
and my dad said, oh, you're bartender, you're you're a psychologist. Yeah,
and that stuck with me and I noticed it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
You know, if you could write a book, bartenders could
probably write some of the best books. They talk to people, Yeah,
and when the liquor is flowing, their mouths are open,
you know, and I bet they could come up with
some incredible tales.

Speaker 4 (01:27:28):
I'll tell you the best book would be to write
about bartenders. I'll tell you the stories, like we just
never get sick of each other. Yeah, it doesn't matter
if you're if you're an eighteen year old bartender or
me a sixty year old bartender.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
We man, we just we love this.

Speaker 4 (01:27:44):
There's something about bartenders that.

Speaker 7 (01:27:46):
Really we more.

Speaker 4 (01:27:47):
We're more likely to stick in the business. I'm a
summer year now, Yeah, but we're more likely to stick
in the business than than a server going to college
and getting out of college and then off you go
to your profession. But man, there's something that really sticks
with you when you're back behind that stick man and
talk with people, and people are really bonding with you.
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
Yeah, And I think the whole way you serve the
drinks now has over the last ten years, has really changed.
It's it's no longer you're just mixing up one or
two things. It's all about the experience sitting down in
the lounge with drinks.

Speaker 4 (01:28:24):
I had a very basic cocktail list at the restaurant
on Matt Now now I have this fantastic twenty seven
year old kid who has part time job over at
the Conrad Hotel, the new Conrad Hotel in Orlando, and
that's the old villas of Grand Cypress. Probably maybe played
golf there one time or another. This kid tea makes

(01:28:47):
it doesn't take him eight minutes to make an old fashion.
But man his little presentations because he studies his craft.
How many people study their craft?

Speaker 12 (01:28:56):
And he is.

Speaker 4 (01:28:58):
He has brought our beverage program and tiny little place.
He's five x star beverage program. He just from presentation
and I'm like, oh, this kid is really good. Yeah,
you know what, we let him workshop, We let him work.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
Yeah, it's it's something that when they had that passion
to make, it's about the experience too making the drink.
I've seen that in a few I've been to a
couple of speakeasies, and there was one I went to
up in I think it's Portland, Maine called Chuck's barber Shop.
It's set in a nineteen thirties forties barbecue barber shop,

(01:29:38):
you know where you got a dial a phone and
give them the password just to get in. And they're
all decorated, the staff in like the nineteen forties outfits
and stuff like that, and it's really dark and beautifully
well lit by colorful lights. And their drink menu was
so advanced, and I always think like, okay, I I

(01:30:02):
had a gin drink, a gin based drink, and it
was good but it took them like three or four
minutes to make. And I'm like, boy, if this restaurant's packed,
it's going to take a long time to make all
the drinks if they come out with all these specialty ones.
But it's a show at the same time, it is.

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
Yeah, we a restaurant business. We provide more entertainment than
TV and films and concerts combined. Yeah, one person at
a time, in millions of millions and millions of people
a day, all over the country, all over the world
are in restaurants with a different experience, even in the
same restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Yeah. I always tell restaurant owners and some of them
like it and some of them some totally disagree with me.
But I always say, you're in the entertainment business just
like I am, absolutely and if they understand that, you
know your experience is going to be good at those restaurants,
and the ones that don't understand it, they seem to

(01:31:02):
like disappear after a short period of time.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
Man, that's why I think that's why we've been there
for thirty four years and a fifteen table restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
Yeah. Yeah, tell everybody the name of your restaurants. It's
just outside of Orlando.

Speaker 4 (01:31:16):
Oh, it's actually in Orleando over near the Bay Hill
Club in Ailesworth Country Club. It's called Chatham's Place. I mean,
we still it just like Chatham, Matt. It's called Chatham's Place.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
But you need to get reservations well, and I mean
well in advance a.

Speaker 4 (01:31:32):
Month, at least a month in advance, even on a
Tuesday night this time of year, we're coming into season.
It's two three weeks on when we're open Tuesday through Saturday,
so unless you want to, i mean kind of forget
Friday Saturday the.

Speaker 2 (01:31:49):
Whole rest of the year, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:52):
And then early January up to Valentine's Day. It's a
great time in Orlando to beat experiments and coming to
restaurant's pretty.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
Easy to get it in.

Speaker 4 (01:32:00):
But yeah, it's we're to at least two weeks in
advance on a weeknight.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Yeah, all right, Yeah, maybe well maybe I'll make it down.
I mean, I'm going to get down. I'm heading back
to Orlando sometime in March. That's that's our plan right now.
So maybe we'll make some reservations ahead out there to
try it this time. All right, all right, Peter, thank
you very much for your phone call. All Right, I
got to run because I'm a little bit late for
a break. We'll come back with the other side. We'll

(01:32:28):
wrap things up. I we'll have our winner from this
hour and uh we'll tell you what's to come next
week on the radio n TV show. All right, Wicked
Bites TV. Great place we're going to be featuring next week.
I'll tell you about that when we come back. My
name Iscott Whiley. This is Wicked Bites Radio.

Speaker 8 (01:32:45):
From Food Trucks to Find. We're serving up the tastiest
talking town Wicked Bites with Scott Whiley. Your appetite for
conversation starts here. Peddler's Still at Her Restaurants offers a
tentake eye wish dining.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
Without the troubles. They have the beverages you love, with
all the food that's famous in the Land of the
Leprechauns at friendly service and you don't need to look
at the Irish. You just need to know. There's a
Peddler's Daughter restaurant in Heybrold, Nashua.

Speaker 11 (01:33:16):
I'm Tracy and I'm Julianne.

Speaker 9 (01:33:17):
We're here at the Pushcart Cafe.

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
Come down and visit us at our newly expanded cafe.

Speaker 6 (01:33:22):
We have something for the entire family.

Speaker 9 (01:33:24):
At the pushcart Cafe are huge salabars, dinners and more.

Speaker 11 (01:33:27):
Come on down and get comfortable at the family table,
make yourself at home.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
Don't forget our fresh big cookies and smoothies.

Speaker 10 (01:33:34):
A pushcard Cafe Route thirty eight in Trucksbury.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
Hey, this is God with me from Wicked Bites Radio
and Wicked Bites TV. And you know me and you
know I love a great deal. But when it comes
to something as valuable as rare coins, trust is everything.
That's why I personally do business with Warren Mills of
Rare Coins of New Hampshire. Warren is a leading expert
in the nation and he travels the country looking for

(01:33:58):
rare coins and I have but to know he pays
some of the highest prices as well. So if you're
sitting on an old coin collection, now may be a
great time to turn it into cash. And with inflation
on the rise, it's a perfect time to invest in
gold and silver. I personally started investing in silver with
Warn five years ago and I've almost doubled my money
since that time. So whether you're looking to invest in gold,

(01:34:21):
silver or rare coins. Warn Mills of Rare Coins of
New Hampshire is the person you need to call. Eight
hundred two two five seven two sixty four Warn Mills
Rare Coins of New Hampshire eight hundred two two five
seven to two six ' four.

Speaker 13 (01:34:38):
If you're looking for the right place to grab a
pine of year or a layback place for your family,
come to J. Callahan's Pub and dukespare perfect for diners
of all ages with delicious foods, freshly prepared and made
from scratch, with plenty of daily specials for food, fun
and friends.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Think TJ.

Speaker 13 (01:34:54):
Callahan's Pub, rud thirty eight toukesperre.

Speaker 14 (01:34:57):
Welcome to Vita Bella in Essex, the area's top Italian restaurant.
Your dining experience is not only delicious but romantic at
the same time, so come join us for incredible food
and drinks. Vita Bala Restaurante Our Route one thirty three
in Essex.

Speaker 8 (01:35:17):
Mass From food trucks to fine dining, We're serving up
the tastiest talking town wicked bites with Scott Whidley. Your
appetite for conversation starts here.

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
All right. We're running short on time, So let me
just quickly tell you a couple of quick things. Restaurante Lucia,
They're in Winchester, are one of my favorite spots.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:35:37):
You go over there, you got to absolutely love it.
It's owned by the front of Roly family. They're on
several restaurants, including Lucia's in the North End of Boston.
This is their Winchester location. It opened up in nineteen
eighty six. Fine Italian dining, great atmosphere. People love it
as much as I mean, I rave about it, and
I'm being very sincere. It's one of my favorite spots.

(01:35:58):
Lucia Restaurante, five dasht Ount Vernon Street in Winchester. There's
plenty of parking there as well. There's meter parking spots
and a couple of municipal parking lots steps away too.
All right, Lucia's in Winchester our winter this hour to
the Coliseum Restaurant in the shopping in the Breakway shopping
center is a frank from Manchester, New Hampshire. So congratulations.

(01:36:20):
I know you're going to love that restaurant as much
as I do. It is really really good, the Coliseum Restaurant,
So congratulations, Frank Next week on the television show Wickabites
TV on Nesson, we're going to feature Buckley's Great Steaks.
Now that is in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and it's a
place that was originally dining, built a restaurant, I guess

(01:36:41):
or a tavern back one hundred and fifty years ago
and it's still in great operation and turns out some
great steaks. It's called Buckley's Great Steaks. Wait, so you
see it and the atmosphere inside. They got these pumpkin
panels on the floor. They're like eighteen inches wide. You
can't find that nowadays. And the food outstand so the dessert,
all right, that's next Quik Saturday mornings at eight thirty

(01:37:03):
Sunday nights at ten pm on this and that's gonna
do it for May back Saturday night at five pm.
Wickedbyes tonight. See you next Sunday morning, ten am. Bye bye, everybody,