042424 430 Mr Dallas

A coffee shop with four Dallas locations has mysteriously closed and disappeared! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??  

Episode Transcript

(00:19):
All right, I'm sorry about that. We thought we were going to have
the higher authority on but he gotsidetracked. Yep. He said he was
reading a book. He said,I'm sorry, I got absorbed in a
book in another room. My apologies, reschedule and I said, no worries.

(00:43):
I hope it's a wonderful book.And he said, it's a book
about sports phone, the first placeI ever worked at out of college,
where before the Internet people got theirscores and news. Ask Reiner, he
knows about it. Yes, Ido know about sports phone. Hmm,
you're employed by sports phone, right, I did something similar to that voice

(01:06):
on the phone, right, Iwas, Yeah, I was. Indeed,
what was yours called? GTE oncall? That's right, that's it.
Coop was a little busy as asports phone book. He missed four
calls in a text from me.Well, I've seen that book out there,
and I do I am interested inreading it. Well, for the

(01:27):
love of God, don't read itbefore the show. I won't. I
won't if it's that good that itsidetracks him. YEA. God only knows
what it'll do to me. Mygoodness, it'll waylay me for months,
all right, is he here?I guess he is? Dallas, Texas,

(02:05):
Fema, Markins, what all Rogers, Robocas, Oh Wilson, Micasina
Richardson Square Fall Dallas, Texas.Mister Dallas, Dallas, Texas. Mister

(02:30):
Dallas, Dallas, Texas, MisterDallas. Whoa oo ooh, Sexas Dallas.

(02:55):
How's it going? How's everybody inhere? I'm miss miss Are you
glad to see me? I'm misterDallas. Yeah. How's a little guy
doing over there? Little guy's good? Glad to see me? Reasonably well,
I have a story for you here. I do, I do,

(03:19):
I do. Wow. We havehad a strange and sudden closing and complete
disappearance red lobster of something that hadjust recently popped up here in our fair
burgh Chuck E cheese, No neitherof those things. Crystal meth. But

(03:43):
I don't believe that's disappeared, allright, and there are no retail locations
for it that I know of anyway. Jeff. By the way, this
comes courtesy of our friend Sarah Blaskovic. We know her, and we do
know her. But yesterday, Tuesday, April twenty third, was a day

(04:04):
like just about any other for thisbusiness until about ten o'clock, when staff
and customers were notified that not onlywas the central store closing, all of

(04:29):
them were, and all of theemployees were thereby terminated, and all of
the customers were free to go.Now, this is a store that has
just popped up recently. I havenot been in there yet or I had
none rooms to go. Lounge,it's closed. That place is forever.

(04:55):
Oh yeah, yeah. In fact, I understand they've hired John radigan Is.
I saw he was not in thelounge last night because he was outside
of keeping people out. Okay,no, tell me if you've been to
this place foxtrot. No, well, I have in video games a lot

(05:17):
of times. That's a location foxtrotis. It's a military term, it's
military f foxtrot, but not inreal life. But I've never been to
a building that was named Fox Tree. I think I've seen him around,
but no, I've never been.They had four locations here in our fair
Burgh, thirty three shops nationwide inChicago, Washington, DC, and parts

(05:43):
of Texas. According to the ChicagoTribune, they were all inside the bubble.
All four of their shops were insidethe bubble. They weren't running no
games in the burbs, which makesthem kind of unus usual. And they
went big. They had four ofthese things. One was in the Knock

(06:09):
Street district, one was Uptown,one was in East Dallas, up on
Greenville Avenue. In the place andyou, my guys, will remember this
the place which once housed the greatnessof Nicks Uptown and University Park. And

(06:30):
what this was hasd According to SarahBlaskovich, this was a retail store and
coffee shop. Coffee coffee retail andcoffee retail and coffee. You could get
coffee and an essential oil diffuser.Yes. The employees were told in an

(06:57):
email in the morning of April twentythird, twenty twenty five, that as
of the end of today, asat the end of the day today,
you will no longer be employed.That's fun. You were not to report
to your assigned work location on orafter Wednesday, April twenty fourth, strip.
Do not pass today, Do notcollect two hundred dollars nothing unless specifically

(07:21):
requested to do so. This camedown about ten am. And yeah,
this is a very sudden thing.Another memo from a from another Dollas shop
told employees that that no employee in, no managers had any clue about anything.

(07:46):
Yep, it did. The parentcompany here is out Fox Hospitality and
company execs Road. We explored manyavenues to continue the business, but found
no viable option despite good faith andexhaustive efforts. Remember those words we broke

(08:07):
yes, As we said, It'sa Chicago based company and the big idea
here was to be part coffee shopand part convenience store, with an emphasis
on delivering upscale grocery items like pintsof Jenny's ice cream. Oh wow,
yeah, double mocha latte, packof Marlboro Reds, and some ice cream.

(08:31):
I'm seeing signs of recognition. No, I have no idea what that
ice cream is. No, No, I think just the concept of having
high end groceries while you have yourcoffee. I think I would be a
little bit like confused which order toproceed. Do I do want my grocery
shopping? And then do I getmy coffee? And then do I sit

(08:52):
there with my coffee with all ofmy groceries just kind of scattered around?
I guess you do coffee first,get wired and then go tear up them
groceries like my coffee is kind ofa leisurely sit down, drink your coffee,
relax. Grocery shopping is a choreon my chore list. You're like
mixing the tea. You don't liketo just wolf it down and get going.

(09:13):
Wolf. Yeah, I'm woof downgrocery shopping. Sorry, that's all
I heard there, you said,Wolf, I said woof. I did
see it yesterday on the internet.I think it was Leah Howdysaarah, last

(09:33):
name Remeni Reminiminimini. I don't knowif she's now like trying to grow an
online fan base on one of thethings. If it was on Instagram or
the Talk or what it was on, but she did a whole video talking
about going to the grocery store mmhm and how much she enjoys it and
that she goes down every aisle andsega. I know I don't need things

(09:56):
there, but if you're with me, shut up, like, yes,
I want to talk to strangers.I don't want to talk to you.
And when it's like why are yougoing down this? Out because I want
to see what's new with toothpaste,Like I know I don't need motor oil,
but I want to see what's upwith motor oil, like I'm going
down every well, I do that, crack me up dude, on every
aisle, no matter what. IfI'm going on a big grocery voyage,

(10:20):
then yes, I'm going down everyaisle because chances are I will see something
that that I forgot, that Ineeded and get it. That's why you're
doing it wrong. That's why everybodyneeds to adopt my mindset, which you
can't do if you have a family, which is be a basket guy.
I can't be going down those aisles. I don't have a room. I
went grocery shopping yesterday. I gottwo red barre and pizzas to buy you.

(10:43):
A basket guy, I'm a basketguy. I don't push a cart.
I carry a basket. Oh okay, so I can only fit I
can only fit so many things.Yeah, I don't cart it. I
will never cart it. I alsohave to buy groceries every third day.
But yeah, it sounds like alot more work. But I don't have
to be a cart I don't enjoytrips to the grocery store that much,
so I carked. I don't eithercart. But I also feel like if

(11:05):
most of the stuff that you buygoes bad kind of quick, so it's
probably just better to buy it allthe time. Yeah, Like, do
you do you buy fresh veggies?Yeah? And do you keep them in
a little plastic bag or do youjust raw dog them? Excuse me?
Well, A lot of times whenI buy veggies, I raw dog it.
Like I just grab the vegetables thatI want, I check out and

(11:28):
I put them in the grocery bag, and then when I get home,
I just throw them raw dog inthe drawer. There's not it's it doesn't
have any individual bags all around inthere. And I wonder if that's why
they go bad early, because Idon't have a bag. Yeah, that
probably keep freshness, Yeah, Ithink so. I think you can take
them out and wash them and putthem, slice them and then put some

(11:50):
sort of special ingredient on them andthen close them in like a tight tupperware
and they'll last even longer. There'sall kinds of tricks, Jeff said,
raw dog. Yeah, I didvegetables. I was real confused. Nothing
makes me happier than making mister Dallashappy. It's like chicken steak, same
thing. I'll buy it, butI'm not gonna put it in the freezer

(12:13):
and then move it to the fridgethe day before I'm gonna use it or
whatever, because I don't know whenI'm gonna use it. It's whenever I
feel like it. So it justgoes in the fridge and I don't keep
too long, you know. Iknow, you got to have a plan.
So I basket it, yeah,and I do things quick. Yeah,
get it knocked out well. Alongwith Jenny's ice Cream, when you
stole strolled the aisles of Foxtrot,you could also buy bottles of wine and

(12:37):
flowers. Late last year, FoxTrot merged with Doms Kitchen and Market You
Say Dogs, Doms Dumb Dumb Okayyou Dogs, Chicken and Market Dogging Vegetables,

(12:58):
which then had only two stores inChicago, but they merged to form
out Vox Hospitality and the website GroceryDrive said at the time the merger might
help both companies expand into new markets, which it did. One of those
was our Fair Burgh. However,Jenny's ice Cream and Dong's Chicken. What

(13:18):
is not clear yet is why thebankruptcy and abrupt closures happened so quickly after
this merger. I think they boughtNFTs might have a situation. That's what
it gets people. Well, Idon't know if honestly, I don't know

(13:39):
anybody. Nobody has ever told methat they were going to Foxtrot, or
they had been to Foxtrot, orthey were ever in Fox Store or anything.
Anybody mention Fox. No, Inever had. But I had one,
you know, right up the streeton Greenville Avenue. And I'd seen

(14:00):
them at the other locations and theother in the other neighborhoods. And I
started to wonder maybe I was missingsomething. Maybe I was kind of out
on something that was really pretty cool, and I should go in there and
check it out. But get upin there, dude. Oh wait,
is it over over? It's alreadyover over. I guess we'll never know.
To quote a great man man,do you have a favorite grocery You

(14:26):
a trader Joe's guy. No,I'm generally partial to the Tom thumb up
on mocking Bird. Yeah. You'rea poor groceries guy. Yeah, kind
of struggling to make ends meet.Yeah, I reflected in the grocery store.
You choose it is it is interested. I'm an every man when it
comes to groceries. Yeah, Ibet I don't go high tone. I
bet grooves. Is it Whole Foodsonly you thumb it. You're both thumbs.

(14:52):
Yeah, but it does have anunderground parking garage because it's fancy.
Damn thumb up. That's a nicetom thumb. It is killing it.
I know that tom thumb. Yeah, it is a nice one. Get
the groceries brought out to me.Do that pick up thing? Yeah,
yeah, I should try that.Jeff, where do you go? I'm

(15:13):
a croker guy. Okay, I'lltry it on the corner trap by the
house. Nothing. Yeah, Ihoof it in there, and I do.
I do real bad geometry with grocerystore parking because they have you have
the store front and so you know, coming out from the store, you'll
have a bunch of different lanes ofparking spots, but also parking facing forward

(15:37):
towards the store. You can goall the way down the rest of like
the retail area, like there's apet smart and there's a restaurant and all
these things. And for whatever reason, I feel like if I park in
that front row facing the front ofthe building, that I can't get any
closer than that, even if I'ma quarter mile down I feel like,

(16:00):
because I've parked up against right bythe building, that that's as close as
I can get. Even though Icould just go to like the middle lane
and go back six cars and I'dbe hundreds of yards closer. I just
feel like I'm getting closer until I'mwalking out with my groceries and I'm like,
crap, I'm way down there.Do you have any academic proof of

(16:22):
that? No? No, Ijust I know that I make mistakes when
when it comes to my grocery storeparking, and I realized it on my
way out. Every time on myway in, I'm like, yep,
did it right again? And thenyou screw it? Parked up front instead
of parking. Yeah, I've starteddoing some of the side parking, like
at Target. Whoa, yeah,there's usually like one row right on the

(16:45):
side. Oh yeah, like theside of the building. Yeah yeah,
all side park on you how closeto the door is that? It's a
lot closer than you think. Whoit is? Never, don't do it.
It's the best. See she doesn'twant that, No, y yeah,
she thinks she's onto something. Nobodyelse knows about it. I do,
I do. Look, you justdump that you could just get rid

(17:06):
of that audience so that nobody knowsthat you're a side parker. I've done
the side park and Target is oneof the places that almost always has a
side parking option. Most places don'thave that. I guess they're just a
big enough building that they do.M hm. And you can do a
side park at a Target. Yeah. Target is a place that you do
not want to walk down every aisle. You'll end up pushing four cars,

(17:27):
Yeah, because you'll buy so muchstuff Target to get you. I was
in the Target just a couple ofweeks ago, and I walked down every
aisle. How much crap you endup with? Not a lot what you
walk in and don't touch. Yeah, that takes some dedication. You're a
strong willed son of a bit,Yeah you are. You can walk through

(17:47):
a whole Target, Yeah I can't. I end up with six hot wheels
at end table, a fan thebox, a couple of shirts, yeah,
two shirts and some sweatpants, anda twenty four inch TV. Same.

(18:07):
Where's that gonna go? I don'tknow, but it was sixty bucks.
I had to grab it. Ido think that I wonder now if
there's walk up every aisle people andjust kind of like shoot all around the
store kind of people. Because myhusband does a walk up every aisle person,
but only if the day in thetime allows. But he likes to
carve out that time, yeah,because he enjoys walking up and down every

(18:29):
aisle. Ye, that's kind ofwhat I do too. I walk up
every aisle, but I walk quick. Yeah, and if something doesn't grab
my attention right away, then that'sit. Yeah. I just don't have
time for that in my life.And I'm not interested in the grocery store
experience. I'm not interested in thegrocery means for me, I gotta do
it. I cannot believe you peoplethat go down every aisle. That's crazy.

(18:52):
I mean, my route is mappedin left, veggies, back,
meat, hot wheels, hot wheels, nicotine patches. I usually catch the
nicotine patch on the way out.It's the last thing because I go left,
back, right, and forward andthen catch whatever I might have something

(19:17):
else I need on the way up, and I'm out of there. I
ain't doing more than one, two, three, four, Yeah, you're
doing six seventy nineteen. Yeah Iam, I am, because I'm I
might forget something. Yeah, youknow, or I might not have written
down. You know, something thatI really need and I'll see it there
and get it. Get some icecream, Oh tortillas. Crap, what

(19:37):
don't forget the ragou I just spedup his retirement. He's whipping down the
spaghetti sauce aisle. Probably hitting inyour bathroom. You go to the bathroom
at the grocery store if I needto. That's always like, it's always

(20:00):
gross, always in that like backright corner fall the warehouse stuff. I
don't like people we were doing thestocking and I take out ahead of time.
Yeah, I'm way more comfortable atlike a Low's or a home depot
bathroom. I don't know why thegrocery store one seems more gross. It
is, yeah, it does.The home improvement store they got you squared

(20:22):
away. Yeah it's gross, butit does feel like you're kind of on
the inside for just a little bit, Like you get to see what's going
on in the back of the store. This is where they stalk everything and
all that, and then you goyou exit the bathroom and you're just another
normal customer. I do like alittle experience. I do like to use
the ones that it's clear they don'twant you to use. Like I go
out of my way at a CVSwhere it won't open. Yeah, I'll

(20:47):
walk up to an employe and belike, I need in the restroom and
they give you a code or somethingand you're like, oh, you don't
want me in there. Yeah,that so I tear it up. That's
a weird one. The CVS.Also the Sonic Hut, but you do
not. You've never gone in theSonic I've gone to the bathroom in the
Sonic Hut. Yeah, it's oneof those who worked at Sonic, and

(21:10):
I would tell you absolutely not.Oh, you are not coming in the
hut. Well, what's the SonicHut? The little tiny area where they're
inside the employees it's a Sonic likeit's a driver Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
you don't go inside. There's abathroom in there, and it is
available to you. It is notif you need it. I don't love
it. It's one of my leastfavorite bathroom experiences ever. Actually, But

(21:33):
we were on a road trip andthe kids wanted Sonic and I needed to
use the restrooms. So I thought, I'm gonna go straight up to that
mud and I'm going to ask ifI can go into this hut to use
the restroom, and they said yes. It was weird though, I heard
like the Sonic people working they werelike cussing, and that is like,
that is white woman privilege. Yougot to use the bathroom in the Sonic
hut. That's right. It wouldn'thave played it. He don't be jealous.

(21:56):
That truly is wide privilege. Thatwouldn't have played at the Allen location
when I was working there. Soldyou get to step in, I gotta
go, all right, waiter comingup next gateway to the Rangers with our
sweet friend Emily Jones and