November 5, 2025 • 41 mins
If you work in an office, the sustenance closest to your desk is probably a $15 bowl of wet greens and grains. You may even feel tenderly about your slop bowl. After all, it’s the only taste of the outside world between 9-5pm. In this episode of Restaurant People, Hannah and Bryan are joined by Infatuation Austin Senior Editor Matt Jacobs to discuss the grimmest meal of the day, going undercover in a corporate cafeteria, and why we can’t seem to shake that wet, wet lunchtime slop.
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(00:00):
- Lunch is the grimace meal of the day.
(00:01):
- Yeah.- It's when you eat
because you don't want to die.
It's the most intimately tied to death.
Would you say that?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.- For sure.
You got Just Salad.
You got Cava.
Sweetgreen.
You can create your own bowl.
And that bowl,
you pick your base, you pick your protein,
you pick your toppings,
and what you get is a pile of slop.
(00:22):
Which is why the term slop bowl
has come into existence.
- Because no matter how composed
it looks at first,
it ultimately turns into wet slop.
And you are the little piggy eating it.
- Have fun you little piggy.
- I'm Bryan Kim.
Editorial Lead for Infatuation in NYC,
and I recently ate awhole branzino for lunch.
(00:43):
I'm Hannah Albertine.
Senior editor at Infatuation,
and I'll eat even theworst tuna melt for lunch.
I mean, diabolically bad.
- And this is "Restaurant People".
The show for peoplewho eat at restaurants,
sometimes from Infatuation.
- Today on "Restaurant People",
were returning to office.
Were saying goodbye to the PJ's
getting off the couch.
- That's right.
(01:03):
It's finally time totalk about office lunch.
Where are people eating during the day?
- I just remembered
I'm out of arugula and yogurt at home.
- Oh my gosh.
My yogurt has gone bad.
- Ugh, that means youreally let yourself go.
- We're going to need to find
some slop bowl chains to eat at.
- I want to know what you think
of Cava and Sweetgreen.
If you even like these places?
- I like them,
(01:24):
but I do have complicated feelings.
- Okay, we'll save it for the episode.
- We'll get into it.
- We'll be joined by Austin,
Senior Editor Matt Jacobs,
who's going to talk tous about lunch in Texas,
and how office lunch varies
depending on the city and industry.
- All that and more
on this week's episodeof "Restaurant People".
- Yee-haw.
(01:44):
On your first day
of working at the Infatuation,
what did you eat for lunch?
- I remember this vividly.
Do you know why?
- No.
- I think you do.
I've told you this before.
- Let's hear it.
- So, you know I was a vegetarian
for about eight years.
- Yeah.- Before I joined
the Infatuation.
- Yeah.
- A pescatarian for I think the last
few of those.
(02:05):
And when I went to interviewat the Infatuation,
it just, the topic did not come up.
And I didn't tell themthat I did not eat meat,
and had not eaten meat in eight years.
- But you, that was a thought you had.
You were like,
"Oh, if I get this job,
I'm going to have to eat meat."
- Yeah, for sure.
But I was definitely hiding my past
a little bit because Ireally wanted the job.
- Yeah.
- And so my first day in the office,
I'm trying to blend in.
(02:26):
Right.
Everybody is ordering food.
- Oh no.
Back in the day,
we used to order whatever we wanted.
- Yeah.- Off like Seamless.
- Every day?
- Yeah, yeah.
It was amazing.
So I was like, Oh God.
I can't order somethingvegetarian, they'll know.
So I was like,
"I'll have that chicken pasta."
It was my first day in the office.
- That is such a bold lunch order.
- I know.
So it arrived.
- Inadvertently drew more attention
(02:47):
to yourself by doing that.
- Maybe.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So it came,
and I'm staring at this chicken pasta.
I'm like, "Oh, God."
- Ugh.
- I'm going to eatchicken for the first time
in eight years.
If you ever want to trulyappreciate a burger,
don't eat one for eight years,
and then eat one for the first time.
That's really good advice.
- Yeah.
Oh, and bacon.
Oh my God.
- Don't even get him started.
- So good.
(03:08):
Even better than the burger.
- But see you actually had no
transitional ailments?
- No, none whatsoever.
- Wow.
- Yeah, uh-huh.
- You got an iron tummy.
- Thank you.
And to this day,
I don't think I've told my bosses
that I was a vegetarianwhen they hired me.
- They're going to know.
- Well, I was a pescatarian at that point.
- Yeah.
That's a lovely story.
Thank you for that.
- You're welcome.
- That's really good.
- Do you remember whatyour first office lunch
(03:29):
at the Infatuation was?
- I do not remember what I had,
but I remember walking outside.
because our office at that point
was on like Broadway and Canal,
and I must have gottencoffee or something.
And I just remember being like,
"I've hit the big leagues.
I'm walking on Canal Street."
- But those were the days.
Those were the glory days
of our office lunch
(03:50):
because office lunch is so good.
Would you even choosewhatever you want to eat?
It's like Christmas.
- It's Christmas.
- Every day.
Hanukkah.
Every day.
- It's Hanukkah.
Well, eight days.
Who is it that said they wish lunch
could just be a pill they swallow?
- It was one of our coworkers for sure.
- That really bummed me out.
I get it.
But it's so upsetting.
(04:10):
- But I get where they're coming from
because what do I eatfor lunch half the time?
A protein bar.
That's...
- It's the closest pill.
It's just to a whole pill.
- It's a chewable pill.
- It's a chewable pill.
And it's like we all have a pressure
to continue to be productive.
And you just happen to need to eat.
It's like you function alongside lunch.
(04:31):
- Yeah.
Lunch I think is the meal
we eat most reluctantly.
Our office for the record is kind of,
what is it?
Hudson Yards area.
Manhattan West.
Very corporate.
Typical corporate Midtown New York.
- Yes.
- So I think you've talked to
some of the people at our office,
and what are they saying
about lunch culture there?
(04:52):
- Overwhelmingly, it was despair.
Maddy, our creative director,
said, "Bring back a proper lunch break.
Why am I compelled to eat at my desk?"
And that got a bunch of emoji support.
Virginia, our staff writer in Miami said,
"When I lived in Spain,
lunch was the mostimportant meal of the day.
And I really miss that.
(05:13):
It was like two hours longwith multiple courses,
but still cheap.
Their menus del dia wereusually like 20 Euros,
which included wine.
I would love if our country
adopted all of the above."
- Wow.
Could you translate menus del dia for me?
- I think that's menu of the day.
- Wow.
That sounds so good.
- Could even be plural.
Menus of the day.
- Oh my gosh.
(05:34):
- Yeah.
But that's like a big,
I think cultural difference.
- Yeah.- Right.
Europe versus America Lunch.
Here, it's all about capitalism,
and maximizing your profits.
Right.
And we're all just kind of like
playing this game too.
Just willingly.
We're down.
Are you a little capitalist?
- I'm a little capitalist.
- Dang.
- Do you actually take a lunch break?
- No.- Okay.
- I don't want a lunch break though.
(05:55):
- I want to force a twohour banquet every day,
four days a week.
- That is nuts.
And also, I want to go back to this
lunch break thing.
Do you like lunch breaks?
Do you want a lunch break?
- You know what,
I don't need to eat in the wild.
I'd love a walk.
- Yeah.
- Go outside.
Take a lap.
Take a beat.
Call a friend.
That'd be nice.
- We at work, we can take lunch breaks.
(06:16):
It's not like we can't-
- take lunch breaks.- Yeah.
- But I just, we're busy.
We got stuff to do.
- Exactly.
I have so much to do in the day.
If I take a lunch break,
it means I am just not going to
do that work until later.
So you're just delaying work.
- It's true.
- The nature of our work is,
we just have these set tasks
that we have to accomplish.
Right.
It's not like we comein, we work eight hours,
and we're done with all of our work.
- Right.
- So yeah.
I'm not like entirely in favor
(06:37):
about an hour long lunch break.
I'm not doing that myself.
- Lunch in New York varies
slightly based on the industry.
I mean, I think that's probably true
in all cities.
If you work in Midtown,
and you're an executive,
you might be having a power lunch.
Although I think that's happening
less and less
because people are busy and on the go.
But if you are not justlike a Brad and Chad
(06:58):
going to Chopt or Cava,
you might be having lunch at Le Rock.
You might be having lunch at Santi.
The Grill even.
You might be going to Jupiter,
even though it's in a basement.
Downtown media scene,
I think there's this idea
that if you're not goingto the Conde Cafeteria,
you might be going to The Odeon,
(07:19):
say or even Altro Paradiso
or Sant Ambroeus.
But you're unemployed ifyou go to Sant Ambroeus.
- Sant Ambroeus.
- For lunch.
- Such a scenie lunch spot,
- Scenie lunch spot.
You're an entrepreneur.
Self described if you go there for lunch.
And then there's like theGallerinas in Chelsea,
they're going to Cookshop,
they're going to Bottino.
They're getting their really expensive
(07:41):
little sandwich that they're going to eat
a couple bites of.
Sorry gallerinas.
You know there's like a little tech scene
in DUMBO, Time Out Market or Celestine.
That's that restaurant down there.
- Celestine.
Yeah. Right on the Waterfront.
Beautiful views.- Really nice.
- If you're having lunch at Celestine,
you made it.
- You made it.
And you want people to know about it.
(08:01):
And then there's NoMad.
- NoMad.
- For whatever reason,NoMad is like ground zero
of quickie lunches and bowls.
- NoMad is the fast casualcapital of the world.
- Yeah, it's true.
And I don't know why?
Do you?
- 2013, Sweetgreen opensits first New York City
location in NoMad.
(08:22):
- Yeah.- Originally it opened in 2007
in Washington DC.
Right.
But it made its way over to New York City,
and it changed the game.
- Oh.- In 2013.
All the other salad chainsjust weren't as cool.
Even though Chopt opened
in New York back in 2001,
and Just Salad also in New York in 2006.
- That's older than I thought.
(08:42):
- Yeah
. But New York City loves a salad chain.
Right.- Yeah.
- These ones and they're still popular.
I'm not saying they were failures at all.
They just weren't as cool as Sweetgreen.
- For whatever reason, Sweetgreen came,
and had like a cultural cache
associated with it.
- It came and now it's got over 200
locations around the country.
- Yeah.
- And Sweetgreen is just like
the quintessential millennial lunch.
- True.
(09:03):
It is Like the millennial restaurant.
- Let's talk about that a little bit.
Why do you,
what do you think Sweetgreen
was doing that worked,
that hit home with people?
- I think they had slightlymore niche artisanal
ingredients in their salads.
Right.
And they had great recipes.
They had great design.
It was just like minimalist millennial.
- Yeah.
- It looked like everymillennial's apartment.
- Right.
- And then it just came around
(09:23):
at the exact right time
when all these millennials
are entering the workforce.
Right.
So if like the average millennial today
is 37 years old
for entering the workforce in like 2010.
- Yeah, that's right.
- So it's just,
they came at exactly the right time.
- Those same millennials who are 37
or whatever they were in, I don't know,
(09:45):
middle school watching"Super Size Me" at school.
- Yeah.
Except now the odd thing is Sweetgreen
down significantly,Cava down significantly-
- Yeah.- for the year.
Do you know what's up this year?
- What?
- McDonald's
- Yeah.- Just a little bit.
- Well, New York.- But they're doing well
- New York young professionals,
it turns out not reflective
of the rest of the country.
- Yeah.
(10:05):
Do you know what the new Sweetgreen is?
It opened-- What?
- They opened theirsecond location in NoMad.
You know because we recently went.
- I know.
Should we sing the song?
- What's the song?
♪ ThisBowl ♪
♪ ThisBowl ♪
- What's the next word?
♪ It's criminal ♪
♪ It's criminal ♪
- No, no.
I don't think ThisBowl is criminal.
(10:25):
- ThisBowl.
Hannah, you are the biggest ThisBowl fan.
ThisBowl.
- No, come on.
- It was originally a chain from Australia
called FishBowl.
They just opened their first location,
I think last year in NoHo.
They opened their secondlocation in NoMad.
- NoMad is the microcosm
of fast casual chains.
(10:46):
All of these places pretty much.
You know, you got Dig.
You got Just Salad.
You got Cava.
Sweetgreen.
What else?
What am I missing?
- INDAY started in NoMad.
That's like an Indian fast casual concept.
- Pret.
- Pret.
- Which is slightly different in terms of
because it's grab and go.
But a lot of these places,
(11:06):
you can create your own bowl.
And that bowl, you pick your base,
you pick your protein,
you pick your toppings,
and what you get is a pile of slop.
Which is why the term slop bowl
has come into existence.
- Because no matter how composed
it looks at first,
it ultimately turns into wet slop,
and you are the little piggy eating it.
(11:27):
- Yesterday when I told Brit our,
one of our lovely socialmedia extraordinaires
that we were going to eat some slop bowls
in NoMad, she said,
"Have fun you little piggy."
And I was like, "Yeah.
That's what we are."
- Yeah, that's rude.
I'll be reporting it.
- Cava is the wettest.
- Cava is definitely the wettest.
(11:47):
- Well, I'm happy to you know,
say that I loved my ThisBowl.
ThisBowl is Sweetgreenand Poke had a baby,
had an Australian baby
with the same font that Thrasher uses.
It's like little Gen Z skate kids
who really love to put good nutrients
(12:09):
in their bodies.
I would not eat Sashimi-esque salmon
at Sweetgreen.
For whatever reason, I wouldn't do it.
I'd be like "Raw fish.
No thanks."
But it for some reason
inside the confines of ThisBowl,
it feels right.
It's the darkest most like moody.
- Loud music.
- Fast casual place I've ever been in.
(12:31):
- They've got like
a projector showing home videos.
- Yes.- On the wall.
- It could be a galleryopening if you squinted.
- It could.
- What did you say about the Gen Z stare?
- Well the cashier wasdoing a Gen Z stare.
- Do you want him,
do you want to give camera a look?
- It's just kind of like this.
It was like that.
She was really nice though.
- It's like, I feel like a bumbling
millennial when that happens.
(12:51):
I'm like, "It'll takeextra wasabi dressing."
- They're really nice there though.
- They're so nice.
- I asked if they sold the hats,
and they were like,
"Only when the store first opens."
And ThisBowl is goingto be expanding soon.
- Like.- Yeah.
- We talked about-- Yeah.
They have received funding
from the private equityventure capital firm.
(13:12):
- So what's up with theseprivate equity venture
capital boys?
They're obsessed.
They're obsessed with fast casual change.
- I think after the success of Chipotle,
and Sweetgreen,
they want to get in on the game.
And it's not all of 'em,
it's just some of them, it's specialized.
- It's like a circle.
It's like, okay.
If we feed our employees,
they're a little slop.
Quickly.
(13:32):
Back to work.- It's a good plan.
- They'll go back to work.
That's a great idea.
- It's vertical integration.
- Oh God.
Don't use those words in front of me.
- No, no.
But so ThisBowl, right.
It got funding from I don't know
how much it got funding from
this venture capital
private equity firm called Stripes
that also has funded
pretty much every other slightly
annoying cool business you can think of.
Like name a slightlyannoying business, A24.
(13:55):
- Yeah.
- Stripes, Erewhon.
- Oh my God.
They're on it.
- I know.
They're going through all these companies.
They're like, "Ah.
Who's kind of annoying?
Popup Bagels."
- Popup Bagels is coming to Philly,
and people are pissed.
- Yeah, they do.
- They do not like the idea.
- Thanks to Stripes.
- They don't like theidea that you can only,
you can't get one bagel.
- They're like, "What the hell is that?"
- That makes me angry.
(14:16):
- No, I agree.
- More businesses reformation.
- Okay.
- On clouds Stripes has been involved in-
- Yeah, correct.
- All of these.- This is their
business strategy.
- Yeah.
- Huh.- And just like
forcing this culture upon us.
- There is such a connection between,
I mean surprise, hello,
Such a connectionbetween the office lunch,
the slop bowl territory,
(14:37):
and big corporations.
- Yeah.
- They are together.
They're having a love affair.
- It's all connected.
- Yeah.
- We need like a littleoffice with a cork board,
and like a whiteboard
where we can just like start
putting the pieces together.
You know what I mean?- Yeah, for sure.
We got to get to the bottom of this.
- Okay.
- So, so speaking of justoffice lunch delivery,
and then corporate money
being present in this space.
(14:58):
- Yeah.
- A company called Wonder.
- Oh God.
- Is doing batched office deliveries.
- Yeah.
- I'm pretty sure I saw it in our office.
- Yeah, I saw yesterday
a girl holding a Wonder bags.
- Yeah.
I think we both hadexperiences with Wonder.
- Yes.
- Right, but just for some context,
Wonder was founded in, I want to say 2018
by a guy named Marc Lore.
If that name that sounds familiar,
(15:19):
it's because Marc Lorealso founded Jet.com
and Diapers.com.
Your favorite website.
- I spend a lot of time on Diapers.com.
- And so now they are this what I think
what Marc Lore describes
as a "Vertically integrated
food delivery platform."
- Oh God.
- So.
Let's break it down.
Let's do a close reading.
(15:40):
Vertically integrated-
- Yes.
- food delivery platform.
- Yes.
It's because Wonder essentially
owns these restaurants, right.
They're fake restaurants.
- Yes.- It's like a ghost kitchen.
- Yes.- Situation.
And they will have these restaurants
called...
- Lime Salt.
- Lime Salt.
- That's one of 'em.
- Bobby Flay Steak.
(16:00):
That's another one.
Bobby Flay Steak doesn'texist in the real,
real world.
It does exist at Wonder.
And you can order from these
fake/real restaurants through Wonder.
And then they will prepare
the food mostly offsite.
- Yeah.
- And they'll bring itto the Wonder locations.
When you order that food,
they'll then just likereheat it or prepare it.
- Heating it up in one kitchen.
So if you're just looking online
(16:22):
around the Wonder App,
it appears as though
you're on any other delivery app.
You've got your choice of restaurants,
your choice of cuisines,
but really all of these facilities,
it's one kitchen.
- Yeah.
- It's one place
- That's like their whole pitch.
They're like,
"You can order from 30different restaurants
in one place."
- It's a food hall of ghost kitchens.
- I feel if most people knew
the reality of the situation,
(16:43):
they would not be ordering from Wonder.
So Wonder opens in 2018.
- Yeah.- They opened
their first physical location
on the Upper West Side in 2023.
It is now 2025.
It's 2025.
They have 70 locationsin the tri-State area.
- Oh my God.
- So they have another30 plan for this year.
Right.
So they'll bring 'em to a total
of 100 locations.
- Yeah.
- Right.
(17:03):
- Do you know how long it took Sweetgreen
to get to 100 locations?
- 10 years?
- Let's see.
They opened in 2007.
They got their hundredth location
around 2019.
- Okay.
So that's a good 12 years.
- Yeah.
- Wonder is doing it in two.
And I do not know one fan of Wonder.
- Well maybe we're not the Wonder bunch.
- We're not Wonder kids.
- No, no.
They're definitely justforcing this on us.
- Yeah.
Wonder has receivedover a billion dollars-
(17:25):
- What?- in funding.
- That is crazy.
- I have eaten the food
It sucks.
- It sucks.
- It's the worst.
- It's horrible.
- Can you tell me aboutyour Wonder experience?
- I went to the Wonder
that opened on Washington and Broad.
So it's the South Philly Wonder,
which sounds like it should be
the name of a wrestler or something.
It's empty.
(17:47):
It's very strange
because you walk in and you see
all the different paper menus
that look like,
"Oh that's just like a restaurant's menu."
And then you peek your little head
into the kitchen,
and it's more screens than humans,
and they're just like
watching the orders come in.
I got an entire
(18:10):
pepperoni square pie from Di Fara.
- Oh
- Di Fara, Bryan,
is in Brooklyn.
- Brooklyn historicallyhas been thought of
as one of the best pizzaplaces in New York.
Right.
I have been.
- It's on our guide
to the best pizza in New York.
I've been with you.
Years ago-- Oh, yeah.
- when Dom was still alive.
- Yeah.
Dom, the owner was, was still alive.
RIP.
(18:30):
- The pizza took so long to come out,
but it was so good.
- So good.
And how is it Di Fara pizza in Philly?
- I can only describe it as Stouffer's.
- Okay.- Adjacent.
- Okay.
- It really...
It is Di Fara in name alone.
I was horrified by it.
- Yeah.- Really bad.
That wasn't the worst thing I ate.
(18:50):
- For the record, I alsogot a Di Fara pizza.
- Oh.
We didn't even plan that.- I got a round pie.
- Okay.
- Can I tell you,
I accidentally ordered two of them.
- Oh God.
I was on the website.
- How many did spent at Wonder?
- $200.
I don't know.- $200 is crazy.
- It was like,
- I accidentally ordered two of them
because like I clicked on it twice
on the website.
- Okay, well that's not Wonder's fault.
That's your fault.
- Yeah, that was my fault.- Yeah.
(19:10):
- Anyways, I brought this pie home.
I'm hyped.
I haven't had Di Fara in at least a year.
- Yeah.- Right.
So I open it up.
Does not look good at first.
The mozzarella does not have any
like bubbly charge to it.
- Yes.
It's like the middle
of a mozzarella stick mozzarella.
- Yeah.
You can tell it was just like
melted on lower heat.
- Terrifying.
Yeah.
- It didn't seem like quality mozzarella,
(19:31):
it's just this white thick pool.
I pick up a slice though.
I'm down to eat this thing.- Sure.
- Of course it's pizza- And it's chewy.
The bottom is chewy.
Like tough and chewy.
The crust.
And it is one of the worst pizzas
I've ever had in my life.
And Di Fara in Brooklyn
is one of the best pizzas
I've ever had in my life.
I don't want corporate.-
- It's so weird.- private equity lunch.
- No, I don't.
The taste of money,
turns out, it's actually not very good.
(19:52):
- Yeah.
- It's disgusting.
We probably are not going to improve
our feelings about weekday lunch
if this is the weekday lunch we get.
You know what I mean?
Like, I think it's justonly getting worse.
Like remember PB&J's?
- I do remember PB&J's.
I miss 'em.
Bring 'em back.
- Crunchy or creamy peanut butter for you?
(20:13):
- Crunchy.
- Yes, correct.
- So we live in New York City,
the corporate capital of America.
If lunch is going tobe super dark anywhere,
it's going to be here,
we are going to make it dark.
But do you think it'sas bad in other cities?
- Yeah, I mean,
Philly lunch culture
in like commercially office districts,
it's the same as New York.
(20:34):
It's just more concentrated.
But yeah, I would be really interested
to hear about another city
because I hope it's not as bad.
- In studio right now,
we are so excited to have
our Senior Austin Editor,
Matt Jacobs.
Austin Editor
(20:55):
and former NYC resident.
Right?
- That's right.
- Yes.
Matt, what's your take on lunch?
- Well, I guess.
Okay.
What lunch are we talking about?
This is the division.
There's weekend lunch.
- Yes.- There's office lunch.
- Yes.
- Two interrelated, but separate cultures.
- That's right.
- So where are we going?
- We are talking aboutweekday office lunch
(21:18):
because I think actually weekend lunch
has been co-opted by,
maybe corrupted by brunch.
So weekend lunch is like...
- Weekend lunch is dead.
- Its own thing.
- It got killed.
- It is replaced by brunch
- It was murdered.
- Weekend lunch is lowest
on Maslow's hierarchy of meals.
- Yes.
That's totally right.
- Yeah.
(21:39):
- For office lunch.
You know, it's interesting
because Austin, unlike New York City,
doesn't have as many centralized hubs
of office workers.
- Okay.
- It's very spread out.
- Yeah.
- We don't have something as potent
as like Midtown,
Union Square, Financial District
(21:59):
where you get these clusters of
lunch-specific spots.
And we all know what we mean by
like lunch specific.
- Yes.- You know.
If you're downtown though,
your best option is a food hall.
Otherwise-- That's never
a good sentence.
- I know.
I know.
But so I'm a big bowl person.
I know this is controversial.
- No, I mean.- Wow.
- I think you are.
(22:19):
You are an American of your time.
- I love a slop bowl.
Yeah.- That's actually,
if I am eating a weekday lunch.
- Yeah.
- Honestly, if I'm even at home
eating a weekend lunch.
- Make it slop.
- Make it slop.
I want a medley of things
strewn together in a bowl
that leans on the wet side.
- Oh my God.- I know.
- Wow.- I know.
(22:40):
- That is pure slop.
Certified slop.
- Certified slop.
We just had in Austin this month,
or last month, I should say,
it's October now.
- A Caribbean bowl place open.
- Okay.
- So like you want anoxtail rice bowl for lunch
with curry potatoes and chickpeas,
and garlic sauce.
Yes.
I do this.
- Is this bone-in oxtail in the slop bowl,
(23:01):
and are you mixing that up
because that sounds dangerous.
- It is not bone-in.
- Okay.
- Yes.- Thoughtful.
- Right.
- And are you-- Otherwise yes.
That would be precarious.
- When you get your bowl
from this Caribbean place or otherwise,
are you immediately mixing stuff
or are you digging?
You say, "Oh, look at that chickpea.
Let me just put that with the ox tail."
- I think you start by having small bites
(23:23):
of the different components in it.
- Yes.- Particularly if it's
something interesting like that.
Like curry potatoes.
I want to try that potato by itself.
But that's a temporary thing.
Then you mix, it gets wetter,
everything blends together.
And you feel like
every bite is revealing itself to you.
- The way you talk about this is gorgeous.
It's as if you are describing ballet.
(23:46):
- Oh, I don't like it at all.
I think it sounds disgusting.
- Really?- Yeah.
Just this wet mess in a bowl.
- You don't want to eat curry potatoes?
- Just like dumped in there like a trough.
I want to eat curry potatoes.
I don't want to eat 'em like wet,
and mixed up with so many other things.
- Okay.
When you say like that.
- Oh, the other thing that I love
for office lunch is soup.
In the right season that's the perfect
office lunch.
- Soup.
(24:06):
Is that office lunch?
Hannah?
- Yes.- You the judge soup?
Okay.- Soup for sure.
- Office lunch. Okay.
- Yeah.
- Settled.- Soup with a little
piece of bread on the side.
When I moved to New York at 22,
and was very impressionable.
I remember the first time I went to
Hale & Hearty.
- Oh.
- Where you get like15 soup options a day.
- Yeah.
- And I thought this is
what it's like to live in the big city.
15 soup options in one day.
- That's totally right.
(24:26):
- You know what?
- Those really good old days.
- We saw yesterday at Pret,
we popped into Pret,
which is I think, wehave a lot of coworkers
who really stand by Pret.
- Yeah.- As a divine experience.
- One of 'em, Brennan,
doesn't he love Pret.
- Our coworker Brennan.
- Yeah.- Entertainment editor.
Love of my life, is huge fan of Pret.
And I respect Brennan's opinion.
(24:49):
However, what we hadyesterday was unacceptable.
- What did you have?
- It was absolutely unacceptable,
but frankly we went at the wrong time.
We went late.
Like not during the like...
- They had everything stocked though
- Was it cleared out?
What is going late to Pret?- We were there at like five.
- We were there at like five, six.
- It was dinner.
- So everything is obviously made
a lot earlier here.
- Oh that is late.
- It wasn't good.
What did we have?
(25:09):
- I saw someone restockingall those shelves.
Not like, I don't know.
I mean...
- I was trying to give 'em
the benefit of the doubt.
- No.
- Restocking the shelves at 5:00 PM okay.
I want to know who'sgoing to Pret for dinner.
- We saw him.
It was us.
- Yeah, yeah.
- We got what the slim tuna baguette?
- Slim.
- I don't like that it's called slim.
That's like diet culture promotion.
- Yeah, yeah.
I love a tuna sandwich.
(25:29):
I love a terrible tuna sandwich.
This was better.
I would say we got two items.
The slim tuna baguette with cucumbers.
A tuna salad that is just,
it's mono textural cat food.
And then I think the biggest problem
was the baguette was quite soft.
- Soft on the outside,
and then it started gettingsoggy on the inside,
because the tuna was bleeding into it.
The tuna was like a paste at that point.
(25:51):
It was pretty good though.
- That was leagues better
than the other item we got,
which was?
- A bizarre chicken parm in a wrap,
but like a tortilla.
- Like a lavage.
Very dry.
- Oh.- Yeah.
- Don't think it was even breaded.
No sauce to speak of.
- It was really strange.
- It was one of the worst things
I've eaten in months.
- Yeah.
- And that's fine.
I'm not expecting Pret
(26:11):
to be like killing the game.
- It's a functional food.
- It's like airport food.
We're not seeking out Pret.
Although, so before we went to Pret,
Bryan was like,
"I've never been to Chopt."
Have you been to Chopt?
- Of course.
- Okay.
Will you explain Chopt to Bryan?
- Yes.
I mean, this was my lunch go-to for years.
(26:32):
I mean, so I worked near Astor Place
for a long time.
So it's like this fusion of
Chopt, Just Salad, Fresh & Co,
like whatever versionof that that you want.
- Yeah.
- But to stand there and tell them,
put that, put that, put that,
in the little buffet line.
I mean obviously that's what Chipotle is.
That's what a lot ofthese kind of places are.
And then they shake itall together in the bowl.
(26:52):
- Yeah.
- And put it in your to-go bowl.
It's a beautifulexperience for, expensive,
but not as Sweetgreen expensive salad.
- It is slop, but it's not,
"Oh my God.
My curry potatoes are just drenched now."
- Well, and unlike most bowls,
if you're concerned about the wetness,
at Chopt, usually they'llask light, medium,
heavy on the dressing.
- They do that Sweetgreen too.
And even medium is heavy.
(27:13):
- Like, oh my God.
You got to say, you got to say light.
- I'm scared by light though.
It's not wet enough.
- [Hannah] If you'reenjoying this episode,
make sure to follow, like,
and subscribe to "RestaurantPeople" on YouTube,
and all of your preferredpodcast platforms
so you don't miss an episode.
In the spirit of toughchoices of you know,
(27:36):
saying, "Do I really want this for lunch?
Do I really want to eat this?
Or am I just forced to accept it
as my fate?"
- Existential.
- We're going to play a game.
- Okay.
- Are you ready?- I'm ready.
- You don't have to prepare.
Did you prepare?
- I'm not prepared.- Okay, good.
Perfect.
- I have no way to prepare.
- The game is called Wednesday,
Saturday, or Hell.
(27:57):
I'm going to give you three lunch options,
and I want you to tell us,
would you eat it on a Wednesday,
on a Saturday, or only in Hell.
- Yep. Okay.
All right.
- First one.
Chipotle burrito bowl,
a deli container of tuna salad
or a Sweetgreen salad.
Wednesday, Saturday or hell?
(28:18):
- Okay.
I would eat Sweetgreen on Wednesday.
- Yep.
- I would eat Chipotle,
I would eat it on Saturday.
- I'd do it.- Wow.
What are you getting?
- Yeah.
Chicken.
- Yeah.- The roasted chicken.
- Yeah.
And the tuna salad...
- In hell?
- Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
I don't mind the tuna salad,
(28:40):
- But...- Of the options
that's what're doing?- Yeah.
- I'm pretty sure Hannah is tuna salad,
Saturday.
- Yes.
Chipotle burrito bowl.
Oh my gosh.
This is tough.
I'm going to go with hell on that one.
Sweetgreen on Wednesday.
You know me really well, Bryan.
- Yes.
That was really good.
Alright, moving on here.
Then next up we have a PB&J.
We'll say crust on.
(29:01):
Cava bowl and a spicy tuna roll
procured in a windowless basement.
Sounds very mysterious.
This windowless basement.
- Oh, that's really hard.
- I know, it's hard.
Cava spicy tuna roll,
but you got it in thewindow in a basement.
- Well I could never send PB&J to hell.
- Oh.
(29:21):
- So that's going to be-
- And that's beautiful.
- You know what?
I'm going to go Saturday for it.
- Yeah.- If you're...
If a PB&J is accessibleto you on a Saturday.
- Yeah.- And that's the way to go.
That sounds great.
- I had PB&J as a drunk food recently,
and I was like,
- This is incredible.- That's a good idea.
- Oh my God.
Somebody should open a PB&J food truck
in the back of a bar.
- I'll give you a billion dollars
to do it.
(29:41):
- Yeah.- That's a good idea.
- I'll give you another bill actually.
So you 2 bill total.
- Alright the investors are coming in.
We have angel investors here.
- That's right.
- I'll do Cava bowl on Wednesday.
Okay.
And I'll chunk the sushi roll to hell.
- Wow.
- Yeah, PB&J I'm going Wednesday.
(30:01):
Cava Saturday spicy tuna roll also.
I'm sorry.
It's out of here.
- I'm taking that spicy tuna roll.
I'll do Saturday for sure.
I love a spicy tuna.
I love grocery store sushi.
- I do hang with some grocery store sushi.
- Not me.- Bring it on.
I'm really into it.
Cava is going straight to hell.
I'm so sorry, Cava.
(30:22):
- Wow.- It's not for me.
It's too sloppy.
I do not think it's delicious.
And PB&J on Wednesday I guess.
Kind of a crazy answer.
- Sure.
I love a PB&J.
- All right.
This is an Austin-specificround just for you.
Lambert's Barbecue.
Texas Chili Parlor.
Or Home Slice Pizza.
Wednesday, Saturday or Hell.
(30:44):
- Okay.
Well those latter two are Wednesday
or Saturday options.
- Oh, what are they?
Will you tell us?
I pulled these from the lunch guide.
- Yes- From Infatuation Austin.
- Great lunch spots,
also great dinner spots.
- Yeah.- Texas Chili Parlor.
Anyone visiting Austin should go to
Texas Chili Parlor.
I like the sound of it.
- It is this little roadhouse dive
(31:04):
that serves chili and Tex-Mex food.
It is such a fun place.
- Yeah.
- It's the kind of place you walk in,
and you feel like
everyone's sitting at the bar has been
there all day long andalso there since 1974.
- Love.
- And remained there.- Yeah.
- Extremely potent margaritas.
So it's also like it's close
to all the like downtown concert venue.
So people will go andhave like a big meal.
- This sounds perfect.
(31:25):
It's so fun.- Sounds good to me.
- We put it on the Top25 for for a minute.
- Okay.
- Just because we love it so much.
- Yeah.
- And then we got control of ourselves.
So I'm going to have to go,
Home Sliced Pizza is a fun pizza place.
There are a couple locations.
Really great Italian sub.
It's hard to choose between okay.
(31:46):
So Lambert's is going to hell.
First of all,
Lambert's is not peak barbecue in Austin.
I'll send you to a thousandplaces before that.
- Yeah.
I'm also not going toeat barbecue for lunch
if I can help it.
Weekday lunch that is.
Otherwise it's a very lunch meal.
So Barbecue to hell.
Texas Chili Parlor, I'mgoing to go Saturday.
Home Slice, I'm going to go Wednesday.
- All right.
(32:07):
- Okay, fair.
- You can't argue with that.
And it sounds very sensible.
- I'll take you.
- Yeah, I think that's good.
- Tired of the same old bowl?
Looking for a new favorite lunch spot?
Check out the TheInfatuation.com
and let us know what you think
@Infatuation on Instagram,
and @TheInfatuation on TikTok.
(32:28):
- So in New York City,
us corporate folks are just scrambling
around from a corporatechain to corporate chain
because they're the only ones
who can afford the rent
in the bottom of these buildings.
- Yeah.
- Right.
- And because our corporate overlords
want us to eat at these chains
because they're heavily invested in them,
and it's all pretty bleak.
Is it like this in Austin?
(32:48):
- Well, the interesting thing
from my perspective is that
when I first moved to Austin,
I would ask people
who have lived there longer than me,
friends, local friends,
where are the bowls.
There really, to my early experience
there, were not enough bowl places.
- Yeah.
- And it's still mostly that way.
(33:08):
So if you are downtown,
where I guess the mostconcentration of you know,
office dwellers would be,
there's a Cava and a Chipotle,
but no local version.
- Okay.
- The local places arekind of in random spots.
- I see a lot of peoplegetting Jimmy John's.
But then it can also span all the way
(33:31):
up to po' boy and barbecue.
- Yeah.- Yeah, like
real Southern stuff.- Wow.
- What a delight.
- Wow.
I would love that for lunch.
I want a po' boy now.
- Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.
- But I mean,
couldn't you seek outa po' boy or barbecue?
Is Mighty Quinn's not open for lunch?
- I think they are...
Is Mighty Quinn still open?
- Mighty Quinn's.
(33:52):
I don't know if it's still open.
The last time I went it was not good.
- Ahh.
- No.
But I mean, part of the problem is
us emotionally, psychologically.
Could we go get
an indulgent lunch during the day?
- Could be.
Sure.- There's so much.
There's dinner culture here
because I think people are cooking
less in their apartments at home
because their apartments are small.
(34:12):
The kitchens are tiny.
- Yeah.- And so it's like,
let's go out to dinner.
That's where you hang out.
- Dinner is the event.
You go out at night in New York City.
- And well in happy hour culture too.
- You know you're going to get a snack.
- Happy hour culture.
- Around five o'clock.
- Yeah.- Six o'clock,
whenever you're doing that.
- Yep.
- So it's easier to skip lunch.
- Yeah.- Or have a light lunch.
Often your employers
(34:32):
are chaining you to your desk essentially.
- Yes.- So you're bringing
whatever you're picking up back,
and getting right back into it.
Or like I used to,
you work in an office
where every day there are catered lunches.
- Yeah, right.
- And you think,
"Oh, what an amazing perk."
And then it dawns on you that "this means
I don't have to leave the building."
- Well there, I mean there are more,
(34:52):
and more offices that are offering cafes
or cafeterias at as a benefit,
as an enticing thing to draw talent.
- Are they ever good do we think?
- I can tell you they are sometimes good.
Where did we go Hannah, recently?
- It was a global financial firm
in the Hudson Yards area.
So these people make more money
(35:14):
than we'll ever dream of.
- And you guys just kind of sailed on it?
- We had an insider.
- We had an insider.
- Slipped us into the back door.
- Okay.
- We were slightly undercover.
This place looks magnificent.
It is.
I mean it's-- Aesthetically.
- Aesthetically.
- It looked like a boutique.
A nice boutique hotel.
- Yes.
- You go up, it's the 50 something floor.
(35:35):
Floor to ceiling windows.
You see all of Downtown Manhattan
in front of you.
This is a view worth millions.
Right.
- And they're open for breakfast
starting at seven in the morning.
- Wow.
- Through lunch until like 3:00 PM.
And it's all free.
And to my knowledge,
you can have as manyguests come as you want.
- Yeah.
You can eat as much as you want.
They have this hot bar,
they've got like a salad bar,
(35:55):
they have sandwiches to the side.
They've got a kosher section.
They've got probably other sections.
- So I'm noticing neither of you
has commented on the quality of food.
- I love that.
Thank you for asking that.
- Well, free food.
- Free food, sure.
That is true.
But, so they have someone employed there
who they call the head foodie.
The head foodie is not making the food,
(36:17):
but is in charge ofcurating every week's theme.
There's a theme every week theme.
- So what was it when you guys went?
Last week it was Tartine themed.
Like the place on the West Coast.
- Okay.
- This week was Prune themed.
- Yeah.
- Like the restaurant.
- Like the restaurant in New York City.
- Yes.- Yeah, they had
the cookbook up for display.
- Although, I'm not sure the food
we ate was necessary screaming Prune.
- Yeah.- I had like a lamb burger-
(36:39):
- So are they doing spins on Prune dishes?
- I don't know?- It's tough to say.
Inspired, maybe loosely inspired.
- I thought hen you said theme,
I thought you meant like it's Halloween.
- Yeah.
I'm sure we also do that.
But this is high class,
you know.
- It's much chic than that.
The lamb burger, I will say was not good.
- The lamb burger was not good,
but the Monte Cristosandwich, really good.
- Yeah, why not.
(36:59):
- The lamb burger was the only bad thing.
- They have lentils,
they have like beautiful lettuces.
They call it lettuces.
I was really struck by that.
They have a toaster
where there's like whippedbutter on the side.
And actually there was a fire in the cafe.
They called it the cafe.
There's a fire in the cafe
because some ding dongput butter on their toast
and then toast it.
(37:20):
I mean it's really,
it was giving like the nicest college
dining hall you can imagine.
And people were hanging out,
and eating lunch in groups.
- People seemed happy.
- They were, they were really happy.
- Like that.
Those people must be making that company
so much money.- Yes.
- That the company is like,
"Huh, what do we do with this money?"
So obviously we're all going to hell.
(37:42):
And when we get there,
what fast casual chains waiting for us?
- I'm going to say Chipotle.
- I've already been.
It's Wonder
- Hell is definitely Wonder.
- Do you know about Wonder?
- I am familiar withthe concept of Wonder.
Yes.
Unfortunately.
- I think keep it that way.
- Yeah.
- Don't, don't.
- I have no plans to experience one.
- Don't experience it.- Yeah.
- If we wanted to take lunch
(38:02):
a little more seriously
as an American culture.
If we wanted to like really
lean into the pleasures of lunch,
like what are ways we can do that?
- I think you need to brunchify lunch.
- Oh can you expand?
- That is good.
- You know that, you know how you look at
a brunch menu and there's certain things
that would not be on a breakfast menu,
(38:23):
and would not be on a lunch menu.
- Yes.
- How can we make lunch
something that is-
- Like a hybrid fun thing?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- I don't have the answer
- To the question.- Me neither.
- Yeah.- And it's kind of
a ridiculous question.
- No, I like it a lot.
- But I think lunch is destined
to sit in some land of oblivion
until there is value tolunch in and of itself.
(38:47):
- Yeah.
- I think in Austin,
the one exception to that would be
barbecue on the weekends.
That is a true lunch ritual.
Most barbecue places are not even open
for dinner.
- Yeah.
- So that would be one example,
but on a more national
or everyday scale.
- Because you don't want to wait
in a two hour barbecueline every Saturday.
- Right.
- You need to brunchify lunch.
(39:07):
- Wow, brunchify lunch.
- Brunchify lunch in your life, Bryan?
- I don't know.
I'm still kind of, whatdoes that mean exactly?
Can you give me an example?
A specific example of brunchifying lunch?
- Make it more fun.
- Yeah.
- Make it fun
or certain things that we're eating?
- I think it's a combination of both.
Primarily, it's the fun.
- Yeah.- I think what do we think of
with brunch?
(39:28):
We think of boozy.
- Yes.- We think of
you are having like daytime fun
with your friends
that might segue into anafternoon of more fun.
- Yes.
- It's the perfect kind of substitute,
social substitute for dinner.
- Yes.
- If we want lunch totouch anything like that,
you know what could, can we like
(39:49):
christen a lunch cocktail for example?
- Yeah.
You're saying bringback like boozy lunches.
- Yeah.
Yeah, the free Martini.
- The Martini lunch.- We are talking about
workplace lunch now.
- The Martini lunch,
I mean, it would makeit more fun for sure.
Right.
- Yeah.- It'd make it more fun.
- I'm down to that.- Better workplace gossip.
- Oh my God, it'd be really good
workplace gossip.
- I like what you're saying.
I think diners
(40:11):
are a really great place for lunch.
- Yes.
- Because it similar to brunch,
you get lost in time.
You're like,
"I could be anywhere.
I could be anybody.
I'm going to have pancakes
with my like split pea soup or whatever".
Like the rules don't exist.
- Before we do any of this though,
(40:32):
we New Yorkers need to give ourselves
permission to go and enjoy.
- Yeah.
You guys have some issues to work out.
Everyone needs to go to a therapist,
and talk about this.
- We've got this guilt
that you feel when you've gone
for more than 20 minutes from the office.
And we just need to tell ourselves,
"Hey, it's okay.
Your raise is not goingto be that big this year
either way.
So like what's the rush?"
(40:53):
- What's the rush?
- No one cares.- Go, yeah.
- Take a second.
- Go enjoy some lunch.
Live your life.
- Matt, thank you so much for joining us.
This was really fun.
- Thank you for having me.
What an honor.
- We'll see you in hell.
- Hopefully.
- I'm Bryan.
- I'm Hannah.
- And this was "Restaurant People".
A show from Infatuation.
- See you next time.
Lunch anyone?
- Lunch is the grimace meal of the day.
(00:01):
- Yeah.- It's when you eat
because you don't want to die.
It's the most intimately tied to death.
Would you say that?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.- For sure.
You got Just Salad.
You got Cava.
Sweetgreen.
You can create your own bowl.
And that bowl,
you pick your base, you pick your protein,
you pick your toppings,
and what you get is a pile of slop.
(00:22):
Which is why the term slop bowl
has come into existence.
- Because no matter how composed
it looks at first,
it ultimately turns into wet slop.
And you are the little piggy eating it.
- Have fun you little piggy.
- I'm Bryan Kim.
Editorial Lead for Infatuation in NYC,
and I recently ate awhole branzino for lunch.
(00:43):
I'm Hannah Albertine.
Senior editor at Infatuation,
and I'll eat even theworst tuna melt for lunch.
I mean, diabolically bad.
- And this is "Restaurant People".
The show for peoplewho eat at restaurants,
sometimes from Infatuation.
- Today on "Restaurant People",
were returning to office.
Were saying goodbye to the PJ's
getting off the couch.
- That's right.
(01:03):
It's finally time totalk about office lunch.
Where are people eating during the day?
- I just remembered
I'm out of arugula and yogurt at home.
- Oh my gosh.
My yogurt has gone bad.
- Ugh, that means youreally let yourself go.
- We're going to need to find
some slop bowl chains to eat at.
- I want to know what you think
of Cava and Sweetgreen.
If you even like these places?
- I like them,
(01:24):
but I do have complicated feelings.
- Okay, we'll save it for the episode.
- We'll get into it.
- We'll be joined by Austin,
Senior Editor Matt Jacobs,
who's going to talk tous about lunch in Texas,
and how office lunch varies
depending on the city and industry.
- All that and more
on this week's episodeof "Restaurant People".
- Yee-haw.
(01:44):
On your first day
of working at the Infatuation,
what did you eat for lunch?
- I remember this vividly.
Do you know why?
- No.
- I think you do.
I've told you this before.
- Let's hear it.
- So, you know I was a vegetarian
for about eight years.
- Yeah.- Before I joined
the Infatuation.
- Yeah.
- A pescatarian for I think the last
few of those.
(02:05):
And when I went to interviewat the Infatuation,
it just, the topic did not come up.
And I didn't tell themthat I did not eat meat,
and had not eaten meat in eight years.
- But you, that was a thought you had.
You were like,
"Oh, if I get this job,
I'm going to have to eat meat."
- Yeah, for sure.
But I was definitely hiding my past
a little bit because Ireally wanted the job.
- Yeah.
- And so my first day in the office,
I'm trying to blend in.
(02:26):
Right.
Everybody is ordering food.
- Oh no.
Back in the day,
we used to order whatever we wanted.
- Yeah.- Off like Seamless.
- Every day?
- Yeah, yeah.
It was amazing.
So I was like, Oh God.
I can't order somethingvegetarian, they'll know.
So I was like,
"I'll have that chicken pasta."
It was my first day in the office.
- That is such a bold lunch order.
- I know.
So it arrived.
- Inadvertently drew more attention
(02:47):
to yourself by doing that.
- Maybe.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So it came,
and I'm staring at this chicken pasta.
I'm like, "Oh, God."
- Ugh.
- I'm going to eatchicken for the first time
in eight years.
If you ever want to trulyappreciate a burger,
don't eat one for eight years,
and then eat one for the first time.
That's really good advice.
- Yeah.
Oh, and bacon.
Oh my God.
- Don't even get him started.
- So good.
(03:08):
Even better than the burger.
- But see you actually had no
transitional ailments?
- No, none whatsoever.
- Wow.
- Yeah, uh-huh.
- You got an iron tummy.
- Thank you.
And to this day,
I don't think I've told my bosses
that I was a vegetarianwhen they hired me.
- They're going to know.
- Well, I was a pescatarian at that point.
- Yeah.
That's a lovely story.
Thank you for that.
- You're welcome.
- That's really good.
- Do you remember whatyour first office lunch
(03:29):
at the Infatuation was?
- I do not remember what I had,
but I remember walking outside.
because our office at that point
was on like Broadway and Canal,
and I must have gottencoffee or something.
And I just remember being like,
"I've hit the big leagues.
I'm walking on Canal Street."
- But those were the days.
Those were the glory days
of our office lunch
(03:50):
because office lunch is so good.
Would you even choosewhatever you want to eat?
It's like Christmas.
- It's Christmas.
- Every day.
Hanukkah.
Every day.
- It's Hanukkah.
Well, eight days.
Who is it that said they wish lunch
could just be a pill they swallow?
- It was one of our coworkers for sure.
- That really bummed me out.
I get it.
But it's so upsetting.
(04:10):
- But I get where they're coming from
because what do I eatfor lunch half the time?
A protein bar.
That's...
- It's the closest pill.
It's just to a whole pill.
- It's a chewable pill.
- It's a chewable pill.
And it's like we all have a pressure
to continue to be productive.
And you just happen to need to eat.
It's like you function alongside lunch.
(04:31):
- Yeah.
Lunch I think is the meal
we eat most reluctantly.
Our office for the record is kind of,
what is it?
Hudson Yards area.
Manhattan West.
Very corporate.
Typical corporate Midtown New York.
- Yes.
- So I think you've talked to
some of the people at our office,
and what are they saying
about lunch culture there?
(04:52):
- Overwhelmingly, it was despair.
Maddy, our creative director,
said, "Bring back a proper lunch break.
Why am I compelled to eat at my desk?"
And that got a bunch of emoji support.
Virginia, our staff writer in Miami said,
"When I lived in Spain,
lunch was the mostimportant meal of the day.
And I really miss that.
(05:13):
It was like two hours longwith multiple courses,
but still cheap.
Their menus del dia wereusually like 20 Euros,
which included wine.
I would love if our country
adopted all of the above."
- Wow.
Could you translate menus del dia for me?
- I think that's menu of the day.
- Wow.
That sounds so good.
- Could even be plural.
Menus of the day.
- Oh my gosh.
(05:34):
- Yeah.
But that's like a big,
I think cultural difference.
- Yeah.- Right.
Europe versus America Lunch.
Here, it's all about capitalism,
and maximizing your profits.
Right.
And we're all just kind of like
playing this game too.
Just willingly.
We're down.
Are you a little capitalist?
- I'm a little capitalist.
- Dang.
- Do you actually take a lunch break?
- No.- Okay.
- I don't want a lunch break though.
(05:55):
- I want to force a twohour banquet every day,
four days a week.
- That is nuts.
And also, I want to go back to this
lunch break thing.
Do you like lunch breaks?
Do you want a lunch break?
- You know what,
I don't need to eat in the wild.
I'd love a walk.
- Yeah.
- Go outside.
Take a lap.
Take a beat.
Call a friend.
That'd be nice.
- We at work, we can take lunch breaks.
(06:16):
It's not like we can't-
- take lunch breaks.- Yeah.
- But I just, we're busy.
We got stuff to do.
- Exactly.
I have so much to do in the day.
If I take a lunch break,
it means I am just not going to
do that work until later.
So you're just delaying work.
- It's true.
- The nature of our work is,
we just have these set tasks
that we have to accomplish.
Right.
It's not like we comein, we work eight hours,
and we're done with all of our work.
- Right.
- So yeah.
I'm not like entirely in favor
(06:37):
about an hour long lunch break.
I'm not doing that myself.
- Lunch in New York varies
slightly based on the industry.
I mean, I think that's probably true
in all cities.
If you work in Midtown,
and you're an executive,
you might be having a power lunch.
Although I think that's happening
less and less
because people are busy and on the go.
But if you are not justlike a Brad and Chad
(06:58):
going to Chopt or Cava,
you might be having lunch at Le Rock.
You might be having lunch at Santi.
The Grill even.
You might be going to Jupiter,
even though it's in a basement.
Downtown media scene,
I think there's this idea
that if you're not goingto the Conde Cafeteria,
you might be going to The Odeon,
(07:19):
say or even Altro Paradiso
or Sant Ambroeus.
But you're unemployed ifyou go to Sant Ambroeus.
- Sant Ambroeus.
- For lunch.
- Such a scenie lunch spot,
- Scenie lunch spot.
You're an entrepreneur.
Self described if you go there for lunch.
And then there's like theGallerinas in Chelsea,
they're going to Cookshop,
they're going to Bottino.
They're getting their really expensive
(07:41):
little sandwich that they're going to eat
a couple bites of.
Sorry gallerinas.
You know there's like a little tech scene
in DUMBO, Time Out Market or Celestine.
That's that restaurant down there.
- Celestine.
Yeah. Right on the Waterfront.
Beautiful views.- Really nice.
- If you're having lunch at Celestine,
you made it.
- You made it.
And you want people to know about it.
(08:01):
And then there's NoMad.
- NoMad.
- For whatever reason,NoMad is like ground zero
of quickie lunches and bowls.
- NoMad is the fast casualcapital of the world.
- Yeah, it's true.
And I don't know why?
Do you?
- 2013, Sweetgreen opensits first New York City
location in NoMad.
(08:22):
- Yeah.- Originally it opened in 2007
in Washington DC.
Right.
But it made its way over to New York City,
and it changed the game.
- Oh.- In 2013.
All the other salad chainsjust weren't as cool.
Even though Chopt opened
in New York back in 2001,
and Just Salad also in New York in 2006.
- That's older than I thought.
(08:42):
- Yeah
. But New York City loves a salad chain.
Right.- Yeah.
- These ones and they're still popular.
I'm not saying they were failures at all.
They just weren't as cool as Sweetgreen.
- For whatever reason, Sweetgreen came,
and had like a cultural cache
associated with it.
- It came and now it's got over 200
locations around the country.
- Yeah.
- And Sweetgreen is just like
the quintessential millennial lunch.
- True.
(09:03):
It is Like the millennial restaurant.
- Let's talk about that a little bit.
Why do you,
what do you think Sweetgreen
was doing that worked,
that hit home with people?
- I think they had slightlymore niche artisanal
ingredients in their salads.
Right.
And they had great recipes.
They had great design.
It was just like minimalist millennial.
- Yeah.
- It looked like everymillennial's apartment.
- Right.
- And then it just came around
(09:23):
at the exact right time
when all these millennials
are entering the workforce.
Right.
So if like the average millennial today
is 37 years old
for entering the workforce in like 2010.
- Yeah, that's right.
- So it's just,
they came at exactly the right time.
- Those same millennials who are 37
or whatever they were in, I don't know,
(09:45):
middle school watching"Super Size Me" at school.
- Yeah.
Except now the odd thing is Sweetgreen
down significantly,Cava down significantly-
- Yeah.- for the year.
Do you know what's up this year?
- What?
- McDonald's
- Yeah.- Just a little bit.
- Well, New York.- But they're doing well
- New York young professionals,
it turns out not reflective
of the rest of the country.
- Yeah.
(10:05):
Do you know what the new Sweetgreen is?
It opened-- What?
- They opened theirsecond location in NoMad.
You know because we recently went.
- I know.
Should we sing the song?
- What's the song?
♪ ThisBowl ♪
♪ ThisBowl ♪
- What's the next word?
♪ It's criminal ♪
♪ It's criminal ♪
- No, no.
I don't think ThisBowl is criminal.
(10:25):
- ThisBowl.
Hannah, you are the biggest ThisBowl fan.
ThisBowl.
- No, come on.
- It was originally a chain from Australia
called FishBowl.
They just opened their first location,
I think last year in NoHo.
They opened their secondlocation in NoMad.
- NoMad is the microcosm
of fast casual chains.
(10:46):
All of these places pretty much.
You know, you got Dig.
You got Just Salad.
You got Cava.
Sweetgreen.
What else?
What am I missing?
- INDAY started in NoMad.
That's like an Indian fast casual concept.
- Pret.
- Pret.
- Which is slightly different in terms of
because it's grab and go.
But a lot of these places,
(11:06):
you can create your own bowl.
And that bowl, you pick your base,
you pick your protein,
you pick your toppings,
and what you get is a pile of slop.
Which is why the term slop bowl
has come into existence.
- Because no matter how composed
it looks at first,
it ultimately turns into wet slop,
and you are the little piggy eating it.
(11:27):
- Yesterday when I told Brit our,
one of our lovely socialmedia extraordinaires
that we were going to eat some slop bowls
in NoMad, she said,
"Have fun you little piggy."
And I was like, "Yeah.
That's what we are."
- Yeah, that's rude.
I'll be reporting it.
- Cava is the wettest.
- Cava is definitely the wettest.
(11:47):
- Well, I'm happy to you know,
say that I loved my ThisBowl.
ThisBowl is Sweetgreenand Poke had a baby,
had an Australian baby
with the same font that Thrasher uses.
It's like little Gen Z skate kids
who really love to put good nutrients
(12:09):
in their bodies.
I would not eat Sashimi-esque salmon
at Sweetgreen.
For whatever reason, I wouldn't do it.
I'd be like "Raw fish.
No thanks."
But it for some reason
inside the confines of ThisBowl,
it feels right.
It's the darkest most like moody.
- Loud music.
- Fast casual place I've ever been in.
(12:31):
- They've got like
a projector showing home videos.
- Yes.- On the wall.
- It could be a galleryopening if you squinted.
- It could.
- What did you say about the Gen Z stare?
- Well the cashier wasdoing a Gen Z stare.
- Do you want him,
do you want to give camera a look?
- It's just kind of like this.
It was like that.
She was really nice though.
- It's like, I feel like a bumbling
millennial when that happens.
(12:51):
I'm like, "It'll takeextra wasabi dressing."
- They're really nice there though.
- They're so nice.
- I asked if they sold the hats,
and they were like,
"Only when the store first opens."
And ThisBowl is goingto be expanding soon.
- Like.- Yeah.
- We talked about-- Yeah.
They have received funding
from the private equityventure capital firm.
(13:12):
- So what's up with theseprivate equity venture
capital boys?
They're obsessed.
They're obsessed with fast casual change.
- I think after the success of Chipotle,
and Sweetgreen,
they want to get in on the game.
And it's not all of 'em,
it's just some of them, it's specialized.
- It's like a circle.
It's like, okay.
If we feed our employees,
they're a little slop.
Quickly.
(13:32):
Back to work.- It's a good plan.
- They'll go back to work.
That's a great idea.
- It's vertical integration.
- Oh God.
Don't use those words in front of me.
- No, no.
But so ThisBowl, right.
It got funding from I don't know
how much it got funding from
this venture capital
private equity firm called Stripes
that also has funded
pretty much every other slightly
annoying cool business you can think of.
Like name a slightlyannoying business, A24.
(13:55):
- Yeah.
- Stripes, Erewhon.
- Oh my God.
They're on it.
- I know.
They're going through all these companies.
They're like, "Ah.
Who's kind of annoying?
Popup Bagels."
- Popup Bagels is coming to Philly,
and people are pissed.
- Yeah, they do.
- They do not like the idea.
- Thanks to Stripes.
- They don't like theidea that you can only,
you can't get one bagel.
- They're like, "What the hell is that?"
- That makes me angry.
(14:16):
- No, I agree.
- More businesses reformation.
- Okay.
- On clouds Stripes has been involved in-
- Yeah, correct.
- All of these.- This is their
business strategy.
- Yeah.
- Huh.- And just like
forcing this culture upon us.
- There is such a connection between,
I mean surprise, hello,
Such a connectionbetween the office lunch,
the slop bowl territory,
(14:37):
and big corporations.
- Yeah.
- They are together.
They're having a love affair.
- It's all connected.
- Yeah.
- We need like a littleoffice with a cork board,
and like a whiteboard
where we can just like start
putting the pieces together.
You know what I mean?- Yeah, for sure.
We got to get to the bottom of this.
- Okay.
- So, so speaking of justoffice lunch delivery,
and then corporate money
being present in this space.
(14:58):
- Yeah.
- A company called Wonder.
- Oh God.
- Is doing batched office deliveries.
- Yeah.
- I'm pretty sure I saw it in our office.
- Yeah, I saw yesterday
a girl holding a Wonder bags.
- Yeah.
I think we both hadexperiences with Wonder.
- Yes.
- Right, but just for some context,
Wonder was founded in, I want to say 2018
by a guy named Marc Lore.
If that name that sounds familiar,
(15:19):
it's because Marc Lorealso founded Jet.com
and Diapers.com.
Your favorite website.
- I spend a lot of time on Diapers.com.
- And so now they are this what I think
what Marc Lore describes
as a "Vertically integrated
food delivery platform."
- Oh God.
- So.
Let's break it down.
Let's do a close reading.
(15:40):
Vertically integrated-
- Yes.
- food delivery platform.
- Yes.
It's because Wonder essentially
owns these restaurants, right.
They're fake restaurants.
- Yes.- It's like a ghost kitchen.
- Yes.- Situation.
And they will have these restaurants
called...
- Lime Salt.
- Lime Salt.
- That's one of 'em.
- Bobby Flay Steak.
(16:00):
That's another one.
Bobby Flay Steak doesn'texist in the real,
real world.
It does exist at Wonder.
And you can order from these
fake/real restaurants through Wonder.
And then they will prepare
the food mostly offsite.
- Yeah.
- And they'll bring itto the Wonder locations.
When you order that food,
they'll then just likereheat it or prepare it.
- Heating it up in one kitchen.
So if you're just looking online
(16:22):
around the Wonder App,
it appears as though
you're on any other delivery app.
You've got your choice of restaurants,
your choice of cuisines,
but really all of these facilities,
it's one kitchen.
- Yeah.
- It's one place
- That's like their whole pitch.
They're like,
"You can order from 30different restaurants
in one place."
- It's a food hall of ghost kitchens.
- I feel if most people knew
the reality of the situation,
(16:43):
they would not be ordering from Wonder.
So Wonder opens in 2018.
- Yeah.- They opened
their first physical location
on the Upper West Side in 2023.
It is now 2025.
It's 2025.
They have 70 locationsin the tri-State area.
- Oh my God.
- So they have another30 plan for this year.
Right.
So they'll bring 'em to a total
of 100 locations.
- Yeah.
- Right.
(17:03):
- Do you know how long it took Sweetgreen
to get to 100 locations?
- 10 years?
- Let's see.
They opened in 2007.
They got their hundredth location
around 2019.
- Okay.
So that's a good 12 years.
- Yeah.
- Wonder is doing it in two.
And I do not know one fan of Wonder.
- Well maybe we're not the Wonder bunch.
- We're not Wonder kids.
- No, no.
They're definitely justforcing this on us.
- Yeah.
Wonder has receivedover a billion dollars-
(17:25):
- What?- in funding.
- That is crazy.
- I have eaten the food
It sucks.
- It sucks.
- It's the worst.
- It's horrible.
- Can you tell me aboutyour Wonder experience?
- I went to the Wonder
that opened on Washington and Broad.
So it's the South Philly Wonder,
which sounds like it should be
the name of a wrestler or something.
It's empty.
(17:47):
It's very strange
because you walk in and you see
all the different paper menus
that look like,
"Oh that's just like a restaurant's menu."
And then you peek your little head
into the kitchen,
and it's more screens than humans,
and they're just like
watching the orders come in.
I got an entire
(18:10):
pepperoni square pie from Di Fara.
- Oh
- Di Fara, Bryan,
is in Brooklyn.
- Brooklyn historicallyhas been thought of
as one of the best pizzaplaces in New York.
Right.
I have been.
- It's on our guide
to the best pizza in New York.
I've been with you.
Years ago-- Oh, yeah.
- when Dom was still alive.
- Yeah.
Dom, the owner was, was still alive.
RIP.
(18:30):
- The pizza took so long to come out,
but it was so good.
- So good.
And how is it Di Fara pizza in Philly?
- I can only describe it as Stouffer's.
- Okay.- Adjacent.
- Okay.
- It really...
It is Di Fara in name alone.
I was horrified by it.
- Yeah.- Really bad.
That wasn't the worst thing I ate.
(18:50):
- For the record, I alsogot a Di Fara pizza.
- Oh.
We didn't even plan that.- I got a round pie.
- Okay.
- Can I tell you,
I accidentally ordered two of them.
- Oh God.
I was on the website.
- How many did spent at Wonder?
- $200.
I don't know.- $200 is crazy.
- It was like,
- I accidentally ordered two of them
because like I clicked on it twice
on the website.
- Okay, well that's not Wonder's fault.
That's your fault.
- Yeah, that was my fault.- Yeah.
(19:10):
- Anyways, I brought this pie home.
I'm hyped.
I haven't had Di Fara in at least a year.
- Yeah.- Right.
So I open it up.
Does not look good at first.
The mozzarella does not have any
like bubbly charge to it.
- Yes.
It's like the middle
of a mozzarella stick mozzarella.
- Yeah.
You can tell it was just like
melted on lower heat.
- Terrifying.
Yeah.
- It didn't seem like quality mozzarella,
(19:31):
it's just this white thick pool.
I pick up a slice though.
I'm down to eat this thing.- Sure.
- Of course it's pizza- And it's chewy.
The bottom is chewy.
Like tough and chewy.
The crust.
And it is one of the worst pizzas
I've ever had in my life.
And Di Fara in Brooklyn
is one of the best pizzas
I've ever had in my life.
I don't want corporate.-
- It's so weird.- private equity lunch.
- No, I don't.
The taste of money,
turns out, it's actually not very good.
(19:52):
- Yeah.
- It's disgusting.
We probably are not going to improve
our feelings about weekday lunch
if this is the weekday lunch we get.
You know what I mean?
Like, I think it's justonly getting worse.
Like remember PB&J's?
- I do remember PB&J's.
I miss 'em.
Bring 'em back.
- Crunchy or creamy peanut butter for you?
(20:13):
- Crunchy.
- Yes, correct.
- So we live in New York City,
the corporate capital of America.
If lunch is going tobe super dark anywhere,
it's going to be here,
we are going to make it dark.
But do you think it'sas bad in other cities?
- Yeah, I mean,
Philly lunch culture
in like commercially office districts,
it's the same as New York.
(20:34):
It's just more concentrated.
But yeah, I would be really interested
to hear about another city
because I hope it's not as bad.
- In studio right now,
we are so excited to have
our Senior Austin Editor,
Matt Jacobs.
Austin Editor
(20:55):
and former NYC resident.
Right?
- That's right.
- Yes.
Matt, what's your take on lunch?
- Well, I guess.
Okay.
What lunch are we talking about?
This is the division.
There's weekend lunch.
- Yes.- There's office lunch.
- Yes.
- Two interrelated, but separate cultures.
- That's right.
- So where are we going?
- We are talking aboutweekday office lunch
(21:18):
because I think actually weekend lunch
has been co-opted by,
maybe corrupted by brunch.
So weekend lunch is like...
- Weekend lunch is dead.
- Its own thing.
- It got killed.
- It is replaced by brunch
- It was murdered.
- Weekend lunch is lowest
on Maslow's hierarchy of meals.
- Yes.
That's totally right.
- Yeah.
(21:39):
- For office lunch.
You know, it's interesting
because Austin, unlike New York City,
doesn't have as many centralized hubs
of office workers.
- Okay.
- It's very spread out.
- Yeah.
- We don't have something as potent
as like Midtown,
Union Square, Financial District
(21:59):
where you get these clusters of
lunch-specific spots.
And we all know what we mean by
like lunch specific.
- Yes.- You know.
If you're downtown though,
your best option is a food hall.
Otherwise-- That's never
a good sentence.
- I know.
I know.
But so I'm a big bowl person.
I know this is controversial.
- No, I mean.- Wow.
- I think you are.
(22:19):
You are an American of your time.
- I love a slop bowl.
Yeah.- That's actually,
if I am eating a weekday lunch.
- Yeah.
- Honestly, if I'm even at home
eating a weekend lunch.
- Make it slop.
- Make it slop.
I want a medley of things
strewn together in a bowl
that leans on the wet side.
- Oh my God.- I know.
- Wow.- I know.
(22:40):
- That is pure slop.
Certified slop.
- Certified slop.
We just had in Austin this month,
or last month, I should say,
it's October now.
- A Caribbean bowl place open.
- Okay.
- So like you want anoxtail rice bowl for lunch
with curry potatoes and chickpeas,
and garlic sauce.
Yes.
I do this.
- Is this bone-in oxtail in the slop bowl,
(23:01):
and are you mixing that up
because that sounds dangerous.
- It is not bone-in.
- Okay.
- Yes.- Thoughtful.
- Right.
- And are you-- Otherwise yes.
That would be precarious.
- When you get your bowl
from this Caribbean place or otherwise,
are you immediately mixing stuff
or are you digging?
You say, "Oh, look at that chickpea.
Let me just put that with the ox tail."
- I think you start by having small bites
(23:23):
of the different components in it.
- Yes.- Particularly if it's
something interesting like that.
Like curry potatoes.
I want to try that potato by itself.
But that's a temporary thing.
Then you mix, it gets wetter,
everything blends together.
And you feel like
every bite is revealing itself to you.
- The way you talk about this is gorgeous.
It's as if you are describing ballet.
(23:46):
- Oh, I don't like it at all.
I think it sounds disgusting.
- Really?- Yeah.
Just this wet mess in a bowl.
- You don't want to eat curry potatoes?
- Just like dumped in there like a trough.
I want to eat curry potatoes.
I don't want to eat 'em like wet,
and mixed up with so many other things.
- Okay.
When you say like that.
- Oh, the other thing that I love
for office lunch is soup.
In the right season that's the perfect
office lunch.
- Soup.
(24:06):
Is that office lunch?
Hannah?
- Yes.- You the judge soup?
Okay.- Soup for sure.
- Office lunch. Okay.
- Yeah.
- Settled.- Soup with a little
piece of bread on the side.
When I moved to New York at 22,
and was very impressionable.
I remember the first time I went to
Hale & Hearty.
- Oh.
- Where you get like15 soup options a day.
- Yeah.
- And I thought this is
what it's like to live in the big city.
15 soup options in one day.
- That's totally right.
(24:26):
- You know what?
- Those really good old days.
- We saw yesterday at Pret,
we popped into Pret,
which is I think, wehave a lot of coworkers
who really stand by Pret.
- Yeah.- As a divine experience.
- One of 'em, Brennan,
doesn't he love Pret.
- Our coworker Brennan.
- Yeah.- Entertainment editor.
Love of my life, is huge fan of Pret.
And I respect Brennan's opinion.
(24:49):
However, what we hadyesterday was unacceptable.
- What did you have?
- It was absolutely unacceptable,
but frankly we went at the wrong time.
We went late.
Like not during the like...
- They had everything stocked though
- Was it cleared out?
What is going late to Pret?- We were there at like five.
- We were there at like five, six.
- It was dinner.
- So everything is obviously made
a lot earlier here.
- Oh that is late.
- It wasn't good.
What did we have?
(25:09):
- I saw someone restockingall those shelves.
Not like, I don't know.
I mean...
- I was trying to give 'em
the benefit of the doubt.
- No.
- Restocking the shelves at 5:00 PM okay.
I want to know who'sgoing to Pret for dinner.
- We saw him.
It was us.
- Yeah, yeah.
- We got what the slim tuna baguette?
- Slim.
- I don't like that it's called slim.
That's like diet culture promotion.
- Yeah, yeah.
I love a tuna sandwich.
(25:29):
I love a terrible tuna sandwich.
This was better.
I would say we got two items.
The slim tuna baguette with cucumbers.
A tuna salad that is just,
it's mono textural cat food.
And then I think the biggest problem
was the baguette was quite soft.
- Soft on the outside,
and then it started gettingsoggy on the inside,
because the tuna was bleeding into it.
The tuna was like a paste at that point.
(25:51):
It was pretty good though.
- That was leagues better
than the other item we got,
which was?
- A bizarre chicken parm in a wrap,
but like a tortilla.
- Like a lavage.
Very dry.
- Oh.- Yeah.
- Don't think it was even breaded.
No sauce to speak of.
- It was really strange.
- It was one of the worst things
I've eaten in months.
- Yeah.
- And that's fine.
I'm not expecting Pret
(26:11):
to be like killing the game.
- It's a functional food.
- It's like airport food.
We're not seeking out Pret.
Although, so before we went to Pret,
Bryan was like,
"I've never been to Chopt."
Have you been to Chopt?
- Of course.
- Okay.
Will you explain Chopt to Bryan?
- Yes.
I mean, this was my lunch go-to for years.
(26:32):
I mean, so I worked near Astor Place
for a long time.
So it's like this fusion of
Chopt, Just Salad, Fresh & Co,
like whatever versionof that that you want.
- Yeah.
- But to stand there and tell them,
put that, put that, put that,
in the little buffet line.
I mean obviously that's what Chipotle is.
That's what a lot ofthese kind of places are.
And then they shake itall together in the bowl.
(26:52):
- Yeah.
- And put it in your to-go bowl.
It's a beautifulexperience for, expensive,
but not as Sweetgreen expensive salad.
- It is slop, but it's not,
"Oh my God.
My curry potatoes are just drenched now."
- Well, and unlike most bowls,
if you're concerned about the wetness,
at Chopt, usually they'llask light, medium,
heavy on the dressing.
- They do that Sweetgreen too.
And even medium is heavy.
(27:13):
- Like, oh my God.
You got to say, you got to say light.
- I'm scared by light though.
It's not wet enough.
- [Hannah] If you'reenjoying this episode,
make sure to follow, like,
and subscribe to "RestaurantPeople" on YouTube,
and all of your preferredpodcast platforms
so you don't miss an episode.
In the spirit of toughchoices of you know,
(27:36):
saying, "Do I really want this for lunch?
Do I really want to eat this?
Or am I just forced to accept it
as my fate?"
- Existential.
- We're going to play a game.
- Okay.
- Are you ready?- I'm ready.
- You don't have to prepare.
Did you prepare?
- I'm not prepared.- Okay, good.
Perfect.
- I have no way to prepare.
- The game is called Wednesday,
Saturday, or Hell.
(27:57):
I'm going to give you three lunch options,
and I want you to tell us,
would you eat it on a Wednesday,
on a Saturday, or only in Hell.
- Yep. Okay.
All right.
- First one.
Chipotle burrito bowl,
a deli container of tuna salad
or a Sweetgreen salad.
Wednesday, Saturday or hell?
(28:18):
- Okay.
I would eat Sweetgreen on Wednesday.
- Yep.
- I would eat Chipotle,
I would eat it on Saturday.
- I'd do it.- Wow.
What are you getting?
- Yeah.
Chicken.
- Yeah.- The roasted chicken.
- Yeah.
And the tuna salad...
- In hell?
- Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
I don't mind the tuna salad,
(28:40):
- But...- Of the options
that's what're doing?- Yeah.
- I'm pretty sure Hannah is tuna salad,
Saturday.
- Yes.
Chipotle burrito bowl.
Oh my gosh.
This is tough.
I'm going to go with hell on that one.
Sweetgreen on Wednesday.
You know me really well, Bryan.
- Yes.
That was really good.
Alright, moving on here.
Then next up we have a PB&J.
We'll say crust on.
(29:01):
Cava bowl and a spicy tuna roll
procured in a windowless basement.
Sounds very mysterious.
This windowless basement.
- Oh, that's really hard.
- I know, it's hard.
Cava spicy tuna roll,
but you got it in thewindow in a basement.
- Well I could never send PB&J to hell.
- Oh.
(29:21):
- So that's going to be-
- And that's beautiful.
- You know what?
I'm going to go Saturday for it.
- Yeah.- If you're...
If a PB&J is accessibleto you on a Saturday.
- Yeah.- And that's the way to go.
That sounds great.
- I had PB&J as a drunk food recently,
and I was like,
- This is incredible.- That's a good idea.
- Oh my God.
Somebody should open a PB&J food truck
in the back of a bar.
- I'll give you a billion dollars
to do it.
(29:41):
- Yeah.- That's a good idea.
- I'll give you another bill actually.
So you 2 bill total.
- Alright the investors are coming in.
We have angel investors here.
- That's right.
- I'll do Cava bowl on Wednesday.
Okay.
And I'll chunk the sushi roll to hell.
- Wow.
- Yeah, PB&J I'm going Wednesday.
(30:01):
Cava Saturday spicy tuna roll also.
I'm sorry.
It's out of here.
- I'm taking that spicy tuna roll.
I'll do Saturday for sure.
I love a spicy tuna.
I love grocery store sushi.
- I do hang with some grocery store sushi.
- Not me.- Bring it on.
I'm really into it.
Cava is going straight to hell.
I'm so sorry, Cava.
(30:22):
- Wow.- It's not for me.
It's too sloppy.
I do not think it's delicious.
And PB&J on Wednesday I guess.
Kind of a crazy answer.
- Sure.
I love a PB&J.
- All right.
This is an Austin-specificround just for you.
Lambert's Barbecue.
Texas Chili Parlor.
Or Home Slice Pizza.
Wednesday, Saturday or Hell.
(30:44):
- Okay.
Well those latter two are Wednesday
or Saturday options.
- Oh, what are they?
Will you tell us?
I pulled these from the lunch guide.
- Yes- From Infatuation Austin.
- Great lunch spots,
also great dinner spots.
- Yeah.- Texas Chili Parlor.
Anyone visiting Austin should go to
Texas Chili Parlor.
I like the sound of it.
- It is this little roadhouse dive
(31:04):
that serves chili and Tex-Mex food.
It is such a fun place.
- Yeah.
- It's the kind of place you walk in,
and you feel like
everyone's sitting at the bar has been
there all day long andalso there since 1974.
- Love.
- And remained there.- Yeah.
- Extremely potent margaritas.
So it's also like it's close
to all the like downtown concert venue.
So people will go andhave like a big meal.
- This sounds perfect.
(31:25):
It's so fun.- Sounds good to me.
- We put it on the Top25 for for a minute.
- Okay.
- Just because we love it so much.
- Yeah.
- And then we got control of ourselves.
So I'm going to have to go,
Home Sliced Pizza is a fun pizza place.
There are a couple locations.
Really great Italian sub.
It's hard to choose between okay.
(31:46):
So Lambert's is going to hell.
First of all,
Lambert's is not peak barbecue in Austin.
I'll send you to a thousandplaces before that.
- Yeah.
I'm also not going toeat barbecue for lunch
if I can help it.
Weekday lunch that is.
Otherwise it's a very lunch meal.
So Barbecue to hell.
Texas Chili Parlor, I'mgoing to go Saturday.
Home Slice, I'm going to go Wednesday.
- All right.
(32:07):
- Okay, fair.
- You can't argue with that.
And it sounds very sensible.
- I'll take you.
- Yeah, I think that's good.
- Tired of the same old bowl?
Looking for a new favorite lunch spot?
Check out the TheInfatuation.com
and let us know what you think
@Infatuation on Instagram,
and @TheInfatuation on TikTok.
(32:28):
- So in New York City,
us corporate folks are just scrambling
around from a corporatechain to corporate chain
because they're the only ones
who can afford the rent
in the bottom of these buildings.
- Yeah.
- Right.
- And because our corporate overlords
want us to eat at these chains
because they're heavily invested in them,
and it's all pretty bleak.
Is it like this in Austin?
(32:48):
- Well, the interesting thing
from my perspective is that
when I first moved to Austin,
I would ask people
who have lived there longer than me,
friends, local friends,
where are the bowls.
There really, to my early experience
there, were not enough bowl places.
- Yeah.
- And it's still mostly that way.
(33:08):
So if you are downtown,
where I guess the mostconcentration of you know,
office dwellers would be,
there's a Cava and a Chipotle,
but no local version.
- Okay.
- The local places arekind of in random spots.
- I see a lot of peoplegetting Jimmy John's.
But then it can also span all the way
(33:31):
up to po' boy and barbecue.
- Yeah.- Yeah, like
real Southern stuff.- Wow.
- What a delight.
- Wow.
I would love that for lunch.
I want a po' boy now.
- Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.
- But I mean,
couldn't you seek outa po' boy or barbecue?
Is Mighty Quinn's not open for lunch?
- I think they are...
Is Mighty Quinn still open?
- Mighty Quinn's.
(33:52):
I don't know if it's still open.
The last time I went it was not good.
- Ahh.
- No.
But I mean, part of the problem is
us emotionally, psychologically.
Could we go get
an indulgent lunch during the day?
- Could be.
Sure.- There's so much.
There's dinner culture here
because I think people are cooking
less in their apartments at home
because their apartments are small.
(34:12):
The kitchens are tiny.
- Yeah.- And so it's like,
let's go out to dinner.
That's where you hang out.
- Dinner is the event.
You go out at night in New York City.
- And well in happy hour culture too.
- You know you're going to get a snack.
- Happy hour culture.
- Around five o'clock.
- Yeah.- Six o'clock,
whenever you're doing that.
- Yep.
- So it's easier to skip lunch.
- Yeah.- Or have a light lunch.
Often your employers
(34:32):
are chaining you to your desk essentially.
- Yes.- So you're bringing
whatever you're picking up back,
and getting right back into it.
Or like I used to,
you work in an office
where every day there are catered lunches.
- Yeah, right.
- And you think,
"Oh, what an amazing perk."
And then it dawns on you that "this means
I don't have to leave the building."
- Well there, I mean there are more,
(34:52):
and more offices that are offering cafes
or cafeterias at as a benefit,
as an enticing thing to draw talent.
- Are they ever good do we think?
- I can tell you they are sometimes good.
Where did we go Hannah, recently?
- It was a global financial firm
in the Hudson Yards area.
So these people make more money
(35:14):
than we'll ever dream of.
- And you guys just kind of sailed on it?
- We had an insider.
- We had an insider.
- Slipped us into the back door.
- Okay.
- We were slightly undercover.
This place looks magnificent.
It is.
I mean it's-- Aesthetically.
- Aesthetically.
- It looked like a boutique.
A nice boutique hotel.
- Yes.
- You go up, it's the 50 something floor.
(35:35):
Floor to ceiling windows.
You see all of Downtown Manhattan
in front of you.
This is a view worth millions.
Right.
- And they're open for breakfast
starting at seven in the morning.
- Wow.
- Through lunch until like 3:00 PM.
And it's all free.
And to my knowledge,
you can have as manyguests come as you want.
- Yeah.
You can eat as much as you want.
They have this hot bar,
they've got like a salad bar,
(35:55):
they have sandwiches to the side.
They've got a kosher section.
They've got probably other sections.
- So I'm noticing neither of you
has commented on the quality of food.
- I love that.
Thank you for asking that.
- Well, free food.
- Free food, sure.
That is true.
But, so they have someone employed there
who they call the head foodie.
The head foodie is not making the food,
(36:17):
but is in charge ofcurating every week's theme.
There's a theme every week theme.
- So what was it when you guys went?
Last week it was Tartine themed.
Like the place on the West Coast.
- Okay.
- This week was Prune themed.
- Yeah.
- Like the restaurant.
- Like the restaurant in New York City.
- Yes.- Yeah, they had
the cookbook up for display.
- Although, I'm not sure the food
we ate was necessary screaming Prune.
- Yeah.- I had like a lamb burger-
(36:39):
- So are they doing spins on Prune dishes?
- I don't know?- It's tough to say.
Inspired, maybe loosely inspired.
- I thought hen you said theme,
I thought you meant like it's Halloween.
- Yeah.
I'm sure we also do that.
But this is high class,
you know.
- It's much chic than that.
The lamb burger, I will say was not good.
- The lamb burger was not good,
but the Monte Cristosandwich, really good.
- Yeah, why not.
(36:59):
- The lamb burger was the only bad thing.
- They have lentils,
they have like beautiful lettuces.
They call it lettuces.
I was really struck by that.
They have a toaster
where there's like whippedbutter on the side.
And actually there was a fire in the cafe.
They called it the cafe.
There's a fire in the cafe
because some ding dongput butter on their toast
and then toast it.
(37:20):
I mean it's really,
it was giving like the nicest college
dining hall you can imagine.
And people were hanging out,
and eating lunch in groups.
- People seemed happy.
- They were, they were really happy.
- Like that.
Those people must be making that company
so much money.- Yes.
- That the company is like,
"Huh, what do we do with this money?"
So obviously we're all going to hell.
(37:42):
And when we get there,
what fast casual chains waiting for us?
- I'm going to say Chipotle.
- I've already been.
It's Wonder
- Hell is definitely Wonder.
- Do you know about Wonder?
- I am familiar withthe concept of Wonder.
Yes.
Unfortunately.
- I think keep it that way.
- Yeah.
- Don't, don't.
- I have no plans to experience one.
- Don't experience it.- Yeah.
- If we wanted to take lunch
(38:02):
a little more seriously
as an American culture.
If we wanted to like really
lean into the pleasures of lunch,
like what are ways we can do that?
- I think you need to brunchify lunch.
- Oh can you expand?
- That is good.
- You know that, you know how you look at
a brunch menu and there's certain things
that would not be on a breakfast menu,
(38:23):
and would not be on a lunch menu.
- Yes.
- How can we make lunch
something that is-
- Like a hybrid fun thing?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- I don't have the answer
- To the question.- Me neither.
- Yeah.- And it's kind of
a ridiculous question.
- No, I like it a lot.
- But I think lunch is destined
to sit in some land of oblivion
until there is value tolunch in and of itself.
(38:47):
- Yeah.
- I think in Austin,
the one exception to that would be
barbecue on the weekends.
That is a true lunch ritual.
Most barbecue places are not even open
for dinner.
- Yeah.
- So that would be one example,
but on a more national
or everyday scale.
- Because you don't want to wait
in a two hour barbecueline every Saturday.
- Right.
- You need to brunchify lunch.
(39:07):
- Wow, brunchify lunch.
- Brunchify lunch in your life, Bryan?
- I don't know.
I'm still kind of, whatdoes that mean exactly?
Can you give me an example?
A specific example of brunchifying lunch?
- Make it more fun.
- Yeah.
- Make it fun
or certain things that we're eating?
- I think it's a combination of both.
Primarily, it's the fun.
- Yeah.- I think what do we think of
with brunch?
(39:28):
We think of boozy.
- Yes.- We think of
you are having like daytime fun
with your friends
that might segue into anafternoon of more fun.
- Yes.
- It's the perfect kind of substitute,
social substitute for dinner.
- Yes.
- If we want lunch totouch anything like that,
you know what could, can we like
(39:49):
christen a lunch cocktail for example?
- Yeah.
You're saying bringback like boozy lunches.
- Yeah.
Yeah, the free Martini.
- The Martini lunch.- We are talking about
workplace lunch now.
- The Martini lunch,
I mean, it would makeit more fun for sure.
Right.
- Yeah.- It'd make it more fun.
- I'm down to that.- Better workplace gossip.
- Oh my God, it'd be really good
workplace gossip.
- I like what you're saying.
I think diners
(40:11):
are a really great place for lunch.
- Yes.
- Because it similar to brunch,
you get lost in time.
You're like,
"I could be anywhere.
I could be anybody.
I'm going to have pancakes
with my like split pea soup or whatever".
Like the rules don't exist.
- Before we do any of this though,
(40:32):
we New Yorkers need to give ourselves
permission to go and enjoy.
- Yeah.
You guys have some issues to work out.
Everyone needs to go to a therapist,
and talk about this.
- We've got this guilt
that you feel when you've gone
for more than 20 minutes from the office.
And we just need to tell ourselves,
"Hey, it's okay.
Your raise is not goingto be that big this year
either way.
So like what's the rush?"
(40:53):
- What's the rush?
- No one cares.- Go, yeah.
- Take a second.
- Go enjoy some lunch.
Live your life.
- Matt, thank you so much for joining us.
This was really fun.
- Thank you for having me.
What an honor.
- We'll see you in hell.
- Hopefully.
- I'm Bryan.
- I'm Hannah.
- And this was "Restaurant People".
A show from Infatuation.
- See you next time.
Lunch anyone?
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