@ForkReport - Hour 2

30-year-old plus restaurant. Rubio’s Coastal Grill Close Dozens of Locations After Fast Food Wage Hike. CLEANING FRIDGE COILS. Wendy’s Saucy Nugg.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savandra. You'relistening to kfi EM six forty the four
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Len me tad you had it.

(00:22):
Let me teach you had it,kinda Marina, Let me teach you had
it. It's a columnar. Letme teach you had Let me tay five
and sick forty live everywhere on theiHeartRadio app. Hey everybody, it is

(00:45):
the fore Purport. I am yourwell fed host, Neil Savandra. How
do you do? Happy Saturday toyou? As the sun starts to peek
out of that haze today, weirdweird weather, I guess it's I guess
not terribly weird. It's June gloomas they say. But we've got some
heat coming our way, and ofcourse what do they call that, the

(01:07):
heat dome or whatever is going onthat we've got a fear whether it should
be hitting us soon enough. Youknow, I've been thinking about cake,
just like on this cake jam,and I think I'm going to get into
a little bit later. How aboutthis. Put this in the of the
old calendar. In the four pmhour, I'm going to tell you how

(01:29):
to kick up store bought frosting.I mean to make it taste like homemade
buttercream, the good stuff, andkick up that box cake mix just because
I'm in a cake mode. We'llget into that, but right now,
there is a restaurant, so listento This new restaurant in Saint louis making

(01:49):
massive headlines because of its age,its age rules. So think about the
past. We've heard, oh,you can't bring your kids in or you
know, of course the basic oneslike twenty one and older and the like,
But these headlines are different. Ifyou want to dine at Bliss restaurant,

(02:13):
you've got to be at least thirtyyears old if you're a woman,
and thirty five years old if you'rea guy. Strange, right, I
mean you may hear of certain thingslike I said, twenty one and over,
but thirty years old if you're awoman. This deck made me laugh

(02:34):
because you got to be thirty fiveof your guy. The fact is we're
idiots. So the owner Marvin,Uh, how would you say this?
Pate pa te Pate, yeah,Pate right, there's no you know,
there's no uh, there's no accentlike yeah, no accent over the a.
There's nothing over the t so MarvinPate is what I'm going for.

(02:58):
Uh. He's very firm on this. He says, there's been some fuss
about it, not gonna lie,but we're gonna stick to it. We're
gonna stick to this rule. Assistantmanager Erica Rhodes she chimed in as well,
saying it's all about creating the perfectvibe, very chill. They want
an older, I don't know,more sophisticated crowd, I guess without the

(03:23):
drama. And that was the keythat stuck with me, the thought that
that word that was used was drama. They say that drama sometimes oftentimes comes
with younger folks, and Bliss isall about offering this classy vibe, this
classy dining experience. They have Caribbeanand West African flavors. It sounds great.

(03:46):
They opened up recently and they gotmassive amounts of buzz on social media.
But there's going to be pushed back, and of course not everybody's on
board with their age policy. Somelow are like this is great. It's
nice to have a spot where moremature crowd can go enjoy themselves, not
worry about troublemakers or trying to makeeverything this radical, I'm gonna get you

(04:12):
know, drop dead, drunk,and all those things that are troublesome.
That makes a good time a badtime pretty quick for everyone else. But
there are people that say they're notso sure about it. They think maybe
age doesn't guarantee good behavior, andthey worry about people using fake id's to
get in. Well, why areyou gonna use a fake if you're a

(04:39):
trouble maker, Why are you gonnause a fake ID to get into a
place that's got a chill vibe?Because that's what troublemakers do. Yeah,
but you know what, You're gonnabe easily seen because there's only one of
you, or there's you know,it's like you're gonna look and you're gonna
say, hey, why be ina place where people are having a good
time. You'll stand out like asore thumb, for one, and it's

(05:01):
not a place you're gonna want togo anyways. I have to agree,
I don't think. I don't thinkthat that's the kind of place where you'll
have a good time ruining other people'svibes. I think you'll just feel like
a jackabit at the end of theday. They would just toss you out,
and I get that it's not goingto guarantee good behavior. You're over
thirty, Kayla. Yeah we allknow. Body that laugh what that means.

(05:27):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm allowed there, and I'd like it. These
twenty somethings are nothing. These whippersnappers don't know how to act. All
they do is pull out their phones, take pictures of everything, record everything.
I just want to be I justwant to be low key and eat
my food like the rest of usthirty something. Give them a happy meal,
they'll be fine. I think,so Andrew a wee little happy meal.
Andrew, you're are you out?Are you allowed to go? The
men have to be thirty five?Well, Google says I'm under the age,

(05:50):
so i'd have to show legal idea. I suppose that son of a
gun just when you thought everything wasgoing your way. So, whether you're
for it or against it, Ido like the fact that they're trying to
come up with something a space.You know, setting a vibe is important.
Let's say, you know you cango to the ren and Fair Not

(06:14):
being in costume totally fine. I'venever put on a costume there. I've
gone with family. I want tosee jousting. You know, have some
good ale, have a Scotch eggor what have you, whatever it might
be. But you know, thepeople that make it fun are the ones

(06:34):
that are going full born, enjoyingthemselves, setting up a particular vibe and
saying, this is what we're lookingfor in this, what we want you
to engage in. Why the hecknot. There's some places that have dress
codes. Man, one of thefunniest things. I was in New York
City visiting my brother Craig, andwe went out with some friends to a

(06:58):
speakeasy and gosh, I'm trying tothink where it was, maybe Alphabet City,
I can't remember, but it wasan ice cream The front was an
ice cream shop that sold actual icecream. You walk in there, if
you saw it from the street,it was an ice cream shop. And
then they had this wall of emptyice cream containers and there was a little

(07:24):
red light on there or something,and you had to say something, ask
for a certain flavor, and whenthey reached in to get it or whatever,
the light would change colors and someonewould come out of that wall and
get your name and so on andinvite you in strict dress code though,

(07:45):
and the dress code was no tennisshoes. I think was a big one
on there. So they come outand we're going in and they stopped.
The people right behind us, twohandsome guys, one woman was wearing tennis

(08:05):
shoes, and the hostess says,I'm so sorry, I can't let you
in. You're wearing tennis shoes,to which he replies, they're Prada.
And she goes and they're very lovelyand you're still not getting in. Boom
shaka laca right there. Who says, but they're Prada, probably spelled with

(08:30):
two d's. I'm guessing too.He got it, you know, in
the alley, but they're Prada.I don't know. Anyways, you're trying
to set up a vibe, yougotta stick by it. I think that
it's cool to have a place likethis, bliss, brand new place.
Sticking to their belief that age ruleshelp maintain a sophisticated atmosphere, keep things

(08:56):
classy, and what that means iswomen have to be thirty years or older.
Men have to be thirty five yearsor older. The funny thing about
that is if a thirty year oldis dating another and a thirty year old
woman is dating another, thirty yearold woman. It would have to be
a woman. It couldn't be aman because he'd have to be thirty five.

(09:20):
So she'd have to be dating someonefive years older than her to be
able to get in. Oh well, so if you're planning to hit up
Bliss, they do this after sevenpm. By the way, Wednesdays through
Sundays. You got to have yourid handy very serious about keeping things grown
and relaxed over there. I imagineonce they set that up and people of

(09:43):
those ages start going, anybody youngeris not going to want to be there
anyways. All Right, A wonderfulchain restaurant local is slowly dying, closing
a lot of them to the Tuneforty eight locations here in California. Who

(10:03):
is it and why they say theyhave to do it? When we return,
you're listening to the Fork Report withNil Savedra on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Neil Savedra here withthe Fork Report. Stick around at five
o'clock. You've got Twalla Sharp andSoul Cow Saturday. So go nowhere.

(10:24):
This story is kind of sad.You know a place that we've all been
too many times here in the Southland. Did you hear about Rubio's Coastal Grill,
you know, known for fish tacos. Well, they closed down a
bunch of their locations in California,like almost fifty of them. Ah,
why did they do it? Well, they said it was because running a

(10:46):
restaurant in California is getting more andmore expensive. Now, I've told you
that, I've talked to people thatown restaurants many, many times, and
even chain restaurants say that it's sohard to work work with California, the
laws, the regulations, the taxesand everything. Now you've got the fast
food workers going up in their wageto twenty dollars an hour from four dollars,

(11:11):
up from sixteen. That it's ahard place to have them. So
they say that it's getting more andmore expensive. There's no relief. And
the minimum wage went up. That'sa big jump from the old minimum wage.
And they didn't give much more detailsabout that. They closed so many

(11:33):
spots. It's suck. It wasa great place, it was. They
had tasty food. I remember theyused to advertise on KFI years ago as
well. And I will tell yousomething. I think it's I think one
of the first mistakes of any company. Now I'm not saying they did this,
but I do tell you that Idon't hear much about them. The
same way I used to do isto cut marketing. I think in hard

(11:58):
times it's one of the first thingspeople cut. And as somebody who comes
from a marketing background many many yearsin a couple different incarnations, is that
advertising is the key, especially whenpeople start to pull away from advertising.
You know, two thousand and eight, obviously as they're in deep recession,

(12:22):
people were pulling out. But youknow what you do. Everybody's gonna do
that, and you could. Youcould, especially if you're third, fourth,
or fifth down the wrong and there'sleaders that out do you. You
stay in the game. You becomethe name that people remember because you're marketing
during a time when people aren't,and when as things pick up and the

(12:43):
economy gets better, they go toyou and remember you rather than others.
My own personal pet peeve. Sothey didn't give too many details. They
just said that it's difficult to haveplaces here in California. They used to
have two hundred some on locations.And it's not just Rubios feeling this particular
pinch. You've heard us talk aboutRed Lobster. They had to close some

(13:07):
of its places, even filed forbankruptcy. Lots of other fast food joints
are struggling too, Chipotle, Chickfil A, they had to raise their
prices to deal with higher wages.That means not only do we pay more,
but if the people working there withthe rays go out to eat,
they're going to be paying more too, So that raise is much less,

(13:30):
sometimes not even much more at all, once you have to pay for things
going up. So the whole wageincrease, especially for restaurants that have been
through tough times all over California duringthe pande Before it even happened, some
places were just saying we got alayoff workers, many places of cut hours.
I weeded through stories. There wasmust have been eight stories today that

(13:56):
had to do with this very thing, and I didn't want to harp on
it, so I'm cutting a lotof them out. But this one's a
tough one. This is a veryrecognizable local place. This isn't the first
time Rubios actually had money problems.They had money problems before they filed for
bankruptcy last year. A lot ofthat do with the pandemic, but you

(14:16):
come back and you try and stayrelevant in all those things and keep things
going, and you go from twohundred restaurants now down to about an eighty
six or so. Stinks, butit it's the way things are going,
and this is not the end.I fear. You're listening to The Fork

(14:37):
Report with Nil Sevadra on demand fromKFI Am six forty. Hey, everybody,
it's the Fork Report, all thingsfood, beverage and beyond. I
am your old pal Nil Sevadra hereat the Helm, happy to be with
you on this Saturday afternoon as thesun peeks out from the June gloom and
falls upon all those lucky bastard inPomona right now at the Pomona Fairgrounds massive

(15:05):
punk rock show. I'm told overforty thousand people there. That's a lot
of spikes, man, that's alot of leather. That's a lot of
humanity. Tony Sarentino, our buddyand board op music coordinator extraordinaries out there.
He said it took two and ahalf hours to get from the freeway

(15:26):
exit to the parking lot. Itwas very bad to get there, But
how awesome is that he got therein time to watch the Vandals. Great
lineup including the original lineup of theMisfits. Fear is out there, you
circle jerks, vandals, just everyonetsol. It is a pretty amazing lineup.

(15:50):
But because of my love and dedicationfor you, the listener, I'm
here at and ten seconds because Icare. I care not only about you
and food, but I care aboutyour fridge. Something that people talk about

(16:11):
and we've talked about when it comesto food prepping all of that is taking
care of your refrigerator. Right,So your refrigerator is your partner in that
kitchen. It is the main toolright next to your oven, your range
to make things happen. So wetalk about cleaning the inside quite a lot.
But one thing that I haven't talkedabout on the air before at all,

(16:33):
I don't think, is cleaning therefrigerator coils. So let's talk about
keeping that part of your fridge andtiptop shape. You want to clean those
coils, and it's not sexy,There's nothing I can give you. It's
not sexy, it's not funny orfun it's not exciting. It's worth it.

(16:56):
That's the best I can give you. It's really likes go clean those
coils. So here's what you'll need. Dust mask. You got to have
that safety first. I always likewhen I'm working on anything, to protect
your o hosts. Protect those eyes. Hello, little lo hos, I
want to protect you, and youput on your little goggles, your safety

(17:18):
goggles. I have them all over, I have them in the house,
I have them in my shop.And the reason why is because we're a
nerf gun family and trust me,you gotta have eye protection around this joint.
So dust mask, I say eyeprotection whenever you're doing anything. Optional
is a portable air compressor. Sometimesyou can use the containers that you can

(17:44):
get for the spray air for electronicsin life. Not necessary, but it
does help. You're going to needa screwdriver, a shop back swifter,
duster or soft bristle brush, addsome paper towels. That's it. Nothing
to heavy, heavy, heavy duty. So why are you cleaning those coils
while they're They're like the radiator,if you will, of your fridge.

(18:11):
So whenever you're trying to balance coldagainst hot or vice versa, I suppose
there's a battle of temperatures, Sothink of it as the radiator of your
fridge. They release the heat tokeep everything inside nice and chili. You've
got to move that heat. You'reactually removing the heat. That's what cold

(18:36):
is. Cold is actually the absenceof heat. It's not its own thing,
that's it. The number just goesdown in heat is what you're doing.
So over time, dust and gunkcan build up on them, makes
your fridge work harder, use moreenergy, and you don't want to do
that because that can shorten the life. It's just doing you know too much

(19:00):
that it shouldn't need to do.So, first off, make sure your
fridge is unplugged safety always. Youdon't want to stick that screw driver somewhere
and put more spark in your lifethan you need. Next, you locate
the coils. They're usually either onthe back of the fridge or underneath it.
That's what you're going to need toknow. And there's a little grill

(19:22):
down below that you can pull offand you can look and see if they're
there or on the back of thefridge. They become pretty obvious. If
the coils are on the back,you might need to pull the fridge away
from the wall, depending on howyou have it set up. And once
you can access them, you grabyour screwdriver. Remove any panels blocking the
coils. This is why you wantto unplugged. Put on your dust mask.

(19:47):
Want to protect those lungs from thenastiness that's there. Use your swifter,
duster or a brush to gently removeany dust and a debris from the
coils. Get that shop back youcan use to suck up all the loosen
dirt. If you have an aircompressor, this is the time where it
would come in. You can givethe coils a quick little blast, get

(20:07):
rid of any stubborn dirt and cleaningthat is going to give you a little
extra You know, you don't haveto use your elbow grease as much.
So once you've cleaned the coils,you give the area wipe down with some
paper towels, get rid of anyleftover dust and that's it. Easy peasy,
lemon squeeze right. Pop the panelsback on. If you removed any

(20:30):
plug your fridge back in and youare good to go. Simple job that
only takes an hour, maybe less, but it can make a huge difference
in keeping your fridge running smoothly.Sonn't put it off. Your fridge will
thank you, and you don't needto do it that often, so there's
that. The one thing I willadd is keep an eye out for if

(20:53):
you have an ice maker or waterdispenser on the front, means that you
also have a coil of sorts offand it's copper that goes from the back
of the fridge to the wall.Sometimes part of its plastic. But keep
that in mind because you don't wantto pull out, pushback, pull out,
pushback too hard when you're dealing withcopper, because like a hanger,

(21:15):
metal hanger going back and forth,it'll eventually snap or get little leaks,
So be careful when you're doing that. You're listening to The Fork Report with
Nil Savedra on demand from KFI Asix forty. Hey, everybody, it's
the Fork Report, all things food, beverage and beyond. I am your
well fed host, Neil Savadra.How do you do? Oh? My

(21:37):
punk rock brethren and sister in areout in Pomona today at the Fair Plex
enjoining the massive all day punk rockfestival. Be safe out there, Slam
a little for me, find somecool things in the pit after everybody's done.

(22:00):
I'm working, man, That's whatI do when these saucy nugs.
MM. Finally happening. They rolledthese out, if you remember, I
believe last December, right, sofans have been craving them. I did
not have them, I don't believe, but I love the concept. Saucy

(22:21):
nugs. So delicious chicken nuggets,but they're smothered in tasty sauces tossed in
them, and they're going nationwide.So when they teased us all about these
saucy nugs back in December, butthey were only in one location. They
were in Ohio, I don't knowwhy, don't look at me. So
now they're spreading this massive love acrossthe whole country, and we get to

(22:48):
come together like one big Kumbaia offoodies. You grab the saucy nuggets.
You can get them in four,six, ten, or even twenty piece
packs, and they come in sevenof these delicious mouth watering flavors. Check
it out. Honey, barbecue boom, garlic palm boom, spicy ghost peppers

(23:18):
boom, oh wow ow boom,plus more. You get to dip them
in either ranch or blue cheese.So I love that. So not only
are they tossed in these seven flavors, right, so imagine this, they're
basically like boneless chicken wings. AndI know everybody says there's no such thing

(23:42):
as boneless chicken wings. They're justnuggets in sauce. Yeah, so what
Now, You've got these saucy nugscoming to Wendy's, and they're gonna have
all the fun deep fried crunchiness thatcomes with the nuggets, but they're gonna
be tossed in things like garlic,palm or honey barbecue, and they have

(24:06):
tons of different flavors. Right.But the fact that you can dip those
that are already dipped technically you candip those again in ranch or blue cheese,
just shows you that Wendy's is readingour minds as foodies. So they've
got this great way of saucing themup to They basically toss the nuggets in

(24:26):
this container, the container they're goingto give you in the sauce. They
give it a good shake and thenit's handed to you. So it's it's
kind of like, I don't know, it's like when you get like a
fancy Caesar salad made table side.You know it's done right there. Maybe

(24:48):
not exactly the analogy, but youget what I'm talking about. Give it
a good shake, ready for someof that serious saucy finger action, and
they got you going. John Lee, who's one of the big wigs there
charge of cooking up new stuff atWendy's, he says that they're all about
giving you this massive, flavor packedexperience. They've whipped up these unique sauces,

(25:11):
seven or eight in total to makeyour nugget experience and all the munching
even better. So if you're itchingto try these saucy nugs before they hit
the big time on June tenth,that's coming up next week. Obviously on
Monday, you can, I thinkyou can still get them today, can
snag just a sneak peek if youorder through Wendy's app or website. So

(25:34):
if you're that hot on you know, getting them today and tomorrow instead of
Monday, you can give that ashot. You go to the Wendy's app
or website and they're waving delivery feesas well in the app that I think
might have ended yesterday, So checkthat out, is what I have in

(25:56):
my brain, So check that out. But you can also get those spicy
Ghost Pepper nugs delivered for basically theprice of a tip for the most part,
So there is more to this.Next week, they're going to be
teaming up with door Dash have asweet deal for you. You spend like
fifteen dollars or more on the app, they'll get you a free six piece
of their classic nugget. Dash passmembers those are the people who not only

(26:22):
use door Dash, but they paya monthly amount to get Dash passed,
which gives them massive discounts. Ifthat's your thing, members can level up
with a free pack of saucy nuggetswhen they spend twenty dollars or more.
Best part, you get to choosewhich flavor that you want whatever comes your
way. You're like, hey,this is my taste. Buzzs are in
the moved for this boom you gotit. So if you're ready to dive

(26:45):
into some seriously saucy goodness at Wendy's, you know where to get it.
Monday is going to be the bigday. I'm excited to try these.
I like, you know, drynugs are fine. It's not like I
don't do that myself. No matterwhere I'm getting them from, it happens.

(27:07):
But man, there's something about barbecueor some sweet and sour or whatever
you like to put on yours.That just kicks it up to a level
that is far superior than the oldnaked naked nugget, which doesn't sound right
when it came out of my mouth, but I think you understand what I'm
saying. It means you've got nosauce on it, so you like the

(27:30):
sauce like I do. Wendy's isgoing to treat you quite well coming Monday,
right. More to come, includingI'm going to get into the joy
of dining alone. I will tellyou a couple experience I've had, but
also why this might be becoming alittle more popular. Also coming up in

(27:53):
the four o'clock hour, kicking upstore bought frosting and cake. I'm kind
of been into cake lately, andI'll tell you how to make those things
taste homemade when we come back.You've been listening to the Fork Report.
You can always hear us live onKFI AM six forty two to five pm
on Saturday and anytime on demand onthe iHeartRadio app.