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October 16, 2025 13 mins

The nostalgia is sizzling! On this episode of the Slightly Messy Show, Mike is joined by his guest host — the viral TikToker who camped overnight in his truck just to be first in line for Hot ‘n Now’s grand return. They dive into what makes this Michigan burger chain so iconic, how one video blew up online, and why some cravings are worth losing a little sleep for.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it is Mike with the Slightly Messy Podcast. If
you don't know who who I am, I am Mike
currently or formerly from Mojo in the Morning, Heard and
Grand Rapids, Detroit and Toledo, now co hosting my own
show over here in West Michigan, the B ninety three
Morning Show, which you can listen to weekdays Monday through Friday,
five to ten. Make sure you follow obviously. This is

(00:23):
on the more mobile platform Mojo in the Morning on Instagram.
Also on air, Mike, go ahead and follow there. So
the way that the Slightly Messy Show works now it
is me myself and then I will joint I will
bring in weekly guest hosts to kind of hang out.
It could be people from the community, could be celebrity
influencer guests. It could be celebrities, It could be radio people.

(00:46):
It could be you guys those listening. So if you
ever want to be a part of the podcast, think
you got a lot to say at on air mic
on Instagram and you could be a part of it.
This week's might be one of my favorite Duck is
on the Phone and Chuck Chats is the TikTok and
I saw this first on TikTok. He is the guy

(01:08):
who was first in line for Hot and now is
grand reopening over in Whalan. If you hadn't heard the news,
we did talk about it on the B ninety three
morning show. There is the new Hot Now has just
opened in Whalan and it went away for the longest time.
It was like part of my childhood went away for
the longest time. And Chuck wanted to be the first
in line so much so that he put a challenge

(01:29):
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
And Chuck, what was the challenge?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
The challenge was that if I could get five hundred
new followers by the time Hot Now opened up, that
I would camp out in my truck the night before
to be the first one in line.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And how quickly did you get to five hundred followers?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Oh dude, it was I had six hundred within twenty
four hours.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
So did you camp in fact in front of your
truck or in your truck?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
I did? I absolutely did so. I you know, of
course I wanted to try to get permission for this, sure,
so I called all the numbers that I are, you know,
called numbers, put out emails, got no responses. So it's
like it's like, all right, Well, I'm gonna go, you know,
but there's a fifty to fifty chance that somebody's gonna

(02:25):
come up to me and be like, what are you doing?
You need to move along. And I was, you know,
in line, maybe half hour forty five minutes started my
first TikTok live, never never done one before that. About
twenty minutes in and I'm like, guys, it's I think
it's happening. There's there's a cop that just pulled up

(02:46):
behind me. Sure, sure, sure, here come the lights. And
he comes on. He's like, what are you doing? And
you know, trying to explain my little silly TikTok thing.
You could see the look on his face. Yeah, brother,
And and then it was he's like, you know, it's
a travel land. You know, you can't park here. He

(03:09):
can't do this. So he's like, you know there's a
parking ride across, or you know, you can go to
the casino and park out there. So and then I
didn't have my driver's license with me. Oh no, I
always I always have my driver's license on me, but
I needed it a few days prior and I just
stuck it in my shirt pocket. So this was still

(03:32):
early eight thirty at night, and I did not want
to run into that problem again. So I drove all
the way home. I live in Charlot, so it's a
it's an hour drive. Sure, yeah, went there, went there,
got it, came back. So but yeah, I you know,
I had a whole care package set up. Went got
cold weather sleeping bag, and yeah I did. I did

(03:55):
the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
So you part, did you sleep in the bed of
your truck?

Speaker 3 (03:59):
No? I I slept in the truck in the okay,
and it's a Chevy Colorado and I'm I'm six foot
three two and ninety pounds, so I camped out. There
really was no sleeping. I was. I was awake for
thirty straight hours.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I was just about to ask you how long you
ended up staying there for?

Speaker 3 (04:20):
So, yeah, there was, there was, There was none, you know,
I was. They're at the casino hot now area seven.
You know, I was there probably a good twelve to
fifteen hours.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, okay, and so what were you first in line?

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Then? I was what was your order? So so my
order was five Hamburgers five wow. And well it's like,
you know, it's a huge line. I want to make
sure that I had I want to make sure I
had someone to get home. I'd gotten a couple of
olive burgers. Everybody, gosh, here is such an obsession with

(05:03):
the halve burgers. I cannot stand olives. Uh, my wife
loves al burgers. N I knew that there was no
going home if I didn't bring them. I mean so,
so I made sure to get some for her. And
I don't know, I think I got fries and cheese teasers.
And here's the thing, though, you know I was the

(05:25):
first in line. Yeah, I didn't get my order. They
gave me somebody else's order. Gez so and uh, you know,
everybody's watching, and I didn't want to wreck it for
them and doing and and I was like, all right,
well there's a lot more bags. Maybe maybe because on
the first one they're just loading me up. No, no,
it wasn't. It wasn't my stuff. It was something else.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Oh geez, Okay, so you got so I.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Just so I just rolled with it.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah yeah, And I think that's that's a that's a
smart move. So let me ask you this was it? Uh, first,
let's go back. Let's go back a little bit because
we're kind of jump it all over the place. Why what,
why the reason why? The obsession to be the first
in line at Hot now?

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, let's let's yeah, let's do talk about that so
Hot now. You know I heard you say, you know
you loved it. You know that was that was for me. Uh,
you know, loved it as a kid. And it just
kind of went away. Uh you know, there was no fanfare.
It was just gone. And you know, they've had the
one in Sturgis, so you know, I periodically I'll go

(06:32):
on that one. I've been making silly little tiktoks and
uh Facebook, doing little live shows from Facebook. I don't know,
since back in COVID times. So I've just been messing
around making tiktoks. See what it does. Back at Labor Day,
I threw one up at the one in Sturgis and

(06:54):
it's gotten like over half a million views, and I'm like,
and I'm like, what is happening here? I'm like, all right,
I think I finally tapped into something. And everybody kept
saying it's not the only one there, you know, there's
there's other Hot now there. They're building new ones and
and I had already heard that, but but I'm like,

(07:15):
all right, Well, let's take a drive over there.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, So I took a drive saw it, and you know,
I was under five hundred followers, and it's like, I
get a few that kind of trickle in here and there,
let's put out and say, you know, I'll do five
hundred and I'll stay the night. I'm like, nobody is
ever going to pay attention to this. I'm not going

(07:38):
to get any followers, so so I'm like, all right,
we'll do this, and uh, within that twenty four hour boom,
I should have set my sights so much higher. Yeah,
so much which. It was a lot of fun, don't
get me wrong, but it was more of a goof

(08:00):
for me to try to be the first one in
line and to be there. Was I going to still
try to be there for the first day? Yeah? Did
I really care about being the first one in line
when I started it? No? And yeah, and now it's
it's like it's a blast, you know, it's it has

(08:21):
been a lot of fun. Uh, you know, talking with
people the little journey and leading up to it, people
kind of following me along and going through with it.
And then wood TV reached out to me and they're
the ones that really kind of held my feet to
the fire because I was like, I'm just going to
sleep in the hotel. Nobody really has to know. And

(08:41):
then they reached out to me last Wednesday and they're
like is this real? Are you really going to do this?
I'm like, yeah, all right, So let me.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Let me ask you a question. So we're talking with Chuck.
Chuck chats on TikTok. He's the guy who slept outside
of hot Now, the brand new Hot Now and whalan
to be first in. Has Taco Bell reached out to
you at all or not Taco be excuse me?

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Hot Now?

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Has hot Now reached out to you at all and
said anything or offered you anything? Because if I was
hot Now, I'm giving you olive burgers for a year
or something.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah. No, it's been Uh it's been a little it's
been a little quiet. I mean I pick up my
phone and look at it. It's like, oh, what's that them?
And it's like, no, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Well, here's what we're gonna do. Let me let me
ask you a question.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
You said your order was was not correct, which is
which is fine?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
The stuff that you what did you end up trying?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Uh? So I tried cheeseburgers. Okay, so cheeseburgers are great.
I had. There wasn't olive burger in there, so that
was good.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Okay, it wasn't that I got. That was the stuff
that you got.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Was it better or equally as good as you remember
it being?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Hmmm? I don't know. It certainly wasn't better than what
I remember it being, and it wasn't exactly what I
remember it being. And and honestly, I didn't really think
it was going to be exactly what I remembered. You know,
it's it's been so long.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Okay, Well, here's the thing though, my change. Sure, yeah,
but you also got the wrong order. So here's what
I want to do. Here's what I want to do.
I think you need to redo. And what I'd like
to do is meet you, Me and my co host
the B ninety three Morning Show, meet you at hot
now sometime next week, set up a TikTok on both
of our tiktoks and yours and our social media be

(10:39):
ninety three social media, and we're going to do another
taste test with the correct order with you, me and
her in your truck or in your truck bed or
whatever oh.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Truck bed would be awesome. Yes, I will get it cleaned. Well,
we'll have it set up. That was absolutely okay.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So we'll cover the hot now for you. If you
can make the track over. I know it's a bit
of a hike. I'll get with you in the d
in our d ms on on TikTok after this podcast
and get some some times that work best for you.
But I think that's how we do it is we
need to recreate this moment so that you can have
the order that you're looking for.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, that would be awesome. And here's the thing, I
was so darned tired. You know, I'm not sure exactly.
You know, I do need a do over, okay, just
so just so that I can do it with a
fresh taste buds and my senses are fresh and I'm
not wrapped up in the in the moment.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
I love it. Chuck, what is that? What is the
TikTok again? So people can follow you, I know it's a.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Spill it out. Yeah, it's at Chuck chats so c
h U C K C H A T S S.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
All right, make sure you follow him on TikTok. Chuck,
I'm gonna get with you as soon as this podcast
is done, and we'll get together a time.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
That works best for you, and then we'll we'll head
out there. We'll get some lunch.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
How's that sound sounds great? And then uh be watching
h my TikTok for future because Chee che is just
opened in Minnesota. That's my next thing that I'm planning
on going to. What is it?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Chee cheese? Yeah, like the celebrate is it?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
What is it? What is the is the chee Cheese?
The Mexican restaurant that went out of business that was
all over there. They reopened it and their first door opened.
It's in Minneapolis. It just opened a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Was that the slogan it was like, chee cheese, the
celebration of food.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Is that the you nailed it? Is that? That's it? Right?
Oh my god? Oh my god? In Minnesota? Yeah, oh my,
you just broke.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
I think I think I think that's where they first started.
And I want to say it was October fifth or
sixth that they that they reopened and they're kind of
doing a test to see if it, you know, can
make a restart.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
You just made my entire day, Chuck, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Most of the same stuff is on the menu, so
the feat food enchiladas. I'm are we looking at flight tickets?

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Chuck Chuck Chat's on TikTok. Thank you man for taking
the time for chat with me today.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'll be here. We'll get with you next week and
we'll make some magic happen.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Okay, perfect sounds good. Look forward to hearing to you
and thanks for calling.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Bye, all right.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Make sure you follow the podcast at Mojo in the
Morning on Instagram and at on air mic, especially if
you want to be a part of the podcast.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I do have listeners that join all the time.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
We have special guests that come on and you you
also can be a part of this if you want
to add on air mic on Instagram.
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