An Inhospitable Ranch Rant & Was The Venice Seafood Schlep Worth It?

Mad Food

Jordan and Max dive into two distinct dining experiences, starting with Jordan's frustration over a pizzeria owner's unwelcoming attitude regarding an extra side of ranch dressing and outside soda corkage. They debate

Key takeaways

• Jordan recounts a pizzeria incident where an owner deadpanned 'if you buy one' when asked for extra cider ranch, sparking a debate on whether he was entitled or justified in his discomfort.
• The hosts discover that Jimmy P brought outside Coke Zero sodas to the pizzeria without asking, which likely triggered the owner's hostile demeanor.

Main topics

• Restaurant hospitality and customer entitlement
• San Damian restaurant review

Notable quotes

"It was the way he said it."

Conclusion

The episode serves as a practical guide for navigating high-end dining, emphasizing that exceptional

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) Alright, Matt Food, I'm Jordan, Max is here, and two dining experiences to discuss today. We have often had moments with Max, and moments with Jordan are usually like tales of the chubby, and this is kind of a tale of the chubby, but not traditionally speaking. Okay? Speaker 2 (0:24) Okay, Speaker 1 (0:25) Max has no idea where I'm going with this. I don't. Alright, okay. I need... This is something I've never asked from you before. Oh. Because I don't think you're qualified to give it. Oh, shit. But you are in this case. Okay. I need a reality check. uh-huh okay uh and you know my world is upside down when i need max to give me the reality check and i do not mean that disrespectfully okay he's the more intelligent one he's the one with the zara loafers Speaker 1 (1:03) I also have our legacy loafers, Speaker 2 (1:05) by the way, if you want a more expensive loafer. Speaker 1 (1:07) Propecia worked on him. But Max tends to not always live in reality with certain human interactions and emotions. And I tend to. But something happened recently and it involves hospitality. Speaker 2 (1:22) Okay. Speaker 1 (1:23) And which he knows so well. So I am bringing this situation to him to decide if I am in the wrong for thinking a certain way. Okay. Okay. Speaker 2 (1:34) All right. Is any of that unfair? No, I mean, the way our dynamic is, is I do something and you just make fun of me about it. Speaker 1 (1:45) But a lot of times, you know, you're very gullible, which is a very sweet trait of yours. Yeah. But also... Sometimes you're just not living in reality and understanding things. Okay. Right? Like the IQ very high, the EQ not as high as the IQ. EQ high in areas. Right. And I think with hospitality. Speaker 1 (2:08) You're the one to come to on this. Okay. Speaker 2 (2:12) And Speaker 1 (2:12) I want to preface this by saying that the following story does not make me entitled. Great. Thank you Speaker 2 (2:21) for prefacing. Speaker 1 (2:22) Okay. I'm just curious. Okay. It's curiosity. Right? Not entitled. Okay, Max? Okay. Okay. Still don't know where this is going. An okay audience? Okay. Yeah. Who called us entitled? Why did they call us entitled? a number of people because we don't wait and wait for certain restaurants well whatever Speaker 2 (2:44) continuing okay Speaker 1 (2:46) and this is going to remain a blind item okay okay i'm not looking to to cause problems for businesses i'm not calling out certain businesses Because most likely I am in the wrong. Really? Well, maybe I am. Maybe I am entitled. I don't know. Maybe I'm making a pod segment out of nothing. Okay, sorry folks. These two episodes a week. It's tough work. Speaker 1 (3:15) All right, so I recently visited a pizzeria, okay? I had not yet experienced it on my journey to see if LA can get this bar pie tavern pizza movement right because I've not been that impressed with LA's effort. Speaker 1 (3:36) on those styles of pizza i mean we agree quarter sheets is delicious but it isn't really a tavern or bar pie it's something else that we enjoy very much yes okay and we recently experienced pizza will's thin and crispy crust the new crust at the new pizzeria say and it's wildly light and crunchy and it may be the only crust of his i now want to eat i just want to eat more options of toppings on it okay but again it that's not even in the combo of bar pies and tavern style no not at all Speaker 2 (4:12) okay Speaker 1 (4:13) uh so off to this pizza place uh i went and they're doing a tavern pizza and i had not eaten it yet are they calling it tavern or bar I honestly don't know. Okay. But it is a tavern style pizza. And I was ready. And I was excited. And I had been thinking about wanting to go to this place. Speaker 2 (4:37) For a while now Speaker 1 (4:39) Okay. And I was ready. I was deeply fasted. Speaker 1 (4:46) Okay. I was at a new, maybe a 15 year low on the scale. Hey, thank you very much. Eli Lilly and all my GLP scientists out there. Eli Lilly. Speaker 2 (4:57) Yeah. There's a first name. Yes, Speaker 1 (4:59) there is. Okay. You just know it as Lilly. Yeah. Right. It's Eli Lilly. Wow. And I was ready to ruin that 15 year low. I was ready to put some numbers on the board. That's push a T once said. So we got there. We ordered a ton for lunch. Oh, this is a lunch. Me, Beautiful, and Jimmy P. formerly known as Jamie P now known as Jimmy P. Okay. Well, Speaker 2 (5:35) okay. I'll have to dive into that later. Clearly we were first timers and we were Speaker 1 (5:40) fish out of water in the scene. Okay. Not a busy lunch service either. Maybe seven other customers the entire time we were there. Uh, one of the owners came by and dropped some dishes. Okay, and again, we ordered a ton. Three pizzas for the three of us. Two salads. An app that came with a cider ranch. And as they're setting all this food down, okay, Beautiful Ben casually asks the owner who's setting the food down, if it's possible for us to have an extra cider ranch for all this food. Okay? And it was maybe like a three ounce. plastic cup portion okay and the owner without any hesitation and totally deadpan and deadly serious says yeah if you buy one Okay. Okay. Now look. Of course, of course, I got up immediately and said, yeah, happily went to the cashier, bought an extra ranch, paid for it. But like We just ordered a ton of food. Clearly first timers. Clearly excited to be there. Speaker 1 (7:02) How much do you think a three ounce side of homemade ranch costs a restaurant? Speaker 1 (7:11) It's not Speaker 2 (7:12) much. 10 cents? 25 cents? Speaker 2 (7:17) Are we including labor in this? Sure. Speaker 2 (7:20) 50 cents? Let's say 40 cents. 40 Speaker 1 (7:25) cents. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 1 (7:28) Without any hesitation, I honestly, with a smile, got up with a genuine, like, of course, got up, paid the whatever, two bucks for the ranch, came back to the table. I understand this is a tough biz. Speaker 1 (7:45) That nothing comes for free. And clearly this place isn't killing it. And giving away things isn't the plan. Right. Okay, I get that. But we spent a ton of money on this launch. way more than any customers they had. And we were clearly excited to be there when ordering as first timers. And the issue really isn't about being asked to pay for the extra ranch. This owner did not care about our experience, about retaining new customers. And really, truly, it was not about the money. Like, I don't mind. Speaker 1 (8:23) It was the Speaker 2 (8:24) way he said it. Speaker 1 (8:26) Yeah, if you buy one. Not with a smile, not with like a fun tone or a flippant kind of person, like literally deadpan, dead in the eyes to us. Like, almost unhappy that we were there. Okay. Speaker 1 (8:47) So he got a couple bucks for the ranch, but honestly, like... Kind of felt Speaker 1 (8:55) not mistreated, but just a bad vibe and energy from this guy. Speaker 1 (9:06) And I don't know if any of us are going back. Now, by the way, I think they would have lost us anyways. Speaker 1 (9:14) Because this place is a schlep and almost everything we ate was flawed. So it's not destination worthy. But like, I like to celebrate places. I like to celebrate this style of pizza that deserves celebration, that deserves LA attention. Speaker 1 (9:35) But the couple of bucks and kind of his disdain for us was like more important to this dude. So the question is. Yeah. Okay. Because I think it's very possible that, do I need a reality check? Am I off here? Have I wasted everyone's time with a story about a side of ranch? And more importantly, am I an entitled piece of shit, Max? Speaker 2 (10:02) Give me the truth. There is a little bit of a balance here, right? He was not showing hospitality. You know, you have three customers. Buying more food than anybody else in the place. Probably, by the way, probably twice as much Speaker 1 (10:22) as Speaker 2 (10:22) anyone else in there. You know, part of the, you know, I'm not asking for everybody to be an actor and be so thrilled that you're there and doing backflips. I don't like that either. But a little bit of a smile on your face and maybe not such a direct way of saying you have to go buy your ranch. In this circumstance, you have three guys buying a ton of food. Just go grab a little ranch and give it to them. You know, it's not that big of a deal. If it costs you 40 cents, this table made up for it with how much food they bought. So I don't think it's entitled. And he could have communicated that you have to buy it in a different way, a more friendly, hospitable way. But he didn't. So... That's a demerit on him. Speaker 1 (11:18) People have bad days and they're allowed to have bad days. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:26) But this is a this if If you're not in... Look, I would never open a restaurant. Speaker 1 (11:35) I know that my interactions with people, I am Giordano. Okay, and some places get away with it, you know, like Wiener Circle in Chicago. They're like purposely mean to everyone, but there's like a comedic. Speaker 1 (11:51) Subtextual thing going on. That's not the case here. Right? It's just like... And there are... You know, there's the famed... Nozawa. People loved how he mistreated his customers back in the day. Speaker 2 (12:04) Yeah, people love seeing someone else get kicked out Speaker 1 (12:06) for wanting something different or taking their phone out. Exactly. Like... But I don't think that's what was going on. I don't think that that's this guy's vibe. So... I don't know, man. I just want to be... Speaker 1 (12:24) I think we are spoiled in that many times, not always. Yeah. A lot of times we go to a restaurant, people don't know who we are. And we're treated like regular customers and that's fine. And then you really get a sense. For sure. Of who has great service. Yeah. And who's doing hospitality right. Yeah. But we are spoiled in that many times we are going places where people do know us and give us even an elevated experience of hospitality. Speaker 1 (12:51) But to receive this. By the way, maybe the guy is familiar, not a fan. That is possible. And no one was, everyone was behaving? No one was being rowdy? Everyone was behaving. Because you know Jimmy P can get a little rowdy. Everyone was behaving. Speaker 1 (13:12) You know, now that I'm thinking about it, there was one thing that maybe this guy noticed. What? Speaker 1 (13:20) You tell me. Speaker 1 (13:23) It was one of these places where there's like high-end natural sodas instead of like the real deal. Like Diet Coke? Right, or anything. Like artisan. And those sodas always suck. No one's nailed the great off-brand soda, right? The luxury soda. You remember Speaker 2 (13:47) a Jones soda when we were younger? Speaker 1 (13:49) No. Speaker 2 (13:50) You don't remember the great labeling and the weird flavors? Speaker 1 (13:53) We had like Hanson's. Okay. Speaker 2 (13:55) Right. Do you remember Hanson's sodas? Speaker 1 (13:56) Yeah. Speaker 1 (13:59) Jamie P may have gone. Sorry, Jamie P. I knew this was something. May Speaker 2 (14:03) have brought in