Strip Mall Italian Joints

In our first episode, we invent a structure and scoring system to assess Strip-Mall-based Italian restaurants across seven key categories.

Show Notes

Gretchen, Judith, and James review the restaurant Bellissimo while inventing a system to rate Italian restaurants that happen to be based on strip-malls. Our dog plays with a new toy in the background, and we debate if we will ever find a strip mall Italian restaurant that will saber open a bottle of Prosecco.

Credits: 

Creators & Guests

Host
Gretchen Barnes
Host
Judith Danewitz
Producer
James Barnes

What is Strip Mall Italian Joints?

A food podcast discovering the best and worst Italian food restaurants located in strip malls.

SMIJ 1
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[00:00:00] And sunny.

[00:00:30] Gretchen: I think I put four shots of vodka in these drinks.

[00:00:34] James: Sounds about right.

[00:00:36] Gretchen: All right, so what are we doing here?

[00:00:38] James: So I wanted to record this mostly for us.

[00:00:41] Judith: Yes.

[00:00:41] James: One to understand.

[00:00:42] Gretchen: We're not playing this for anyone else.

[00:00:43] James: No,

[00:00:43] Judith: I mean you're just disappointed that we missed recording Frank last, last time.

[00:00:48] Gretchen: Yeah,

[00:00:48] James: absolutely.

[00:00:49] Gretchen: Well we could talk about that maybe. I dunno, .

[00:00:51] James: So I think a couple of things. One, the concept of what's our outcome and I think we should [00:01:00] develop a rating system.

[00:01:01] Judith: Okay.

[00:01:02] James: And so that I think we need for the audience at home. Yes, Yes. This is these strip mall Italian. Joint monthly hangs, which is monthly. I think we should strike

[00:01:12] Gretchen: right. Well, Yeah, we've done twice this month.

[00:01:17] James: Yeah, that's what I mean. Like we make,

[00:01:18] Gretchen: I know it doesn't have to be monthly,

[00:01:19] Judith: but we've also only done it four times in the last year.

[00:01:22] James: Right.

[00:01:23] Gretchen: So we need to, I think, back up a bit and explain what we're doing with this .

[00:01:28] Judith: Well, I, I think that what you can explain is the foundation of this, which was you guys found an awesome Italian restaurant in a strip mall. And you were like, Come eat here. And I was like, Yes. Yeah, I like Italian food.

[00:01:44] Gretchen: It was really good. And then how did we decide where

[00:01:46] Judith: we were, like, we should do this more often. And then we were like, We should go to different Italian restaurants every time that live in strip malls.

[00:01:55] James: Right.

[00:01:55] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:01:56] Judith: Because there's definitely some hidden gems.

[00:01:58] James: Mm-hmm. . So how can we turn this into [00:02:00] a feature, a rating system?

[00:02:03] Gretchen: So we've now. I think as you as Judith's pointed out, we've been to four places. The first one, as we just said, was the best.

[00:02:11] Judith: So far

[00:02:11] Gretchen: Are we naming names?

[00:02:12] Judith: Yeah.

[00:02:13] Gretchen: Piero's . Piero's Corner, Or is it just Pieros?

[00:02:17] Judith: I think it's Piero's Corner. Piero's Corner.

[00:02:18] James: Here's what I was thinking though. If we're gonna be negative, maybe we shouldn't name names. Hmm. But I'm open to it.

[00:02:25] Gretchen: Name, Name.

[00:02:27] Judith: Well, I have nothing negative to say about that place, so we can name it all we want.

[00:02:30] James: Right, but the others...

[00:02:32] Gretchen: The second place we went to, I thought was pretty good.

[00:02:35] Judith: I mean, we didn't, we weren't upset.

[00:02:37] Gretchen: No. It was just a very weird experience. But

[00:02:40] Judith: ambiance.

[00:02:41] Gretchen: Ambiance was weird.

[00:02:42] James: So that's, that's the category, right?

[00:02:44] Judith: So we have category one. Ambiance.

[00:02:48] James: Ambiance.

[00:02:48] Judith: Ambiance. We've got category two. , the pre meal freebie food drink options.

[00:02:57] Gretchen: Yes. And even if it's not a full bar, good [00:03:00] wine selection. Maybe good. Like Italian beer selection. Yeah, I was gonna say, you're not gonna remember this ranking

[00:03:06] Judith: service.

[00:03:07] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:03:07] James: So ambiance pre meal.

[00:03:12] Judith: Really, we just want to judge the bread. Like that's, let's like,

[00:03:17] Gretchen: No, I mean, for real.

[00:03:18] Judith: But I mean, I'm afraid that if we say bread, we'll find an Italian restaurant that does not offer bread. They're like, Here's your bread stick. And then I'll be like, Ugh.

[00:03:27] Gretchen: And if they're bread sticks, like made out of bread from leftover pizza dough, Yes. But if they're like those Stella Doro fucking things from 1987, no.

[00:03:40] Judith: I kind of like the long pencil ones,

[00:03:42] Gretchen: but they're not like they're all dry. It's like, don't you want a piece of bread to stop up in? Like some olive oil?

[00:03:49] Judith: Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, so that's, that's what I'm saying. We can't just say the bread because there is rankings of the free stuff they give you before the meal. Like what if we got [00:04:00] olives?

[00:04:00] James: Are they gonna give us olives or, or like a

[00:04:02] Gretchen: No one does that though, Do they?

[00:04:05] James: Arancini, like, yeah, you gotta pay for that.

[00:04:07] Judith: Yeah. So

[00:04:09] Gretchen: why do we sound so, cheap we're not? , you gotta pay for olives, , It's like almost, Yeah. It's like we aren't cheap.

[00:04:20] Judith: No, no. It's just an, it's just part of the ranking system.

[00:04:24] Gretchen: It's a, it's a marker.

[00:04:25] Judith: Yeah. Okay. So ambiance

[00:04:28] Gretchen: and ambiance is like, so we're talking about. The people around us. The whole experience of everything around us, right? Yes. The restaurant itself.

[00:04:39] Judith: The restaurant, the location.

[00:04:41] Gretchen: So like the place tonight, I would say ambiance was severely lacking.

[00:04:46] James: Severely?

[00:04:46] Judith: Well then, so I,

[00:04:47] Gretchen: Yes. And here's, hang on, here's why I'm, And I'll tell you guys, because your sense of smell, and I'm pointing at James, you guys can't, you guys, no one's listening to this, Can't see me. James doesn't have really any sense of [00:05:00] smell. The first thing I fucking noticed when we walked in,

[00:05:02] Judith: Oh no, I noticed it

[00:05:03] Gretchen: All I smelled, .So what I wanna smell when I walk into an Italian restaurant, and I don't mean to be doing this, I'm doing the, uh, Sicilian grandmother. I wanna smell garlic, I wanna smell basil. I wanna smell tomatoes. I wanna smell. Fucking anything other than shitty air fresheners?

[00:05:23] Judith: No, it was, it was rough. Really smell. Yeah.

[00:05:25] Gretchen: To the point where like my nose was running the whole time because it was like, it's going up my nose

[00:05:31] Judith: now. I would like to put in a plus for the on the ambiance side, which was the lady that was sitting behind me wearing the cold shoulder poofy sleeve shirt.

[00:05:41] James: Oh, that was nice.

[00:05:42] Judith: Did you see her?

[00:05:43] Gretchen: No, I didn't.

[00:05:44] Judith: She was like 65 years old and rocking some like. Bell sleeve poofy thing?

[00:05:50] Gretchen: No, I didn't

[00:05:51] James: with some peek-a-boos.

[00:05:52] Judith: I missed that?

[00:05:52] Yeah,

[00:05:53] But like peek-a-boo. Are you talking about that cold shoulder? Yeah.

[00:05:56] James: Oh, I hate those.

[00:05:57] Judith: I know I do too. Shoulder. She was rocking it.

[00:05:59] Gretchen: Okay. All right.

[00:06:01] James: So this place went definitely geriatric.

[00:06:04] Judith: Yes.

[00:06:04] James: Yeah, very older. Older.

[00:06:05] Gretchen: Skewed "Jerry" .

[00:06:08] James: Very Jerry. Um,

[00:06:10] Judith: now to be fair, it's not in the most like happening of neighborhoods either.

[00:06:14] Gretchen: No. But what around here is happening? Nothing.

[00:06:17] James: I would say in fairness to them, that neighborhood is the only happen happen in neighborhood. In that neighborhood. Mm. So it's like the only business where there is business.

[00:06:28] Gretchen: What does that mean? the only business where there is business.

[00:06:33] Judith: I mean, you get the college kids, but college kids aren't gonna drop that much money on a No. Like a weird

[00:06:39] James: $20 for pasta?. Hell no.

[00:06:40] Judith: Yeah. No, they're not. They're not coming. They're going to noodles and co.

[00:06:44] Gretchen: Yeah, exactly.

[00:06:46] James: And so are we?

[00:06:48] Judith: Okay, so the premise just for us all to gain insight is that we go to an Italian restaurant.

[00:06:56] That is in a strip mall or strip mall adjacent, we'll [00:07:00] say Fair, because this was in like a first floor of a

[00:07:04] James: Yeah,

[00:07:05] Gretchen: I think it counts town.

[00:07:06] James: Just the equivalent of a strip mall in a historic old town.

[00:07:09] Judith: Yes. Um, because there are some hidden gems. Yeah. Yeah. And also some really shitty Italian restaurants.

[00:07:18] Gretchen: Oh yeah.

[00:07:19] James: So this place specifically was about the size of. , moderate living room. Yeah.

[00:07:24] Gretchen: It's like I'm looking at our, our living room right now. I'm like, I don't think it's much bigger.

[00:07:28] James: Hmm. A little, little bigger, but

[00:07:31] Gretchen: little bit.

[00:07:31] Judith: Double it.

[00:07:32] Gretchen: A little bit double. Really?

[00:07:34] Judith: Yeah.

[00:07:35] James: But missing the frescos. .

[00:07:37] Judith: Yes. You have no

[00:07:38] James: Our living room. Does not have frescos.

[00:07:40] Gretchen: What are frescos? Oh, I don't know those.

[00:07:44] Judith: The murals called,

[00:07:45] Gretchen: um, yes. Some ugly murals. Our waiter was fine, but.

[00:07:51] Judith: He was. He was the only waiter, Is that what I call it?

[00:07:54] Gretchen: That woman that checked us in?

[00:07:56] Judith: Oh yeah.

[00:07:56] Gretchen: Was the other waiter.

[00:07:57] Judith: Okay. So I [00:08:00] mean that's a lot of tables for it is people to.

[00:08:03] James: and he was doing fine.

[00:08:05] Judith: Fine.

[00:08:05] Gretchen: He was fine. It was just,

[00:08:07] Judith: he just did not have time for our bullshit, which we appreciate when wait staff is like, Oh, these drunks

[00:08:15] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:08:15] Judith: Are fun.

[00:08:16] Gretchen: Yeah. And I think, I don't know, it was just, he didn't really have any personality, which is like, whatever. Fine. And then the whole, like, I get it. My nose was running the, the entire time too, because air fresheners. But he was like visibly wiping his nose and it was like this little gross.

[00:08:31] James: That's how you get the covid? Though I mean in every bite.

[00:08:35] Gretchen: Yeah. And that was where I was like, I don't really care other than you're like serving us food. So

[00:08:41] Judith: ambiance. Are we gonna do like an actual point score?

[00:08:44] James: I think we should. Okay. Yeah, let's, And we gotta figure out like

[00:08:47] Judith: one to 10, one to five.

[00:08:49] Gretchen: You need need to sort a spreadsheet.

[00:08:50] James: What was. , what was the, um, Is gymnastics on a seven?

[00:08:54] Judith: No, we're not, We're not doing that. There's not like, it's gymnast 0.14, 2.3 points,

[00:08:59] James: [00:09:00] fine...

[00:09:00] Gretchen: JB you can only do half a laptop. Why don't you start a quick spreadsheet?

[00:09:04] James: Yeah. Trying click a button for notes. But I

[00:09:06] Gretchen: Why don't you start a quick spreadsheet? Doesn't that sound fun?

[00:09:08] Judith: You pull up some Google sheets already. Shit, I really, I gotta make a, I'm gonna need you to share it.

[00:09:14] Gretchen: You just said you were gonna make a database. You didn't even say spreadsheet.

[00:09:17] James: Don't know whata database is.

[00:09:18] Gretchen: You literally fucking said that verbatim. You were like, I'm gonna start a database. Yeah. Well, did he not?

[00:09:24] Judith: He did. In the, in the drive over.

[00:09:26] James: I was lying.

[00:09:27] Gretchen: I mean, really A spreadsheet is a database.

[00:09:29] James: Yeah.

[00:09:30] Gretchen: It's not a fancy one.

[00:09:32] James: All right, so we got a spreadsheet

[00:09:35] Judith: This is good. This, this donut's good cuz it's got a good way for him to grab onto it. And also you can

[00:09:41] James: So we're at ambiance

[00:09:43] Judith: free stuff stuff. Well like opening snacks,

[00:09:48] James: Waiter or service.

[00:09:49] Judith: Service.

[00:09:50] Gretchen: Yeah. I think we should separate that from, From ambiance, right?

[00:09:54] Judith: Yeah, I agree.

[00:09:54] James: Food. .

[00:09:56] Judith: Okay.

[00:09:56] Gretchen: Obviously

[00:09:57] Judith: Obs.

[00:09:58] James: Drinks.

[00:09:59] Gretchen: [00:10:00] Drinks. Do we, are we breaking that out into if they have full bar or do we care?

[00:10:06] Judith: No,

[00:10:06] James: it's a numeric value, so it's, if they had the best wine ever, but no full bar, maybe you give 'em a ten.

[00:10:12] Gretchen: Right. Okay.

[00:10:13] James: Um, dessert.

[00:10:15] Judith: Yeah.

[00:10:16] Gretchen: What else? I mean, I don't think we really care about pricing.

[00:10:20] Judith: Yeah.

[00:10:21] James: Oh, I think price is actually, I think it's a consideration. If a place was like, if a place was like, okay, and it was dirt cheap, you might even like a total score, maybe a little bit higher.

[00:10:34] Gretchen: But if it was like not great and it was like 30,

[00:10:36] James: really expensive, oh, that kind of sucks.

[00:10:39] Judith: All right, fine. So value, not price.

[00:10:42] James: Value.

[00:10:42] Gretchen: Yeah. because we have pasta money. ,

[00:10:48] Judith: let's be honest.

[00:10:49] Gretchen: We all over 40.

[00:10:53] Judith: I got pasta money, bitch.

[00:10:55] James: Yeah, I got pasta money.

[00:10:57] Judith: We could definitely, like we had pasta money in [00:11:00] college, but it was in boxes.

[00:11:03] Gretchen: Now we have $21 entree pasta money.

[00:11:07] Judith: We got the handmade egg noodle.

[00:11:11] James: Ambience, Judith, you can freestyle it.

[00:11:15] Judith: All right, so things that I appreciate about this restaurant's ambience, they are committed to their vibe.

[00:11:23] James: Mm-hmm. , I see that

[00:11:25] Judith: cuz that is some definitely eighties. Last time it was remodeled. Booths, chairs, Yeah. Stuff. So I appreciate the fact that they are not like necessarily needing to, um,

[00:11:42] James: I'm just laughing at Gizmo going to town on this dog toy.

[00:11:45] Judith: Yeah, he does like that toy. It's a good one. Um, so I would say if I was gonna give it a numerical score,

[00:11:51] Gretchen: Wait, what are we saying? One to 10?

[00:11:53] James: For kitch.

[00:11:55] Judith: Four titch? . Like, Like it's like a, like a,

[00:11:59] James: I [00:12:00] thought that was a new number. four. Kitch for

[00:12:02] Judith: the four. Not kit. No, like it's got the like old school eighties Italian restaurant vibe. So I'm gonna give it a six. Okay. Because it smelled funny. , like air fresheners and also it's got the eighties Italian restaurant vibe.

[00:12:23] Gretchen: Yeah, it's both.

[00:12:24] James: So are you, So just to calibrate what we all think in terms of a scale of one to 10 is five average?

[00:12:32] Judith: Yes.

[00:12:32] James: And so this is a six. It's above average.

[00:12:34] Judith: Above average.

[00:12:35] James: Okay.

[00:12:35] Gretchen: And we're saying the scale is one to 10?

[00:12:37] Judith: Yes.

[00:12:37] James: Mm-hmm. ,

[00:12:38] Gretchen: do you guys feel like we are ? We are. Um, That SNL skit where they tell

[00:12:44] James: Oh yeah, absolutely.

[00:12:44] Gretchen: Schwetty balls?

[00:12:45] James: Absolutely .

[00:12:49] Gretchen: Cause that's what I feel like, and we are saying that the scale, it's like . Okay, so you give it a six,

[00:12:58] Judith: right? Cause it [00:13:00] smelled funny. It was definitely old and a little beat up, but on the other hand it was a little old and beat up. Which I'm okay with.

[00:13:07] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:13:08] James: All right. So Gretch, now you go

[00:13:10] Gretchen: for same for ambiance.

[00:13:11] James: Yep.

[00:13:14] Gretchen: I mean,

[00:13:15] Judith: you wanna go to two?

[00:13:16] Gretchen: I think I'm gonna be really harsh here because all So you guys like, it's funny, we got back and you guys were like, I thought it was like good. And I think my thing is my sense of smell, this is what I realized, and I've always known this, but my sense of smell is so tied to like, Going out to eat. And the first experience, especially when I'm fucking hungry, which I was so hungry, and it was like we got there and we walked in and it was just, ,

[00:13:44] Judith: air freshener, all,

[00:13:45] Gretchen: that's all I could smell. And I was just like, I wanna smell basil and garlic and fucking like marinara sauce. And like, and I was just, I, I almost, if you guys weren't there, I would've walked out. I would've been like, fuck this place. Because it's like, [00:14:00] that's to me like,

[00:14:01] Judith: yeah,

[00:14:01] Gretchen: that's a huge part right there. So, and then the fact that that never went away and even when we were eating it was like all good smell and taste was air freshener . I would say I have to give it like a three.

[00:14:15] James: Ooh.

[00:14:16] Judith: Yeah. That's fair though, on ambiance.

[00:14:20] Gretchen: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:21] James: So let's see what,

[00:14:23] Judith: Oh, I guess we need like an all over score too.

[00:14:26] James: I think we'll get, Yeah, I think we'll get there. Okay. I think ambiance wise, eyes? Mm. Four. No, I'm going four, so I think it's below average to calibrate. Okay. I think the. Furniture was.

[00:14:41] Judith: What about the murals?

[00:14:42] James: The murals are corny. Uh, the place looked like Gordon. No. Wait, who's that? Who's that dude on TV that just runs into a room and shouts about how.

[00:14:53] Gretchen: Gordon Ramey, I think you were starting to say it, weren't you?

[00:14:55] James: Oh, I'm combining him and

[00:14:57] Judith: the like restaurant

[00:14:59] James: Robert

[00:14:59] Judith: [00:15:00] Saving

[00:15:00] James: Irvine.

[00:15:00] Judith: Dude.

[00:15:01] Gretchen: God, yeah. They're both, all

[00:15:02] James: the two of them together. Like that idea of like, somebody's gonna rush into that place and say like, I gotta fix this.

[00:15:07] Judith: Except the, the truth is they don't have to fix that because they had full. A full restaurant.

[00:15:14] James: Correct.

[00:15:15] Judith: So obviously other people are not as put off by the ambiance.

[00:15:19] James: That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. .

[00:15:21] Judith: And they all are above 70. So Yeah. In terms of that also I think plays into ambience. Is that like Definitely skews old.

[00:15:31] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:15:32] Judith: Um, but I find that kind of charming.

[00:15:35] Gretchen: Oh, well we don't want young, young folks.

[00:15:37] Judith: We don't want No. Like, like that other place.

[00:15:40] Gretchen: Yeah. Where they were banging me in the back of the chair the entire time. I mean, that's not fun either.

[00:15:44] Judith: So

[00:15:45] Gretchen: we have a lot of opinions, you guys.

[00:15:46] Judith: Okay, so three, four, and six. So, so far I'm the nice one. So it'd be 4.4 0.33.

[00:15:56] James: So the next thing we talk about, Okay, Yeah. Is the free stuff.

[00:15:58] Judith: Free stuff, okay. So that [00:16:00] bread was fucking on point.

[00:16:01] Gretchen: The bread was good. It was way better than. The last, last place.

[00:16:05] James: Yeah.

[00:16:06] Gretchen: Um, I appreciate the simplicity and delightfulness of the olive oil plus the Parmesan.

[00:16:15] James: So the guy comes over, he pours a little saucer of olive oil for each of us, which I didn't realize was happening.

[00:16:21] Gretchen: I think that was a coke since Covid or something. Right? Because,

[00:16:24] James: And then a hardy, hardy scoop of graded parmesan.

[00:16:28] Judith: Yeah,

[00:16:29] James: but I thought we were getting one for the table and we each got one.

[00:16:32] Gretchen: Well, that's what I'm saying. They probably used to just do one, but who knows? Since Covid, they probably started doing like individual ones, I don't know.

[00:16:39] James: But we got,

[00:16:39] Gretchen: we're all tearing off the same bread, so it's kind of dumb.

[00:16:42] James: We got like a corner of a, An Italian loaf.

[00:16:45] Judith: Yeah, I'd say we got half of a small loaf of Italian bread

[00:16:49] James: and it was good.

[00:16:51] Judith: It was really, it was warm,

[00:16:53] James: it was crusty.

[00:16:54] Judith: It was crusty.

[00:16:55] James: It was chewy in the middle.

[00:16:56] Judith: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:56] James: Flavor was good.

[00:16:57] Judith: Flavor was good.

[00:16:58] James: What's the number we put on [00:17:00] that?

[00:17:00] Judith: Um, in terms of bread that I want to eat when I go to a restaurant that I don't have to pay for. Well, cause it'd be different if I was paying for the bread.

[00:17:11] James: Mm-hmm. I think that's fair.

[00:17:13] Judith: I mean, I am paying for the experience eating the bread, but, you know, um, I'd say seven, including the olive oil and parm. because it was delightful and it was yummy and I was hungry like the wolf. So it definitely hit the spot.

[00:17:33] Gretchen: You said I'm feeling better already after you ate yours she did

[00:17:40] James: pretty good.

[00:17:41] Judith: Of course I did. I like 800 years old.

[00:17:46] Gretchen: my blood sugar was on the ground. Now I'm feeling good.

[00:17:49] James: So what number do you put on it Gretch? .

[00:17:52] Gretchen: So I agree. I think the bread was good. I like, I really like the touch of the olive oil with the Parmesan. My one gripe is, and [00:18:00] this is super fucking nit picky, I wanted like a splash of balsamic in that olive oil in Parmesan.

[00:18:06] James: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. .

[00:18:06] Gretchen: It would've been chef's kiss, but I think. I think it was probably a six.

[00:18:15] James: Wow.

[00:18:15] Judith: I kind of wanna change my number.

[00:18:16] James: What do you want it to be?

[00:18:17] Judith: I think I want it to be five. I think it was, That is my average expectation.

[00:18:22] James: Oh, wow. Well, now I'm screwed.

[00:18:25] Judith: No, what did I say?

[00:18:26] Gretchen: I want to change mine, I was above average. I wasn't,

[00:18:30] Judith: I mean, it was good. What did? It wasn't average.

[00:18:33] Gretchen: I said six, and now I'm like five, two.

[00:18:37] Judith: Okay. Gretchen

[00:18:38] Gretchen: think five, I think five.

[00:18:40] Judith: I went from a seven to, Yeah. I mean, it was delicious.

[00:18:43] Gretchen: Yeah, but it's,

[00:18:44] Judith: But it was average. It wasn't like, All right, James, go.

[00:18:47] James: I put down 7.5.

[00:18:49] Judith: Wow. Okay.

[00:18:50] James: Because I was like, I think it's better than Judith was saying. And she's picking seven.

[00:18:55] Gretchen: No, she picked,

[00:18:56] Judith: I picked five though.

[00:18:58] James: Well, you went back down to five seven,

[00:18:59] Judith: But would you go [00:19:00] to 5.5 now?

[00:19:01] James: Maybe now. Now I feel like my vote's like miscalibrated.

[00:19:05] Judith: Well, you can change it.

[00:19:06] James: So I think it's above average and I think it's a point above. Above average.

[00:19:11] Judith: Okay. So then you would say six if we, if we're saying five is average.

[00:19:18] James: Yeah.

[00:19:19] Gretchen: Why are you trying to talk him into a different score?

[00:19:22] Judith: I'm not

[00:19:22] James: think you're right. I think it's a six. I think that bread was good.

[00:19:26] Judith: That bread was good.

[00:19:27] James: Now here's where we're opening in the world,

[00:19:29] Judith: but it should be good.

[00:19:29] James: Right, Right.

[00:19:30] Judith: It's fucking Italian bread. Right At a fucking Italian restaurant.

[00:19:33] Gretchen: Yeah. And it's like,

[00:19:35] James: I'm just, Okay, so are we, are we like pigeonholing on bread too? Cause what if somebody brought. Olives,

[00:19:41] Judith: pigeons love bread.

[00:19:42] Gretchen: Oh, I would love olives. Like if they brought that's,

[00:19:44] Judith: that's so the thing that you get for free at the start of your meal.

[00:19:48] James: Right. But, but like comparing and trying to figure out like the, the rubrics,

[00:19:52] Judith: But if the olives are average olives, they're still gonna get a five.

[00:19:57] James: I think this was above average bread. Okay. [00:20:00] I think it was above average dip with a bread. Okay. Okay. So I think I'm, I think I'm at 6.5. Right.

[00:20:08] Judith: All right. . So average score five and a half,

[00:20:13] James: that would bring us to service.

[00:20:15] Judith: We got service quickly.

[00:20:17] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:20:18] Judith: He did not fuck around.

[00:20:19] Gretchen: No he didn't.

[00:20:20] Judith: Unfortunately. Maybe sometimes we can learn what pacing is like.

[00:20:23] Gretchen: Yeah. He was a little bit of a Well, and sometimes you like a little bit of like comradery. I don't know he much, It's a fine line and then I'm like, well, I'm an asshole cuz I'm like, I want a little bit of camaraderie, but not too much. Don't talk to me too long. I know.

[00:20:36] Judith: Well, he was very much like

[00:20:38] Gretchen: all biz.

[00:20:39] Judith: Yeah. He's like, I got a job to do. I got a lot of tables. Yeah.

[00:20:43] James: I got a weird eye.

[00:20:45] Judith: Okay, we, That's not his fault.

[00:20:47] Gretchen: Well, babe. All right. I clown on him wiping his nose. You're really getting into. The trenches here.

[00:20:54] Judith: Okay, so we're not, we're not gonna talk about the physical appearance unless it's Frank, the [00:21:00] imaginary server at the restaurant that we went to the last time. Um, yeah, we're not gonna go there. We're gonna, James, James is gonna walk that back. Uh, he was very down to business. He was not particularly, um, Interested in having a conversation. He was like, We sat down. He was like, Here's your menus, here are your specials. Do you want something to drink?

[00:21:25] Gretchen: Yeah. It wasn't like, How are y'all? Like, what? You know? So that was a little, I mean, and I think the thing that I'm noticing, like I do want a little bit of even, and I always think like, I hate fakeness, but. There is like a fine line with a good waiter or waitress that they can be very cordial and very welcoming. Right. And it doesn't, it's not fake because they're really, they genuinely are like, Hey, how are you? Like, welcome, like, sit down, like know. And you, it's, but it's kind of like coming into somebody's house. You wanna feel welcome and you wanna feel like, [00:22:00] you know, Oh, I'm glad I came here. Like, this is cool. Like, I feel comfortable and. Uh, so I didn't get any of that.

[00:22:07] Judith: No. No, I didn't either. On the other hand, he brought us the things that we asked for. He was fast about it. He didn't like make any mistakes. He was starting to warm up towards the end when we ordered wine, I think he was like, Oh, okay. , these people might be okay.

[00:22:27] Gretchen: Wow. It feels like a low bar. You're like, He brought us our food. It was,

[00:22:31] Judith: Well, that's what I'm saying. That's average expectation is, Yeah.

[00:22:35] James: I'll go first cuz I go first, last, and first few times. Clear. Five.

[00:22:40] Judith: Okay.

[00:22:41] James: Service was quick for most of it. There was awkwardness with taking the menu away. Bringing it back.

[00:22:46] Gretchen: Yeah. That was weird. The wine, it was like, Dude, don't you want us to buy a bottle of wine? Like

[00:22:51] Judith: just think that he's used to people asking for the wine menu and not ordering wine and he needed it to go to take to some other table.

[00:22:59] James: Yeah, they probably have [00:23:00] one. Yeah.

[00:23:01] Judith: Or two. One for each server.

[00:23:03] James: So clear. Five, I think he, he did his job. It happened at a reasonable rate of time and he had no personality that I wanted to engage with.

[00:23:13] Judith: Yes, , I would go

[00:23:14] Gretchen: that was harsh. If somebody says I'm about me, I would cry for like a week and a half. He had no personality that I wanted to engage with.

[00:23:25] Judith: I mean, to be fair, he didn't wanna engage with us either.

[00:23:29] James: Yeah.

[00:23:29] Judith: I don't think he'd be upset when he was just like

[00:23:31] James: kinda was his job though.

[00:23:32] Judith: Yeah. Like, well you're, But I mean, here's the thing. Our expectation of people being like nice to us so that we tip them better while they bring us food, you know's. Fair. Like I would say he's five. Like again, he brought the food and he didn't make any fuckups.

[00:23:49] Gretchen: I'm at a solid five too, and that's,

[00:23:51] Judith: I can do that math in my head.

[00:23:53] Gretchen: Yes. That's an easy one.

[00:23:55] Judith: That's an average square five.

[00:23:57] James: So I think for this point, [00:24:00] Gretchen, will you please describe what you ordered? Mm. And then rate your food.

[00:24:05] Gretchen: So I think like of the, of, I know of the three of us, I didn't like my food as much as y'all did. Um, but, and it, mine was like,

[00:24:13] James: what was it?

[00:24:14] Gretchen: I got an, um, gnocchi, but it was like in a, I actually don't even remember In some, it was like a white sauce, but. It honestly felt like it was gnocchi sitting in milk with a little bit of, I don't even know. It needed corn, salt,

[00:24:29] Judith: corn starch it,

[00:24:30] Gretchen: It needed fucking salt. Yeah. It needed garlic. It needed like, I would've been like adding so much shit to this sauce that was not in there and it's like,

[00:24:40] Judith: yeah, I, I would agree with that.

[00:24:43] Gretchen: It was just so bland.

[00:24:45] Judith: It was,

[00:24:45] Gretchen: and it's like, I love gnocchi cuz I love that chew. Like, so I still was getting that and it was like, that's why I kept eating it, but it was like a pound of fucking gnocchi. And I'm like, okay, if this was garlicy [00:25:00] salty basil, whatever sauce that was cheesy. It wasn't even cheesy. It was like, it was, I, I would give my dish like a fucking three.

[00:25:08] James: Ohh.

[00:25:09] Gretchen: Can you, I thought you were gonna do a sound effect , what you were doing?

[00:25:13] James: Shit. Um,

[00:25:14] Gretchen: you were reaching for something, right? Uh,

[00:25:17] Judith: James, you should score your,

[00:25:19] James: Oh, okay. Next. All right, let me go back here to the spreadsheet. So I ordered a mushroom ravioli. So to be specific, I ordered ravioli and then the waiter said veal,

[00:25:34] Gretchen: which I thought was a little off putting.

[00:25:36] James: And I said, no, no. They had two Rav mushroom. I didn't see the other ravioli was was there,

[00:25:40] Judith: you saw veal and you just skipped over it. Oh yeah. I'm sure your brain was just like,

[00:25:44] Gretchen: didn't see that either. And I was like, Why did he ask if you wanted to? Veal ravioli.

[00:25:48] James: I didn't see one there.

[00:25:49] Judith: There was a veal, a veal bolognese

[00:25:53] Gretchen: that's a meat sauce That's not like

[00:25:55] Judith: a ravioli with like

[00:25:57] Gretchen: Oh, gotcha. Gotcha.

[00:25:58] James: Anyway, so, [00:26:00] uh, yeah, mushroom ravioli, portobella mushroom, homemade pasta. Very, very basic marinara sauce. But I thought mine was delicious. Um, not a huge mushroom, like prominent mushroom flavor, but the pasta was very tasty. The sauce was very thin and simple in a way that I liked it. Maybe other people wouldn't be into that, but, um, I gave mine. Oh, and But we must include the appetizer. We didn't talk about the appetizer.

[00:26:32] Judith: Oh, we didn't.

[00:26:33] James: The deep fried. Oh,

[00:26:34] Judith: Burrata.

[00:26:36] James: Burrata. I thought that was a miss.

[00:26:39] Gretchen: I thought it was okay. Yeah, it wasn't like amazing.

[00:26:42] Judith: And it, The fact that we forgot that we ate it, Yeah. Is probably the biggest indicator that it wasn't.

[00:26:47] Gretchen: And honestly, like, I think it made me realize the thing about burrata that you like is that it's just like

[00:26:52] Judith: comes with bread.

[00:26:54] Gretchen: Well, yeah, that was the other thing. It didn't come with any bread. But the thing about burrata that I like is it's just so like [00:27:00] clean and like there's not clean. It's just cheese clean's, just fucking simple gooey ass cheese. Yeah. And you don't need it to be fried. Almost marred it a little bit. It was like I didn't get that same experience.

[00:27:13] Judith: Yeah. The Burrata

[00:27:14] Gretchen: also, yeah, we needed bread , like

[00:27:16] Judith: it didn't come with bread. I would say that as I'm making my food score. Mm-hmm. , the burrata neither. Uh, increases nor decreases my score,

[00:27:26] James: I think for me it decreases slightly. So,

[00:27:28] Judith: yeah. Okay.

[00:27:29] James: I think I give them for my meal.

[00:27:34] Gretchen: So you guys were factoring in the appetizer with our meal?

[00:27:38] James: Mm-hmm. . I'm gonna give them a six and a half.

[00:27:43] Judith: Wow. Okay.

[00:27:44] Gretchen: But you really liked your meal thought.

[00:27:46] James: I know. I I might wanna bump it to a seven based on how you guys score.

[00:27:50] Judith: Well, Gretchen scored a three.

[00:27:53] James: Oh, well. Fair enough.

[00:27:54] Gretchen: I forgot to add that. Well, I don't think that would honestly change mine much. Maybe I'd say four.

[00:27:59] James: Wow. That [00:28:00] brought it back?

[00:28:00] Judith: Wait, so the burrata brought it up a point

[00:28:02] Gretchen: maybe cuz I just ate a little bit more food. I dunno. . No, no. I'll stick with my score.

[00:28:09] James: All right.

[00:28:09] Gretchen: First of all, if you're gonna have an appetizer that is like your special. Give us some fucking bread. He should have come back out and said, Oh, did you guys want another bread basket to go? Like, these were the little things that I was like, This guy is okay. Sorry I'm jumping all over the place. That's going back to the service, but I'm sticking with three.

[00:28:30] Judith: Yeah, so my,

[00:28:32] James: It's

[00:28:32] Judith: back to Judith.

[00:28:33] Yeah. My food was delicious. Mm-hmm. , it was a. I don't know. They called it something other than it agnolotti, but it was basically ravioli with spinach and cheese in a fontina cheese sauce.

[00:28:53] James: Mm-hmm. .

[00:28:54] Judith: And that really is like, you know, we were talking like Northern Italian, close to this [00:29:00] Swiss border and like

[00:29:01] Gretchen: cheese, like

[00:29:02] James: cows.

[00:29:02] Judith: That's definitely a good. cheese.

[00:29:06] Gretchen: Well, and I'm glad that you actually liked it cuz like we are all Fat sos and we were talking about this place this morning , and we were like, What are you gonna get? What are you, I'm looking at the menu now and you were talking about that. And I'm like, glad that you actually got it and you liked it because, you know, if you're like really excited about something and then you're like, Oh, that fucking sucked. I mean, so that was good.

[00:29:25] Judith: Yeah, no, it's, it was not good enough to make me go back to the restaurant just to eat it.

[00:29:31] Gretchen: Oh, okay.

[00:29:32] Judith: But it was very good and it was, . I would say I would've liked one or two more pieces.

[00:29:37] James: Yep.

[00:29:38] Gretchen: Your guy's portions were really tiny and that's what

[00:29:41] James: it was. Handmade,

[00:29:42] Gretchen: but that's what I, That's exactly what made me think. Mine was just a box of

[00:29:46] James: Oh yeah. It was way too much.

[00:29:47] Gretchen: They just dumped it. It was too much. It was like, And for being what it was, it was like, I don't, I don't want, whatever. Anyway,

[00:29:55] James: so What was your number?

[00:29:56] Judith: My food. I'm gonna go seven.

[00:29:59] James: [00:30:00] Nice.

[00:30:00] Judith: It was above average. The burrata did not help. It did not. It not, it didn't hurt it either. Exactly. Like it didn't, Like

[00:30:09] Gretchen: not a hindrance, not a help.

[00:30:10] Judith: Well, it wasn't so off putting that I was like, Oh my God. Remember that horrible appetizer we had, like at the other place, Which I can still remember vividly, but I did forget that we had had it appetizer. We'll talk about it next. Don't worry.

[00:30:23] James: Oh, if we're gonna talk about that, then we need to finish out here. Um, drinks,

[00:30:27] Judith: I mean, they didn't have a full bar. They did not have a cocktail menu. Um, I was able to get vodka. It was a strong ish poor

[00:30:36] Gretchen: Oh, okay. dude.

[00:30:39] James: Strong ish.

[00:30:39] Gretchen: That's like one of my criteria. It's like if I'm getting a fucking, especially if all you're getting is like a vodka seltzer, which is what you got, like, I want it to be more vodka than seltzer. Um, what did we do? We got a bottle of perseco. It was, it was good.

[00:30:52] Judith: Which was fine.

[00:30:53] Gretchen: It was like a dry ish. and then James and I, they didn't have Peroni, which was a little annoying. So we got [00:31:00] Moretti.

[00:31:00] James: Moretti. Yeah.

[00:31:01] Gretchen: Which was fine. It's not as good as Peroni, but whatever. Um,

[00:31:06] Judith: so I'm gonna go drinks four.

[00:31:08] James: I'm giving him a three based on

[00:31:11] Judith: I'm gonna go four.

[00:31:12] James: The beer that they thought they had, they didn't have. And then

[00:31:14] Gretchen: Yeah, cuz he, That's right. He initially said yeah we have Peroni. And it's like, cool. And I kind of got excited cause I was like, I really want a Peroni. And then he came back and he was like, We don't have that. We have Moretti. And it's like, well that's not the same fucking beer at all. But okay.

[00:31:26] James: Also, if you're gonna have a full bar and have the ability to make cocktails have like a three item long cocktail list.

[00:31:36] Gretchen: Yeah. Like,

[00:31:37] Judith: but again, let's remember their audience, which is like 90 year olds. So.

[00:31:42] Gretchen: True.

[00:31:43] James: So just order a gimlet.

[00:31:45] Judith: Yeah. I mean I bet they can make a fucking hell of an old fashioned.

[00:31:48] James: I give 'em a three.

[00:31:50] Gretchen: I think. I would agree with you. Cause it like, meh, I mean, you can do a bottle of Prosecco, like you just popped it open.

[00:31:59] Judith: for [00:32:00] how else would they serve it? .

[00:32:02] James: They cannot saber it. You could saber it.

[00:32:04] Judith: You're not gonna saber. Strip, strip mall sabering,

[00:32:08] Gretchen: strip mall Sabering for the win!

[00:32:10] Judith: Can you imagine if that guy brought out the bottle of $40 champs? $40 Prosecco. and then draw out a saber . Oh my gosh.

[00:32:21] James: Well, not only that, he, the place is so small, he had to be like, he, Excuse me, Eugene, I'm gonna need you to move over.

[00:32:28] Gretchen: He would've cuff somebody's head off.

[00:32:29] Judith: Oh my God. I mean, it would be charming. I probably would've upped the score, but I also don't think that's a real,

[00:32:36] Gretchen: That would've gotten a big one for ambiance, for sure.

[00:32:39] Judith: Realistic expectations.

[00:32:40] James: So what's your number?

[00:32:41] Judith: Um, what didn't I say? Oh, for

[00:32:44] James: the, the cocktail.

[00:32:46] Judith: Cocktail. Three.

[00:32:47] James: Three.

[00:32:48] Gretchen: So we're all a three?

[00:32:50] Judith: Maybe I said four originally. I don't remember.

[00:32:52] James: We got two categories to go.

[00:32:54] Judith: Oh my. What else we got?

[00:32:56] James: Dessert.

[00:32:57] Gretchen: Eh, I think we're going to, um,

[00:32:59] Judith: Yeah, [00:33:00] I mean,

[00:33:01] Gretchen: you guys start, Somebody start.

[00:33:02] Judith: Well, I will start, or James, you should start.

[00:33:05] James: Four

[00:33:05] Judith: wanna know what I, Right where I was gonna go.

[00:33:09] James: Yeah, below average,

[00:33:10] Judith: but it wasn't good. Like, it wasn't like, oh my, like. tiramisu is. Not hard to do, let's be honest.

[00:33:17] Gretchen: You're just so,

[00:33:17] Judith: they just didn't, like, didn't put anything, any coffee like, or liquor in the,

[00:33:22] James: Or like a bitter chocolate on top. Nothing.

[00:33:24] Gretchen: And what's odd is that their fucking website says you, it literally says verbatim, you cannot leave without trying. Our famous tiramisu. And it's like, I don't like coffee. So like tiramisu's not my favorite. and Judith was literally like, try a bite. Doesn't taste like coffee . And it was like, Oh, this isn't bad, because it doesn't, But that's what you want in tiramisu.

[00:33:46] Judith: Yeah. I mean the chocolate and the coffee and the alcohol.

[00:33:49] Gretchen: Yeah. But yeah, and then the freaking cannoli was like a goddamn rock. I, And the filling was just so you guys were like saying like, Oh, [00:34:00] cannoli is like the, I forget what you were equating it to

[00:34:02] Judith: Fortune cookie.

[00:34:03] James: Yeah, like the fortune cookie.

[00:34:05] Gretchen: I've had some awful cannoli. I've had some, like Little Italy and Baltimore does some really, really good cannoli. Like certain places it's like you get that airy, it's like perfectly airy, um, crust. And the filling is like also sort of like airy. It's not like too dense, but it's not too sweet. But it's not too,

[00:34:24] James: Yeah, I mean that's the way, it's not like a fortune cookie, right? It is.

[00:34:28] Gretchen: It can be really good, but I think most people and most places, you're getting shitty fucking garbage cannoli, And tonight, sorry, shitty garbage cannoli, It was not good. And also it sounds like the tiramisu will, I don't know.

[00:34:42] James: I mean, it was . Perfectly edible, but it was neither sweet nor bitter, nor aromatic. It was just kind of there.

[00:34:51] Judith: Yep. I mean, I ate it. Let's be honest. Yeah, I didn't leave it.

[00:34:55] Gretchen: It's sweet. You know, we both, I mean we,

[00:34:56] James: Oh, and I did actually, you know what? That's a good point. But as we were leaving, there [00:35:00] was a crushed bit of cannoli with the cream, the sweet ricotta, and I looked at it and I was like, Eh.

[00:35:06] Judith: Right.

[00:35:06] James: I left it.

[00:35:07] Judith: Yeah.

[00:35:08] James: That's not a good sign.

[00:35:09] Judith: Not a great sign.

[00:35:10] James: So then there's value.

[00:35:12] Gretchen: Well, what are we rating? The desserts. We didn't even rate the desserts.

[00:35:15] James: Oh yeah.

[00:35:15] Judith: Oh, I mean, I did, didn't I?

[00:35:17] James: I think we're all four.

[00:35:17] Judith: I gave it four.

[00:35:18] James: Yeah.

[00:35:19] Gretchen: Oh, I'm saying I think two.

[00:35:21] James: Oh. Oh wow. That really tanked them.

[00:35:27] Gretchen: Damn near killed him.

[00:35:29] Judith: So value for the money V

[00:35:31] James: Value.

[00:35:32] Judith: Yes. Value for the money. Um, , What did we, we each got out of there at like 70 bucks.

[00:35:41] Gretchen: Yeah. I mean, not bad. It's like,

[00:35:43] Judith: and, and we bought a bottle of Prosecco for $40.

[00:35:47] James: Mm-hmm. ,

[00:35:47] Gretchen: We all got a drink. We split a bottle of Prosecco. We got, um, an app and we each got an entree and we split two desserts. So that's like, it's really fucking cheap. I mean, for around [00:36:00] here,

[00:36:00] Judith: like I would give the value five. because it's a lot of money to pay for food that I have no interest in necessarily going back to eat again.

[00:36:10] James: that's that's true, right?

[00:36:13] Judith: Like if it was, if it was 20 bucks and I never wanted to go back there, it'd be a great value.

[00:36:18] James: Boy, that's compelling argument. And I think, I think the wine was cheap. The beer was nine 50. There you go. I'm at a four. Cause Moretti is not an expensive beer.

[00:36:32] Gretchen: It's not, It's not.

[00:36:34] James: Nine 50 to say that already.

[00:36:37] Gretchen: Moretti, not expensive.

[00:36:38] Judith: I mean, I don't mind paying good money for my handmade egg pasta. That was delicious. Yeah. And fontina cheese. But overall, I don't see the value in that meal. Maybe I'm a cheap bitch?

[00:36:53] Gretchen: No, I mean, honestly, let's, I mean, run through for me, I have to kind of run through everything.

[00:36:59] James: [00:37:00] Yep.

[00:37:00] Gretchen: So I. Um, the service, the ambience, my dish.

[00:37:07] James: Remember, this is value.

[00:37:09] Gretchen: I know, but I have to lump, I have to lump all this into, It's a whole experience, right? It's not just

[00:37:15] James: fair.

[00:37:15] Gretchen: It's hard to like compartmentalize a little bit. So overall, I'm gonna probably say like four.

[00:37:21] James: Four.

[00:37:22] Judith: I can do that math in my head.

[00:37:24] James: All right, now I gotta work on the math here. Hang on.

[00:37:29] Judith: Yeah, so in all, not, not a hidden gym, a place that I would be okay returning to if someone asked me to, but would not probably recommend it . Well, like if somebody was like, I'm having my birthday party here. I'd be like, Okay, fine. I will go.

[00:37:50] Gretchen: Are you 93 ?

[00:37:52] Judith: Well, I do know a lot of olds . Um, but I would not be like, you know where we should go for dinner [00:38:00] tonight?

[00:38:00] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:38:00] Judith: This place

[00:38:02] Gretchen: and like yeah. I mean, I agree. And I was so, I had like high hopes cause I was, we've always driven past this place and I'm like, Oh, it looks like a neat little. . But yeah, overall just kind of balls.

[00:38:16] James: But what's your value number?

[00:38:17] Gretchen: I already did that.

[00:38:19] James: What was it?

[00:38:19] Gretchen: Four?

[00:38:20] James: Four.

[00:38:22] Judith: I think I already said four.

[00:38:23] James: , and I said five.

[00:38:24] Judith: It's $70.

[00:38:25] James: No, you said four. Okay. We gotta drop that down.

[00:38:28] Gretchen: Are you drunk?

[00:38:29] James: No.

[00:38:31] Gretchen: If you are, it's okay.

[00:38:32] James: I was working on the, the formula in the background, so we all rated value of four. Okay. The total for this restaurant. And this is helpful for us all to think about. The average would be three, uh, 4.38 out of 10,

[00:38:49] Judith: 4.38 out of 10,

[00:38:51] James: so below average.

[00:38:52] Judith: I would say that's That's fair.

[00:38:54] Gretchen: Yeah.

[00:38:56] James: I feel like we're being harsh.

[00:38:58] Judith: Well, no, I mean, we broke it down [00:39:00] in components. ,

[00:39:02] Gretchen: Right? I mean, I think we judged it on several different,

[00:39:06] Judith: I mean, I'd say it's just shy of average when you factor in all of the different, different points.

[00:39:13] James: Okay. So here's where maybe stack ranking would be helpful. In my head, what I'm thinking is, of the four places we've been to, this is number two.

[00:39:23] Gretchen: Okay, That's fair. So hold it.

[00:39:25] James: So then, so is it below average or is it average? I don't know

[00:39:29] Judith: I mean, I'd say it's slightly below average.

[00:39:31] James: Okay.

[00:39:32] Judith: I'm comfortable with that.

[00:39:33] James: All right.

[00:39:34] Gretchen: But here's the thing that I'm also, um, realizing too, is like depending on the meal you get, I mean, that, that is a huge chunk. Mm-hmm. , I need to put this damn thread down. That is a huge chunk of the experience. Right. So like, my meal for me marred the experience more because it was like, eh, it wasn't really good. Right?

[00:39:53] Judith: Right.

[00:39:53] Gretchen: But like, um, I don't even remember what we got. We were talking about this on the way over the [00:40:00] first place we went, Piero's corner. I honestly don't remember what the fuck I got, but the whole experience as a whole, I just remember was good. Mm-hmm. , it was like good service, good drinks.

[00:40:09] Judith: You remember that? The food was good,

[00:40:11] Gretchen: right? But I don't remember what I, but it's like, but I don't remember anything being bad at all. So I think those things stick in your brain too, whereas like, Place I, I'm sure in a month I'll forget, but like, that's why we're kind of doing this, I guess.

[00:40:26] Judith: Okay. I mean, I'm, like I said, I'm fine with just below average.

[00:40:30] James: So technically you were just below average at 4.85.

[00:40:35] Judith: Yeah.

[00:40:36] James: So you gave him a 4.8?

[00:40:38] Judith: Yeah. I'm fine with that. My food was good.

[00:40:42] James: I was next.

[00:40:43] Judith: I made good decisions.

[00:40:45] James: I made them a 4.57 and then Gretchen rated them the worst at 3.71.

[00:40:52] Judith: Yeah, I mean, she couldn't breathe.

[00:40:54] Gretchen: That's actually really,

[00:40:55] James: And you're, you didn't like your gnocchi.

[00:40:58] Judith: And you didn't like your food. That seems [00:41:00] perfectly. And you didn't like your cannoli

[00:41:02] James: Yeah, that's fair.

[00:41:02] Judith: Seems reasonable.

[00:41:03] James: And the appetizer was like meh,

[00:41:04] Gretchen: it was just the fucking air fresher. If that was not happening, I probably could have had a very different, like

[00:41:10] Judith: that's the whole point of the score.

[00:41:13] James: Yep. so Bellisimo? Bellisi , no. ,

[00:41:20] Judith: you've been waiting to make that joke all night.

[00:41:23] James: It just occurred to me

[00:41:24] Judith: Uhhuh. Yeah, sure don't. No. He thought of that at dinner and he's been holding it back

[00:41:38] [ending music]