Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Burgers, Beets, and Buffett: Ranking Dallas's Best Burgers | Evan Grant & Sarah Blaskovich | Ep 251

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Burgers, Beets, and Buffett: Ranking Dallas's Best Burgers | Evan Grant & Sarah Blaskovich | Ep 251 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. With the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little light right outside the window. The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. With Okay. A p. I would Keep jamming. The the ticket colon, nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set. Is this a cool night or what? I wish somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. As we always like to say, the more margaritas you have in it, the better we get. You know? Yes. That's it. You guys know that. You watch this thing every week or every two weeks or however often we do it, you know that the more you have to drink, the better we get. Yeah. We're so much funnier. We're a lot funnier. A funnier, we're a lot smarter, We're even better looking. So there you go. Well, hi. This is episode number 251 Wow. Of Your Dark Companion. Sarah's gone for nine of them. Mhmm. Yes. No way. Yeah. You are the leader in the clubhouse. Nine of Yeah. I think you are the leader in the clubhouse. Wow, y'all. I lost count. I should go wear my jacket. It's too hot. It is too hot. Next time. Times. Yeah. Nine times. I think the next gift is like a Rolex. Is that right? I think so. We might wait to have you on. If you wanna think that, go ahead. Yeah, or like diamond earrings, I could use a pair. Might might be a little bit before we get y'all back on then. Yeah. And she never came back Yeah, you may have to wait a couple minutes on that one. Well, today, we are reaching into that that wonderful, wonderful, rich trove of talent that you find at the Dallas Morning News for a couple who have been on with us before. One, I believe is we've determined is the leader in the clubhouse on YDC appearances with what was it nine? Nine. It's eight or nine something like that. We're going with nine. We we inflate our numbers around here. We have something less than It was certainly too high. Fair enough. We have something less than the guys at Cooperstown who keep tabs on everything baseball, keeping tabs on this thing, you know? A little loose. A little more freewheeling. But this is August 13. Is that right? I think it's the twelfth. Oh, twelfth? Well, screw me. You got the show number on I never know what date it is. It's thirteenth, I'm gonna be at the beach, so it's the twelfth. Yeah. Okay. Last night, they did a number on me. Alright. Now you're seeing Evan Grant here and Sarah Blascovich. Yay. Both of the Dallas Morning News. Now you may be saying to yourself, wait a minute. He, baseball, she, food, what gives? That's fair. This is food. Well, for some time, as things turn out, because they both have a very common interest in the food aspect of things. Who doesn't like food? Yeah. Yeah. This is like the guy says. But we they wanted to do this and we thought it would be fun to get them on because number one, they are both smart. Number two, they're both fun. And I'd kinda like to see guys like Evan wander out of bounds on, you know, on less terra firma from time to time. So that's what we thought we would do today. Have them in here and talk about food. And the main thing I wanna talk about is this list they put together. Mhmm. The best burgers in Dallas. We've eaten so many burgers. Like, I made a joke, I think I am a burger. I'm a cheeseburger. I don't think there's anything else in me right now. Oh, there's some other stuff. Evan and I have been, dining together for months now, so much. We spent two hours together today, three hours on Monday, three or four hours on Friday nights with our spouses and some of Evan's family. So another reason why we're together today on this podcast, Mike, is because we have been spending so much time together eating food around town that we now only go places together, it seems, as the baseball writer and the food writer for The Dallas Morning News. At this moment, I am oozing queso out of my pores. Just put it that way. We I mean, people ask me all the time, you know, like, is your job as fun as it seems? And the answer is absolutely yes. I will say when we got to the end of the burgers list, I was not sure I wanted any more burgers for a while. And then I had one like three days later, like by choice. Hell, yeah. Well, the the when we got to the end of the burgers list, on that particular day, we tried 10 burgers. Now, obviously, we didn't eat them all and we didn't eat all of any one burger. But still, you tried 10 different burgers over the course of an afternoon, really? Yeah. It was like two or three hours. It was a short amount of time. Wow. Yeah. Many bites is a a try, an attempt? Oh, A testing. No, more than, I think we had more than two bites of all those. I would say many. Some. Since we're not big enough here. What did you got what were what did the mechanics of this look like? Alright. Where did this happen at? So I mean, did you go from place to place? We on that specific day, we did, but the mechanics of creating a best burger list is that there's a really big spreadsheet that we create, that has places we want to go, gathered from our thoughts, other people's thoughts, research online, you know, the whole bit. We've it starts with the spreadsheet, which doesn't sound sexy, but then we get to eat dozens of burgers around town. That is sexy. Hell yeah. But with each try, we make like copious notes. So we note what day we went and who went, both of us or one of us, Exactly what we thought on each dish, the name of the dishes, the prices of the dishes, the details on the dish. Did we add jalapenos because they were an optional extra? Did we add a different kind of cheese? On the whole, we tried not to change anything about most of these burgers. And we just ate and ate and ate for most of the late spring and put out this list a few days before July 4. Right. And Sarah had done a list. She had done a couple lists, right, early in the year and I had done a couple lists on favorite burgers. And so we had done a lot of research early in the year and then came back to it for for this particular top 15. And it's just one of those foods in this town. And I think burgers pretty much nationally. Everybody wants to know where's your favorite burger? Where's your favorite burger? So we thought it would be a great conversationalist. We didn't rank them one through 15. We just had 15 on there and pretty much everyone had a superlative that stood out for us on what made it one of our top burgers. But and we talked about this a little pre show too, right Mike? We couldn't do all of the Metroplex. Fort Worth is gonna have to be its own list. Sure. And it will be guys. And it would not want it any other way. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But suburban burgers is gonna have to be a separate list. All these burgers are in Dallas proper. So there's a lot more eating to be done, Sarah. Burgers specifically, Evan. And now we're kind of on this Tex Mex adventure too. The two of us sampled five margaritas today? Six? Oops, six. But who's counting? We don't, the numbers aren't big here. Yeah, so we're gonna be eating together once or twice a week forever. So this is gonna be our first dozen margarita show? I Is that what this think A half dozen, Mike. Only a half dozen margaritas for Six my and six That's makes a good math right there. We well, I was We telling each tried the same six, so you can, look, again, we're not big on numbers here, so you can add it up any way you want. But we did have seven on Monday and six today. Damn. Yeah. We're we're if I'm not a cheeseburger anymore, I am, queso and tequila only. Yeah. But, we had a ton of fun making this best burgers list and then we did like a he said, she said. So one thing we decided, Evan and I have worked together on various things, but this was really one of the first big projects we double bylined. And, you know, the idea was we wanted a best burgers list. Evan knows a lot about burgers. Evan and I like to eat together. And I just thought it seemed more efficient and and more user friendly to, like, work together on this. We have kind of different audiences when it comes to who reads our stuff. And so I love the idea of both of those audiences and tens of thousands of other people coming together to read a list about burgers since we believe everybody loves a burger. And so the format is, it's like a he said, she said. He liked this, she liked that about a single burger. And so that was like a really fun way to do it, I think, as you try to understand both of our personalities too. Now Evan, what was your favorite superlative on one of our 15 burgers? Do you have a fave? Did I have a favorite superlative? Yeah. I don't know that I have a favorite actual superlative because I'm more thinking of the actual burgers. Right. But the one thing that stands out for me more than anything else is the cheese on the Goodwin's burger. Mhmm. This melty American cheese sauce that Jeff Beckovich describes it as with a glorious patty that is just expertly cooked. That was that's my best burger taste in town. And when I think of a burger right now, I think of that picture because that cheese is melted and it's dripping off the burger. Yeah. You know? That's a great Instagram moment. In a very seductive way, a burger Right. We came away with some burgers that did not feel sexy. That is a sexy burger. Yeah, it is. My favorite, the burger I dream about on this list is the one at NADC, which stands for Not a Damn Chance. This is a small restaurant chef that lives in Austin now, and he partnered with a professional skateboarder named Neen Williams. And if you think the ball writer and the food writer is a good is an interesting smash up, a chef and a skateboarder? Totally. We're just making it work out here. Right? Yes. And NADC, when Evan met me at the one in Uptown, there was no one there. It's an old two story house that used to be a bar on McKinney. And Evan said something to the effect of, do you think we're gonna die in here? And I said, I hope not. I hope not because we're not done with the burger list yet. It's not a nice looking place. No. And and, you know, it was again, it was a hot Sunday, in June, a very hot Sunday in June, and their air conditioning wasn't really working. They were opening I think the door was open. So it was it was a little bit sweaty in there, but that was the other superlative that I was thinking about because they their grilled onions, They're grilled onions on their burger and then they were the one place that really did have jalapeno on their baseline burger. They've got some grilled they call them tamed jalapenos, but it's just basically pickled jalapenos. Yeah. But that with the way they grill their onions really stood out for me. Yeah. That burger is to me great. It is smaller in size. It's one of those Martin potato, buns that's it's they're just a little bit smaller And it's a double double with cheese with the tamed jalapenos and, like a pretty great house made burger sauce. But we can all make a pretty great house made burger sauce, honestly, if you mix ketchup, mayo, mustard, and a little bit of pickle juice or some other things like But the combination of all of those things was magic to me. And I think one of the reasons I like it is because before NADC opened in Fort Worth, their first location in our area is in a comedy club in Downtown Fort Worth where the kitchen wasn't being used and they made no lease deal. They said, we want to serve out of your kitchen, but this is not a lease, which is like not how restaurants work. And so I think that's really fun. And then they opened the one in Uptown and they've they've expanded all over The US. But I think This what is where in Uptown? It's on McKinney. You know where Cole converges by, there's an elementary school there called Travis. And it's, it's that part of McKinney where it starts to go just one way. Yes. It's exactly okay. Where There's a little convergence in Epcot. Yes. It's I think it's right next to Standard Port. Yeah. Standard Port. Yep. I went to look for it. So anyway, the reason why I think I like this burger too is that, they make a rule that restaurateurs are not supposed to make, which is they say this is the one menu item. The burger goes like this and we think that you should get it like this. And, like, yeah, they'll take off the jalapenos if you want, and they don't, like, make a thing of it exactly. But if you wanna know how they want you to order that one burger, the the which is the whole menu, they want you to order it the way it is because they tried a bunch of ways. The chef is like, I think I know what I'm talking about. This is the one. And that kind of, you know, confidence is so staggering that I went in being like, there's no way that this one burger is that good and I love it. Now, I and I thought, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. I thought originally it was not a damn change. No. Although I love that. That it was never It wasn't Neen Williams' catchphrase is not a damn chance. Got it. This is like skateboarding thing he said. Okay. And I I don't know why. But that I I took it like That's funny. I like not a damn change. And because when you wrote about it originally, you talked about like they didn't want you to make changes Yeah. To the burger. And so I was like, was very anti that because I am the consumer. I want what I want. And so I walked in there with some degree of probably burger bias. Yeah. But I walk out of there really, really, really enjoying that burger. Yeah. Now, Mike, I have to ask you, since you have lots of thoughts about what goes on a burger, would you eat the NADC burger that I love so much? Would you leave the burger sauce with the mayo, ketchup, mustard mix? Yeah. I would. How about the jalapenos? Yes. I'm you in. You're in. I love it. Are you a jalapenos guy typically on your burger? What's on your burger? Normally, just, you know, straight up. But if someone wants to put jalapenos on there, fine. I can do that. Yeah. Okay. Aren't you the no mayo guy, though? No. No. I'm not a no mayo guy. Oh, that's okay. No. I like Miracle Whip, but if it's mayo, I I I can fight through that. You can handle it. Yeah. Am good. I am mister no mayo. I don't like mayo on my burgers. I like burger sauce, but I don't like mayo or tomato. Yeah. What we're what I'm remembering now is that Evan doesn't like tomatoes. Oddly, we we did not come across that many burgers with a big beefy tomato on them. Thank you. Sometimes, I know. Did still eat it? Did you still eat the tomato or did you No. Let me tell you exactly how this went. Because I was like, we gotta get it the way the chef wants to serve it. Right. This is how do you make a list? And then go, well, I ordered this, but then I messed it up. You know, I like little respect for the people who made the food. And so we would get it exactly the way they came. And a few times, not that many times, if it had a tomato on it, Evan would just take the top right off and slide the tomato off to the side and put the top back on and then we would continue dining. So I had it the way it was supposed to. Technically didn't modify the order. And then, Also for detail purposes, I may have, if there was any of the tomato smut tomato You know when a tomato's been there. Right. Because of what it leaves Yes. I don't like that stuff. I love every version of tomato except raw tomatoes. Oh, that's good. And I don't want them anywhere near my burger. But you did you try to remove the smut or did you I removed the smut. Okay. No. It's just gooey for you. Right? Is that a word? Yeah. Oh, it's too gelatinous. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's gooey. There are two other burgers I think that we should talk about and I hope everybody will go read this best burgers list on dallasnews.com/food. But each of us Evan and I argued near the end in a polite way. And so we ended up picking two outside answers that became wild cards. We basically were like, okay, you can have that one, but it's not part of the main list. But I'm gonna have my say too. Sure. So my wild card is the Smashburger at Chelsea Corner. First of all, I think that's a totally underrated restaurant. It is at McKinney and Monticello, you know, in the North of Uptown area, but not not quite East Dallas. It's just on the wrong side of 75. It's a it's a bar. It's a brunch spot for my little kids. It's after church. It's it's a lot of things. But their smash burger is so killer. And in my family, we've started, like, ordering other food and we'll get one smash burger and you can cut it. Some burgers you can't cut. This burger at Chelsea Corner, you can cut in half or even in quarters and then everybody gets their own little crazy decadent bite. And it is that good that next time you go to Chelsea Corner, you have to get this Wagyu smash burger. If you're not gonna eat it all, share it with somebody. It's a pretty it must be pretty big. It's it's it's big. I mean Yeah. It's a meal. It's a meal. There's good out. Totally. But I just find it to be really great. And then the other thing I like about Chelsea Corner is they their drinks are also great because it's a good bar, but they have these little, like, wake me up shots. So it's kind of like a little bitty easier to drink espresso martini, and it comes in a shot glass. And so we sit down for burgers and we get a wake me up shot. You just toss it back. Tastes like espresso plus other yummy stuff, and then like, you're here we go, you know? So I think Chelsea Corner is totally underrated and had to be on this list. And in all honesty, in full disclosure, there was some degree, as many burgers as we did, there were a couple places, part of the wild card thing was we couldn't get to every place together. Yeah. And so I hadn't been to Chelsea Corner. I have since been, it's certainly a contender for for Best Burger. My wild card was Walker's, which just opened up on on Greenville And I loved it because it was a Gorgonzola burger and it didn't come with like blue cheese dressing on it. It came with melted Gorgonzola cheese and it added such a sharp saltiness and and for lack of better term, umami, and and the the onions were grilled great. The only thing that was funny about it was it has a very high top bun, that made it look like it was wearing a top hat. But Yeah. That is a big top hat. Evan sent me a photo and he was like, this has to make the list, I was like, not that photo. Why is the bun like bad. But it's a silly it's a silly looking bun, but it's a good bun. But the other thing about the Walker's burger and Sarah has since had had the Walker's burger. Also liked it. Really liked it. The meats. You know, this is what I Mike, what I came away with was, you know, we are we've gone to this whole state smash burger this, smash burger that. Everybody's got a Blackstone at home. They're making their smash burgers. Everybody wants to open a burger place. I came away from this much more valuing traditional burgers made with good beef, you know, in an artful way. Because I and it's not to diminish the smash burgers. They're all delicious. I just think they're so hard to differentiate one from the other. And the few that smash burgers that we did have on there, it was for me because you got the real real laziness on the edges with a little bit of crispness and you were still moist on the inside of the burger. I think that's the hard part of Smashburger to accomplish and that is what, you know, Schmurger has done so well since they first landed here and why I think they're the vanguard for the smash burger movement here. But I don't That's the only one I've ever had actually, Schmurger. Is Schmurger? Yeah. Everybody's got a smash burger. Dudley's has a smash burger. Really? Yeah, it's quite good. A lot of restaurants want to do a smash burger now. I think my favorite smash burger on our list right now is from Sky Rocket Burger. That was a good And there are several around town. There's one in Deep Ellum. The original is, up north in like, kind of by UTD at like Frankfurt and something And, I like missed the turn twice because it's tucked behind the gas station in a strip center. And if anybody listening is trying to find a new to them smash burger spot and you haven't had Sky Rocket, it that it's so good and the menu is very simple. You pick one, two or three patties. You you know, cheese or no cheese. I added jalapenos to that one. But it's there's not like a shtick to this place. So many of these There's burger there's places, there's a whole theme and whatever. It's like, no, Sky Rocket Burger, they they let you build your burger and then they make you a really darn good burger. Yeah. And all my That goes a long way. All the people that I heard from from Far North Dallas, I've got some friends in Richardson, that was that had the a real plurality of approval on that. That was one that multiple people suggested to us. I went to the one in in Deep Ellum and it was it's a really good burger. Can't wait. Gotta go. That's right. We had some we had some we had a lot of good burgers. We had some burgers that were that were very unique. I you know, I know Sarah wants to talk about some regrets, so Oh sure, yeah. The the well, not everybody can make the list. That's think I think some food writers, you know, think that's fun, right? Like here's, you know, the club and you're you can't come in kind of thing. I really kind of agonized over that because, in addition to loving burgers and having more than 15 that were great, I also know a lot of these restaurant owners or I know the neighborhood that they've chosen to open their restaurant in. And like I've said before, there's just a lot of respect for people who have these small businesses. And so my biggest regret is that Good Friend did not make the list. And it was really close and I think they make a really great burger and they make a killer sandwich across the street at Good Friend package in East Dallas. And so I lost a little sleep over that one. And we know we decided to go with one or two others but it I still wonder if I whiffed on that one because I mean I still take my family there to eat burgers and will continue to do that. So you know, anybody listening who hears that, it's not that it didn't make the list, it's that you should still go there because they make a really good burger. And there are two regrets that I had. One is the angry dog. It was the first it was the first burger I fell in love with in Dallas. Really? And it's still a really good burger. And I don't know if they use liquid smoke on it, or if they put an old trick that my dad used to do would put some instant coffee in the meat to give it a smoky flavor and it really comes out good. But it's got that smoky flavor. Where it doesn't come up to me right now, I'm where my tastes are, is I have gone more towards the burger sauce. Right? Then then mustard. And they're kind of mustard heavy or mustard centric on Yeah. On the the list. The other burger Wait. Hold on. Before you go into the other burger, we got an angry email about angry dog from a colleague. Oh. And, Can we out her? Had a Do it. I don't know. We had a lot of fun. She she wrote She's written a a funny best seller. Has written a best seller. Yes, our our friend and colleague, Sarah Heppala, who who writes high profile, She was aghast that we didn't pick her favorite angry dog and she's she's not wrong. She and she's not the only one who It's was great angry about bar burger. It really is. I mean, but the the burger scene in Dallas is really, really good. The other burger that I felt bad about just because it was so unique and the place is so unique is Dota Burger, which is in East Dallas. Yeah. And it is a Dota burger? Dota. I heard Doda. D o d a. Okay. And it is a sushi and burger place. Woah. Wow. Which is worth like a pause for a second. Like what? Yeah. Yeah. They also have, and you order, first of all, you you know, and and this is not unusual, but you order off of off of a kiosk, right, off of a touch screen. But on that kiosk, they have the all and their burgers are Wagyu and they're all very good. You have the burger, the burger, the burger, then you have some sushi rolls, and then you have Omakase for 14 people, $2,800. That I was love a menu that does weird stuff like that. I just think that's That was so cute. But they had a kimchi burger that I really liked. Sarah wasn't as taken with it. But it's like it is it is a I I think it's I I think the guys who own it are a basically a sushi chef and his father. And the two of them are back there in the in the little kitchen making the food. And I just it's such a it's such a wacky, kooky little concept that I felt I felt bad about leaving them off. And I I would go back and eat their burgers again without a doubt. Well, and we will update this list or we plan to maybe once a year. So we'll have to go back to DOTA. One more funny story about burgers. We we added Hillstone's veggie burger to the list, which is gasp worthy because there's no beef here. And How do you feel about the veggie burger, Mike? Oh, yeah. Never had one. Never had one. No. May never. You know, if I if I'm if I'm going for a burger, I'm going for a burger. I feel me a veggie burger is not a burger. I feel you. I would It's just me. I would I would highly recommend you go to Hillstone and for the veggie burger. I hate veggie burgers. I hate them. Sarah's a big proponent of them. I I like a well made veggie burger, I think, is so special because they're hard to do well. But if you do them well, that's that's a great sandwich. Is it supposed to taste like a typical patty or is it? Are so many different kinds, right? Like I think the black bean burger is the worst offender. I like a like a cashew lentil grains burger, you know, something that has like quite a bit of personality. The Hillstone burger has oats and what else It in has black beans, it has oats, it has beets. It has I hate beets. Hate beets. It has Prune? That's what I'm seeing Yeah. On the It has either a date or a prune in it. A date or a prune, and I I don't you know, my mother drank prune juice. I'm not eating prunes. Because if there's one thing I don't have a problem with, it's being regular in my life, and I can be proud of that. Heard it here. But this burger, it tastes There he is. See? He just had to do it. I'm sorry. He's regular. What do you want me to I didn't do anything. The microphone picked it up. It tastes like a burger, and it is it is meaty like a burger. You don't it looks even like a burger because of the way they cook it and I think they use a little bit of sweet soy in their marinade. So it gets dark like a burger. Is a fantastic burger. The the time and and honestly skill that it took to takes to create this veggie burger every day is in my opinion way beyond what it takes to make almost any cheeseburger anywhere else. There's so many more ingredients and there's lots of dicing and whatever. Like, you really think about, you know, a lot of the cheeseburgers that we're eating is high quality beef and cheap cheese and a real good burger sauce. Like that, you can make a great burger out of that. And so Hillstone is doing all of the things in order to make this veggie burger great. What's really funny is when I was finishing this story, I called them to fact check the dates or the prunes and I think I had another couple of questions. And, and the person who answered the phone who had a high enough ranking title to answer the questions, I said, hey, you know, I'm Sarah with the Dallas Morning News and we're doing a burger list and I just want to check that I've got these right ingredients because we talked to a bartender and they had mentioned them and it's important to me that I get them right. And she said something to the effect of, we're not going to talk about our recipes with you and she hung up on me. Jeez. Well now. I don't get hung up on a lot, I work in restaurants and I was really nice. And so I, that was, that's also one regret. I don't regret putting it on the list, but I do regret that I wasn't treated kindly. Yeah. When I was just about to put, did put them on this huge The Hillstone Corporation as a company a very secretive company. That's right. But the food at all their restaurants is exceptionally high quality. I just can't, I can't deny that. Did you call her back and give her a second chance? No, I mean, I was so shocked actually. And so what we put in the story is what we know to be in the burger. I get hung up on all the time, so I'm used to it. But I wish we could have added a few more ingredients, but I I couldn't be sure. You know, I knew some, but I didn't know all and so, you know, I wasn't able to make the list longer. But that that's all okay. They they're worthy of being on the list, but we did argue over does a veggie burger land on the list, and if so, which one? So I think we picked the right one with that Hillstone burger. Well, the biggest baseball name who has hung up on you? Depends on the year. Last three, four years? Last three or four years, I've been on a pretty good run. Everybody likes you now. Yeah, but see now, it's a little bit different now. Nobody likes me. Yeah, they do, they do. You don't rub anybody the wrong way. The measure now is because you text everybody, right? So you text everybody, you're not cold calling them, and like you'll just get crickets in response. That's, that's kind of the hang up. And, yeah, I, I get that still frequently. And with no, with no, no ill feelings one way or another, but you know, every GM that I've covered here has done that. Every owner here has done that. Even Doug Melvin? Doug Melvin never hung up on anybody. No, no, he's too nice a guy. And when he was tired of the conversation and in that Canadian accent, he would go, Okay, gotta go now. And he'd hang up the phone. Because I called him one time, this was in '98 at the trade deadline in '98, when they made that trade for, they made the trades for Royce Clayton and Todd Stottlemeyer. Yes. Hell yeah. They traded Fernando Tatis and I caught him in the hotel room, in Toronto where he had been holed up. And I said, Doug, and I started to ask him a question, he goes, okay, gotta go now. Another time, the one other time that I got hung up on that was funny was, the Rangers were pursuing Prince Fielder when he was a free agent. I had gotten a tip that they were meeting with him and Scott Borys at the Four Seasons at Las Colinas. And so I just took a chance because I knew if I called him on my cell phone, was caller ID. Nobody was gonna answer. So I took a chance that I'd I'd called the hotel and I'd asked for Boris's room and sure enough, he wasn't registered under a fake name and the phone rang and somebody picked it up and I recognized the voice immediately. It was Thad Levine, the Ranger's assistant GM at the time. And I said, oh, Thad. And he kind of took a minute for a second. He took a minute and he said, I'm sorry, my name's not Thad, it's Bruce. And he and we still laugh about that one. Asking journalists who's hung up on them is such a good question. That's that's a good one. Love those stories. Alright, this is Sarah Blascovich and Evan Grant, both of the Dallas we don't have the iPad up there? Oh, no. Oh my god. Alright. What do we gotta do? What do we gotta talk about here? Yeah. Okay. We'll have more with them in just a second but right now, you guys can relax. Yeah. Just chill out. Just for just for a tad. Because it's time for us to stop down for the dreaded and feared mid show read. I might jump in if we're talking about Dudley's and their stuffed jalapenos. Hell yeah. Oh my gosh. Get Well, feel free. Yes. Because last night, we were at Dudley's and it's a place that we've done a good number of things there in these these last few weeks and if you like a good, cool, comfortable hang with good food, good beverages, TVs, and all the things that that That ticker. I love Oh, yeah. The ticker. There's the ticker. All the things that a good sports bar should have, Dudley's hasn't. Right? What I loved about Dudley's when I went in there for a burger tasting was they've got both banks, both walls are just banks of TVs. I think I counted, I think it was 33 TVs because I And, counted one in the back you know, for the NCAA Tournament, because I was in there in March, the NCAA Tournament, you can watch every live game. I really love that. I know when we were here last time, chef Eric brought the the stuffed jalapenos and those they are might be the best stuffed jalapenos I've ever had because they are giant. The bacon on the outside is really cooked and crisp and inside you've got a lot of brisket. So I you you had those. Yeah. I I think they They were were fantastic. Good food at Dudley's. I also, that corner of Knox Henderson is really interesting to me because you got Dudley's and then next door you've got a new restaurant called Stay Darlin'. You've got a couple of hat bars. You've got Tacovus across the street. Like we got a little cowboy corner It's going on chic, but it's it's cool. Like it feels like, you know, ever ask you, like, where do you take out of towners to either eat or drink that, like, oozes Texas but maybe doesn't feel, like, dumb? And I you know what I mean? Like, you can take it too far at some restaurants around here feeling like, well I really hit them over the head with the Texas Yeah, not hokey. You know, and I think these restaurants are like well designed and they have good food and they're, you know, cool people hang out and drink there late at night. Owners friends. They know each other. Yeah. So they're really great with each other, like recommending I what I just like about I mean, because it's kind of a narrow, you know, it's a narrow, room, but you so there's nowhere where you are where you're not going to have a good view of whatever game you want to watch on there because I think it's it's Banks of four and then they repeat Banks of four and they repeat and so the rooms narrow and so we're wherever you're seated or standing. You've got a good view of all four screens. I was really impressed by that setup. They they've added a lot of screens since you were there. Oh, is that right? More screens. Oh, yeah. A lot of screens. And we were on a giant screen that you can see from the front door. It's like maximum screens in there. That's great. They've really maxed it out. It is Dudley's. It is located on Henderson. Just a little bit to the Southeast of Central Expressway. If you need a good hang, it's a cool, comfortable place. Shupi and I dig it. We think you will too. We go by there a lot and take your draft party there. You're having a draft? They love draft parties. They don't come to laugh when it to draft parties. No, no. They don't come to laugh when it covers the draft. They're most serious about it in every way. They are Dudley's. They'll serve you some draft at your draft party. That's right. That's right, they put the draft in the draft party. Alright. Is And the IPA. Yes. This is Evan Grant and Sarah Blazkovich. Both have been on the podcast numerous times now, especially Sarah. We make it a point to touch base with her because she is on that food beat and that food beat is an ever changing scene, is it not? It it is and we're just about to heat right up. We're before the state fair guys. Oh yeah. I think one of the reasons why I kept showing up here for a while was because you want to talk about state fair food. Damn right. And we're we're getting ready. I'm I'm a judge next week. So there are 15 finalists for the State Fair. You know, the State Fair doesn't start till late September, but there's an event next week where we taste all 15 foods. It'll be the first time I've tried this year's crop. I should say food and drink, not just foods. Because five are drinks and 10 are foods. But and then we'll see who the winners are on on Tuesday at 02:00. Nice. Do you have any Oh. Wait. I wanna ask her a question before you go to State Fair because it's gonna take forever to talk about the State Fair. Oh. And I don't know if we ask me if you want. We can get into it or not. Happy to. Have I tried Punk yet? Have I tried Punk Noir? I have not. Punk Noir is a is a 20 course dinner restaurant. I'll have to look up the price, but it's drive your car into over $200. The idea was from the beginning that, yes, you could drive your car into this warehouse. Unclear if that is how it ended up. Like, I don't know if you can do that now that it's actually open, but that was the pitch before it opened. Where is this? It's in the Design District, and like some or all of the walls are graffitied, and there's kind of this like, you know, neon cool kid punk rock thing all going on. I have not had a proper 20 course meal there yet. The whole concept, when I saw the photos, the whole concept did not do anything for me. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. And I I don't want my car involved. I want my car involved when I eat at Keller's, not when I eat a That's right. 20 course meal. Well, the course number is is is a lot. And so I've certainly eaten 20 course Japanese dinners, omikase, but each of those courses is a single piece of fish. And sometimes there's even something smaller like a palate cleanser. So I cannot speak to whether you have to, you know, roll yourself out of there or if the the, you know, portions are so small. But, the family that opened Punk Noir did so because, they went on a family trip to like, I don't know, 10 or 12 countries, big big trip, and ate at Michelin starred restaurants and came home and said, we can do that. And so that's why we have a punk noir. And I'm not saying anything about being able to drive your car in there now. Like, looking on the website and reviews and all that of just different It doesn't say it anymore? Yeah. Yeah. They kind of see where I think they might have walked Yeah. That That that seems like that would be a health code violation. Probably. Oh, would you like a smoked old fashioned? And the smoke will be from your carburetor. Yeah. Bad liquid smoke. Would you like food and handling oats? Exactly. Yeah. And the remnants of your spare tire or something like that? Well that'd be interesting when you I'll let you guys know. I'll let you know when I eat there. Thank you. Welcome. I saw it the other day and I was like, Sarah, got a couple of Yeah, love. Thanks. I almost sent you a message. You should have. I wanna I wanna take you back to Keller's because it's your favorite cheap food. That's right. Keller's made our list. Yeah. Was our favorite cheap burger. So do repeat. Yes. So it's a good question. One of the things about this list that a lot of people ask is I'm missing my favorite place. It's blank. Right? It's Dariet, it's Angry Dog, it's Good Friend. It's one of those. And for a lot of people, I know the hot one that we left off was Hudson House. That's got a cult That's right. The burger is very beloved. And the answer is, yeah, we've tried them all. All that we've said right here. I haven't eaten every burger in Dallas, but I feel like I'm close. It's yeah. There are, and there are some we tried in the past, call it in the past year, and if if we weren't crazy for it, we didn't go back again. But yeah, we looked at all those, and and nostalgia is a really big thing, right? Keller's made the list, Darriette did not. Many people like one of those better than the other, but I think it's for about the same reason. I think it's because they have memories rooted in those places and in those neighborhoods and that's beautiful. I don't know that you can make the argument that one of those burgers is superior to the $26 burger that Evan edged on the list at Walker's. Now, burgers shouldn't cost $26 not all of them at least, and so we wanted the range of pricing, but we also wanted to plan a little bit of that nostalgia. We have a separate list of five classic burger joints and it is all the places that you could think of, you know, that that really deserve to be in a historic list. Such as? Such as Darriette, Keller's I had when I did my favorites, earlier, I had Goffs on there for the for the nostalgia. Now Yeah. Some of the nostalgia is gone since Harvey Goff is not behind the counter, antagonizing you and and ridiculing you. Yeah. That was a lot of the fun. That was a lot of the fun unless you were, On you know the business end of it, yeah. Yeah. Unless you were the eleventh grader from Highland Park High School going in there asking for a milkshake and he said if you want you want that in a bag to go. How many guns are there? Oh. He would I don't know how many there are. I know there's there's one up there at Mockingbird near Yeah, that's the one I've eaten at. And and I had a great burger there and the thing that the the thing about Keller about Hart about Goff's that would have put it on my list for me is it would have been really the only char grilled the char grilled burger that we had. And I like that and when I and they are cooked they are cooked to order. So that was a nostalgia one for me. I'd love to put Prince of Hamburgers on there, but Lord knows that's dear departed and gone for years and years. Burger House is another one that we heard people feel sad that wasn't on our list. And I know a lot of people who were Burger House stalwarts and It's not Evan Steele. I like Burger House more than he does, but I find the patties often to be too seasoned. They have that special seasoning, has a lot of salt in it, which we need that in a burger, but it can go a little too far. So for us we started doing some, you know, this is the hard part, right? It's like, okay, if Burger House and Darriette and Keller's are similar and we think we have room for one inexpensive nostalgic burger, which one is it going to be? And so those, that was a single argument that was had over a host of, you know, arguments over what, you know, what do you buy for? And there were moments where I was like, this this one I'm so passionate about, it has to go on, and there were some that he felt the same way, you know. And the number the number five at Keller's Gosh, so good. Is really, it's a good burger, it's a good drive in burger in particular. Yeah. And it's cheap, man. You know, it's what, 5.95? Yeah, it's 5 and some change right now, but it I remember when it was $2 and some change. But isn't the cheeseburger still only $2? I mean, that the cheeseburger had cheese? I I do think that the number five is one of the more expensive items to your point at $5 and something. Yeah. But you know, I mean, know the number five. You know the number five. I remember I remember going to a Buffett concert at Toyota Stadium, right, and when Jimmy's gonna sing, Cheeseburger in Paradise, he flashes Keller's screen up there and he's talking about the Keller's Burger, you know, because he's had it. And so it lives up to lives up to the history and it is like Sarah said that nostalgia, Like you're at a drive in or you're at a place that your parents took you as a kid. And I think that's worth something for people. Absolutely. If really go to a place like that though, I worry that it's not gonna be as good as it used to be, or as good as I remember it being. No drop off at Keller's? That's a fair thing to wonder. I don't find a drop off at Keller's. I think Keller's is still fantastic. Yeah. Okay? That's good enough for me. Love it. Evan just exposed something that I don't think that we've really said out loud much, which is that in addition to being two people who really love food, we are two people who really love Jimmy Buffett. This is something that Evan and I come together on. My husband is a huge Jimmy Buffett fan, and when I met him in my twenties, he was like, I love to watch Texas A and M football, and I love to go to Jimmy Buffett concerts. And you don't have to do either of those things with me, but I like you and I want you to go. Aw. And I was like, I really, really like parties. And Jimmy Buffett concerts are parties and Texas A and M football tailgates are parties. And so I was like, I don't know anything about either of them. I didn't know about the football part. I didn't know anything other than Margaritaville, but I was like, I'll join you. And that was twenty years ago. And so now I'm probably just as big of a Jimmy Buffett fan. And I've seen Evan at a concert before, and we were we were just spinning Buffett vinyl Now this over the weekend in our house. Oh my god. I I gotta tell I gotta tell this story. Gotta tell. That's something an old person says. Wow. You've seen me at a Jimmy Buffett concert. And No. I don't think I have. You have? Because it was at it was at Fair Park. It was at at that point in time, we were still calling it JENXA? It was before JENXA. Oh, Starplex? It might have been Starplex. It was People in their cars are yelling your name right now. Had just started dating Gina, and I took Gina to her first Jimmy Buffet concert, and Corby grabbed me and put me on the air and asked asked her an inappropriate question on the air. I'm not gonna go back into it because if I reveal that, she'll get mad at Well, now I wanna know. Tell you off here. And so she hates Corby. He's polarizing. What can you do? You know, he's the most polarizing figure in town. But so we I did see you at a Buffett concert It at that was either It's off. Twelve or thirteen. I think I've been to eight Buffett concerts in in town. I am right now more on a on a Springsteen kick. Oh, really? Then then I, you know, I mean, not being able to see Jimmy live anymore. I miss that. And I the Springsteen stuff right now is just I like the harder rockers that that he's cranked out. And it's a I was listening to Badlands on the way over here. You're not gonna see me one of those concerts. It's also the official Springsteen is the official artist of baseball writers. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Because just about every Gen X baseball writer that I know is a fanatic about Yep. Besides he wrote Glory Days. Well yeah. Besides he wrote Glory Days. Yeah. But Kennedy is not a big fan of baseball Jimmy player back in high school. She's seen enough of that. I I Kennedy is not a Bruce Springsteen fan. She's she doesn't have Bruce on her on her top list. But, yes, all the 50 and up somethings, we we gravitate towards Springsteen. Yeah, if you're like us, man, you gotta be card carrying. We just recently had Kennedy on, now we need to have Rebecca on and ask her. Here we go. Yeah, that's right, we do. Kennedy likes all music. I don't think she'd say she hates Springsteen. She likes all music. Just not into them as much as I don't think it's her favorite artist, no. Yeah. Now where does Leah fall on this? Leah and I haven't talked music. Oh. Oh, really? Yeah. I have not talked music with Leah because we're we're always in such different places. I know I know Kevin is a big Steely Dan guy. I know Kalashogg goes through phases and it seems to get younger and younger because first he was a Springsteen guy, then he was a Radiohead Radiohead guy. And now he's a Swifty. What? Ugh. Aren't we all? Oh my goodness. He's a Swifty. Who here isn't? Me. Well, a lot. Oh. I love Taylor Swift's music. I'm just here here's a very proud brag. Oh. I don't think I've ever heard a Taylor Swift show. So be You have? I don't think I have. Why? I don't think I have. Julie literally did a whole segment of Taylor Swift songs. So, you mean when you we've seen you shake it off, Mike. So, you do not have the hot goss on her wedding either? No. No. I don't have the hot goss on her No. Don't. But I'm I'm a fan. But it was it was brought up by Lizzie. Izzy. Not Lizzie. Izzy Yeah. The other day. Yeah. We had Izzy Stein on who breaks down Steely Dan on the regular on social media. She's a wonderful singer and actress, and she brought up because you asked about Yeah. Garden. And and Sean is a big nineties rap guy. And, you know, Sean, like I've spent my whole McFarland? McFarland, yeah. And even though he was like born in 2000. But he also, I spent my whole career like trying to come up with something, some gimmick that like would have some gravity to it, you know, throw a nickname out there, throw some kind of trend, nothing. Sean's on the beat for three years. He had the conversation with Jake Latts. He they Jake is talking about I need a walk up song. He happens to be a nineties rap guy too. The next thing you know, Jake Latts is walking out to Mob Deep Shook Ones, and it was Sean's recommendation. And Jake is, like, citing him for this. I'm so put off by this whole thing. It's traumatizing. Man, I would watch that. That guy's out to get you. He's not your friend. He we have a good team. We, you know, the Dallas Morning News has had great baseball coverage for a long time, me withstanding. But, yeah, Sean and I View the cause of it. Yeah. Please. Before me, there was Fraley. Before me, there was Tracy Ringlesby. There was Tim Kirchner. There was Phil Rogers. Well, they're all great. Randy Gallo. They're all great and you keep it going. Well, thank you. Hopefully, we'll keep it going while right in there. Sell you don't sell yourself short. Do have a do you have a Rangers question before we get out of here? Got one Rangers question? God, I didn't. Now I can't think of what Oh, we we were gonna maybe ask about Mike Maddox being fired by the Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. While the Rangers are playing them. Yeah. So here's the thing I don't get like, I don't understand Mike's a good pitching coach. And I said this on my live stream earlier today that what he is great at is gaining the confidence of starting pitchers and giving them confidence. And that is an underrated skill. He is not a big technology guy, although he he watches a lot of video, but the now now technology is biomechanics and and all the underlying metrics and those kinds of things. He's not big on that. And so, you know, I don't want to say that the game has passed him by it certainly hasn't. He's a productive guy. What I don't get though is I've not seen the affinity for a coaching figure in DFW that I see for for Mike even when he's gone. I think I would agree with that. It's it's it it it you know, well, still lives here in the off season and people see him around and talk to him and he's got a really good funny one line delivery and I think people warm up to that. But I think the Rangers have fine pitching coaches right now. And I think that Jordan Teagues and in that group are a great next step for where this club is going. Teagues worked with Leiter, Rocker, Lats, Cody Bradford, all in the minor leagues. He developed that rapport and that relationship with those guys at an early age. And so I think he's positioned and he is a superstar in the, he's considered a young superstar in the pitching coach industry or sub industry. And he's come up through this organization? Yeah. Yeah. So I feel bad for Mike. I don't because I don't know that Mike will coach again. I think he wanted to get to 65. I was surprised a little bit that he took a one year deal with Anaheim this year, but maybe he wanted to get one more year in him. But Anaheim is a place where people go to fail. It's just what it is. I mean, it is. It's a and this is why if the Rangers missed the playoffs by one game, probably I will look to last night's game, Tuesday's game, as the single most frustrating loss because they're playing the Angels who have the worst record in the league, who just fired all of their pitching coaches, who were starting and I don't want to make fun of Ryan Johnson. He's a Dallas kid, but starting a kid who was making, you know, he's made a handful of starts, but he was clearly struggling in the first thing and looked out of gas on the mound and they still can only manage two runs in that game. And that was just frustrating. Yeah. Where's Tiggs coming from? I know I know very little about him. Well, he he's Canadian, but he worked his way up through the Ranger system. I mean, has worked at every level of the Ranger system and I think Jordan's 38, I think he's still a young enough guy. But what I really like is, you know, you've got this marriage of a guy who already has a good relationship with what you think is the core of your rotation going forward. And you've got a guy who also is well versed in pitch in biomechanics, in data and speaks the language more and more. I mean, you get pitchers now, particularly the college pitchers that come through, those SEC programs are all really heavy on data and biomechanics. And so those kids like Leiter had Leiter's fluent in that and that's how he wants to be instructed. So it gives him a tool that I think makes him a really good fit and it's, you know, it is good to see a Rangers pitching coach that came up through the organization and who does have some roots here and some some investment in in these young kids. I'm very frustrated with Kumar. Togged me down. What what are you frustrated about? What what like, what's your chief frustration? Is it are are are you frustrated about the fielding thing, or are you frustrated about the inconsistency? Both. Both of those things. And the main thing is I just get the vibe off of him that he doesn't really love baseball. He is a hard one to get to know, and I I have struggled to get to know him. And the body language is not is not great. He was That can be though. If he was successful, then the body language would come across like he is intimidating, know, he's emotionless. And so I think he's got to find his ground. I think the biggest thing with with Kumar on the pitching side is he's got to find confidence in a third pitch because he becomes too predictable. The Rangers thought they finally had a breakthrough with the change up, which has become a splitter in the last couple of months and last three starts. He's completely pocketed it. The fielding stuff I thought after the incident last year where he didn't cover first base twice against Tampa Bay and then forgot there was a runner on third base and got sent down. I think he's really made progress from that and I think he has for the most part covered first base really well this year. That was a bad slip up, know, and this is a independent race and this is a team that doesn't have much margin for error. So it was a really bad look. What I will say is he took complete accountability for it after the game. And from our from my perspective, that's all you can do in the aftermath, right? Is take accountability for it. Yeah. You know, we'll see how the next ground ball to first base goes, but it was it was a bad look, but I give him credit for for, you know, saying it was a bad mistake. Alright, in closing, and in five words or less, question for each of you. Sarah? Yeah. The one burger we've got to get down on. Pressure's on. I know, like burgers so much. That's not my five words. That was seven, isn't it? Oh no. Because we haven't said it yet, the burger you've got to get down on is at Rodeo Bar in Downtown Dallas. Oh, yes, baby. The big Tex, right? The best use of sneaky onions is was our superlative. There were some caramelized onions hidden in that burger that were to die for. Is that a concurring that we hear from you? That's a, well, is that my question too? Yeah, that's your question too. Give the people something else. Prefer a different answer, but if you gotta concur, you gotta concur. Well, will say this. So, you gotta do this one. Yes. But no, I'm gonna give it to you. You can't do that, it's five words. I don't care, rules don't apply to me. I respect We don't care about numbers It's not like we're gonna call the police on you or anything. Tried to play by the rules. Neighborhood services, yeah, know, but I'm a rule breaker. I'm a renegade. You can tell by He is. Neighborhood services, since they opened in 2008, that burger has always been a premier burger. And again, it goes back to the same thing. Quality meat, quality ingredients, perfectly cooked, You know, when they serve it, presented already sliced in half, so you see a nice juicy hot center. And we've done just about every family event that you could have at Neighborhood Services. That's where I got engaged. That's where I had my rehearsal dinner. So that burger was always available at those events. Secondly, I have to mention Rodeo Goat since Sarah jogged my memory. Rodeo Goat, since, you know, I, you know, not everybody has a burger named after them, even if it's a seasonal burger. I don't have one named after me. I'll just put that out there. Named after you, Shuby. But No. Not me. I don't either. No. But the Evan Grant burger, when it's around during baseball season, is fantastic. And it's my like, it's my the one in the Design District is my neighborhood go to and, whether you have the Royale with Cheese, they've I think they've got the best menu of burgers because they've got like 14 varieties, but the Royale with Cheese is a classic. The now, my the Bodacious is a favorite. It's got jalapenos on it, grilled fresh jalapenos, onion strings, and bacon. And then they have a new burger called that they they came up with some collaboration with Levi's and they have this blue jean burger that has blue cheese on it. Oh, And it's got the and and they've I I don't know how Shannon Wynn did this with Levi's, but they've got they've got this collaboration with Levi's, and it's a really good burger. That's the weirdest collaboration I've ever heard. Yes. What can I say? But it's my neighborhood. Replace the meat with denim or what? Like you gotta put on your pants. Denim pocket. Give you a pair of pants afterwards? I would love that actually. I think Levi's are good jeans while we're on it. But that that's that's my neighborhood spot. And I, you know, I I love the I love the folks over there. I love the location. And they have a great queso too, which we are gonna try. Yep. I I do I have a question. Yep. Do did you consider or worry about chains that might not be consistent in every location? Yes. So much worry about so many things to answer that. Yes. And if we picked a place with more than one location, we thought about whether the other ones were good. There's not a lot of chains on this list. And to me, they're all micro chains where you can manage quality control pretty well. Right? I mean, I think you run into that more when you get into Whataburger or or In N Out, although In N Out does a great job with with quality control. Also, a a fast food burger the Shake Shack burger is the best of the fast foods in my opinion. Better than what better than In N Out, sorry. And eons above Whataburger. And I said it here. I'm sorry about The In N Out burger the In N Out burger remains the standard for all fast food burgers, especially when you ask them to do it animal style with no tomato. In N Out in Texas is nothing like In N Out in California, and I don't eat it here. I I had it yesterday. Nice. We said we were gonna stop eating burgers, and here we are eating burgers. The one the one qualifier on on what you just asked is there were chefs who have multiple restaurants and multiple concepts, and we did wanna limit it that each chef got a burger, but not Everyone else. We didn't put Alamo Club and Goodwin's on. Yeah. We didn't put National Anthem and Neighborhood services. Yeah. What's what's the brass brass ram. We didn't put brass ram on there because we wanted one burger and we wanted to get mass representation for for chefs who were working on these burgers or mom and pop places. So that was the one qualifier on that. But in terms of quality control, I don't think we went anywhere that's got outside of Rodeo Goats got like 11 locations. It's the That's the biggest one. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Have one more question. Okay. Because I can't believe that he did not ask it. Uh-oh. But Herbie's Uh-oh. I've never heard of Herbie's. And I wanna know about this taco cheese thing. Alright. Chopped cheese. So Are you familiar with the chopped cheese? I'm not. I'm not familiar. I, like, I I mean, I read the review. I read this article in a came out. Thanks. So but I was so puzzled. So let me little taco looking thing that you had in the photo. Totally. So you tell them how we got to the chopped cheese then I'll explain the whole chopped cheese then. Sure. So we went to Herbie's to eat their smash burgers. And I think Herbie's is a great restaurant and I've loved their smash burgers. In our experience more recently, their smash burgers were were a little bit sad looking and there were just other smash burgers in town that were inarguably better in our tastings. And so, you know, we went all the way there and I was almost sure it was a contender for the list and then the smash burger just didn't hold up. They were doing a chopped cheese and I made sure it wasn't a special cause that doesn't help, right? If I tell you that there's something great at a restaurant and you're like, cool, I can only go every other Tuesday or only in March or something, right? And so they have this chopped cheese that they've put on the permanent menu and we ordered it like totally on a lark. And Evan and I, you know, tried the smash burger. We're like, oh gosh, I thought that was gonna be better. And then we got into the chopped cheese and we both were like, woah, this thing is so good, but it is absolutely not a cheeseburger. So it's like, what do you do with that? You know, it can just go off the list, right? It's it's maybe not that much different than just ordering something else and being like, oh, that's a side thing that we're eating. But it's burger meat in there. And so we we loved it. So, Evan, what's a chopped cheese? So, yeah, a a chopped cheese is more of a Philly New York thing. And so it's, you know, it is basically, chopped up lettuce, chopped up ground beef, a lot of chopped cheese, and ours had jalapeno. And I don't know if jalapeno is a regular on the New York Philly run. So that was the twist that made it Well, and in a hoagie. It doesn't And it's look always served in a hoagie. It doesn't look like a cheeseburger. In your hands? It doesn't. Yeah. You pick it up just like a Philly cheesesteak. Yeah. Yeah. In because a a hoagie. But it literally like, in the photo, was like, is that It's like if it Right. It's like if a cheesesteak and a burger had a child. That's basically what it is. But this this thing It's all chocolate. Carby's. You gotta go and try it. It was so delicious. And then it had, well, we might be funny about lettuce, right, this second? But it had this really beautiful, like, thicker, leafy green. So you got, you know, the crunch from not shreddest, but but a piece of lettuce? The the texture on it was just really, really beautiful. And we were blown away It by was like from the first bite, I was like, oh, no. We gotta figure out how to put that on the list. And so we added it as a bonus. So I'm not those of you out there who are like a chopped cheese is not a cheeseburger, I know that, but we decided it belonged because of the the ingredients are It a came also after this con conversation we had. Sarah's a big patty melt person. She loves patty melts. I did. And we were like, does patty melt qualify? Well, yeah, patty melt could qualify, but then we've got we've got to try a bunch of patty melts because there are a decent number in town. This was so unique to Dallas, this chopped cheese, that we thought this makes for an interesting, unique category all to its own. Yep. So Herbie's is in Oak Cliff if anybody wants to go. Just check their hours because they can be a little funny on which days they're available. We're in Oak Cliff. I'm a fan. Elmwood? Yes. Oh, yeah. Elmwood. Okay. Yep. Highly recommend. That's a nice little area. I like Elmwood. We have one question. Uh-oh. Okay. The birds Is this from the masses? Yeah. Alright. Alright. Masses. Edgefield? What? Herbie's. Edgefield. What's the question? Oh, I said Elmwood. Well, now I'm worried I don't have it. I think it's on Edgefield. Okay. Sarah's gotta go. If I said Edgefield, it's Edgefield. Okay. No. The question is, the burger at this sushi place, is it cooked anywhere where it can touch fish, and do they put soy in it? The the answer to this person's questions is I don't know. I would guess that there is a soy like product involved, and I I don't know about the cooking arrangements. I would guess I mean, the the kimchi burger, I would probably think has some soy added to it. I think when you're talking about a sushi place and you're talking about sushi chefs, there's probably not any cross contamination would be my would be my guess. I mean It's a good guess, but Yeah. It's more an issue of this person having fish touch their food Yep. Because they don't want fish. But, yeah, I I mean, I it looked not sure, to be really honest. That little tiny kitchen I'm glad you asked that question, Mike. That little tiny kitchen looked So very very I I I don't I don't know, but I don't think there would be any touching of the spicy tuna to the burger. Well, I mean, the the majority of the fish is gonna be raw. Yeah. So, I mean And the burger's cooked. It's not a sushi burger. It's a cooked burger. Yeah. Let's keep it that way. Yeah. Alright. She is Sarah Blazkovich. Hey. He is Evan Grant. Hey. They are both of the Dallas Morning News. They are two of our favorite people on the planet. Thanks, guys. Damn right. And it has been wonderful having both of you on. It's wonderful having you on separately or together. We'll take you however we can get you. Mhmm. Thanks very much for doing this. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks for having us again. Thanks for thanks for entertaining us on on burgers. I we didn't bore anybody. Nah. Nah. Don't think had a good time. Good topic. I don't think so. Yes. No. Alright. That is it for Little YDC today. Thank you, Shoopy. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Becca. Thank you for being by the channel or whatever it is you're by out there. Remember, we would love it if you would share us on your social media. Get us out there. Spread the words. Tell a friend. Whatever that that thing you do is, do it for us, and we will keep doing this for you. Till next time. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. 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