00:00:56.63 Stan Lemon Jonathan, I'm afraid that our podcast is just going to become a thing about food and wine.
00:01:05.18 Jon Is there a problem there?
00:01:07.42 Stan Lemon Well, then I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about this because you know i just took a trip. You just had guests. And the thing that's on my mind is I want to know what you cooked because I heard it was good.
00:01:19.10 Stan Lemon And I want to tell you about the things I ate. right And so here we are looking at another, let's say, 60 or 70 minutes where we're going to talk about food and wine.
00:01:28.92 Jon so Does it work that way if you are doing it in 10s?
00:01:33.43 Stan Lemon I don't know. I'm sure one of the the little people in my household will will tell me whether or not I did it right.
00:01:35.03 Jon Okay.
00:01:40.35 Stan Lemon I probably didn't. Yeah.
00:01:42.50 Jon But that's kind of the goal. um
00:01:44.46 Stan Lemon That's kind of the goal. That's absolutely kind of the goal
00:01:46.24 Jon So I have a hypothesis that um based on the people I know who have listened to the podcast or listen to the podcast regularly, um I think food and wine conversation would probably be more warmly accepted than ai conversation.
00:02:03.35 Stan Lemon ah Well, we're definitely not getting away from the AI conversation tonight either. So buckle folks. But look, on the on the right side, it's not another Marvel podcast.
00:02:12.45 Jon It's not another Marvel podcast in our second era. We still have not had a milkshake review, which seems like a problem.
00:02:19.51 Stan Lemon we We have not, and I agree, we should we should resolve that. But I would like to figure out a strategy for milkshake era too. Because I feel like, first of all, it doesn't really fit with my dietary constraints these days, right?
00:02:33.43 Jon True. It didn't really before either, but...
00:02:35.80 Stan Lemon It didn't really before. ah But let's just let's just be clear. i i weigh myself every day and I can tell you exactly when we were in the milkshick milkshake run. right like i can i have a graph that shows when we were rapidly testing milkshakes.
00:02:52.76 Jon Yes, but I did come across this YouTube channel where there's a Milkshake Monday and he's making some pretty cool craft milkshakes.
00:03:01.33 Stan Lemon Don't you just want to hug that guy? Like I watched that video and and I just, I wanted to give him a hug.
00:03:02.95 Jon Yes.
00:03:05.69 Stan Lemon He just seems like that type of type of the old man, right? Where he just needs a hug. So, okay.
00:03:11.23 Jon Absolutely.
00:03:13.21 Stan Lemon So, uh, I'm trying to find here as I understand it this last weekend, cause I get, i get updates not from you, but we'll talk about that later. You made chicken fillies and pizza this weekend.
00:03:25.10 Jon Yes.
00:03:25.88 Stan Lemon Okay. I don't know what a chicken Philly is. i think this is probably like grilled cheese, but John's version. And what I mean by that is there's a thing called a Philly. It does not involve chicken.
00:03:36.94 Jon Correct.
00:03:37.11 Stan Lemon And if you just check, if you just tack Philly onto the end of it, it does not necessarily make it a Philly, but let's go with it.
00:03:43.85 Jon Okay. ah So chicken Philly is, i don't know, like you can find them um on menu somewhere. But yes, it uses chicken and it is not a Philly cheesesteak, but it's chicken, peppers, green and red, onion, garlic, seasoning.
00:04:03.85 Jon And you melt some cheese on top.
00:04:03.90 Stan Lemon Okay, so it's it's a chicken cheese sandwich with peppers.
00:04:07.94 Jon Yeah, sure.
00:04:08.89 Stan Lemon Okay, so why do you call it a Philly?
00:04:09.17 Jon Sure.
00:04:11.51 Jon Because it's everything else is the same as a Philly, except, well, I don't use Cheez Whiz, so it's not a true Philadelphia cheesesteak.
00:04:19.45 Stan Lemon Yeah, see, here we go.
00:04:23.73 Jon Because that's what the robots told me to call it, Stan.
00:04:27.00 Stan Lemon Okay.
00:04:27.07 Jon That's what it comes down to.
00:04:27.24 Stan Lemon All right. I think that a Philly cheesesteak requires griddled ribeye.
00:04:36.13 Jon I did not have that.
00:04:37.50 Stan Lemon Okay. Well, and it like by calling it a chicken Philly, of course you do not.
00:04:40.92 Jon So it's basically like a chopped chicken sandwich with peppers.
00:04:41.66 Stan Lemon But-
00:04:46.52 Stan Lemon Okay, so let's call it that because because here's the thing, right? I think when you say i ate a Philly, you don't say I ate a griddled ribeye steak Philly, right? You just say I ate Philly because the griddled ribeye steak, that's that's a given.
00:04:59.77 Stan Lemon if you If you have to say chicken Philly, like I think you're actually saying the thing I'm making is not a Philly, but but I want to conjure up an image in your head that looks like a Philly except for the main ingredient,
00:05:13.09 Jon Right.
00:05:13.98 Stan Lemon Okay. And just as far as the cheese goes, like we should talk about this. So on the streets of Philadelphia, Cheez Whiz, that's the thing. My understanding, and I am not from Philadelphia, I have been there, but I am not from there, ah is that provolone, and sometimes under certain circumstances, American, which is a distant cousin of Cheez Whiz, is acceptable. So my question to you, sir, is what what did you use for your cheese?
00:05:41.23 Jon I used provol.
00:05:42.62 Stan Lemon Use privilege. All right. Okay. All right. So at least I had did that going for it. And I would assume, unless you're a complete crazy man, that you were using like an Italian roll, right?
00:05:53.36 Jon Yeah, they're just called hoagie rolls.
00:05:54.74 Stan Lemon hoagie roll.
00:05:55.48 Jon Yeah.
00:05:55.70 Stan Lemon Hoagie rolls.
00:05:55.80 Jon yeah
00:05:56.22 Stan Lemon Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So a little little bit of like a tough crustiness on the outside, but nice fluffy in the middle.
00:06:03.06 Jon Yep. I threw them under the broiler for five minutes.
00:06:03.96 Stan Lemon Okay.
00:06:06.42 Jon Some nice little toast on them too.
00:06:06.94 Stan Lemon All right. And so so you said peppers and onions, right?
00:06:11.85 Jon Yeah, I used peppers, onions. Did I throw anything else in there? I don't remember.
00:06:18.07 Stan Lemon not to Not to split hairs with you, because I wouldn't do that.
00:06:20.64 Jon Cause that's not what the last three minutes
00:06:21.14 Stan Lemon But
00:06:25.21 Stan Lemon my understanding is that onions are the requirement. Peppers are the optional.
00:06:30.16 Jon Okay.
00:06:32.02 Stan Lemon just Just so you know. right so yeah like
00:06:33.43 Jon I've never been to Philadelphia. um So I use both.
00:06:35.32 Stan Lemon If I were you, what i would what I would probably say is, I made a sandwich that slightly resembles a Philly. because it involved a hoagie and provolone cheese.
00:06:48.73 Stan Lemon And then i I diced some chicken on it and added optional peppers.
00:06:54.95 Jon Or Stan, you come visit, I'll make them for you, and then you won't care what they're called.
00:06:59.51 Stan Lemon Okay, so this, we're gonna get to that in just a minute because I had a revelation as I was getting a full report of food at your house over the weekend. You made pizza. Can you tell me a little bit about pizza?
00:07:09.23 Jon I made a pizza. Which I was not expecting to make pizza, um but it ended up being the thing that we did, so
00:07:17.53 Stan Lemon Okay, and was it good?
00:07:19.04 Jon It was good. i I've been trying to channel my inner Stan and make pizza night a ritual in my house. um I have not gone to all the science of perfecting my pizza recipe like you have over the years, but that time may come.
00:07:32.73 Jon um
00:07:33.36 Stan Lemon Wait, wait, whose recipe are you using?
00:07:33.42 Jon So. So for the dough i use, it is called the easiest pizza you'll ever make off of King Arthur flour.
00:07:44.74 Stan Lemon Oh, sweet God. All right, well, Hold on, easiest pizza dough you'll ever, you'll um I'm looking this up.
00:07:53.35 Jon So I just use that to make the dough. I don't really follow any of the other instructions about how to bake it.
00:08:00.40 Stan Lemon Does add sugar? Are you freaking kidding me? You put sugar in your pizza dough?
00:08:05.41 Jon I do, actually. It's what, like 10 grams of sugar?
00:08:07.56 Stan Lemon All right, and you use unbleached all-purpose flour?
00:08:12.42 Jon I do.
00:08:13.37 Stan Lemon This will not do for me. This will not do. Okay.
00:08:15.56 Jon Sorry, Stan.
00:08:15.57 Stan Lemon All right. i Listen, i'm that's it. We're going to call it an episode.
00:08:20.62 Jon I am fairly certain.
00:08:20.91 Stan Lemon We're seven minutes in. We're done. We're done.
00:08:23.87 Jon I'm fairly certain that I would never make pizza for you, Stanley.
00:08:29.02 Stan Lemon Okay. All right.
00:08:29.73 Jon I got up the courage.
00:08:29.91 Stan Lemon seems great This is it.
00:08:31.74 Jon I got up the courage to take you for pizza once um because I thought it was a good pie. And if I remember correctly, you said it was acceptable.
00:08:42.27 Stan Lemon but ah Forgive me, because it was not a memorable thing, apparently. Where did we where did we go? i don't remember where we went.
00:08:48.55 Jon We went to a place called Zoe's and they had Chicago style deep dish.
00:08:56.03 Stan Lemon This was in Cedar Rapids?
00:08:57.82 Jon It's in Marion. I'm pretty sure that you were there. Small place.
00:09:01.88 Stan Lemon I don't think that... No, John. Nope, I've never been there. this You're making this up. I have never been there.
00:09:09.06 Jon This would have been when you visited me after i bought my house.
00:09:09.08 Stan Lemon i Listen...
00:09:16.97 Stan Lemon Nope. Nope. Didn't go there.
00:09:20.21 Stan Lemon I'm confident we didn't go there.
00:09:22.80 Jon OK.
00:09:23.78 Stan Lemon All right.
00:09:24.09 Jon Are you sure?
00:09:24.18 Stan Lemon All right. Listen, there's got to be a selfie if if we were there.
00:09:30.28 Jon if we were there?
00:09:30.78 Stan Lemon And I don't, yeah, and i don't I don't think there's a selfie.
00:09:31.07 Jon OK.
00:09:32.90 Stan Lemon So you look, you tell me, you if you find it, like I'll recant, but I'm pretty sure. And here's the thing too. Like I have a, I have a, ah um what's it called? When you've got a picture perfect memory, I got a picture perfect memory about pizza. So much so that this weekend, ah I knew the corner for Dewey's and I called it out before I saw the sign.
00:09:56.58 Stan Lemon Dewey's, it's probably, it's probably going Dewey's, Dewey's Pizzeria in in downtown Chicago. Like I've got that because I remember exactly how that pizza tasted when I was there. All right.
00:10:05.94 Jon interesting we'll to figure out what we did on that first uh trip out here
00:10:06.30 Stan Lemon okay Okay.
00:10:10.78 Stan Lemon Way too many martinis.
00:10:13.44 Jon no we did um we did negroni's yeah and milkshakes i served the negroni in the martini glass i don't know why either
00:10:14.88 Stan Lemon Negroni's. Negroni's. was Negroni's. But you served them in a martini glass and milkshakes. All right. Yeah, you did. i I don't know why, but you absolutely did.
00:10:25.81 Stan Lemon I think you were running out of glasses. Maybe you're running out glasses. Okay. So so here's my revelation. As I was getting the report from my spy, right, about what was going on in the Kohlmeyer house this weekend, as far as food was concerned, I realized that I don't think
00:10:38.59 Jon Hey, you should call out that he ah the so chose me over sticking around to hang out with you.
00:10:45.98 Stan Lemon False, false. He did not. He chose your daughter, which i when he explained it to me, I told him was acceptable and and I would, I would honor his choice and I would not bring it up again.
00:10:57.37 Stan Lemon Right. So i'm not, I'm not going to talk about it on the podcast because I told him, i told him that I would not make a big deal out of it because I understood the decision-making.
00:10:58.92 Jon so I brought it up.
00:11:05.80 Stan Lemon All right. I would choose, like if I were someone else and I knew how amazing I was, I would still choose your daughter over, over me. right.
00:11:18.75 Stan Lemon but here's the revelation. i still, like, here we are. I've been trying to get this out for like five minutes now.
00:11:21.59 Jon Yes. Revelation.
00:11:23.33 Stan Lemon I don't think you've ever cooked for me.
00:11:25.80 Stan Lemon Oh, i like dear listener, there is a stumped look on John's face as he is processing time. He is traversing the multiverse, trying to identify that point in which he believes that he cooked for me.
00:11:37.70 Jon No, I'm thinking, i don't know that I have, if I have cooked for you.
00:11:41.47 Stan Lemon You have not.
00:11:41.69 Jon Anna cooked for you.
00:11:43.26 Stan Lemon Anna's cooked for me. She cooked pepperkosh. I remember that. It was delicious. I don't remember you ever cooking for me.
00:11:52.28 Jon Maybe I haven't, Stan.
00:11:53.92 Stan Lemon I've cooked for you, Jonathan.
00:11:55.55 Jon You have.
00:11:56.73 Stan Lemon I've cooked for you many times.
00:11:58.92 Jon I visited you more times than you visited me.
00:12:01.14 Stan Lemon Well, so I reflected on this too. ay There are boring places in the Midwest, right? I would number Indianapolis amongst them.
00:12:09.43 Jon Yes.
00:12:12.17 Stan Lemon Iowa may be a tad too boring for me.
00:12:16.50 Stan Lemon No offense to those who live and love in Iowa.
00:12:17.93 Jon Right.
00:12:20.82 Stan Lemon I am also, like just to be clear, I'm coming from having spent a weekend in Chicago, which is the greatest city in the world. And ah it it left me feeling a little little homesick.
00:12:34.99 Stan Lemon And I don't usually say that because I don't usually talk about Chicago as home anymore, 20 years removed.
00:12:38.55 Jon Right.
00:12:39.67 Stan Lemon But I really do like that place.
00:12:41.21 Jon Two different states. so
00:12:42.91 Stan Lemon Yeah, yeah. Hey, I see you're drinking a glass of wine. What are you drinking?
00:12:46.67 Jon So my in-laws came and they brought me as I...
00:12:50.93 Stan Lemon If you say this is my lord, I'm hanging up right now.
00:12:51.40 Jon move away Move away from... No, it's not Malart. So apparently they did like this virtual wine tasting fundraiser thing. um So there's what?
00:13:02.47 Jon Six of them. They come in these little single glass servings. So the one that I poured is a Salis Salentino Rosa Reserva 2020.
00:13:15.35 Stan Lemon Oh, interesting.
00:13:15.90 Jon And are you?
00:13:16.01 Stan Lemon So is it Spanish?
00:13:17.67 Jon It's Italian.
00:13:19.48 Stan Lemon Okay.
00:13:20.30 Jon Salentino?
00:13:21.64 Stan Lemon Valentino, Rosso. Okay. All right.
00:13:23.30 Jon Arjun Proteta.
00:13:24.75 Stan Lemon Roja would be Spanish. I don't know what I'm thinking. Rosso. Okay. So it's an Italian blend. Do we know anything else about it?
00:13:31.04 Jon um It's drinkable. It is 2020. we don't.
00:13:39.18 Jon no we don't
00:13:41.48 Stan Lemon right, well, I suggest you ask ChatGPT. That's not a segue into AI, but I just suggest you do it. um I am at this moment drinking 2022 Bordeaux. I actually didn't write down the Chateau before I came into the room, so I can't say much more about it other than it's delightful.
00:14:01.28 Jon So Solis Salentino is a renowned Italian DOC. c
00:14:06.11 Jon Puglia.
00:14:07.60 Stan Lemon Oh, Puglia. I love Puglia. You know how I feel about Puglia wines.
00:14:12.44 Jon Yes. ah as it say Red wine's based on the Negro Moro grape.
00:14:22.21 Stan Lemon Oh, and you said it's it's drinkable. That's the best issue you could come up with?
00:14:27.57 Jon I mean, it's... Honestly, a little on fruit forward side for me.
00:14:33.16 Stan Lemon Oh, that is interesting because Puglia, mean, most wines I've gotten from Puglia have been through the Wall Street Journal. They've been just very um balanced, not overly fruity and enjoyable. so
00:14:47.35 Jon I think I'm looking for more acid.
00:14:50.52 Stan Lemon Oh, interesting. And why is that?
00:14:53.21 Jon um like I feel like that's what's out of balance.
00:14:58.64 Stan Lemon Okay. All right. Well, um I am told by the robots that the Bordeaux I'm drinking is sold as an affordable, everyday Bordeaux superior. It's not classified as growth or a famous chateau, which means...
00:15:13.29 Stan Lemon So in in Bordeaux, if you're not growth and if you're not famous chateau, then you're basically like the Aldi version of of Bordeaux wine, but it's still Bordeaux wine. Yeah.
00:15:22.91 Jon still order wine, which puts you better than 98% of US s produced wines.
00:15:24.36 Stan Lemon Yeah.
00:15:28.36 Stan Lemon Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's Merlot dominant, which I'm enjoying. It's, it's got a nice, nice dryness to it. Um, yeah. Medium body, moderate tannins, uh, definitely not acidic, pretty clean to be honest with you.
00:15:41.40 Stan Lemon So, um, I'm enjoying it, but.
00:15:42.97 Jon I did order my next ah wine kit to take through the fermentation process, and it is a Chilean Merlot.
00:15:43.43 Stan Lemon Yeah.
00:15:52.88 Stan Lemon Oh, all right. All right. I look forward to partaking of that. I still have a few of your bottles on my rack.
00:15:58.23 Jon you know, and in a year.
00:16:02.07 Stan Lemon I think I need to like i need drink that Pinot if I remember right. Anyhow.
00:16:06.63 Jon There you go
00:16:06.83 Stan Lemon All right, Jonathan. ah Can tell you a little bit about my food experience?
00:16:11.96 Jon go. Sure.
00:16:13.26 Stan Lemon So I get to Chicago, right? I get to the Chicagoland area. My mom lives just outside the city. um Oh, actually, I should be back up. So my sweet daughter, my oldest, is learning how to drive.
00:16:25.63 Jon Both of your daughters are sweet. Thank you very much.
00:16:27.40 Stan Lemon they They are, yes, but my oldest, sweetest daughter, learning how to drive. She 16. She is approaching the time when she can get get her license. She has to have a certain number of hours accrued.
00:16:39.20 Stan Lemon She's had the daytime driving done for a long time. The evening hours have been a little slower to accrue. Most of the driving we do at night, it's like 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there. Like it's not a lot. So it takes a while to add up, right?
00:16:51.97 Stan Lemon And as we were driving up to Chicago, we stopped, you know, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 south of Maryville on I-65 in Indiana. And I said, Lucy, why don't you take over?
00:17:03.53 Stan Lemon She had two hours and 15 minutes left of her evening driving and she managed to close two hours. She has never driven for for an hour. like nonstop, let alone two hours.
00:17:14.24 Jon Nice.
00:17:14.50 Stan Lemon And to be clear, she did the I-65 to 94 merge, you know, 90, 80, 94, 80, like that, that chunk until it splits to 294. And then she took 294 around the suburbs.
00:17:25.68 Stan Lemon And if she did it at night on a Thursday in rush hour. We hit, we hit that area around 545, right?
00:17:30.98 Jon crazy
00:17:33.93 Stan Lemon So, right so Some might say this was insane. Some might say this was stupid. But I'll tell you what, she did fantastic. And I kept my cool.
00:17:46.41 Stan Lemon So like everybody was, it's so funny.
00:17:48.66 Jon hols
00:17:48.77 Stan Lemon we We parked, everybody in the car is more impressed with me than they are with Lucy because I didn't freak out, right? and And like, you know, aye I'll take it. I'll take the win. But she did a really good job.
00:18:01.10 Stan Lemon And that, I cannot think of anything else that is trial by fire like that.
00:18:06.25 Jon For sure. The only thing that could have ah made it worse was during snow
00:18:11.72 Stan Lemon Oh, I would not have thought would not do that.
00:18:14.60 Jon So um it's been it's been a long time since I've driven through Chicago, but I remember ah that generally the Chicago drivers were at least more observant than the Milwaukee drivers.
00:18:29.11 Jon um So yes, they might cut in front of you leaving an inch and a half to spare, but they know that they can fit there.
00:18:29.68 Stan Lemon Oh, that's true. Yes.
00:18:37.45 Stan Lemon Yes. yeah Yeah, No, you're absolutely right. So, and and funny enough, I made it up to Milwaukee this weekend. So i was able to compare Indianapolis drivers um with Chicago drivers with Milwaukee drivers. and And I'll tell you what I told Lucy, which is, look, in Indianapolis, you have to drive defensively because people are too stupid. So they will kill you out of stupidity, right? Right.
00:18:59.24 Stan Lemon On the road in Chicago, nobody dies on accident. It's on purpose. Chicago drivers are trying to kill you. And you're right. Like if they see a little spot, they will fit into that spot, right?
00:19:09.74 Stan Lemon And and they they do it with purpose and forethought. And it is incredible to watch. I mean, it is absolutely art, right?
00:19:17.96 Jon As long as you just remain consistent, you're going be fine in Chicago.
00:19:22.95 Stan Lemon And that's the kicker, consistency, right? I kept telling her, like, look, you can't, if the speed limit is 65 and you set a speed limit of 70, you do not get to oscillate between 67 and 73. That's how you die, right?
00:19:35.47 Stan Lemon If you just stay at 70. Every one of these jokers on the road in Chicago is perfect at geometry and they will know exactly where to go and when to get there. It is, it is incredible. And it like, you can, you can watch someone cross four lanes of traffic and and zigzag between people in ways that no one ever dreamed possible, but it's, there's nothing, there's nothing accidental about it. It is, it is the most intentional thing I've ever seen in my life.
00:20:02.60 Stan Lemon Now, going to,
00:20:02.74 Jon I had a similar experience um in Southern California where like, hey, they have to be good drivers there. Otherwise, they will die.
00:20:13.02 Jon um So like, yes, they're paying attention and they know where they can fit and they know what they're going to do and they're consistent about it.
00:20:13.68 Stan Lemon Right. Yeah.
00:20:20.87 Stan Lemon it's um It's a different world, man. It is is absolutely different world. And I found myself after I started driving, you know like we get there, we do a bunch of stuff. we'll We'll talk more about that. But if I started driving, like snapping into my old ways, right? And then like I'm doing the geometry and I'm doing the crazy math and figuring out physics that that like shouldn't shouldn't actually happen in the multiverse. And so...
00:20:44.75 Stan Lemon it It was just, ah I don't know. I like it. There's magic. Now, I wish i wish I'd had my Subaru instead of the Odyssey because Subaru's got a little bit of a kick to it.
00:20:56.56 Stan Lemon And i think I think I would enjoy driving on the expressways with my Subaru. Maybe more than I should, but I think I would. i think I would. So... um So the, with Lucy driving in, right, two hours nonstop, we were supposed to get dinner. Now, if you've made it north of Merrillville, you know that between Merrillville and really like, gosh, I don't know, probably 10 miles into the state of Illinois, there's not a lot of options to stop. And it's really just like McDonald's, right? At that, like there's there's just not a lot of convenient places to get off the road and go grab a quick bite. And so, ah
00:21:33.26 Stan Lemon you know about an hour and 15 minutes in, I was like, you know what i should We should just call my mom and have my mom order some pizza, like see if she's had dinner yet. And if she hasn't, we'll order pizza. We'll get the house, right?
00:21:43.53 Stan Lemon Which is which is a very Chicagoan thing to do. Like, hey, I'm coming. Can you order pizza? We'll be there 45 minutes, blah, blah, blah, right? So she does.
00:21:49.30 Jon Yep. Sure.
00:21:50.65 Stan Lemon Closest place to the house is Rosati's. I think Rosati's most a suburb thing. I don't i don't think there's Rosati's downtown. But it's tavern-style pizza, right? And it's salty and crunchy and just really, really good. So I started my trip with the pizza that Chicagoans eat every Friday. Granted, Thursday, but you know every Friday, right?
00:22:11.76 Stan Lemon And um you would think like from there it can only go downhill, but it only got better, Jonathan. It only got better.
00:22:20.30 Jon All right, tell me more.
00:22:21.87 Stan Lemon So ah what do you know about Michelin star restaurants?
00:22:26.41 Jon um That they are high quality restaurants awarded by a company that makes tires.
00:22:34.73 Stan Lemon Makes tires. yeah, yeah So the the legend, the story as it were, is that the Michelin brothers were trying to figure out ways that people could burn through tires faster. It's a marketing gig, right?
00:22:45.41 Stan Lemon And so if they if they created a guide that was like, go check out these places, people would use up tires quicker and thus need more tires, right?
00:22:45.43 Jon Yep.
00:22:54.34 Stan Lemon this is We're talking like 1920s, 1930s, like that that type of era, right?
00:22:55.02 Jon Yep. Yep.
00:22:58.54 Stan Lemon That's where the Michelin guide comes out of. Now it evolves from the like, you know, here's a list of places to go check out, right? to restaurant reviews. And today, um like that's the creme de la creme, right?
00:23:12.93 Stan Lemon And they do the reviews by region. So like Indianapolis has no Michelin guide restaurants because quite frankly, the tourism department of Indianapolis is not paying Michelin to come and check out restaurants. That's that's like, that's just how it works, right?
00:23:29.16 Jon Yep.
00:23:30.00 Stan Lemon So you can imagine l LA, New York, DC, Chicago, right? Like these places have Michelin, San Francisco, right?
00:23:36.17 Jon San Francisco.
00:23:39.88 Stan Lemon And they have a bunch of them because like Michelin Goza, they do their thing and they taste a bunch of different restaurants. But these are these are principally like chef-driven restaurants and they typically have like a tasting menu and wine pairings. And a tasting menu is fun because it's multi-course. They're usually small bites and there's a lot going on, right? ah These are not cheap meals by any stretch.
00:24:02.41 Stan Lemon I have experienced, ah ah prior to this weekend, two Michelin star restaurants, one in Estonia and one in New York. um The one in Estonia was fancy-ish, had beets in every course, which were gross, blah, blah, blah.
00:24:15.82 Jon You not like beats.
00:24:17.35 Stan Lemon Yeah, I don't like beets either. I want to eat dirt, I'll just eat dirt, all right? There's a hot take for you, John. Beets are eating dirt, and anyone who likes eating beets lacks taste buds.
00:24:28.71 Stan Lemon right, so all the beet pie people are gonna come out of the woodwork on this one.
00:24:34.32 Stan Lemon So the other restaurant went to was a Thai restaurant in New York, which is fantastic, super approachable. Like I didn't even realize was in a Michelin star restaurant until one of the people was with mentioned it, right?
00:24:45.10 Stan Lemon And then my friend, there's Enchante, which is not a Michelin star restaurant, but has a Michelin star chef behind the menu.
00:24:55.15 Jon And I don't think it is able to be a Michelin star restaurant because you know you can't drive there.
00:25:01.67 Stan Lemon I can't drive there, right? No tires involved. um So I had id eaten at Enchante, right? Twice on the recent cruise, just you know a week before.
00:25:13.62 Stan Lemon And it was Valentine's Day weekend. My wife and i were going to stay at the Drake Hotel, which there's a story there, but...
00:25:20.62 Jon Of Mission Impossible fame?
00:25:22.91 Stan Lemon Wait, Mission Impossible had an episode in Chicago? a movie in Chicago?
00:25:25.98 Jon Where did you stay?
00:25:26.58 Stan Lemon Mission Impossible?
00:25:26.93 Jon Drake Hotel, Chicago.
00:25:29.76 Stan Lemon Really?
00:25:30.71 Jon Yeah.
00:25:31.99 Stan Lemon Hold on. I did not know this.
00:25:33.10 Jon It's one of the clues to figure out who the mole was.
00:25:37.34 Stan Lemon The Drake Hotel in Chicago serves as a critical plot device that allows Ethan Hunt to identify Jim Phelps as the mole. That's in the original Mission Impossible, John, 1996.
00:25:47.09 Jon Yes.
00:25:48.15 Stan Lemon Holy cats.
00:25:48.79 Jon ah
00:25:49.72 Stan Lemon Wow. Okay. I had no idea.
00:25:51.07 Jon That's the first place my mind went when you said Drake Hotel in your cargo.
00:25:56.28 Stan Lemon Okay. All right. Wow. ah Let me come back to the Drake. Actually, no, let me just explain this now. So when I was a young pup in college, um I was dating this beautiful woman. Her name was Sarah, Sarah Pollard. And I had come to the conclusion that she needed to marry me.
00:26:15.80 Stan Lemon Right. And so my objective was to convince her that
00:26:19.22 Jon Of the same conclusion.
00:26:19.29 Stan Lemon To have a lifelong commitment.
00:26:20.70 Jon Yeah.
00:26:20.76 Stan Lemon Yeah, exactly. right ah There's even like a there's even moment in my mom will tell the story where I'm like, hey, I found the woman I'm going to marry, I just have to convince her. And I did.
00:26:30.26 Jon very on brand even back then
00:26:31.45 Stan Lemon very bret yeah so So I did, right but the night in which I decided to pop the question, happened to be a Friday, right? as As one does in April.
00:26:43.09 Stan Lemon Cause I had to, I had to like pop the question before the semester was done and she went home for the summer. Right. And I needed to do it like with enough spacing from finals and whatnot, because that, that was like early May. Cause I didn't want to like add distress cause we weren't in finals mode. So I picked the first Friday in April of 2005, just so happened to be April fool's day. Right. You know, is what it is. And, uh,
00:27:08.02 Jon May have worked in your favor.
00:27:09.53 Stan Lemon may have worked in my favor. i there's there's There's some pageantry that leads up to this moment, but I took Mrs. Lemon to a restaurant that was at ah the Drake Hotel called the Cape Cod Room.
00:27:20.98 Stan Lemon And this was up until recent ah excursions, one of the most expensive meals I've ever had in my life. Um, I could not drink, so we didn't get, there was no alcohol to be had because I wasn't 21, but I got a, I believe it was a Dover sole. It was a fish that had been flown in the night before from the English channel.
00:27:40.60 Stan Lemon All right. Like this is, we're talking about some high flute and cuisine here. Right. Um,
00:27:44.59 Jon This is when you were a broke college student.
00:27:47.29 Stan Lemon I was broke. I was spending every penny I had on a ring and a dinner. um But it was it was ah was a cool experience. And the Cape Cod room had been around, I think, since the Drake Hotel opened in 1920. And it it was like it was like this happening place in Chicago. was very fine dining. They apparently closed the Cape Cod room back in 2014. Right?
00:28:09.30 Stan Lemon right But I always thought it would be cool to actually go and stay at the Drake Hotel. And so we we did. That was part of the goal, right? And what I would say is like, the this is an old world hotel, right? You walk up. It very much looks like a building that was built in the 1920s. The Drakes were trying to rival famous European hotels. they Give that like, you know pizzazz.
00:28:35.06 Stan Lemon When you walk in, it it it pops, like it really pops. there's ah There's a big open room where they do tea. When we walked in, there was a harpist playing. And that's like, ah to this day, a week like ah a daily like thing, afternoon tea, if you want to go to the drink.
00:28:49.66 Stan Lemon odd The rooms had a last century feel to them. But what I say is this is where this is where the pizzazz started to fall a little bit because they are in need of a little bit of upkeep, right?
00:29:01.14 Jon Yep.
00:29:01.43 Stan Lemon But um fantastic.
00:29:02.26 Jon As with many of those.
00:29:03.93 Stan Lemon ah Yeah, exactly, right? ah there's They got character. i think that's I think that's what people say when you're old and you haven't been well-kept. People look at me like, Stan, you got character. I'm like, okay, I'm old.
00:29:13.14 Jon ah Generally, they have like these beautiful um all out to the nines lobby areas and things like that.
00:29:21.23 Stan Lemon Yep. Yep.
00:29:22.20 Jon And then you go to the room and it's like, oh, it's small and dark and wallpaper's peeling off the wall. Yeah.
00:29:28.79 Stan Lemon So the rooms were huge. The, um it was it was like the woodwork was worn, the carpets were worn, and the bathroom was tiny.
00:29:30.90 Jon Okay.
00:29:38.04 Stan Lemon That like, but in terms of lighting, it didn't need any lighting. Cause it, it looks right out into Lakeshore Drive. You can see the water, right? Like it was a, it was a beautiful, beautiful view. And I got, I think the ninth floor, I think it has 10 floors and the top floor is like,
00:29:54.97 Stan Lemon ah You know, i don't know, for people who make, you know, boatloads more money than I do. John, I'm going to message you a picture of this just so you can see it while we talk. That was the view from the hotel. And then going to just show you the the central of the lobby area.
00:30:10.62 Stan Lemon Uh, this is a pretty place. Like it was a really lovely establishment. And, uh, there was just kind of all this, like, like a, uh, a bucket list item for me. and I don't believe bucket list, but it was like, you know, that kind of thing for those who do. And, we were able to stay there and enjoy it. And so then I thought, you know, it's Valentine's day weekend. I should take Mrs. Lemon out to a nice dinner.
00:30:32.57 Stan Lemon Now, I couldn't do the Cape Cod room, right, because the Cape Cod room has been closed. On Saturdays and Sundays, it's our breakfast place. And it's it's just like a not exciting breakfast place. Like I would actually not recommend anybody to go there. It's not called the Cape Cod room. It's called Cafe Oak or something like that. It's in the same location. So we were able to go and like look at it. They still have the same bar Obviously, I'm not used as a bar anymore because they only do breakfast.
00:30:56.19 Stan Lemon um on the weekends. But the the bar is cool because it's kinds of stuff carved into it, including when Joe DiMaggio was dating Marilyn Monroe, he carved their initials into it. And so you can go and you can kind of see where where they did that. So you know like there's there's character, there's stories, but the restaurant's character has fundamentally changed.
00:31:17.75 Stan Lemon So I had to find a place for dinner, right? And Chicago has a bunch of Michelin star restaurants. I only thought about doing this two weeks ago, Jonathan. So it turns out everybody books.
00:31:28.41 Jon On Valentine's weekend.
00:31:29.71 Stan Lemon Yeah. Everybody books Valentine's Day weekend. Um, and so, you know, there's three star, two star, one star, like you go in a one star restaurant, it's probably still going to be the best restaurant in your life. If you've never been to Michelin star restaurant. But I was able to find this one-star Michelin restaurant called Boka, B-O-K-A.
00:31:47.35 Stan Lemon And we went and we had a seven course meal, the chef's tasting menu. They had a special tasting menu for Valentine's Day and they had wine pairings to go with it. And very similar to Enchante on the Disney Cruise line, right? Except this had this is American cuisine, American ingredients rather than French cuisine with you know French style recipes like on Enchante.
00:32:10.23 Stan Lemon But here's here's my summary for you, and I'm i'm oversimplifying two-plus-hour experience that was fantastic. Enchante, in terms of food and service, probably superior.
00:32:24.50 Stan Lemon ah The wine itself, superior. However, the pairing of the wine, in terms of like how it matched to the food being served at this place, was an order of magnitude superior to Enchante.
00:32:39.58 Stan Lemon This is a weird thing there to talk about, right? Like the wine the wine by itself at Enchante was better, but the way that the wine matched the food that was being served at Boca is like nothing I've ever experienced in my life.
00:32:41.46 Jon Right.
00:32:52.47 Stan Lemon and And what was fascinating was, you know, ah we had a great server, absolutely fantastic service from a guy named Kevin. um And Kevin would, I think he picked up pretty quickly that we were interested in food, we were interested in wine. So I would, you know, he would present the bottle, I'd ask some questions about it, what grapes involved, you know, like what what was going on in, you know, 2013 in that area of of Bordeaux or whatever, right?
00:33:17.59 Jon Yep.
00:33:17.62 Stan Lemon um and And he would you would explain it. He had good good understanding of the wine and what was serving. But then he would tell us like, here's what you're gonna smell and notice. And then, you know, after you take a bite, here's what you might see change.
00:33:28.73 Stan Lemon and And that was the wildest part, to be able to taste the wine and then see how the food brought out different dimensions of the of the wine.
00:33:29.88 Jon Nice.
00:33:37.88 Jon So was it a better wine pairing, or did you have a better guide?
00:33:38.10 Stan Lemon And then vice versa.
00:33:43.73 Stan Lemon I think it was... Both. So the Enchante sommelier is fantastic. And he can tell a story about the wine. He cannot tell me how the wine is going to change the specific course that I'm having.
00:33:59.49 Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
00:34:00.05 Stan Lemon right? Or vice versa. And that that vice versa is really important, right? Because you think about this, you take a sip wine, you're going to get something. You take a bite of food, you're going to get something. When you take that wine again, it's going to do something different because of the food you just had. And then the, the you know, the second bite, right, is now going to play off of the new wine, like the wine that has a different taste because of the, you know, the first bite. And, um,
00:34:24.99 Stan Lemon it's I probably sound crazy. Like it's for someone who doesn't taste wine or doesn't go crazy with food, but like if you eat slowly enough, and again, it's ah it's a two, I think we were there almost two and a half hours. You know, you you eat slowly, you process, you think about your food and what's going on.
00:34:39.98 Stan Lemon um You just notice a lot of different flavors and how they play off each other. And that pairing, it was, there was so much dimensionality to it from bite to bite.
00:34:51.62 Stan Lemon uh, that I've, I've just not experienced anything like Yeah. Kevin absolutely did help. Right. Um, in terms of being able to tell the story of the wine, tell the story of the food and, and give us some indication where we going to his credit though.
00:35:03.54 Stan Lemon Kevin never told me like, this is what's going to change in an exact precise way. He would say, look for X, Y, Z.
00:35:07.55 Jon Sure.
00:35:09.84 Stan Lemon Right. And then he would come back and I'd be like Hey, here's what i noticed or i observed. he Oh yeah. Yeah. So you got a little, know, little bit of that acidity is what brought out that or, or, or whatever. Right. Um, and And it was just a great experience. Really great experience. I would i would go back to Boca. Again, B-O-K-A if you're in Chicago. It's on the north side.
00:35:27.98 Stan Lemon It's actually, i think, technically in Lincoln Park, but it's just north of the Gold Coast area if you know you know that part of the city. um I'd go back in a heartbeat.
00:35:37.26 Jon So I think the first time, i mean, I think I've had several um like nice leisurely meals with you over the years. um But the one that sticks out as like this really kind of relaxing, ah fulfilling meal was our first Apollo brunch where we were probably there for two and a half hours, ate too much food.
00:35:58.13 Stan Lemon At least, yeah, it was way too much.
00:35:58.69 Jon um But, but so the only thing that could have made this better stand was if the Kohlmeier's were with you.
00:36:00.02 Stan Lemon Yeah, yeah.
00:36:06.19 Stan Lemon Exactly, exactly. I actually, it's funny you say this, because this is gonna sound really weird, but I told Sarah, i said, you know, sweetheart, I love being here with you. i love trying this menu, having this wine.
00:36:17.52 Stan Lemon ah really hope I get to have a chance like this with John.
00:36:22.77 Stan Lemon which I said to her on Valentine's day. And after she was done laughing, she said, you know, Stan, I hope that for you too.
00:36:32.70 Jon Nice. Hey, Mrs.
00:36:33.84 Stan Lemon So she does.
00:36:34.60 Jon Lemon appreciates wine too. Maybe in a different way, but.
00:36:37.81 Stan Lemon She does. Yeah. and Yeah. In a different way. Yeah. Okay, let me um let me give you the rundown of the menu here. So first course, it was an uni donut. It had yuzu dashi caramel sauce. It was cold.
00:36:49.40 Stan Lemon It was fine. It was a donut. Foie gras mousse. Have you ever foie gras?
00:36:54.87 Jon Not that I remember.
00:36:56.15 Stan Lemon Okay, so this is like this is like duck liver that's been like, I don't know, pureed or something. Like it's... it's It's not, you don't want to stop and think about it. And I didn't know what foie gras was.
00:37:08.56 Stan Lemon Like I knew the term, but I didn't know what it was. And and Sarah asked me, she's like, do you want me to tell you before after your first bite? was like, let me get one bite in, right? um Then we had golden kaluga caviar. And this, I've had caviar a couple times now. First time was actually in Minnesota, um maybe 15 years ago.
00:37:27.16 Stan Lemon The second time was at Enchante. So this is the third time. I had a couple Enchantes, so you fill in like three caviars. And that caviar was good. The Minnesota minnesota caviar you know from a friend of ours um was not bad.
00:37:42.64 Stan Lemon This caviar had like a buttermilk cream with it on the side and then a honey crisp apple and a bunch of dill. And the honey crisp apple was finely diced. So you got a little bit of crunch on it. And it is the best caviar I've ever had in my life, hands down.
00:37:59.42 Stan Lemon Yeah. So the next course was lightly cured shima ahi with ah fennel and white asparagus and sunflower. And the white asparagus was so subtle. you You would have like, if you blinked, you would have missed it. The fennel was clear. The fish was actually very refreshing. It was, ah when it says lightly cured, definitely lightly cured. Like this is as close sashimi as you can imagine. Right.
00:38:23.68 Jon Yeah.
00:38:24.17 Stan Lemon Yeah. Then came out a diver scallop, right? And you know a good scallop is amazing. A bad scallop is a bad scallop, blah, blah, blah, blah right? It's like bad shrimp. But scallop, when you when you get a good bite, like it melts in your mouth,
00:38:42.23 Stan Lemon Um, it's just, it's just a really fantastic thing. So then, then came black truffle tortellini. Now, uh, tortellini, right. It's got ricotta in it and, or very often has ricotta it, right? Maybe some Parmesan and it can be very dry, right?
00:38:59.09 Stan Lemon This was the weirdest tortellini I've had in my life because it, it reminded me of a soup dumpling that, Right? So you've been a soup dumpling, right?
00:39:06.80 Jon Cam.
00:39:07.92 Stan Lemon and And you've got that like soup, but you could cut it with a knife before you put it in your mouth. And it turned out that the ricotta was pureed with parsnip and a little bit whey. Right? so it was super creamy to the point that like, again, it had, it like, I thought I was eating soup and it had black truffle over top, which, oh, just heavenly. Right? Right?
00:39:30.55 Stan Lemon Then I had roasted American Wagyu. Now, this is something I didn't know about, John. So I've had Wagyu before. Wagyu, you know, I don't know, 84, 89, whatever. I don't know what the numbers are. But when I was on Enchante, I had Wagyu sirloin, which apparently is the American Wagyu.
00:39:45.10 Jon Mm-hmm. Okay.
00:39:47.19 Stan Lemon And I had two slices of that here um along with some radicchio and then there were some chewy beets. and yeah Beets are beets, right? But the radicchio had like brought a really nice bitterness to it. But I'm telling you, this American Wagyu, don't know if this is like a recent thing or whatnot because I had not seen it before the really the month of February.
00:40:08.31 Stan Lemon It is fantastic. And this place gave me two slices and it was just unbelievably good. Yeah. I think looking back, like the scallop was fantastic, but the tortellino did the scallop. The tortellino was fantastic, but the Wagyu was, you know, beyond amazing.
00:40:26.84 Stan Lemon um Then we had ah two different kinds of dessert, like pre-dessert and natural dessert. And I'll say the the pre-dessert was good. It it had this rosehip ice cream, rosehip, am saying that right?
00:40:38.57 Stan Lemon i don't even know what rosehip is. ay
00:40:40.53 Jon me neither
00:40:41.20 Stan Lemon with With some black currants and some port into this sauce and dalap of ice cream. Fantastic. Last dish was a dark chocolate torte and it had some apricot sorbet on the side. And the tort was good. The a the apricot sorbet was good, but the textures together, not so great.
00:41:00.15 Stan Lemon So wine pairings though, across the board, fantastic.
00:41:00.54 Jon hmm that does sound like fun
00:41:03.78 Stan Lemon But doesn't that sound like fun? Yeah, all right.
00:41:10.10 Jon So as you're talking about ah Michelin star restaurants, I think there's a book you would like, even if it's borderline business book. um It is called unreasonable hospitality.
00:41:21.60 Jon Have you heard of this?
00:41:23.03 Stan Lemon I have not. Tell me about it, Jonathan. This is one you've read?
00:41:26.05 Jon I've read this one. Subtitle is The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. So this Will Gadara ah took over 11 Madison Park in his 20s.
00:41:37.93 Jon um And it's about his journey to try to earn a Michelin star um and really giving people a great experience along the way. um So like, you know, like what is the most awkward part of dinner?
00:41:53.24 Jon When you're going out to eat at a fancy restaurant.
00:41:53.70 Stan Lemon What is the,
00:41:56.20 Stan Lemon um, it's, I don't know this, which is any, but i'll I'll tell you, like, for me, it is getting to my seat, getting situated and being comfortable with placing the order.
00:42:07.46 Jon Ah, interesting. Think about the other bookend, Stane.
00:42:11.55 Stan Lemon Paying the bill.
00:42:13.48 Jon When the check is delivered. So if you give if the waiter brings the check early, you feel rushed. If you're waiting for the check, then you're annoyed because you got places to be.
00:42:24.61 Jon um So, like, the answer to this in this book was, hey, they bring the check, but they also open a bottle of something. I can't remember.
00:42:37.13 Jon if it's port or something along those lines, like, hey, here's a check, please enjoy this bottle of wine on us um and then drink as much as you want and then you're free to go. So it like takes that away. But the you also have the bill there when you're ready to pay. So it's like all sorts of things like that. um They like research guests so they could greet them by name when they walked in the door. ah It was crazy.
00:43:02.34 Stan Lemon This is fascinating. So after dessert, so we had pre-dessert, we had dessert. And then i indicated that I wanted the the check because to be honest with you, like that's just me. I always, as soon as I'm done with my last bite, i look over at Mrs. Lemon and if I can see the last bite on her plate, because she's a slower eater than I am, I just say, you bring the check whenever you want.
00:43:23.24 Stan Lemon like i I always put that out there. But, and i it'd be interesting to see how this had shaken out if I hadn't prompted that based upon what you're saying, they brought out some candies that they had made, like, you know finger food candies that were fantastic. But I wonder if it's kind of the same idea because like dinner was done, you know, we had, we'd finished our dinner at that point.
00:43:45.09 Jon um But yeah, I think that you should read this book, Stan. I think you would like it.
00:43:49.77 Stan Lemon All right, well, shoot me a link. I'll queue it up sometime after Jules Verne, most likely. But, um you know, the the other thing this place did, and and actually, I should back up. I noticed with Enchante, like they'll send you home with like a like a cake or a torte or something.
00:44:02.12 Stan Lemon This place did that too.
00:44:02.73 Jon Sure.
00:44:03.56 Stan Lemon I thought that was just a Disney thing. But this this place sends us home with these little dark chocolate cakes. each we had one. And had a little like peanut butter frosting on top. and you know But at this point, like we're pretty full.
00:44:15.30 Stan Lemon Had a lot sweets. We're ready to like call it a night. so you know Went back to the hotel. Had ah and another bottle of wine. But we saved the cakes for the next day on a drive up to Milwaukee.
00:44:26.10 Stan Lemon And those were phenomenal. like I could not believe how good a little chocolate cake with some peanut butter frosting could be. But it really blew my mind.
00:44:37.33 Stan Lemon it Actually, kind of made me wonder like what would this have been like the night before. But...
00:44:40.71 Jon Sure.
00:44:40.85 Stan Lemon um you know, you can only, you can only have so much dessert to be honest with the Like at some point you just got to throw the towel and be like, I gotta go home.
00:44:48.76 Jon Right.
00:44:48.94 Stan Lemon But yeah, uh, that's fascinating.
00:44:50.82 Jon So you go up to Milwaukee.
00:44:51.08 Stan Lemon So,
00:44:52.61 Jon Did you eat anything in Milwaukee?
00:44:56.32 Stan Lemon let me think, no, actually did not.
00:44:59.36 Jon No.
00:44:59.43 Stan Lemon I did not.
00:45:00.28 Jon Yeah. So Finker didn't cook for you either, but he has in the past.
00:45:01.54 Stan Lemon Uh, No, we I mean, we purposely came after lunch and left before dinner.
00:45:03.55 Jon So.
00:45:06.02 Stan Lemon Cause like, you know, we it was just, it was just Sarah and i we left the kids with my mom and so we didn't want it be a big production. Um, but we were there to like spend time with them. And so I ate those, ate that cake in the car.
00:45:17.97 Stan Lemon I had ah a coffee and I probably had like a pack of almonds or something. Um, and to be honest with you, we had no business eating breakfast that morning after, ah after the Michelin star restaurant, but we wanted to go to that cafe Oak, the C the Cape Cod room, right? The space, the Cape Cod room was in. So we went there, we had an omelet and stuff. So by the time like I get in the car, man, like I'm, I'm just, I'm done.
00:45:40.26 Stan Lemon You know, I've, I've eaten enough for a lifetime.
00:45:40.86 Jon Done with eating food.
00:45:42.14 Stan Lemon Yeah. Uh, and then we, we, we did eat dinner. then we went back to my mom's house and we snacked. And so, you know, it's just like, it's a, I'm sure I'm, I'm scared to get on the scale.
00:45:52.33 Stan Lemon Let's put it that way. But,
00:45:55.61 Jon You'll be fine. It was worth it.
00:45:57.80 Stan Lemon Oh yeah. You know, i mean, man, good food generates good conversation and, ah just good times. So it's, I, really I really, really believe in the power of food as ah a way to just like get to know people and have a good time, you know?
00:46:15.21 Jon All things in moderation, Stan. Although I don't know if however many course Michelin star meal counts as moderation anymore.
00:46:22.50 Stan Lemon No, there's there's no moderation there. It's it's pure gluttony from start to finish, and everybody should try it at least once. Save up for it. It's not it's ah it's not for the faint of paycheck. I'll say that.
00:46:34.71 Stan Lemon All right, my friend.
00:46:35.63 Jon Nice.
00:46:37.97 Stan Lemon we should talk a little bit about AI because this is a podcast about food and and wine and AI, right? And Marvel.
00:46:45.38 Jon And Marmel, and Milkshakes, and Macs. and
00:46:47.49 Stan Lemon And Max, yeah. So just just as a quick status update, I believe I told you before, right? ChatGPT has an Apple Health integration. They've been pushing all their health features. I requested access.
00:47:00.90 Stan Lemon I am still waiting for access to Apple Health integration at ChatGPT. Still.
00:47:08.19 Jon So if you have any connections at OpenAI, tell them let's stand in.
00:47:11.72 Stan Lemon I know people at OpenAI. i I have messaged them. They don't respond. I don't know what's going on. Look, I i want to try the feature.
00:47:16.87 Jon Yep.
00:47:18.44 Stan Lemon I'm excited about it. i I ponied up for a month's subscription on Quad because theirs is just generally available. I will say theirs is not great, to be completely honest with you. But I'm that interested in the feature.
00:47:29.49 Stan Lemon All right.
00:47:30.32 Jon Okay.
00:47:34.02 Stan Lemon Jonathan, you wrote down March Apple event. I have not seen the rumor on this. What's going on?
00:47:39.53 Jon So invites went out for a March Apple event to media outlets, um not at the Apple campus, but it is a live event in New York, Shanghai, and London.
00:47:53.69 Jon um So it sounds like it's probably going to be hardware updates, nothing ah really headline worthy as far as you know, Siri upgrades or new home pods or something like that.
00:48:07.82 Jon um But yeah, I saw that today.
00:48:10.53 Stan Lemon This is fascinating because, you know rumor has it right now that the the MacBook Pro is going to get an M5 update and it's just going to be kind of a blah update, right?
00:48:19.47 Jon Right. And historically, they just you have been doing these in press releases.
00:48:20.48 Stan Lemon Later... Press releases, yeah. Later on in the year, rumor has it that the infamous ah MacBook Pro with OLED display, the one that i am i've been I've been waiting for, right? After I bought the M1 Mac, I said that I was not going upgrade until the OLED came out. upgraded the because I needed a little more juice and it was like a pretty big bump, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah But...
00:48:44.81 Stan Lemon ah the OLED is supposed to come later in the year. So unless they surprise us and they pull it out there, right? Like that that could be, the OLED MacBook Pro could be up there with the switch to Apple Silicon or maybe even Retina display, I think.
00:48:59.69 Stan Lemon I think it the possibility. Especially if they do an OLED display and they slap a decent camera onto the laptop, that thing will sell like gangbusters. OLED by itself is going to be huge.
00:49:11.23 Stan Lemon there's There's some, I'm going to call them questionable rumors about a touchscreen with the OLED display. But again, we keep hearing about late in the year, not March. I don't know what this would be.
00:49:21.77 Stan Lemon um
00:49:21.91 Jon Right.
00:49:22.82 Stan Lemon du i read it,
00:49:22.98 Jon And it's not it's not an Apple Theater event either.
00:49:26.50 Stan Lemon and which is weird, right? which Which makes me think maybe it's Apple services oriented. Maybe? i don't know. like ay it just It just seems a little off.
00:49:36.97 Stan Lemon I read another report today that the iPad Pro, the last edition of the iPad Pro, the sales have been so low that they they think that this is the last you know major generation shift for a while,
00:49:48.90 Stan Lemon right um which you know wouldn't surprise me. The HomePod Mini hasn't been updated in forever. The Apple TV hasn't been updated in forever.
00:49:56.17 Jon And they stink. Yeah, all the home stuff.
00:49:59.97 Stan Lemon All the home stuff stinks. It's in dire need. But how do you, if you're Apple, how do you release a new Apple TV or a new HomePod mini with your current Siri story?
00:50:09.73 Jon Right.
00:50:10.82 Stan Lemon And they definitely don't want to get into this situation where they sell a piece of hardware based upon Siri features that have not been released and they still don't release them, right?
00:50:10.86 Jon We can't.
00:50:18.38 Stan Lemon Which was the situation with the previous iPhone, uh, which they're, they're being sued for, you know, by everybody and their mother, blah, blah. blah Um, so I, I don't, I don't know this. This is, it's interesting. I, I haven't seen enough to know what the pundits think is going on here.
00:50:35.05 Stan Lemon um
00:50:35.53 Jon Yeah, it basically seemed like the iPhone ah ah c or whatever update has I've seen the list.
00:50:42.43 Stan Lemon 17E, 17E, yeah.
00:50:43.53 Jon Yeah.
00:50:43.81 Stan Lemon yeah you know You know, Henry has the 16E.
00:50:44.57 Jon and then
00:50:48.30 Jon Okay.
00:50:49.09 Stan Lemon Yeah, so that was like the ease, the like, I don't want to call it the cheap phone, but it's the cheaper phone.
00:50:55.96 Jon Oh, the other thing that I saw in rumors was like a cheap MacBook.
00:51:01.38 Stan Lemon the low cost MacBook that has been floating around for a bit.
00:51:02.76 Jon Yeah.
00:51:04.10 Stan Lemon is that Is that headline news?
00:51:04.42 Jon So...
00:51:05.38 Stan Lemon Do you do an event for that?
00:51:07.82 Jon In three different places across the world. Right.
00:51:10.05 Stan Lemon I think you just stock target full of it. And then, you know, and here's the thing too. If I'm Apple and I'm releasing the cheap MacBook, I'm not doing it in February. That's an August release or maybe late July, right?
00:51:19.69 Jon Right.
00:51:22.77 Stan Lemon July 4th. Maybe you make it a July 4th sale because you want all this college kids going back to school or, you know, seniors going to college to go buy their exciting El Cheapo MacBook.
00:51:34.65 Stan Lemon That's what I think you do.
00:51:36.47 Jon I don't know.
00:51:36.50 Stan Lemon I don't know, John.
00:51:37.42 Jon Time will tell. We've got a couple weeks. March
00:51:39.64 Stan Lemon The, um yeah, it's, I mean, yeah, it's it's two weeks away. It's basically two two weeks and change. So here's here's the crazy thing about today as we record this. So we were were recording this on President's Day the 16th. This will drop in a few days.
00:51:55.09 Stan Lemon The beta of iOS 26.4 dropped today. ah point four dropped today right So the way this works comes out for developers and then a few days later the public beta comes out.
00:52:07.96 Stan Lemon Not a few days. use it Maybe it's a release or two. right so So us developers, we pay our $100 hostage fee to Apple in order to do business on the App Store and we get early release.
00:52:11.24 Jon Okay.
00:52:20.15 Stan Lemon So I i update my iPad and i update my Vision Pro. right That's what I do to to the developer betas. The I had not been doing the iPad for a while, but I decided with 26 to start doing the betas because I keep hoping this Siri crap is coming out.
00:52:38.56 Stan Lemon And most of the rumors said that 26.4 was gonna drop with Siri features.
00:52:42.28 Jon Yep. Yep.
00:52:43.99 Stan Lemon Jonathan, as far as I could tell, there is nothing new with Siri on 26.4.
00:52:45.13 Jon They got postponed again. Yep.
00:52:49.37 Stan Lemon Now, I've only had it for a couple hours, right? But I'm like, I looked, the first thing I did was log into settings, see what's changed. It's nothing, it's nothing.
00:53:00.54 Stan Lemon and And when I couldn't find anything, I started checking online and no reports of anything.
00:53:00.57 Jon No then.
00:53:06.71 Stan Lemon So i don't I don't think, I think there's a chance that 26.4 missed the market. I was looking for Gemini somewhere in here. That's not there. ah The one thing that did come back.
00:53:15.86 Jon Speaking of the Vision Pro, there's a YouTube app on the Vision Pro now. And like the Vision Pro has been getting a bunch of content or something that I haven't watched recently.
00:53:26.37 Stan Lemon It's had a bit of content. I mean, i have you watched the, it's not F1, is it? Is it F1?
00:53:34.67 Jon The movie?
00:53:34.71 Stan Lemon The Italian racing specials.
00:53:37.01 Jon I have not watched the movie.
00:53:37.36 Stan Lemon ashman
00:53:37.84 Jon I watched the immersive thing. um But i've been yeah I've been getting notifications for like basketball and stuff like that.
00:53:40.01 Stan Lemon themer That's what I'm talking about, the immersive thing. Yeah. that's what That's what the...
00:53:47.61 Stan Lemon Okay. i so you know I think sports could be a big, big deal for the Vision Pro. They just got to get something more than piecemeal content, right?
00:53:57.76 Jon Yep.
00:53:58.39 Stan Lemon you know All they need is is one sport to do something immersive every week. And in this thing this thing is going to be a... you know something other than a novelty on my shelf.
00:54:12.32 Stan Lemon But I don't know, John. my My guess for the March event is it'll be services related. It will have nothing to do with Siri. Maybe they throw in a hardware announcement um as an ancillary thing, but I don't think, i mean, I have a hard time believing this on me.
00:54:29.40 Jon Maybe they're just looking for media buzz instead of people complaining about them.
00:54:35.54 Stan Lemon ah You know, i I'm... Look, I still love Apple. i'm sitting I'm literally sitting at my desk. I got AirPods, Mac, Studio Display, iPad, iPhone.
00:54:48.57 Stan Lemon I got my AirPods Max on. I got my watch on. like I got it all, right? And the Vision Pro just sitting behind me.
00:54:52.83 Jon HomePod behind you.
00:54:54.17 Stan Lemon Yeah, there's a HomePod behind me. Tell me, John, what what Apple product do I not have in the room right now?
00:54:58.92 Jon Yeah.
00:54:59.96 Stan Lemon You know, I'm a fan boy. I'm not ashamed about it. But I do think that they have got to deliver on this Siri thing for them to move forward.
00:55:10.97 Stan Lemon Because I really think the Siri thing is holding them back on every front, both technology-wise and reputationally, right?
00:55:12.40 Jon No.
00:55:18.15 Stan Lemon And the reputation bit is not something that Apple is used to being behind on, right? But they they're definitely back-footed person.
00:55:23.72 Jon Right.
00:55:28.09 Stan Lemon Yeah. Don't get me started on the HomePod. By the way, listener, I know you're you're taking inventory. The Apple TV is in the next room. I don't keep an Apple TV in my office because that wouldn't make sense. All right.
00:55:38.35 Jon Right.
00:55:41.61 Jon um Let's see. Any other, any other Apple devices?
00:55:48.36 Stan Lemon I got an AirTag in my bag. I did not buy the AirTag 2.
00:55:52.37 Stan Lemon But there you go. I don't know.
00:55:54.24 Jon There you
00:55:54.62 Stan Lemon um Do you have any any guesses based upon your your reading and perusing the internet?
00:56:00.93 Jon go. Basically, it looks like a bunch of hardware releases that I'm not going to care about or upgrade to.
00:56:07.41 Stan Lemon I guess maybe they bunch them all together. I don't know, John. I don't understand the marketing strategy on that one. it just seems a little off to me. Yeah.
00:56:14.32 Jon So I think the thing about the cheap MacBook comes from the colors in the invite, and they're like rumored colors for something. so
00:56:24.18 Stan Lemon and That would be cool if Apple did that, right? Like I'm a big fan of Apple releasing colorful devices. And so, you know, but I just, I don't know that, don't know it's the dial.
00:56:34.47 Jon So go look through the blogs and tell me if you can piece anything together.
00:56:35.51 Stan Lemon I also,
00:56:41.30 Stan Lemon probably nothing more than you can. Here's what I will say too. It would be interesting if Apple decided to release new hardware now considering the price of right?
00:56:48.68 Jon All right.
00:56:50.84 Stan Lemon being like off the charts. And so unless they're sitting on a stockpile, like everything's gonna be more expensive on the technology front next year. It has to be because of this whole RAM situation. Apple's a big buyer, but I don't even think Apple has the buying power to shift the economics downward in a way that works for consumers at this point.
00:57:12.23 Stan Lemon don't know.
00:57:12.91 Jon Crazy times to be alive, but you just ah he just dropped a pretty penny at a at a restaurant.
00:57:14.53 Stan Lemon It is, it is.
00:57:19.43 Jon so
00:57:19.96 Stan Lemon Admission Star Wars. I dropped one MacBook. Well,
00:57:22.78 Jon How long until that that phrase goes away, Stan? A pretty penny.
00:57:28.56 Stan Lemon at this point, aren't they discontinuing the penny?
00:57:30.60 Jon Yeah, the penny is no longer being made.
00:57:33.96 Stan Lemon Well, ah does that make them prettier or less?
00:57:38.16 Jon don't know. I wonder how long will remain in circulation.
00:57:43.04 Stan Lemon Well, as long as people aren't frowning up, I guess. I don't know. That's interesting question. um It becomes a microtransaction thing only, perhaps.
00:57:52.00 Jon Right.
00:57:53.80 Stan Lemon All right. Before we wrap it up here, just a quick ah ai update. So have you have you done anything with your New Year's goal with AI?
00:58:02.72 Jon I have not. I did look at GitHub. um I've mostly been using AI for things like coming up with a bread recipe for me um and things of that nature. So not exactly putting it through its paces.
00:58:17.41 Stan Lemon Have you downloaded the Codex app yet?
00:58:20.18 Jon I have.
00:58:21.09 Stan Lemon Okay. I am really enjoying the Codex app.
00:58:26.49 Jon OK.
00:58:26.88 Stan Lemon It could be because the credits are like 2X right now, but the 5.3 Codex model is pretty swanky, It... um
00:58:34.94 Jon So what do what does our website need, Stan?
00:58:38.37 Stan Lemon i don't know I don't know what our website needs. This is why you have to find a hobby horse that perpetual change. The thing that I love about my little exercise app that I still haven't released to anyone is that i quite literally use it every single day.
00:58:53.89 Stan Lemon And so even if I haven't shared it to with anyone, it it satisfies a need, like an actual need that I have.
00:58:54.24 Jon Nice.
00:58:59.40 Jon Hey, you have shared it with me. I haven't opened the last 200 versions.
00:59:01.95 Stan Lemon I've shared it with you.
00:59:04.42 Jon but
00:59:05.21 Stan Lemon There's only 162, only 162 builds. only hundred and sixty two builds Yeah, yeah. Not that anybody's counting, but
00:59:12.21 Jon But I opened it up early on. um And then it's like, oh, you're releasing three things a day while you're in an airplane.
00:59:14.26 Stan Lemon yeah.
00:59:18.01 Jon So...
00:59:19.69 Stan Lemon Listen, man, it's it's a wild world. But i you know the the limits right now are so conducive to trying things out because i think i think it's till April. They're giving you 2X on the paid version, right? To the end of the year. It's just, interesting it' to the end of April or beginning of April, out of somewhere around It's just a long time to get a whole bunch of extra credit.
00:59:41.01 Stan Lemon for the same cost. And the model seems really sharp, seems really, really sharp. The different reasoning efforts seem really solid. Like it seems like a material boost.
00:59:51.77 Stan Lemon There's still some tooling stuff that gets sorted out, but it's it's good. Now on the flip side,
00:59:55.63 Jon So like, honestly, i would want to do stuff work-related, and there's all kinds of problems with me trying to do things work-related.
01:00:03.53 Stan Lemon Yeah, you get into like all the privacy concerns and all that. Yeah, that's something I like.
01:00:06.93 Jon Yep.
01:00:08.61 Stan Lemon i think at this point, companies have to get tools for their people and prescribe a path forward. Otherwise, they're just leaking i t excuse be leaking IP.
01:00:20.53 Stan Lemon And so, you know, if if ah your your boss doesn't listen to the podcast, does he, John?
01:00:20.53 Jon Yeah.
01:00:27.24 Jon I can't imagine so.
01:00:28.43 Stan Lemon Okay, all right. Well, if anybody who knows John's boss is listening, Tell him his company will be better if he lets John use Codex.
01:00:41.52 Stan Lemon All kidding aside, I really do think if you can train people how to use these tools and you you do the right guardrails early, yes, there's a cost to it, but you keep your IP safe and you move things faster.
01:00:55.05 Stan Lemon I'm a big believer. Big believer. So...
01:00:59.98 Jon All right, I'll try to think of something.
01:01:01.98 Stan Lemon All right. One last thing before we wrap up, John, I want to hear from people, anybody, all two of you that listen to the podcast. And I would like to know what, no, we don't have any on analytics.
01:01:10.63 Jon We don't have good analytics, so we actually don't know how many people listen, do we?
01:01:14.47 Stan Lemon i don't care about analytics. I'm doing this for myself. I'm doing this because I want to have a conversation with a friend, John. I want to know what John Kohlmeyer, if you've it this long, what should John Kohlmeyer cook for me the next time I'm in Iowa?
01:01:29.89 Stan Lemon That's the question. That's the question. So think on it. and And John, actually, maybe next episode, you should open up with, here are the things that you're good at cooking at. Some people know what to choose from.
01:01:40.90 Jon All right. I'll think on it.
01:01:42.43 Stan Lemon Do not put pizza on the list, people.
01:01:42.53 Jon i'm I'm a fairly good cook.
01:01:44.58 Stan Lemon I don't want pizza on the list.
01:01:44.95 Jon Right. um i'm not making I'm not making pizza for Stan.
01:01:45.58 Stan Lemon he puts sugar in his dough. Unbleached flour. Good Lord. you haven't You haven't had the uni pizza yet. You realize that?
01:01:54.23 Jon I did. Last time I was there.
01:01:56.80 Stan Lemon Did you?
01:01:57.75 Jon Yeah.
01:01:59.35 Jon Before Thanksgiving?
01:01:59.39 Stan Lemon Why was it not memorable? No, I didn't make uni pizza for you.
01:02:04.23 Jon Yeah, you do. we were out there. You convinced me that it's not something that I want to get.
01:02:08.44 Stan Lemon Was it good?
01:02:10.63 Jon It was very good.
01:02:11.96 Stan Lemon Oh, okay. All right. Well, then it was probably my pizza.
01:02:16.92 Stan Lemon All right, Jonathan. Until next time, my friend.
01:02:19.17 Jon All right. Later. Bye.