Speaker 1: Guess what will? What's that? Mango? So you know back
Speaker 1: in high school, how we both loved the Polynesian sauce
Speaker 1: at Chick fil A. And I know we've discussed it before,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it was definitely in our top
Speaker 1: ten of condiments. But have you ever wanted Chick fil
Speaker 1: A to be more Polynesian? You know, Mango. I've thought
Speaker 1: about a lot of things in my life, but I
Speaker 1: can't say I've ever had that thought before. Why do
Speaker 1: you ask, Well, then, my dreams of wanting a more
Speaker 1: Polynesian Chick fil A have finally come true. And uh,
Speaker 1: I actually think we need to make a pilgrimage to
Speaker 1: this place. It's called true It's Luo, and it's known
Speaker 1: as the most Hawaiian Chick fil A outside Hawaii. And
Speaker 1: for the record, it's in Fayetteville, Georgia, and it's named
Speaker 1: for a Chick fil A founder, Truett Cathy, And apparently
Speaker 1: true It had this dream of bringing Hawaii to Fayetteville,
Speaker 1: so he built this massive Chick fil A. He filled
Speaker 1: it with waterfalls and South Pacific totems and also, for
Speaker 1: some reason, they're alligator heads on the wall. That part. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But Shrewd actually hand picked all the decor. And while
Speaker 1: the menu features everything you can get at a traditional
Speaker 1: Chick fil a, there's also like plenty of food with
Speaker 1: Polynesian flair. So you've got like skewered shrimp kalu, a
Speaker 1: pork pineapple top burgers, and you can wash all that
Speaker 1: down with a frosty pineapple drink. Yeah, that's just the
Speaker 1: first of nine restaurants we never could have dreamed up
Speaker 1: that will be covering today, So let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson,
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I'm not fully joined by my voice today, so
Speaker 1: I apologize in advance. But who I am joined by Mango,
Speaker 1: sitting behind that soundproof glass wearing a pizza hat. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that, said, I guess it's a pizza Hut knockoff.
Speaker 1: And Iran, were you familiar with this Mega? I was not.
Speaker 1: I was not either. Well that's our friend and producer
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil, always introducing us to new things. So all right, well,
Speaker 1: I know we're talking about strange restaurants again. But before
Speaker 1: we get started, we wanted to tell our listeners that
Speaker 1: we're actually doing a live performance very soon. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: We're actually coming to Philly, which is right near my
Speaker 1: home state of Delaware for those of you who don't
Speaker 1: know where Philadelphia is. But we'll be there on July
Speaker 1: first for the Philly Podcast Festival. And we're actually playing
Speaker 1: at the Trocadero, which is just so insane to me.
Speaker 1: So I've heard of this theater, but I don't know
Speaker 1: a ton about it. So why do you say it's insane?
Speaker 1: I mean it's insane to me because it's where my
Speaker 1: friends and I used to go to concerts when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, Like we'd see Rusted Rude or
Speaker 1: Back or Um, Sarah McLaughlin Very Naked Ladies. Lisa Lope
Speaker 1: mostly was free tickets we got from the local radio station,
Speaker 1: but it was pretty great, and to be playing there
Speaker 1: is pretty amazing to me. And I think we're actually
Speaker 1: opening for Lisa Lobe, aren't we as that I believe
Speaker 1: that's true. Well maybe not, but we aren't going to
Speaker 1: be alone. We're actually gonna be there with our good
Speaker 1: friends Ben and Null from Ridiculous History, one of our
Speaker 1: favorite podcast two of our favorite people. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a blast, so we'll be part of the same show.
Speaker 1: The show is at four pm on Sunday, July one,
Speaker 1: so we're just days away from this, and you can
Speaker 1: get your tickets at Philly Podfest dot com. Again. That's
Speaker 1: Philly Podfest dot com July one, four pm. We hope
Speaker 1: to see you guys there. It's gonna be so fun. Oh,
Speaker 1: I can't wait. And I promised to have my full
Speaker 1: voice by that point. I'm just just saving it. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm only using part of my voice for that reason,
Speaker 1: just to say enough for the show. Anyway, Mano, I'm curious,
Speaker 1: why did you want to talk about these theme restaurants today?
Speaker 1: So part of it for me is that I'm just
Speaker 1: fascinated that these places are willing to stake their entire
Speaker 1: success on like the novelty of a gimmick, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm also just kind of like amazed when it works.
Speaker 1: So I was talking to one of my friends last
Speaker 1: night and he he's originally from Kosovo, and he was
Speaker 1: saying that he took his family to Baltimore and they
Speaker 1: couldn't find a place to eat, and then they finally
Speaker 1: spotted Dick's Last resort, which you know is famous for
Speaker 1: the waiters kind of being rude to you. And he
Speaker 1: was sitting at the table and the waiter just threw
Speaker 1: straws at him and napkins at end, and he didn't
Speaker 1: know what was going on, and he was so insulted,
Speaker 1: and he told me, like all the things that were
Speaker 1: racing through his mind. He was like, I don't owe
Speaker 1: money to anyone in Baltimore. I don't have a bad
Speaker 1: reputation here, Like, why is this waiter being so rude
Speaker 1: to me specifically? And you know he's got three young kids.
Speaker 1: He was honestly afraid he was going to get into
Speaker 1: fist fight. And then I think someone confessed that it
Speaker 1: was just a gimmick. But I love that some entrepreneur
Speaker 1: out there years ago, I thought, you know, what people
Speaker 1: really want is to be treated super badly by obnoxious waiters.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, that guy was right, Like there's
Speaker 1: seven or eight Dick's restaurants around the world, and I
Speaker 1: feel like they're doing great. Really actually didn't know this.
Speaker 1: I've I've honestly never been to one. I remember we
Speaker 1: had a friend that would would rave about it and
Speaker 1: always thought it was a fun idea. Have you been
Speaker 1: to one before? I haven't been to one either. Huh.
Speaker 1: Well what a strange concept. Well it makes sense why
Speaker 1: you wanted to do today's topic. So, um, why don't
Speaker 1: we let you go first? What what restaurant do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about first? How about this heart Attack
Speaker 1: Grill in Vegas? So I'm so confused by this place,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely something I'm more interested in talking about
Speaker 1: than visiting. But the heart Attack Grill is a hospital
Speaker 1: teamed restaurant where if you're over three pounds or if
Speaker 1: an actual heart attack occurs during your meal, you get
Speaker 1: to eat for free. What so if if just anyone
Speaker 1: in the restaurant has a heart attack, then you get
Speaker 1: to teach your meal for free. Is that the I
Speaker 1: haven't looked into the fine print. I know it's known
Speaker 1: as a meal to die for, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's anywhere in the restaurant or just at your table.
Speaker 1: I also love that it's you said, a hospital themed restaurant,
Speaker 1: Like if it's just so strange, but weirdly, I kind
Speaker 1: of want to check this out. But anyway, tell me
Speaker 1: more about it. Yeah, so everyone's dressed up like nurses,
Speaker 1: and the burgers come in categories of like single, double,
Speaker 1: or triple bypass. In fact, it goes all the way
Speaker 1: up to an octoobole bypass burger, but sort of the
Speaker 1: middle of the road burger is the quadruple bypass burger.
Speaker 1: And it comes with four half pound beef patties, twenty
Speaker 1: strips of bacon, eight slices of American cheese, and there's
Speaker 1: a whole tomato in there, which might be the healthiest
Speaker 1: part how And I just imagine that it's not even
Speaker 1: sliced up. It's just like a whole tomato just kind
Speaker 1: of squished into there. Yeah. I mean, if you want
Speaker 1: to compliment it with something else, you can also get
Speaker 1: like candy cigarettes with your meal. Those are available to
Speaker 1: what a bizarre place, all right, Well, speaking in places
Speaker 1: I probably won't visit. Did you know that the North
Speaker 1: Korean government actually runs a bunch of state run food
Speaker 1: joints in other countries, So it's actually kind of their
Speaker 1: way to promote soft power and get people interested in
Speaker 1: North Korean culture. So if you go there, there's these
Speaker 1: women servers. They're actually all women, and they're dressed in
Speaker 1: traditional guard so they'll seeing and they'll play instruments for
Speaker 1: the diners. And so you can find these Pyongyang cafes
Speaker 1: in places like Russia and China. But the biggest reason
Speaker 1: for them isn't actually the propaganda. It's the cash. So
Speaker 1: the meals they're costs around thirty bucks or so, and
Speaker 1: you know, the food is supposed to be pretty good,
Speaker 1: but the restaurants actually generate about a hundred to three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars for the North Korean government, which it
Speaker 1: desperately needs for its coffers. Now, there's one other thing
Speaker 1: about this, if you ever find yourself in one of
Speaker 1: these places, is that you're not allowed to take photos
Speaker 1: when you're inside of one of them. Oh that's crazy,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I'll ever be going, but probably
Speaker 1: you know. Um So, one of these things you hear
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn Live is that people are just crazy for poutine.
Speaker 1: I know people like it all over the country too,
Speaker 1: but um these are these like fries with cheese, kurds
Speaker 1: and gravy, and they come from Canada. And as I
Speaker 1: was looking up this story, I actually found that the
Speaker 1: guy who invented poutine has a frame certificate it from
Speaker 1: the Canadian Intellectual Property council at this restaurant, like it's
Speaker 1: just up there on the wall to show everyone he
Speaker 1: invented poutine. Anyway, that this isn't about that restaurant, but
Speaker 1: about a fast food place in Quebec called shay Ashton.
Speaker 1: And the reason it's interesting to me is that it
Speaker 1: actually has a poutine menu that varies with the temperature.
Speaker 1: So if the temperature is negative thirty degrees celsius, First
Speaker 1: of all, can you imagine having to live anywhere where
Speaker 1: it can get and will not ever test that out?
Speaker 1: That just sounds like such a mistake. But if it
Speaker 1: goes to negative thirty degrees celsius, then you get a
Speaker 1: thirty percent discount on the poutine, and for every negative
Speaker 1: degree you get a full percent off. Like I just
Speaker 1: can't imagine rooting for it to get colder just so
Speaker 1: I could get some fries. But apparently it works. Wow.
Speaker 1: All right, Well here's one on the opposite side of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, and I'm actually really into this idea. So
Speaker 1: normally a shoes off place might throw some people off.
Speaker 1: But in the Philippines, in a place called Via Escudero
Speaker 1: in the city of Tien, there's this waterfalls restaurant, and
Speaker 1: the restaurant is shoes free, because all of the tables,
Speaker 1: like these beautiful picnic tables there in the middle of
Speaker 1: this small river, and they're surrounded by these giant waterfalls,
Speaker 1: and the cook stations are actually right there too. It's
Speaker 1: actually this really stunning setting. And not only are the
Speaker 1: guests encouraged to dunk their heads in the rushing water
Speaker 1: in order to cool off, but they're exotic birds you
Speaker 1: can spot from the location. And of course the fish,
Speaker 1: not surprisingly is incredibly fresh. That sounds pretty fun. It
Speaker 1: actually reminds me of this place Christopher told me about
Speaker 1: that sounds insane. It's called Eta, which I guess it
Speaker 1: means Mother of Pearl, and it's the world's first all
Speaker 1: glass undersea restaurant. It's basically this panoramic view of the
Speaker 1: sea in the Maldives, and it's five ms below sea
Speaker 1: level and people have actually said it's kind of like
Speaker 1: tumbling down a tropical version of Alice in Wonderland, like
Speaker 1: down the rabbit Hole. I've seen photos. It's honestly so beautiful,
Speaker 1: like the roof is domed glass, and their schools of
Speaker 1: fish just swimming around you. Apparently the trickiest part for
Speaker 1: maintaining the restaurant is that both sides of the glass
Speaker 1: have to be cleaned every day. But being there is
Speaker 1: this really intimate experience. There's only ever space for fourteen diners.
Speaker 1: You can also only eat there if you spend a
Speaker 1: night in the hotel that's adjacent, which starts at seven
Speaker 1: pounds a night. But if you've ever wondered what it's
Speaker 1: like to eat your meal in a giant fish tank,
Speaker 1: like this is the closest you'll get to that experience.
Speaker 1: That does sound like a pretty neat thing. Like, I
Speaker 1: know that's expensive to be there, but I could see
Speaker 1: why people would want to pay that. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just seems like something you couldn't experience anywhere else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's almost like you're in the submarine in
Speaker 1: life aquatic. They're the way it's all set up. It's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. All right. Well, here's one I really wish
Speaker 1: still existed, and it doesn't anymore, though there's some hope
Speaker 1: that it might come back at some point. And it
Speaker 1: was just called Tim's Place, and it was owned and
Speaker 1: run by a young guy named Tim Harris. It was
Speaker 1: a breakfast and lunch place. It was in Albuquerque, and
Speaker 1: it had this delicious food with a Southwestern flare and
Speaker 1: had all these great reviews on yellop in places like that.
Speaker 1: But what makes it so interesting is that it was
Speaker 1: the first restaurant owned and operated by someone with Down syndrome.
Speaker 1: So Tim is a special Olympian. He likes to jokingly
Speaker 1: point out that he has more medals than Michael Phelps.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's pretty impressive, a lot of it.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of metals. But what makes the place
Speaker 1: even more special is that he liked to give hugs
Speaker 1: with every meal, and he'd given out something like it
Speaker 1: was like eighteen thousand hugs before the place eventually closed. Oh.
Speaker 1: I love that story, and it's a shame it closed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But you know, the reason it actually closed was because
Speaker 1: Tim was in a relationship at the time, and it
Speaker 1: was a long distance relationship, so he decided to choose
Speaker 1: love over food, and in fact, he often said food
Speaker 1: is food. But what made his place special was all
Speaker 1: the hugs. How great is that? That's so great? Okay, well,
Speaker 1: we've got two more facts to give up before we do,
Speaker 1: let's take a little break. Welcome back to part time
Speaker 1: Genius where we're talking about strange and fun restaurants we'd
Speaker 1: love to visit or at least peek into. So, well,
Speaker 1: you've just told us about Tim's restaurant, which sounds amazing,
Speaker 1: but you know, in that same feel good vein, I
Speaker 1: just read about John bon Jovi's Soul Kitchen. Have you
Speaker 1: heard about this place? You know? I don't know that
Speaker 1: I've heard about anything related to John bon Jovi in
Speaker 1: quite a while, so I didn't know he was in
Speaker 1: the food business though either. Yeah, well, I just read
Speaker 1: a story on Tony bon Jovi, so read about something
Speaker 1: related to John bon Jovi, but not food anyway. He's
Speaker 1: actually got two of these places, And at first blush
Speaker 1: there were like celebrity chefs from Top Chef there and
Speaker 1: it just seems kind of fancy and the food look great,
Speaker 1: but I just wasn't that impressed. But then I've read
Speaker 1: that it's basically set up for people in need, so
Speaker 1: you can pay for the meal like a regular restaurant,
Speaker 1: or if you're hard up, you can volunteer in the
Speaker 1: back of the restaurant for an hour and have your
Speaker 1: complete meal paid for. They've actually served over eight meals
Speaker 1: that way, and you know, for those of us who
Speaker 1: can't pay, you can also volunteer your time there and
Speaker 1: donate it, or if you're struggling, you can volunteer and
Speaker 1: pay for your meal that way, and they just give
Speaker 1: away a lot of really great food. It's kind of
Speaker 1: remarkable and it made me like bon Jovis so much more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty neat. Well, I'm glad we've got all the
Speaker 1: heartwarming stuff out of the way because I got one
Speaker 1: last one that I want to talk about, and that's
Speaker 1: these roller coaster restaurants. So I just hearing that title, like,
Speaker 1: it can't be where you get on a roller coaster
Speaker 1: and then have a meal served to you during the
Speaker 1: loop de loops, right, because that seems like a terrible idea.
Speaker 1: It might sound like a terrible idea. It was something
Speaker 1: I probably would try that was a fan of roller coasters,
Speaker 1: But now this is this is very different, and I
Speaker 1: guess this is a chain restaurant and they're in all
Speaker 1: sorts of fancy cities like Vienna, so Chi, Dubai, like
Speaker 1: all over the place. But basically you order your food
Speaker 1: on an iPad and then the food and drinks goes
Speaker 1: on this roller coasters around your table. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: even know how this works exactly, because the tracks have
Speaker 1: these winding loops and crazy turns, and honestly, you would
Speaker 1: think the food would just spill everywhere like on its
Speaker 1: way to you, But it just pulls right up in
Speaker 1: front of you. That's pretty amazing. You know. I used
Speaker 1: to get a thrill from watching those like sushi boats
Speaker 1: at restaurants, especially in San Francisco, where they slowly move
Speaker 1: and you can just plucked the sushi off the floating boats.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, like a roller coaster seems so
Speaker 1: much crazier. But who do you think wins this week?
Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking my Tim's Diner fact was
Speaker 1: pretty good and maybe that should take it. Your bon
Speaker 1: Jovi soul food thing was probably a little bit better,
Speaker 1: especially since it's still around. But you know, this week,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should give the trophy to Christopher
Speaker 1: hasiotis he he did a ton of work in helping
Speaker 1: out with the research for this episode. I'm totally for it.
Speaker 1: We should buy him a gift certificate to Pizza Hat.
Speaker 1: That's a great all right, Well, one more reminder, we
Speaker 1: hope to see anyone that's in the Philadelphia area at
Speaker 1: our show at the Trocadero on July one at four pm,
Speaker 1: and you can get those tickets at Philly pod fest
Speaker 1: dot com. But we'll be back with a full length
Speaker 1: episode tomorrow m