Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to save your prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm
Speaker 1: Annie Reason and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have
Speaker 1: an episode for you about Lowry's Yes, the seasoned salt
Speaker 1: and the restaurant. It's both. I didn't really realize this,
Speaker 1: but it is very much both.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize it either. I didn't know about the restaurant,
Speaker 2: so this was a fun one. I learned a lot
Speaker 2: me too. Yes, yes, genuinely really fun. Like, yes, genuinely
Speaker 2: really fun. Opened up a lot of rabbit holes as always.
Speaker 2: But was there any particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 1: Lauren?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Was there? I should be better prepared for this question.
Speaker 1: I love that you're not. It's great. I think it
Speaker 1: had been on my list for a while as one
Speaker 1: of those things that I kind of sometimes my episode
Speaker 1: topic selection process involves like going to my kitchen cabinets
Speaker 1: and digging through them and seeing what brands we haven't
Speaker 1: talked about yet, and I strongly suspect this was one
Speaker 1: of those, but who knows. It is also, you know,
Speaker 1: like grilling season here in the United States and Lowry
Speaker 1: Season salt is a very popular addition to grilled proteins,
Speaker 1: so yeah, and all kinds of things and everything else.
Speaker 2: Yes, as we were doing this research, I looked in
Speaker 2: my own cabinets as well, and I do have some Lowy's.
Speaker 1: I think I have.
Speaker 2: Womon pepper Okay, yeah, it wasn't the original flavor.
Speaker 1: I have some other interesting huh. Yeah. Yes, Oh.
Speaker 2: I would love listeners write in about you'll look in
Speaker 2: your own dabit and see what you have.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm positive that some of
Speaker 1: y'all already are composing emails, so we're ready looking forward
Speaker 1: to hearing from you. Yes, also unrelated to Lowry's, but
Speaker 1: we do have a bit of an announcement to make.
Speaker 1: So there is a PRX Podcast Creator Summit, which is
Speaker 1: an ongoing series of podcast conventions for creators to get
Speaker 1: together and kind of talk about how to do like
Speaker 1: like like what what the podcasting field is like, and
Speaker 1: how to make one and put it out there and
Speaker 1: you know, the entire creative process. And it's coming to
Speaker 1: Atlanta in July, and they got in touch with us
Speaker 1: and asked us to come do a panel about food podcasting.
Speaker 1: So if you are in the Atlanta area and would
Speaker 1: like to come see us talk to some they're really
Speaker 1: cool humans, possibly cooler than us humans about food podcasting
Speaker 1: that is happening on July thirtieth from seven to nine
Speaker 1: pm here in Atlanta. The panel is called Feeding the
Speaker 1: Culture telling Atlanta's Food Stories. So yes, definitely come check
Speaker 1: it out. And they have a lot of other content.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so much programming. I think I think it's
Speaker 1: going to be super cool. Yes, I do too, So yes,
Speaker 1: let us know if you're coming. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but okay, yeah, So back to back to Lowri's. For
Speaker 1: other related topics, you can definitely see are McCormick episode.
Speaker 1: This one reminded me a little bit of Stofers as
Speaker 1: well in terms of brands that I didn't know had
Speaker 1: a bustling restaurant industry.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's true, you're right, I forgot about that. But
Speaker 2: I guess this does bring us to our question. Sure, yes, Lowries,
Speaker 2: what is it?
Speaker 1: Well, Lowy's is a brand of seasonings that originated in
Speaker 1: a steakhouse by the name of Lowy's The Prime Rib.
Speaker 1: The seasonings and the restaurants are two different companies. Now
Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about both of them. So
Speaker 1: the Prime Rib is a place that literally only served
Speaker 1: prime rib as an entree only entree on their menu
Speaker 1: for fifty five years. Yep. It's a very old fashioned
Speaker 1: white tablecloth everything table side, kind of like theatrical dining experience.
Speaker 1: And they created the original seasoning to go on their
Speaker 1: prime rib but also their salads and sides. That original
Speaker 1: seasoning is a seasoned salt blend made up of salt, sugar, peprika,
Speaker 1: celery seed, turmeric, onion, and garlic, a few things for
Speaker 1: texture and or to prevent caking, and smaller amounts of
Speaker 1: a few other herbs and spices like basil, for example.
Speaker 1: And people will use this seasoning on anything and everything
Speaker 1: as a dry rub on proteins of whatever kind, on
Speaker 1: vegetables or potatoes or casseroles in the flour dredge for
Speaker 1: breaded fried foods, as a table seasoning for things that
Speaker 1: we're not cooked with it to begin with. It is
Speaker 1: very popular, if perhaps considered like a little bit basic
Speaker 1: in these are modern times. It's a really pretty orange
Speaker 1: color from the paprika, and it's just it's a good
Speaker 1: balance of like salty, sweet, heady savory. So it adds
Speaker 1: just like a nice little zing but not too much
Speaker 1: zing to whatever you're making or eating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really pleasant. It's like a nice Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: so good. Yeah, kind of easy, you know what. I
Speaker 2: just want to give this a little bit more flavor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't want to think about it too hard.
Speaker 1: I just want to shake something on it. Oh, I've
Speaker 1: done that. Great, let's go. And I forgot to write
Speaker 1: a little bit of poetic thing into here, and we
Speaker 1: just got a lot of Supreme Court cases in this morning,
Speaker 1: so I'm just going to keep going. I'm not sorry
Speaker 1: about it, y'all. Well, we'll come back and be poetic
Speaker 1: about something else later. A heck all right. So Lowry's
Speaker 1: Restaurants is a family owned group that currently operates and
Speaker 1: or licenses fourteen restaurants, all beef heavy in the United
Speaker 1: States and internationally. Like literally every single one of them
Speaker 1: features Prime Rib. This is sort of a theme. The
Speaker 1: Prime Rib flagship location is in Beverly Hills. There's one
Speaker 1: in Vegas. They do have other entrees now, like lamb chops,
Speaker 1: lobster tails, salmon rockefeller, even a cauliflower steak or other
Speaker 1: seasonal vegetarian offering. They offer apps like shrimp cocktail or
Speaker 1: steak tartar or lobster bisk Sides like creamed corn, creamed spinach,
Speaker 1: baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, and gravy, maybe a grilled asparagus.
Speaker 1: The baked potatoes are dressed table side with toppings like
Speaker 1: bacon bits and shives and sour cream and butter. The
Speaker 1: basic salad, which is lettuce and chopped eck and croutons,
Speaker 1: maybe with other vegs added in, It is also mixed
Speaker 1: table side, like in this specific nested bowl setup. It's
Speaker 1: called the spinning salad, And so it's a nested bowl
Speaker 1: set up. They've got crushed ice in the outer bowl
Speaker 1: and the server will spin the inner bowl real fast
Speaker 1: to like distribute the vinegarette and chill the salad. It's
Speaker 1: a whole thing. But yeah, just like really classic mid
Speaker 1: twentieth century American steakhouse kind of situation. They also have
Speaker 1: locations of the Prime Rib in nine or ten real
Speaker 1: swanky neighborhoods and cities around East and Southeast Asia, with
Speaker 1: like the same table side carts and the same staff
Speaker 1: uniforms and mostly all the same menu items, which at
Speaker 1: a certain point is wild to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but they are definitely the restaurant that gives
Speaker 2: a restaurant that gives that vibe of this.
Speaker 1: Is the experience. Yes, yeah, this is what it is. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk a lot about that, but probably
Speaker 1: more humans are familiar with the seasoning. The brand is
Speaker 1: now owned by McCormick and Company. And yeah, that original
Speaker 1: blend also has a low sodium version and a version
Speaker 1: with black pepper added. The brand does have other seasoning
Speaker 1: blends like a garb like salt lemon pepper, Jerk Seasoning,
Speaker 1: Cajun Seasoning, Nashville Hot seasoning mixes for things like tacos, chili,
Speaker 1: spaghetti sauce, and Sloppy Joe's, plus a line of bottled
Speaker 1: sauces and or marinades like a like a honey taraiaki
Speaker 1: and a Cuban style mahome. There's also a few like
Speaker 1: just straight up spices under the Lowry's label, like you
Speaker 1: know Bay leaves. Here's some Cuban. Yeah. There's one blend
Speaker 1: name that I find a little bit aggressive. It's called
Speaker 1: Total Seasoning. Oh no, I mean it's just like garlic
Speaker 1: and onion and like a Regino Parsley's Lantro extract. But
Speaker 1: total seasoning, I mean emphasis added. But yes, I think
Speaker 1: they probably wanted to be there. I think you're correct.
Speaker 1: I will say that you can definitely make your own
Speaker 1: seasoning blends at home, and there are many do recipes
Speaker 1: out there if you want to look them up.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yes, this is something I sometimes encounter because
Speaker 2: I just grew up. You know, you reach for like
Speaker 2: Chinese fi spies, for example, and I find so many
Speaker 2: recipes that are like, you can just make that.
Speaker 1: If you don't have it, do you have these things?
Speaker 1: You probably have these other things. Yeah, you can make it.
Speaker 1: But anyway, what about the nutrition. Okay, don't eat brands,
Speaker 1: don't brands, steakhouse experiences like the Prime Rib, do Countess treats.
Speaker 1: Don't worry too hard about salt unless that is specifically
Speaker 1: a thing that like your personal health or family history
Speaker 1: tell you that you should worry about. There was an
Speaker 1: over emphasis for a long time, I think on worrying
Speaker 1: about salt in the United States, like drink water for sure.
Speaker 2: But you know, yeah, yeah, if you're worried about it,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah, a medical professional.
Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely, And you know, and if it's a thing
Speaker 1: that you do need to be worried about, then yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe make your own at home that doesn't contain salt.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I did want to put in here,
Speaker 1: And this is one of many side quests that, like,
Speaker 1: I argued with myself about including, but I found this
Speaker 1: so interesting that I wanted to say it out loud. So, Okay,
Speaker 1: in the United States, you don't have to list all
Speaker 1: of the ingredients in a packaged food if they're in
Speaker 1: there in small enough amounts and or if they can
Speaker 1: be lumped under certain terms like spices or natural flavors.
Speaker 1: And it seems that Lowerries will not post a list
Speaker 1: of everything that it contains, but if you ask a
Speaker 1: specific question on the McCormick's product page for Lowries, they
Speaker 1: will answer. That is why I specifically listed basil in
Speaker 1: the description above that is not on their ingredients list.
Speaker 1: And I can furthermore tell you that Lowry's Seasoned Salt
Speaker 1: does not contain tomatoes, mustard, or yeast extract. It's also
Speaker 1: suitable for vegans.
Speaker 2: That's interesting, Okay, Yeah, I mean I like that they respond,
Speaker 2: But you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love prompt and decisive customer service so much. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's why I made this note because I
Speaker 1: was like, ooh, this is thorough customer service.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, probably don't want anybody, I would hope don't
Speaker 2: want anybody to get sick.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, no. And that's exactly the thing, you know,
Speaker 1: like like people are writing in based on like specific
Speaker 1: food allergies or like you know, alpha gl syndrome or
Speaker 1: something like that, and so so, so it's really cool
Speaker 1: that they respond, yes, very well, we do have some
Speaker 1: numbers for you. Okay. So Lowry's, the Prime Rib restaurant,
Speaker 1: has served over ten million pounds of beef over its
Speaker 1: eighty plus years of service every month. Every month they
Speaker 1: serve an average of eleven thousand, six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: pounds of potatoes if you consider both mashed and baked.
Speaker 1: Oh my, you can order twenty two ounce steaks there.
Speaker 1: They come in sizes up to twenty two ish ounces.
Speaker 1: I've seen up to twenty four at some locations or
Speaker 1: at some points in the past. Those two ounces. It's
Speaker 1: still is that yes, yes, wow. And the restaurant side
Speaker 1: of the business is now a fourth generation, family owned
Speaker 1: and full of personalities. I adore it out in La
Speaker 1: You used to be able to tour the Lowry's seasoning factory,
Speaker 1: and at its peak they hosted about fifty thousand visitors
Speaker 1: a year. On the seasoning side, because the seasoning brand
Speaker 1: is now owned by McCormick, you can obtain Lowry seasoned
Speaker 1: salt in a one hundred and eighty pound drum. That's
Speaker 1: like eighty kilos. That is, that's if I were to
Speaker 1: turn into a pillar of season salt, that would be
Speaker 1: more than one Lauren pillar worth of salt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. I mean again, my brain
Speaker 2: is blue screening a little bit. Well, we do have
Speaker 2: quite the history for you.
Speaker 1: Oh we do. I'm so excited. Okay, Yes, we're going
Speaker 1: to get into that as soon as we get back
Speaker 1: from a quick break for a word from our sponsors,
Speaker 1: and we're back.
Speaker 2: Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Okay, So yes. The
Speaker 2: history of Lowry's is a fascinating one, and it starts
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty eight in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, with
Speaker 2: the opening of a very pash restaurant called Lowry's Prime Rib.
Speaker 2: It was the brainchild of business partners and brothers in law,
Speaker 2: Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Camp. They served one thing,
Speaker 2: Prime Rib with sides. It was meant to be a
Speaker 2: whole production too, and it was. It was served off
Speaker 2: of gleaming silver carts tableside as the meat was heated
Speaker 2: from underneath by hot coals. When full, these carts could
Speaker 2: weigh up to nine hundred pounds about four hundred and
Speaker 2: eight kilos, heavy enough that the floor needed to be
Speaker 2: reinforced with asphalt. The size included classics like cream spinach
Speaker 2: and creamed corn.
Speaker 1: Which arrived on the cart along with the beef and
Speaker 1: the prime rib. Dinner included mashed potatoes and gravy Yorkshire
Speaker 1: pudding which is like a sort of custardy popover bread,
Speaker 1: a creamy horse bradish sauce, and that spun salad. And
Speaker 1: the price at the time a dollar twenty five. That's
Speaker 1: around twenty eight bucks in today's money, accounting for inflation,
Speaker 1: which is still like a pretty awesome deal. You can
Speaker 1: order the same thing from the same carts to this day,
Speaker 1: but I will say it costs a bunch more than
Speaker 1: twenty eight bucks. Yes it does.
Speaker 2: Those cards, however, they were not so cheap, hmm. The
Speaker 2: stainlessteel carts were designed in house, and the first two
Speaker 2: alone represented twenty percent of their initial capital investment.
Speaker 1: I will say, like, if you've never been to this place,
Speaker 1: if you've never seen photographs from it. The carts are
Speaker 1: like it's not just it's not like just like a
Speaker 1: little serving trolley like it is this it looks kind
Speaker 1: of like a like one of those streamliners. Like it's
Speaker 1: it's like this very art deco just huge thing because
Speaker 1: they've got an entire rack of prime rib inside of it.
Speaker 1: And when they roll up, the server asks you what
Speaker 1: specific cut of meat you would like and proceeds to
Speaker 1: carve it off for you or I'm sorry, the carver,
Speaker 1: not the server. Those are two different jobs, as I learned.
Speaker 2: Yes we're speaking of okay, yeah, yeah, okay. So the
Speaker 2: restaurant also makes other claims like being responsible for the
Speaker 2: doggie bag and valet parking, which if so, I really
Speaker 2: don't like valet parking. But and they only hired women servers,
Speaker 2: and the servers had specific outfit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a uniform. It's this like kind of like
Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds inspired English made type uniform, not like
Speaker 1: sexy maid like normal maide. It's like a it's like
Speaker 1: a brown dress trimmed with like with like white cuffs
Speaker 1: and collar and like a starched white apron and little
Speaker 1: starched hat. Situation Yeah, the table side meat carvers can
Speaker 1: be and usually are dudes. They wear like white chef
Speaker 1: type uniforms with white gloves and a gold medallion on
Speaker 1: like a big red piece of THI fabric, which signifies
Speaker 1: that they have been through the carver training, which these
Speaker 1: days takes you six months.
Speaker 2: Yes, they are very A lot of the things they
Speaker 2: have are very specif think about like how high do
Speaker 2: you have to stand aboor the gravy. They have a
Speaker 2: lot of exact procedures. But I mean it seems to
Speaker 2: have worked for them.
Speaker 1: People like it. Yeah, they were inspired partially by like
Speaker 1: this famed nineteenth century English restaurant, Simpson's in the Strand,
Speaker 1: which is famed for roast meats, carved tableside and other
Speaker 1: marks of classic service.
Speaker 2: So yes, and until the nineties their menu only changed
Speaker 2: in response to beef rations during World War Two and
Speaker 2: they offered roast turkey in its place. We'll get more
Speaker 2: into that later, Oh yes, we will. The menu changes.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. So how does this relate to the seasoning? Well,
Speaker 2: after the prime rob was carved, it needed to be seasoned.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to be seasoned.
Speaker 1: Right right, because it's not the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: you cook with seasoning on it, other than maybe like
Speaker 1: like cooking it on a bed of salt or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, which I would love to come back to
Speaker 2: because I recently have prime rib and I was like,
Speaker 2: it could use some seasoning, but I feel like it's
Speaker 2: rude in the United States something, so I didn't season it.
Speaker 2: But now I read this and I was like, that
Speaker 2: makes so much sense. Yeah, anyway, all right, so co
Speaker 2: founder of the restaurant, Lawrence Frank, wanted to come up
Speaker 2: with their own seasoning that was more than salt, according
Speaker 2: to his son Richard Frank, for months, he tested out
Speaker 2: a bunch of combinations of herbs and spices until he
Speaker 2: arrived at something that he liked. It worked well, not
Speaker 2: just for the prime rib, but also the sides. This
Speaker 2: original mixture contained onion, garlic, paprika, turmeric, salt, and sugar
Speaker 2: and was placed on all the tables next to the
Speaker 2: salt and pepper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it apparently contained seventeen herbs and spices and write
Speaker 1: like the servers like tossed it with the salads and
Speaker 1: we're told to suggest it for everything.
Speaker 2: Yes, And the customers really liked it, and they started
Speaker 2: kind of pocketing it to take it home with.
Speaker 1: Them, just just like oops and does that shape now yeap.
Speaker 2: However, other sources claim that Frank came up with the
Speaker 2: seasoning first at his in Vandicamp's other restaurant, which also
Speaker 2: still exists, a Scottish tavern called tam O'Shanter, and that
Speaker 2: it was originally used there under the name season all
Speaker 2: spelled with a ze.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes, whatever the case.
Speaker 2: This pocketing of their salt gave Richard the idea to
Speaker 2: sell it outside of the restaurant, and I read that
Speaker 2: the first sales were made literally outside of the restaurant,
Speaker 2: like from the back of a World War two jeep.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, you really liked it so so Richard set
Speaker 2: up a separate company to make and distribute this salt,
Speaker 2: and the grocery chain Ralphs became the first major chain
Speaker 2: to start offering it in nineteen thirty eight.
Speaker 1: Yes, the separate company was called logically Lowry's Foods, and
Speaker 1: I read that Ralphs wound up carrying it because the
Speaker 1: buyer for the grocery chain like eight at Lowry's restaurant
Speaker 1: one day and liked the stuff so much that he
Speaker 1: put in an order. But also okay, so like we
Speaker 1: need to point out here that seasoned salt was a
Speaker 1: new concept at the time, Like Lowry's was I believe
Speaker 1: the first commercial brand of seasoned salt on the market.
Speaker 1: Like it was a little bit revolutionary. You know, a
Speaker 1: home cook could buy this one jar of seasoning. You
Speaker 1: don't have to spend a bunch of money on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different spices and like learn how to blend
Speaker 1: them yourself, and it just ritzes up whatever you add
Speaker 1: it to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for people who couldn't go to this fancy
Speaker 2: restaurant for what one reason or another, it was nice.
Speaker 1: It was like, okay, we go a little bit of
Speaker 1: accessibility of the of the brand, sure, exactly.
Speaker 2: And they were pretty they were pretty aggressive and advertising.
Speaker 2: Reasoning was an early advertiser in Ebony magazine, for example,
Speaker 2: which first debuted in nineteen forty five. I don't know
Speaker 2: when they first ran the ads, but they said it
Speaker 2: it was early on.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. In nineteen fifty three, they opened a manufacturing
Speaker 1: plant for Lowry's Foods out a little bit further east
Speaker 1: in La Out on the northeast edge of Allegian Valley.
Speaker 1: It served also as the headquarters for both branches of
Speaker 1: the brand and included like test kitchens and labs and
Speaker 1: the production lines for the spices.
Speaker 2: And then in nineteen fifty nine, the company tapped designing
Speaker 2: legend Saul Bass to design the L logo that is
Speaker 2: still in use today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like the guy who did the title sequences for
Speaker 1: Vertigo and Psycho. That guy. Yeah. The logo's official name
Speaker 1: is the Fanciful L, which which I think is some
Speaker 1: kind of stage name for me.
Speaker 2: But that's how you should introduce yourself at the podcast
Speaker 2: thing we're doing, the Fanciful OL.
Speaker 1: Uh. Well.
Speaker 2: Uh. It was one of the first seasoning salts sold commercially,
Speaker 2: and it was a real hit all across the US.
Speaker 2: In the seventies, President Nixon enjoyed a snack of cottage
Speaker 2: cheese seasoned with lowries. I have to say a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff I read about this, I couldn't tell if
Speaker 2: people were making fun.
Speaker 1: Of him or not. But hard to say, hard to
Speaker 1: say it, hard to say. Sounds good to me. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: that sounds delicious. Uh Okay. Over the years, they expanded
Speaker 1: that La Plant headquarters into this whole thing, this whole
Speaker 1: like mission revival like hacienda themed tourist center where you
Speaker 1: could tour the factory and like buy local Mexican Calie
Speaker 1: themed gifts and Lowry's seasonings and like have like a
Speaker 1: breezy lunch or dinner and drinks out on the garden grounds.
Speaker 1: It was called Lowry's California Center, and by the mid
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies they had like two or three restaurants on site,
Speaker 1: one known for stake Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, stepping back a bit. In nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 2: Lowry's Restaurant kicked off a tradition they called.
Speaker 1: The Beef Bowl.
Speaker 2: Every year before the Rose Bowl, the restaurant invites teams
Speaker 2: playing in the Rose Bowl to dine with them on
Speaker 2: different nights.
Speaker 1: Don't want to calls chaoss by having them on the
Speaker 1: same night.
Speaker 2: It started out as kind of an eating contest predictor
Speaker 2: of who would win, but nowadays there is a per
Speaker 2: person limit on meat portion size. I have to say
Speaker 2: it is still pretty big to my non football playing
Speaker 2: sixteen ounce serving followed by a twelve ounce second helping
Speaker 2: if you would like.
Speaker 1: It, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say that. I would
Speaker 1: say that twenty eight ounces is a hefty, hefty portion.
Speaker 1: But yeah, apparently like that's relatively small potatoes or small
Speaker 1: prime beef compared with what some of the players would
Speaker 1: put away before the relative limitation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean you can look it up some
Speaker 2: of the past, like the teams who won versus what
Speaker 2: they ate at this.
Speaker 1: How much they ate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's to me it was pretty shocking, but
Speaker 2: it exists, should you like to look into it. Lowry
Speaker 2: started expanding their restaurants to other cities in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 2: and they opened their first international location in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: They also we mentioned menu changes. They added lobster and
Speaker 2: fish to their menu in nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: As alternative entrees, and this was again the first time
Speaker 1: they had offered an entree other than prime rib in
Speaker 1: fifty five years. It wasn't until twenty thirteen, I believe,
Speaker 1: that they debuted another new entree, a grilled ribbi, for
Speaker 1: their seventy fifth anniverse. Right, I want to point out
Speaker 1: that a ribbi is the same cut as prime rab
Speaker 1: It's just cooked differently. At the time, the publication Nation's
Speaker 1: Restaurant News called it a bold move, but I'm not
Speaker 1: entirely sure if they were being like a little sarcastic.
Speaker 2: It's hard to say, because you and I were discussing before.
Speaker 2: People took this real seriously, seriously customers.
Speaker 1: They genuinely did. So. Part of this was right before
Speaker 1: all of this happened. I think the grandson had taken
Speaker 1: over for the restaurant group, and he had some bright
Speaker 1: new ideas, you know, not to you know, he wanted
Speaker 1: to respect the tradition. He didn't want to pivot, but compound,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wanted to make sure the restaurant could continue
Speaker 2: to thrive, staying what it is, but maybe also adding
Speaker 2: a little bit based on what was going on at
Speaker 2: the time trend wise.
Speaker 1: Some people were mad. Oh yes, oh yes, they were oof.
Speaker 1: At any rate, the restaurant, the Prime Rib, started hiring
Speaker 1: men as servers in two thousand and four, amidst a
Speaker 1: class action lawsuit that they wound up settling for like
Speaker 1: over a million bucks. Men were previously able to work
Speaker 1: as carvers or bussers, neither of which get tips, and
Speaker 1: so a group of men sued for discrimination. Yes, and
Speaker 1: that brings us to some more changes.
Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, Lowry's expanded their bar and menu options,
Speaker 2: including offering vegetarian items.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they like literally expanded their bar area to include
Speaker 1: more seating and allow for more casual dinner service at
Speaker 1: the bar, including a few lower priced options like a burger.
Speaker 1: They've been seeing good results at some of their other
Speaker 1: restaurant concepts and had just named another new CMO, the
Speaker 1: great grandson himself a chef, right, Yeah, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to help the brand revitalize.
Speaker 2: Perhaps, Yes, And some people similarly did not like him.
Speaker 2: And he's very like af bowl about it, and.
Speaker 1: He is he is, he seems. He seems aware and
Speaker 1: cautious and good humored.
Speaker 2: Yes, which I imagine it is good to have undertaking
Speaker 2: something like this that's so so fond.
Speaker 1: Of, so old and so beloved. Yeah. In the past
Speaker 1: several years, the Lowry's Restaurant Group has closed a few
Speaker 1: locations of their restaurants. I you know, I imagine it's
Speaker 1: rough running theatrical steakhouses during a pandemic and then during
Speaker 1: an ensuing recession.
Speaker 2: So yes, I did look it up now because I
Speaker 2: was curious. And you can get it delivered.
Speaker 1: You can, you can, I mean not like we actually
Speaker 1: I think that I think that there might be a
Speaker 1: service where they will mail it to you. But like
Speaker 1: a shipping. Yeah, shipping situation, but I didn't look that
Speaker 1: hard into it. Don't take our word for it. You
Speaker 1: can ask the Google about that. Meanwhile, though, we kind
Speaker 1: of consolidated all of our restaurant news up there. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Lowry's Foods Company was doing good. Lipton bought them in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine under Unilever. By nineteen eighty eight, their
Speaker 1: seasoned Salt was the top selling seasoning blend in the
Speaker 1: United States. At that time, they were making some one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten products and distributing them worldwide, though mostly
Speaker 1: in the US and Canada, with sales of about one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million bucks a year. They continued manufacturing
Speaker 1: and other shenanigans at the Lowry's California Center until Lipton
Speaker 1: closed it in nineteen ninety two as part of like
Speaker 1: a general corporate consolidation move. It was well loved by
Speaker 1: locals as a lunch spot, but apparently never profitable, and
Speaker 1: I will say the center has since been reopened as
Speaker 1: a public park, the Los Angeles River Centering Gardens. It
Speaker 1: sounds lovely. You can like rented for special events. You
Speaker 1: can have your wedding on the site of Lowry's season
Speaker 1: salt history through Lowry's season Salt ride and grew the beast.
Speaker 1: I'll do that. I don't do as good idea for
Speaker 1: the garden grounds. Yeah, don't. Don't through assault in gardens.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no. Well.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and eight, McCormick purchased Lowry's for six
Speaker 2: hundred and four million dollars.
Speaker 1: At the time, Lowry's dry seasonings were about sixty five
Speaker 1: percent of their business, their bottled marinads were twenty three percent.
Speaker 1: Both as sold to consumers. Their marinads were the market
Speaker 1: leader in that category. It was the first time that
Speaker 1: McCormick got into bottled marinades. Food service sales made up
Speaker 1: the last twelve percent of the total corporate sales. If
Speaker 1: you were wondering where that last little smitch was, it was,
Speaker 1: it was in food service. Yeah. And this, this whole
Speaker 1: deal was actually a really big situation in the seasoning
Speaker 1: business world, Like the FTC got involved because Lowry's was
Speaker 1: big enough that they had anti trust concerns about McCormick
Speaker 1: owning them, Because McCormick then would have controlled eighty percent
Speaker 1: of the seasoned salt market in the United States. In
Speaker 1: order for the FTC to allow the deal to go through.
Speaker 1: McCormick had to sell its own brand, Seasonal to Morton
Speaker 1: Salt Company. Seasonal spelled without a zee with the normal
Speaker 1: the normal way that you would spell season, and McCormick
Speaker 1: had to promise to not buy any other season salt
Speaker 1: brands for the next decade. Wow, legal season salt drama
Speaker 1: like anti trust salt. I love it? Uh pretty good.
Speaker 1: They did release lines of lower sodium seasoning blends starting
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, yes.
Speaker 2: Which might have been in response to shifting dietary preferences
Speaker 2: and health concerns. So some are moving away from using
Speaker 2: season salts like Lowry's as we mentioned, and spicing things
Speaker 2: on their own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say that there's also more of a desire
Speaker 1: these days to like experiment with your own seasonings, like
Speaker 1: find the exact blend that you like and make it yourself. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so too. Also, Okay, so that's our timeline.
Speaker 1: I think that's the end of our timeline. I there
Speaker 1: are more things, y'all. I like resubscribe to the La
Speaker 1: Times in order to write this outline because there were
Speaker 1: so many just just weird, little little tidbits in their
Speaker 1: articles that I was like, this is entirely worth my
Speaker 1: subscription money. There are stories about like about like so
Speaker 1: like that original Beverly Hills location like was on one
Speaker 1: side of the street and then at a certain point
Speaker 1: moved to a new building or to a different building
Speaker 1: and the other on the other side of the street,
Speaker 1: and then moved like built a new location, like built
Speaker 1: a new fancy place on the original side and moved
Speaker 1: back there. And like this entailed you know, like a
Speaker 1: lot of restaurant moving and shaken. But specifically they had
Speaker 1: to like have traffic cops come out and stop traffic
Speaker 1: so that the servers could push these like seven hundred
Speaker 1: pound carts back and forth across the road. Listen, Prime
Speaker 1: rib is no joke. It's not It's not no, but okay,
Speaker 1: so so yeah, so that's one more, one more cultural
Speaker 1: tidbit before I'm done, because whenever I find an example
Speaker 1: of like the Internet maybe not being all a mistake
Speaker 1: to begin with, in my in my searching, I found
Speaker 1: this Reddit post discussing whether lowries can be used to
Speaker 1: protect against supernatural beings the same way that plain salt can.
Speaker 1: The The text of the post was simply kind of
Speaker 1: in a situation here need to know fast yikes, which
Speaker 1: I believe was a joke, but the thread the respondents
Speaker 1: generally reasoned that like pure salt is best for ghosts,
Speaker 1: a spice blend with larger grains might work on like
Speaker 1: vampires and fae that compulsively count things. Something as fine
Speaker 1: grained as Lowries probably isn't good for them, and for
Speaker 1: d like you'd really you'd really need to check whether
Speaker 1: they're affiliated with McCormick and company, because demons are rules
Speaker 1: lawyers and so like their corporate affiliations matter in situations
Speaker 1: like this, there's good consumer service. We can just ask.
Speaker 1: It's good to know, pardon, can you give us a
Speaker 1: list of demons who currently work for McCormick and company.
Speaker 1: It's urgent. This is fantastic. Yeah, yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: just love that. Also, as y'all know, Annie and I
Speaker 1: are nerds for the television show Supernatural and other such
Speaker 1: speculative fiction. So that just made me really happy.
Speaker 2: And I was telling Lauren before, I'm so happy that
Speaker 2: you put this in, because I had stumbled on something
Speaker 2: that said Lowry's was haunted, and then it was a
Speaker 2: dead end everywhere I went and I was so sad,
Speaker 2: and then I see this note and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: at least we've still got We've still got this element
Speaker 2: of supernatural here, and I think it's great. I love
Speaker 2: people really put some thought into they did. They did,
Speaker 2: and I generally agree uh with their what they came
Speaker 2: up with here.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I think that that's all sage advice. I
Speaker 1: mean in a pinch, you know, like do what you
Speaker 1: gotta do, but in a.
Speaker 2: Pinch, yeah, get the lorries, hope for the best.
Speaker 1: Yeah that is but yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: I think that is officially what we have to say
Speaker 1: about Lowry's for now. It is.
Speaker 2: But we really want to hear from you listeners if
Speaker 2: you have any ways that you like to use it,
Speaker 2: memories with it, if you've been to the restaurant, or
Speaker 2: you've got any ghost or related.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, please let us know. Absolutely. But in the meanwhile,
Speaker 1: we do already have some listener mail for you, and
Speaker 1: we are going to get into that as soon as
Speaker 1: we get back from one more quick break for a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you, And we're back with listener flavor Explosion.
Speaker 2: That was like fireworks, you know, sure, yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: So Peter wrote, since you asked, I thought i'd tell
Speaker 2: you about my childhood cafeteria which has much more history
Speaker 2: and good vibes than I knew as a child. Clifton's Cafeteria,
Speaker 2: which I knew through their Lakewood Mall brand. Surely the
Speaker 2: most pedestrian and norm core of the lot was a
Speaker 2: lot like your description of Southern style cafeterias, although perhaps
Speaker 2: less focused on the heavy fried side of things, including
Speaker 2: no hush puppies that I recall, quite a variety of
Speaker 2: healthier salads, and the iced tea was not sweet, but
Speaker 2: there were still big tam roast beef, my personal childhood
Speaker 2: favorite roast turkey, and all the various carbon vegetable sides
Speaker 2: and casseroles. Their dessert offerings were okay, but not stellar,
Speaker 2: various pies and cakes, two flavors of ice cream you
Speaker 2: could probably guess which flavors those would be, and oddly
Speaker 2: three or four Surbet flavors, yes, Surbet, not Sherbert Jess.
Speaker 1: Had to get that off my chest.
Speaker 2: But the normy Clifton's I knew was connected to an
Speaker 2: illustrious and laudable history. The main branches in Los Angeles
Speaker 2: were opened in the depths of the Great Depression and
Speaker 2: had a policy that no one would go hungry even
Speaker 2: if they had no money. Their target profit per customer
Speaker 2: was only one half cent, which was a lot more
Speaker 2: back then, but still. The Los Angeles branches were also
Speaker 2: much more creative in their diner experience, having a very
Speaker 2: unusual design sensibility that some claim was the precursor to
Speaker 2: the mid centry tiki barklays. Sadly, the Lakewood branch closed
Speaker 2: in two thousand and one due to low customer demand,
Speaker 2: and the last Cliftons, the one in downtown LA closed
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen, and it is now only represented by
Speaker 2: a bar called Clifton's Republic, which has a bunch of
Speaker 2: small plates with modern fusion inventions which might be very
Speaker 2: good but have none of the tradition of Clifton's past. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do have to say, small plates sort of antithesis.
Speaker 1: I mean type of cafeteria. I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you're ordering a number of things to
Speaker 1: make up your meal. It's true, but not in a
Speaker 1: similar way.
Speaker 2: No, No, but I'm really glad you shared this because
Speaker 2: we did focus specifically on the South, but I know
Speaker 2: that there are pockets that had.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, yeah. And California. California is a big cafeteria
Speaker 1: like mid century cafeteria area in general. So yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so fascinated by all of this. I would not
Speaker 1: have expected y'all to have had hushpuppies out there.
Speaker 2: I have to say. I don't even drink like sweet
Speaker 2: iced tea. And I was a little guest.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's a definite, Like like whenever someone
Speaker 1: who is not from the South starts talking about iced tea,
Speaker 1: I'm like, let us specify just for one moment. Are
Speaker 1: we talking about sweet tea? Because that's what a Southerner
Speaker 1: means when they say iced tea.
Speaker 2: Oh it's so ingrained. I was almost gast out. But yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for sharing and this history. I'm
Speaker 2: sad that it closed. I at least it still has
Speaker 2: this little outpost. Yeah, you know, people like you to
Speaker 2: remember it. Yeah, and I am. I am intrigued in
Speaker 2: the the differences between regions of the items they offer,
Speaker 2: and so I like the healthier salads, not as much
Speaker 2: fried food.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but again, again this makes sense, it does it does, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh is it sure? But for sure Bay sure did?
Speaker 1: We We have no idea. We did an episode about it,
Speaker 1: Go see that one. We figured I figured it out
Speaker 1: at some point in the past. But now it's gone.
Speaker 1: It's blonde done. Christine wrote, this is a message I
Speaker 1: meant to send a while ago, because this is my
Speaker 1: curry leaf plant. I've had it for a few years now,
Speaker 1: and I deliberately keep it small. The leaves are very
Speaker 1: nice to graze on and very tasty if flash fried,
Speaker 1: the flavor tends to not last in long slow cooks.
Speaker 1: I did have a brief flurry of research into when
Speaker 1: it was introduced into Australia, because Australia has a long
Speaker 1: fascinating relationship with the food and plants of the Indian subcontinent.
Speaker 1: From what I can tell, it only started to be
Speaker 1: sold commercially in nineteen ninety, so quite recent. But the
Speaker 1: main reason I wanted to write was to provide some
Speaker 1: more details about Australian coffee. I think I rather shocked you,
Speaker 1: particularly Lauren, with my declaration that Australians have the best coffee.
Speaker 1: It's not just me who thinks this, based on some
Speaker 1: not very exten research of Reddit and Cora forums, Australians
Speaker 1: who have lived in the US, Americans who live in Australia,
Speaker 1: and some globe trotting content creators. Australian coffee is often
Speaker 1: considered as among the best in the world, if not
Speaker 1: the best. I think this has to do with migration
Speaker 1: because of what socialists call targeted ethnic persecution and I
Speaker 1: call white people being racist to other white people. Australia
Speaker 1: didn't have a huge number of Southern and Eastern Europeans
Speaker 1: prior to World War Two. After World War Two, there
Speaker 1: was a drive to encourage migration, and for the first
Speaker 1: time this included Southern and Eastern Europeans in larger numbers,
Speaker 1: probably because we couldn't get enough from Britain and had
Speaker 1: to relax our standards. This meant for the first time,
Speaker 1: an influx of Italians and Greeks, in particular. The US
Speaker 1: also had waves of migrants from these places after World
Speaker 1: War Two, but they were absorbed into already substantial populations here.
Speaker 1: They were establishing little Italyes and little Greece's. For the
Speaker 1: first time. They brought with them trattria and taverna culture
Speaker 1: which adapted to various Australian institutions very well, such as
Speaker 1: the burgeoning cafe culture of Melbourne. I think it's also
Speaker 1: important to remember this coincided with the industrial development of
Speaker 1: single serve espresso machines. Australia didn't really have a coffee presence,
Speaker 1: so Italian and Greek cafes with these interesting new machines
Speaker 1: and this interesting new drink really took off. Melbourne is
Speaker 1: particularly significant in Australian and world coffee history. I went
Speaker 1: back and listened to your McDonald's episode, and while you
Speaker 1: mentioned McCafe stealth McDonald's, you didn't talk much about the history.
Speaker 1: The first McCafe opened in nineteen ninety three in Melbourne
Speaker 1: as the brainchild of McDonald's Australia Managing director Charlie Bell.
Speaker 1: Bell later became the McDonald's CEO and spearheaded the healthier
Speaker 1: McDonald's options. By the time the first McCafe opened in
Speaker 1: the US in two thousand and one, there were over
Speaker 1: one hundred in Australia and today around ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of Australian mcdo donald's have a McCafe. But now I
Speaker 1: realize why McCafe succeeded in Australia while so many other
Speaker 1: US coffee chains have crashed and burned. McCafe is the
Speaker 1: Australian cafe culture that adapted across the world instead of
Speaker 1: a foreign coffee concept that couldn't force its way into
Speaker 1: a well developed coffee culture. That's fascinating. This is all fascinating.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm like, now we need to go back and do
Speaker 1: an episode just about McCafe. Clearly, I would love to.
Speaker 2: I would love to because we did mention it briefly
Speaker 2: in that episode, But every time I've seen them when
Speaker 2: I've traveled in another country, they look so nice.
Speaker 1: They don't you know, they don't look like an afterthought,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like an American McDonald's. It's kind of like, uh,
Speaker 1: we vaguely shoved a espresso concept in here. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: more likely that it's like a frozen drink kind of
Speaker 1: situation and right, and then basically everywhere else it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you wanted a cafe, we can provide that for you,
Speaker 1: no problem. Here. I feel like they were just like
Speaker 1: there's a Starbucks across the street man, Yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know that.
Speaker 2: I think that's also interesting because there was sort of
Speaker 2: a at least very public backlash about McDonald's expanding into
Speaker 2: other countries. We've talked about how they're still pretty popular.
Speaker 2: But if you get the McCafe and it has I
Speaker 2: don't know, local coffee.
Speaker 1: Decent coffee, and decent pastry, it's like, well.
Speaker 3: That feels less of a American thing and more of
Speaker 3: a like this is actually we have good coffee. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Whereas for us, at least in my experience in the US,
Speaker 3: the McCafe is just like, really, you're going to.
Speaker 1: Go in there, all right, I'll go, yeah, you're going
Speaker 1: there for coffee. You're getting a coffee from there. Partially
Speaker 1: because for such a long time the coffee like you
Speaker 1: could get a coffee at a McDonald's, certainly during the
Speaker 1: morning hours, but it was not a high quality coffee, no,
Speaker 1: and you knew what you were getting, yeah, oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And if you kind of want something that tastes like
Speaker 1: diesel fumes, then you know, great, good for you. But yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, no, I did not know about any of this.
Speaker 1: Thank you, as always for writing in. This is super fascinating.
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, right, like coffee is so good,
Speaker 1: that makes sense.
Speaker 2: And I also love that you did some research on
Speaker 2: Reddit for I'm so sad that when I was in Australia,
Speaker 2: I wasn't a big coffee person. I drank coffee, but
Speaker 2: it was it was literally like, what is the thing
Speaker 2: that has.
Speaker 1: Caffe in it? You can get through the Yeah.
Speaker 2: I didn't have a lot of money either, Definitely, I
Speaker 2: wasn't looking for the but that makes me so sad.
Speaker 2: I would really appreciate it now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, Christine provided a picture of her curry plant. It
Speaker 2: looks very healthy, very well. I still haven't had any,
Speaker 2: but I did look into Lauren you mentioned Chaiapanni and
Speaker 2: they do have it on their menu and it's several dishes.
Speaker 2: But the problem is, and I've told you this is
Speaker 2: a problem for me now, I want to order like
Speaker 2: six things, so I need to get a group together, okay,
Speaker 2: because I can't eat six things by myself.
Speaker 1: Six things. I mean problem to have, but it's a
Speaker 1: lovely problem to have. But yeah, yeah, no, the next
Speaker 1: time that you have the opportunity to do it. They
Speaker 1: were really good. Yeah, they yeah, Like I just ordered
Speaker 1: one of the like chot kind of situations and it
Speaker 1: had a bunch of little fried curleaves scattered over it
Speaker 1: and they were so nice. They sound so nice. I
Speaker 1: want them. It's like really really bright and heady. Yeah
Speaker 1: yeah wow.
Speaker 2: I'm very happy Christine that you wrote in about this
Speaker 2: and that you you have these leaves to snack on.
Speaker 1: I also graze on my herbs. I'm just like a, hey, Basil,
Speaker 1: let's just do that. Dyl, Okay, let's go so good,
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 2: Well. Thanks to both of these listeners for writing in.
Speaker 2: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 2: or email us hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 1: We're also on social media. You can find us on
Speaker 1: Instagram and blue Sky at saber pod, and we do
Speaker 1: hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, you can visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan
Speaker 1: Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
Speaker 1: we hope that lots of more good things are coming
Speaker 1: your way.