853. - Flynn McGarry

12:39Flynn McGarry:bro it's before noon damn

12:40Jason Stewart:yeah I mean I like I've been to Japan and where you get the squid sushi I've gotten that in Beverly Hills bro it's disgusting there too but the thing that always creep me out more than the moving tentacles is like the sort of the iridescent scales on it you can see them like moving in waves like you're on mushrooms and that I feel like I'm messing with like a interplanetary celestial energy that way, you know? What's really crazy is, Chris, have you walked by this place called Sushi Delic?

13:14Flynn McGarry:Great name. Love the name. Great name. I don't think I have. Can you give me a location? Can you drop a pin? It's on Center and Grand. Okay. All right. In the hood. And it's an import from Japan. It is like an anime sushi place. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I have walked by this. Yes, I have walked by this. So Amanda went there the other day for drinks with her friend for some reason and i've also been there for drinks it's a very entertaining place are they known for their cocktail program their sake cocktails no not they're known for whatever the hell is going on in there and you want to see it you're right my bad well no so they did actually change the name to tokyo delic because i don't think anyone wanted to eat sushi there uh but she was like the table next to me goes i just hear them go is this supposed to be moving and she was like yeah they ordered like squid and it was moving and i was like either that's really impressive or it's really really bad sure because like if they've figured out how to do the like perfectly live squid you know in this kind of terrible japanese restaurant that would be really impressive to me or someone really fucked up so hold on so you're saying that you're saying that if you order that there is a way if you're an expert to serve it still still moving well is what you're saying well mainly just buying it still alive is it

14:37Jason Stewart:seems like a rare thing oh i see okay so it's like either be that way with a high level item and a high level of knife work and sushi skills or just by creepy dark coincidence this squid is somehow moving and we don't trust that got it yeah it's over at tokyo delhi you you want it

14:56Flynn McGarry:intentionally alive not yeah that's that's kind of how i look at my life every day actually now

15:02Jason Stewart:that you say that despite everything despite how bad the squid is it's actually moving yeah

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18:42Flynn McGarry:I don't like squid like that. I don't like head on. I don't want the heads on my shrimp. Take clean. Do something back there. What the fuck are you doing? If you're handing me a shrimp with the head on, what have you done? You know, I get that side. Sometimes. Chef. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes it's not for me. But that's because you know how to do the work. It's like when somebody brings me a fish and they want me to take the bone. I'm like, I'm not doing that. That's your fucking job. No, no, no. I do actually think it is rude to give people a shrimp with like all the shells and the head on without at least a wet towel.

19:16Jason Stewart:And I did notice that at our meal last night at NYC's Cove, there were multiple dishes where hands were used and there was a little wet towel table side for those specific dishes. And that was a nice touch to have a little wipe down. These are one of the dining premiums you get if you spend money in a restaurant. This is NYT four-star level of wet towelery. We have someone that spends like two hours a day just rolling these towels. Like the Cuban cigars on Seinfeld. Yeah.

19:49Flynn McGarry:We talked about this on the show, but we were at this Tex-Mex place in Austin, and the waitress told us that there's separate staff for rolling silverware. There's people that come in just to do that because the numbers are so crazy.

20:01Jason Stewart:It's like when you, we've got the nonas in the back who have mastered knife rolling. That's impressive.

20:07Flynn McGarry:I know. It was.

20:08Jason Stewart:I mean, on a scale like that, yeah.

20:10Flynn McGarry:Yeah, Flynn's, but just to set the stage, Flynn's in his car outside of Cove drinking what looks to be a cappuccino out of a ceramic mug. That is true. Okay.

20:18Jason Stewart:Flynn, are you still on your daily morning coffee newspaper croissant flow? No, I'm on a, well, now I have the benefit of, I live above Jem Home. so I go downstairs and I get a free coffee which is very nice.

20:35Flynn McGarry:Free is a nice way to put it you're paying for it but. Do you have to use a punch card or is it just whatever you want? No no this is the sixth one you said it was free. I get my free coffee and sometimes I grab a pastry sometimes I grab a morning bun today I just ate an apple at the farmer's market. Oh god what's better than being in Union Square sun's out you're out there in your little outfit having an apple? I mean there's nothing I hate more than going on Saturdays. It's amateur hour. It's amateur hour. It's like every other day the amateurs kind of wait for you. I didn't realize this, but the Santa Monica Farmer's Market has professional hours.

21:14Oh, really?

21:15Flynn McGarry:They're like, before you come five to seven. Five to seven professional hours. Ladies free before ten type shit. New York, we were just like, you know.

21:24Jason Stewart:Are you jealous of that friends and family Farmer's Market hours for the real pros? I'm jealous because I've been looked at like a villain, mainly because one time I was walking with the cart, and this old lady was not looking and walked directly into it and tripped over it, and everyone looked at me like it was my fault. And there are still people that I, because I see the same people every time, there are still people that look at me different because they think I tripped an old lady with my cart. No one was upset that she knocked over like eight flats of tomatoes. She was fine.

22:00Flynn McGarry:Was she mad at you though? Or did she recognize that it was her fault? She recognized it, but not publicly enough. Sure. She kind of like said it, you know, was like, I'm fine. Not a, that was my bad. I don't fuck with that. I don't fuck with that at all. I don't fuck with that at all. I would have yelled at her probably. Unfortunately,

22:18Jason Stewart:that is a Larry David moment for you. Isn't it over there? Yeah, that was,

22:22Flynn McGarry:I have to say, I have to say after 17 years or something in New York, I've never been willfully to that farmer's market. I've walked through it and hated every second of it, but I've never been because it looks like what you're describing. It looks like.

22:37Jason Stewart:Mayhem.

22:38Flynn McGarry:Yeah, but also have you ever bought an onion? In my life, yes. Okay. But not because I wanted to. Where do you shop in the neighborhood? You go to Whole Foods? No, I don't cook, but if I need supplies, I will use Fresh Direct to get my sparkling water and cold brew. That's fair.

22:55Jason Stewart:Chris has been on his eggs, avo, sourdough flow. So I do pick up sourdough at Balthazar. If you're wondering why, it seems like he's put on so much weight lately. He's kind of been on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's bulking season.

23:09Flynn McGarry:Thanks, Sarah. Friends at Balthazar. Says the guy, Flynn's having a fucking morning bun at 8 a.m. and I still have to fucking thug it out with my protein.

23:16Jason Stewart:I mean, it reminds me of a tweet. it's like never trust like a hot skinny bitch who eats a croissant every day like and that's Flynn you know I eat a morning bun and then I eat or I eat again it like I have like six bites of a piece of chicken at four o 'clock and that's about it yeah yeah okay well let's talk about morning buns in the style of a Copenhagen bakery yes um I'm staying at Nine Orchard the beautiful Nine Orchard hotel thank you fabulous I can tell by the bet by the by the tell by that headboard Yep. Yeah, the OHA speakers are really pumping the jazz right now. But we're right around the corner from Elbow Bakery, and they have the little morning bun.

23:57Jason Stewart:I go in there. I'm like, oh, a little morning, seated morning bun with the butter and cheese. And I'm like, let me get one of those. And I was like, oh, can I get it with cheese? And they're like, what are you talking about? And I was like, you know, it has butter and cheese on the bread. It's a delicious Copenhagen treat. It seems like that's what you're doing here. And they had no idea that these even have cheese on them. So do yours have cheese on them? Yes. Thank God. Ours are the real deal. It's a very similar cheese to the Danish cheese. What cheese do they use exactly? So they use a specific cheese.

24:28I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but there is a whole drama because for a year they were out of the cheese. Oh, wow.

24:35Flynn McGarry:That's because those lazy motherfuckers probably just went on holiday.

24:38Jason Stewart:We blame TikTok for the update. They ran out of the Danish cheese. Is it in the Gouda family? No, it's more in the Comte family. Okay. I didn't know it had that level of meltability for them. I love their first 7-inch. That's a great band. I found out recently, which you may be interested to hear, Jason, that Nikolai was in town, and he was eating one, and he was like, everyone in here is eating these things raw. And I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, you don't eat it like a sandwich. And I was like, but it's always presented as a sandwich. and he goes yeah you buy it and then you take it apart yeah and you eat it as two open-faced sandwiches and i was like as someone who does love almost everything danish that's one of the things that i'm like what is wrong with you that you can't just eat it as a sandwich that is that

25:32Flynn McGarry:is strange and now that i know that i'm gonna make sure to correct myself next time i'm in the motherland so i don't look like a yokel he was like he was like it's not a fucking burger and I was like, I mean, you do have a point there. Yeah, sure, sure. We are eating a cheese and butter burger, and it is a little bit more elegant if you're eating it open-faced.

25:50Jason Stewart:You could also call it a sandwich because it doesn't have a ground beef patty in it. Okay, here's a follow-up question. I like the idea of this, and sometimes I like to take something as simple as a cheese sandwich and then find a way to break it up into two layers. so do you have one piece butter and bread only as your appetizer course and then the main course is butter and cheese on there no or do you split up the cheese on both pieces so we also do it the traditional way which is two slices of cheese sure so you have one on each side but what i don't like is that then you're eating the top and then the bottom and the top and the bottom are two very different things we learned that at addison ray last night i was about to say it sounds like half

26:36Flynn McGarry:the crowd at addison ray last night that's i that is an interesting twist i feel extremely guilty eating those outside of denmark for some reason like i when we go to gym home alex goes there to get that yeah and i have to i even though i'm eating a sandwich that is obviously more food than that there's something in my mind where i just can't have it even though i i enjoy it so

27:00Jason Stewart:guilty really yeah not because you're you're like uh stealing culture or like any cultural appropriation it's it's like steal white on white culture stealing is is just the idea of eating a slice of cheese and buttered bread in the morning feels guilty to you you should be having sprouts and avocado and beetroot or or nothing like that's ideally 10 a.m but you can get you

27:23Flynn McGarry:can get it all day at at gym home right yeah we have them all day but i i mean i stand by it is I think the kind of perfect thing for breakfast. Something about it. Oh, I'm not disagreeing. I'm not disagreeing with that. It gives you enough to go to get through the day. I think it's that or a smoothie. Well, I'm having, what about three bowls of cinnamon toast crunch? That doesn't, that's not, okay. Well, back to the drawing board. It depends on the, that seems like a holiday situation. You mean when I'm on vacation or you mean Christmas only? Either, either. You know, like you are on holiday.

27:59Okay. Whether that is the holidays or you're sitting by the beach with your cinnamon toast. That is good to know. Like cinnamon toast crunch at a hotel, I think is very, you know, when they bring it with the milk and the creamer.

28:10Flynn McGarry:Wow. I've never had cereal from room service before. It's pretty, I think I've only had it once.

28:15Jason Stewart:Where they lift the chrome dome over your plate to reveal a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch. That's a nice touch. That is a really nice touch. That is a really nice touch. And then you mix the milk and the cream together to be a half and half blend. Is that what I hear? No, no, no. They put it in like a creamer. So you're like pouring it from a -

28:31Flynn McGarry:Oh, you're pouring it out of a delicate object. Yeah.

28:33Jason Stewart:Actually, while I have a Michelin star quality chef on the phone, do you play in the cereal space with additions? When we had Molly Boz on, she was talking about how she adds salt to certain cereals. And I've gotten into the mode of doing milk blends. I'll do half coconut, half whole milk. Y 'all need to chill the fuck out. Y 'all need to chill the fuck out. Mixing. I'll do a healthy girl cereal and a bad boy cereal. Combine the two of them. Things like that.

29:04Flynn McGarry:That I'm not mad at. When Molly said she puts mayo in her cereal, I was shocked.

29:08Jason Stewart:That's just her plugging her mayo.

29:10Flynn McGarry:No, that's a joke. She didn't say that.

29:12Jason Stewart:Yeah, she said the chipotle yuzu wasabi mayo.

29:16Flynn McGarry:She's like, you've never had the chipotle wasabi mayo with Cheerios before. You don't understand the flavor. Your palate's not there, Chris. Your palate's not there. I don't think you can really handle that level of you, mommy. I don't believe in needing to elevate these things that exist in their own category. I see what you're saying. Cereal comes with additions. There are many versions of them. I feel like if it needs to be made better, it kind of exists.

29:45Jason Stewart:But then we're debating a need versus a desire. The milk thing, I think, is valid. I don't need to have Wagyu flown in from Japan to a rich lady's house in New Hampshire, but I want it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm down for the milk blend. Okay. I'll give you the milk blend. We're making progress. Adding other things to cereal just sounds like you're making granola. Oh. Okay.

30:10Flynn McGarry:Counterpoint. Yeah, once you start adding peanut M &Ms and raisins, it's like - That's just granola. That's a Costco granola right there. What difference does it make? Call me a granola muncher then. But you make a mean granola, don't you? We make a granola. But are you passionate about it? Because I feel like there are people. I am passionate about it. I think it's a very good. Where do you want your granola to show up? On top of a yogurt? Or do you want a milk? Personally, I go yogurt with it. But I've been known to, if I'm just starving, I will just grab a handful of that and eat it with milk.

30:45Oh, shit. Bro, I could eat a whole bag of Jim home granola fisting.

30:50Flynn McGarry:I could fist it. No problem. The best quote-unquote granola experience at this one restaurant that I worked at, the breakfast every day, was this crazy cereal that they made that was the most Scandinavian shit ever. The cereal was just hazelnuts and chocolate chips. That's a fucking deconstructed candy bar is what that is. And we would eat that. You would have hazelnuts and chocolate chips with cold milk for breakfast. I mean, that sounds delicious.

31:19Jason Stewart:Okay, so you have deconstructed Nutella served with a glass of cold milk. Yeah. I also think this is very expensive for a staff breakfast. I agree.

31:28Flynn McGarry:They spare no expense over there. I mean, I think granola, much like a bar nut, is one of the things that's almost always good, but the highs are very high and the lows are very low. Yeah. You know? I think there's a lot of room to get creative, and that maybe causes problems. My biggest problem with granola is when there's no clumping.

31:50Jason Stewart:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A cluster-free. It's like having a bunch of nerds versus a nerd's cluster. I need a clump. Yeah, you need clusters in granola. Otherwise, you're literally just eating rolled oats at that point.

32:05Flynn McGarry:You're right. Yeah? You know what? But I think the key to granola and yogurt is some sort of squirrel-level jam or compote mixed in. I think that really takes it over the edge. You're describing the yogurt bowl at Jim Home right now. But when people serve it raw dog without a fruit of spread of some kind, I'm like, what do we eat? What do we do? Will you take a honey? Will you take a honey in the mix? Oh, fuck no. I get honey. When I'm at Backyard Bowls, the only thing I tell them, the only mod I make, no honey. Honey's for women I've never appreciated when you get a Smoothie bowl and they put all the honey on top I don't need it It's unnecessary sweetness The shit is already sweet And then it's sticky I don't want to get that shit on my hands I'm good on that

32:54Jason Stewart:We don't need your mouth to get any stickier Than it already is

32:57Flynn McGarry:The only time I was fucking with honey There was a trip I did In Santa Fe In 2010 and we had weed honey sticks before weed was legal. I remember that. And that was pretty sick. That was pretty sick. So I was breaking two rules, eating honey and drinking tea. Flavored honey sticks really was a specific period in time as well. What other flavors? I only did them for the weed flavor. There was so many flavors of these honey sticks.

33:25Jason Stewart:Blackberry, it looked like a straw. Yeah, exactly.

33:29Flynn McGarry:You snip it off and you rip it and dip it. Were you just supposed to put it in tea, basically? No, you were literally supposed to eat it. You could use it on the smoothie bowl. Just like a little pinger.

33:37Jason Stewart:Yeah. Just a little pick-me-up. I just need a hit of this orange blossom honeysuckle.

33:45Flynn McGarry:I think I just really don't like the consistency of honey. That's what it doesn't work for me. But I feel like it's in more foods than I realize. I've never tried the eat honey every day from where you live thing to stop allergies. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm very curious if that actually works. Speaking of, at the farmer's market, there's a honey guy that has honey from very hyper-specific areas within Manhattan. All right, I'm back. Now I'm a little interested. If I can get East Village limited edition honey, I am interested in what that would do to my gut biome.

34:21Jason Stewart:This is a Murray Hill Manuka blend for all of our allergic homies. There is a Murray Hill Manuka. Murray Hill Manuka.

34:28Flynn McGarry:Sounds like a WNBA team. That's actually really funny I mean the whole bee thing I mean we do have a friend that told us about the therapy And it like changed her life And I sort of believe it But do you have bees on the farm or no? I don't have bees Isabella has bees We got some honey that was actually From after we started farming And I tasted that Versus the honey from before And it tasted completely different You're saying Big Flynn Bless the soil up there Well, the hives are right next to all of our flowers. So it was very clear that, you know, we grew a bunch of chamomile. It was kind of chamomile-y.

35:08It is impressive, actually, that you can... There was actually, of the New York City honey, there is this scandal, I remember, like five or six years ago, where this guy was selling, like, really deep red honey at some farmer's market. And he was saying, oh, it's because they got in, you know, it's all blackberry honey, whatever. and it turns out i think someone like investigated it and turned out that the bees had just gotten a bunch of um like spilled fruit punch and so there's all there's red 40 in the honey and it literally like looked like they put food dye in the honey so so it's like

35:46Jason Stewart:when i get my little uh 3.5 and it's all purple and shit you know and they they clearly sprayed it with some type of paint to make it look like it was extra dark purple crystalline that's really funny.

35:58Flynn McGarry:I've never thought about there being any scandal attached to honey but it's a good thing to know that any industry can get touched. Have you tried the vegan honey? Apparently this is a thing now. I don't care about insects and I don't like honey so there's no reason for me to sample that really but I just don't. Vegan honey feels like a bridge too far. I can see it being at Eatscon. How dare you? It's possible. The Anajac Thai honey sweetened

36:27Jason Stewart:that's a good idea vegan honey is is one of those like a problem that does not need to be fixed i

36:33Flynn McGarry:feel like that about vegan yogurt even though i know it's different for some reason that's a lot

36:37Jason Stewart:actually carolyn when she goes tastes good though she goes to canada i like a coconut she got really obsessed with like hyper hyper bacteria like super tangy funky coconut vegan yogurt and she got addicted to it interesting it has like it has so much more gut microbiome blah blah marketed as

36:57Flynn McGarry:coconut yogurt don't call it vegan is what i'm trying to say because i feel like coconut yogurt i agree draws me in more if you say something's vegan half the people are turned off and think

37:07Jason Stewart:it's lame instantly without tasting it yeah but we were talking about this on the last episode when you know over the last five years it'll say like this apple juice is vegan and gluten-free and we're like, yeah, no shit. I think you have to be like overly, overly, overly clear about the restrictions and the categories now because our nation's eaters are not getting smarter. No. As the time ticks on. No, that's true.

37:32Flynn McGarry:And what's the yogurt people really like that's got this stupid fucking name? It's like Mr. Mustache or something.

37:38Jason Stewart:It is very good.

37:39Flynn McGarry:White mustache. It is banging. No, no, it is by far the best, but I can't believe what people, It feels like when Lyft came out. I'm like, you're really going to do that? That's really what you're going to go with.

37:50Jason Stewart:Well, I think the story is because it's her dad's recipe from Iran, and he always had a mustache, and it's like a tribute to him type of thing.

37:59Flynn McGarry:Name it Arshid, Ben. You don't need to name it White Mustache. What the fuck? There's other words you can name it to give a tribute to your Persian father. There's something weirdly kind of also creepy about that name. just like in terms of yogurt I don't want to think about

38:18Jason Stewart:mustaches and facial hair in the processing plant but that yogurt is far and above the greatest yogurt I've ever had that orange blossom with the raw walnut and the walnut soaking into the yogurt it turns otherworldly in the mouth

38:35Flynn McGarry:it's expensive too right

38:37Jason Stewart:it's not crazy and they sell it at Eataly nationwide that's where I've gotten it before

38:42Flynn McGarry:You know, they're opening an eataly at JFK. Wow.

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40:03Flynn McGarry:Next to the Delta Lounge in Terminal B.

40:06Jason Stewart:that's going to be a uh happening spot easily hard to steal from them not my favorite one on the one on true there's a self-check out there the soho one like i have i'm like tempted soho the one i don't steal from grocery stores but i'm like this is too easy there's no one standing there well it's not a grocery store it's a specialty market that's true yeah we got it we got a hard my dumb ass treats it like a grocery store sure who did we get a oh we got a hard lesson from

40:31Flynn McGarry:the barney's guy about he like got offended that jason called it a department store he's like it's actually a specialty store i'm like in the 1950s it was but we call it a department store sorry bro

40:41Jason Stewart:that's just what it's called yeah i didn't want to get into the semantics of the differences and then also somebody tweeted today saying a quote from him saying they should write a they should somebody should write a book about the 60s and i didn't have the heart to say that may have already happened once or twice before um but speaking of barney's actually good segue chris i wanted to talk to you about like the art of merchandising and like what do you think is going right and wrong in the world of like retail because in addition to being a great chef and restaurateur you have the home shop you have a really keen eye for design and interiors and merchandising

41:19Flynn McGarry:and you know subtlety going on damn you're you're a you're a twink picker you're out there fucking got the volvo you're actually you're a picker you know how to pick them but this twink yeah

41:30Jason Stewart:yeah how many twinks does it yeah you're okay sorry there wasn't really a question but you know i guess more so like your thoughts on like you know maybe brick and mortar retail in a time where that doesn't happen anymore you know we got morgan sterns closing on every you know um well yeah it's not a successful business retail it's one of those businesses that you don't do let me just start at the start here let me just start at the start here yeah it's a passion yeah it's it's purely based on vibes um and those vibes lead to you know herbivore takeovers and events in the back got it got it got it okay so in a very to put it into the fashion world it's it's editorial and commercial one begets the other without the the free shit you don't get the commercial big jobs that pay for it all and vice versa yes except i will say the one thing on that is which these uh actually the tariffs are making my life really hard because everything that we buy is mainly european but i do think the one area and it's not it doesn't do well every day but uh you know the small 80 to 200 dollar homeware items i think is truly one of the most successful areas in the world now you see every single fashion company now i mean i i saw the other day that jonathan anderson now oh he's making he's just selling teacups and ceramics and there is that times article about all the japanese menswear guys selling all the the very specific ceramics so i do think that we are in this period where like homeware objects are this like entry into like i can't buy a house but i can buy really amazing plateware which has been my whole thing

43:29Flynn McGarry:bro hold that that ain't your whole thing your whole thing is like a 65 wooden salt shaker more like 650 wooden salt shaker but yeah yeah but i know what you mean and it's it's like a

43:42Jason Stewart:good entryway into like signifying wealth and luxury and and curated items and you get to tie in food which is something that we all enjoy and it's content that you can take cool photos of that may not have to involve you and your body yeah i mean that was all i mean that was part of what the idea was behind jam home was like we buy so many ceramics we buy so many so much glassware all these very specific things and to be able to have you know someone's like i love this plate you can buy it um which has existed for a very long time this idea but i do think that i always say it's like the it's a it's a very easy thing to be able to take a restaurant like uh you know brand and expand it without having to have a co-packer and you know like i think they're like going oh we're gonna have sauces and we're gonna have x y and z as a way to like expand our brand beyond uh the restaurant we're gonna have our own chili crunch exactly i think that actually having these sort of homeware items is also to me a little bit less wasteful there's so much like i'm like i don't need another very hyper specific restaurant sauce right right um speak for yourself but you know i do think you know there's a great opportunity to be like you know our my thing is it's not oh it's a gem plate it is this specific ceramicist that like we work with um unfortunately they got to make a margin we got to make a margin we make a much smaller margin on a lot of these sure um and it's it is just like insane that you know you can't really buy a plate now for less than like 60 dollars yeah anywhere you're telling me bitch

45:39Flynn McGarry:i got a fucking whole room of them i've been forced to buy it's crazy yeah they are nice

45:44Jason Stewart:they're nice they're they're very nice chris you do entertain so often i think it's worth it that

45:49Flynn McGarry:you make that it's worth it we have an exposed kitchen storage area now so that the plates looking nice does make a difference i have to say i agree yeah i have to say yeah same i mean that is the other thing too it is you know it's decor for your house same we we had this convo about

46:03Jason Stewart:books like cookbooks yeah with with ben um he was saying like you know people we hear it all the time with chefs they're like i don't care if you read my book just please buy it and just put it on your shelf put on your coffee table yeah because it is all just decor now yeah and i think that is why this market of sub$200 small homewares is so popular because the people that are buying these things when we do these like sales too I'm always like curious of like who is buying you know this weird vintage fish thing that I found who's buying this Loewe tape dispenser in the shape of a snail But it's people with normal jobs that want to liven up their houses in a way.

46:54Jason Stewart:I need something cute to put on my work from home desk.

46:57Flynn McGarry:Exactly. The same person who spends$6 on a chocolate chip cookie. They're not afraid of a little plate.

47:03Jason Stewart:Yeah. And I think the next frontier is going to be the Zoom background. It's going to be like we're all just going to be living in these empty houses, except one wall is going to be this perfectly ornate curated space and then all the other walls are just going to be blank i mean i i did a we did this event in long island at this insane house and there's a in the house in the pool house there's a privé like cabin like original from the 50s on train tracks so it goes in and outside and this is this like you know whatever hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars like piece of art and then you go inside and it is i'm like it's where the guy takes his zoom meetings so there's like three screens there's like right you know a thing behind it you know they're like yeah he works from home and this is just where he takes all his meetings is in this you know yeah in my home content creation studio in a in a cabin built for war refugees actually that's crazy but i mean at least he's doing it with some some chic style and flair yeah with some style that is true yeah but but then there's like you know a giant power strip in the middle of it with all his with all his desk all yeah all of his amazon prime green screens and uh ring lights just out of frame yeah um well i want to talk a little bit about the the restaurant and the food that we went to at Cove last night, your delicious new spot in New York.

48:39Jason Stewart:Thank you for having us, by the way, and giving us a nice great corner table. An early peak. An early peak. When do you open? Next week?

48:47Flynn McGarry:We open on Tuesday. Oh, very soon. Okay, shit.

48:49Jason Stewart:Yeah, I mean, we had, against Chris's wishes, we did have the tasting menu, and Chris, I want to say thank you for that, and we were able to let our server know that we have a hard-out for Addison Rae at Terminal 5, and you were able to accommodate that. And we made it happen. Down to the minute, it couldn't have been better. It was great. And I want to make sure our listeners know that they don't have the option to call their end time on the meal. No, you can. Oh, they can. Okay. I prefer, you know, I've been known to say I can cook as quickly as you can eat. Okay. I mean, I like that. So maybe that'll be a thing in the future because so many people are anti-tasting menu because they don't have the attention span for a three or four hour meal with 17 courses and the pre's and the posts and the cookies and the yeah and the port wine sherry course or whatever so you're you're saying you like the communication of a of a diner saying like hey we just want this to be two hours or hour and a half get it over with kind of thing yes because then we have some people that really want to take their time and that room is designed turn time wise where you could take three and a half hours if you want, but you could also do it in an hour and 45 and then you could sit there and just hang out if you want.

50:05I've always preferred -

50:07Flynn McGarry:As long as you're buying drinks, of course. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, if you buy the tasting menu, that's enough. I've always preferred to eat the menu quickly and then if I want to hang out, I can hang out. but I think there's nothing worse than being like trapped in this. Like I get one course every 30 minutes for seven hours.

50:32Jason Stewart:So you say bring it all out and then I'm going to let my nuts hang, have this little, have my brandy snifter for the last hour. I'm going to, I'm going to finish the bottle of wine. I'm going to like digest before I go home.

50:43Flynn McGarry:I love digesting. That's a smart way to look at it. Yeah. I like confidently the best tasting menus I've ever had. I could also relate to the fact that they've all been sub two and a half hours because it also allows for excitement it's like sushi you know it's like one thing and the next and the next and the next and then you can be like I'm gonna reflect on what I ate or just like yeah relax a bit instead of like oh fuck we're only on course six and it's 11 o 'clock um it's 11 o 'clock and

51:15Jason Stewart:we haven't even got to the red wine yet fuck me yeah in my history of tasting menus which is

51:19Flynn McGarry:obviously much less than you two gentlemen why didn't you give us a gift to take home i feel like i always get a little gift for breakfast for breakfast the next morning is that i'm just asking if that's antiquated i don't know so we're we're working on the gift that was something that we see i knew it that was something that we held off for for friends and family well the friends

51:41Jason Stewart:and family noticed i just want to put that out there so so typically better restaurants do the gift is that what you were saying i think there's a lot about you know you spend a certain amount of money and you get a certain thing my feeling with the gift is that i've thrown away so many of these things that i've received bro i'm talking about granola yeah no i know but i think that's where we're trying to work with gem home to do a like you get a little thing that you can have but we can't do the granola because that's already taken i thought a lot of people did that oh that's not I mean, that is an 11 Madison Park thing, and a lot of people took it.

52:17I see. Okay. I got you. I got you. You know, there was a period at Noma where they gave you these little woven things to put on the fridge.

52:25Jason Stewart:Now when you go to Noma, they just give you, you know, their mushroom water. Yeah. I got like eight bottles. I got eight bottles of fucking oil. Yeah. Now they give you a sample of the coffee. That's what I mean. It's always kind of like a random-ish thing. we're trying to figure out what i would be excited to receive is it supposed to is the idea

52:47Flynn McGarry:because 11 mass and park set the trend is it i is it become a thing that people think of it as like a breakfast item or something to have the next day no because like what other than granola what am i going to give you that you're gonna eat i'm not going to give you a bun and cheese at 11 o 'clock and be like this is for you tomorrow yeah because you know after a tasting menu i'm gonna eat that shit in the car on the way home because i'm still hungry so yeah you can't do that you know i can give you cookies but then are you gonna eat cookies in the morning it's tough the coffee the coffee idea is kind of nice actually the coffee is cool but like that you know that's

53:16Jason Stewart:their coffee why not the morning bun though i think that's okay i think it's kind of fun not fresh enough the next day what about a slice of scars pepperoni all the way out i can't give you i can't give you like a um you know something that has butter and cheese on it and be like you gotta put this in the fridge it's true yeah but you can leave it out it feels cool like that right it's tricky it's tricky it's tricky you know i will we'll figure it out what about just

53:41Flynn McGarry:a hat you know what about just what about merch yeah what honestly marvis toothpaste marvis toothpaste is kind of cool like like it's like the dentist you could make your own toothbrush you could make your own toothbrush too that's actually nice we do the little dentist bag remember when supreme did the toothpicks oh yeah you could you could you could do the mint toothpicks the marvis and then a custom cove toothbrush with one of your purveyors i'm into this bristles are obviously

54:03Jason Stewart:obviously farm get a little sun choke toothpaste flavor in their custom blend uh this is this is one this is one of those ideas that i call a day two is uh okay i'm like let's get them we're gonna day two this one let's get the meal down first and then we'll figure out the gift okay i

54:19Flynn McGarry:think that's probably a smart thing to do in your position luckily jason and i aren't responsible for the meal so we are able to use our brain power to ideate on the gift we're able to kind of zoom out on a macro level yeah you guys can be part of the macro team and then we have the

54:33Jason Stewart:the day-to-day team yeah we're the go macro team we'll see you on slack um okay so let's i want to talk about the uh the onion dish with the caviar yes that to me was was my uh dish of the night and i think other people might agree could you could you describe this dish from the ground up really quick yes it's a on the bottom we have a there's a crushed bean cake um what kind of bean That is Jacob's cattle bean It's been crushed And then we mix it with a barley miso Bro who the fuck is Jacob? Jacob is actually one of our cooks Jacob did the chain bitch And he makes them But it's not his bean I don't know who Jacob's cattle bean is When you say crushed Everyone's using the word crushed

55:25Flynn McGarry:I hand crushed those beans yesterday Bro I saw 20 people back there

55:30Jason Stewart:You're telling me you did it? I'm telling you, I did it. Do you use your bare hand to crush them? Do you use a device, a masher? I have gloves on, but it was extremely hot. I crushed the beans, mixed it with some barley miso, then a little flour to kind of set it, and this fried fennel seed garlic paste that kind of makes it taste like a sausage a bit. I knew there was some fennel seed. I knew there was some fennel seed. You said fried fennel seed garlic paste? Yes. So we fry fennel seeds and then fry garlic and blend it together with the oil. Use that to season it. Are those fennel seeds popping and squirting?

56:10Jason Stewart:In what way? Answer the question, Flynn. They're delicately fried. When you put seeds in oil, sometimes they'll start jazzing. We slowly fry them. It's almost a confit fennel seed. It's almost a confit. There are no rush, Jason. This shit takes four hours. They do get caramelized is important. What's the temp on that oil? Celsius, please? About Celsius. It's about 120. 120, got it. I thought you should have said watermelon is my favorite. The fizzy one. The fizzy one, though, not the plain. It is remarkable. The new trend is that all cooks, all they do all day is drink Celsius and then eat candy.

56:55But they all still drink, too. It's like you think that they're sober.

56:59Jason Stewart:You think they're all pre-diabetic at age 19, but now they're somehow making it? Somehow. Okay. Okay. So we have, we have our paste. Okay. On top of that. Yeah. So, so then we, then, so we make that thing. We set it. So it's like a little kind of crispy cookie almost. Yeah. It's like a little bean cookie on the bottom. And then we make a mixture of more crushed beans, ricotta that we make more of the fennel seed paste some chopped celery leaves and grilled romano beans in there grill the beans this feels

57:32Flynn McGarry:like this feels like you're just trying to give me beans on that damn plate as you can there's a lot of beans and you would never even notice that shit no that shit was absolutely smacking that wasn't my favorite but that was delicious uh and then on top of that is a confitropia onion and then these very the these hairy covair that are more expensive than the caviar actually um a little dutch caviar the sauce is made with we take fennel tomatoes and and white celery we cook it in wow caramelized whey and tomato water not the tomato water and then we blend the whole thing with with some butter and lovage oil and then the way it looks the the onion that's

58:16Jason Stewart:been confit it's sort of uh similar to like a torpedoe shallot shape yes and it looks to me like two pieces of of nigiri sushi yeah is that is that the intention no but yes i you know it the intention i think in that point of a tasting menu always is how do you pack as much flavor and complexity into a small bite uh which i think is something that nigiri is very good at doing um this sort of layered wrapped around uh quality that you know may look very simple but there are 30 things in it what a dish what a 30 different chris what was your 30 different bean varietals

59:04Flynn McGarry:it's really something yeah uh i liked the thing that was i think it was it were you saying it was avocado squash oh yeah you you like your your veg alternative to the it was really good it was like a tart almost with like fig and some seeds or something that wasn't that was not a tart that was just a squash no i know it wasn't but it like looked it felt like a tart is what i'm saying yeah

59:24Jason Stewart:i it was delicious i'm looking at a photo over right now and there's the the seeds have like a little sunflowery kind of design cut in half this has a little bit of a noma feel to it and then you have a lot of sesame seeds is that what it is uh yeah so it's the avocado squash my preferred squash you ain't never had that there's a paste made with dried figs and pumpkin seeds and then a little salsa matcha oh salsa matcha you know i don't fuck with matcha don't try to trick me

59:55Flynn McGarry:rocky rocky ass boy what is what do you mean what kind of matcha m-a-c-h-a oh got you got you got

1:00:01Jason Stewart:you it's like mexican chili crunch kind of we'll call it yeah it's mexican chili crunch yeah okay All right, David Chang, calm down. And then you have some thinly sliced raw mushroom. Matsutake.

1:00:12Flynn McGarry:Matsutake, not cheap. Not cheap. There was a few. There was several. Raw mushrooms popped up a few times. Double Matsutake on the meal. There's the Matsutake on the main course. That shit was banging, though. It was also, I think, that it was more filling than I would think it would be. Like, it was a real portion, even though it was small, because it was dense.

1:00:32Jason Stewart:Yeah, I love the main course just being a slop plate of the best vegetables you can buy in America with a sauce that brings it together. It was great. What's up with that little rice nugget? That and a bunch of protein is so good.

1:00:45Flynn McGarry:What's up with that little rice nugget in that final plate? The barley koji cake? Bitch, that's a rice nugget. You know. That's a rice nugget, but sure. You know about the inoculated barley. Yeah, Chris. It's been inoculated. once again inoculated barley is a split seven inch that i had i don't know how you keep doing

1:01:06Jason Stewart:i don't know how you keep doing the the little corn fritter uh-huh was maybe my i mean but you know when is that not going to be good when is that yeah so good that was a that was a fun recipe we did a dinner with this woman nancy hachisu okay who has written all of the the like japanese cooking for americans she's a lady that's from california and like moved to japan married a japanese guy and wrote all these books and she came out to do like a collaboration dinner with her editor and they made these like fritters that are just like the jap it's literally you just like take any vegetable and then you just kind of like mix it with this mix of rice flour and cornstarch and a little bit of sparkling water and it's like a paste so it kind of like barely is held together and we kind of do it each season they they were doing it with very thinly sliced asparagus that was really good uh as soon as you do a burdock root oh okay we're getting into it so you just get like a handful of corn run it through that sludge and then plop it into the fryer or using spoons we we take corn and shishito peppers and we toss it with all the dry ingredients and we just add a little bit of water until it comes together and plop it in the fryer.

1:02:25Jason Stewart:Okay. We deconstruct the little tempura sludge. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Beautiful. All right, you fucking dorks. We didn't even get a check. Flynn, we could talk about this all day long. We didn't even get to talk about Taylor Swift. What was your food podcast called? The Stew. The Stew. It's almost like we're back on The Stew 10 years ago. Had to remove that from my tunes. Don't know what I was saying back then. Too much to lose.

1:02:48Flynn McGarry:Yeah, Flynn, do you have any, before we go, do you have any opinion on the taylor swift album what's your just kind of initial take on it god it is one of the roughest things it's for worse new music it's crazy how bad it sucks and and i was talking to a few friends yesterday about it and her talking about travis kelsey's penis it sounds like a woman who's never had sex before talking it's just such a strange you've got the

1:03:12Jason Stewart:key to open my thighs is definitely that was really good fan fiction yeah it's one of these things where i heard another i'm hearing it in parts i tried to listen to a little bit of it and i and i was i just couldn't really get through it and now i'm hearing it in in a lot of parts and it makes you realize that just like we really do need more people again that are able to say no yeah because the production on it also makes no sense to what the lyrics are i feel like and it's like you is it jack antonoff again i'm assuming no no no it's max martin and shellback

1:03:47Flynn McGarry:it's guys who it's so bad it has me missing Jack well that's what people are saying now on Twitter they're like maybe Jack wasn't the problem well it's like maybe she needs someone in there being like you sure about that the problem is she can shit out anything she wants do whatever she wants it'll break every record the day it comes out and she can sell as many tickets as there are on earth and it doesn't that's part of it too is there's no repercussions for something that's bad except reviews and it's like alright well I think it is just something where you're like, I don't even know why you had to do this.

1:04:21Flynn McGarry:Well, she was trying to get revenge on her haters. Yes. But didn't she already do that? I get it. I do it every day myself. Time and time again? I think so, but I think the haters continue to persevere.

1:04:30Jason Stewart:But every year there's a new batch of sixth graders that are beefing with their friend in second period, and 40-year-old Taylor Swift has to sort of narrate that. Yeah.

1:04:39Flynn McGarry:But I thought if whether or not Charlie called her Boring Barbie or not, I think that's a pretty good nickname overall. It is. Like, I don't even think it's that offensive. Did she actually name drop New Heights in it? Yes. Yes. Yes, she did. She called his dick a Redwood, I believe, and also mentioned his podcast and also came for Charlie. And there's probably other little nuggets in there. I'm saying. No Barley. I think you guys could probably try to get a line on a Charlie song now. Wow. Can you imagine? As it to go back. I love, yeah, I mean, I think there's a possibility of us in something, but it would probably be negative and not popular, but maybe one day.

1:05:26Jason Stewart:She's going to reference Letterboxd before she references a podcast. So Baby Steps, maybe the next album.

1:05:33Flynn McGarry:But I got to say, man, I think that getting shots fired at you like that by Taylor Swift is only a badge of honor that will make people love you more. It didn't do what Taylor thought it would do, I guess, is what I'm saying. She has no one in her camp that is, like, aware of the way that people read anything anymore. Yeah, no, I agree. But also that could be that we're reading one side and there's a whole other side. I mean, this is Trump's America. I think they just operate in another world where there are no consequences, and it's just a totally different planet than we operate on. Yeah. And other musicians even operate on.

1:06:14Flynn McGarry:I think the line has been drawn.

1:06:16Jason Stewart:It is teachers, pets versus sluts, and I'm on Team Slut. I think everyone has always been on Team Slut.

1:06:23Flynn McGarry:Slut me out. How long gone? Thank you, Flynn, for joining us. Cove opens on Tuesday. If you're in the New York City metro area, make a reservation. Come on down.

1:06:31Jason Stewart:If you need to get your bread up, go to Jim Home, get a morning bun.

1:06:34Flynn McGarry:Jim Home has my favorite veggie sandwich. I hope it's still on the menu.

1:06:37Jason Stewart:We also sell sourdough that is way better than Balthazar.

1:06:40Flynn McGarry:So, Chris, you should end way closer to your apartment. We moved, but they're still close. They're still close. But, yeah, that's fine.

1:06:46Jason Stewart:Having better sourdough than Balthazar, not saying much, but I'm sure yours is quite good. Yeah. No shade to Keith.

1:06:52Flynn McGarry:Me, me, me, me. No shade to Keith. Fucking dorks. It makes a great chocolate chip walnut. Yeah, that is good. You ain't ever had a donut. Get a cinnamon sugar donut and come talk to me. You can't get that dunking ass boy.

1:07:06Jason Stewart:Okay, we got to go talk to Allison Roman about Taylor Swift. This is too much food for me today. Food day.

1:07:15Flynn McGarry:I know. I need to cleanse my palate with some Joe Budden. All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Flynn. Good to see you, man.

1:07:21Jason Stewart:Good to see you guys. All right. Later. Later, bro.

1:07:23Flynn McGarry:Because there's nothing in this world to stop me worrying about that girl.

1:07:32Flynn McGarry:I found out I was wrong She was just too tiny

1:07:40I found out I was wrong

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