#111: Hip Hop's French Fry Dealer w/ Mr. Fries Man

Boba goes mainstream in the U.S. as fast-food chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and Del Taco begin serving bubble tea & popping boba pearls. On today’s episode of The Foodbeast Katchup podcast, we discuss the Boba wave going on in America. Del Taco’s new poppin’ boba in the form of “Sprite Poppers,” allows customers to put cherry or mango boba pearls on top of their Sprite. Meanwhile, Dunkin’ is testing Bubble Iced Tea and Bubble Iced Coffee through mid-August at a few locations in Upstate New York and Massachusetts. We sat down with our dear friend Tai Tran of @AsiansNeverDie, who’s built a community of millions on Facebook and Instagram around comedic moments and culture in the Asian-American community, to discuss the current boba wave hitting U.S. fast food chains. Thank you all so much for listening! Please review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, follow @foodbeastkatchup on Instagram, and connect with our hosts below: Elie Ayrouth: @bookofelie on IG & Twitter Geoff Kutnick: @geoffkutnick on IG & Twitter Tai Tran: @asiansneverdie on IG FOODBEAST: @foodbeast on Facebook, IG, Twitter, YouTube & Twitch www.foodbeast.com for breaking food & beverage news

The global pandemic and the resulting restrictions and limitations brought on the restaurant industry — from prohibited dine-in to a forced pivot to delivery and pick-up only service — has brought on unique challenges to small business owners throughout the country. With restaurants worried about how to keep their heads above water, this necessity has brought about alternative solutions — namely technology that provides answers to keeping revenue streams steady and consistent. A particular service, named Numa, has helped restaurants explore unique solutions by being an AI-powered virtual assistant and concierge. What’s great about Numa is that it makes a restaurant’s number textable. The technology then answers every voicemail, text, Facebook message and more. Overall it leads to an efficient use of team coordination that has helped many restaurants who have used it. Foodbeast Managing Editor, Reach Guinto, sat down recently with Tasso Roumeliotis, co-founder and CEO of Numa, and Lex Gopnik-Lewinsky, owner & founder of Augie’s Montreal Deli in Berkeley, CA to talk about the benefits of alternative technology beyond third-party delivery apps and how they could be the next wave in restaurants taking advantage of different solutions to serve their customers. Thank you all so much for listening! Please review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, follow @foodbeastkatchup on Instagram and connect with our hosts below: Elie Ayrouth: @bookofelie on IG & Twitter Geoff Kutnick: @geoffkutnick on IG & Twitter Reach Guinto: @reachhard_ on IG and Twitter FOODBEAST: @foodbeast on Facebook, IG, Twitter, YouTube & Twitch www.foodbeast.com for breaking food & beverage news

In the latest episode of Foodbeast's The Katchup Podcast, hosts Elie Ayrouth and Geoff Kutnick, along with managing editor Reach Guinto, wax poetic, and eulogize just how much Souplantation meant to them, while also exploring the immediately unfortunate prospects buffets have post-pandemic. Thank you all so much for listening! Please review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, follow @foodbeastkatchup on Instagram, and connect with our hosts below: Elie Ayrouth: @bookofelie on IG & Twitter Geoff Kutnick: @geoffkutnick on IG & Twitter Reach Guinto: @reachhard_ on IG and Twitter FOODBEAST: @foodbeast on Facebook, IG, Twitter, YouTube & Twitch www.foodbeast.com for breaking food & beverage news

Famed Chef & Restaurateur José Andrés has positively affected millions through his non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK). In addition to feeding entire communities devastated by natural or economic disaster in Puerto Rico, Tijuana, Venezuela and beyond, WCK had to pivot its model yet again for COVID-19. FOODBEAST Co-Founder Geoff Kutnick and Managing Editor Reach Guinto talk to Tank Gonzales, the project lead for a pilot program in Southern California that re-activates closed restaurants and feeds at-risk seniors. Within days Gonzales cold-called restaurants, UPS, senior centers and city officials leading to an operation feeding thousands of people. To date WCK has provided 3,000,000+ meals across the country during COVID-19, and over 20,000+ in Gonzales’ Long Beach community. Thank you all so much for listening! Please review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, follow @foodbeastkatchup on Instagram and connect with our FOODBEAST hosts & guest: Elie Ayrouth: @bookofelie on IG & Twitter Geoff Kutnick: @geoffkutnick on IG & Twitter Reach Guinto: @reachhard_ on IG and Twitter Tank Gonzales: @tanks_travels on IG FOODBEAST: @foodbeast on Facebook, IG, Twitter, YouTube & Twitch www.foodbeast.com for breaking food & beverage news

Restaurants are one of the strongest backbones of our community because of how many roles they serve beyond providing sustenance to patrons. They act as a third space for gathering & connecting, they employ tens of millions in the US, they provide tax revenue for our states & local communities, and beyond. FOODBEAST Co-Founder Geoff Kutnick talks to the President & CEO of the California Restaurant Association, an advocacy group for the restaurant industry with access to many of the forefront politicians reacting to the new economic environment like Governor Gavin Newsom, and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. We talk about the ever-slimming margins of restaurants (25:15), how ‘over-built’ the overall restaurant industry was (28:00), how the lost sales tax will affect local communities (34:17), how there are more costs eating up the restaurant ‘pie’ (36:48) and more. Kutnick also talks to Alycia Harshfield, the Executive Director of Restaurants Care, the non-profit arm of the California Restaurant Association funding restaurant employees directly affected by the Coronavirus. Restaurant Care has received thousands upon thousands of grant requests (47:32), but also have been bolstered by major donations like the $100,000 it received from Skrewball Whiskey Peanut Butter Whiskey (50:12). Thank you all so much for listening! Please review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, follow @foodbeastkatchup on Instagram and connect with our hosts below: Elie Ayrouth: @bookofelie on IG & Twitter Geoff Kutnick: @geoffkutnick on IG & Twitter FOODBEAST: @foodbeast on Facebook, IG, Twitter, YouTube & Twitch www.foodbeast.com for breaking food & beverage news

"If 9/11 and the credit crisis were wrapped up into one, this would still be worse." The Coronavirus has created a crisis in the restaurant industry, and while they’re fighting to stay open, others have already shuttered as they are not built for any other format other than sit-down, dine-in. In this week’s episode, we are joined by Jonathan Maze, Editor In Chief at Restaurant Business Magazine. Maze breaks down what restaurants are currently going through, and what it would take for them to survive not only now, but in the future. Also, while self-quarantined, the Katchup crew discusses its own experiences with restaurants at the time of a California lockdown, and how Foodbeast’s coverage has changed since the outbreak. We also talk to our own resident food scientist, Constantine Spyrou, to get some little known facts about canned foods. --- Thank you all so much for listening! All the Tweets and Instagram tags of you listening mean the world. Reviews you leave on iTunes are also incredibly helpful, if you enjoyed an episode, please drop us some love on the Apple Podcasts store, or wherever your beautiful ears are listening. ---- Your Hosts: Elie Ayrouth (@bookofelie) Geoffrey Kutnick (@geoffreykutnick) Your Guest: Jonathan Maze (@jonathanmaze) Produced by: Isai Rocha (@isairocha) ---- Follow us! Instagram: instagram.com/foodbeastkatchup instagram.com/foodbeast Facebook: www.facebook.com/foodbeast Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/foodbeast

John Parlet dared to turn his pizza parlor into an indoor amusement park, and it is still one of the most unique pizza party experiences you’ll ever see. With 50,000 square foot restaurants occupying malls  across California, John’s Incredible Pizza houses full-fledged carnival rides, arcade games, a pizza buffet and different dining rooms with different experiences in each. Parlet joined the Foodbeast Katchup podcast and talked about how he made all the magic happen, as he built a Chuck E Cheese’s on steroids. Parlet also talks about the sneaky innovative tech within the restaurants that add to its overall efficiency. Find out more in this origin story for John’s Incredible Pizza. --- Thank you all so much for listening! All the Tweets and Instagram tags of you listening mean the world. Reviews you leave on iTunes are also incredibly helpful, if you enjoyed an episode, please drop us some love on the Apple Podcasts store, or wherever your beautiful ears are listening. ---- Your Hosts: Elie Ayrouth (@bookofelie) Geoffrey Kutnick (@geoffreykutnick) Your Guest: John Parlet (@incredipizza) Produced by: Isai Rocha (@isairocha) Mixed and Mastered by: Shawn Lindell Video Production: Marc Kharrat (@marckharrat) ---- Follow us! Instagram: instagram.com/foodbeastkatchup instagram.com/foodbeast Facebook: www.facebook.com/foodbeast Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/foodbeast

Craig Batiste went from dealing fries in parking lots, to opening his own brick and mortar restaurant in Gardena, California. "Mr. Fries Man," as he calls himself, joined the Katchup podcast and talked about how people thought he was dealing drugs, when it was just fries, making custom fries for hip hop legends like Nipsey Hussle and The Game, and creating a strong community of black-owned businesses.   --- Thank you all so much for listening! All the Tweets and Instagram tags of you listening mean the world. Reviews you leave on iTunes are also incredibly helpful, if you enjoyed an episode, please drop us some love on the Apple Podcasts store, or wherever your beautiful ears are listening. ---- Your Hosts: Elie Ayrouth (@bookofelie) Geoffrey Kutnick (@geoffreykutnick) Your Guest: Craig Batiste (@mr_fries_man) Produced by: Isai Rocha (@isairocha) ---- Follow us! Instagram: instagram.com/foodbeastkatchup instagram.com/foodbeast Facebook: www.facebook.com/foodbeast Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/foodbeast

Alcohol-free bars are starting to pop up around Southern California and the Katchup crew discusses the new phenomena. These bars create high-quality, well thought-out "mocktails," and give them the same love a cocktail with alcohol would. Joining us is Voice of OC’s Anne Marie Panoringan, who has been following the zero-proof trend, and helps give us perspective of its goals. Through the experience of an Orange County, California pop up called “Temperance” and even trying some alcohol-free spirits on air, we try to get to the bottom of figuring out what the heck zero-proof bars really are, and if they have a place in modern society. --- Thank you all so much for listening! All the Tweets and Instagram tags of you listening mean the world. Please drop us some love on the Apple Podcasts store, or wherever your beautiful ears are listening. ---- Your Hosts: Elie Ayrouth (@bookofelie) Geoffrey Kutnick (@geoffreykutnick) Your Guest: Anne Marie Panoringan (@brekkiefan) Produced by: Isai Rocha (@isairocha) ---- Follow us! Instagram: instagram.com/foodbeastkatchup instagram.com/foodbeast Facebook: www.facebook.com/foodbeast Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/foodbeast

It's been a busy week in food news, and we're hereto Katchup with all of it.  First, some pretty big news from Planters, as they decided to kill off their lovable Mr. Peanut mascot after 100+ years. With conspiracy theories, and a scheduled funeral on Super Bowl Sunday, we break down why Planters might have made this move. We also jump into some vegan news, as JUST egg released a "foldable egg" similar to the ones you see on your Egg McMuffins or McGriddles.  We dig into the news that researchers are starting to make protein out of literal air. Dubbed as the future of protein, we have our doubts and questions. We then discuss a new line of fast-acting, cannabis-infused sriracha. Everyone's favorite hot sauce can now get you high, and we give you the lowdown, and personal experiences in trying it. --- Thank you all so much for listening! All the Tweets and Instagram tags of you listening mean the world. Reviews you leave on iTunes are also incredibly helpful, if you enjoyed an episode, please drop us some love on the Apple Podcasts store, or wherever your beautiful ears are listening. ---- Your Host: Elie Ayrouth (@bookofelie) Your Guest: Constatine Spyrou (@constantine_spy) Reach Guinto (@reachguinto) Produced by: Isai Rocha (@isairocha) ---- Follow us! Instagram: instagram.com/foodbeastkatchup instagram.com/foodbeast Facebook: www.facebook.com/foodbeast Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/foodbeast