Fine Dining - Buca di Beppo (Part One: Eat Deets) feat. Mike Perkins

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

I took a real Italian to Buca di Beppo! We're joined by comedian Mike Perkins to dive into inauthentic Italian slophouse, Buca di Beppo Hear all about the Pope's room, the "vulgar" decor, and the fact that Buca's founder literally intended to "poke gentle fun" at Italians in this week's Eat Deets Learn the rather interesting translation of Buca di Beppo Harrison Augustine 💸 Arrylius XIV is anti-work You could have bought the entire franchise for a few million dollars... The Mother's Day debacle is detailed in this week's Yelp from Strangers The full review comes next week   Music by: James McEnelly (@Ramshackle_Music) Theme Song by: Kyle Schieffer (@JazzyJellyfish) Segment Transitions Voiced by: Sandy Rose "Fine" Dining is on Patreon! Get an extra episode every month (dropping New Years Eve: the Kentucky Fried Chicken episode), extended Yelp from Strangers segments every other week, merch discounts, download access to our music including the 7 singles from our Olive Garden musical, and more! Patreon Producers: Sean Spademan, Joyce Van, & Sue Ornelas   Get the 5 Survival Tips for Casual Dining at www.finediningpodcast.com!   Send in your Buca di Beppo stories at [e-mail].   Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram @finediningpodcast   Let me know where I should go next by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, PodcastAddict, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I read every one!   Next week on "Fine" Dining: Buca di Beppo (Part Two: Review)! Comedian Mike Perkins joins once again as he and Michael talk about Italian food that's...fine. Also, they're just a couple of Midfellas. Ever work at Buca di Beppo? Send your stories to [e-mail].   Totally Not Sponsored by: Harrison Augustine 💸 Arrylius XIV

From this point forward, the word cheese will be bleeped because Michael finds it offensive. Hello and welcome to the fine dining podcast, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America. I'm your host, the mediocre dude in search of mediocre food, Michael Ornellis. And this week I went to Buka de Beppo. And I brought a friend with me.

He tours all over the country and you can see him do stand-up comedy. He's the host of another late show tonight his own talk show stand up comedian mic perkins i'm doing mic i'm doing great thanks for having your welcome thanks for coming on thanks for stomaching and i'm still stomaching it still i feel like i invite people on the podcast to tolerate a meal with me. So thank you again for treating me to that's what we did. Yeah, yeah. I brought the most Italian guy I could find and it's a half Italian guy. I'm a quarter between you and I. We make up not even a full Italian man. But that's what you get in LA, baby. But that's what you get.

We're all just a bunch of muts. Yeah. We're gonna dive in and we'll learn the specifics, but overall, this place wowed you, right? It did. I'd never been there before my first time because I'm from the East Coast, so I've had actual Italian food. Sh shots fire maybe for the longest time I thought it was called

Bucca de Pepo I thought it was a pee and were you like confusing it with pet boys or something because everything tastes like I remember yeah I think they use their oil in there to taste like an oil change yeah do you want oil of vinegar I was like is this like we should go ready to y'all review this place tasted like a pet boy. Is this synthetic? I'll take the full synthetic linguine. Thank you so much. Jesus. No, I just thought it was Bukut, a pepote for the longest time,

but it was like, I was gonna rush on there. Yeah, you know that's about as much as you need. I'm dining party of two. You know what, let's just dive into it. Our table's ready. Your table is ready. Follow me. Have you tried our chicken breast? Serving pancakes and ribs.

I recommend this spaghetti. We're here to serve us fine. Not to impress. Your table is ready. Complementary butter and bread. These walls are both signs. Make that cowboy hat. For the cat

Autograph guitar, some crap from your city Behold the trusty of mediocrity I'm dining Yes, I'm dining I'm dining Two letters on the sign are shining Now I'm flickering irregular timing Identify the perfect vibe

How the ten Buying dining Buying dining And now for a quick word from my friends over at the Oz9 podcast How does a massive alligator go missing? Who buy me again while we're doing this? I'm from Minnesota. We like our lives, it's neat and it's open as the inside of a freshly cleaned wildlife. Do you know? I am now the only assessing a bird to sheep.

What are you doing alive? It's Joe, I want to watch. And I want to know what side he's on when the ship hits the fan. Robbie, aren't they the most ridiculous people I've ever met? It's not a fault! Something's got me! Something's got me! Shut up! If anyone's interested, Bitch and Freeze here has some pointy thing aimed at one of my kidneys.

Launch Day 2142 saw the lift off of Gated Galaxy's 400 Oz 8000 ships. This is the story of one of those ships, loaded like the others with the hopes and dreams of its quiet cargo. This is the story of Oz 9. First impressions. So I got here a little bit before Mike did and not that you were late. I was just early. This isn't like me.

I was on time. I got there. You were fine. Yeah. I think it was at 6.58. I think I got there. It was 702, but I'm not... Well, that's because I was in the parking.

My first impression was I walk in and it's just like an empty waiting area that it looked like an Italian pinata had just been smashed to open and like covered the walls in just overly Italian everything. Yeah. Just Italian flags, maps of Italy, pictures of celebrities that have been there, two pictures of the Jersey boys next to each other. Hey, you're a Jersey boy. I am a Jersey boy. Does that give you Italian authenticity in your mind? Yeah, I think of it as like, you know, I mean, Jersey in New York and kind of the tri-state area.

That's like the authentic East Coast Italian that you will get in America. You know, you know, you look like New Jersey, right? Oh, yeah, I'm full on Jersey. Okay, cool. You have a haircut that could only be described as, I'm from Jersey. Well, when I go to get my haircut out here in LA, I'm just like, give me the Jersey.

And it's just like, okay, you know. All right, and then she just says, goba go and then they give it to me. But they know what it is. But they know what it is, you know. You know, all that matters is the communication effective. And in this case, it was. Yeah.

So this place was less Italian than that. Yeah, I mean, I'm half Italian and I felt full Italian in this place. I did feel that you were full Italian when you almost ran me down with your car. You're like, I know I'm sorry. You're going to take a right turn. I'm at the crosswalk.

I've got the little white, you know, blink and a right turn. I'm at the crosswalk. I've got the little white, you know, blink and do that like indicates I'm allowed to cross. I wanted to make an authentic Italian meeting because if we're going to a meeting like that and have a sit down, you might get whacked on the way there. You just wanted me to have to shout, hey, I'm walking! I'm trying to get that out of you.

Yeah, which I missed the cue. I'm only a quarter. So yeah, went over my head. Well, you know, it's like I was turning. I was turning because Bukit a Papa was on the corner. I say, oh, you go, I'm going to correct you every single time. Book it up at, but you know, you're turning there. And as I'm turning, I just like let people walk, but I'm still like showing the other cars behind me that I'm about to turn instead of just not turning yet. So that's why I was and I was like, hey, I pointed out you recognize that guy.

Yeah. Let's make him road. I did feel nice that I got VIP parking right up front. You did get the prime, the closest spot, the shortest walk to the front. I first impression I was like, yeah, I should have, you know, I tipped some kid on the way and I don't think he worked there, but I was just like, gave him a nickel. Yeah, I was, here's a, here's a nickel kid. Go buy yourself something nice, yeah, whatever.

I'm going to do it this melted down. My first impression though was when you walk in, it just straight up like a brown box, which they have this stuff, the celebrities and stuff all there. And whatnot, but they don't show you the restaurant at all. You have to like walk down a hallway to get into. They don't give the goods away for free. Yeah.

And then they've got a host who like they have like a credenza almost like a nice host stand that no one stands behind. And instead, oh God, what are they called? Dutch doors or something where like the top half and the bottom half separate. Like the horse barn door kind of thing. Yeah.

And they've got someone behind there around a corner and not actively watching because they don't want to be helpful, I guess. I don't know. They don't want to be seen. They want you to have to do the work to be like, hey, I'm here. And I did and I checked in before you even got there.

And I was like, hey, I've got a reservation for two. I'm a little bit early. I'm just going to take weird photos around here and there was just like, yeah, okay. Come back when you have your full party and I was like, I will. Yeah, almost like a threat. Yeah, I will. I will. I will be back with one other guy at this family style portion restaurant. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, we get taken to the back.

That sounds like we're getting wet. We get let around a corner. We passed the kitchen on the left. But to describe what we see, any further would qualify as atmosphere. So Mike, I'm going to teach you the history of Bucadabepo. And we're going to go into this week's Eat Deats. So are you ready to hear some eatery details, some eat-deats?

Oh, the eatery deats, the eat-deats, the eat-deats. Oh, the eatery-deats, the eat-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de- which roughly translates to Joe's small place in Italian. The pictures of Italian American icons on the wall and the canned Italian conversations that play in the bathroom, Buka de Beppo's founder has no relation to Italy whatsoever. Wait, that's what it means is Joe's small place. Yeah, and by the way, by the way, the founder, who I will get to, is not named Joe,

and more specifically, there's a very convoluted way that you get to is not named Joe and more specifically, there's a very convoluted way that you get to Joe's small place. Buka means whole and Beppo is a nickname for Giuseppe, which is the Italian translation of Joseph. Yeah, I know just how Miguel Miguel is the Spanish Michael. Well, my brother, my brother's name is Joe, so we used to call him Giuseppe, but it really just translates to, but Joe's whole. Joe's whole.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. They should have just named it Joe's whole. They should have named it Joe's whole. Come on down to Joe's whole. We have all the deals you want. It's huge. Every hole's a goal. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Eee. Phil Roberts, not Joe, founded the place in 1993, seeking to replicate the red sauce joints of his college days. Basically the old phenomenon of family-owned Italian restaurants in the Midwest that had diminished by 1993. Except he purposefully sought to create an over-the-top version of these spots to poke gentle

fun his words at them and also make them a little less fancy. So just make fun of Italians, post-Gental fun? Basically. Yeah. And by the way, a lot of this background, I'm going to be referencing quotes from an article from Bon Appetit. They did like a pretty comprehensive dive on Phil Roberts and the restaurant and stuff like that. So it was made in the 90s.

I thought it's been rough forever. It has the vibe of a place that's been rough. And it has the vibe that's been like, but it's because those places died out that he really wanted to create, I guess in the void left by a lot of these restaurants shifting away from the red sauces and the... See what I would have thought was,

I would think Bukitapepo was like, it was a mom and pop place, and then when, well now that nobody owned it, or except for this Phil Roberts guy in 93, you think it was like a mom and pop place and then when well now that nobody owned it or except this Phil Roberts guy in 93 Yeah, you think it was like a mom and pop place and once like the original like grandmom died They're like let's fucking make it a chain restaurant. We're gonna keep it going, you know The kids don't give a shit and who cares if it's Joe's hole, you know Whatever, let's just refer to it to Joe's hole for me

Whatever. Let's just refer to it to Joe's whole from now on. Joe's whole. Yeah. Damn. This. A charitable reading of his motive would be that he wanted to create a deliberately casual restaurant, like in a good way, a place where he didn't have to dress up, but still served you high quality food. You know, I don't think they really care about the dress code we went in there.

I also don't think they care about high quality food. Exactly. Yeah. The more you think about it, this makes total sense. There's a Pope's table in every restaurant that features an enormous bust of the Pope right in the middle. The concept for that joke originally came from Phil Roberts,

not an Italian guy. So if it was just like, you know what Italians love is? The Pope. The Pope. Italians love religion. Let's dedicate The Pope. Italians love religion. Let's dedicate a room to it. Yeah. God.

God bless, faux roberts. God bless. Does he? No, he doesn't care. He's not, is he a Catholic? Is he Jewish? He's Lutheran. He's Lutheran, okay.

So from the website, it says, not only will you be treating your taste buds to great Italian food, our decor will feed your funny bone. Oh, Jesus. Here's the thing though, I don't necessarily disagree with that. I got a good laugh at a decent amount of the decor. It's very tacky.

Yeah, I think that was the only fun thing of the place. We'll get into it, but yeah, we'll talk about it. There was so much decor on the wall. Yeah. Like an obscene amount of decor. Like no spot left. And not even just an obscene amount of decor, but some obscene decor. Yeah, obscene decor. You go in the bathroom and there's a lot of butts. There are so many asses just in picture form. Some of them kids asses. Yeah. None of them pornographic, but they're like, you know, similar to the, what is it?

That sunblock where the dogs pull on the little girl's butt or whatever. Pulling her butt. We're not her butt, but like pull her underwear down, which is, you know, which is weird if you think about it. It's super weird, but it's kind of a relic of that time where it was just like innocent baby butts. Yeah. Like I didn't feel was just like innocent baby butts. Yeah.

Like I didn't feel creeped out by the butts. It was a choice. Yeah. But innocent baby butts is also an improv team, I think, they're innocent. Yeah. And you guys were innocent baby butts, and all we need is a suggestion of anything at all.

And they always team up with Joe's hole. Baby butts, Joe's hole. It's a crazy Tuesday at UCB. Eat beats. was whole. Baby but Joe's whole crazy Tuesday at UCB. Eat beats. A quote, an important part of Italian culture is gathering around the dinner table. This is why we've integrated a few special tables into each of our restaurants, including our most famous, the Pope table, located at the corner of the Pope room of course.

I, not everything needs to be themed. Yeah, it's a cool thing that you're like, hey, you can have different rooms for your big family. But it's also like every room is just super weird and you're like, and kind of not cohesive. It's basically like, what are all the Italian stereotypes? We're going to dedicate a room to that. This is one Italian stereotype room and this is another Italian stereotype room. I don't know if you saw, but the room left of the Pope's table room, the entire ceiling

was wine bottles. Oh, yeah. Like a stashed roof of all wine bottles. That was when you walked in, had a picture about Capone right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Catholic priests used to actually bless every new location up until 2012.

Every location was officially blessed. Get the fuck outta here. There's no way. They would bring in a priest. Yep. Oh my God. They'd give him heartburn, and then they'd tell him, can you please God, can you bless this place?

This, the authenticity that they don't have, boy are they trying to know. And they'd, they'd damned the place. I think that's what they did instead. I think they were just like, there were a lot of upside down crosses Exactly. Oh my god All that being said the original chef was actually from Milan

Which is in Italy. Okay, if you didn't know yeah Vittorio Renda brought authentic family recipes and made them over the top to match the kitschy decor. For example, he made the meatballs enormous and threw way too much sh**s on the garlic bread. Like, how could this not succeed in America? He decided to take the great recipes and ruin them. He was just like, let's scratch this out and add a ton of sh**.

And like, let's over cook at all to sh**. Yes, yeah. Eat meats. The architect and interior designer was Phil's son. He's Yale educated where apparently he learned to scour flea markets to find old black and white photos of random Italian families to decorate the walls. Like, was that a major?

Well, he's from Yasuo. I guess he saved money on that one. He knew, yeah. Yeah. And now a word from our totally not made up sponsor. Greetings. Harrison Augustine flying money-water-moji really is the 14th, back once again, to help all of you work in class walk a kilometer in my Theragamos.

Bukida Beppo's founder's son is Yale-educated. No wonder he could only get a job via nepotism, what with his lower education in all. My degree is from a school whose name is only pronounceable if you've been taught the secret language of the lizard people that run the Illuminati. But any job is contemptible. I can't quite remember what it was like when I used to have one. It was so long ago. any job is contemptible. I can't quite remember what it was like when I used to have one. It was so long ago. When you retire at the age of 11 and enter a post-labor lifestyle,

you tend to block out the before times. When my father Harry first patented and aggressively took credit for inventing this smiley face emoji, I knew the panhandling was behind me. And they say I've grown out of touch. Only literally as I refuse to let anyone make contact with me unless they're in my tax bracket. All my team of masseuses. Here I am today, a true ragged to unimaginable ridges tale, as inspiring as the day is long. And speaking of long days, I must be going, I've got a private jet waiting to fly to Kiribati to be the first person to enter the new year, and then off to the Line Islands to be the last, just because I can, and because

I've greased the right palms this is all on the taxpayers' dime. With the immaculate concept complete, the first Bukitiveppo opened its doors in Minneapolis. Though the basement location was cramped, it was wildly successful. I love how it's so far Midwest away from New York and Jersey. If many in theapolis is like, if we open some Minneapolis, no one's going to know it's here yet. Well, to be fair, Chicago has a large Italian contingent, and that's not that far. That's true.

Yeah, Chicago's got its own Italians and stuff. My lineage is Chicago Italians. Oh, okay. There you go. I will defend them, dammit. But many in Apple, it's like, it's the whitest. Oh, sure, it's the whitest city, right? Sure.

The founder Phil Roberts was quoted on a Saturday night in February. We might have a hundred people standing outside in 10 degrees above zero weather waiting to get in. That's how popular this original, it was a basement location. Is that what's trying to finish their giant bowls? That's exactly why. Yeah, it's not a wait because of demand. It's a wait because it's like

Challenge eating yeah, and they give each room to one family. Yeah That's why people are waiting outside. Yeah Eat meats With success came rapid expansion in the year 2000 the chain sold more keyante a very dry Italian red wine Then any other restaurant in the country well, you need to drink a lot to be able to handle the food that you ate. You're really coming down on this list. I mean, to be fair, I've made a couple comments there. It wasn't bad. It was okay.

It wasn't authentic. It wasn't authentic. And it wasn't good. Yeah, it wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It was, we'll talk about it. What's this podcast about? Is it looking for a mediocrity?

A mediocrity. podcast about is it looking for? Mediocrity. Oh, in 1996, Robert's hired a CEO who was actually Italian American, Joseph McAtrotto. In his words, the idea was to bring legitimacy, Bill's edginess and tongue in cheek stuff.

I enjoyed that, but the difference is that I lived that he didn't. This tongue in cheek stuff. They literally brought in a CEO who's like, I am this restaurant. You nailed your Italian visage. Make a trotto cut down on some of the jokes about nuns and other bits he felt went a little too far. He also inserted some of his own family's immigrant story in the marketing.

Now, I know you, you were making nuns hitting kids jokes as we looked at the picture. I was next to our table of nuns riding bumper cars. There's a lot of nuns riding bumper cars. And I was like, well, at least you're spending all day hitting kids with rollers, but you need to let off some steam. Let off some steam. As though hitting a child isn't already letting off

that steam. Exactly, yeah. The fine dining bump, the other nuns, and the bumper guy. I do want to say the fine dining podcast does not condone the hitting of children. No, but it does understand it. Only in the Catholic church.

Only, yeah, yeah. Only if it's nuns. Eat meats. Toning down on some of the bits he. Only, yeah, yeah. Only if it's known. Eat meats. Toning down on some of the bits he thought went too far, didn't necessarily help, Mika Trado. In 2002, a conservative group in Houston called for the removal of purportedly pornographic images in a local Bucuda Beppo. The statue of David.

Oh, with his dick out and stuff? You could have phrased it any other way with his Joe's hole just hanging out. That's also not applicable to a penis. It's, it's, it's a whole. We don't need to dissect. Oh, so they had statues of just the, you know, I mean, I'm sure it was the whole statue, not just the penis. Just the statue of David's penis. That's its own room. And that's a good stuff. Waiter, can we just all penis statues?

I'd like to request to be moved. Can I get in that room, please? They look like they're having a great time. Meanwhile, the brand is starting to struggle, and Roberts claims the food quality suffered under Mika Trado's watch. He said, instead of starting with your San Marzano tomatoes and chopping them up,

you were getting a package of marinara sauce and dumping it into a steam kettle. I don't think that's not what they're doing now. Yeah, it's at the end of Goodfell, is when he's like, I got egg noodles and ketchup. I mean, that's kind of the whole feel of it. Gross. Anyways, things were changing and Robertson Renda,

the original chef, were out by 2003. They didn't want the restaurants to open for lunch, but the investors disagreed. So it started opening for lunch. I don't know if you noticed, but the entire back page of the menu was for lunch. Oh, that's true. But they didn't do smaller, well, I didn't notice smaller portions.

I can't say I scoured it heavily because we weren't there for lunch, so it felt irrelevant. Food come at 3 p.m. or 8 p.m. So let's come in early so you can ruin the whole rest of your night. There were clearly other problems. In 2006, Mika Trado and two other executives went to jail for inflating income for Buka and stealing money to, among other things, renovate an Italian villa. The article says allegedly, but they've been convicted. You know, that's the most authentic Italian thing about the entire place. That's the one.

That's the guy. Full Roberts wanted to do that. I'm sorry that much. He wasn't Italian enough. He wasn't Italian enough. This guy in McAllen is going, you know. That's funny. But essentially the three reported false profits from Bucca de Beppo and charged personal expenditures

to the company like the groom's dinner for McAtrado's son's wedding, for example. The controller of the company John J. Moshinbacher blew tens of thousands in company cash on strip clubs. Once he and the chief financial officer Greg Gable spent a staggering five to seven hours in a Boston strip joint called Center Folds slash cafe on zero. The total. It was a cafe strip club. You know, some strip club serve food.

This one's your surprise. Should I review a strip club buffet? Yeah, that'd be great. Their total bill for that night was $23,000. $23,000 a strip club? Yeah, well, it's a cafe too. I mean, you're getting some good stuff in there. And it's probably overpriced.

And they probably serve for like three people minimum. Yeah, they're just like Buka. Oh my God. So 23 grand. In five to seven hours. Yeah, that's insane. That's irresponsible. And put it on the Buka de Bapho tab.

The less. They're like, sir, you're broke. We, you've got to pay. Oh, I got this coupon. You can come into my place. There you go. Eat, Deets. Buka would have gone out of business after that, It's gotta pay. Oh, I got this coupon. You can come into my place. There you go. There you go. Eat, Deats.

Buka would have gone out of business after that, except it was purchased in 2008 by Planet Hollywood for $9.7 million. Its owner, Robert Earl, also not Italian, took it back to its roots, returning the gaudy decor and authentic red sauce. Did you see how many stores there were yet or no? I did not, and I don't know if I had that number.

Because 9.7 million is so cheap. There are 65 Bukitabepo's located in the United States. That's it? 65. For 9.7, that's still a pretty good deal. Yeah. 65 restaurants. And you got the entire Bukitabepo chain.

Yeah. Holy shit. That's only 144, 9,000 per store. That's a bearp Oh shame. Yeah. Holy shit. That's only a hundred and forty nine thousand per store. That's a bear is saying. Instead of buying. All right. Look, the real estate and Cali, you could buy a book to beppo and live in that instead. Live in it. Live in the Pope room is now your room. That seems that seems narcissistic. I mean, I am a pope now. It's like a buck 50,000 for just a buck 50,000. Buck 50, you know, buck 50, just for each store.

Wow, God bless them. Yeah. But it did work. Nowadays it's back to being in the black. It's most profitable location is Honolulu. Really? Yeah. And they also have international locations,

so it's not just 65. Also, this is 2008 numbers, so they may have had fewer and then expanded under Robert Earl. Yeah. Who knows? Even then, 10 million for that. Yeah. Yeah.

In 2020, Earl gave his good friend and star of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Dorit Kimsley, a chance to redecorate a Bucadabepo in Encino, California. It was the subject of an entire episode, so basically a marketing campaign. The results are basically Olive Garden with more fake greenery. Yeah. Eat, Deets. Planet Hollywood has a lot of ghost kitchens, apparently, including one called wing squad.

Some of those wings are actually cooked out of Bucadabepo kitchens with rebranded packaging. So if you order from wing squad, you're eating Bucadabepo wings. No way. Look at that little secret thing. Way, Mike. Did you find all of these eatery details interesting? That was a pretty good eat deets. That does it for this week's Eat Deets, Mike. We need a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, you're from strangers.

A one-star, two-star, three-star, four-by-yay. So get a little, a little, a little, you're from strangers. A little, a little, a little, you're, give Give us those complaints why you literally want to die! YELP! Alright, this is Yelp from Strangers where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite 1,2,3,4, and 5 star Yelp reviews from the very book of De Beppo that we dined at. Mike, do you mind if I start us off with a 3 star review right in the middle? I love it. Three star review.

All right, this review is from Victoria C from Huntington Park, California. This is May 15th, 2020. Three stars. I'm going to join the recent reviews for the past couple of days and say, preach what a mess y'all were this mother's day. My story is pretty much the same as the recent reviewers. Ordered ahead of time, checked my email before leaving my house to make sure my order was as good. And got a notification email 15 minutes before my

pick up time that my order was canceled. Frustrating hell effing, yes. I do not exaggerate when I say it was a big, old mess. I right away told my baby daddy, fuck this, let's get our money back and get my mama something else. My baby daddy, yep. But I called mama and she was down to wait. Was there a lack of communication? Yes. Was the manager all over the place? Yes. Was the

wait really long? Yes. We're people, hella mad. I mean, could you blame them? Hella mad. I love the way people talk on the app. I really do. But mama wanted that dang chicken limone. So we waited in that long line just to place our order again, pay again because our order was canceled. But yet, LVA hose card was still charged and still wait some more for the order to come out. LVA, is that LVA? Is that baby daddy? Is that her son?

Veeho's old. Baby daddy's gotta be old. Yeah. Now look, I get it. I did my time in retail and customer service and it ain't fun. So although the manager Luis was a little all over the place, I felt bad for the guy in his staff. He was one person dealing with a whole bunch of angry people on one of the busiest days of the year. The door has the name of the general regional manager.

Where was she at? She's a regional manager. She's not gonna just visit every book. I'm here because my baby daddy's getting pissed. I know. She could have been there as well, dealing with all the upset customers. It wasn't Luis's fault the computer system failed

and took too many orders the restaurant could actually handle. And the guy kept his cool, never once being disrespectful to anyone in line, stopping anytime anyone asked him something, I for sure would not have handled that situation. Well, this was completely the company's fault. At the end, me and baby daddy chose to wait because let's be honest, the food and the price for it, Mother's Day package. They're waiting so pretty. Great. Also, she keeps calling on baby daddies. Oh yeah. We decided to wait.

Yeah, you waited seven years to get married too because it's not happening. This is the first place though that has said the prices are good because it was a mother's day package. Oh yeah. I scoured so many up reviews and all of them are just like 37 bucks for pasta. It's like, yeah, it's for three. Yeah. But most importantly, in the current situation

where we've been stuck at home and miss our friends, it was nice to finally be able to talk to other people. High fill while being six feet apart, even if it was to vent about how mad we were. We missed our friends. This was May 2020. Oh wow. So Buka and Pasadena.

So in the first place they go to answer this, one stop and answer. It's in the midst. It's in the midst of the pandemic, but it's like once something what was a takeout order? It was a pick-up order. I just wasn't ready. Yeah, so Buka and Pasadena I'm still mad at you for your for you are for you were mess on Mother's Day But I'll for sure see you again once this pandemic is over Three stars. Hey, fuck you Buka, but I'll be better is over three stars. Hey, fuck you, Buka, but I'll be better.

Forstar review. All right. I'm going to keep us going with a four star review for Tonya B from Duarte, California. Uh, or it's called Duarte. Is it Duarte? You're like, Duarte. My girlfriend says Duarte, you know, to what is Duarte? Anyway, she's gonna, let's spend three minutes on this. Anyway, Tonya B from Dwarthe, California, which is really Dwarri. She gave it a four star and April 23rd, 2023. She said, I do not have to start with this. Please get a better midweek day hostess, Yikes. I thought this girl was going to bite my head off.

Wolf, as soon as we entered, I thought I was at the courthouse or in trouble for something. She sees honestly a great way to phrase, to describe a booka. I walk in and I felt like I was at a courthouse in stereotypical Italy, but a courthouse. To double doors and everything.

A couple getting married. Yeah. To couple getting married. Yeah. To their baby daddy. She seemed annoyed, burdens and irritated that we walked in and was not friendly in the slightest on the contrary. She was short and cold. So yeah, the first impression was not good. Thankfully, our server was so over the top happy, energetic and full of joy that he literally

in an instant undid with the sour taste she put in our mouth. So thank you, Lugo, for being a light. I also saw a lot of people commenting on how great Lugo is. Lugo, huh? Anyway, so she's saying now for the food. My husband ordered the chicken parm, which he said was off the chain. Right. I ordered this space.

Are they living in 1994? They're going back to the- For the OG, Boca. I ordered the spicy shrimp pasta and it was delicious, but be warned, it is very spicy and that's coming from someone who always adds extra spice to everything. Oh, she's got that spice cred.

That's spice cred. The appetizer, which was their ch**sy bread option, was palatable. I enjoyed it. Howlitable? Oh, I said palatable. I enjoyed it palatable. Palatable? Oh, I said palatable. Is it Dwarf? Is it Dwarf?

Is it Dwarf? Okay, my girlfriend's right. I enjoyed it, but it left something to be desired. I think it needed to be toasted more for starters. The opposite of us, we wanted to be less toast. It was somewhat ordinary. The spaghetti factory has set unreachable standards in the way of appetizer,

cheesy bread. So I think it's hard to for others to impress me now. That is the funniest sentence that has ever been written. The spaghetti factory has set unreachable standards. Jesus Christ, I can't, I'm moving back to Jersey. It's a factory for spaghetti. But it's just spaghetti. Unreachable standard to the spaghetti factory. Yeah. That's also a chain. Lastly, I got the Italian cream cake for dessert and it was very delicious. Overall, we had a really nice time.

As a last note, if you have conservative values or small children that you want to protect, I would highly suggest sitting outside. We're only going to kill your kids. No, keep going. In my opinion, the artwork into core is disturbing. In the few moments, it took me to get to and from the bathroom, I saw artwork of a topless woman, Mona Lisa, baby, tits out, topless woman, nipple and all. And it was not an old school statue type. It was from about the 50s or 60s. Nudity was only okay if it's from a really long in the past. People holding out the middle finger and artwork and an unsettling amount of pictures of babies doing inappropriate behavior.

There was a baby flipping the bird. Oh, really? Yeah. It was giving me peto vibes to be completely honest and the decapitated Pope's head was absolutely creepy. It's not decapitated. It's a bust. Yeah.

Have you never seen a bust before? There wasn't bleeding on the bottom of it. Jesus Christ. With all that said, if you eat outside, you can enjoy yourself here and have good food. And she put a bunch of pictures of all the food there. I've seen it in person. Love it.

I've seen their food up close. I had to eat it a couple nights ago and then had more leftovers today. You can go download our full Yelp from Stranger's segment at our Patreon. The link for that is in the description of this episode or you can go to patreon.com slash find out and we're now offering a one week free trial. So what do you have to lose? Go check it out.

People have wild opinions and we get to read oh so many of them. Thanks. Alright, we've covered the history, the eat deets of Bucatobepo. We've gone through Yelp reviews, but we haven't even gotten to the restaurant review. So next week, join me and my guest, Mike Perkins. Mike, thanks for coming on this week. I'm excited to have you again next week.

Where can people follow you, find you, stay up to date with whatever you're doing? Well, thank you for having me, man. I'm excited for the next week. Where can people follow you, find you, stay up to date with whatever you're doing? Well, thank you for having me, man. I'm excited for the next part. And you can find me at Mike Perkins' underscore on Instagram, or you can go to my website, TheMikePerkins.com. Not a Mike Perkins. It should have been a Mike Perkins, I guess.

I could have got Mike Perkins.com, but it was $1,000. So I went The Mike Perkins. Really gouging Mike Perkins of the world. Yeah. There's a singer, Mike Perkins.com, but it was $1,000. So I went the Mike Perkins. Really gouging Mike Perkins of the world. Oh, yeah. There's a singer Mike Perkins looking up. Oh, okay. He don't even have the website. I like how you're plugging him.

Yeah, yeah. Let's plug and go to you. He's got tour dates also. Great. But go to mine, though Mike Perkins.com for all my show dates and my live talk show, another late show tonight. You can check it out there. So awesome. Well, we can check it out there. So awesome.

Well, we will be back next week in the meantime, we're gonna spend one full week waiting on our table. Have a fine day. Then we add some fun, now we're waiting on our table Waiting on our table, join us next time We're stuck in line, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, we're so hungry Tommy's grumbling, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, we gotta continue

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