"Denny's Solo Menu with Matt Mira" is Episode 155 of Doughboys, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Denny's Solo Menu with Matt Mira" was released on May 24, 2018.
"Tomorrow... A menu from a galaxy far, far away" - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
Writer/comedian Matt Mira (The Goldbergs, Star Trek: The Next Conversation) joins Mitch and Wiger for a feature length review of Denny's new promotional menu for Solo: A Star Wars Story. The trio talk Boston and Vegas eats, discuss the pluses and minuses of branded slot machines, and tackle a Wars v. Trek quiz in another edition of Fake Chews.
Nick's intro[]
"You old stardog! Took a war to get you out here!"
In George Lucas' rough draft of his screenplay for Star Wars, this was the first line spoken by the character of Han Solo.
Han Solo
In this initial concept, Solo was an alien of the Ureallian species, a giant creature with green skin and gills covered in slime. As Lucas developed his story, he realized that the space pirate was better conceived as a humanoid character and shifted the alien role to the best friend of a man named Solo, the Wookie Chewbacca.
This human Solo, a smuggler and scoundrel, was the breakout star of the original Star Wars film, and remains one of the most beloved characters in the universe. Much of that, of course, stems from the casting of actor Harrison Ford, who'd previously scored a small role in Lucas' film, American Graffiti.
Perhaps the character's signature moment comes in The Empire Strikes Back, where Han is about to be frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter, Boba Fett, and Princess Leia confesses "I love you," to which Han replies, "I know." The response was unscripted and, though not actually improvised during a take, it was pitched by Ford to director Irvin Kershner prior to filming, causing Kershner to later reflect, "I regarded that scene as entirely Ford's."
The role is so thoroughly associated with Ford that casting the character for Disney's prequel was a lengthy process, eventually landing on actor Alden Ehrenreich who, in portraying the interstellar smuggler, has a lift as heavy as Yoda levitating an X-Wing out of a Degobah swamp.
Outside of its box-office success, the Star Wars franchise was pioneering in terms of marketing tie-ins. In the early '80s, Burger King's Star Wars drinking glasses were the original chain-restaurant collectors' item. Summer movies are now expected to have some sort of promotional link with a chain restaurant, including in recent years, a sit-down diner chain whose first location was in Lakewood, California.
The restaurant offered promotional menus from the first two Hobbit movies (though curiously nothing for the third entry, The Battle of the Five Armies), as well as for the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, which included items like the Human Torch Skillet and the Invisible Woman Slam, complete with clear pancake syrup. And now the trend continues with the newest canonical entry of Disney's Star Wars franchise.
This week on Doughboys, we return to Denny's for their Solo: A Star Wars Story-inspired menu.
Vest rating 🦺[]
Denny's Solo menu
The Doughboys first reviewed Denny's back in episode 13, when both Nick and Mitch each gave it 3 forks.
For this episode, they focus solely on their promotional Solo menu.
They rate it on a scale of 1-5 Han Solo vests.
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
4 vests |
| Mike Mitchell | 4 vests | |
| Matt Mira | 4 vests |
The Doughboys ordered the entire Solo Menu, as well as a few things from the regular Denny's menu. The rating is not for Denny's a whole, however, just for this particular menu.
With these scores, the Solo Menu at Denny's makes the Golden Plate Club!
Fake Chews 📰[]
Star Trek vs. Star Wars
In Fake Chews, Nick presents food-related trivia and Mitch and the guest guess which are true or not.
This was the Star Wars/Star Trek edition, so they guess if the food is from Star Wars or Star Trek.
| item | Mitch | Matt | actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloodwine | Star Trek | Star Trek | |
| Polystarch | Star Wars | Star Wars | |
| Nuna Gumbo | Star Wars | Star Wars | |
| Slug-o-Cola | Star Trek | Star Trek | |
| Gespar | Star Wars | Star Trek | |
| Blue Puff Cubes | Star Wars | Star Wars |
Matt wins!
Roast Mitchy 2 Spoonz[]
| “ | The Boston Pee Farty | ” |
–Ikea Griffin | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | Mitch: My phone locked. I got face recognition on my iPhone and it locked up for a second so I could not open it up. Nick: The phone thought it was looking at a Jack O'Lantern. |
” |
–Wiger slam | ||
| “ | I think the best bedtime is 10:30pm. | ” |
–Nick Wiger | ||
| “ | [Denny's] was shitty in all the perfect ways. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell | ||
| “ | Mitch: [The gouda sauce on the Two Moons Skillet] had a distinctive smell that wasn't smelling great. When I ate it, it was better than I thought, so I was ok with it. Nick: It was this weird, beige cream. |
” |
–the Two Moons Skillet | ||
#hashtags[]
- #WorthTheWeight
The Feedbag[]
| “ | I work at a McDonald's in the Sacramento area and it's an extremely busy location. It's to the point where the lines and wait times can be ridiculous. Seeing these long lines makes me think, how badly do you want to eat at McDonald's that you're willing to wait such a long time?
So my question for you is: what eating locations are you willing to wait a long time for? And what locations, when you see a long line, do you change your mind and go eat somewhere else? |
” |
–Emilio Hernandez | ||
Related Episodes[]
| Denny's episodes | Star Wars episodes |
|---|---|
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Photos (via @doughboyspod)[]
