"Lou Malnati's with Jon Gabrus & Christine Nangle (LIVE)" is Episode 199 of Doughboys, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Lou Malnati's with Jon Gabrus & Christine Nangle (LIVE)" was released on April 18, 2019.
"Tomorrow..." - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
This week, Christine Nangle (The President Show, Inside Amy Schumer) and Jon Gabrus (Raised by TV, High & Mighty) join the 'boys to discuss a cornerstone of Chicago-style pizza: Lou Malnati's. Plus, a live edition of The Wiger Challenge.
Nick's intro[]
In 1963, the Hughes family moved from Grosse Pointe, Michigan to the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Illinois. The Big West move would have a profound impact on the family's oldest boy, the then-12-year old John Hughes, who would grow up to be a wildly successful director, screenwriter, and producer - almost always setting his stories in metropolitan Chicago.
John Hughes
Hughes' filmography includes iconic pieces of pop culture like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but the most enduring of his coming-of-age comedy/drama hybrids was 1990's Home Alone, written and produced by Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, in which eight year old Kevin McAllister quickly learns the challenges of living on his own. And a key plot device in the film is pizza, which both instigates the Act One fight that leads Kevin to wish his family away and acts as the centerpiece of a scene in which he employs a savvily-cued mob movie to deceive a befuddled delivery guy.
It's no coincidence that pizza factors so memorably in this Chicago suburb-set film, as it's a key part of the Second City's cultural identity; both thinner crust and the denser, thicker casserole variety commonly referred to as "Chicago Style."
One of Chicago Style's purported inventors was a man named Rudy, who managed Pizzeria Uno in the '40s and '50s, imparting his knowledge to his son and fellow employee, Lou. In 1971, Lou set out on his own and opened an eponymous pizzeria serving deep dish based off the family recipe. But a random car crash wrecked his first storefront, and disruptive neighborhood construction shuttered the second, and the third was too far from the city to be economically feasible. And in 1978, amidst this series of misfires, Lou died of cancer, never witnessing his concept attain the success of his dreams.
But there may very well be marinara in his bloodline because his sons joined his widow to carry on his legacy, relaunching his restaurant with a legendary appearance at the first ever Taste of Chicago Festival in 1980. By the time Home Alone hit theaters, the family had built a successful chain by streamlining their focus mostly to carry-out and delivery, while maintaining the premium quality established by their forefathers.
Now with fifty locations across greater Chicago, and a few more in Arizona, the chain's deep dish continues to offer Chicago Style comfort... just like a John Hughes' third act.
This week on Doughboys: Lou Malnati's.
[Nick cut this sentence from the intro, but read it later anyway:
And while Ferris Bueller BS'ed a maître d'by claiming to be Abe Frohman, the Sausage King of Chicago, it's no BS that sausage is king in Chicago, as the city's most popular pizza topping, an outlier in a nation addicted to pepperoni.]
Fork rating[]
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger | Capone Negroni | 4 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
5 forks |
| Jon Gabrus | - | 3 forks |
| Christine Nangle | wine | 4 forks |
| shared |
|
The Wiger Challenge[]
Malört
In the Wiger Challenge, Nick presents Mitch and the guest with a mystery beverage and they try to guess what it is. The closest guess is declared the winner.
Nick gives them Jeppson's Malört, a bitter, spiced wormwood liqueur made in Chicago.
Gabrus ruined the guessing game by immediately knowing what it was, so he was the winner.
Everyone was appalled by its potency, except Nick, who dug it.
Roast Spoonman[]
| “ | Biscotti Pippen | ” |
–Tyler Moss | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | What routine do you think will prove more timeless: Abbot & Costello's 'Who's on First?' or the Doughboys 'Drank or Stank'? | ” |
–Nick Wiger on comedy history | ||
| “ | Gabrus gave me a lapdance in the Minions costume. | ” |
–Nick Wiger | ||
| “ | Why do you treat me like your Dad treated you? | ” |
–Mitch, to Gabrus | ||
| “ | I think that's when everything on the pizza is hot except the crust. | ” |
–Christine Nangle on the Buttercrust | ||
| “ | My Mother would come home to an empty mailbox, because this pizza was nothing to write home about! | ” |
–Nick Wiger, food reviewer | ||
| “ | When you go home tonight, log in to WikiFeet and rate Nangle five stars! | ” |
–Jon Gabrus | ||
#hashtags[]
- #SlowDanceSundaes
The Feedbag[]
| “ | If you could open a restaurant in Hyrule [Kingdom from Zelda], what kind of food would you serve there? | ” |
–Kevin | ||
| “ | If you guys could do any wrestling move on anybody else on the stage, what would it be? | ” |
–Gus | ||
| “ | I grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. Every Saturday morning when we got done with chores, which was usually late morning/early afternoon, we would go to our local Culver's. There would often be parents mistreating their children - lot of yelling at them, possibly hitting them. I'm wondering if you have any stories of being at a chain restaurant and seeing people being mistreated? | ” |
–Dylan | ||
| “ | I know you guys really liked that cheese pretzel pizza from Little Caesar's. I just thought it was OK. You really liked the Breakfast King as well. If you could come up with your frankenfood like that, what chain would it be at and what would it be? | ” |
–Byron | ||
Related Episodes[]
| Christine Nangle episodes | Jon Gabrus episodes |
|---|---|
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