"Tender Greens 2 with Niccole Thurman" is Episode 450 of Doughboys, hosted by Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell. "Tender Greens 2 with Niccole Thurman" was released on June 13, 2024.
"Tomorrow… with Niccole Thurman @niccolethurman" - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
Niccole Thurman (@niccolethurman, Jellystone!) joins the 'boys to talk barbecue, Chicago eats, and fine dining before a review of Tender Greens. Plus, another edition of The Wiger Challenge.
Nick's intro[]
Seinfeld "The Non-Fat Yogurt"
“This is so fucking good": This line, the profanity naturally bleeped for network television, was the inciting incident in the Seinfeld season-five episode "The Non-Fat Yogurt," in which a delicious fat-free treat leads to Jerry Seinfeld’s explicit outburst in front of an easily influenced child. Like many Seinfeld episodes, it spoke to a then-zeitgeisty mania: the low-fat diet, which doctors and nutritionists of the era pushed as the template for healthy eating. The now-discredited dogma led to products like Nabisco’s Snackwell’s, a devil’s-food cookie with zero deadly fat but loads of harmless high-fructose corn syrup, which sold like shitty tasting hotcakes to desperate dieters.
But while "The Non-Fat Yogurt" reflected an eating trend of the moment, a different Seinfeld episode was more prescient about the culinary future: season six’s "The Big Salad," centered on George thanklessly buying Elaine the titular entree-sized portion of leafy greens. The notion of a Big Salad was relatively novel at the time; while salads were common as appetizers or sides, an entire meal of dressed lettuce seemed exotic; so much so that in the season six episode "The Soup" — not to be confused with the more famous season seven episode "The Soup Nazi" — when Elaine was exiled from her beloved Monk’s Diner and forced to eat at rival Reggie’s, the server was baffled by her pleas for a Big Salad.
But in the 2000s, as Seinfeld yielded to Curb Your Enthusiasm, the low-fat diet yielded to the Atkins diet, as dietary fat was unshackled from belly fat and carbs became enemy number one in the $90 billion weight-loss industry. And with the rise of salads for lunch and dinner came trendy new salad-focused restaurants — including one founded in Culver City in 2006 by Chef Erik Oberholtzer. Now with nearly 30 locations across California, Oberholtzer’s brainchild is just one of many greens-driven concepts targeted at health-conscious eaters who eat for fuel, not fun.
Today, salads as mains are standard issue on every restaurant menu in America, and Jerry Seinfeld directed a movie about Pop-Tarts for some reason. And similarly inexplicably, the California Big Salad vendor has pivoted to beefing up its menu with a beefy burger. So in the age of Ozempic, will this fat- and carbs-loaded hamburger sandwich make diners exclaim, “this is so fucking good?”
This week on Doughboys… we return to Tender Greens… for the Tender Greens Burger.
Fork rating[]
The first time The Doughboys reviewed Tender Greens was way back in 2017, when Nick and Mitch each gave it 3 forks.
This time, they returned to try the new Tender Burger, but also give a new review of the whole restaurant.
| guest / host | ordered | Tender Burger rating | overall rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
3 forks | 3.5 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
3.5 forks | 3.5 forks |
| Niccole Thurman | Tender Burger | 3 forks | 3.5 forks |
| shared |
|
Nick went on his own to a Tender Greens, but then they all ordered together to the studio.
As per the burger on its , they all thought it was fine but nothing special.
The Wiger Challenge[]
In this segment, Nick presents Mitch and the guest a mystery beverage, and they try to guess the product. The closest guess is declared the winner and receives the remainder of the drink.
For this episode, there are two flavors of the same brand of drink: Ocean Spray Cran-grape and Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktail! Niccole seems to have nailed both, but maybe so did Mitch and they tied.
| guest / host | guess | result |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Mitchell | Ocean Spray Cran-grape
Ocean Spray 100 Calorie Cranberry |
|
| Niccole Thurman | Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktail
Ocean Spray Crangrape |
winner! |
Roast Spoonman[]
Freddie Krueger
| “ | Sweaty Krueger | ” |
–Carly C | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | I've never listened to a fucking Doughboys episode in my life. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell | ||
| “ | In my opinion, nothing can be too meatbally. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell | ||
| “ | Kick me out, I don't need to be here anymore! | ” |
–Niccole Thurman | ||
The Feedbag[]
| “ | What frozen fruit loses the most by being in the freezer? | ” |
–Jake from Denver | ||
| guest / host | worst fruit to freeze |
|---|---|
| Nick Wiger | - |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
| Niccole Thurman | strawberries |
Drops[]
| reference | notes |
|---|---|
| totally real "Excuse Me" drop | by Finke |
Related Episodes[]
| Tender Greens episodes |
|---|
|
Photos[]
