"Torchy's Tacos with Jon Gabrus (LIVE in Austin)" is Episode 133 of Doughboys, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Torchy's Tacos with Jon Gabrus (LIVE in Austin)" was released on December 14, 2017.
"Tomorrow... Live from Austin" - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
Comedian, actor, and writer Jon Gabrus (Real Housewives of Las Vegas, Guy Code, Upright Citizen's Brigade) joins the 'boys to review Torchy's Tacos, an Austin institution serving up creative twists on 'damn good' tacos.
Recorded live in Austin, TX.
Doughboys live at The North Door
Nick's intro[]
March, 1875: the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company is chartered and begins construction of a 52-mile line connecting San Diego, Texas to Corpus Christi.
The Texas Mexican Railway car
In 1881, the Company changed ownership and is rechartered as the Texas Mexican Railway. The new owners extended the line to Laredo, a border town that would become the primary port of entry for rail commerce into the U.S. from Mexico. This physical connection between two of North America's largest economies would morph into a civilizational connection, reflected in the Texas Mexican Railway's commonly used shortened name, the Tex-Mex.
"Tex-Mex" became slang for the cultural merging of these two independent states, most enduringly, for food. In San Antonio in the late 19th century, Hispanic women known as 'Chili Queens' gave birth to Tex-Mex cuisine by selling chili con carne, tamales, and enchiladas at outdoor stands to local workers. The distinctively flavored offerings of these pioneering vendors soon migrated across the Lone Star State and would become as much a part of Texas food culture as chicken-fried steak and pecan pie.
In 2006, Michael Rypka, who'd started out as a fry cook at Popeye's, then rose in the restaurant industry ranks to eventually be an executive chef at the World Bank, left the world of fine dining cuisine for finance tycoons to serve down-home Tex-Mex to Austinites, mortgaging his house to open a taqueria that operated out of a trailer.
The shop struggled at first, so Rypka engaged in guerilla marketing, by riding around in his Vespa, handing out free chips and salsa to tempt locals over to his makeshift storefront. Once they tasted the food, including the restaurant's queso and green-chile pork, locals couldn't stay away and one customer is said to have proclaimed, "Damn! These tacos are good!" - "Damn Good" thus becoming a key element in their branding.
The trailer expanded into storefronts throughout the city and today, just a scant eleven years after its founding, and over a century since the Chili Queens and the Narrow Gauge Railroad brought this food scene into existence, there are locations across the state and even in Oklahoma and Colorado, meaning these Tex-Mex eateries cover more geographic ground then the old Tex-Mex Railway herself.
This week on Doughboys: Torchy's Tacos.
Fork rating[]
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
4 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
4.5 forks |
| Jon Gabrus |
|
4 forks |
| shared |
|
With these scores, Torchy's Tacos makes the Golden Plate Club!
Drank or Stank[]
Austin Beerworks beers
In Drank or Stank, The Doughboys have a drink and rate it either 'Drank' or 'Stank.'
For this episode, they, and an audience member, taste some local beers from Austin Beerworks.
| guest / host | Peacemaker Anytime Ale | Pearl-Snap German-style Pils | Fire Eagle American IPA | favorite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger | Drank | Drank | Drank | Pearl-Snap |
| Mike Goldi-Mitchell | Drank | Drank | Drank | Pearl-Snap |
| Jon Gabrus | Drank | Drank | Drank | Peacemaker |
| Maeve | Drank | Drank | Drank | Pearl-Snap |
Roast Spoonman[]
Glazed and Confused
| “ | Glazed And Confused | ” |
–@joeynelson | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | Do you feel healthy when you do it? Do you feel like, 'now I got my salad in for the day - I had a tomato on a Whopper'? | ” |
–Jon Gabrus when learning Nick & Mitch like tomatoes on sandwiches | ||
| “ | Oh weird, Nick liked it when they put hot lettuce on to the taco. | ” |
–Mitch's pure surprise | ||
| “ | Well, at least we know when words go out of the vernacular. | ” |
–Jon Gabrus, after Nick calls Torchy's "straight fire" | ||
#hashtags[]
- #LightMeUp vs. #TorchSongTrilogy
The Feedbag[]
| “ | Nick, I was just curious: how many inches of your dick can you suck?
- I was an early adopter of Mitch.pizza. You've answered a few of my questions. You're always talking about never having anyone to date, but every time you have Nicole Byer on the show, I thought you've had really great chemistry. Why don't you go on a date with Nicole Byer? |
” |
–Weston | ||
| “ | I know you're afraid of the devil, but if you were both in hell and tasked with torturing each other, which food you choose to torture the other person? | ” |
–Jason | ||
| “ | The Doughboys famously can't be bought. How do you guys respond to the allegations that you have been bought because you always say Wendy's sandwiches are better than Chick-fil-A? | ” |
–some lady | ||
| “ | What is your favorite dinosaur? Herbivore or carnivore? | ” |
–B. Strange | ||
Related Episodes[]
| Jon Gabrus episodes |
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Photos (via @doughboyspod)[]
Tour poster