13_The NotAFoodie Show- Opening Day Food Choices, Ultimate Sweet 16 Food Bracket Challenge, Jason Rand

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NYC Baseball Opening Day Food Choices

Opening Day Sausage and Peppers at Yankee Stadium

Baseball is finally back! Food and Baseball are two of the most important things to me, so of course, we were going to talk about the best concessions at Citifield and Yankee Stadium. I’m going to address the elephant in the room and just say it. THE FOOD AT CITIFIELD HAS ALWAYS BEEN BETTER THAN THE FOOD AT YANKEE STADIUM. Period, no contest. Listen to this segment to hear our favorite places to eat at the respective stadiums, newcomers this season, and how I feel about something called a “Pizza Cupcake”

The NotAFoodie Ultimate Sweet 16 Bracket Challenge

So it is everyone’s favorite time of the year. MARCH MADNESS. I know you have filled out your bracket and it’s been busted. Maybe one your sleepers got through, but Oregon definitely upset one of your other teams. Hopefully you have Duke in your Final Four. But this isn’t a Sports Show(sometimes it is, but it isn’t) it’s a food podcast. So Tom and I broke down the Sweet 16 Food Cities and pitted them against each other. Listen until the end because the winner will definitely surprise you

The Eastern Conference

Duke vs Virginia Tech: Much like the actual basketball game, this was a blowout. There are about 4 times as many restaurants in Durham,NC as there are in Blacksburg,VA and the quality is much higher as well. North Carolina is easily becoming a NaF favorite Food State

LSU vs MSU: Baton Rouge’s #1 rated restaurant on TripAdvisor is a Ruth’s Chris so I had very low hopes for the city. Conversely, the #1 rated restaurant in East Lansing was HopCat which originated in Grand Rapids and has the best french fries(formerly known as Crack Fries) arguably in the world. Unfortunately for Michigan’s Capital, little brother just doesn’t have enough going on after that and cannot compete with the array of Cajun, Creole, and Seafood restaurant’s in Baton Rouge

Duke vs LSU: The Durham food scene is just bonkers, and would never have Ruth’s Chris anywhere near their top restaurants

Winner of the East: Duke

The Western Conference

Gonzaga vs FSU: I’m not going to lie, I thought that Gonzaga was in Washington, DC not Spokane Washington and I was ready to give them the W before doing any research, but that’s why we always check our sources. I was actually pretty underwhelmed with the dining options in Spokane, compared to other top Pacific Northwest Cities, and the food scene in Tallahassee is pretty cool, especially places like Lotsa Pizza, and the Don Shula’s Steakhouse Chain

Michigan vs Texas Tech: The Texas Tech Red Raiders have one of the coolest names in sports but unfortunately the town of Lubbock,TX cannot compete with Ann Arbor at a gastronomic level. Ann Arbor has an incredibly diverse food scene, excellent craft beer, and some fine dining options

FSU vs Michigan: Tallahassee is probably a fun town to go out to eat and drink but is light-years behind Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor has a very diverse food scene and its honestly one of the best in the country

Winner of the West: Michigan

The Southern Conference

UVA vs Oregon: Charlottesville is known for Christian’s Pizza, a pizza place that tops their pizza with tortellini, but Oregon has Uly’s Taco Shack. A weekend eatery that specializes in over the top burritos stuffed with french fries, guacamole, and an assortment of other ingredients

Purdue vs Tennessee: West Lafayette,IN is home to The Triple XXX Family Restaurant, a greasy spoon burger joint with dishes named after famous Alumni. This includes the Duane Purvis burger named after the College Football Legend. The DP Burger has all the fixings of a regular burger but with a dollop of Peanut Butter on top. The city is also home to Famous Frank’s Food Truck which parks outside of the famous Harry’s Chocolate Shop and sells it’s Fat Boy Hot Dog topped with french fries, chicken nuggets, and mozzarella sticks. Tennessee has a famous BBQ place called Sweet P’s Barbecue and Downtown Dive that does excellent Smoked Dry Rub wings, but it’s not enough to beat Purdue

Oregon vs Purdue: This is a close one but Oregon edges out Purdue with a better college food scene

Winner of the South: Oregon

The Northern Conference

UNC vs Auburn: This is another absolute blowout. Too much going on in Chapel Hill for a few BBQ spots to win this round

Houston vs Kentucky: This one was a doozy. Houston is a big up and coming food city with restaurants that feature food from all over the world, wild game hot dogs, and endless BBQ options. Kentucky obviously has a great bourbon culture and wonderful BBQ and Southern options, but Houston just has a deeper bench

UNC vs Houston: Once again Houston upsets UNC with their plentiful and diverse options

Winner of The North: Houston

The Final Four

Duke vs Michigan: Ann Arbor is a very culturally diverse city with food from all over, but its Crown Jewel is Zingerman’s Deli. An absolute must of a delicatessen that even Barack Obama stopped by to eat at. Durham is great but Ann Arbor is better

Houston vs Oregon: Eugene, OR had a great run but Houston is a much larger city with a lot more going on.

THE FINALS

Michigan vs Houston: We didn’t say it on the radio show but essentially Houston does everything that Ann Arbor does, but it’s bigger and has a better restaurant scene

Congratulations to the City of Houston for winning the NotAFoodie March Madness Bracket

If you think we messed up, if we missed your favorite restaurant in you college town, or some how thought we got everything correct please let us know. DM us on Instagram or Twitter @NotAFoodieShow

Jason Rand Talks About His Journey from Busboy to Cosplay Ninja to Sommelier at a Top Restaurant

Jason Rand stops by the studio to talk about how he worked his way up from Dishwasher to The Manager for the Antinori Portfolio. He tells us all about his hospitality journey all over NYC.

Jason cut his teeth at Ninja, the Ninja-themed Sushi Restaurant in Tribeca. He had to dress up as a Ninja when he was a busboy and a server. While he was there in the early 2000’s he was serving Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama whenever they were in NYC

He left there for Koi in the early stages of the restaurant. Koi was an LA Hot-Spot that opened up a second location in NYC. Koi was incredibly busy and was a place that people went to be seen. Working at Koi showed Jason the serious side of service, and set him up for future success

Jason went over to Sons of Essex for a stint in management and then went over to Masa to be the Chef Sommelier(Head Sommelier.) He worked there for a few years before deciding to go into Wine Sales.

We talk about luxury foods, high-end sushi, and what he misses the most and least from the hospitality industry

Wine Tasting with Jason

Jason came bearing gifts. He brought us a bottle of Antinori Castello della Sala Conte Della Vipera 2017, its an 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Semillon from Umbria, Italy. He also teaches us the word cépage

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