SamuZai
Binchtopia
Binchtopia

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I Eat My Slop Bowl on Company Time

The girlies break down the establishments that plague our neighborhoods and corporatize our lunch hours: fast casual restaurants. From Cava to Chipotle, have we really elevated fast food or just made it more expensive? Digressions include a petty gripes section, the Olympics of transvestigation, and tens of thousands of rewards points.

SOURCES:

10 storylines that defined the decade in fast food

90 Minutes With The Chipotle Boys

Calories Often Absent on Third-Party Food Delivery Platforms, Analysis Finds

Chipotle enhances partnership with top influencers

Chipotle is constantly searching for the intersection of its brand and culture

Chipotle is selling 'Chipotle Boy' bowls aimed at vest-wearing finance bros

Consumer control and customization in online environments

Fast-casual consumers: Who are they?

Food of the ‘90s: Fast, Fun, and Environment Friendly

How Sweetgreen turned itself into a restaurant that’s known for food quality instead of a technology startup that happens to sell food

Impacts of the 2008 Great Recession on dietary intake: a systematic review and meta-analysis

In a Burger World, Can Sweetgreen Scale Up?

Kendrick Lamar kicked Sweetlife Fest founder off stage

Personalization Psychology: Why We Crave Customization.

Rise of the Restaurant Robots: Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Others Bet on Automation

Salad Days Are Gone: I Went to Sweetgreen’s Music Festival

Server-less Restaurants Might Be the Future of Dining

Sweetgreen 2022 Impact Report

Sweetgreen beats ‘sad desk salad’ vibes to soar above fast-food competitors. It can thank fancy foods, high prices—and robots

Sweetgreen just pulled the plug on the Sweetlife Festival. Here’s what’s likely to replace it.

Sweetgreen makes boom at LA launch with performances by BANKS and Alvvays

Sweetgreen Marketing Strategy: Uncovering Key Ingredients Behind Growth

Sweetgreen stock soars after its IPO, valued at $5.5 billion

The Controversial Rise Of Fast Casual Bowl Restaurants

The Origin of the 9-5 Work Schedule and Its Crazy Incompatibility with the Modern World

The Role of Technology in Fast Casual Restaurants: Ordering Apps and Self-Service Kiosks

Two Years After Buying Spyce, Sweetgreen Launches Infinite Kitchen Robotic Restaurant

Unintentional food zoning: A case study of East Harlem, New York

When McDonald’s was America and America was McDonald’s

Why a Salad Company Has a Tech Team

Why fast-casual restaurants became the decade’s most important food trend

Why is fast casual winning?


Comments

Loved this episode but I felt so much cognitive dissonance because I have absolutely felt nourished, and made some beautiful memories at chipotle.

Olivia Pace

sweetgreen CEO has been bragging on twitter about his discrimination against Palestinians and those who support Palestine

Julia Dempsey

Idk why I feel compelled to clarify this but the Travis Scott mcdonalds meal did not come after Astro world lmao

Olivia Pace

could be totally unrelated but Cava had a spike in the stock market and I’d like to believe it is because of this binchtopia episode

Jaina Van Horne

naya > cava from a former nyc corporate girlie who took her daily lunch walk very seriously

Nellie

does anyone know the name of the rotisserie chicken sandwhich place in brooklyn…🙏

Meg

Thank you so much you rock!!💕💕💘💘

Makenzie

I live an hour and a half from chipotle and literally 4-5 hours from cava and sweet green 😔 I wish I could experience them on a regular basis

Kaitlin

there’s literally like 8 or 9 Chipotle’s within a 5 mile radius from my apartment ????? for why

Sam Haimowitz

I like giving my clothes to Trashie instead of donating because some of my clothes are wreckeeed

Tierney

I gotchu!! The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle and Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap were the two that i wrote down

Annip

Omg I love roots!!!!

Chrislin Hearn

NEEEEED to know if any binchies know (and love) Roots Natural Kitchen. once you have it simply no other fast casual compares <3

Rebecca

Hiiii does anyone remember (or know where to find) the books that Eliza has recommended on learning about money? I think she posted them in a story recently and I didn’t screenshot and now I regret it 😭🙏🏼

Makenzie

Y’all should look up Kimberly Washington and her efforts to change the language from “food deserts” to “food apartheids”! I work in food systems and it’s definitely a term that is catching wave and is way more accurate in describing what is actually causing the absence of food *eh em… racism, classism, etc.* and puts focus on the institutions causing hunger and poverty rather than calling it a “desert” which takes out the responsibility that those companies need to take.

Riley Wilmart

https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition/menu-labeling-requirements Restaurants absolutely do not want to share with you how bad their food is for you… calories on the menu is a “thanks, Obama” moment. Public health is a lot more than eating disorders, it’s a good rule!

Elsa

I heard Verizon and American Airlines use prison labor to staff their call centers. Not sure if it’s still something they do

Lindzz

makes me ill talking to US friends about lunch break culture (or lack thereof)...in france most companies impose minimum 1 hr lunch break and beyond that, culturally, it is considered very gauche to schedule literally anything between 12 and 2 pm. even in the jobs i have worked (big typical corporate consulting firms -- the exact kinds of places where my american counterparts be slurping up a burrito bowl in front of a spreadsheet) i have very rarely, in 4 years, not taken at least an hour and a half at lunch. we eat together with coworkers, we chat and take a break and drink coffee and slowly go back to the afternoon. it definitely cuts productivity in the 2-4pm zone but the general benefits on stress reduction and vibe with your coworkers are palpable imo

Madeleine Leddy

y'all Sweet Life was all the rage growing up in the DC area 😭😭 the whiplash i got when Eliza brought it up....

regan

guys pls read the jia tolentino essay “always be optimizing”- discusses the intersection of capitalism, athleisure, patriarchy, wellness culture and sweetgreen !!

Charlotte Thiel

never heard of sweetgreen or cava but chipotle and panera... those are my girls and i ride for them

tbh mattea

South Carolina binchies know about Kairos… beautiful place

Jane L.

spanish/portuguese binchies get your ass to honest greens! actually casual food that is delicious delicious 100% natural yummy

Georgia B

311 stays harassing your landlord def call them & keep calling them!! Also is better is multiple tenants call, and you can be anonymous. If they get too many calls against their building, they get HEAVILY fined. Just sued my old building for $10,000 with the help of 311 for a 3 month rat infestation where rats ate through concrete and got into my place and were all over my things so I'm here for landlord slander ❤️ peace love east village

Heather

Boycott McDonald’s!! Boycott Starbucks!!

Nina

I love the pod but the silence on the boycotts is truly disappointing. What other social issue of similar relevance would Eliza and Julia not speak on? It’s a political podcast and as such your silence is very loud. We are talking about a genocide and an apartheid state here- 70,000 bombs, 40,000 dead. Do better

Nina

HELLO ELIZA I'M SO SORRY YOU'RE MISSING ME, I'M MISSING BEING A GODLY WIFE TOO I JUST HAVE TO SAVE SOME MONEY GOING INTO THIS FALL BUT I LOVE YOU GUYS AND I'M STILL HERE YAPPING AWAY IN THE COMMENTS!!!

Lily Ana Verna

not me eating my free chipotle kids meal while listening to this episode

abby reddy

i’ve never heard of these bitches except chipotle

lauren baker

I’m honestly a little saddened by the lost opportunity for y’all to push the ongoing boycotts against mc donald’s and starbucks. This would have been the perfect time to plug them, especially since they’re pretty widely known at this point as we are seeing their stonks plummet!! Just last week the starbucks CEO was fired over longtime low sales. I love the pod and thoroughly enjoy listening each week but y’all haven’t addressed the elephant in the room since you were getting flamed for it many months ago. Y’all are both so smart and well read that I would truly expect more conversation about palestine because it’s a current news topic!! Use your platform for good please!!! Neutrality helps the oppressor.

Eliza

no laguardia or jfk shake shack slander allowed !!! as an american who has never lived in the US shake shack is what i get every time as my final meal before flying back home ! something about ur plane ride edibles kicking in while you’re at the gate devouring your shake shack is truly a magical and beautiful experience and will make you change your opinion on airport shake shacks being flops!

Charlotte

Neeeeeed Julia and Eliza’s thoughts on this flightlesbird tiktok situation.. has anyone else seen these videos??

lauren

I’ve had AWFUL experiences with Verizon customer service. I feel you so much. Was on the phone with a different person every single day for two weeks and it was the most frustrating debacle of my life… this one lady started telling me about her divorce and then asked me to pray that my phone came on time “by the grace of god.”

Genevieve Collum

I've lived near Boston, and then in Boston, and there's always like 6 Dunkins in short walking distance of where you are so having a preference between them is SO REAL I have a crunchy hashbrown dunkin, a sharp coffee dunkin, an open late dunkin

Lily Ana Verna

I worked at panera in 2019 and they are NOT a coffee shop that takes things slow and it made me hate them so much, also I had a coworker who was scary as fuck!

Lily Ana Verna

on the topic of “trans-vestigating,” saw a facebook reel clip from the movie juno and one of the comments was “why does the pregnancy lady have an adam’s apple”

Avery Nicholson

fun fact devon (of cody & devon go to white castle) was one of the creators of cameo!

lisa zhao

UGHH i've been through the "account number" circles with my electric and gas bills too and it's actually so infuriating and i call them and there's an automated voice telling me to try the website, then i go to the website and can't proceed without my account number which i DON'T KNOW and i also try so hard not to get mad at customer service people but it actually makes me want to throw my phone out the window!

Lily Ana Verna

All are entitled to own opinions but I must say I love chipotle dearly it is my sweet corporate beloved, chipotle cares about me, chipotle keeps me warm in the winter. I will be eating an expensive meal wishing it was chipotle. From a young age chipotle has always been there for me and I’ve always been there for it,

Kate Winslow

ah thank u! found it now 🫶🏼🫶🏼 think it was a combo of being off insta & not paying attention to my emails lmao

Vivienne paduch

My landlord wouldn’t get me or the building (6 units) trash bins either!! I would dispose of my garbage in the restaurant next door… never got in trouble for 2 years? But don’t live there anymore tho bc the stress of a simple amenity ?

Marisa

Love the fact checkinggg

Julia

Why did you think it was lazy ? (Genuinely curious) (Also I'm not Julia Hava lol just another Julia)

Julia

Irish girlie here and they market McDonald’s to fuck here. They still have bus stop ads and they even have done campaigns using Irish names like Sadhbh. We have a very similar corporate lunch culture but bringing food from home is probably most popular. Very interesting that they don’t advertise maccy ds in America as heavily

siun mcguire

be honest, did you send that email 🤣

Cat Cat

I blame private equity 🤭

Ru

yesssss as a DC kid Sweetlife was my first festival experience 😂😭 they honestly had a lot of bangers, i saw Avicii, Kid Cudi, Lana Del Rey, Hozier, Passion Pit and like a million others over the years there. it was a pinnacle of DC youth culture in the 2010’s.

Leslie

Thankfully I currently work at another horrible fast casual restaurant job that also makes me miserable💚 #blessed

Delaney O'Neil

My best friend and I got fired from the chipotle we worked at on the same day simply because we weren’t ass kissers🫶 and I worked there for a little over 3 years and personally trained over 20 people(FOR FREE) during my time there🙏🏻 I was miserable there anyway so I was kinda like ok slay but at the same time I was like I gave so much time and energy to this stupid ass food service job and that’s how you’re gonna do me?😒

Delaney O'Neil

i like this ep but if you can do a whole ass episode on fast casual food u can TOTALLY do one on blue raspberry

Desdemona Smyth

i had a personal vendetta against cava for years because they bought up and replaced the local mediterranean chain in my hometown, vowing never to step foot in one. then i went corporate and i have to say it kind of gagged me

Amanda R

same i had to do a triple take omg but that was def him!!

Raveena D’Souza

oh my god i thought i saw him too, but i doubted myself

Juliet Deane

did anyone else hang out at chipotle like every day after high school? this was back when bowls were $7

Annip

No they’re just doing them infrequently. The last one was July 10 Down bad crying at the core of the earth

Annip

you could cover history & renter rights

Jaelyn Wratchford

have y’all done an ep on landlords outside of personal experience?

Jaelyn Wratchford

Veeery curious of your opinions on panerabread

tinypurse

are the bad book club episodes only available on the mediasode tier now? can’t find the recent one & was so excited to listen

Vivienne paduch

Girrrrrrls I am old I was at the sweet life festival I saw Kendrick Lamar and I got the beets don’t kale my vibe tote ☠️

Jesse

Inchresting appreciate these takes!!! I had no idea GyG existed in Japan AND the US! And I’ve never had real Mexican food….. I must venture to the America’s I fear

Emily

jayson tatum’s baby mama used to work at the white castles in my hometown

e

This episode was lazy AF

Jane

UGH i’m sorry to hear that and i relate so much to those ~doctor accusations~ i have POTS which is a chronic illness that’s often caused by/related to long covid and it took SO FUCKING LONG to get diagnosed because i also just had doctors keep telling me i wasn’t eating enough protein instead of believing there might actually be something wrong besides my diet !!

Lily Ana Verna

i was at your first nyc show and nmillz was there

Raveena D’Souza

Re the utilities convo…I accidentally put my electric on auto pay and then moved outta my apartment. My ass accidentally paid electricity for my AWFUL roommates for 3 months. I was out like $400 :-(

Anna

I listened to this on my way to work and just finished my lunch break where they had CHIPOTLE CATERED?! Your minds…

Victoria

Chipotle is the most delicious of all time ..

Rosie

(sorry for the rant i needed to speak my truth)

Hannah

okay ik that the NYC healthy fast-casual food empire is largely associated with business boys in little puffer vests HOWEVER it is also linked to young women to such an extent that it impacted my healthcare!!! in 2021 I freakishly and inexplicably lost 20% of my body weight in a horrifically short period of time and stopped being able to digest most things and went to a GI doctor (male doctor in midtown Manhattan, my mistake there) who asked if I regularly ate at Sweetgreen and By Chloe and after firmly telling him that I did not he said "well a lot of young women eat there because they think it's healthy, but it isn't, it's just a lot of soy, so you should really stop eating there". sorry dude but what about me makes you think I eat at fucking By Chloe other than being a white woman in her early 20s??? anyways he kept telling me that that was the answer to my woes and would not perform any actual medical tests on me (honestly I was more upset at the By Chloe accusations than the lack of medical care, like I'll admit a Sweetgreen shroomami bowl eats sometimes but By Chloe doesn't even taste good it's just pink!!!), and like 8 months later I found an actual doctor who informed me that the cause of my medical issues was in fact severe long covid that was ravaging my body and actively giving me brain damage 😋 I'm good now but I will never forgive Sweetgreen and By Chloe or the social stigma that is attached to them!!!

Hannah

Sounds like we need a deep dive olympics ep

savannah

Dos Toros SLAPS!!!!

savannah

Is it bad that I kinda like it room temp lmaoo

savannah

part of the reason i want to live in a walkable city is because i know the slop restaurants go crazy there

yassgirlyslay

Answer about who pays for the olympics, at least in Canada: TAXPAYERS PAY FOR THE OLYMPICS. The Olympics came to Vancouver Canada in 2010 and many of the events took place in Whistler - a rich town that you had to travel to via my small town (at the time mostly impoverished) about 2 hours away from Vancouver. There were literally riots in my town saying we did NOT want our taxes to go to the Olympics because they would use our tax dollars to build things that would not actually improve the infrastructure of my town in the long term. Think: we need a new sewage system but instead they built a multi-billion dollar highway to get from Vancouver to Whistler during the games and provide no benefits to my town in the long-term whatsoever

Babsy

i will say i had a chopt salad and diet coke the other day and it was most satisfying… sometimes it hits unfortunately

Sofia

chipotle is SO mid and it’s always ice cold

andrea h

Eliza it’s nyc you gotta just start barking at that neighbor lady until she leaves you alone

Adrianna

sweet green dressing selection is so bad why is everything spicy who wants a spicy salad???

Ella Nelson

my parents have one in their suburb now in the US! they’re about an hour from chicago and the vast majority of the food around them is chains but they’re getting new ones like GyG and Cane’s. i much prefer GyG to Chipotle but i also only have it when i visit them and it doesn’t hold a candle to the mexican food anywhere in Chicago where i live ofc

izzy

williamsburg rly is Mall

Phoebe

it’s time for me to bring up that Michael Phelps went to my middle and high school again

Jamesy

Same for my growing town! I never really understood the small v big business debate until my favorite places started getting replaced by chains—really disheartens me

Helena Upshaw

I need to know if Eliza’s neighbor listens to this

Helena Upshaw

you gon jump if sg made it

Adeline Thomason

everyone at my office LOVES chipotle and i do the ordering so i rack up all these rewards but i am a life long chipotle hater 💩

Sarah J

Came here looking for this comment!!

Samantha Kostelni

Also worked at panera for all of high school and the most disgusting terrible place it’s been 5 years and I still have nightmares

Meg K

Sad to have spent the past 10 years watching my small New England town. Slowly lose local dining options to these places. Bakeries replaced with crumbl, juice shops replaced with sweet green, has anyone here ever heard of 110 grill? It's a great place for those with allergies but we went from 2-3 of them to 110 in our little region. The one thing I noticed the most is that they never disclose if they are franchises (ala most McDonald's being locally owned) or outright corporate owned

Nicole Enlund

I too go heart eyes for the Olympics and all the unbelievable feats but I def recommend looking into its underbelly because it’s full of horrors - the campaign against the 2028 Olympics in LA has lots of resources https://nolympicsla.com/

Corinne Greenblatt

Eliza’s struggle with NGrid is so relatable. Very glad I don’t live in NY anymore 😅

Kath Ham

As a former NYC girl I feel extremely passionate about Chopt and Lenwich

Sophia

So excited to listen to this on company time

Meg K

who still goes to starbucks tbh yikes

🌿 BKG

Me listening to this whole eating my slop lunch on my 30 minute break 👀

caroline pottruff

I’m pretty sure the sweet green near your office is the same one i go to and you guys HAVE to try Dos Toros it’s like a block from there and it is definitely yassified chipotle!!

Blobby

🤓 Ok but also Radiolab ran an episode about the Olympics where they talked about the medals! Apparently they did NOT get gold in Ancient Greece. The winners got wreaths of olive leaves/branches, which is crazy because there were olive trees 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 in Greece. So the prize sucked, it was just about the bragging rights. Also when the medals came into play way down the line, gold wasn’t the original first place prize. It went 1st place = silver, 2nd place = bronze, 3rd place = nothing Apologies for the extreme nerd behavior on my first day! If you want to take my lunch money I probably deserve it!

Bags Gray

I’m not from the US.. (aw kinda cute it’s the US like us 😍, but not cute at all bc of how divided you guys are, but who am I to talk I’m from aus which is extremely divided) aw!! Love culture 😍✌️

Joe Rogan

Okay but these places always freak me tf out bc I don’t know how it works?? Like there’s a menu AND I get to pick?? I stay healthy from my social anxiety 😍

Joe Rogan

ok but I will say! I used to work at Sweetgreen & everything is prepped & cooked in house the day of (so the chicken & other proteins are fresh & not the same as subway chicken I promise)!!! But I have heard that now they mass produce some of the salad dressings 😔

LIB

i just finished my first chipotle shift literally 15 minutes ago… it was hell. i need the money tho so i will be staying

clairevalley

we have one in japan and it’s pretty good. but living in the US the majority of the time (specifically in Los Angeles) it doesn’t even compare. especially the prices…

Jay Ess

forever loyal to my local italian deli that is a block from both my apartment and my work where everyone has memorized my coffee order and will make it for me on sight or for anyone that comes in and asks for a coffee for grace (my coworkers have all done this many times) and then give me cheese recommendations and free little cheese samples, 10/10 coffee/grocery experience. the produce is fresher, the cheese and coffee is better, and my kings had many excellent suggestions for me when i was trying to pick out toppings to make pizza the other night, i love living in a neighborhood that is primarily local businesses where i am on a first name basis with people at almost all the places i do my regular shopping, chains just cannot replace for me feeling like i am in a community

Grace

Any Guzman y Gomez fans in the chat? I feel like it wouldn’t hit in the US where u have actual Mexican food but it’s my Australian fave………….

Emily

i got fired from chick fil a (after 6 days) for committing time theft (i clocked in before i changed into my uniform)

kaylee mccrary

oh I stay committing time theft like what do you mean I’m only supposed to be taking a 30 minute lunch break when I work from home?? be fr

lauren

I had never heard of sweet green before! Where I live in Utah, everything is Costa Vida or Café Rio.

Rebecca Thornley

Lmao! I bet the Cody Ko video was referencing Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Best stoner movie of all time

Victoria Wilde

I have a flight in a few hours… thank you

Sophie

was just discussing the corporate slop bowls with coworkers today…. remembering the wet sloppy chipotle bowl that gave me mild food poisoning💭

peach

Hahahahahah thank you for reading my 60,000 rewards points email 🌯

Genevieve Severini

Right before my commute home after work thank the GODS

Molly Callison

i simply knOww sweetgreen is going to be dragged in this ep because yes the company represents our societal obsession w the continual optimization of modern man but…their salads are so delicious🫣🫣

Isabella

Listening to thissss on company time 🫡

Emily

no way this was uploaded right after i ordered a chipotle slop bowl for the first time in years

milly stephenson

was just about to go on my walk yassss

Jordan Jones

Just as I was about to go for my run thank you 🙏

Judy Bernal


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