Visitreno

[thegambler]

This week's episode of Food Wars will feature the John Ascuaga's Awful Awful versus the Downtown Reno Nugget's Awful Awful. This should be good publicity for both places. Having had both versions myself, I predict that the downtown Awful Awful will emerge victorious.

The show is on the Travel Channel on Wednesday nights.

[stan_allen]

Now I wish I had that channel!

Guess I can Youtube it later....(making "Youtube" a new verb, apparently)

How about an infomercial-type show about Reno to boost its image? We could call it, "Reno 411".

[jerry]

Still don't understand how the Nugget can also promote the Awful Awful, or is the Nuggets burger an "offal offal"?

[steve]

Well the dowtown burger won, which I have to agree with. I also learned that the same guy owned both Nuggets. I always wondered how these two places had the same name and the same named burger.

[remano]

The A-A is also available at the Wolf's Den, a restaurant on North Virginia Street across from UNR. There is some connection between it and the downtown Nugget so that's how they got the right to use the Awful Awful name.

[Shooty]

What an awful show that was. In a bad way.

The producers (who also produce Man vs. Food) did nothing to make the two burgers interesting. Nothing to showcase Reno (beyond a couple brief shots of the Reno area and of the host along the Truckee). They just kept repeating the same things over and over (and over!).

Yes, there are two places in Reno that serve slightly different cheeseburgers with the same name, and a panel of three people might prefer one over the other. WE GET IT!!! Learning that should not consume 30 minutes of my life.

I like shows like this, I was even on Man vs. Food once.

That show, however, was terrible.

[mjames1229]

[stan_allen]

Those video bits always blow - they are designed to be played for audiences which are waiting for something else, such as car maintenance or a dentist. They convey minimal info and maximum "attitude", as the directors have somehow concluded that this is what people pay attention to.

Gratuitous zoom shots, shaky-cam running around the kitchen, and very brief pans of an interior or two is all that can be expected from such productions, with a few inane comments or two thrown in by some hapless patrons.

And this is exactly why I won't pay for those stations; I maintain the cheapest and most minimal t.v. service.

Oh, Awful-Awful, couldn't they have done better by you? You're worthy of so much more....

[thegambler]

Although I'm the one who broached the subject of the show to the board, I agree that it was pretty bad. (Remember, though, that the purpose of the show was not to showcase Reno but to show the burgers.) In fact, the only thing that saved it from being a total abomination was that the right burger won.

First of all, I thought that the JA Nugget was in SPARKS, not "suburban Reno."

Secondly, where were the real people who actually work behind the counters at the Nugget? I have never seen the owner, who was shown flipping the burgers, actually working back there, and he certainly didn't seem like he knew what he was doing. I think it would have been better to show the blue-collar guys who actually hustle while they are back there. And the Nugget owner really couldn't articulate what his burger was about.

Thirdly, I don't know if the hostess Camille Ford has the most sensitive taste buds ever, but I never thought that the Nugget sauce was as spicy as she made it out to be.

[JD]

My report on the offal Awful burger (2004) :

"LITTLE NUGGET RESTAURANT REVIEW:
Sometime in the last few days, I had occassion to walk on the wild side and try the "AWFUL, AWFUL" burger at the little Nugget accross the street from Harrah's. This is not so much an adventure in fine dining, as it is a training film for restaurant health inspectors. As a bachelor, I've been known to follow the five second rule of food handling (if food item is picked up off the floor in under five seconds, it need not be discarded since germs had inadequate opportunity to find and invade such items).

The diner in the back of the little Nugget tests even my sensibilities. You see, one of my first jobs in High School was busboy/diswasher/food prep in a local pancake house. When I see diners behave rudely to a waitress, I usually make it all better if I say, "....before you are allowed to EAT in a restaurant, there should be a law you must first WORK in a restaurant."

That said, my review of the Awful Awful includes the words of Otto Von Bismark who said, " People should not watch how their laws or sausages are made". The burger was the best $ 3.50 buy one could expect. Loaded with a small salad between the bun and huge patty and a large basket of fries. My advice for any other adventerous spirit is do not sit where you can watch either the cashier (you will be distracted by the need for emergency dental work, handling of food/money/food/money, and the bloodstains on the white uniform. Do not look at the digital thermometer on the refrigerator or the illegal immigrants on the food prep line. Just enjoy your burger and hope for the best. It was very good and I never had any ill effects.... but I was expecting some. As I said, walk on the wild side.

[jerry]

As always, JD, I love your input. Even 6 years later, your comments are timely and appropriate. How many people today can say that about ANYTHING that they have written 6 years ago.

I expect to see you at the Siena in about -- oh, say -- June. That is after you and I are rightfully returned to our respective places in the V.I.P. heirarchy.
(This is where Stan the Man chimes in with : "Dream on guys". Which, incidentally, would once again be timely and appropriate.)

[stan_allen]

Well, what I'd ordinarily do is link to an appropriate musical rejoinder; in this case, "Dream On" by Aerosmith would be perfect, but I noticed that YouTube's been suppressing the audio tracks on the big-name artists lately.

So instead of a simplistic punctuative remark, how about something more esoteric: "Continue to cogitate on your ascension to the cognescenti, as the Siena continues to eschew your aspirations"- meaning, keep dreaming!

[mjames1229]

Just read a review on the Wolf's Den version of the Awful Awful, and it stated that the Nugget Diner now serves their burger with two patties (the implication being that the Wolf's Den was wonderful for still only serving one patty). Can anyone corroborate this?

I leave in 40 short days, and this is critical information )

Thanking you in advance...

[Shooty]

[mjames1229]