[ Man coughing ]
-Mm.
♪♪
♪♪
-There's just a certain
philosophy here.
It's like everybody's always
looking for something
to "wow" you here when they come
here, every time, everybody.
It's a tight crew here, too.
Small staff.
Small front of the house staff,
small back of the house.
So it's true family I think.
♪♪
-I'm Jon Shook.
-I'm Vinny Dotolo.
Animal restaurant.
We're in Los Angeles.
And we're going to go
on an eating tour.
[ Laughs ]
-Put together a pretty good
group of guys
that all love to eat.
I text Ethan, who's, like,
a good friend of ours,
loves to eat.
He, of course, jumped in,
hit up a couple of his friends.
We had Zach McGowan,
voiceover wizard,
good friend of ours.
-He used to cook with us.
Aziz is a buddy of ours
who we met here at Animal.
He brought some friends.
And of course Jeff
from Thrillist.
-He probably knows more
than any of us.
We've been open a year
and eight months now.
Jon and I, I think we've been
together for 10 years now.
-It's a long fucking time.
Both from Florida.
I grew up in Ormond Beach.
He grew up in Clearwater.
And met in culinary school.
-I think the restaurant
was something we were like dying
to get back into.
We had you know worked
in some fine dining restaurants
our first couple of years
out of school
and then kind of fell off
and started catering
and built our business up
from there.
-It's always been
our dream I think to have
our own restaurant
and be a chef in a restaurant.
We never were like
sous chefs anywhere.
We were like line cooks,
caterers, business owners.
Now restaurateurs, yeah.
-Yeah, L.A. is kind of where
we've dug our feet in.
You know, I think --
-We're been here
for eight years now.
-Yeah, I think the food scene
I think has really taken a turn
in the last five years here.
Like, there were some really
solid chefs here before,
but now it's a place
where it can be considered
to be a culinary mecca
of the U.S.
And I don't know if the rest of
the U.S. would agree with that,
but I think like we want to kind
of wave that flag a little bit.
-Yeah, we're loading
this bitch up.
-You can't fuck with me.
He knows he can't fuck with me.
He's not on my level.
[ Engine starts ]
♪♪
-Hey, we need to cut up
to Wilshire.
-Are we going for flavor
or for quality tonight?
-Flavor. No, no, no.
We're only eating flavor.
We're only eating flavor.
-You're eating whatever Ethan
eats, right?
-Yo, I'm going sandwich
for sandwich, taco for taco
with you, head up.
[ Laughter ]
-Wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait.
[ Horn honks ]
-The first stop,
it's called Gui Rim.
-Jon I found it
when we first moved here.
Not knowing a bunch of people
that were coming with us
I think was a good idea
to bring them there
because it's kind of interactive
and you kind of, you know,
sitting around a table like
grilling meat and eating
kimchis and pickled vegetables
and all that stuff.
-You get your hands in it,
play around with it.
-Yeah.
-Fuck yeah. Love this shit.
-I'll eat this shit raw.
Isn't this raw beef?
-Yeah, yeah, you can
eat it raw, but...
-What's the point?
-Yeah, what's the point?
In another couple seconds, this
shit's gonna be piping hot
and you're going to be
throwing stuff on there.
-Aziz, you're getting
on this shit, eh?
This shit's the bomb.
Deep fried.
-I love rabbit.
-You want to do with them?
-Yeah.
Let me do a full tour.
-[ Laughs ]
-You know, it's funny
because in press, too,
it's like we always try to be
considerate of, like,
what we're doing our menu
and what people are going to
gravitate towards,
and it's, like, for a while,
everybody is like, "Oh, this
restaurant's so, like,
bacon and pork," and it is.
There is bacon on the menu,
and there is pork,
but I think it was like
the bacon thing really got
people because there's bacon
in a dessert
and there was a couple things on
the menu that had bacon in them,
but it's like,
it's not the focus here.
I mean, I've had people ask us
we put back in our iced tea.
It's like, "Who the fuck's
telling you this
kind of stuff?"
-Yeah, it's crazy.
-I mean, we're always
looking for inspiration,
but, you know, we kind of
run within really tight
confinement here at Animal.
We try not to, like, really
do too much Asian inspired food.
You know, we have such
a large community of
Chinese people here,
Korean people here,
Japanese people here,
and they all do it so well.
-Cheers.
Cheers.
Food tour.
-Guys, I got to say
I don't know
if we're pacing ourselves.
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
-You know what's fucked up?
'Cause the fact that
that was a sit down meal...
-Wasn't the way
to start the night.
-You've got to be moving.
-You just spit.
-Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
-We got roll. Take care.
-Wait, no, you're not going.
-Yeah, I'm with them.
-What do you mean
you're with them?
[ Laughter ]
What kind of crap is this?!
♪♪
-When you're down in that
rough kind of neck of the woods,
there's a place,
Dino's Burgers & Chicken
which pretty much
only serves chicken.
That's the cool thing
with the name,
but it's just dirty, like,
$5 box of, like,
red-orange chicken
that's marinated.
Became a fan of it.
And whenever you tell people,
they, like, you know, they've
never really heard of it.
And it's pretty damn tasty.
-I don't know what it is.
It's scary, but it's good.
-You know what it is?
It's probably like chili oil.
-They put this vinegar,
this vinegar shit that they're
putting it on right there,
it's fuckin' -- look how fast
this guy's moving.
You wish you had a guy this fast
in your restaurant.
Bam, bam, boom.
Look at the size
of those chickens.
-He's just putting
half chickens in there.
-Just like however
the fuck he wants to do it.
-Oh, look at that.
-What is that?
What is that?!
I need a side cup of that stuff.
-Chicken time.
It's good.
It's like how much was
each one of these?
Like seven bucks?
-Um, five bucks.
-Five fuckin' dollars.
-I want to know
how they get this so red.
-It's pigeon.
-What is that?
-Hey, you guys were
eating pigeon.
Look.
-Pigeon's good, dude.
-Let's get the fuck
to the next place.
[ Indistinct chatter ]
-What's next up on the menu?
-I think some taco truck
Johnny's got lined up.
-So we figured that, like,
we might as well also
try to hit a couple taco trucks
while we're out on the street.
[ Horn honking ]
-Oh!
-Oh, my God, oh, my God!
[ Laughter ]
-Yo, you should have fuckin' ran
that piece of shit off.
[ Laughter ]
Yo, we're trying to find
a taco truck right now.
You're gonna let some little car
get in our way
of the taco truck?
♪♪
-Call him now and tell him to
heat up the doughnuts.
-Look out for this taxi.
Time to make the --
[ Indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
-We decided to stop back at
the restaurant, too,
for a doughnut.
Doughnuts are almost out
of season here,
believe it or not because
the doughnuts only really work
when the temperature
is right here in L.A.
Yeah, I'd say another, like,
we probably have another, like,
month or two left
on the doughnuts.
-Yeah.
-Then they'll be done.
-Oh, my stomach's on fire.
-Yeah, mine is, too.
I got a good case
of bubble diarrhea.
-You know what's good to put
the fire out in your stomach?
-Pediasure.
-Doughnuts.
-This is what we do
in Hollywood, kids.
Drive around and binge eat.
♪♪
-I think there's many things
that come into play
why it's so busy.
-You know, it's like I think
the food speaks for itself.
You know, obviously you can tell
by looking around
there's not much decor here.
It's not really
that bringing you in.
It's not the music.
You know what I mean?
It's just not that type of
like L.A., like,
quintessential
kind of restaurant
where it's like people are doing
coke in the bathroom.
It's like they
might be doing it,
but, you know,
people are here to eat.
So I doubt it.
-I'm going for the fork.
-We only had a short amount
of time to hang out,
and we were just trying to get
as many new experiences
for everyone tied
into one night.
You know, I think it was -- and
I think we accomplished that.
-I think as much as we love
cooking, we also love eating.
Like, big time.
Eating is I guess the reward
for all the work, right?
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
