- Over 60 years ago,
in the small community of Mason, Tennessee,
Napoleon Na Vanderbilt created a chicken recipe
that could unite a community. Now that recipe is used in over
25 locations across America. Today, I'll be eating everything from Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken. It's going to be great. We're in Memphis. I'm excited. Let's do it! As always, "Eat the
Menu" is brought to you by Keith's Chicken
Sauce, the perfect sauce for your chicken or your pizza or whatever else you're eating. Get your bottle today. Get your bottle today. (upbeat music) All right, guys, let me tell
ya. We had quite the adventure at the Memphis downtown location of Gus'. They were so sweet, so
nice, but it was awesome. We have so much food here. There's actually only 19
items that we're trying. We already tried the
pecan pie with ice cream. Let's cut to that. Little bit of a detour real quick. We just actually picked up the chicken, but we also got one piece
of pie with a la mode. We've got other pie too, but this is the pecan pie a la mode. Love pecan pie. Oh, wow. It's good. It is cold, which is odd, to serve cold pie with ice cream. This is some of the
better pecan pie I've had. All right, back to the hotel. Delicious. And, let's get going. Let's eat this menu. Let's start with the appetizers. These appetizers are all fried. We're going to start off right here with a very Tennessee classic. They even packed it with the ranch. They already knew what I wanted. Let's start with the fried okra. I love fried okra. It's kind of like popcorn
chicken, but instead of chicken, it's this really bizarre looking plant. And we were like, mm,
that's not very good, but what if we either fry
it, or stew it in pork? Wow, it's so salty. So flavorful, so fatty. Unbelievable. They look like little tater tots. I've had one thing and I can feel the oil in my body already. I had just as much oil as I
did vegetables in those bites. We're also in the south, so of course we got a little sweet tea. Oh, that's good sweet tea. Oh yeah. That's real sweet tea. Guys, fried green tomatoes. This is just the stuff
of storybooks, right? Like, I think all of us
who don't live in the south think this isn't a real thing. It's like everything that a grilled cheese and tomato
soup is in one bite. It's soft, it's crunchy,
it's salty, it's luxurious. I forgot how good this was. This almost makes me cry it's so good. You guys have no idea how good this is. It's so salty that you
need this sugary sweet tea. Like, I'm getting shaky
from how salty it is, right off the bat. Fried pickle spears. Now, everybody knows Britney Spears, but do you know pickle spears? It is the cover band that
is Britney Spears' music, but everybody dresses
as "Rugrats" characters. Yes, yes. They're those kind of, like,
over pickled barbecue pickles. You know, the ones that are very, very over pickled that are normally too soft? But by frying 'em, it gets
that, like, crunch back, so it has the flavor of
the over pickled pickle, but crunch of an under pickled pickle. That's a pickle pickle,
quite the pickle we're in. Oh! That happens. It's bound to happen. Wow. Those are appetizers that are so heavy, you're not going to want dinner. I don't know how you can
start a meal with these. But now, let's move on to the sides. To help me take on some of these sides, please welcome to the "Eat the Menu" in between the bed
stage, Hughie Stone Fish. ♪ I'm eating sides in Memphis. ♪ - Oh wow, Hughie, welcome
back to "Eat the Menu." How's everything going for you? - I've never been to Memphis before, and I'm so excited to be here. And I just can't stop
singing, "Walking in Memphis" with other things we're doing in Memphis. - Well, Hughie, you're here
to help me try the hot sides 'cause you're as my hot side guy, and Alex is going to have
the cold ones, 'cause he's... I didn't mean for that to be mean, but it really became that, didn't it? - Wow. It became a comparison. - I just really think that, you know, cold things are less risky sometimes. - Fair.
- Let's start with the fries before they get too cold to even consume. - The fries. - These are quite classic fries. They said they were seasoned. - Not bad. - Yeah, pretty good. - Nice seasoning. - A little thick cut for
my liking, but not bad. - Not me. - These are good. - [Hughie] Floor fry. - [Keith] What are you
doing? Get over here. - Alex really wanted to make sure we captured that fry on the floor. - Nobody cares about the floor fry. - Secondary spot. - Or maybe some fans do. Let us know in the comments below. These fries are fine, but fries are not why you come to the south. You come to the south, and you go to a nice
fried chicken restaurant to try yourself - - The baked beans. - Oh! (beep) They smell spicy, dude. (beep) - They smell good. - Oh my God. - Oh yeah. - Cheers. - Oh yeah. - What is that flavor? - It's a little sweet. I know there's pork in 'em. - It's like a... some type
of vegetable flavor in there. - You're right. It has like a celery or
a green pepper in there. Some good beans. They're really small beans, you know. The beans are tiny. Look at those tiny little beans. Itty bitty beans. Okay, now here's a real southern treat. You got your collard greens. - Your collard greens. I think I'm going to enjoy
it, I like collard greens. - I don't love collard greens. - Whoa, what a flavor! - They're not for me, but I respect it. I get that people love this. This is not my thing. I think this is a good
collard green, though. Collard greens, what a name. - What's the collar? - I think the collard is
the type of green, right? - Wow. - I don't really know. Is it, is it, the collard is
stewing them, or is the... is it a collard green, like
that is the type of green? - Maybe they're a fancy green. - Maybe they're wearing
tuxedos with their collars, the collard green. So, out of respect for the
hotels that we film in, first, we don't tell them. Secondly - (Hughie laughs) Second, we create a
terrible lighting situation. The blinds are broken, so
this is all we could do. But then we put a sheet on this, and then we put a towel on the table so that we don't mess up the sheet. We don't mess up the table.
We try to be respectful. We also took a mattress from another room. - I'm stealth, Ninja moves. - It's been a wild time here in Memphis. That's my stuffed animal. ♪ It's been a wild time in Memphis. ♪ - Let's finish out these hot, these hot sides with everybody's (beep) favorites, mac and cheese.
- The mac and cheese. - I actually thought we were
gonna say the mac and cheese. - The mac and cheese. (beep) - It smells so good. - Oh, yeah, baby. Cheers. - Oh my God. It is so thick.
- That is mac and cheese. - That is mac and cheese. That's exactly what you always want. This is the flavor of the
picture of mac and cheese in, like, Southern Living magazine. Very few people will get that reference unless you grew up in
the south and had a mom who collected Southern Living magazines. I am going to pour some of my hot sauce in the mac and cheese,
not 'cause it needs it, just 'cause I know it goes so well because the hot sauce just
works well with the fat. Wow, this is really good mac and cheese. - Wow, it is really good mac and cheese. - This is going to (beep) my stomach up.
- Yeah. - We're here playing a
show at Rhodes College. We have to sing in a few hours, but... That was inside. That was a novelty horn. Did we hear a little
bit of a novelty horn? (Keith hums, imitating a horn sound) Alright, Hughie, thanks for
joining us for the hot sides. Make sure you follow
Hughie @hughiestonefish, and sir, what's going on? - Well, that sounds like construction. Yeah, film it, Alex. We can see it out there. - All right, bye, Hughie. - Bye! - And now it's time to
bring another guest on. We're out with the Hugh
and in with the Lou. Welcome, Alex Lewis. All right, hey, Lew, good to see ya! - Hey, how's it going. - Oh, shit, what've we got here? - It's time for everyone's
favorite segment. Alex made some cookies
for the all you can eat, eating the menu time, but I'm very excited to present
you with these brownies. Now here's why. Brownies are generally
made with cocoa powder. Well, my brand new girlfriend has cacao powder and I accidentally made the brownies with cacao powder. Cheers. - Cheers. So dry. It's the driest thing you've given me. - I mean, I will say they've been sitting in this paper plate for
about two and a half days. - Oh my Lord. You know, I don't hate the flavor, but it's not better than a
brownie, and it's very dry. - Okay, okay. - Alex, thanks for this great segment. - You're welcome.
- Let's get rid of these, huh? Normally Alex's things
are actually really good, and I'm just being really critical. Those were not very good. - Yeah. I... there was a bad mistake. - Okay, well, it's time to
have some of the cold sides with Lulu over here. We've got some - - Yeah, by the way, I don't
know how much I appreciate being your cold friend. - Well, no, not my cold friend. Just the - - Your cold side guy? - Well, you're just not the hot one. I mean Hughie is the hot one. You're less hot. It's just cause he's so hot. - Nobody could ever be hotter than Hughie. - Exactly. Let's have some coleslaw. - Okay. - The coleslaw. Hughie's loving this because
we just called him hot. He was so thirsty for himself. - My girlfriend likes to say that Hughie, he's like a sponsored
Instagram post for himself. - Oh, yeah. He is, I agree. I don't love the coleslaw. - Me, neither. It's very bland. - I think it just didn't sit
long enough in its juice, like, this is a very fresh
batch because it's very crunchy, which I like, but it's
very just, cabbage tasting. - To its credit, I feel
like if you were, like, eating a fried chicken dinner with this, you could just completely forget about it and eat the whole thing. - It's not bad. It's coleslaw. You know, you're
really only there to offset the amount of grease you're
eating with a little dairy fat. - The potato salad. - This smells great.
- It does smell really good. - It smells really good. - That's good mayo. - Cheers. Oh, there it is. They spent all their time
working on the potato salad, and that's why the coleslaw is fine. All the love in the whole
restaurant went into this. - This is fantastic. - Holy shit, that's
really good potato salad. - It's really yummy. - It tastes so different,
too, than other ones I've had. What is it? - To be honest with you,
this is the first time I've ever tried potato salad. - I think it might have, maybe egg, or - - Hughie's going crazy behind the camera because I just said that. - It makes me imagine that every
time I've seen a waterfall, it's just been a mountain crying. - Why do you always bring up waterfalls during "Eat the Menu"? - Because it makes me think, you know. We shouldn't go chase
waterfalls, you know? Like, they're hard to find. And we sometimes forget that the good stuff
that's around us already. We don't need to go
chasing after waterfalls. We're under appreciating what we have. - Keith, you don't like
doing water activities. - I don't. I'm afraid I'll drown. - I mean I'm terrified of puking. And I just can't imagine
a scenario where I'd be, like, oh, that beautiful - - It's kind of like the mountains puking. You're right, it is more like puking. - That's not what I said.
- Okay, let's move on. So the last thing, for some reason, you can buy a whole jalapeno. Now I don't want this.
- I don't want it either. - No, but it is technically on the menu. - Why did you think that this would be the right thing for me to try? - Well, it really was, you were
just here at the right time. Right place, right time. It's going to be so spicy. - The jalapeno. - Why is this an item? - I think it's only 35 cents. - It is very spicy. You saw how little I took? It's spicy as (beep) - Alright, here we go. I've never had, like, just a jalapeno. - We'll get ready. You took a bigger bite than me. - Oh! - It's spicy, it's good. That's really (beep) spicy. - It's good, it's spicy. - That is actually really
good. It's tasty though. The pickling on it's really nice. Alex, it's been great having you. What's your favorite
memory so far in Memphis? - Somebody recognized us
out in public last night and this young lady,
very sweet, very kind, if you're watching this, I
think you're absolutely lovely. We take a picture together,
and then she goes, can I just get a little handshake? - Check it out, @i8athumbtack. You can also follow
@i8athumbtackmom, or, I'm sorry, just @thumbtacksmom, for
more Alex Lewis' mom content. - Yes, I'll be managing
her career from now on, so if you would like
to book her, reach out. - Get out of here. Now, please welcome for his
first time on "Eat the Menu," my friend from high school, Joe Pena! Joe, all right, Joe. Get on in here. Slink your little booty on in. There we go. Joe is my friend from high school. We both went to Smith County High School. Since in the last couple years, we sort of rekindled our friendship,
I've visited Nashville, seen him a few times. Now, what is this called? - So this is Diskin Cider. We're Nashville's first craft cidery, and this is our Six One Five, our Nashville signature cider, fruit tea. Myself and the two owners
started this couple of years ago, and our mission is just bringing great craft cider to the southern states. - Oh yeah, that's good. Well, it's now time for us to
share a little tender moment. These are - - The chicken tenders. - Mine looks like a golden fried feather. - They're... you know, it is
sort of orangy gold, isn't it? - Yeah. - Ooh, it has a little
heat, little heat on there. - A little something on the tone. Nice and juicy. - Nice and juicy, little heat. It's not, like, exploding me with flavor, but I think that's 'cause it's a tender. It's off the bone, you
know. I'm a bone in boy. - A nice, nice crust. It's like, nice and even, and well coated. - You know, it's not as
flavorful breading as I expected. It's really letting it
just be about the chicken with a little mild heat. In fact, here's this hot tip. Let's do this. - Ooh! - Let's make this chicken sauce ranch be little friends here. - It's like a good buttermilk dressing. They probably make it in house. - Oh yeah, look at that. I mean, I know it's my sauce guys. I know I'm endorsing my own product, but I don't actually make it myself. I just helped come up with it. So, every time I try it, I'm, like, amazed at how good it is. There's a woman named Claire makes it. She really deserves more praise. That's why I endorse it. There's all these people who
benefit from it, not just me. Well, Joe, what's your Instagram handle? Where can people find you? - I'm at @that.joe.you.know. Yeah, if you come to Tennessee
or Alabama, look us up. We have a great facility in Nashville. Hope to see you guys there soon. - Oh, we'll be there. We played a show there once. - Yeah, Lewberger kills it. - Help me down, help me down,
help me down. (crowd laughs) (loud singing) Well, that's a great plug
if I've ever heard one. See you later, Joe! Good to see you. - Thanks, guys. - All right, guys, it's
now time for us to move on to the whole hen, which we
actually did order eight pieces, so technically that's a whole hen. You never know if it's
all the same chicken. It's probably not the same chicken. That's probably not how it works, but maybe every once in awhile, fate allows for there
to be a whole chicken. Okay, so we've got a
big old bag of chicken. Now this is how it's done. If you've ever been to a
real fried chicken place, they give you white bread. And the white bread is meant
to just sit under your chicken so that all the grease that
comes out of your chicken gets caught in the white bread. You then eat that white bread because it has a little
extra chicken leftover. This is it. This is what
the whole thing is built on. It's a 60-year-old recipe. This was supposed to be fried chicken that can unite a community. Let's start off with the leg. I love this little belt
it's got on right here. You know, little belt buckle, little chicken leg belt buckle. (chicken skin crunches) - You hear that? (beep) Ooh, that's good. The tender was good, but
it was missing, like, even the bone flavor. It really does add a ton of flavor. All you people out there
getting boneless wings. I get it. You know, it's cleaner, but
you're missing out on flavor. Let's move on into the wing. I love the crunch on this. Whenever fried chicken can sit
around and keep its crunch, even if it's in a bag, even
if it's steaming itself, you know it was fried to perfection. I know they use a peanut
oil. I do love a peanut oil. It's a little cleaner. You know, sometimes you
get it, and it's like, almost, like, totally brittle,
has been fried to a crisp. No, they know how to
do every single piece. Good job, Gus. Get on the bus, Gus. The thigh. I do love a good chicken thigh, and this, I appreciate this has the whole... the set of bones here. Sometimes the thigh just
has the main two bones, and sometimes they keep the backbone. The backbone here means you've
got those little organs, the little secret chicken organs. I gotta say the dark
meat here is stupendous. This is excellent fried chicken. I was kind of doubtful, to be honest. I was like, is it going to be that good? Is it, you know, I know it's
good, but isn't that good? But I think it's that good. I remember they were so sweet.
I mean, they were so nice. They were smiling. They were saying, hey. I got their business card. A true test of the fried chicken
restaurant is the breast. Look how thick this is, how hard it is to perfectly cook this thing. Also my mouth is quite spicy right now. (chicken crunches) Wow. (crowd cheers) It's so moist. It's so tender. Look at how easy this
just comes right off. You see that? You see it glisten, you see it shine? That's moisture, baby. That's good stuff. Man, getting (beep) up on this chicken right now. It is so good. My mouth is hot. I'm gonna dip this in my little
hot sauce ranch concoction. Guys, I'm feeling so good. Do I look gross? It's a little gross? - [Hughie] Just all the moisture
dropping out of your mouth. - It's coming out of my mouth? That's what happens, when you eat really good
food, things get messy. You get all greasied up. - [Hughie] Gotta try that bread, bro. - Oh, I gotta try the bread.
Just classic white bread. Mm hmm, that's good white bread. It helps quell the heat. So they say. Wow, that was really good. I'm fucking blown away. Well, the chicken is amazing. Let's pack up the chicken and head on into our just desserts. Now, joining me to try four
different slices of pie, please welcome two girls! America, please get to
know Jordana and Davey. These are two students at Rhodes College. So we are performing
at your school tonight, and we were texting with them about what we wanted for dinner, and then they saw on our
story we were eating Gus'. They asked that we could be in the video, I think as a joke, and we
said, sure, so they're here. Well, thanks so much for joining
us here on "Eat the Menu." We're going to have some pie. You ready?
- Yeah. - Pecan pie. - [Hughie] One more time. You sure that's not sweet potato? (beep) - You're right. Yeah, what the... - Sweet potato pie. - So I only have one spoon for me and one fork for both of you. - That's perfect. - So I'm going to take a
spoon, and you take a fork. - That's how we eat all our meals. - And you can eat it like a pizza. - Okay. - I'm going to say it's too sweet for me. - I don't think I've ever
had sweet potato pie before, but that's not what I
expected it to taste like. - It's very, very sweet. It's not my favorite. It almost tastes like granulated sugar. - Yes. - Yep, for sure. - Have you ever... you've never had sweet potato pie before? - No. - You? - No. - [Hughie] How long have
you lived in Memphis? - You've lived in Memphis
for four damn years. - We've both never been to Gus' before. - Yeah, we should expose ourselves, we've never been to Gus'. - It's right here! There's two locations in
Memphis, if not three. - Yeah. - See, don't go chasing waterfalls. Listen to the rivers and the
lakes that you're used to. Well, that was a... that
was a little of a let down, but I bet there's a more
delicious pie in here. - Coconut pie. - It's very coconutty. - Oh my gosh. - It's okay. Whoa, it's like if a snowball, those little coconut things, were a pie. It's actually kind of great. - Yeah. - As someone who doesn't like coconut and took a very big bite - - What do you think? - It was pretty good. It's very sweet, and it's not like, I think my problem with
coconut is the texture 'cause I think it tastes like paper, but, it was actually pretty good. - I do get what you mean by the paper. It kind of is like eating
shredded wax paper, but really delicious. - Yeah, I also don't like
coconut, and that was great. - Yeah, this was actually quite good. I've never had a coconut
pie, come to think of it. And it kind of has the
base of a pecan pie, but there's all this coconut, like, look at this whole top two thirds is just shredded coconut with
sugar that's been baked. It's actually quite good, Lewis. I know that you're shaking your head and making a stink face,
like a little stinker, but it's good. Now that's a pie. - The chocolate chess pie. - Ready? - Yep. - It is a lot like a brownie. - A very, very dense, moist brownie. - Dense, creamy, like an
undercooked brownie, as a pie. - Yes. - That's kind of weird. - I think it really needs
some ice cream or something. We have some melted ice cream
somewhere in this room, right? - Just stirs the little top. - Hell yeah, give me that melted
ice cream. Yes, look at it. Ooh, melted ice cream. I'm going to try just
a little, just to see, but I think it just needs cream. I don't think you should do it. I don't know how safe it
is to eat that ice cream. It's just been sitting on the bed. Okay, let's move on to the last pie. Whoa, what is this? This must be the normal chess pie? They really loaded a bunch
of extra pie into this. - I'm not sure how I'm
going to pick this one up, but we're gonna go for it. - Just grab some. - Just, like, drink it with my mouth? - Yeah, just eat it like a doggy. Cheers. Oh, it's just sugar. - I don't like that one. - It's just sugar pie. It's like, egg meets sugar I don't think it's bad. - It's like I just mixed honey
and sugar and bit into it. - There's something in there.
Do you know what it is? What's in chess pie? - [Hughie] Sugar and butter. - Yeah. It's just sugar and butter, and maybe there's some egg
white or something in there. Well, thanks for joining us.
- Yeah, thanks for having us. - I gotta go. Say bye to the ladies, bye, bye, bye. Wow, what a time it's been, but now it's time for
us to decide the best and the least best. Let's start with the least best. All this menu was pretty darn good. I was a little disappointed
in the coleslaw. It was just a little bland. I don't like chess pie as it is. I don't like collard greens as it is, so I don't want to put them at my lowest, but I do like coleslaw, and
I didn't love this coleslaw. So I'm saying the least
best here is the coleslaw. Don't come at me. I said a lot of positive things. I just didn't like that one. Now, the best. There were some really good bests. That potato salad was dope. But I have to just go
ahead and say, the best is obviously the reason
it's a restaurant at all. It's the fried chicken. That fried chicken was amazing. Specifically, I was
impressed by the breast because it is so hard to do. I thought it was a perfect
execution, very delicious, great seasoning, so delicious. The ranch with it? And they sent me like six
or seven things of ranch. They knew me. I'm a little ranch bitch, y'all. I love ranch. I love it. So, I got to say the
least best was the coleslaw. The best is the fried
chicken, and that's it. We ate everything at Gus'. If you have a Gus' in
your town, check it out. It's delicious fried chicken. I want to say one more time,
thank you to all of our guests. Thanks to Joe. Thanks to Hughie. Thanks to Alex. Thanks to Jordana, and thanks
to Davey, and thanks to me. Get yourself a bottle of
Keith's Chicken Sauce today, and if you're in the
southeast, ask your buyer if they have Diskin Cider. Try it out. It's pretty darn good. We have it a lot at our house. I'd make Joe send me a case
about every couple months. All right, until next time,
this is "Eat the Menu." I'm Keith Habersberger. See ya next time! (upbeat music) - In Memphis, we saw some ducks. We saw a fried chicken hut,
and we had a great time. We saw Beale Street and the blues music, blues music, piano in the lobby.
