In their first podcast ever, Gawker found the perfect way to piss off a lot of people: record two dude bloggers (and Crown Heights residents) talking about their favorite “Food on Franklin."
Released Tuesday afternoon, the news site's first 45-minute episode purports to explore restaurants within arguably the most gentrified part of the Crown Heights — the 10 blocks of Franklin Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue — hosted by writers Hamilton Nolan and Taylor Berman.
The pair start the show with a disclaimer that they're not professional food critics, but do have an “encyclopedic knowledge” of the avenue's eateries, which is exactly what they'll discuss — not, as they put it, "real issues."
“You start talking about Brooklyn, you start talking about issues of class and gentrification and affordable housing and all these political issues. This podcast is not concerned with any substantive issues. None of that," Nolan says.
Instead, the show is 45 minutes of perfectly inane banter about brunch at Mayfield, taco prices at Guero’s and where wait times are worst (answer: Chavela’s).
Predictably, the backlash to the idiotic premise was swift and fierce.
Gawker. GET. OUT. OF. MY. CROWN HEIGHTS. https://t.co/fOaJzz8gVc This may be @nicknotned's greatest crime against humanity.
— Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) November 10, 2015One particularly irate commenter on the Gawker posting told the hosts to "GTFO."
"Why in particular did you pick Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights for your 'White Guys Have Opinions' podcast that nobody asked for?
THE LINE AT GUERRO’S IS ALREADY LONG ENOUGH YOU F-CKERS!"
The negative reviews rolled in:
@anchorlines i'm listening to this podcast and i'm thinking maybe i'm glad i moved out of crown heights
— Annalise (@bananalise) November 10, 2015if my moving onto franklin ave didn't immediately make it uncool, this whole @gawker podcast about it sure will https://t.co/3ncetyweT7
— chase jackson. (@chasepj) November 10, 2015worse than serial https://t.co/cTjiCt7G2B
— aleksander chan (@aleksnotalex) November 10, 2015But others who heard the pitch-perfect, over-the-top podcast-i-ness of the thing didn't get mad. They got the joke. (Maybe.)
This has to be a joke, right? Like, it's a parody of podcasts, right? https://t.co/Wwt3FiAVl6
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 10, 2015In parts of the episode, the send-up almost shines through, like when Nolan attributes Mayfield's success to everything tasting like it's been "marinated in butter for several hours," or when they compare the value of a Subway $5 foot-long to Guero's tacos, or when Berman gives some earnest — and impossibly stupid — advice to Mayfield diners: "When they bring you your food, go ahead and ask for any sauces or extras that you need right away.”
“Great tip," Nolan says, deadpanning.
The best, or worst, part, though, may be in minute 38 when the pair considers for whom, given anyone in the world, they'd buy a taco.
“If I could buy a taco for one person … probably Malala,” Nolan says, without laughing, somehow.
The pair say they'll bring on celebrities and give away prizes in future episodes and hope to get 100,000 listeners for the first episode.
In its first three hours online, the podcast had been heard by about 1,300 people on Soundcloud.
