Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: Do you think we missed out not being judges for this?
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Oh, for sure, for sure. I think that we need to throw our hat in the ring for next year. I don't know if they do a judging, if it's just like, just a crowd, like a crowd thing, but if they're not doing judging, they're small enough of a village that they should just let us judge.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: All right, I want to judge mainly.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Because I want free chocolate.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Right, That I totally understand.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: So because everybody votes, you vote for sweet savory beverage, which is always weird because there's not a lot of beverages. Oh, no, that's not true. Because beverage could be anything. Sorry, I'm thinking alcohol. But there are multiple beverages on here.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Do you know what the gift is for the first anniversary?
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Chocolate?
[00:00:53] Speaker B: No, it's paper. And I got something for you.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: What is this?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: This is Happy anniversary to Shenandoah as we are celebrating our first anniversary together as the Stan and Shen show. We are with Friday's Balls and Spa Chocolate Fest. And so the first anniversary is paper. And of course, if you caught two weeks ago on Sunday, the photo page spread includes our celebrity judge, Shenandoah getting some soup. So I got her a pile of these because she was so proud.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: It looks really good.
I could take this home and I'll give a couple to my grandparents. I'm sure this is. There'll be. My family will be so thrilled. I. I honestly think I might be in the paper more than anybody else in this newsroom. Yeah, I've been in here a number of times.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Well, you hang around with the right people, so that helps.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: It does help.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: That helps. But yeah, and to help. So I wanted to make sure that you were in a sweet mood.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Oh, great, here we go with the.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Puns again for Chocolate Fest and Balls and SPA this Friday, February 7, for 5. 9.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: I never say no to chocolate. Except white chocolate. Except if white chocolate is in red velvet.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Correct. So being the proper co host that I am thinking of you and knowing your likes and God knows your dislikes.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: What'D you get me?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: What do you think I got you two days before Chocolate Fest. What'd you get?
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Shout out to Dunkin. I got their heart shaped brownie battered donut. It's literally the best donut that Dunkin Donuts does all year. And if they ever got rid of it, I might be the person that protests. And like, I, you know me, I love small businesses and everything, but this is one of those items that I just, I have like no one I've not found anybody else who does a. A brownie battered donut.
So I'm sorry, but Duncan wins on that anyway, so. And it has sprinkles, which I love.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Do you remember the first Stan and Chen show?
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Yes, yes, I do, Stan, because you remind me about it all the time.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Because it was so special.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think the words you have used is she was aggressive when it came to the chocolate, and then she was upset over this one. And it's just like you tell everybody, watch this dang YouTube video, so.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Well, I'm glad you brought that up because here is the audio from that video for all and we're gonna play it here in studio.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Oh, joy.
I can't wait. This is Shenandoah.
I got some sad news.
Pizza Works. Sold out of the truffles, guys. As I was in line. As I was in line. It had bacon on top, it had chocolate. It looked phenomenal from what I could see.
All right, well, there you have it, people. Things are going quick here at Chocolate Fest next year. I'm coming half an hour earlier.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: So that was my co host. My heartbroken co host.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: Yes. It looked really good. It was like an Oreo bacon truffle ball. And literally, like, I don't know, we got there. We started right when it started and we still missed out on that. So I just want to let everybody know, Pizza Works is like one of. I've already picked my stops this year because we cannot make all 30. I do not have the room for that much chocolate, surprisingly, or the time Friday night for all that. But I am stopping at Pizza Works for their s'mores pizza. So if you hear this Pizza Works or anybody in the B spot area and I show up and there is no s'mores pizza, I may stage a protest.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: A polite protest.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: A polite protest. It won't be very sweet, though.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: And then we have. And again, also from last year, our first foray out as a tandem, we will be doing again Stan and Shin on the street.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: We will. We won't have the same old mic as last year, though.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: No.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Although I do miss it.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: We're working on. Working on microphones and flags and stuff. But the question on Friday is, go ahead.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or white chocolate? If you say white chocolate, you're wrong. But I just. I'm putting that out there for you right now. That can't be your favorite. I don't care.
It's like, literally, it's no one's favorite. Except the maybe one kid I asked last year. And we're gonna. Hopefully he's changed his mind by now.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I think you wanted to make. You're like ready to make a phone call. Like, where are your parents? Who raised you?
[00:05:53] Speaker A: The best part is I think his dad was standing with him when I asked the question. I feel like his dad was also slightly surprised.
So, yeah, the right answer is in order are dark chocolate and milk chocolate.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: So this is. This kicks off the first Friday events in Ballston Spa. They do a lot of great things. This is.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: It's my favorite first Friday event.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: I think it's one of your favorite events of all time.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So like actually the year before we did an episode down there. I had a special city council meeting on that Friday, which is like, first of all, let's not have council meetings on a Friday. But I stopped and it was the year that it was like freezing, freezing cold and really windy. And I stopped into Coffee Planet to get a hot chocolate that they were making for the day. And it was phenomenal. So I look forward to that. Are they on here this year? No, not on here this year.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: There's a lot of new entries.
Here's what's great about it. A start early. We learned that.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: So it goes five to nine. It's not gonna go to nine o'clock. Everyone's gonna run out by eight, guaranteed. I almost. I think it's going to happen.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Just because the demand again. We were there last year. I said, I've lived in the area for 25 years. I've never seen that many people in balls and spot one single time. And the only thing close to it was the car show the way we were car show which took up all of Front Street.
So this. I actually walked yesterday. Got photos of all the storefronts for our map dailygazette.com and if you walk it from spot one to 30, it's almost like three and a half streets. So it is not the leg miles and miles and miles we walked for soup stroll. You start out.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: You mean the 15,000 steps?
[00:07:48] Speaker B: The 15,000 steps and the. So you start right out at night. Work bread. It was a nice stop last year. I think they're on the COVID of today's Gazette with chocolate cherry sourdough toast.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: And then you go right down to Front street and you're at Ballson Spa national bank, which was a stop of.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Ours last year too Boozy chic.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: The Swedish Chef. Front Street Deli.
Front Street Social Club will be my first stop as they do offer a boozy Mocha espresso cocktail.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Yeah. We're gonna start at the Swedish Chef, though, for me. Cause I. Chocolate and. And caramel are just so. Chocolate caramel truffles. There. I really gotta have it. Not that I don't want to stop at the other places. It's just, again, that's a lot of chocolate. And so, like, I don't know, maybe on the way back, if there's anything left at night work bread. It might stop there, because I'm intrigued by sourdough toast.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: The Miss Priss Boutique. The citrus chocolate truffles. That's intriguing. Chocolate and citrus is so good.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I. I'm wondering if it's, like, orange, because orange and chocolate together, people. So underrated.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. It's. I make it.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: You're gonna get a lot of Shannon's hot takes for. For Chocolate Fest. And you can agree to disagree, which is really. Just doesn't make any sense just to disagree with me. You should just agree with me because I'm right when it comes to chocolate.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And then we go back to the scene of the crime.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Pizza works for s'mores pizza. And I reiterate, if there is no s'mores pizza, please flirt the media.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: I will protest if they're running out.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Please alert the media.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Yeah. But set one to the side for us.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I just. And I just looked down. Amazing finds. Boutique has a chocolate margarita Bliss.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Yes.
Yes.
Oh, so there's four on here. Yeah. Stan will be doing all the alcohol. He'll be trying all of them. So he also has to do a boozy mocha espresso cocktail, a Chocolate Fest beer, and a raspberry chocolate Valentine stout.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: So very excited. Very excited for that.
And as I was making my stops yesterday, it was quiet down there, so I didn't run into a lot of people. But we have a personal invite from a lot of Turco Gyro right down there, just past reshop. It's kind of like the furthest stop on Milton Avenue tomorrow night. Young lady there, the owner with her husband personally invited us back because. And I knew this would be a hit for you. I said, she's making a chocolate baklava.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I love baklava.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: I know you do. That's why I'm like, oh, Shannon's gonna make this. We're gonna see you Friday night.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: It's one of those food items that's just like, if you do it well and you do it really well, like, just keep coming back for it.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: I can only let you know about the Current baklava selection, which I did.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Take some also, like, chocolate is, like, I've never really had, like, a chocolate, so.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Oh, it's. It's last night chocolate. Just so you know. It's. It's that puff pastry, and it was.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: So wait, you had some last night?
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Not the chocolate, just regular.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: But you had the regular?
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: I would have taken that over a Dunkin Donuts.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: There was just enough for me and. Me and the O.G.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Oh, okay. That's fine.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: So Rita had to partake, and.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you better bring extra cash. Rita's gonna need some chocolate picked up for her on Friday.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: I'm actually going to the bank tomorrow and getting a stack of 51s because I have a big weekend of tasting.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: And yeah. So last night for dinner, the OG My wife Rita, not only was she excited to know that I had baklava, but that as she was, again, starving. As she stated, when she got in the vehicle, got home, and there was a container that had a heart on it with her name on it and a smiley face from none other than Chef Devin Lyons with two huge pieces of eggplant parmesan.
Which, okay, according to. According to Rita was stupid. I'm not the eggplant. And Devin's like, nobody else eats it but Rita.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: So no, eggplant parm is the best. But back to the chocolate.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: How about this eggplant parm? And she finishes off with two pieces of baklava.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: It was a good night. Yeah, I was. I did good.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Well, the best part about the timing of Chocolate Fest is next week is also Valentine's Day.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: So, like, that's a whole nother podcast.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: They should just keep this on the menu. Because all I'm saying, this would be. This is the smart way to do it, guys. You've already done it. You know how you're gonna make it? Like, just keep it on the menu. Running through next week.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: And the one thing.
And we're gonna talk to somebody from. From the Chocolate Fest committee. You know, there's. These aren't just places that sell food all the time. A lot of these places, you know, two if by Sea Petal and Hive, Boho Chic. A lot of these places do not serve, you know, their retailers.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Yeah. So Ms. Pris, which is actually teaming up with the chef from the Iron Irons Edge there. And so Balsam.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Balsam Spa.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Adirondack, Barkery, Oxford Property Group, which, you know, they're actually. So they're actually doing Coffee Planet. They'll have Coffee Planet there so Coffee Planet is there? Yes. So they'll have chocolate coffee, which I may need to stop and get, depending on how cold. How cold and late the night goes.
But yeah. So, I mean, it's just.
It's always a great event. We had a lot of fun last year. People love it. I mean, how can you not. It's chocolate. I am going to say that, like, currently I'm not seeing, at least from the what I'm thinking they're gonna do with some of these items. Not really seeing where any white chocolate's gonna come into play here because I think you note that and it doesn't look like anyone's really noted the use of white chocolate. So props to all you, cuz. Ew.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: It's not ew.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Okay? It's just not. You gotta find the right flavor combination. And the only one that works for me so far is red velvet cookies.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: All right, so it's not a hard no.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Well, it's as close to a hard no as you're gonna get. So that's like the one item I'm kind of like, eh, okay. Or the peppermint chocolates that you get. That's it. But that's only because the white chocolate has peppermint in it. That's it. That's the only way it works, Stan.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: It was. It's a huge event for Balsam Spa and it's timed out perfectly their first Friday and then it leads right into Chowderfest on Saturday.
And it's. It's a huge leap of vendors because we go from 30 in Ballson Spa to 82 at Chowderfest. And the streets are part of. The streets are shut down and in Saratoga that we're going to touch on with our follow up. And it's. This is kind of like a nice. This is huge for Ballson Spa. This is huge.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a. You know, when we talk about events that they put on throughout the year, this is one of. Definitely one of the bigger crowd pleasers and just draws a number of people. So, you know, they try to do a number of different things with their first Fridays. And this, you know, is again, it's just one of my favorites to kick it off. I don't can't think of anything better. It also, I don't know, I just always like to talk about how this like sort of speaks to this area and it's amount of just like food festivals. I feel like you're gonna be hearing from us a lot about food as you did with Soup Stroll, Soup Fest Chocolate fest, Chowder fest, Wing walk.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: We do food.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Well, yeah, we like to eat. That's.
That's the real thing. But, yeah. So also, you know, you guys will get to, like, people who participate, get to vote for sweet savory and beverage. Although Stan and I are on the safe wave wavelength that we should also just be judges for this. And there should be a judges category.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: You know, celebrity judges category, as it states in the Daily Gazette. So if it's in print, it's got to be true.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, I.
Listen, Name me the title of chocolate Queen, Here I come.
I.
I'm just saying.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: A new title. Another title.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Just saying, if you guys want to open it up next year to some celebrity judges, we are here and willing.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: So, speaking of next year, do you know on it. Do you want to know what the gift is for the second anniversary? Just so we can get ahead of things.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Is it. Is it like one of each item and it's like the 12 days of Christmas, and I just. There's one paper.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: There's one theme for every year.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: So I just want to give you an opportunity.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: This is what I have to look forward to one day.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Well, this is. I'm just saying. I mean, I understand that you weren't prepared to celebrate our first anniversary together.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: I wasn't. I didn't get you anything.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: I mean. I mean, I understand.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: I showed off for the podcast.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: So that was the gift that keeps on giving is Shannon, as always been said in the office, but for next year, want to get ahead of it.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Okay. What is it?
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Plan accordingly. It's cotton.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Cotton.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Cotton.
That's it. It's just cotton. So it's. Take it. You know, whatever you think.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: All right.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: I'm gonna get you a Hershey Kiss. That's like a stuffed Hershey Kiss. It'll be like a little toy. Like.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Okay. Stuff with.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: It's chocolate. Get it. It's a Hershey Kiss. But it's like a little.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Well, it would be. You know, it does fall right around the 14th, so we can, you know, hit those places early on. So I can get like a. I can get a Squish em all.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Would be mine.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: That way it's a soft item to throw at me.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: It's a small room, and it's hard to throw because we're so close that we don't want to do that. So we're going to cut some promos for our friends for Kenshaw. We're going to make our super bowl picks.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: I already did today.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Oh, did you?
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: And you picked.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Well, the only winner in the super bowl is Kendrick Lamar. Come on.
Coming off of a five Grammy win, gonna do the super bowl with one of the best songs of the year. Most like one of the catchiest songs of the year, too. Like. Well, I mean, for.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: So I. I don't know if Ken's gonna let me do it, but I think I'm gonna go with my Super Bowl. I think on the script it says my super bowl pick. Super Bowl 59 pick is. And I said I'm going to pull the Saratoga Springs DPW special election and I'm going to write in the Buffalo Bills within the box.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: I do agree, though, and you know that very clearly. I said that in a slack channel. Yeah.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Not AFC should be champion.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: I mean, nobody else put it in the slack channel yesterday except for me. So just want to point that out. Go Bills. If. If they could. And we wish they could, should, should have, but we're not gonna get into the politics of that, you know? So at the end of the day, go, go, Bills. We all secretly wanted you guys to win, but it's not so secret.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: And white chocolate's not a bad.
