One thing professional wrestlers would know better than most is travel. For strength athletes, it’s where to eat. For retired strongman competitor and semi-retired pro wrestler, Braun Strowman, it’s an easy combination.
Everything on the Menu is a fairly by-the-numbers food travelogue. The host takes us in, orders everything on the menu, shows us their best stuff and praises the owners, chefs, and staff. Sometimes they hit us with a little factoid graphic (like how Strowman’s order at one location totaled at 15,760 calories.)
Outside of the gimmick that the host might qualify as industrial equipment in some places, Everything on the Menu has another particular quirk. At each destination, Strowman and his team visit a long-standing institution from the area and then a newer, more modern take on the regional traditions.
In Fort Worth, Texas, we start at Angelo’s. The old school Bar-B-Que joint has a third generation pitmaster and three generations of family hunting trophies on its walls. Texas staples like ribs, sausage, and chicken are smoked over hickory with less common fare like pork butt and bologna but the Texas-sacred brisket has its own chimney. Across town, it’s Wishbone and Flynt, a trendy fusion spot with a hidden “speakeasy” in the back. There, Chef Jorge Olvera concentrates on seasonal and local ingredients as he prepares sauces for everything from chicken lasagna to peach bourbon scallops to PB&J chicken wings.
For 67 years, “Miss Virginia” has been running Ben’s Chili Bowl and serving up “half-smoke” hotdogs to Washington, DC. For her, keeping the menu simple has allowed her to concentrate on what she loves most about her job: the people. They also love people over at “Oohh’s” and “Aaah’s”, a soul food kitchen running the gamut from fried whiting and roasted turkey wings to meatloaf, mac-and-cheese, and the best-looking green beans I’ve seen on TV in a while.
Strowman appears to be the main showpiece here for now. Watching all six-foot-eight and three-hundred-and-fifty pounds of him try to squeeze into an active commercial kitchen is something I’m sure they’ll do sparingly. More success might be found with the mass of muscles, mullet, and tattoos interacting with the staff and customers. Everywhere they went, he attempted to bond over something be it hunting, history, sports, etc. If they can get audiences to take a bite of the special, Everything on the Menu could certainly find a place at the table.
