The Last Remaining Pioneer Chicken Restaurants - Southern California Take Out History & Food Review
A visit to the last two Pioneer Chicken spots as well as location of the first restaurant.
Sean's Channel
https://www.youtube.com/malfuncsean
Transcript
0:02
welcome everyone out of the whoo here
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today number 27 of this current food
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series this episode is going to feature
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a place that started here in Southern
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California in 1961 and branched out into
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nearly 300 locations but there are only
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two remaining I'm gonna go to those and
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the spot of the very first location
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inviting you to join me shove you
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somewhere I wanted to go for quite a
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while
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and it's happening just getting my stuff
0:33
together and heading out
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you're right big the foot we are gonna
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cover quite a bit of ground today
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luckily traffic's not too bad at the
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cross streets of a 72 hundred block of
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Garfield Ave in the 6300 block of
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Florence Avenue and the city of Bell
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Gardens just so happens to be one of the
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last remaining active signs pointing
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towards the drive-thru with Pioneer Pete
1:04
right up there the chef
1:08
with that delicious chicken in his left
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hand holding it up to the heavens
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pioneer take out that's the official
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name but everyone just calls a pioneer
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chicken
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this is one of the two still open
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locations and since I will be venturing
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over to the other one just gonna get a
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drink from this one and get my meal at
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the secondary one look at that beautiful
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building old school the signage has seen
1:38
some years it certainly has I am
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reminded of quite a few movies and
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television shows where these were
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featured you've ever seen the intro to
1:53
Full House which those scenes were in
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Griffith Park even though they
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intertwined them with ones up in San
2:01
Francisco Michele is sitting on a
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blanket and there is a pioneer chicken
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box sitting next to her
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also recall Charles Bronson wandering
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the one that used to reside on the
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corner of Hollywood and Western
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Hollywood Boulevard and Western
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approaching the punk rockers there at
2:24
that pioneer and of course Warren Zevon
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immortalized the name of this place and
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one of his famous songs
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not many of these left that is a thing
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of beauty right there I think I'm gonna
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get one of those orange whip drinks
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check out the seating arrangements in
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here those are look at those antiques
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they also have t-shirts and hats
2:46
available went ahead and picked up a
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t-shirt in here I'll show you in a
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moment
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but I also got as stated inside and
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orange I've had an orange bang I've had
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an Orange Julius this is an orange whip
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I also asked if they had any of the cups
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with the logo on these have plastic cups
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with the logo on it they no longer carry
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those at least at this particular spot I
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will check out the other when I head
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over there and orange whip has never
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been consumed by myself and the straw is
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one of those little little bendy straws
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going in
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well that's good that's really close to
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nothing that's more or less than orange
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bang you can see the frothiness they're
3:34
exuding up from the cuff level
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I won't officially know till I get over
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there but I've heard rumors that this
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beverage is not sold at the secondary
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spot that's why I wanted to kind of tap
3:52
into it here another interesting story
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about this place Michael J Fox when he
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was starting his career lived in close
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proximity to pioneer chicken and he was
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he was low on money did not have a lot
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of funds and as the story goes his phone
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line was cut off could not afford to pay
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the bill so he set up an office at a
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payphone at his neighbor hoods spot just
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outside a pioneer chicken and he would
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when he was waiting to get the job of
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family ties he would say what do you
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think they're gonna call and he would
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hang around didn't have according to him
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did not have the cash to buy a meal so
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he would just hang around smelling that
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delicious food goodness got the call got
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the gig of family ties and the rest is
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history here's the t-shirt I purchased
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it was $20 the drink was a little over 2
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so like 23 bucks for for all of it but I
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haven't eaten yet so I'm gonna add on
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the food price to this adventure I know
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I know it's what I was thinking I really
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want to leave either but there's another
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one we're on our way to right on this
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corner of Echo Park and sunset used to
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be the Pioneer market
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it's now a Walgreens and that's where
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pioneer chicken got its name because
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right next to it was the first spot now
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a pizza place 1961 building still
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remains in fact it really looks almost
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identical to the the other spot I was
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just at they kept the building changed
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the change of decor just a little bit if
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you peek through those trees and get a
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view of Echo Lake you see the fountain
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this could be enforced to definitely be
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enforced corner of Soto Street
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and Whittier Boulevard
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the sounds of sirens drifting off in the
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background a unique looking building
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it's painted a little bit differently
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than the other the scheme of it open
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seven days a week obviously the chicken
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but also have fish there he is a fair
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glistening in the Sun this one's taller
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than the other this is probably a good
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40 feet in the air just to give you an
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example this is ground level it's it's
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probably 10 15 feet above the roof line
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and joining me at this particular spot I
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and your chicken baby that's Sean Clark
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I grew up on this I grew up on pioneer I
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didn't think there were any left and
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Adam told me there was a pioneer left I
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go we got to go to Pioneer my god I
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haven't been a pioneer in the police
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last one I knew up was over by whacko on
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Hollywood Boulevard there was like six
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years ago I got torn down
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sit right here I'm yeah that's signed
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and look at this look at the color
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scheme on this place yeah this one's a
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little different than your normal color
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scheme is red red white and black like
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the old sign up there I don't know why
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this one's yellow I've never seen a
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yellow pioneer chicken it's kind of
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yellowish orange I guess it's more
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yellow that I don't know is it a legend
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probably wasn't orange in it's turning
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yellow
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maybe the Sun the Sun is bleached it out
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a little bit yeah there aren't many of
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these left and there aren't many of
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those this piece of signage left either
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hey you know what's funny about that
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time is there's so many locations that
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used to be pioneer chickens that left
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the shape of the sign and change into
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something else
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yeah like there's this one that the one
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I grew up with it's a Chinese place -
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it's like a continent you know or
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something really yeah it's funny so
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those little relics all over LA did you
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can tell that sign is like 40 years old
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that's old school that opened in 61 I'm
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not sure wouldn't the mascot came about
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he's been around as long as I remember
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do you know his name a little trivia
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question
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no and I doubt anybody that works here
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as a quick little they have the they
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have the plastic cops here that's a good
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sign let's see if I can get a plastic
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cup if they have um song oh yeah and
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they have a shirt I gotta sure that the
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other Y got a t-shirt but that is a
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that's a polish that's a color I'll do
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it I'll do it I'll do a pole ok he's
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very very happy right there yes they
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have their and this is all it all closed
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off inside here I'm like the other just
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look at how vintage the Hat
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advertisement is right there oh my
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goodness this is I'm gonna go with the
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3-piece take it to 2 or the 3 p's Center
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I get the I get to let me get the
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3-piece I just sound that the breast
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doesn't come with a meal oh there it
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goes my idea of right my person I
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probably should have yeah I probably
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should have thought this through it was
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just informed they are all out of these
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mugs for now come on alright so it goes
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there
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now what so I need a home run right yeah
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then you push it off oh okay that was
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nothing that's gonna keep trying pull
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there you go okay there's your boom and
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run there's your piece of gum where you
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gonna eat it or save it as a souvenir
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oh it's not a gum it's like uh it's a
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it's just a bouncy behind room you got
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it I got a home run now so you can't be
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screwing around okay so you gonna hold
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on to give it in one shot
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oh one shot okay that's not cool hey
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yeah I'd like to top are you sure that
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thing was spinning
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oh it is moving you're right maybe it's
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just the wind it might be the wind no I
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don't think it's on any kind of like
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power that's just the wind
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gotta be just the wind it's a spirit of
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Pioneer peak that's pushing it
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pioneer pika stop it's the win it is
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definitely the win
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you got exciting if you thought they
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turned it on for us I thought I thought
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maybe likely these nerds put the sign on
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the students let's top film okay there
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he goes he's spinning they were telling
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me they are going to reorder some of
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their design of the t-shirts for the
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future they have their own truck
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made our way over to Hollenbeck Park the
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city of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks
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Department a beautiful pair look at that
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you want to go in for two of them yeah
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that's the easy safe I can already see
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the skin you were talking about me yeah
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yeah then this is what I'm talking about
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right there
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this this this tasty goodness
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you get no sides you just got these home
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with the tuna I just went all carnivore
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on this one alright let me see this is
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what I'm dealing with
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right here I will say your chicken looks
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better than mine that one makes the
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pressures this guy looks like he's been
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sitting there for a while
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this one looks fresher than that one
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okay that's fair I'm gonna eat that one
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last cuz it looks better look I went
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with a three piece I got a leg a thigh
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and hoping good be a better set of
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breasts so random piece wings
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it was young leg a wing that's a nuts of
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mine that's a thigh I think and I got
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the biscuit and she recommend the
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cashier recommended so that they are
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known for the Spanish rice spicy rice as
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this is some sort of hell that's the
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mashed potatoes and gravy oh that's a
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very large portion mashed potatoes
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actually yeah this tiniest amount of all
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this is the side of mashed potatoes I
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think that right
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with the dream
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was completed
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pulled off basically
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and reading the outer shell is like
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famous Xfinity sir
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the base week
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the NDA you've had like a good sign up
12:25
there and they like I'll take a twenty
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it like fly it
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yeah it's what the outer shell of this
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kind of almost like funnel cake anything
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and I said that's what that's the thing
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I loved about their chicken
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I kind of feel like long john silver's
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had
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a little bit but there aren't any enough
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to Ksenia not many
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every time I go to Ohio for man
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in Cincinnati technically Sharonville
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there's a long time Silver's down the
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street I go load up every time I'm
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saving this mark for saving it
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that's not saving saving means you don't
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eat it immediately I'm saving my belly
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okay thinking I would be disappointed
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today it wouldn't live out your yeah
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that's just I'm happy I like it so far
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and we got the soothing sounds of the
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freeway behind us this is a fog
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it's a unique flavor it's a unique
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texture for fried chicken
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I have no idea why they all start going
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out of business ma'am
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I will say this it does seem to be sort
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of a trend I've seen with the pioneers
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over the years that they get really
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rundown looking like there's not much
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upkeep I don't know if they're corporate
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owned or a third independently owned
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these days but right it's plenty all
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these people are commenting about you
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and me doing a video together
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because we're both known for location
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videos for filming locations yet we're
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not doing anything coming we're just
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eating a voice or something
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I'm sure something is filmed at that
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time you rejected I'm not disappointed
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in this I would get this chicken again
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I said find their chicken pop-up and
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movies all the time
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right from the background we would call
14:50
in at the top of your head
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I won't say that you see one of their
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best friends
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be wrong I think it was across from the
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burger place yeah I'm not cool yeah
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there was a pioneer chicken yeah
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two hundred and seventy give or take
15:26
locations down to two
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really
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dude when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s
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growing up in Southern California the
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pioneers were everywhere I've never seen
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a necklace and it's against it man
15:41
this is aah blows that that was dance
15:44
yeah it a complete piece
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let's see I got but I was trying too
15:50
long you don't really see a lot of flies
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in Southern California
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I mean whose coast why have you cannot
15:56
eat outdoors
15:57
their education princess
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that is kind of happy to see our little
16:04
friend
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they say finger looking good they mean
16:14
it
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they're not in the company step with
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this Oh going there now on the whoa
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that's not that's mashed potatoes and
16:26
gravy that's just it's more gravy than
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anything
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nothing I'm complaining I love Grady
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this is like 35% gravy 65%
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mashed potatoes
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get kind of faulty metal to finish this
16:44
singer by
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pretty pretty standard mountainous spicy
16:53
rice going in it's what they're known
16:56
for just what she suggested said it was
16:58
she said it was the most popular side
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bye-bye Popie spicy spicy
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I was reading up on info ups place miss
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that Popeyes had a lot to do with
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annihilating this is competition
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you know what he never can trust
17:36
everything greed I'm not a big fan of
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Popeyes Chicken I do like their chicken
17:40
today I went to you don't like the spice
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I just felt really care for their
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chicken like they're regular pieces or
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them so if there was a pioneer of
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Popeyes next door trimmer to go to the
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Pioneer here sure
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that's gonna do it for today if you're
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18:35
out to your channel malfunction mal fqn
18:40
se a.m. how's it and how's everything
18:43
going you know it's going okay I mean
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you know you've been doing the daily
18:48
uploads not daily look close to it I
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kind of cursed myself by Colin at the
18:53
daily collection it's it's on tall order
18:55
as you know to do these every day
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so are you doing at least 4 or 5 a week
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yeah roughly you know and I've got this
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to show for it
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it's true you got that out of the the
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vending machine of Pioneer yeah
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I'll see in the next video the vlog