Meet the Creator Thriving on Tenderloin Reviews and Breaking News

We're all small town Indiana. Everybody knows someone from a small town. That's pretty cool. We're all that kind of close here in Indiana. But if you [music] start talking and get a dialogue going, that's where the magic really happens. An average [music] tenderloin is much better than a good piece of broccoli.

I've always said that. You know what I mean? So, I've had 100, but probably not at a 100 different places. [music] Where are the five best tenderloins in Indiana? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Who's Your State and the incredible stories happening here today.

I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Before we get into the episode, let me tell you about my friends at Pence Media Group. Every organization has a story to tell, but getting the right people to hear it takes more than great ideas. It takes strategy, creativity, and a team that knows how to bring it all together. That's where Pence Media Group comes in. As a nationally recognized public relations, branding, digital, and marketing consultancy, PMG helps organizations tackle everything from major announcements, and marketing campaigns to community engagement, events, and long-term growth.

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pence media. Consider it done with PMG. Now, let's get into the episode. My guest today is known as Smalltown Indiana. From fishing to eating and raiding breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches and exploring the state, this guy does it all. He also reports on breaking news on court cases, missing persons, and crime in smalltown Indiana.

I'm really excited to dive into another who's your fanatic just like me with smalltown Indiana. Man, welcome to the show. What is up? How are you? Let's go. This is a long time coming.

I feel like Oh, man. I might have saw you on TikTok several years ago just crushing it with all things in obviously small town in Indiana. Uh and I'm really excited that we get to hang out today. Yeah, me too, man. I've been a big big fan of yours for a while and what you do and the small town breakdowns and all that stuff. It's great stuff.

Let's go. I mean, same same right back to you. Uh, but the interesting piece, right, is you cover all things small town Indiana, but I mean, you really just report and cover and share stories of the entire state of Indiana. And so my thought was, oh, this guy must be from Winchester, must be from Loganport, must be from a small town in Indiana. You're a lifelong southsider. Absolutely.

Right here in Indianapolis, Southside all my life. Wow. So, what got you interested? Coming from the big city. What got you interested in small towns? Years ago when smalltown Indiana kind of started, my goal was to take a drone out, go to small towns, uh kind of highlight the small towns, what's going on in a small town, talk about it, like your small town breakdown stuff, just just to do that cuz I thought it would be pretty cool to see other parts of the state that I don't get to see every day.

that didn't materialize and it kind of turned into more of the news thing when the whole Greenwood Park Mall incident happened. Uh I started talking about that and my following just started going and I was like okay. And then I got some news sources that would feed me some information. Um and yeah, it just grew from there. Like were you always interested like even growing up getting into adulthood? like were small towns interested to you or like why did you think highlighting small towns was uh like a good strategy or just something that you would enjoy doing?

You know what, nobody was doing it at the time that that I had found. Uh so I was like there's all kinds of cool things in Indiana and and I I'm weird because I like like structure and architecture. So you go to these small towns and people think that Indiana is just looks all the same. Well, they may have the same general layout, but when you go to see these small towns to see the different uh architecture, uh it's really cool. I mean, I it's just really cool to go to these small towns to see what they have to offer. Like you see like a typical layout, you have like the courthouse square, but they all look similar, but they're different.

And that's what I think is so cool that they all have their own stories and history and pieces to it. I think it is really fascinating especially at a time when you know largely I would say the small town in in Indiana small town across America is maybe not as romanticized as it has been you know people move to big cities they left their small towns they aren't going back with the rise of the interstates and facetime it's like oh I don't need to move back home when I have my family so I think it's super fascinating you started creating content in 2020 yes I started out with the Tik Tok channel uh Bearded Dad 24. Just some weird stuff. Uh, you know, looking at other people, what they were doing, and I wasn't really thinking this was going to go anywhere. What was your first video? Like, do you remember the first thing you posted on the internet?

Oh, man. I don't I don't remember. It was probably something silly, you know what I mean? Like nothing I look back on and I'm proud of, you know? Nothing, you know, too bad or anything. Just being silly.

It was It was co, you know what I mean? So, you really didn't have much to do but just be silly. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's uh the the small town Indiana part. I'm proud of that. And people like today when they find out that I'm from Indianapolis and they're like, "Well, why are you small town Indiana?"

And I always say, "We're all small town Indiana." Everybody knows someone from a small town. They have a family member from small town. They've been through a small town. So, I think we're all small town Indiana. We're all that kind of close here in Indiana.

I think, dude, that's pretty cool. I totally agree. And and I always find on the surface level, it is indie versus rural. It's urban versus, you know, the small town, the whole thing there. And really, when you talk to people and you go out and enjoy these places, it's the people in small town are not that different from the people in Indianapolis. Like, there's a reason that people, you know, are born on the southside, never leave there.

There's a pe there's a reason that people are born in Warsaw, Indiana and never leave. Like there's a pride in where you're from, the way your ancestors have done it. Gets really interesting when you start to dive instead of just generalizing about people of like, oh, you city slicker or oh you country bumpkin. You start asking questions and talking to people. That's honestly my favorite part about getting to create content about the state and going to the small towns. Like you it's up to you.

Like I think a lot of people think Indiana's boring and it's like well if you just like you know walk into a small town and just assume that like everyone's going to invite you in for supper and you know you get to sit at and eat grandma's pecan pie like like I bet that would happen if you just started asking some questions and talking to people. But if you just expect like oh I walk in and sat down at the bar and now all of a sudden I'm a local. It's like it's not exactly how it works. But if you start talking and get a dialogue going that's where the magic really happens. Absolutely. When I when I go to these places for the for the BPTs, as I like to call them, uh I try to talk to someone in there.

Um I talked to uh a couple one time at a bar and they were sitting in there and she was from uh she was from somewhere overseas and he was from a small town in Indiana and they met so she moved here. It's just so weird. And then I just start talking to them and the people you get to meet, you know, some people are from the small town and they worked at this one particular bar or restaurant for many years. Uh some people just moved to a small town. It's just I don't know. [clears throat] It's it's it's almost like when you do talk to people and you get to know them, hey, everybody's the same.

We all have the same problems. We all like to do the same things for the most part. It it's a good time. Well, we're going to get into the your wide array of BPT ratings. Uh, but before that, you started posting and I feel like everyone's embarrassed of the first couple things they post. Like, but you have to start somewhere.

I always say just go post 50. Go post 100 videos. They're all going to be terrible anyways, but you got to get that out of the way. And then you start to learn. You become okay with embarrassment. You become okay knowing that no one's going to watch your first few videos.

And that's where you start to learn and get better. Where along that journey from starting in 2020 to today where you have hundreds of thousands of followers, where did you start to get traction? I I think on the small town Indiana page where I got traction uh everybody or a lot of people remember the incident that happened at the Greenwood Park Mall. For anyone that doesn't, do you want to like give us uh information? What year was this? I feel like it was three years ago maybe.

Yeah, I think it it was like 2021, I believe. I thought that was when I really started gaining traction and I I talked about that incident and I didn't know anything about the person that that stopped uh this this mass event that was going to happen in Greenwood Park Mall. Unfortunately, people did lose their lives, but luckily there was a hero there to handle things and take care of things. Yeah. This is July 17th, 2022. Yeah.

Uh so 4 years ago. Holy 4 year anniversary. Yeah. Yeah. So when I saw that and talked about that, I started gaining followers and I've always been interested in news and breaking news. I was at I went to Manuel High School back in the day and I had a journalism teacher who put me on the newspaper and her name was uh Mrs.

Barbara Rice and she changed my high school career. Without her, I don't know where I would have been in high school. But learning about writing and newspaper and journalism and all of that, it kind of gave me a passion for that type of stuff. Yeah. But then I kind of learned that not everybody wants to watch a halfhour news segment uh or, you know, watch the major news network. So I figured if I could start talking about news in Indiana and get it out in under a minute, people would watch it.

And I did. And I started that's where I gained traction right there. Yeah. We I do think there is this call for modern news like current the the part that's always challenging and like kudos to you for tackling this is like a lot of what what will I what people are interested in is like what they see on the the 6:00 news it's all so I mean it's real and raw but it's also very I mean it's just hard subjects to cover and I'm like a pretty uplifting like I try to be like a positive you know dude this, do that, tell the the positive stories, but I mean there is a place in time that like you need to know what's really going on in these communities. How do you balance that? How do you balance sharing, you know, about this I mean this is like a a mass shooting incident happening in Greenwood with also like your mentality and like, you know, how does how do you not let that affect you?

Cuz I I just like get so lost in the news cycles and it it can honestly affect me a ton. Yeah, absolutely. So years ago, I worked as a 911 dispatcher at the airport uh for the airport police department and fire. And uh somebody there along the way, one of the firefighters, he's a battalion chief said, "Just remember when you're taking these calls when when you're doing all this, it's not your emergency. Your job is to get the information out and then let us do our job. It's not your emergency.

So don't overreact to things." So, I kind of have taken that uh that advice to the news cuz it is depressing and it can get you down a little bit, especially the deli case. Uh that that was really hard to cover and talk about because of what happened uh to the little girls up there. And um so sometimes you have to separate yourself and sometimes you just have to take a break. And I think that's where the talking about the tenderloins come in. and I get that break and I don't have to talk about the bad stuff that's going on in our state.

I mean, that is uh that would be a necessary built-in. But it's funny where your journey to find Indiana's greatest pork tenderloin came was an original video that that we put out. Absolutely. Okay. So, I'll I'll set the scene. Um, and before before I dive into this, I do want to get the What is your combined footprint?

like how many hooers how many people interested in content Indiana uh look to you for storytelling and news and information? Yeah, so I got uh over over 250,000 across all platforms. That's crazy. Um I'm you know I obviously want to build that. I want my voice to get out there. I want people to know what I'm doing and I want people to see the small towns in Indiana as as you do as well.

So yeah, but just over 250,000 right now. A quarter of a million people are looking to you for storytelling, news, information, the whole nine yards. Um, so spectacular. Started as a co 2020 project. Like that is incredible. Keep up the good work there.

But this journey to find Indiana's breaded pork tenderloin started. I was uh downtown at this movie premiere for the duel, which was like a movie that came out this would have been 2024. Yeah. Yes. The summer of 2024. And I asked Zack Spicer, he's uh one of the the creators of the movie, where was his favorite part?

What's his hidden gem in Indiana? And he told me about the Moringo Tavern. Uh which was this. It's a small bar down near the Moringo cave system in Crawford County. Uh and he talked about the breaded pork tenderloins and like just the small town charm. And you see this video and decide to go on this quest.

So take me from how that video where that started to how you ended up trying I mean an unlimited amount of pork tenderloins. Yeah. So I saw that and and you asked what's a hidden gem in Indiana and when he said Morango Tavern and he said breaded pork, you know, I'm scrolling through like everybody does and I was like huh I wonder how good that thing is. So then I started researching where this place was. And then I was like, "Okay, it's not too far away from Clarksville, Indiana, where there's a Bass Pro shop." So I was like, I can go down, I can have a a breaded pork tenderloin at Morango Tavern, and then I can go on over to Bass Pro, check out the fishing stuff, right?

So I could do everything that I wanted to do that I was interested in at that time, uh, all in one day. So I just started driving down and I was like, you know what? I'm going to video this and I'm going to I'm going to make it a series. I'm going to talk about my experience and just go from there. And if you look at my list that's out there, Moringo Tavern [clears throat] is the lowest rated breaded pork tenderloin that I've that I've had so far. So, I think I talked to some people there and it had changed hands probably uh since the gentleman had been there that told you about it.

So, it was basically just like a Pete's Pride fritter, which is good. We all, some of us grew up on the Pete's Pride fritters back in the day. Um, that's basically what it was. So, and the whole Little Piggy rating was just off the top of the head. I I didn't plan that. That's so fun.

Yeah, cuz Okay, so you have to think about this. Uh, the One Piece was when they were filming is like 12 to 18 to 24 months ahead of time of when the movie was released. So he was telling me this when the movie was over. He's telling everyone you got to go down here and check it out. Then like that is the unfortunate piece with any small town restaurant, right? Is that like previous ownership groups might operate things different ways and people start to cut cost or try to figure out ways cuz it's hard to make a living in what in the restaurant biz in general, especially in a town of I don't know a thousand people.

I don't even know like what the population of Crawford County is like 10,000. Yeah. And you know the thing about it is except for the breaded port tenderloin sandwich. He described the place and the area and the railroad tracks. Now a train didn't go by so I didn't get to feel the the building shake but I could see you know how that would happen. Uh so he described the place great.

Uh you know like you said things happen. One of my highest rated tenderloins that I had. had I had to take off my list because the place closed. What was that? It was called Our Place in Brook, Indiana. Talk about a small town.

Look up Brook, Indiana. Uh literally a stop sign and uh this this place called Our Place Family Restaurant. 9. 6 Little Piggies. It was the best one I've ever had. And population 945.

There you go. Wow. Yeah. 70 mi south of Chicago. This is in the region. Yeah.

Okay. Wait, so take us through how this one video became this whole rating system and like sent you on this journey. I mean, if you go look at his Facebook, I mean, I don't know what the number is, but it's like over a hundred, right? Like places that you've been thus far. Yeah. So, uh, tonight I'll be posting.

Well, I don't know when this is going to air, but 107 will be posting soon. So, 10 106 you can go watch um 106 different places. I don't I don't eat them every day. People are concerned about my cholesterol and uh you know how the internet can be sometime and I understand that and look I appreciate that. I appreciate people reaching out and and making sure I'm okay but I eat other things. I talk about other things.

He has a vegetable every now and again for sure. Every once in a while. Yeah. Okay. So you post this first one. Mhm.

And but like how do you then decide to go on and do this for 106 more times over the course of two years? You just like you just liked it. Yeah, I was like, well, Nate, thanks for that. Uh, and then I was like, you know what? I want to find the best one in Indiana because it is an Indiana staple. Yeah.

Um, and I wanted to find the best one. And as I'm driving the Bass Pro, I'm thinking this would be great as a series just just to do I I said it was going to be a series when I did the first video and I was I wasn't sure and I was like now I got to find the best one. Wow. And and I'm still on a quest to find the best one. See th this is what I can respect. One I'm I'm curious to dive into a little bit of his list because it's incredible.

Yeah. 106 soon to be 107 different locations put out there. Have you been to Broadripple Tavern? I haven't. So I haven't been to any place in Broadripple yet. I will be changing that.

Wow. I haven't been to any place in Broadripple yet. Uh the other one everyone talks about Plumps Last Shot. Yep. Plumps. Plumps is on my list to go.

Yep. Which I resp Okay, so this is interesting. I'm I'm excited to dive into this. I respect you and your stance on it because you do give a a very uh opinionated response, right? Like if you have a bad experience that goes into it, you know, and it's like consistent, you know, you you don't necessarily sugarcoat it, I'll say. Yeah.

Here's here's I think why people have latched on to what I'm doing, right? because I tell you my experience with the breaded pork tenderloin and that's pretty much it. I don't talk about the service that I had. Although normally the service is always great. I I try to mention something positive about every place that I go to, especially lately because I feel like you can find something positive in in every experience. Um, and I'm also trying just the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich.

I could go to a small town restaurant that someone recommends and they could have other stuff in there that could be absolutely great, but I don't know because I'm trying the BPT. I which I respect. You're like I'm a man on a mission that's looking for the best bread and pork tenderloin. Like we've had people say like oh like why don't you rate or review stuff and like I think there's a place like if that's your lane and like you have seriously become a foremost expert on the breaded pork tenderloin and I as I sit over here I'm like well you know what I'm more of a storyteller so I want to learn like okay how did you become the owner of this place and then and it's like more of the story where it's like for me people necessarily aren't buying like I mean the the bottom line is a lot of restaurants around the state of Indiana around in the country are like the same 12 ingredients that are all like mixed into whatever you know like you have to have a truthfully special restaurant experience where you have some homemade aspects of it and there are plenty of spots that do do that but a lot of spots are like the same like Delo or Gordon food service or whatever you know that comes and they mix it up and they do their thing and it's about for me the best hometown restaurants are about the environment and the story and the family that's owned it for forever and like you know the the locals that are in there hanging out.

And so it's like to take the food reviewing spot is is a spot that I think a ton of people need if you're out there looking for strictly taste, strictly like the best product that people put out there. Cuz if you look out here, I'm like looking at a few that I've been to and I I like am impressed with uh how you've I mean the Bulldog Saloon in Menon, that is a small town. This is Tippy Valley country up there. Like that's actually not Sorry to interrupt. Oh, that's where I met the couple at the bar that I was telling you about earlier. Wow.

Is in Menon, that small town of Menon. And you go then like two I mean not two mile but like 10 minutes down the road to Akran to Jonesy's Jun Jonesy's junction. Also spectacular. They are closing. No. Yes.

End of the month. What? Yeah. The owner is uh selling out and uh he's either going to sell it or close it. But the 31st is it for them. Dang.

I'm going to try and make it back up there. I've seen videos. They are lined around the building, which is great cuz they have a really big one, right? It's not It's actually not too big, but it's tasty. It's pretty good. They were voted like uh by Indie Star Indiana's best breaded pork tenderloin sandwich.

But, you know, I mean, everyone has their own opinion on that. Um, but it's crazy. I mean, over the course of two years, you've gone to over a hundred different restaurants looking for the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. And it all started with the video. Yeah. And what I love about it is it's an idea, you know, like you get this idea and a lot of people will fizzle out, you know, you post one, it's h, you know what, maybe there might be one.

I bet like 26 didn't get as much traction as you probably hoped it would, but is it cool, we're going to come back and we're going to get better for 27. That's what I respect. Yeah. So, from traveling the state, what are things that restaurants are doing to serve a good breaded pork tenderloin? Well, I think the good restaurants are serving tenderloins that are never frozen. They're getting their meat locally, either either from a local farm or from a local IG.

It's fresh meat. Um they're they're cutting it and breading it at their location and they're adding some seasoning to it. There are a ton of places that I go to that, like you said, they get it from a distributor, maybe cut already, frozen, they thaw it out, they cook it, and they call it a who's your tenderloin. And to me, that's not a hooser tenderloin. You You got to You got to help it out a little bit. You know what I mean?

What are you judging? So, you have your your piggies rating, right? How what all goes into that? And it's also spelled that way for a reason. It's spelled grammatically incorrect. Uh because Oh, b yys.

Um I did that for a reason because it's my rating. Which is also the thing. This is the internet. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right? Absolutely. Like you anyone you can go out there and a lot of people it's like they put out a video and it's like you have no idea about anything.

At least we know you've tried 100 plus different tender lines. Like that's a rating you can trust. Yeah. Yeah. And people do. And um what was it?

Get back to what you were asking about um about how to differentiate their product and what goes into your rating. Yeah. So I look for the crunch factor. Uh I look for meat to breading ratio. All right. I'm looking for the bun.

People I'm known for being a little judgy if it's not a toasted bun. Uh but it doesn't have to be toasted and it it doesn't add any points if it is toasted. But I think if if you toast the bun, you're going just a little step extra to make the whole experience better in my opinion. Or if you have like a gourmet bun or a breaded or excuse me, a better bun than just something you can go and and pick up at your local store. So if you put a little effort into your bun, I I I think you're you're at least trying in my opinion. So you got the meat to breading ratio, you got the crunch, um you got the size.

I do look at the size. Uh it doesn't always have to be as big as a plate. Uh but it should be bigger than the bun. It's not really a hooser tenderloin unless it's bigger than the bun in my opinion. The other interesting pieces like you never know your experience could be different one day. Have you ever like gone back to a place and thought like, "Oh man, I could have given could have given this one a better or worse rating."

Yeah. Actually, recently I went to um Clu Bruise in Lebanon, Indiana. Yeah. was one of my first five stops and I could not get their bun out of my head along my journey. I know sounds weird. They use the grains that they use for their brewing part of it, right?

They use their grains for their bun. They partnered with a baker and they send them the grains and they're the only ones uh that are allowed or or permitted to use those buns and it's just a a tasty bun in my opinion and I felt like it was a lower score. I gave them a lower score than what I should have. Like this type of bun. Yeah. Wow.

That's super interesting. Yeah. If you've never been there and tried tried them, I recommend. Why? Okay. Okay.

So, why did you feel like you gave them a lower score the first time? I kept thinking about their sandwich and and talking to the bartender and they've got some awards on the wall saying that they're best tenderloin this, which just about everybody in Indiana has some sort of award on their wall if they have a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. And I just wanted to go back and try it. And it was their fifth anniversary and it was a rainy day. So, I drove up there again and I tried it and it was better than what I originally rated it. And I've got it on there twice.

If you look at my list, you can see Clues Brews on there twice. And there's a reason. I want people to know what I rated it the first time and what I rated it the second time. And there are others I want to go back and try again. Are there restaurants that you had low expectations for that blew your mind? Probably the one that sticks out the Well, there's two really.

We can talk about Rea Jeans in Poland, Indiana. I need to know where Poland Indiana is. So Poland is out towards like Brazil, Indiana. Uh so it's out near Cataract. Yeah. And all that.

I can't think of I can't remember the name of the county right off hand. I'll bet you would know. Uh I think it's Clay County or Owen County. I'm not sure if it's Owen or Clay. It is one of those two. I I can't I can't remember.

Um yep. It lies along State Road 42 southeast of the the city of Brazil, the county seat of Klay County, Poland. Let's let's get back to Reda Jeans. I want to talk about Red Jeans in that area specifically. The other one is the Blondies Giant Tenderloin food truck. It was really the first food truck I tried and it was in Brazil, Indiana for the Fourth of July parade parade and it was I mean it's tied for number one on my list.

Uh there's like five places that are tied for number one. It was amazing. And that one kind of surprised me. I was like, "Okay, it's a food truck. They're doing the They're doing them there. How good can it be?

And it was good. It was really good. Wow. Blondie's Giant Tenderloins. Yep. They're They are at um the Covered Bridge Festival area every year and they do quite well.

Where are they based out of? Brazil. They're based out of Brazil. And and they're only, you know, they're a food truck so there's only there's only certain events they do. You can't always find them. Wow.

which is kind of tricky for me. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty cool. They did that. That's sick. Okay, so talk me through Reddit jeans.

What is this spot? So, I kept getting the recommendation for Reddit Jeans. Okay. And my buddies and I sometimes uh my two uh brothers uh from other mothers go with me. And uh so me and my buddy Tim, we went to Rea Jeans and we go into Rea. this this small town in Poland, Indiana.

And we parked in this parking lot across the street and I do my whole intro and we're walking in and I'm I'm thinking, you know, this is one of these places that I I I just wasn't sure about. You know, it's it just felt like smalltown Indiana, but I wasn't sure about the food. So, we go in, order the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is what I got. And then he got the Reuben. And uh I start eating this breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. And I'm a couple bites in and I'm like, "This is different.

This is this is good." And I usually only eat half of what I what I go. When I go, I eat half. I get a good taste of it. I don't get any toppings on it. Has to be plain cuz I want to judge the BPT for the BPT.

I don't need anything. I don't See, that's interesting. Oh, yeah. I I I respect it. It's your rating. See, I like uh bun and I like the freshness of the veggies.

So, if I get like to a spot and I know that they have like I don't know they they're not using I don't know, let's say uh they're using fresh ingredients on the lettuce, the the tomato, the whole thing. Like I like that, but I can also respect like, hey, it's just plain. Everybody likes what they like on it. Yeah. Um I get it plain and I eat it with the bun. Uh but I always take a couple bites of just the tenderloin as well without bun just so I can get a good taste of that.

It's like I do dip it in ketchup and mustard after I get a good taste for it. When I first started, I would get cheese on it because I love cheese on a BPT, but I felt like it could sway my opinion if it's a good piece of cheese. You never know, it might get a higher rating, and I didn't want that. I wanted just the BPT. So, when I'm eating Red's uh BPT, I I could tell that it was fresh. I could tell that it was they put their heart and soul into it.

That's the best way for me to describe it. And I think I may even have said that in the video. I just felt like everything they made there, they put their soul into their food. And they had owned the place. Uh the new owners had owned the place for about 3 years. It's named after uh the lady who owns it.

It's named after her mother um Rea Jeans. And it was just so good. And since the review came out, like they're packed. When they're open, they're packed. There's a wait to get in this place in in Poland, Indiana. That's sick.

You know, I don't know what the what the uh the the population of Poland, Indiana is, but they're they're going to rea Jeans and they're doing quite well because of the review. And that right there makes me happy. I get nothing out of this. I pay for my food. I don't get it for free. I don't I will not take it for free.

Um I want to pay for what I'm reviewing because I want an honest unbiased review. Somewhere between 81 to 113 people. That's the population of Poland, Indiana. Yeah, there you go. And there and you'll find more people waiting there on a Saturday than the population of of Poland, Indiana. Have you talked to the owners?

So I did go back uh I went back I for a business meeting actually. I met someone there for breakfast that happens to uh work out of Brazil, Indiana. Yeah. And had breakfast there and I talked to him and and they they thanked me. Uh my buddy Tim. So we I I videoed his portion as well for the the Reuben and he said it was one of the best Reubens that he had ever had.

And now they sell out. They sell out. They they smoke uh their Reubens. They do things a little different and now they can hardly keep them. Uh, and they post on their Facebook when they sell out so people know. Uh, and he went there for breakfast one day with his wife and uh, he he saw the owner and she recognized him and was like, "Just thank you.

You know, thank you for your video." And you know what, Red Jeans was probably doing great, probably doing great before I posted a video. But what I do know is that they're doing better since. And again, that's what it's all about for me. Helping small towns, helping these restaurants. I I went to a place not too far from me called Tenderloins After Dark, which to this day is the most interesting place uh the most interesting place.

Well, interesting. So, it's like a community kitchen uh on the south side of Indianapolis. Uh like in the 4200 block of Southeast Street. The the seasoning he puts on his is a little different. It's good. It's really good.

I believe he still has I know he had like a like a spicier tenderloin you could get as well. uh he put a lot of love in his as well. I went in there one night after bowling and uh I walked in there and he knew who I was and he knew what I was doing and I got this tenderling to go and took it home which I didn't live too far from there and I did a review on it and then he sent me a message and said that the week the week after I posted the video his his business went up 400%. Dude. Yeah. And uh I was like, "That's awesome.

That's great." Uh in the breakroom in Argus, Indiana, I went there to kind of do that one. Uh the big boy train was coming through. So I was I was doing all kinds of things that day. I was making the announcement that I was part partnering with Marshall County for the Blueberry Festival. I wanted to do the Argus Breakroom review and then I wanted to see the big train.

And even our uh the break room said that their business went up quite a bit after I did the review. And theirs wasn't even like I mean they're they're up there, but but they're not like number one or anything, but they they sold a lot more BPTs after I went. That's crazy. The breakroom uh I like grew up That's crazy you said Argus. I grew up like 15 minutes from Argus. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So uh but I don't The break room isn't like uh I I don't know how old it is because I don't remember ever going there when I lived up there. Yeah. I don't I don't know. I know the lady that owns it.

Here's the lady that owns it. The beef that they have in there literally comes from right up the street at a farm. That's sick. And then they have like a ch they have a kitchen area where you can actually buy that beef for their burgers and such. Like it's right there, you know? And I I forget where they said they get the I mean 4.

8 star. I always judge by quantity of reviews. like they had almost 250 reviews. Like that anytime you start to get hundreds of reviews and you stay over like the 4. 5, I'd say you're a pretty good spot. Cuz this is interesting, too.

It's like depending on the day. I bet if you were to toss your top 50, top 40 into a into like a blind draw and like on any given day, you one might take the cake. Like if you're in that top echelon, right, where you're like your 9. 4 to your your nines or your 8. 9s, like they're all probably in the mix cuz that is a piece too that uh the small town restaurants, they can handle staffing. Like so many of them have such a problem.

Like they might have a great, you know, a great recipe, but if the owner isn't there 100 hours a week or they don't have like the best possible people in place, it makes it really hard to keep your quality like consistent with where you want it to be. Absolutely. That's kind of a part that I worry about. Do I really want to blow up a spot to where so many people go there? I look, I haven't figured out why people follow me around to do these BPT ratings or go go try them after I've been there. Uh, but they do and I'm so appreciative of that, but I have to be careful like Rea Jeans.

Luckily, you know, they they're they're telling people, hey, we got to wait, you know, come on down, enjoy the food, enjoy the atmosphere, but just, you know, realize we are a small town Indiana restaurant and they can only do what they can do. Yeah. Are there like geographic regions that just have a a specific type of tenderloin? I don't think there's a like I'm looking on Sorry not to interrupt you, but I'm looking here and it's like well you have Poland and Brazil, you have North Vernon on twice in the top five pot like are there like pockets where they just like somebody is there like a story of like this pork tenderloin was perfected like 45 years ago and then the recipe kind of spread out to restaurants in the area or something like that? you know, I I I don't get into it that deep with a it's sometimes it's hard to talk to someone there because you're talking to a waitress or whatever and I don't want to be the type of guy that yes, I'm a breaded pork tenderloin reviewer and I would like to, you know, I'm just c casual conversation with folks.

What I will say, uh, North Vernon, there's something in the water. There's something in the water down there. So, Miller's this is the spot where they serve it in a pizza box if you get it to go, right? I believe so. Yes. Yeah, I have multiple recommendations to go check that out.

The thing about Miller's is it's it's like a rectangle tenderloin. The the the way they pound it out is like a rectangle, but it's still really really thick, man. That I I can when I start thinking about these things, man. I It brings back all the good memories of the breaded pork tenderloins. Yeah. And then uh so I had that one and then Cheeky Mondays opened uh which is I don't know how far.

I mean it's walking distance from from Millers and I went to Cheeky Mondays and I couldn't honestly rate that one any high like it was just as good and I'm like North Vernon has got it going on down there. Like it's really the only place I think I could go to and get two fresh tenderloins and rate them side by side. You know, people are like, "Well, how do you differentiate between the 9. 4s?" Well, I can't go to Reddit Jeans and then drive to North Vernon and have a fresh tenderloin, but I could in North Vernon. I could go and I could do them side by side.

Yeah. I could do the battle in North Vernon to see who's going to be better. Wow. I mean, that is impressive that that one town has two of your top five. Yeah, absolutely. So, I do want to do some questions here.

Uh, I mean, the chalk question is, okay, where are the five best tenderloins in Indiana? We're talking about Reetta Jeans also has a great pizza place right across the street. And these are all tied for one. All of them are 94. All of them are 94. Yep.

You got Rea Jeans. You got in Poland, Indiana. In Poland, Indiana. You got Blondies Giant Tenderloins, which is a food truck. That's crazy. You got Miller's Tavern.

uh in North Vernon. You've got Cheeky Mondays in North Vernon. And then you have Bob and Conniey's in Remington, Indiana. Oh, bo I love a restaurant that has two first names in the title. I hear that I didn't get to meet Bob and Connie, but literally they're generally two people that own the restaurant. Yeah.

And I hear they're great people. Now, what's crazy about that spot, right, is our place wasn't too far away from Bob and Conniey's. So just think if Our Place was still open, you would have our place and Bob and Conniey's not too far away from one another. Yeah. And then you have Miller's and Cheeky Mondays in North Vernon. It's And you Yeah.

It's like almost like competition breeds excellence. It's like fried chicken in Oldenberg. Oh yeah. Like if you're a fried chicken person, Wagner's has won a James Beard American Classic Award, but like two blocks away is Bra House, which is also fantastic chicken. just down the street like that whole southeastern Indiana pocket for fried chicken is insane. Uh there's just like so many uh like spots down there because you can go over into Napoleon that serves carry out chicken on Fridays.

Like they've just become a hot bed for for fried chicken in southeastern Indiana. Yeah. I can't pick a favorite. Uh they're all so good. I've gotten recommendations cuz I've been to Brawl House for the Tenderloin. Um, and then there's a a Pearl Street pub is has a great tenderloin.

Uh, but people's like, "Well, if you were there, you had to have tried the fried chicken at Wagner's." And I didn't cuz I was there for a specific reason. But yeah, that's People recommend that. It's weird cuz I go to try the tenderloin and then I get all these extra things I should have tried. Right. Yeah.

But I respect you sticking to your Hey, I'm a I'm a tenderloin guy. Pearl Street, everyone raves. I haven't been yet, but I need to go. Everyone raves about Pearl Street's Tenderloin. It's a cool place. So, this is the interesting piece.

I want you to like break this down. There's 107 soon to be 107 different restaurants on your list. Like obviously there's a top five. There's then the next 20 I believe. Yeah. So, if you have yellow, you have green, and then you have white.

Yeah. I did that so I could I think I put the anybody that's nine and above I put in a in a different color so you can kind of see where they're at. Right. Mhm. Uh that's really nothing more than so so people those would stick out if people are looking at the list and say, "Okay, what are the best ones that I want to go to?" If it's an 8.

4 Mhm. where does that fall in like uh like are you I'm never going back and I'm never eating an 8. 4 tenderloin ever again. No. Here's the way I look at it. An average tenderloin is a five and above, right?

Because if you look at a 10-point scale, average is five. Yeah. An average tenderloin is much better than a good piece of broccoli. I've always said that. You know what [laughter] I mean? So, if it's five or above and I'm near there and I got a hankering for a tenderloin, uh, which I don't really eat for fun anymore.

Uh, I feel that. I feel that on a different level. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, but I I'll still go and I'll recommend those places um that that are below, you know, that are like an 8. 4 or a seven. A seven is a great score.

You know what I mean? Like it could be that they had an off day. Maybe they cooked it like a few seconds too long or uh maybe the they just weren't on their game with the seasoning or the breading that day. And that's unfortunate, but it [clears throat] is what it is when I go review it. And I don't let people know I'm coming. Really, they don't know.

The only place that that knew I was coming because it was only fair is Witsin because I was doing a meetup there. And you did a tenderloin meetup. Oh yeah. That's sick. I I was like if 10 people show up I'll be happy. And and he sold I think he said 200 tenderloins in the first couple hours.

Like people showed up and I had no idea. I had no idea that people were going to show up. That's incred. So why did you choose to host it at Wit's End? Um, so they were in Whitland, Indiana. I had a a great friend of mine uh running for office down there in that district uh within just remodeled.

They just went no smoking. And I was like, you know what? All of this fits. It just all fits. So, uh, I had an acquaintance that knew the owner wits end. I wanted to make sure it was okay because like I said, 10 people could show up or 200 pe people could show up.

But I felt like if 200 people showed up and they ran out of tenderloins, there'd be a whole lot of people that weren't happy. Yeah. It's the only place I did like a live rating, you know, I did the video with everybody watching. Uh I was taking bites of the tenderloin. People were snapping pictures. It was It was awesome.

It was fun. It And I'm going to do another one. I need to get up to the region. People really get mad that I don't go up like really close to like Illinois. [clears throat] You got to come up here. We got all kinds of great places.

Okay, name one. I just went up to like the Whiting Hammond area. They got good They've got good stuff there. It's interesting. Okay. When you talk about the history of the breaded pork tenderloin, was the breaded pork tenderloin invented in Indiana?

Yeah, it was invented at Nick's Yeah. Uh Nick's kitchen in Huntington, Indiana, which I was just at. Uh I did a review at Nick's Kitchen and then I was just at Tenderloin Festival, which is a great festival, by the way. What is Tenderloin Festival? Tenderland Festival happens. This year was the second year in Huntington, Indiana.

They've they're already planning for 2027. This year was better than last year. Last year, I got to be a judge. Uh I weasled my way in like I'm sending them messages. I was like, "This is what I do. I really think I would be a good fit to be a judge."

And then this year, I partnered with uh the Huntington County Visitors Center uh Visit Huntington. They were great. had me out uh to to just kind of walk around and highlight the city and talk about what's going on. I tried like three or four different places that day. Uh but it's a festival for people to get together who enjoy tenderline tender. Do they bring other vendors in besides Nicks?

Yeah, absolutely. There's all kind. They had eight to 10, I think maybe even more. You need to broker your Blondies truck to get them to Tenderloin first. I think anybody can go, right? It's open to anybody.

If you want to travel to Huntington, I think if you if you have a good tenderloin, you want to go to Tenderloin Fest because food brings people together. Yeah. I think it'd be hard if you weren't like a mobile setup. Like it's always hard to get your quality to travel from your home turf. Absolutely. Yeah, it is.

But if you're in the truck, like that's pretty fire. Okay. What do you think of um sees loins? Okay. They're on my list. The one in uh the one that was open in Caramel, I think they've closed.

Really? Uh it wasn't the greatest. It was more like it was more like a Subway for tenderloins. Did you ever go to that place? I haven't been to the one in Caramel. No.

No, it's Well, you It's closed now. They closed down. Um it was like an assembly line. They had different types of tenderloins. Like you could get maybe different flavors or whatever. It just wasn't good.

I I mean I uh my son went with me and my two friends with me went with me and and nobody was really overly impressed. It was okay. It was okay. But I thought like what they're doing now I thought that they are like a supplier of tenderloins to other restaurants. So I think they have uh they even have trucks I think that goes out or that go out and they sell them frozen and you can buy them frozen. Now I haven't tried any of those.

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com. Keller and Keller. Get the Keller Edge. Now, let's get back to the show. I think it's cool that if you're going to buy your frozen tundorn from GFS, like to buy from at least an Indiana, like I think they're a part of Indiana grown, which means it's produced here in the state of Indiana. And so if you're going to if all things are equal, like not every restaurant is five stars, you know, not every restaurant is Michelin, but if you're already buying a frozen tenderloin for whatever reason, maybe you're hosting your next family get together and you have the opportunity to buy like the general great Gordon food service or whatever.

Or you can buy an Indiana one. Like that that that kind of thing is cool to me. Absolutely. But I totally see if you're looking for like the iconic best tenderloin in Indiana, might not be the move. Well, and I think that was the the the seway tenderloin restaurant. I haven't experienced their frozen tenderloin or their tenderloins that they go around and and sell.

I would be open to do that. If there's any restaurants that serve them, uh the the the uh sway tenderloins, reach out. I I'll go check them out again. I just reviewed that restaurant in Caramel, but I'm all for it, you know. I'm all for supporting the Indiana businesses. It'd be interesting for like I'm sure restaurants are considering that.

Like again, not every restaurant serves like is claiming to serve the greatest pork tenderloin in Indiana, but if you were and you were between like, hey, right now we serve Gordon Food Service. We're thinking about switching to that. It'd be interesting to be a part of the taste test to like Absolutely. Hey, is is an Indiana grown tenderloin better than a whatever, you know, Delco tenderloin comes from? You know, I don't know. Interesting stuff to think about.

I love it. One spot that I've been to that is my there's two spots that I think of that are as as I've traveled that are my favorite two tenderloins. I mean, I have lots of good ones like here around like Broadle Pawn Shop Pub's really good. I love Broader Tavern. Both very good. Pawn shop's interesting because they serve like the different flavors.

Did you get a buffalo chicken tenderloin? Oh, it was good. I had that's the one I had actually. Oh, that's crazy. Tommy Barrett uh starts with a question guy. He went with me.

Oh, he's a good dude. Yeah, he is a good dude. That's fun. Okay, so you guys did that one. I like BRT right here. Everyone loves Plumps Last Shot.

So like in my neighborhood, you know, there's some good ones here. The two that I have traveled out and been blown away by the first one was the Tin Plate in Lwood. Okay. Yeah. I thought that was a spectacular tenderloin. Just like one of my my best.

Again, I I've had a hundred, but probably not at a 100 different places. Uh, the other one that I really loved is OneEyed Jacks in Winnac. Both like decent on your ratings, but they I wouldn't say they're they're not in your they're not your 9. 0's or above. Yeah. So, and you know what?

It could have just been they had a bad day when I went. A lot of people uh look at my videos and like when I take a picture of the restaurant or video inside the restaurant, they're like, "Why does it always look so empty?" Well, usually I'm going either before the rush or after the rush. Uh, and there's a reason for that. Uh, number one, sometimes I'm traveling and I don't want to get up at, you know, six o'clock in the morning to start thinking about driving to eat a tenderloin. So, uh, but Tim plate was good.

Cool place. Tim plates's a cool place. It's like the building or the restaurant is on the site of this old tin plating where you used to like, you know, do that to metal and you would, you know, tin plate things. Uh so very historic space where they have a museum of tin plating in uh Lwood which is pretty cool. Yeah. Oneey Jack's also a cool place.

They have like a a tenderloin contest like you can there's some kind of eating deal where you you eat their tenderloin in a a certain amount of time along with the side you you get a t-shirt or something. Theirs was good. I mean it was a good tenderloin but not all of them can be the best. And just because it's a popular place doesn't mean they're going to I'm going to rank them high. I'm not going to say, "Oh, this place is super popular. I better give them a good rating."

That's not the way it works for me. The food speaks for itself in my opinion. I I respect I respect it. Will from our team, he did not get the breaded pork tenderloin. I got the pork tenderloin. I got the like a basic one, but they for like 99 cents more, you get double the buns.

So, I split it in half and had two meals. But they have a burger on their menu called the Heart of Jack. Two beef patties, fried egg, onion ring, American Swiss and pepper jack cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce, two boneless chicken wings, and a mozzarella cheese stick. That's what Will got. He didn't eat for like two days. He brought home like three meals.

It was crazy. That That actually sounds I mean, it sounds pretty good. It was I'm not kidding. Probably stood eight inches tall. No kidding. It was nuts.

And so I always think that that's cool. And I think that it's fun when when small towns have like a staple restaurant that does cool things like uh I mean Joey Chestnut's been there for their eating contest for sure. Uh I I remember seeing it on the wall. It's like insane. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I know that it's like hard to do and that people will travel in for it. Uh so I mean that's interesting.

I think I need to get to Reddit Jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Uh we can talk a little bit about that area. The Reddit jeans again, everything they have is scratchade. Um, like I said, made with heart and soul, made with love.

I went back for their biscuits and gravy. Good biscuits and gravy. Wow. So, it was really good. Uh, like I said, the the Reuben's really good. But something interesting about that area and the Poland cataract area.

Okay. uh up the street or excuse me, right at the corner is a place called Cornerstone Pizza. And when I went there and did the review, people were like, "Oh, you should have had the pizza. You should have had the pizza." Cuz I parked in their parking lot. So, one day I went to Cataract Lake Lodge to try their tenderloin.

And when I got done, I was like, "It's just up the street. I'm going to go get a pizza to go from Cornerstone Pizza." So, I go to Cornerstone. They happened to know who I was, know what I do. And uh so I got the pizza to go. I got a small pizza and a dessert pizza.

And then later on that day when I got home, you would think it wouldn't be a fair review cuz I didn't eat it hot. But when I ate it, probably some of the best pizza I've ever had. No way. Absolutely delicious. Also in Poland, right across the street from Reagans in Poland, this town. Yeah.

And then just up the street from that is Cataract Lake Lodge, which they have a good tenderloin. Okay. And then there's like Cataract uh Lake Country or Country Market. They do tenderloins during uh the concerts they have out there and the dry docks. They do tenderloins which they are having a contest. We can talk about that a little later.

But uh yeah th that area again you talk about pockets [snorts] that area if I when people say where should I go for a tenderloin well if you want to spend a day somewhere you go to rea jeans then you go to to uh Kaggel's Mill Lake and you have some fun on the lake and then when you get done you go get some pizza or some dessert pizza from Cornerstone. Yeah. I mean you could spend a day right in that little town that little area and have a great time. Dude I love that. This is what I was going to ask. Okay, so perfect.

That's like the cataract Poland Indiana area. That's one of them. I was going to ask if you were making almost like an axis. So like imagine it being you know X and Y axis and you're looking to get in this top corner where it is quality of tenderloin and quality of place or quality of activity or like uh like you know if you go somewhere obviously you want to have good food but I also like a story. I like things to do. I like history.

I like a a quaint little town to walk around. Where do you think the the highest rated when you're looking at two factors? Your piggies rating. So, highest pork tenderloin and most things to do or coolest small town. Part of me wants to say North Vernon because of the two places there that are number one. But then again, if you go up to Bob and Conniey's in Remington and you have uh one thing that I didn't mention is that although our place closed down, um the lady that kind of did the cooking there now has a food truck and she opens up around Brook, Indiana.

I have not tried it yet. I will try it because if it's anything like the restaurant, it's going to be great. So that's where I would send people and I would just find stuff to do in those two areas because I think if you know it's Indiana, you're not going to be too far from something happening whether it be a festival or something like that happening in the area. But I would either go to North Vernon or to Bob and Conniey's like Remington area. And then of course if you want to spend a day you got to go down to Red Jeans and you and and Kaggel's Mill. You can you can get a guide out there on Kaggel's Mill that will take you around.

Uh there's a charter place out there. They'll take you around, show you where the fish are. You can go out there and fish all day long. That's awesome. And then go get some pizza. I mean, you cannot beat that for a for a fun activity with your family.

I'm I'm going to go do that. That sounds like a ton of fun. Uh okay, we have two things left. One, talk me through this contest you were just talking about. So on se uh September 19th uh Cataract Lake Market and the dry docks, they are putting on a contest and and they want to find out who has the best tenderloin and they've opened it up to any anybody in Indiana. Now this isn't a festival.

This is straight competition. You know, they want people to show up. They want restaurants to show up and they want people to show up to try the tenderloins. Okay, I'm going to be a judge. uh they reached out to me or I actually reached out to them. I was like, "How do I be a judge cuz this sounds pretty cool."

So, I know Reddit Jeans is going to do it. I believe Redig is going to do it. There's a couple other places. Blondies was trying to figure out how to do it. They have the the US40 like uh that flea market deal that happens the same day. Uh but they're putting up $1,000.

$1,000 for the winner if you have the best tenderloin. if you're voted best tenderloin that day. Dang. And then I think they're also doing uh second and third place as well. Um I think Tenderloins After Dark, I think they signed up for it. Uh you can find all that information if you go to Cataract Lake Market, their website, you can you can find the the contest.

It's on September 19th. I think it goes from like 12 to 9. They're having a maybe a concert afterwards. Let's go. Uh, so they're they're making it happen and they're doing all this on their own. Uh, I just wanted to be a part of it because I'm like, I want to judge this.

I want to be out there and I want to see who's going to win this thousand bucks. I love it. Now, if you're a restaurant and you want to do it, I think what they are taking, they're taking a $100 deposit because, and they're doing this for one reason, and it makes sense. We're going to take your hundred bucks and when you show up, we'll give you your $100 back. So, it's free to do, but if you don't show up, you don't get your $100 back because they don't want to announce that people are going to be there and then them not show up. Yep.

So, you know, you got to put something Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Final question I have before we kind of round it out and talk all things Indiana. I'm sure there are going to be restaurant owners that listen to this episode and you know, everyone thinks that their baby is beautiful.

Like, that's just how it goes. If you had advice for aspiring restaurant tours or people that want to level up their small town restaurant to serve better pork tenderloins to serve the greatest, what advice would you give them? I would say look at your meat to breading ratio. Yeah. Um, you want to have a a decent amount of breading on your sandwich. Just because it's plate size doesn't mean it's good.

I could there's one place that everybody talks about, no shade on them, that has probably the biggest tenderloin in Indiana, but it's just real thin, you know? Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing, and I'll stand up for this place because it's Edinburg Diner. Yeah. And it's like, here's the thing.

I have not once ever said that the Edinburg Diner is the best tenderloin in Indiana. But I think you have to go because it's the biggest tenderloin in Indiana. And it's like comical as you try to like pick this thing up and it's the size of a lunch tray. And like I will say like everyone has to have their thing, you know? Like some people have the best, the most flavorful, the crispiest of this. Like theirs is just size.

Like if you're looking for straight up like you don't have to eat for the next 3 days because it's huge and it's super thin and it's like this. It's just comical. Like take a picture with that. It's just like bigger than your head which makes it funny. Or if you're looking for value, if you were looking for value, Edinburg Diner cuz it's like 10 bucks. I think it's $9.

99 and it's as big as like a a lunch tray, you know, like in school. Like it's as big as that. Like the size of the tenderloin is like my chest. Like it's huge. Yeah. But people also say, "Oh my gosh, it's like, you know, people like give a lot of flavor feedback there."

And I'm like, "Hey, I'm not saying this is the best thing you've ever tasted, but to just go get the state's largest tenderloin, I don't know. Have you found one bigger than that?" No, I don't think there I mean, it's it's huge. I'm pretty sure it's the biggest one in the state. And like I said, value. You take You take four people there, right?

Four people can eat for 10 bucks on one tender line. $2. 50. Yeah. I mean, you can't beat the value. Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, the value I will give it to Edinburgh. Uh, but as far as what you can do, do something that may the best thing I can say is do something. Don't just throw it in the fryer with whatever breading you're using. Okay?

Put some put some seasoning on it. Uh, some people have their secret seasoning. Uh, some people marinade the tenderloin before, you know, in a seasoning before they fry it. And then the bun. If you're not going to toast the bun, make the bun special somehow. make it stick out from everybody else.

And if you look at the the places that I've gone and and you actually go visit my top five, you will probably be able to tell why I've ranked them in the top five. And and one of the things that I'm most proud of is that when people go after me and and they're like, "Hey, you know, you were real close or spot on because I would have ranked it the same way." But then I also like the constructive criticism saying, "Hey, you know, you rank my favorite place as a seven and it's my favorite place." Well, then I ask, "Well, how many other places have you been to? Or is that the only place that you go for a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich?" Because if it is, it is going to be your favorite.

I think when I look at what I'm valuing and how I like decide my favorite places, like the food component of it is a lot, but I'm just a people person. So, I will I'll take a great owner and a great atmosphere and a great ambiance and environment with like good food over like the greatest food if the spot isn't like a place that I want to spend a lot of time in. But I think everyone's that's the thing about the internet. That's the thing about life. Everyone's entitled to their own thing, you know? Like I I always I respect anyone who goes out there and, you know, makes content for the internet and like, hey, you're entitled to your own opinion and there's a large following of people that love the way you do your ratings.

And I think that's so cool. There's probably a large following of people that are like, "You're a [ __ ] and this is the stupidest rating I've ever heard." I'm like, I get that all the time. It's like, hey, you know what? Here's a crazy thing. You don't have to watch this video.

Yeah. Hey, but thanks for commenting. You know what I mean? So, you want a little inside baseball here real quick? There's a place, and this hasn't come out yet cuz I just did this yesterday. I don't know when when this is going to drop, but there's a place in Bedford, Indiana.

Okay. Home of Damon Bailey. Do you even know who Damon Bailey is, dude? iconic high school basketball player. Okay. All right.

And uh IU basketball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh Bedford, it's a place called Rookies, and they've only been open since like the end of January, 1st of February, and it's an old movie theater that they've turned into this restaurant entertainment center.

They have like axe throwing, they have golf simulators, baseball simulators. They got And these simulators are in the old movie base. So when you walk down this hall, picture like a movies 8, right? Like you walk down the hall and you can see it says arcade simulators party room and then they have a bar, they have the restaurant and then they also have a contest. If you eat their tenderloin, if you eat the whole thing and the fries, you get your picture taken, you get to spin this wheel for a prize. Spoiler alert, I was going to do it.

I had my mind set, I'm going to do it. I couldn't do it. You couldn't finish it. Couldn't do it. It was that big. It was that big.

No way. It was that big. It was that thick. Do you have a time limit? Couldn't do it. Uh, no.

You just got to finish it. What? Yeah. Just got to finish it. It's that Oh, wow. It is for $13.

99. Yeah. And with a side. Now, granted, I did start I usually try and start out with an appetizer because I want to try a little something else. Yeah. So, I did have uh their little pretzel sticks that I probably should have cut those out, but I only got halfway through.

At that point, I was like, "Okay, I could keep going, but I would never want a tenderloin again." And this is kind of what I do, so I got to stop. I respect you. I don't ever have the uh I don't ever have the self-restraint. I just like eat until I feel like I'm going to throw up and then I keep going. So, I love it, man.

Well, hey, we've come to the end of the show where we get to talk all things Indiana. So, this first question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home?

Well, it's been my home since I was born. Uh, I can't see myself living anywhere else. Uh especially with doing this and traveling around Indiana, meeting the people of Indiana, uh getting a chance to talk to people uh and and seeing how down home Indiana is. I mean, everybody is Look, Indiana has our problems. Everybody does. But what I will say, in in times of need, Hoosiers come together.

Yeah. Amen. I love it. Okay, now we're we're going to get out of the tender. Well, we I'll say if you want to make it a tenderloin place, you can. Uh but this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.

What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I I started fishing later in life. Um and I've really gotten into fishing a lot. Like so much so I'm I'm doing tournaments. I'm doing kayak fishing tournaments and it's just so much fun. So, if you haven't explored the waterways in Indiana, I think every one of them is a hidden gem.

Uh, if you haven't been on Eagle Creek, just to go out and explore, Eagle Creek is like literally right in our backyard and it's so cool. It's so cool to get out there. I go out there and fish for 9 hours and I get to see things that I've lived here all my life that I've never seen just out on Eagle Creek. Obviously, you've been on White River quite a bit lately. I have. Uh right now White White White River is not not good to go on because of the floods.

Uh it's not safe right now in my opinion. But going on a float down White River and fishing, there are just so many hidden spots on White River that that people don't get to see. And uh you can even go out and wade in in parts of White River uh and fish. And to me, that's a hidden gem in Indiana. Get out and explore our parks. Yep.

I mean, goodness gracious, there's so many cool things out there. Absolutely. Okay, this next question helps us identify future guests of the show and just people that are doing inspiring things. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. There is a creator uh and she's actually kind of a little larger creator.

She's got like a million followers. Her name is Mary Fredet. And if you haven't heard of Mary Fredet, she is um she is an American girl who sings Mexican music and she is good. What? Like she is good. And if you don't know who Mary Fet is and you like that sort of thing, you got to check her out.

And she's out of Brownsburg. This is like literally her last post. There you go. That's crazy. I'm telling you. And it's funny because I can I only hear her speak in Spanish and I have no I don't speak Spanish so I don't know what she's saying.

But what I do know is is that my early career of Tik Tok um Mary reached out to me and was like, "Hey, if you're ever interested in doing like ads behind the scenes for Tik Tok, let me know. I can kind of walk you through on how to do this." And I did it. And I I did okay with ads that kind of, you know, you're scrolling through and you you some creator pops up talking about an ad. Not Tik Tok shop, but different. They could be talking about anything.

That's kind of what I got into for a while. And she got me into that. Very nice. Would always talk to me and help me through. But she's a rising star uh in my opinion. She's got music out there.

You should check her out and give her a follow. Yeah. Wow. I uh I didn't know who this was. Marry Fet. Let's go.

We might want to have her on. Yeah, we're going to have to do that. Um, okay. The final question. Obviously, lifelong Hooser. You've traveled the state finding I mean, you've you've sampled over a hundred different board tenderloins trying to find the best one, but I want to know what it really means to be a Hooser.

When you when you close your eyes and you think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? Hang out with my friends, hang out with uh with my sons. Going on a going on a few reviews with me. Although, you know, I'm dad, so they're a little embarrassed when like their teachers at school know who I am. So, uh, which is weird to them. But a memory for me is just the drive to these places because sometimes you're traveling 2 or 3 hours away and you get to cut up in the car, you get to talk and and share memories with your friends and family.

To me, that's what it's all about. And that's something that I don't think I could ever replace. you know, that's that's one of the reasons I'm doing this is because I get to travel to a different part of the state that I haven't seen before. Um, that's fun to me. It it's it's all a good memory to me. Making those It's not a monetary thing where you have to pay for something to go do something.

It's just getting a chance to hang out with people and have a little conversation in a car on the way to go enjoy good food. Amen. I love it, man. It has been so fun getting to hear more about your story. You've been creating for the last six years. Today, you have over a quarter of a million followers.

You're sharing news, information, great restaurants, the greatest breaded pork tenderloins, BPTs in the state of Indiana. Plus, you're leaving behind your small town Indiana stickers. Yeah. I mean, come on. This thing is I mean, a very uncanny resemblance. Look at that.

Right. [laughter] Is this uh is this from what? Red jeans. Is this No, that's No, it's not. It's not from Reddit jeans. It's not from anywhere.

Now, you can only get those stickers if you see me. Like, I don't sell them on a website. Wow. I do not sell that type of Every once in a while, I'll do like a limited shirt drop, like a tenderloin related. I've done that twice and they've done really well. But if you see me out and you recognize me, just say, "Hey, I follow you.

I recognize you. Can I have a sticker?" And I'll give you a sticker. Always carry them with me. Let's go, man. Thank you for what you do for the state of Indiana.

We just the fact that we have so many people willing to travel around, spend their own money, and highlight amazing places. Um, and share just the stories of Indiana is amazing. If people want to follow you, if you've listened to this whole episode and somehow don't follow him, if they want to follow you, they want to connect, they want to learn more, how can they do that? So, I would say there's two great ways to follow me. On Facebook, Smalltown Indiana, on Tik Tok, Smalltown Indiana. I have different branches.

I have a fishing channel. Um, I'm starting Smalltown Indiana TV on YouTube that's going to be focused more on the tenderloins and kind of what we talked about earlier. I'm going to start focusing on the restaurant. You know, what made you open the restaurant? What made you purchase this restaurant? What's going on in the city or town that I'm in?

That's going to be a little longer form. I've just been posting some older shorts on there now. And it's kind of cool to go back and look at some of my early reviews and and how I've evolved. But yeah, that that's what I would say. Go to Smalltown Indiana, Facebook, Tik Tok. You can find all the other stuff from there.

Heck yeah. Amazing. Well, hey, thank you so much for stopping by and we'll talk to you soon. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. This episode was brought [music] to you by Accounted For Indiana CPAs who built the firm they wish they had existed when they were growing their own businesses.

Forget hourly billing and slow responses. Accounted for wraps tax, [music] bookkeeping, consulting, and virtual CFO services into one simple monthly fee. All cloud-based, all under one roof. You get a real CPA who knows your goals and actually picks up the phone. Check them out at accounted4cpa. com [music] and tell them that the Getin team sent you.

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