- Will you "Consider This?"

For the most part, we all do it every day.

For their part, they did it in a special way, once a week at least, while at work.

Who is this duo?

Stay with me.

(bright music) As an assignment for television news ratings, these two fellows traveled far and wide throughout Central Illinois and scarfed down some local delectables.

It was so popular that it went on for a years and years.

And, where's the original "You Gotta Eat" team now?

Right here with me.

Welcome Eric Shangraw and Don "Dubbs" Washburn.

Hi, guys.

- Hi, Zak.

- Hi, how's it going?

- My friends.

- Thank you for inviting us.

This is fun.

I haven't been in a studio a decade?

- Long time.

- Something like that, yeah.

- Yeah, how about it?

Yeah.

So, okay, we're gonna start real quickly with what you're doing right now, then we'll get to the fun stuff.

So, you went from, well, some people said, news kind of delivers garbage sometime.

And, then you went to work for the Peoria Disposal Company for a while.

- [Eric] Yep, I went from TV to trash.

- Okay, I like that.

I like that.

- Yeah, I'm a salesman.

I sell garbage and recycling services for GFL now.

GFL bought out PDC and the Coulter family, the local folks that owned them for many years.

And, so tonight I'm going to Hammond, Illinois, which is over by Decatur to attend a village board meeting and talk to them about a possible city contract.

So, that's the kind of stuff I do.

Work a lot at night and go to village board meetings and city council meetings.

And, that well worked out well in my skillset, 'cause as a reporter, when you're a young reporter, you go to village board meetings, you go to city council meetings.

- [Christine] And you know how to sell it.

- Yeah.

And, you... And, you knew how to follow local government and how it works.

And, so that's what I do.

- Good for you.

And, then Dubs, you are, well I know you're doing some haiku right now, but you started out in still photography, and then you still did your photography all the years that you were shooting video at the TV station too.

- I liked still photography and I probably would've preferred that, a career in still photography as a newspaper photographer or something like that.

- [Christine] A lot less equipment to lug around.

- A lot less equipment.

But, I wound up in television and stayed there for 40 years, so... - Yeah, amazing.

How long were you at Channel 25?

- I was there 23 years, 1987.

Late '87 up until mid of 2011.

So... - Okay, and then you, 40 years.

I was there 22.

- [Don] I was there 40 years.

- We covered a lot of ground back in the day, huh?

- Yes, yeah, It's like 80 years between the three of us.

- Yeah.

Okay, so let's talk about "You Gotta Eat", it was an assignment for, maybe it was February ratings, I don't remember what it was, but they told you that you were gonna go to some restaurant and you were gonna sample the food and then report back on it.

So, tell me... Tell us all about how that came about.

- So, we were in a union at the station and when we would go out of town to do a story, they would give us some money for lunch.

And, I can remember going with Dubbs to a murder far away or some kind of crime or something that would happen news wise.

And, we would go to the scene and the police wouldn't want to talk to you that much or the family members of whatever happened wouldn't want to talk to you.

So, we would go to the local restaurant and of course that's where you would get all your information.

And, I can remember Dubbs saying we need to feature the restaurants in these little towns sometime, 'cause the food was great.

And, we would eat on the company dime, get a meatloaf and mashed potatoes, nice heavy Central Illinois meal.

And, it was fantastic.

And, that, we would do our story, but we remembered the lunch of the day, and Dubbs would always say, 'cause I was young and I would want to keep going, he's like, no, a man's gotta stop and eat, so... - [Christine] A man's gotta eat, yeah.

- We would just stop, (crosstalk) stop and make sure we had our one hour lunch break.

- Okay, so it was your idea, Dubbs, to do this?

- Well, actually a young reporter by... At that time, by the name of Andrew Siff, who's now a reporter in New York, he and I used to go out and he always made a point of at least getting a lunch, which I... - [Christine] You were right there with us.

(crosstalk) - And, so it was he who actually suggested I think that we should do a food critique type show.

And, so eventually one of our producers picked up on the idea and... - But, it didn't start with Andrew as "You Gotta Eat", it started with you, right?

- Right.

- Yeah, we did it for... - He was gone by that time.

- We did it for a week straight where, every night, they promoted it for a ratings thing.

It was Monday through Friday, we did five restaurants, and when that was over, we were inundated with mail, in the old days before email, and people were like, come to this restaurant in Avon, Illinois, come to this restaurant in Canton.

So, it quickly got a stack of suggestions from viewers who were watching it and liked it.

And, at the time, the news director, Phil Supple, said, let's start doing this once a week.

And, we did.

And, soon after that, Phil left and Jim Garrett came, and he was the news director, and he didn't at first I think get what we were doing.

So, I remember lobbying the weatherman, and you, and anybody I could find to tell him that this is a... - [Christine] It's pretty popular.

- This is a neat thing, 'cause it...

He'd have to fork over $30 out of the newsroom budget to give us and see us go disappear for four or five hours-- - [Christine] A couple hours, yeah.

- And come back full and put this little silly story together.

- But, pretty much it was, if I recall correctly, it was pretty much the two of you.

And, then you ended up naming him the rural food critic.

- That's how I just like referred to him in one of the pieces, and it stuck, 'cause he wouldn't say a whole lot.

But, he... - [Christine] Right, like he never does.

- Yeah, but he ran the camera, some of the suggestions of where we went went to him, his opinion mattered.

He taught me to eat things that I can remember, like things that didn't have a lot of flavor, but they would put... You put sauces on 'em or eat things on them, and Dubbs would explain to me that that's the carrier of why we're eating what we're eating, so... - So, how did you discover that, Dubbs, or that's just your life lessons?

It's just living that many more years than Eric?

- I suppose that's it.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause I've always liked to eat and I still like to eat.

I like to cook now.

So, I do a lot of cooking.

So, yeah, I experiment with food.

I guess that's it.

- What was the... What were some of the most fun times you guys had together?

Well, you ended up going biking together a lot too, because of your friendship and traveling around, but so we don't need to talk about that.

That didn't...

I don't know if you stopped for lunch when you were doing that, while you're burning up all those calories, but what were some of the best stories that you can remember between the two of you, that gave you the biggest laughs?

- I remember being at a restaurant in Bloomington off of Route 9, and I can't remember the... What kind of restaurant, but we were eating and as we were eating and doing the piece, a truck pulls up outside and he starts dissembling the sign for the restaurant and taking it down, and the owner comes in, and the restaurant, excuse me, the signed business owner comes in, comes in and tells the owner of the restaurant or the manager, hey, I'm taking this.

You guys haven't paid your bill.

And, he goes, no, no, no, no, no, we're closed... We close, we reopened, new ownership.

And, he's like, well, the last guy I dealt with is over there at the salad bar.

So, all you've done is switch around who's who.

So, that was one that I remember.

And, they were upset.

And, another one, we were at...

In Peoria Heights and we were eating at a place.

And, while we're eating, the power went out, and it turns off this fella hadn't paid his bills, he hadn't paid a lot of bills.

He was gonna...

This is when he was gonna pay the station to have us come to do this thing.

And, so that all fell apart.

I don't know if that one even went off the air, but occasionally restaurants are hard places to operate.

You have a... it used to be, I dunno if this is the case, but if you open a restaurant, you have a 70% chance it's gonna close a year later.

I mean, it's a tough, tough racket.

And, so we would literally see that playing out as we were doing our reviews of the place, right.

- On live, yeah, that's what... That's called in real time.

- [Eric] Yeah, right.

- So, Dubbs, what was the most difficult one for you to shoot then?

Because, I mean, be... And, slobbering down your face and everything while you're getting up to get the camera.

- Well, for each one of them I had to run the camera.

- [Eric] Do all the work.

- Eat.

Take a shot here, and would go into the kitchen and take another shot of them preparing the food and so on.

So, they were all not physically difficult exactly, but I kept busy, and sometimes I didn't get to enjoy the meal that much, but, yeah, it was fun.

I enjoyed it.

That's the only thing I miss about TV.

You gotta eat.

- The only thing.

Well, you know what?

And, we do, we all gotta eat.

What was... What were some of the best meals that you remember having?

- I remember going to a place, and I can't tell you where it was, but the owner would drive to Louisiana once a month or every other month.

And, he would buy fresh alligator, fresh Southern cuisine, and bring it up and cook it.

Was it in Utica?

- Utica's runs Cajun Connection.

- There we go.

- And, they're still in business.

No, I ate there about a year ago.

- [Christine] Really?

- Oh, wow.

- And, it's...

Doesn't have the same...

He's expanded a new building and... - [Christine] It's not the same ambiance.

- Exactly.

- [Christine] Alright.

- Back then, it was a one man show as I remember.

- Yeah.

- And, he was driving, he was from that area in the south down new New Orleans, and he would drive back and forth, and where else do you get fresh alligator around there?

- Right, and you liked it?

- Oh, it was fantastic.

- It tastes like chicken?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it does, kinda.

- Does it?

Okay.

- Yeah.

- And, then... - That was my favorite one.

- Okay, I can remember one of the worst ones.

And, that was...

It was a place.

- And, we're hoping it's out of business now.

- It was on a boat near the water near Goofy Ridge.

I remember Goofy Ridge in a place in rural Fulton County, I believe.

And, they just had a crockpot of food and I didn't feel like it was really clean.

- I don't remember that.

But, I think it had something to do with the...

The carp.

- Oh, the Asian carp?

- It was carps that jump into the boat near...

I've forgotten the name of that.

- In Banner... - Little Town now.

- Yeah, okay.

- Along the river.

- Alright, - Yeah, I don't remember the food, but that was an interesting story.

- Okay.

Was there any food that you absolutely hated?

I mean... - I do remember doing a place, and I don't wanna...

I guess, I don't wanna say the name, down in Pekin.

And, it was hot and they didn't have air conditioning in there.

And, the gal that owned the place was also the cook.

I dunno if you were there, but we were shooting the video, and she was perspiring on the food.

Like I couldn't even eat it afterwards.

And, I somehow hinted at... We wouldn't wanna be cruel to people, but if it was not a good experience, we saw stuff like that.

We certainly weren't endorsing them by any means.

And, people who watched the show would pick up on that.

That's the one that I remember, her perspiring on the stove, and it was yucky.

- You got any of those stories, Dubbs?

- Not really.

I liked them all.

- 'Cause you got to see it in the kitchen.

You got to see... - [Don] That's true.

- The dirt.

- Yeah, I don't remember anything too terrible.

- So, you didn't see any mice, or rats, or anything in any of the kitchens?

- There was a Mexican food place that we went into.

Maybe I went into it on a different day for a different story, but there were pots and pans of Mexican food... - [Christine] On the floor?

- On the floor.

And... - [Christine] They didn't have enough counter space?

- And, they had been there overnight.

They had been there overnight, 'cause there's clean or dirty dishes, unclean dishes, filled with food that they hadn't sold, so... - That... Yeah, kind of turned me off.

- It kinda spoiled my appetite for that place.

- Yeah, and if I had one regret, it would be that we would've taken the time when we did a place to go check with the county to see how their numbers were, 'cause we didn't really incorporate that at the time.

And, I can remember once in a while, somebody telling me, hey, you reviewed a place, you liked the hamburgers.

Look, they're in the paper, because they got a very low score.

We should have... Maybe, now thinking back, that would've been another great piece of information to give the people that were watching at home.

- But, mostly it was the taste and then the price.

- Exactly.

That's really all we focused on.

And, every place we went to up until the end, was recommended by a viewer.

I mean, they would ask me, where are you going this week, Eric?

And, I would have a stack on my desk, and I would just pull one out, and go, we're going to Utica, or wherever.

That's literally how it worked, because we'd...

They were always coming in, these suggestions.

I would open 'em up, read 'em, put 'em on my desk, and it would be the lucky winner of the day.

It was as simple as, there was no science to it at all.

It was like pulling it off my desk a letter.

- Well, that's kind of fun.

So, you did that from 1996 until you left.

- [Eric] 2011, yes.

And, you retired in... - 2007.

- Seven, okay.

Yep.

- So, who did you do it with a...

I guess I missed those last years.

Who were you...

It was just various.

- Yes, I think the photographers would fight to come with.

They loved the...

I mean, it was a great assignment.

They'd get to eat.

Some of 'em I liked working with more than others, but, yeah, I mean we'd just... We'd order something, we ate it, we tasted it, we'd talk to a client if they were there, we'd talked to the owner, and then we showed you how much it cost for two of us.

And, I...

So, I thought we were imparting good information.

Here's what it's gonna cost and here's what we had.

And, what I see now them doing is the young man that's eating doing this, he eats just a sample of everything in the restaurant.

- Yeah, well-- - And, that's different for me.

- It was on hiatus for a couple of years, but I'm not even sure...

It didn't have anything to do with COVID, I don't think.

I think it was just, they resurrected it because it was a popular feature.

Yeah.

Did you ever think that in your career as being a news person and a news photographer that that would be what your claim to fame was?

- No.

You know... Go ahead.

- People, and strangely enough, people still remember me from 15 years ago.

I occasionally run into someone who says, I know you from somewhere.

Well, I used to eat on television, and some people I don't even have to remind, they just remember me.

- [Christine] They remember you as Dubbs.

- "You Gotta Eat".

- And, I...

I want to think of myself like you as a serious journalist.

And, I covered David Hendrick's second trial.

- I testified at both of those.

- You tested the first...

Right, and just... And serious things.

And, then people come up to me, and are like, you're the guy that used to eat all the hamburgers.

Yes.

Well, if you gotta be known for something, I guess there could be worse.

- Yeah, it could be a whole lot worse.

Yeah.

Alright, so what are your suggestions for... Well, you said Food Network was starting to come alive back in the day too, so that was a whole lot different back then, and now there's so many other options.

What do you think that that "You Gotta Eat" franchise could do now to make it better?

Maybe the health department thing.

I don't know.

- I had the health department in.

I like...

I always like the idea when we got out of Peoria, and we went to these rural communities, that... And we liked places that weren't franchises.

We discovered that the best places, if the ambiance was pretty simple, were where the owner was there.

And, nobody cares about any business like the owner, 'cause they were there to take the order, to do the cooking, to watch the money, to make sure that would all happen well.

And, when we would go to places where there was no owner or that just... That recipe wasn't there, that's sometimes where we would see, eh, this isn't a place we're gonna come back to or gonna really give our endorsement to.

But, the rural...

I think the rural communities that get ignored, because they're just not part of a bigger city, they still have a population base.

Those restaurants are sometimes the lifeblood of the town.

- [Christine] And, that's where the news is happening.

- And, that's where the news is.

That's where they know what's going on.

- [Christine] That's the water cooler.

- Right, right.

And, they're so important to communities that I think it's important to give them a little boost, 'cause the...

Without them, those towns, some... All they might have is Facebook to communicate with each other, especially in the winter when people don't go out, but those restaurants-- - Well, they didn't even have Facebook way back in the day.

Yeah.

Well, and it was always fun to go into smaller communities too, because they're part of our viewer base.

So, we're actually shaking hands, kissing babies.

And, that was always kind of fun to me.

Dubbs went to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan with us the first time with me.

And, the minute we were on the bus, he's standing up to take a shot, and the bus turns the corner, and it was film camera then.

It wasn't even video... - [Don] It was video.

It was video.

- It was?

- [Don] Mm-hmm.

- Is that...

So, they switched?

No, I thought it was film, but I don't know.

But, the lens, the lens went out.

So, he's shooting blind, because he can't see, he can't see out of the viewfinder to see what's going on.

And, he ended up shooting a couple interviews like that, just like from the seat of his pants.

- Just guessing.

- Yeah.

But, that was so much fun.

And, those people, still there's a couple of 'em who still contact me from time to time.

And, then did restaurant owners call you up?

Or, did they get back in touch with you once you did your stories with them?

And... - Occasionally.

I can remember a lady who owned her Mexican place in Bloomington and it didn't go very well.

And, so we gave them, we just did a review, and I think the last line was, next time we crave Mexican, we'll buy a ticket and we'll fly down to Mexico.

And, so it just didn't go well.

It was not a good experience.

And, so she called the next day and said, I want you to come back.

I didn't have my best staff people there, and... And, I'm like, you got... You get one chance at this.

And, we had to call ahead of time, 'cause we're bringing him and a camera in.

We're coming on people's private property.

So, they knew they're coming.

You should have had your best person there.

You should have had... You should had all those things ready to go.

There was no do overs back then.

But, I was thinking about the small towns and I can remember going to Tulon.

And, they had a little newspaper up there, was it Tulon?

And, we would... - Either Tulon or Toluca.

- Yeah, I know.

I get those confused.

- Me too.

- I'm pretty sure it was Tulon.

And, they had a square, and a big sign, and we were going up there to eat something.

And, they had on the sign, Tulon featured on "You Gotta Eat" tonight on WEK, watch at six o'clock and at ten.

And, we're like, well, we're not even here yet, and they're promoting this, and we know the whole town's gonna watch.

So, we knew that it really had a following.

And, everybody in town that knew it was gonna be there tonight.

And, if it was during the ratings, maybe one of those people would have a Nielsen book or something and help the numbers, 'cause it did, it did help with the ratings.

- Yeah, it really did.

Isn't that crazy?

But, I don't think if things work like that much anymore.

- Well, there's so many options out there.

- Oh, boy.

- People...

There's people that are food critics on their phone and they have their own blogs or their own Facebook page, where they show food and food is a big thing that's on Facebook anymore.

So, it's-- - [Christine] It is.

- The specialty of showing a plate of cheese fries on TV isn't as unique as it was back in the mid 90s, yeah.

- Back in 19...

In 1996, yeah.

- Right, right.

- Well, so, okay.

So, you're writing your poetry and are you guys... You're still... You don't have time to ride bikes anymore, much anymore.

Did you do some... - I'm getting too old to ride the bikes, so I have taken up walking instead.

- Oh, yeah.

So, tell me about the app.

You had an app that you're... That you can... You're trying to do all the streets in the city of Peoria.

- Well, two women in the Peoria area.

Their...

They have a website called, or a Facebook page, called Pedestrians in Peoria.

So, I... And, they walked every mile of every street in the city.

- How many miles is that?

Do you have any idea?

Do you remember?

- Gee, I think it was something like 400 miles.

- Really?

Wow.

- So, I started to imitate them and so I walked, I walked the center part of the city and covered most of that.

And, then if I had to drive too far then to find some new territory.

And, so I quit doing that.

But, it was fun while I...

While it lasted, and I did that for a year or so, during the pandemic.

- Well, that was good.

Quiet time.

- Two or three miles a day.

Took me a long time.

- Did you take your camera with you?

Because, you also published a book.

- Just my phone.

- You published a book of some of your photography.

You gave me a copy of it.

- I did.

That's right.

- I did.

- [Christine] Hello.

- But, my memory isn't that great, it never was.

But, yeah, I did.

That was part of...

It was not part of...

I don't remember now, but I had two or three copies, basically two or three copies.

- A lot of it was black and white.

And, so there's a real talent to black and white photography.

And, then Eric, so you're busy working and visiting rural communities again.

And, not only rural, but what is your coverage area for GFL now?

- Gosh, it's pretty much all of Central Illinois, from Decatur all the way over to Missouri, and then into Missouri a little bit, and down towards, oh, south of Jacksonville, and north up to Henry.

So, big... A big swath.

And, when I first interviewed with the family, I don't know, for some reason they had...

They gave me something that showed their coverage here.

I'm like, ah, that's pretty similar to WEK's coverage area.

So, that helped me in some of these places where I went, where they recognized my face, and I wasn't a stranger walking in the door.

- Gave you a little... A couple of street creds there?

- Exactly.

Just a little bit to get in the door, so I'm not a complete stranger.

- Right, and then you have three daughters.

One's out in Charlotte.

- One's out in Charlotte, married to Lucas Joseph, who's an East Peoria boy, and Morrie Joseph's grandson, Rick Joseph's dad.

Another daughter Rachel, who's in Alaska.

She's working in Anchorage as a registered dietician at a big hospital, teaching people to eat healthy.

- Okay, well, see?

She's gotta eat too.

So does everybody else, okay.

- And, then Erica, our youngest, lives in downtown Chicago and works at a big bank.

And, Stacy's at Amron still.

So, we're empty nesters for the first time.

And... - [Christine] But, you have dogs.

- We have three dogs and we're playing pickleball, hanging out with the dogs, watching Netflix.

Doing those kind of things.

- Not watching any food network channels or anything?

Or no... - [Eric] No.

- No cooking shows.

- No, that's not my thing anymore.

I did... Kind of did that.

So, I like the other stuff.

- You got the t-shirt now.

- [Eric] Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

So, now, now that we have that all established, bucket list.

- Bucket list, gosh, I haven't been to Italy or to France.

I'd love to go ride my bicycle in France.

Follow the guys that ride on the Tour De France or ride a little bit after, after them.

And, then Stacy and I are waiting for our oldest daughter to have some babies, so... We wanna be grandparents.

I understand that's great.

I hear that's really cool.

- It is, it's really awesome.

Well, and Dubbs, so what's on your bucket list?

- Bucket list...

When people ask me what I do, I just say, my general reply, my normal reply is as little as possible.

I'm too old to travel.

And, so just keep doing what I'm doing which is... Reading, writing... - And, you have grandsons, They're all older now.

- I do have three grandsons.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- How old are they?

- The youngest is 27 I think, and the oldest is 32.

- And, he would always call 'em meatheads.

- I... Yeah, I do.

- You still do?

- Yeah, they didn't seem to mind that too much.

I always affectionately called them meatheads.

- From the rural food critic to have three grandsons who were meatheads, it just works.

It simply works.

Okay, well anything else you'd like to add here?

- Gosh, I remember one of my favorite places was... And, I was sad earlier this year, was Green Gables at Lake Bloomington.

They had... That was a place that, for a while, they had a grocery store, you could get your fishing license, pool haul, good hamburger, beer.

- [Christine] Could you get worms?

- You could get worms there.

Right.

It was everything you needed, like seven things at once you could do in this place.

And, earlier this...

In 2022, it burned down.

And, I remember feeling so sad and they had this grill that they had used for 40 or 50 or 60 years, and it was seasoned.

It was perfect.

And, they would have just the most magnificent hamburgers.

And, so I've heard from friends who live over there that they are rebuilding.

So, I'll be anxious to go back to Green Gables sometime.

- There's a bucket list thing for you.

- And, then, oh, a place in downtown Bloomington that also has great hamburgers.

I can't think of the name right now, but the Grand Cafe still has the best egg rolls in Central Illinois.

They're also a Bloomington restaurant.

- Over in Bloomington, yep.

- I grew up over there.

So, some of those are my favorites, but I don't know.

What was your favorite place still?

- I think my favorite again was the Cajun Connection.

- [Eric] Oh, okay.

- In Utica.

I also liked the Rhythm Kitchen.

- [Eric] Oh, yes.

- That was my favorite for a long time.

- Oh, it's still going.

(crosstalk) - Yeah, it's still going.

And, I haven't eaten there in a long time.

In fact, that was where we had my going away... - [Christine] Yes, we did.

- "You Gotta Eat".

And, so I still like to eat.

I go with my daughter at least once a month and we have lunch and I have...

In fact, I have a spreadsheet of all of the local restaurants, which are for the most part home owned.

- [Christine] Right, still going.

- Locally owned.

And, so I keep doing that.

Keep sampling good food.

- [Christine] Yep, yep.

- Paparazzi is another wonderful place that's locally owned.

- It really is.

We haven't been there for years and we've been there three times in the last year, so we're out of time.

- Oh, okay, well that went fast.

- Well, thanks.

Thanks, you guys.

So, good to see you both.

- Nice to see you too.

It's fun.

- Yeah.

So, maybe we'll have you back and find out when you get to Italy and sample some more local restaurants and then we'll have some more reports.

How's that?

- Okay, very good.

- And, thank you all for joining us.

You got any ideas about who we need to know, who we need to talk to, get ahold of me here.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy and hold happiness.

(bright music) (bright music) (bright music) (bright music)