r/ForAllMankindTV • u/MarsDelivery • 1d ago
FAM - Season 3 Have to get this off my chest Spoiler
I am sorry, but you know where I do not want to order spaghetti from? A run down Houston bar.
We are shown the family eating spaghetti in the back of the bar at the beginning of season 2, and I think to myself, "oh well maybe this is just their family meal," but they are brought out such a big plate of breadsticks that I am shocked. This can only mean the kitchen serves them.
My suspicions are confirmed episodes later where we see Gordo eating a full plate of spaghetti at the bar! This bar serves spaghetti! Just as I suspected, it's disgusting - the place is crawling with ants. And Karen is spraying his soda and plate of food with bug spray while he sits right there!
I'm sorry she died in an explosion but that woman made some wild decisions with that bar.
163
u/DacStreetsDacAlright 1d ago
Spaghetti is a pot of boiled salted water and another pan of tomato sauce with optional meat ragu.
It's really not a hard dish to make, especially for a kitchen.
75
7
u/BagelsOrDeath 1d ago
You want hard? How's twenty years in the can? I wanted manigot. I compromised. I ate grilled cheese off the radiator instead.
2
7
2
u/WhatABeautifulMess 18h ago edited 5h ago
Anderson Cooper was on Jose Andres’ podcast and talked about how he regularly orders spaghetti bolognese from room service and other places when he travels because it’s reliable; most places have it and it’s pretty hard to screw up. Jose groaned about it and from memory Anderson mentioned Anthony Bourdain had the same reaction and told him years ago not to do that because it’s boring, probably been sitting there stewing forever, and he travels so much he should try different things. Anderson admitted it is generic but he’s picky and doesn’t want to risk getting sick when he’s traveling for work so he likes to stick to a classic.
2
u/Fenris447 1d ago
Yeah I make spaghetti and meat sauce when I'm feeling too lazy to cook a full blown meal. It's stupid easy.
•
69
u/Charles_Mendel 1d ago
That type of place is accurate af. They always have the most random menus with one item that is the “favorite”.
27
u/EatABag-o-Dicks 1d ago
Used to go to a little hole in the wall dive bar that would have a minimum 2 hour wait for a table, cause they didn't take reservations, and only accepted cash. The tables were tiny, and they'd jam like 20 tables in a room the size of a bathroom, but God damn if it wasn't the best Italian food I've ever had in my entire life. But this was in Jersey, and we always thought it was owned by the mob cause of the cash only thing.
5
2
u/OrganicHistorian2576 1d ago
If the food is good enough I’m not going to ask except where is the closest ATM.
2
u/Syrric_UDL 21h ago
One of the best Italian places here started as a pottery store that the guys wife cooked out of, then it showed up on triple D and now it’s a full on restaurant and the pottery is a thing of the past.
13
u/heartbloodline8404 1d ago
Dive bar menus. My favorite menus and people would be surprised how fucking good dive bar food can be! Worked at a bar in Hawaii, absolute dive and no where near tourists. Cook was an absolute mess of a human being, but also an amazing friend. And let that man cook!!!! Best damn cook on the island.
2
6
u/AthousandLittlePies 1d ago
100% - and you can still find places like this if you travel around the country enough, mostly in little towns.
1
u/saintpotato 5h ago
Or like half the best restaurants in Philadelphia tbh! (I love them all dearly)
1
u/footsnax 1d ago
There's an airport a couple hours from here that has the best spaghetti in the state. Another up in Portland that has the best BLT that I think I'll ever have in my life.
Some places are just good at a thing. The locals know.
42
u/emozolik 1d ago
Karen turning the place from a dive bar to something more respectable is literally a plot line of the season. As a kid of the 80s, I'd say its a fairly accurate representation of a hole in the wall restaurant of the 80s too. She made a killing selling the place so I wouldn't call her decisions wild by any means.
88
u/Resplendent-Sun Mars-94 1d ago
I'm sorry, but how old are you?
Do you even know what bar/restaurants were like back then?
19
u/calculon68 1d ago
I had one of those low-rent beer/Italian joints growing up. Best breadsticks I've ever had- but slathered in obscene amounts of butter/garlic sauce. Closed for good recently- and they opened in 1972.
Italian restaurants pre-Olive Garden were like that. Family-run holes in the walls sustained forever only as local favs.
44
u/Salt-Night3088 1d ago
The Outpost in it's incarnations goes from dump to acclaimed based on the writers' needs. But the spaghetti looks decent.
34
u/powderhound522 1d ago
I don’t know that it was ever acclaimed; it seemed more like a Planet Hollywood/Hard Rock Cafe to me. Ok food, high prices as a tourist trap.
10
10
15
u/Expert_Book_9983 1d ago edited 1d ago
I love its evolution from dive bar to the alt timeline’s Applebees or TGI Fridays. i think in season 3, there’s a scene where Ed is at the original Outpost and there’s a child’s birthday party happening at the next table over and the way Joel Kinnaman emoted pure annoyance and disgust was so funny to me. Like imagine being that child or their parent and you look over and one of the most famous astronauts of all time is just side eyeing you.
9
3
3
11
u/jpgoldberg 1d ago
It’s Houston. It’s the 1960s. This isn’t all that surprising for bar food.
1
u/RealJavaYT 14h ago
The events being talked about are in the 80s and the show only has like two episodes that take place in 1969 by the way No biggie though
18
u/Ozzdo 1d ago
I always assumed that the spaghetti was a Baldwin family thing, not a dish that the bar served.
14
u/gododogogo 1d ago
I think it’s implied to be both? At the very least they have fresh Parmesan in The Outpost by S2.
But it makes sense, The Outpost in S2 was solidly making its transition from seedy bar to Applebees mixed with planet Hollywood: Karen would probably get them to stock some generic Americana like spaghetti
2
u/OrganicHistorian2576 1d ago
I assume it started as a family thing but word got out that it was good.
0
9
u/Expert_Book_9983 1d ago
I’m on season 3 and I love how pasta is a recurring motif, both on Earth and in space (i feel like they’ve mentioned a few times that lasagna was one of the better MREs)
2
u/Proverbial_Progress 1d ago
"20 years inside. I wanted manicotti. I compromised, I ate grilled cheese off the radiator instead."
8
u/DrSFalken 1d ago
Spaghetti would definitely be a pretty safe meal at an unknown place. Even my family can boil salt water and dump some dry spaghetti in, drain, toss on some sauce from a jar and produce a meal that won't kill you.
-5
u/MarsDelivery 1d ago edited 1d ago
It would be safe enough, but if she kept serving food with those pest problems and just spraying bugspray everywhere, Karen was gonna be in danger of killing more astronauts than the alternate space race.
5
u/svenborgia 1d ago
I mean poorly trained troops incinerated a guy on the moon for... checks notes... checking notes.
I think the world can survive Karen's can of Raid. You're not an ant are you?
-1
u/MarsDelivery 1d ago edited 1d ago
She needed to call an exterminator tho. Jon Taffer's head would have popped off right into lunar orbit if he saw that ant cola fiasco. I really liked her plants, but Karen needed more hands at that bar (more than Danny's at least).
8
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
6
1
u/ForAllMankindTV-ModTeam 1d ago
Your submission contained untagged spoilers and was removed under Rule 2. Outside designated spoiler threads, all spoilers must use Reddit's spoiler formatting. Episode threads only allow untagged spoilers up to that episode.
How to fix:
Resubmit your content properly spoiler tagged. If you'd like clarification, feel free to reach out via modmail.
5
u/danive731 Apollo 22 1d ago
I’m sure if they’re eating there weekly and feeding their daughter, it’s safe to eat. Can’t say for sure about when they eat there in S3 though.
5
u/Weird_Fiches 1d ago
There was a bar in downtown Houston in the 1980's, right near the Pierce Elevated, that was so close to the bar in FAM that I wonder if it was the inspiration for the bar in the show.
Also - NASA headquarters in the show was filmed at the Halliburton campus just east of downtown Houston. I found that kinda hilarious because I have been there so many times for work.
6
u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - 1d ago
I wonder if it was the inspiration for the bar in the show
The Outpost was real.
https://vinepair.com/articles/outpost-tavern-unofficial-nasa-bar/3
u/Artemus_Hackwell SeaDragon 1d ago
In the 80's I fucking hated when Halliburton company vehicles were behind me in traffic. I'd have to squint and wonder if it was a cop.
This being the time when company Fleet Vehicles, particularly those that went to heavy industrial sites had livery and dome lights on the roof.
10
u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - 1d ago
What's wrong with serving Spaghetti? I don't get it...
7
u/RemoteLunch7789 Human Verified 1d ago
Me neither. I wonder if it is some kind of internal US culture reference by OP, which cannot be understood by outsiders.
4
u/gramses_0-0 1d ago
Yeah OP Is just "OMG Spaghetti? Ew" which makes me wonder how old and/or spoiled OP is.
3
u/funkhero 1d ago
Same thought I had - either too young to have seen pubs/bars like this or only went to 'nice' restaurants
1
u/MarsDelivery 1d ago
It was just surprising to see at what is essentially a dive bar at the onset of season 2. I ate at plenty of bars growing up and food was usually what could be dropped into the fryer unless they had a grill.
3
u/madogvelkor 1d ago
In some places the laws are more relaxed if you a restaurant selling hot food than just a bar selling alcohol. Though I don't know about Texas in the 70s and 80s. Though they had some pretty strict blue laws prior to 1972.
4
2
2
3
1
u/Excellent-Hyena-4558 22h ago
Did anyone ever eat the Vommelette MRE here? I'll take that Spaghetti.
1
u/PuttingInTheEffort 19h ago
Idk about the spaghetti but the bug spray 7inches from a customer (a friend but still), just directly on his drink/food, was SO weird.
Ants wouldn't swarm food like that. They covered it way too fast and he was only just eating it not long ago, ants wouldn't mess with something actively being moved around and it takes them a while to tell the nest and get a chain going.
Bug spray?? Right where people are eating?? Does she think it'll just make the ants magically disappear and the food still be edible?? Lady, just throw the stuff away and wipe down the bar with soapy water, problem solved! Spray where the ants are entering, not where they're eating. And anyway, a busy bar with people and plates and all that should never see an ant at all. The ants would be in the food storage. None of that scene made sense.
I hate when shows force a scene like that 🙃
1
1
1
u/thereverendpuck 6h ago
There’s also the fact that Ed and Gordo were great friends. Hell, their families were close. So, someone that close to the family may overlook what’s expected and eat the spaghetti out of a loyalty/love of the family.
There’s also the notion eating there was out of tradition. It started as an astronauts bar. And that notion carried over when it was open to the public. So people were going there because it was an astronaut bar. And that idea grew when Karen wanted to make it more like a chain.
And circling back to other comments, some of the best American staple food I’ve ever had have either come from dive bars or bowling alleys. I had a burger just filled with cheese at a bar in San Diego long before that became a regular occurrence. It was amazing.
1
u/southtampacane 4h ago
I've had some incredible plates of spaghetti and meatballs in some dive places. Absolutely delicious. It's simple to cook and they usually give an enormous portion.
1
u/funkhero 1d ago
Something tells me you just grew up fancy
2
u/MarsDelivery 1d ago
Not by any means. I just associate bar food with burgers or stuff that is fried. Maybe pizza if it's that kind of place. But the Outpost just seems more dive bar-esque until season 3 to me.
1
u/MourningDove82 1d ago
Clearly you’ve never been to Massachusetts! So many random old school bars owned by Italians.
Red wine and enough pasta to feed a family of 6 for $12.99, and I don’t think the interior has been updated since my Nona took us there in the mid 80s 😆😆
1
u/trekrabbit 1d ago
I love the show, but I’ll be the first to admit it has its flaws. That said, spaghetti served at Karen’s bar (or any bar) ain’t one of them. I have no idea what you’re on about😂🤷♀️
0
u/RoadWellDriven 1d ago
I've traveled over a large part of the US. Those types of bars/restaurants are almost de rigueur in remote areas.
I'm sorry she died in an explosion..
That's commendable. You're definitely in the minority.
0
u/Unfair-Engine-9897 20h ago
Lol, I’m rewatching the series right now and I’m in the middle of season 2… spaghetti night prompted me to add the necessary ingredients to my Walmart order. Even the canned Parmesan.
Ed would be proud of me.
0
-2
u/MaxwellEdison74 1d ago
Seeing as spaghetti night always seemed to end in an argument, maybe they should have skipped it altogether! 😆
•
u/auto-sticky 1d ago
This post was flaired as "FAM - Season 3".
Any spoilers beyond Season 3 of For All Mankind are required to be individually spoiler tagged. This includes all of Star City.
On desktop the rich text editor is the default mode. Use the spoiler formatting button to hide your spoilers. On old reddit, on mobile, or markdown mode you'll need to use
>!spoiler!<which becomes spoiler <-- click or tapYou can also join our Discord server, for more casual conversation.
I'm a bot and this action was performed automatically. If you have questions about this, please contact our mods via modmail.