Dan Wise and Mark Ibold Eat Potato Chips at Union Pool

Dan Wise is the guitarist and vocalist for the NYC band Cool Whip; Mark Ibold is the bassist of Pavement. Cool Whip’s debut record, Flame in My Heart, is out this Friday on Wharf Cat, so to celebrate it, Dan and Mark caught up over a few bags of potato chips at Brooklyn’s Union Pool. 
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music 

Dan Wise: We’re at Union pool. 

Mark Ibold: Venerable hub. Getting ready to work.

Dan: Mark and I have known each other a long time, through Great Jones Cafe — rest in power — and we’ve always enjoyed potato chips.

Mark: We have.

Dan: Before we got miked up, we were talking about potato chips, and I was saying how I judge a potato chip brand by their most basic chip, their regular salt chip. If you can’t do that, I don’t even care about your fancy flavors.

Mark: I’m the same way. I rarely even get flavored chips. I normally just go for the plain chips. And even lately I’ve been actually getting some No Salt chips, to really taste the potato. 

Dan: Wow. I mean, I haven’t gotten to that level. Maybe I haven’t advanced that far yet.

Mark: You’d be surprised how many No Salt chips actually taste as if they’re salted. Or actually, I get Lightly Salted.

Dan: OK, I could definitely do Lightly Salted. I probably should do Lightly Salted at this point. So, I was thinking about chips to bring today, and I was just in northern Wisconsin, where I go every summer, and there’s some good ones up there. But bringing them back is not ideal, for me anyway — seemed like too much anxiety. Anyway, I was talking about doing this, and I was talking about chips. A friend of mine was in the bar, and he served some time upstate, and he was like, “You should get The Whole Shabang.” I was like, “What is that? Is that a flavor?” And he was like, “No, it’s the name of the chip. It’s made specifically for prisoners.”

Mark: Woah. 

Dan: And it’s this company out of Wisconsin, actually. I’m sure they’re awful. But we looked it up right away, and they were never available to the public before, but now they are. But they’re not in stores, they’re only online. So we have two: We have The Whole Shabang Original and The Whole Shabang Extreme.

Mark: Dude, this is kind of exciting.

Dan: And then these, I brought some Deep River. This flavor was just reintroduced into the market, and I brought it as a fun flavor: Deep River Aged Cheddar & Horseradish. Have you ever had it?

Mark: No.

Dan: It’s a fun one. But we’ll see. 

Mark: I like every potato chip.

Dan: Yeah, I honestly haven’t met a chip I didn’t like.

Mark: It’s like pizza. Who’s gonna spit out a bite of pizza? It’s never that bad. 

Dan: No, it’s true. But before we do this, what’s the weirdest chip you ever had?

Mark: I just had a fucking weird one — Utz, one of my favorite chips, from Pennsylvania, they had a limited edition flavor. It was I think Lemonade or something. It was a very freaky flavor… First of all, biting into it, it’s unmistakably an Utz potato chip — they’re really a certain thing — but with some kind of lemony powder on them, and then also some sugar and salt. So it was a little disturbing. It seemed like it was for kids, but I gave one to my son, and he didn’t really like them either. That actually was probably one of the only bags of potato chips I’ve ever thrown away.

Dan: That would be weird. I don’t want a sweet chip.

Mark: Barbecue has some sugar in it, but that’s alright.

Dan: Yeah, right. Deep River has one that’s Mango Habanero, and it’s kind of sweet. But I would say Lemonade is probably mostly sweet.

Mark: It’s pushing it.

Dan: The weirdest one I ever had, which was really exciting, was Zapp’s Sirloin Steak.

Mark: Oh, my god. 

Dan: And it was interesting because they actually had a real photo of a steak on the bag, which I think is odd for Zapp’s. But it tasted like the fat and gristle on a potato chip. I brought them here to the bar before work one shift, and we all just sat around not talking and just looking at each other like, What is going on? This is kind of real… But, you know, it’s probably your month’s intake of sodium. OK, should we start with the Original? 

Mark: It says that they’re “super seasoned.” Let’s see what that means. It’s a funny color. [Eats a chip.] Oh, they are seasoned. 

Dan: I can smell them, yeah.

Mark: It’s like a barbecue chip. Vinegar, too.

Dan: My friend said they’re kind of like Zapp’s Voodoo. Which is also why they’re called The Whole Shabang, right? They’re kind of like a mix of everything.

Mark: Yeah, there you go.

Dan: Alright, Extreme.

Mark: They do have a lot of ingredients. Including MSG.

Dan: That’s why they’re good. 

Mark: [Eats another chip.] I like them.

Dan: Some heat on these.

Mark: Doesn’t seem more Extreme than the other.

Dan: I think it’s a little richer. We should note that the Extreme are ridged.

Mark: Very different texture and everything. 

Dan: What’s your take on ridged versus non-ridged?

Mark: I like ridged chips, but they generally seem a little more processed compared to something that’s just been fried.

Dan: I can see that. I mean, one of my favorite snacks — definitely feeling pretty gluttonous — is just classic Ruffles ridges with sour cream and onion dip. That is like heaven.

Mark: That’s a classic American snack right there. I will always love Ruffles… I shouldn’t let any of these conversations occur without me stating, once again, that my favorite potato chips are called Kay & Ray’s. They’re from Pennsylvania. I would love to find a chip that’s better than that. They would be a really good one to have as a control chip. Although maybe not, because they’re they’re fried in lard…

Dan: Is that in the white bag? I think you brought them here before.

Mark: It used to be a bag with two little kids — they almost looked like two little dolls sitting there eating potato chips. But they took the kids off of it. I don’t know why.

Dan: There must be some kind of subreddit about that.

Mark: Yeah, there might be some creepy reason for that. [Laughs.] 

Dan: Pennsylvania is kind of the home of chips, right?

Mark: I mean, that’s what I say, but I don’t know. I think maybe every state has its little regional chip thing — though Pennsylvania has a lot of regional chips.

Dan: Yeah, I can imagine. But I mean, just being in northern Wisconsin, Old Dutch are big. That, I think, is from Minnesota. They still have a really cool packaging that hasn’t changed in forever. And then Jay’s is big in Wisconsin. Not Lay’s, Jay’s… 

Anyway, last chip: This is Deep River. Pretty well-known chip. But this flavor got reintroduced, it was discontinued. I think it’s a really good chip, but I’ll let you try it first. 

Mark: Thanks for bringing all these.

Dan: Yeah, of course. By the way, this Whole Shabang, because I had to get them online, I have two dozen bags of those. I should have brought more.

Mark: [Eats a chip.] Wow, that really does taste like horseradish.

Dan: Yes, I agree. And what’s interesting is they they call it Aged Cheddar & Horseradish, and I feel like the cheddar comes in a little at the end, but it’s mostly the horseradish running the show here.

Mark: Yeah, I guess a little wasabi powder goes a long way… I always like these Deep River ones because of their sort of kettle texture. 

Dan: Yeah, I like their chips in general. 

Mark: What would you say your favorite of all these three would be?

Dan: Hm…

Mark: I think we’re going to say the same one.

Dan: The Extreme.

Mark: Yeah, I think so. The ridges are good.

Dan: The ridges work on that one. 

Mark: Do you ever make dip from scratch?

Dan: Well, if you mean “scratch” like, you buy some sour cream and then put in the packet of onion or whatever it is… Yeah, that’s me. You’ve made it from scratch?

Mark: I’ve made caramelized onions — got them really caramelized, which takes a long time — and then mixed that into the stuff. And, wow, it’s good. But the thing is, that powdered stuff, just putting that in there — it’s fine.

Dan: It’s all you need. You could just get a bag of regular chips and dump the powder in it.

Mark: And then dip that in straight into sour cream or yogurt or something.

Dan: Alright, well, there you go: The Whole Shabang Extreme.

Mark: I guess if that’s what people are getting in Sing Sing or whatever, that’s kind of wild.

Dan: It is wild. Also, if you go to their website, you can scroll through the images of the bags of chips, and one of the images is a cartoon of guys in a cell in their orange outfits eating the chips. I don’t know what they’re trying to do with that one. 

Mark: Wow. I wonder if they’re in prisons everywhere in the United States. Like, the sole provider of potato chips to the penal system… Let us know in the comments.

Dan: [Laughs.] Well, there you have it. Thanks for doing this, Mark.

Mark: That was tasty.