Thousands log on to hear Arlington Heights couple review restaurants

The worst mistake podcasters make is going on and on about nothing.

For hours some will complain that Jewel never has good apples, or that drive-through lines at Portillo's are always too long.

"Shows need to be about something," said podcaster Lisa Lynn. "Get a focus."

So Lisa and her husband Joe did.

Since 2005, the couple has produced "The Cheap Date Show" where they review local restaurants. They use a tiny white Chinese takeout container for an icon and tape the shows using a pair of microphones in their Arlington Heights home.

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They produce about two 30-minute shows a month and up to 3,000 people listen to each episode. Their goal is to review restaurants and snack shops people drive by all the time but mistakenly choose to ignore. Places that are new and places that have been around for decades.

Joe and Lisa's first podcast was in November 2005. Their first topic was those controversial Abercrombie Fitch T-shirts. It was a conversation that evolved into a discussion on the state of feminism today.

The couple quickly decided to narrow the topics. Today they dish mainly on food.

No eatery is too small -- they have reviewed everywhere from Fuego Mexican Restaurant in Arlington Heights to White Castle and Superdawg. While the show officially sticks to the topic of good cheap meals, the couple also has chronicled their journey from dating to getting married.

For example, Lisa reviewed Pepe's Mexican Restaurant in Frankfort, Ind., when she was home shopping for a wedding dress. Joe raved about Lasik eye surgery after he underwent the procedure.

Their first food podcast was about a breakfast experience at TNT Snack Shop at Campbell and Wilke roads in Arlington Heights.

Lisa called it "delightfully basic and delightfully cheap."

"It's fast, no frills," she said. "They don't even have a menu."

Joe was happy to find out TNT offered grits.

"I've been a fan since 'My Cousin Vinny' came out," Joe said.

Both Joe and Lisa have day jobs. Joe is an information technology director in Chicago and Lisa goes to school. They make no money off their podcasts.

"We have friends who think they're going to quit their jobs, get ads and do this full time," Joe said. "But it's not worth it."

And they don't review a restaurant they don't like.

"We don't see the point in trashing a place," Joe said. "It's just not what we do."

Lisa -- who lived in Seattle at the time -- met Joe online in 2005. Later that year, she decided to move to downtown Arlington Heights, so Joe flew to Seattle and drove Lisa and her stuff back here in a hatchback sedan. The two started their show when they were dating -- hence the name "cheap date show" -- but continued it after they married.

They heard their first podcast in the car on a drive to Madison.

"We thought, 'These guys are really bad -- they're talking about nothing,' " Joe said. "We could do that."

They're always on the lookout for a good place to eat and they plan to continue podcasting as long as people keep downloading, Lisa said.

"Maybe after we've been married for 30 years, we won't have to talk," Lisa said. "We'll just sit there and look at each other."

See the podcasters

What: Lisa and Joe Lynn talk about their podcasting experiences

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave.

Their gig: For the past three years, the Arlington Heights couple has reviewed local restaurants on their twice-monthly podcast

Check it out: Listen to podcasts on more than 100 eateries at the Web site http://cheapdateshow.com, or download them free from iTunes.