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An Epic Visit from Epic Meal Time

The Checklist

Grill? Check!

Barbecue

Accordion and party-sized Jack Daniel’s? Check!

Accordion and jack daniels

Go-anywhere stove/oven combo? Check!

Camping stove

Bourbon and favorite draaaankin’ mug? Check!

Bourbon and mug

Death-defying stunt crew, ready to lead their audience in a chant about meat? Check!

Stunt double circus 1

Bacon strips? Check!

Bacon strips

Documentarians to record this day for posterity? Check!

Dunkley and hayes

Shopify guru with emergency equipment at the ready? Check!

Brian alkerton pulls a beer

Very well then…bring on the VIP guests!

Muscles and photog

The VIP Guests

Epic meal time logo

On Saturday, the gentlemen from the hit YouTube series Epic Meal Time came to Shopify to do what they do best: cook an epic meat-laden cardiologist’s nightmare of a meal, quaff whiskey and beer in Brobdingnagian quantities, create a ruckus and shoot a video of the proceedings.

If you’ve never seen an episode before, here’s a taste: the Breakfast of Booze episode, which takes the most important meal of the day and turns it into the most important meal of your life, however shortened it may be after eating it:

Epic Meal Time debuted less than a year ago, in October 2010. In their brief existence, they’ve gained a mass internet following. When we walked about town with them as they went to buy supplies for their video shoot, they were stopped several times by fans who recognized them. If you check their YouTube channel, you’ll see that their videos typically have at least 2 million views. Their most-viewed video is the TurBaconEpic Thankgiving episode. Not to be outdone by a mere turducken — that’s a turkey stuffed with a duck, which in turn is stuffed with a chicken — the Epic Meal Timers went all out and created a dish that they described as "a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig". Wrapped in bacon, of course.

In addition to their popular show, Epic Meal Time have a collection of popular T-shirts which they sell through their Shopify-powered store:

Epic meal time shirts

The Setup

The Shopify office functioned as their studio, lounge, bar and playground for all of Saturday. In the afternoon, our boardroom functioned as the writer’s bullpen, where they brainstormed and crafted the general arc of this particular episode:

Epic meal time in shopify boardroom

Our kitchen functioned as their prep kitchen (that’s Anna from Shopify; we blurred out the non-bacon ingredients, because we don’t want to give away the theme of the show before it’s released):

Anna slices bacon

…while our roof functioned as the main kitchen. Here’s it is at the start of the afternoon, still pristine and with the camp stove/oven and the first grill in place:

Roof 1

The first grill was completely non-functional, so we went with plan B: a quick run over to Shopifolk Julie’s place to borrow hers. With the backup grill set up, the cooking could begin in earnest (yup, we’re blurring out the food — we don’t want to spoil the surprise):

Grill 2

As for the camp stove/oven, the Epic Meal Time wizards used it to perform their saucery:

Saucery

Saucery 2

The Waiting

While Epic Meal Time videos are typically five minutes or less, it takes hours to prepare an entire zoo’s worth of meat. So we had to kill time while the Epic Cooking Crew did their thing.

The Epic Meal Time crew took to our Nerf weapons like bacon to maple syrup:

Nerf 1

Nerf 2

Let’s get a close-up look at Harley:

NO MISTER BOND

RELOAD!

Reload

We threw a little rooftop party:

Rooftop party

Muscles Glasses gave our Chief Platform Officer "H-Fizzle" some "bro" pointers. Attention body spray manufacturers: here are your next spokes-bros!

Muscles and fizzle

While on the roof, I helped get the Stunt Double Circus performers, who were doing their usual Saturday act on the street below, to get their audience to chant the Epic Meal Time battle cry: "Bacon strips! Bacon strips!"

We played bowling on the Kinect:

Kinect bowling 1

Kinect bowling 2

Harley indulged in a little Street Fighter:

Street fighter

We made a run to the liquor store:

Booze run

In the meantime, the cooking crew worked hard into the night.

Cooking into the night

The Shoot

At long last, the food was ready and now it was time for the final shoot. Our boardroom became the Epic Feeding Trough:

Shoot 1

Shoot 2

While the arts and crafts section of the show (you’ll have to watch the video when it comes out to get what I mean) was shot in our kitchen:

Arts crafts 1

Arts crafts 2

We got to hang out during the shoots, just as long as we were out of the way and very, very quiet:

Out of the way

The Aftermath

With the shooting completed, there was only one thing left to do: eat their creation! Being Epic Meal Time, they cooked epic amounts of Paleo Diet-friendly food, and there was more than enough for the two dozen people who stuck around. There are three reasons there are no photos of all of us eating:

  1. I don’t want to spoil the episode by giving away the theme.
  2. I was so hungry (it was 11:00 p.m. before we got to eat) that I couldn’t be bothered to snap photos.
  3. We were all so hungry that the way we ate wasn’t very pretty.

In lieu of pics of the dinner, I present the next best thing: the "Friar Tuck" vignette from the cheesy 1960s cartoon series Rocket Robin Hood. It’s pretty much what we looked like:

The Apres-Aftermath

With the shoot completed, the food consumed, the office cleaned and vacated and the Epic Boys showered and de-greased, it was time for a night of celebratory clubbing. Bottle service and Shopify-branded accordion poses for everyone!

Accordion 1

Accordion 2

Accordion 3

Even in the dead of night, in the darkest of clubs, Muscles actually keeps the glasses on:

Accordion 4

Accordion 5

The Conclusion

We’d like to thank the Epic Meal Time folks for coming down to the office, using our space as a location, feeding us and of course, for using Shopify to sell their swag! It was great hanging and pigging out with you guys.

Keep an eye on Epic Meal Time’s site — the episode shot at Shopify will be up in a few weeks.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

6 replies on “An Epic Visit from Epic Meal Time”

I saw the Stunt Double guys on Friday – we parked in the parking garage beside Shopify to see Will and Kate in the morning. Crazy packed city, batman.

The 84 egg breakfast episode they just made was awesome too! You can get the episode from the website link. Lots of eggs, but still lots of bacon!

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