Most TV shows are difficult to film when sheltering in place, but for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, it’hunter fieri especially challenging. With most restaurants across the country closed or only serving takeout and delivery, it is nearly impossible for host Guy Fieri to showcase the best comfort foods in America right now.
Guy Fieri lives in beautiful Santa Rosa, Calif. If you want to live in Flavortown, you’ll have to pull up stakes and move to Sonoma County, which makes sense since, in addition to being one of the biggest producers of California wine, it is also one of the country’s biggest culinary destinations. Though only Hunter is old enough to try the wine named after him, both boys will inherit quite a legacy in that vineyard. The wine, which is produced with all organic farming methods, has been acclaimed by Wine Enthusiast. The vineyard is situated along the coveted Russian River Valley, which produces some of the country’s best pinot noir.
Guy affectionately calls his estate The Ranch, and you’ve definitely seen it before if you’ve watched his spin-off Guy’s Ranch Kitchen. He’s got a bomb indoor kitchen, of course, but the true shining diamond is his sprawling outdoor kitchen, which features multiple gas ranges, a huge grill, and a custom wood-fire pizza oven. Though Guy mostly shares hilarious memes other people have made about him on social media, he does occasionally post glimpses into his ranch life, where time in the kitchen — whether outdoor or indoor — is obviously big for the Fieris. Guy is also a gardening fanatic and grows many of the vegetables and herbs he cooks with at home because, while he might have made a name for himself trying fried comfort foods in America’s greasy spoons, he’s actually a big fan of veggies. Guy Fieri clearly loves Santa Rosa and gives back whenever he can. When the region was devastated by wildfires in deadly Camp Fire of 2018, Guy made sure first responders in the area were well fed and also provided meals to evacuees in the area.
Though Guy’s home was safe from the blazes, he recognized the devastation the fires brought to his community and sought to help the best way he knows how: with food. I looked at our friends that had been evacuated and lost everything. You really get a different sense of community and how to help wherever you can help,” he told Variety. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is a mainstay of basic cable—and a rallying cry for a country that is losing touch with itself.
In 2007, in one of the first episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy Fieri visited Patrick’s Roadhouse, a railway station turned restaurant in Santa Monica, California. The show’s camera discreetly cut away to the next scene. The exchange would become a precedent on the long-running Food Network show fans know as Triple D: Fieri will simply not say anything negative about the food he eats on the air. Instead, his show elevates enthusiasm into an art form. I’ve been watching a lot of Triple D lately, in part because it’s one of those shows that always seems to be on, but also because it is a warm hug in television form. Pop culture may be rediscovering the truism that sincerity sells, but Triple D has been serving up communal kindness for years. Mostly, though, I love that Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives isn’t actually about the food.
It’s a travel show, an exploration of individual places, as seen through some of the restaurants that nourish the people who live there. Diners have long doubled as symbols of thrift, of simplicity, of community. Triple D takes the symbolism one step further. He goes to Armory Square in Syracuse, and to Columbus Park in Kansas City. Is it a tourist trap, or do the locals really eat there?
Many of the restaurants featured on the show have their own microculture. Forestville, California—sign the wall after they’ve had their meal. Some critical assessments of Triple D have involved revisions. The viewer, seeing a show whose primary mode is earnestness and whose primary aesthetic is kitsch, initially doubted, but then they came around. I became a convert in large part because the show devotes so much of its time to interviews like the one Fieri conducted with the teenager in Kenosha. While the cooks cook, though, they also chat.