For authentic Vietnamese food made with love, head to this Fieri-family favorite. Chef and co-owner John Nguyen serves up the recipes that mother and co-owner Be Nguyen cooked as a chef in Vietnam.
Rob Larman and his wife are serving up old school barbeque in the heart of California wine country at Cochon Volant. Chef Larman puts his unique spin on fried chicken by soaking it in a sweet-and-spicy brine laced with granny smith apples and pasilla chile paste. “This is a chef’s fried chicken,” said guy between bites. Their other claim to fame is the towering WTF Burger. A seared beef patty is topped with 14-hour smoked brisket, smoked pork shoulder, house-cured maple bacon, a fried chipotle pork cake, melted cheddar cheese and house-made barbeque sauce.
When Guy was growing up, his family would stop at Granzella’s Deli on road trips for the best muffuletta ever. Stop in and try one of their 30 different sandwiches.
Chef Eric Greer and buddy Kyle Dismang opened North Bar to serve up all kinds of unique burgers in North Little Rock. Some say they have the best burgers in the state. Guy loved the Arkansas BBQ Bologna Burger which is topped with house-made BBQ sauce, an eight-ounce slab of seared bologna and provolone cheese. It didn’t hurt that it was paired with crispy, house-made pork rinds.
Brothers Vince Bruno and Gio Bruno are keeping tradition alive at the Italian restaurant that their father started in 1948 in Little Rock. Generations of families return to this old-school joint where the classic Italian dishes hardly ever change. Guy loved the handmade Toasted Ravioli and the towering Lasagna Imbotito.
Guy was shooting Guy’s Grocery Games in Santa Rosa when his buddy brought him the Korean Burrito from Zoftig Eatery. He loved it so much he needed to put the place on DDD. At Zoftig, chef and owner Matt Spector taps into his fine-dining background to spice up the menu, sourcing local but peppering the menu with international flavor. The Korean Burrito is packed with marinated, local ground beef, pickled vegetables, kimchi, fresh herbs, avocado and barbeque sauce. “I’m going to drown in my own drool,” Guy said before digging into it.
Chef and owner Scott Pearson and his wife, Nicole Warner, are dishing up a true farm-to-table experience in Bozeman, Montana. The farm that provides some of the food for the restaurant has been in his family since the 1970s. Guy was floored by Chef Pearson’s take on the Monte Cristo, which uses ham raised at the family farm. “This is next level,” said Guy. “This is a destination dish.”
Get a seat outside on the beautiful, tree-lined terrace at Chef Armando Bolanos's spot in Little Rock. For taste of authentic Venezuelan cuisine, try the slow-roasted Pernil al Horno, which is drenched in a thick demi-glace gravy and accompanied by killer bacon-studded beans and rice. Also try the seafood-packed, Valencian-style paella which is served tableside.
This funky brew pub was dreamt up by two buddies that met in college. At first, Matt Foster and Jess McMullen’s brewery served pretzels with a variety of sauces. Later, they brought on Chef Georgina Jones to add dishes with a Southern-flair to the menu, like the soul-satisfying Gumbo Cheese Fries.
Whenever Guy is rolling through Chicago he stops to eat at La Scarola. Chef and owner Armando Vasquez’s serves up unbeatable Italian food and a welcoming atmosphere that Guy can’t get enough of. To make Guy’s go-to order, Veal Chop a la Gabe, a huge 10-ounce pork chop is pounded thin, breaded and fried until crisp and then topped with a lemon, garlic sauce.
Nordic Smoke is a barbeque food truck that combines classic Southern ‘cue with a Norwegian twist. Brothers, Dusty and Casey, turned their father’s backyard hobby into a thriving business by investing in an old hickory smoker from Mississippi. Their brisket, a standout, is injected with beer butter and then smoked for 14 hours.
When Husband and wife team, Susanna and Joe Darr, put down roots in Bozeman, Montana they brought their love of Southern food with them. Their pressure fried chicken is juicy and ephemerally light. Also try The Alabama, a sandwich filled with tender rotisserie chicken, Alabama white sauce, slaw and pickles.
For fresh and simple Mexican fare in Ashland, Agave is the place to go. Guy loved the Winter Squash and Portobello Tamales with house made red tamale sauce and thought the Carnitas Torta was dynamite.
Ruins is Tony Brown’s own personal culinary Disneyland. The menu is constantly changing but seek out the Dirty Fries. Guy was enamored with the crispy shoestring potatoes tossed with house-made aioli, salsa verde and roasted pork shoulder. “This is like something you have for your last meal,” he remarked. And don’t miss the Parisian-style gnocchi, made with a pate a choux dough instead of potato and then crisped up and tossed with Gruyere and tarragon.
If you are in the the River North region of Chicago and craving old school Italian head to Danny Alberga’s Bella Luna Café. Try the crispy deep-dish sausage pizza with hand-crushed tomato sauce and the massive handmade sausage ravioli.
Make restaurant favorites at home with copycat recipes from FN Magazine.
Let Guy take you on a coast-to-coast tour Friday at 9|8c.