Incredible Edible America's Featured Restaurants
Find all the eateries Jeff and Audrey Dunham visited on their national cross-country trip, and get all the details on the unique creations that can only be found in America.
Photo By: Jessica Brooks
Photo By: Sarah Lim
Photo By: Sarah Lim
Photo By: Derek Van Oss
Photo By: Matt Harbicht
Photo By: Derek Van Oss
Photo By: Isabella Vosmikova
Photo By: Isabella Vosmikova
Photo By: Sarah Lim
Photo By: Sarah Lim
Barton G — Los Angeles, California
At Barton G in Los Angeles, every dish is a surprise. Dessert is a huge replica of Marie Antoinette’s head with a towering, three-foot tall hairdo made of bubble gum-flavor cotton candy served with a Bananas Foster float on the side. “You don’t get that at the fair, do you?” Jeff asked, admiring the sweet architectural feat of fluffy pink hair.
Find the Restaurant: Barton G. The Restaurant
Trashcan Nachos, Guy Fieri's El Burro Borracho — Las Vegas, Nevada
Guy Fieri's El Burro Borracho serves up authentic-Mexican cuisine with a twist. Jeff and Audrey came for the legendary Trashcan Nachos. They watched as house-made cheese sauce, pickled onions and special tortilla chips were crafted for the dramatic dish. The pickled onions stole the show. “We need to start making that at home and topping everything with it,” said Audrey. “Guy would have been fun to hang out with in college,” remarked Jeff.
Find the Restaurant: Guy Fieri's El Burro Borracho
Canoe — Atlanta, Georgia
Canoe in Atlanta introduces diners to daring dishes like popcorn ice cream and peppercorn-crusted kangaroo. Jeff and Audrey were pleasantly surprised by the tender kangaroo steak and utterly entranced with the popcorn infused ice cream topped with caramel corn. “It’s like the whole carnival is in your mouth,” said Jeff of the decadent sundae.
Find the Restaurant: Canoe
Macho Totcho, The Nook — Atlanta, Georgia
The Nook takes tater tots to a whole new level with its Macho Totcho. If you're up for the challenge to finish this monster dish, then you'll have to do it in 45 minutes. Winners get the dish free and get put on the wall of fame. The dish starts with five pounds of tater tots, that are then topped with queso sauce, blue cheese dressing, smoked chicken, pulled pork, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, barbecue sauce, pico de gallo, buffalo sauce, crumbled blue cheese, sliced jalapenos, scallions, sour cream, macaroni and cheese and black bean chili.
Find the Restaurant: The Nook on Piedmont Park
Peach Extravaganza, Sublime Doughnuts — Atlanta, Georgia
Sublime Doughnuts offers more than 30 different flavors of doughnuts each day, but it's the Peach Extravaganza that got Jeff and Audrey's attention. The dish starts with a peach fritter made from scraps of dough, powdered ginger, dried apricots and peaches. Once fried, the fritters are covered in a vanilla bean and honey glaze. for the dessert, a fritter is sliced in half and filled with peach-Riesling sorbet, topped with sauteed peaches, peach caramel sauce and a white chocolate drizzle.
Find the Restaurant: Sublime Doughnuts
Korean Fried Chicken Sandwich, Illegal Food — Atlanta, Georgia
At Illegal Food, the food's so good it should be illegal. The restaurant features Southern foods with an international twist, like its Korean Fried Chicken Sandwich, which is sauced with a combination of gochujang, a spicy Korean chile paste, and other Korean flavorings and condiments. For optimal flavor, the chef used chicken thighs, first brined, then dredged in flour and dee-fried. Then it's coated with the Korean sauce, piled onto a toasted brioche bun, and topped with sliced cucumber, cilantro and spicy slaw.
Find the Restaurant: Illegal Food
Toddfather, Cattleback Barbecue — Dallas, Texas
You can't go to Texas and not have amazing barbecue. Cue the Toddfather sandwich, which is piled high on a barbecue-sauced brioche bun with a hot sausage, beef brisket, pulled pork, homemade vinegar-based coleslaw and pimiento cheese, and crowned with a pickle slice. There's also the melt-in-your-mouth-tender beef rib. Jeff calls it "Traditional Texas barbecue done perfectly." And what's not to love about a place that serves a free beer with every meal?
Find the Restaurant: Cattleack Barbeque
Chicken-Fried Steak, Maple Leaf Diner — Dallas, Texas
At Maple Leaf Diner, the chef mixes Canadian flavors with Texas-sized portions. The best example is the restaurant's chicken-fried steak. The recipe is a bit atypical in that tenderized blade steak is coated in a tempura batter before getting coated in a mixture of flour, corn flour and panko. After deep-frying, it's layered on a waffle, with sauteed peppers and onions, and white gravy. Then it's another layer of the same, before it's skewered through with two crowning touches: Canadian bacon and cream puffs.
Find the Restaurant: Maple Leaf Diner
16-Hour Smoked Beef Shin, Woodshed Smokehouse — Dallas, Texas
For one of the biggest, meatiest dishes, Jeff and Audrey headed to Chef Tim Love's Woodshed Smokehouse. There an entire shin, first smoked, then braised, is served with several fixings, including tortillas, borracho beans, ricotta and Mexican corn. And don't leave without dessert, because Chef Love's Smoked Chocolate Pie is like a s'more but with "more Love in it," as Jeff says. The rich, custardy Belgian chocolate filling is spooned into a pie shell and topped with a torched meringue.
Find the Restaurant: Woodshed Smokehouse
777 Burger, Burger Brasserie — Las Vegas, Nevada
At Burger Brasserie you can find probably the most expensive burger in the country at $777. But what makes it cost that much? the ingredients: kobe beef, lobster, foie gras, goat cheese and 100-year-old balsamic vinegar. It's also topped with pancetta and arugula. But if that wasn't enough, it's served with a bottle of Dom Perignon rose Champagne to wash it all down. Jeff called it "unbelievably rich" in flavor, that is.
Find the Restaurant: Burger Brasserie
King Kong Sundae, Sugar Factory — Las Vegas, Nevada
Sugar Factory in Las Vegas is like candy land for adults, with all the sweets and desserts you can imagine. But it's the King Kong Sundae that takes the cake for Jeff and Audrey. The sundae is made with 24 scoops of ice cream, and includes toppings of red velvet cake, fudge brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, toasted walnuts, gummy bears, peanut butter cups, waffle cones, hot fudge, caramelized bananas, whipped cream and more.
Find the Restaurant: Sugar Factory
Sage-Fried Chicken Benedict, Hash House a Go Go — Las Vegas, Nevada
If you're craving an over-the-top Vegas lunch, head to Hash House a Go Go, where their Benedict is the number one menu item. It starts with a pile of mashed potatoes, topped with a split biscuit, baby spinach, tomatoes, bacon, a deep-fried chicken cutlet, scrambled eggs and a melted mozzarella cheese layer. It's then drizzled with chipotle cream sauce before getting skewered with a rosemary branch to hold it all together. Jeff calls it the "most insane breakfast we've ever had." If you prefer a sweet breakfast, you'll want to try the Red Velvet Pancakes, measuring 12 inches across.
Find the Restaurant: Hash House A Go Go
The Big Fat Fatty, Fat Sal's — Los Angeles, California
At Fat Sal's, you'll find one of the largest sandwiches known to man, The Big Fat Fatty. It clocks in at 13 pounds and consists of five cheeseburgers, sliced rib-eye steak, pastrami, bacon, onion rings, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, and chili all layered on a 27-inch baguette, and drizzled with Fat Sauce made from seven condiments. Those who finish the sandwich in under 45 minutes get it for free and get to create their own sandwich to add to the menu.
Find the Restaurant: Fat Sal's
Wow-Nut Waffle Donut, DK's Donuts — Los Angeles, California
DK's Donuts has been around for 35 years, and locals keep coming back, maybe it's because the bakery offers over 120 different kinds of doughnuts. But it's the Wow-Nut that brought in Jeff and Audrey. A cross between a waffle and a doughnut, the recipe starts with a chocolatey batter cooked in a waffle iron, then deep fried. Then, white chocolate ganache, chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs, Cookie Monster ice cream and a chocolate-hazelnut drizzle gets sandwiched between two waffles.
Find the Restaurant: DK's Donuts & Bakery
Spaghetti & Meatballwich, The Carving Board — Los Angeles, California
At The Carving Board dinner dishes become sandwiches. The Spaghetti and Meatballwich features pasta in place of bread, sandwiching together a filling of meatballs stacked with marinara sauce and fresh basil, topped with a slice of mozzarella cheese. The secret glue keeping the spaghetti together is a combination of egg whites, mozzarella, parmesan and garlic. It's layered in a baking sheet, pressed flat and baked to become the "bread" in the sandwich.
Find the Restaurant: The Carving Board
The King, Swift's Attic — Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas is known for keeping it weird, so at Swift's Attic, it's not that unusual to find a burger stuffed with a peanut butter cup. Named the King, the burger also includes bacon, grape jelly and a banana bread bun. "Elvis would be proud," says Jeff Dunham. The burger is built on a stack of fried mac and cheese bites, and it's finished off with a brûléed slice of banana.
Find the Restaurant: Swift's Attic
Southern Charm Stacker, Cow Tipping Creamery — Austin, Texas
Cow Tipping Creamery is well known for their selections of ice creams, but it's the Southern Charm Stacker made in a doughnut cone that Audrey calls "both weird and wonderful." The ice cream cone begins with a buttermilk biscuit dough wrapped around a cylinder form. The dough is baked, and brushed with melted butter to help adhere a cinnamon-sugar mixture. The cone is then layered with rum sauce, honey-dusted pecans, chocolate cracker candy and soft-serve bananas foster ice cream.
Find the Restaurant: Cow Tipping Creamery
Chicken-Fried Fish Head, Odd Duck — Austin, Texas
And if the options weren't weird enough in Austin, Jeff and Audrey find chicken-fried fish heads at Odd Duck. The chef uses red fish heads, which he first oven-poaches in aromatics that include onion, parsley, celery, star anise and white pepper. Then each fish head is battered in a dredge that includes pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and hot and sweet paprika. It's served on a plate with salsa verde and a grilled lime.
Find the Restaurant: Odd Duck
