There's an unsaid truth among those of us who have visited some of the restaurants featured on Food Network's popular show, "Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives."
And that unsaid truth is this: The food experience that the general public has at these places is not what host Guy Fieri experiences.
For the show, Guy gets the head chef or restaurant proprietor making his dish. For him, it's made from scratch to show the process, and it's done in an empty restaurant where orders aren't piling up. The focus to attention of pleasing a popular host on a popular show that could help catapult your restaurant into the stratosphere is impeccable.
And this leads to the common mistake those who visit the restaurant often make: Assuming that they will get the same experience.
Capone's was featured on an episode of "Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives" in 2010, and in the episode, Guy Fieri boasted about an awesome pizza and delicious burger made with a righteous fresh-made bun. The restaurant was featured again in a compilation/new footage episode in 2018.
So when we visited Capone's on January 16, 2022, some among us figured there was something amazing happening here. And if you've never known about Triple D or don't even own a TV, it's not hard to find out that the restaurant was featured on the show. Like most Triple D restaurants, menus have been updated to feature a cartoon likeness of Guy Fieri to indicate which dishes he tried (and hopefully praised extensively). Menus and websites make it well-known that they are part of this somewhat exclusive club. And I can't blame them. There are lots of reports indicating restaurants see a definite business boost after being featured on the show.
But remember: The food experience that the general public has at these places is not what host Guy Fieri experiences.
With our visit, this should've been predicted since the place was close to being packed on a Sunday afternoon. Unlike what Guy experienced, we knew the owner was not going to make our meals from scratch.
But we wanted to try it anyhow because there was an expectation that it would be close to the real-thing (the "real thing" being Guy's experience).
Among us, we ordered several plates, including the ones Guy tried and liked. Personally, I tried their Black & Blue Burger and had a slice of their Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza.
Spoiler Alert: I'm very confident Guy didn't taste the same burger or pizza I tasted.
For starters, the burger seemed a lot smaller than what he experienced on the show. Now, this could be a camera factor. Maybe the camera added 30lbs to Guy's burger.
But there was no hiding the other factors:
-The burger came with frozen-to-plate crinkle-cut fries, and only a handful at best. They tasted...like the frozen crinkle-cut fries you make at home.
The fresh bun was just...a bun. It definitely wasn't right out of the oven (though we weren't expecting that), but it did not taste like it was baked fresh that daily, which is a tagline Capone's uses to tout their burger buns. Baking buns daily does not mean you're getting a bun that was baked that day, and I am confident that on this cold Sunday, my bun was likely made fresh...the previous Thursday.
The burger was dry. The patty was over-cooked (I wasn't given an option of how I wanted it cooked, but in all fairness, I didn't ask if I could have it cooked my way). But my burger meat was nowhere near what Guy boasted about when he showed a closeup of the medium rare burger made for him. His was juicy, looked to be cooked perfectly the way I like it, and was fresh off the grill. I am confident my burger patty was either left for a while before it was brought to our table (with each visit from our waitress, there was a 20-minute gap in between) or that it was made ahead of time and assembled when the order was placed.
The toppings were dry, and the Gorgonzola cheese barely had any flavor (rare for a typically stronger cheese).
The pizza was the same. There is no way our pizza came from the oven straight to our table. It must have sat for at least 10-15 minutes prior to being delivered to our table. The taste was good, but it was maybe one step above a Mod Pizza creation.
Most egregiously, this 12-inch pizza cost $20. Way, way overpriced. $12-14 would've been more fitting.
Everyone else said the same thing about their food: It was certainly not stove-to-table, and we were all certain the experience we got was not the same experience Guy Fieri had with his visit.
To be fair, this is a common issue at DDD restaurants. The food is hyped, but it's hyped because the head chef or owner is personally making the meal from scratch with no other orders to worry about.
Maybe it is unreasonable to think an average visitor would have the same experience that Guy did.
But it shouldn't be too far off, and unless Guy Fieri couldn't muster criticism and feigned praise for Capone's, this restaurant nurtured that unsaid truth quite well. read more