Guy Fieri sightings were reported all over the Mobile area in the last few days, and longtime co-conspirator “Panini Pete” Blohme says the payoff will be much bigger than fond memories from fans who met the celebrity chef: Half a dozen local venues are in line to shine in the powerful spotlight of Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
Fans reported seeing Fieri at a variety of venues, including at least one cigar shop where he promoted his “Knuckle Sandwich” cigars and at least one liquor store to promote Santo Spirit, the tequila brand developed by himself and rocker Sammy Hagar.
There are at least two major highlights to Fieri’s whirlwind tour, one of them culminated in a blowout Monday night at The Waterfront, the ambitious new venue that Blohme and Nick DiMario, his partner in PP Hospitality, just opened in Daphne. It was no coincidence that Fieri was on hand as New Orleans group Cowboy Mouth played, said Blohme: In fact, it grew out of a long-running text chat among buddies.
The chat includes Blohme, Fieri, Cowboy Mouth lead drummer Fred LeBlanc and Jeffrey “Stretch” Rumaner, a Kansas City-based artist and restaurateur who has worked and appeared with Fieri on a variety of projects including “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” and Fieri’s Roadshow.
“It just kinda fell into existence,” said Blohme. “We have a little text thread. Guy, Stretch, myself and Fred, we have this text thread that’s being going on for years. We pretty much just make fun of each other and keep up with each other. Through the thread, Guy was inviting Fred to Mobile to co-host an episode of Triple D. Fred agreed to do it and he said, ‘Stretch, you should come down.’ And he said, ‘If you’re going to be here, Fred, why don’t you do a Cowboy Mouth show, I haven’t seen you guys perform in years, let’s have a blast and make it happen.’”
Logistically, Blohme said, “it was going to be almost impossible to do. And that’s where Nick and I stepped up and said ‘Hey, why don’t we just host you at The Waterfront? It’s got a lot of space, and we just opened a week ago, why not have a massive rock concert?’ It just came out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying, and Nick is just as crazy as I am.’”
But Fieri’s core mission was to hit the area hard for future episodes of Triple D, as Blohme calls “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” There’s some backstory here: In 2008, Fieri showcased a string of Eastern Shore venues: Blohme’s original Panini Pete’s and The Gumbo Shack in Fairhope, and Manci’s Antique Club in Daphne. Later, while passing through with one of his Roadshow productions in 2017, he did a Triple-D episode on another Blohme venue, Sunset Pointe at Fly Creek Marina in Fairhope.
There’s a fan site that tracks Triple D locations, and it says Fieri has featured an astounding total of more than 1,400 restaurants in 37 seasons of the show since 2007. Out of all them, the four named are the only Alabama venues shown. The Gumbo Shack has closed, leaving just three.
“I’ve been trying to get him to come back to our area for so long,” Blohme said. But even so, he was blown away by the intensity of Fieri’s approach.
“He actually filmed six different locations,” said Blohme. “I’m probably not privy to announce where he went. They’ll all end up in different episodes. I can tell you he did five in Mobile and one in Daphne.”
“This show is so tight right now, the way they film it,” Blohme said. Two film crews came in and worked for a week, he said, with each getting footage at three venues. The Fieri came in for two days of intensive work, filming his portion of three episodes each day. He “just crushes it,” said Blohme.
Blohme said that while he might’ve made some recommendations, and might even appear in an episode or two, Fieri and his crew did their own research and made their own decisions. Blohme said he was very familiar with some of the operations chosen, while others were new to him.
“If he likes the story, the character, the food, that’s the trifecta,” said Blohme. “They have to have great food, and be cooking from scratch. … That just makes for great TV and great opportunities for these people.”
Airdates haven’t been announced, so all we know now is that six Lower Alabama venues will be scattered across future episodes of Triple-D. And that’s exciting stuff, said Blohme.
“Now we got six more great Triple D spots in our area, right in the I-10 corridor,” he said. “Not only will it bring a lot of food travel, a lot of people that come down for vacation, for conferences, for Mardi Gras, it’s going to be hot on their radar to come check out these spots.”
“The reality is that anybody that made the show, they earned it, they deserved it,” said Blohme. “I’m just excited for this area and for these operators. Because their life has changed, as they know it. They don’t know it yet, it hasn’t aired, but their life is going to change in a big way.”
One persistent theme across the social media posts about Fieri was that people were impressed by how congenial he was in person.
“He’s so solid, he’s so much fun, he’s so genuine,” said Blohme. “It’s hard to say humble because nobody can even imagine him being that way, but the impact that his show has on small restaurants, these mom and pop operations, is so significant that he’s just grateful to be able to give that opportunity to people.”
As for Blohme and DiMario, a big year continues. It hasn’t been that long since they reopened Ed’s Seafood Shed at a new location in Spanish Fort. Now The Waterfront is up and running. They’ve announced plans for Parc Le Tralour, a food court in the downtown Mobile space formerly occupied by the MoonPie General Store.
But it’ll be hard to top the rush of what just happened.
“It was just an amazing few days with three friends that I’ve spent a lot of time with,” said Blohme. “Launching a new property like that that’s so amazing and the food is so much fun and the view is so incredible, us getting to kick it off in that fashion was just priceless.”
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