Next stop, Flavortown
Guy Fieri visits 3 Texas restaurants on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Texans looking to find the coordinates of Flavortown should tune into the Food Network, where Guy Fieri is featuring three popular San Antonio restaurants in the 29th season of his series Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
The restaurants include:
- Smoke Shack BBQ, a barbecue restaurant from Chris Conger
- Wrigleyville Grill, a sandwich shop featuring Chicago-style hot dogs
- Fat Tummy Empanadas, known for its artisan Argentinian-style empanadas
The peroxide-haired food star was first spotted in San Antonio on October 12 in an Instagram photo of him riding a longhorn in front of the Texas flag-clad roof of Chris Conger's Smoke Shack Meat Market, the recently opened market next to his barbecue joint. As camera equipment could be seen in the shot, rumors immediately began circulating that he was in town filming his flagship series.
Those rumors turned out to be true, as reps confirmed to CultureMap that they would be appearing in upcoming episodes.
First up was Smoke Shack BBQ, which appeared in the sixth episode of the season, "Burgers, Bacon, and BBQ," and aired on November 23. (You can watch the full episode here.)
Fieri continues his South Texas tour on the November 30 episode, "From Sandwiches to Stroganoff." Park North Shopping Center's Wrigleyville Grill is the "East Coast-Texas deli mash-up pilin' up smoked meat sensations" listed in the Food Network episode description.
In the same episode, Fieri also stops by Fat Tummy Empanadas, the brick-and-mortar version of a popular food truck.
It's unclear if Fieri drove his flashy Camaro SS convertible to any other San Antonio spots. The host typically films at each location in threes, but there is some indication that he snuck in at least one more visit while in town.
Season 30 debuts on December 28 and features another San Antonio spot. An episode called "Piling on the Pork" teases that Fieri visits "a Puerto Rican spot in San Antonio that's building a unique take on nachos and cooking up a monster chop."
That description sounds a lot like Luna Rosa Puerto Rican Grill y Tapas, which is famous for both huge pork chops and loaded Caribbean nachos with plantain chips. The owner was unavailable for comment, and an employee could neither confirm nor deny our hunch.